Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Cooliris Express 3D interactive wall review


Cooliris was founded  in 2006 around a simple mission: "Think beyond the browser". They proposed a range of products including:
  • Cooliris desktop, a browser add-on with which you can browse, search the web and your desktop using a 3D Wall.
  • Cooliris iPhone to search, discover and share photos, videos with your iphone.
  • CoolPreviews, a browser add-on to speed  up your surfing experience.
In this post, I use a fourth product called Cooliris Express which allow you to embed on your blog a Flash-based 3D interactive wall containing photos and videos. I made up two walls: one with pictures from my Flickr photostream and one containing videos from my youtube channel. Content was originally uploaded to Flickr and Youtube using the Isyndica platform which allows you to control the size of the syndicated media as well as its protection i.e using a custom or standard watermark.
The nice thing is that your wall is updated as soon as you upload new photos or videos to  Flickr or Youtube.  A share button on the lower right hand side of the wall allow you to share it on Facebook, Twitter,  Myspace, Linkedin and more. The slideshow button button is very convenient as it plays your Youtube videos one after the other.It is not possible however to make a wall with selected photos or videos, it would be a great feature additional feature.
Cooliris Express is a good way to promote your work as a photographer or videographer. You can start  your own wall by clicking here. Did I forget to mention, it is free....



Photo interactive wall



Video interactive wall

Saturday, April 3, 2010

A multimedia tour of the magnificent Bryce Canyon in Southern Utah




Entrance of Bryce Canyon National Park

After my visit to Antelope Canyon in Arizona, I took you on a multimedia tour of Bryce Canyon in Southern Utah, a well known spot for photographers. If you click on the pictures you will be redirected to my webpage to see a larger size and have the option also to order prints  and licenses. Please hit  the back button  of  your  browser to go back to this page. Enjoy your visit!

Bryce Canyon is one of the jewels of United States National Parks and located just North of Zion National Park in Southern Utah. The 18-mile-long park road allows you drive along the plateau rim and stop to up to 14 viewpoints amongst them Sunrise, Sunset, Inspiration, Bryce points which encircle the main Bryce amphitheater.
The first day of this 2 days trip was spent visiting Inspiration, Bryce and Sunset points. Standing on the edge of the rim at Inspiration point, the first thing that came to mind is how Nature could manage to make such complex and beautiful structures? These tall thin spires of rock, also called hoodoos, were not formed by wind but by successives freeze/thaw cycles over the years. As erosion continues inexorably, these spires will be gone in few thousand years.



Inspiration point entrance



Bryce canyon amphitheater from Inspiration point


Panoramic view from Inspiration point (58 megapixels)



Panoramic view from Inspiration point



Powershot G9 set up for infrared shot (see result below)




Infrared panoramic view from Inspiration point

View of the amphitheater  from Bryce point is quite spectacular and you can admire its amazing geological features.




Panoramic view from Bryce point


Infrared panoramic view from Bryce point


Sunset point was the last stop of the day, just it time to see  the rocks turning to a nice golden color.



Panoramic view from sunset Point


View of Bryce canyon amphitheater from  sunset point




22 millions megapixels panoramic view from Sunset point (HD video of the left hand side below)




HD timelapse video of shadow moving on the spires


Bryce canyon amphitheater large hoodoo at sunset point



From there, we went down on the Navajo loop trail, where you can have a spectacular view of the hoodoos from below. Speaking from experience, you have to be careful not to slip on the  icy trail especially when carrying photo equipment…



View from the Navajo trail


View from the bottom of the Navajo trail


Second day’s trip started with an early visit to Sunrise point. We arrived just in time to set up the camcorder to record sunrise which was at 5.30 am braving temperature of below zero Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius).


Sunrise over Bryce Canyon from Sunrise point


Sunrise over Bryce Canyon from Sunrise point




HD timelapse video of sunrise over Bryce Canyon amphitheater


Trail to Sunrise point at dawn

Later in the day, the sky was cloudy and we went to Paria viewpoint. In winter, the road is close but easily accessed by cross country skiing. The view was not as spectacular as Inspiration and Bryce points because there are less stone formations.


Panoramic view from Paria viewpoint


Bryce canyon from Paria view

Beside a good workout, you can enjoy there a pure silence and listen to your footsteps in the fresh snow.


Despite freezing temperatures, visiting Bryce canyon in winter is truly an unforgetable experience and a paradise for landcape photographers. Be prepared, in addition to your tripod, to carry additionnal batteries and memory cards, you will probably need them. A cloth tissue can also be useful to clean up condensation which builds over time between the filter and the lens. If you have been there also, feel free to post the link to your pictures in the comments.

Upload once - Sell everywhere! iSyndica, the web distributor

Thursday, April 1, 2010

March 2010 earnings

Summary


This month was a BME for microstock (beating  September 2009) with combined  multimedia royalties reaching  over  $700. It is  also the first  month I've sold photos, videos and audio alltogether.Microstock photos alone had a  70% increase in earnings compared to March 2009.


Isyndica Analytics graph


  • Photos
More than 1000 photos were licensed this month, but no extended sales to report. Shutterstock was once again the best agency followed closely by Istock and Fotolia (first BME since 2 years....). Depositphotos ranked 4th due to their promotion program but I expect to go way down next month. I have also a BME to report at  GraphicLeftovers, the easiest agency to contribute  if you are an Isyndica user. No sales at all this month at 3DS, Mostphotos and Cutcaster. Taking into account the 17 agencies, cumulative RPI was quite stable  at $0.8 compared to last year. The average $ per download went down to $0.58 to the large volume of sales at DepositPhotos.

Thanks to Lee Torrens from Microstockdiaries and Amos Struck, you can see my 2009-2010 earnings history  here.

  • Videos
Videos royalties represent a bit more than 9% of my multimedia sales. No sales yet to report at Shutterstock, Istock and Revostock.

  • Audio
I had my first 2 sales at Pond5 this month with an average of $3.5 per download, a value between photo and video. My files are distributed to 4 agencies so far. Audio represents however  only 1% of my multimedia sales.




For more daily updates, you can follow me on Twitter and  Facebook. Until next month!
You also visit my interactive photo wall made by Cooliris. You can create your own for free also.

Upload once - Sell everywhere! iSyndica, the web distributor