Golf Club Shopping Guide for Beginners

By , December 23, 2009

You might enter a golf shop and you might get confused with all the irons, woods, putters and wedges that you encounter along with the golf balls, clothing and other golf clubs accessories. If you are just starting to play golf, the job of picking golf clubs etc that would work for you, could be a bit challenging.

The first thing you should know is what a set of clubs is made up of. There are four major types of golf clubs: the Woods, the Irons, the Wedges and the Putter. Today, you might actually see hybrid clubs. A hybrid club is a mixture between a wood and an iron. People who find it difficult to hitting their long irons, like a 2 or 3 iron, prefer to use these clubs. You are allowed to have up to 14 clubs and could be in any combination. A good example grouping for your golf clubs would be one driver, one 4 wood, 3 through 9 iron, a lob wedge, a gap wedge, a sand wedge, a pitching wedge and one putter. However, the combination would entirely be up to you or the golfer as different combinations work for other people.

You then need to know your available options as you buy your golf clubs. You could buy brand new or second hand. Howver you would definitely save a lot of money buying second hand golf clubs, you might find some problems such as cracked shafts, worn grips and other problems that a new set would definitely not have. If you are buying your first set, it usually makes a lot of sense to buy new clubs.

After deciding on buying a new or old set, you then have to decide if you want to buy a complete set or buy individual clubs to create a custom set of your own. Putting together your own set would be a bit more expensive compared to just buying a set of clubs that is already complete. Purchasing a complete set also saves you the hassle and the time in making decisions.

If you are a beginner, it is recommended to purchase a complete beginner set, which includes one driver, a 3 wood, a 5 wood, the 3 through 9 irons, one pitching wedge and your putter. This could also include one sand wedge and a bag for your golf clubs. As this set will only have 11 or 12 clubs, as you game gets better you may decide to add to your set with individual purchases. You could eventually add a 2 iron, another wedge or a hybrid club.

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A Guide to Shooting Stock Photography

By , December 23, 2009

Introduction

Welcome to An Insight into Stock Photography. This article is based on a talk given at Focus on Imaging 2007. I hope you find it interesting. Just remember these are my views only, they are not gospel and have been put together based solely on my experience of shooting and selling stock photography, primarily through Alamy and photographic magazines.

We’ve seen a lot of change in the markets and the economy in general. This has affected the stock photography market. But don’t lose faith , magazines and newspapers have an insatiable appetite for images.

One Approach

Fingers in pies – and finding opportunities to build a business in photography. And stock photography is just part of that – a chance for someone else to promote your images for you and to for you to get paid, while off doing something else. It’s like having commission only sales people working for you. The thing is you have to give them something saleable but you can’t give them a kick up the backside if you’re not selling much!!

Some commercial photographers don’t do it, some do, some make a living from it. The choices and balance is up to you, as a commercial photographer I do some of it.

It may seem daunting but it’s not and it’s within most people’s reach . Provided you understand the customer. This applies to both the Picture Library and the Ultimate Buyers.

Take a look around you. Pictures are everywhere – the printed media in its widest context has a massive appetite for images on a daily basis.

Humans generally don’t like reading online – well not for very long – they like tactile magazines to flick though and dip into and if they didn’t, the newspaper industry would be long gone by now – wouldn’t it !!

Every magazine, exhibition, web site, company brochure and newspaper all need images on a regular basis – and if they don’t have it or can’t send a photographer to go out and shoot it – then they’ll buy it.

Printed media works on deadlines that go right down to the wire, so immediacy is important and the shots can’t be the same old ones turned out time after time .

The picture buyer generally will work to longer lead times and less tight deadlines – but not always – the images they buy can be more general or iconic – like these motivation posters you see in some shops .

Take for instance a sports shot of runners on a track – you might see it in the sports pages of a newspaper for a day, then maybe in a Athletics magazine that month – but it can soon become a poster with a motivational statement “Defeat” or “Winner” that has a whole new market.

So where are you – the photographer – in the pecking order so to speak. Take a look below.

• The Photographer
• The Stock Library
• The Picture Buyer

You’re on the top of the list with the stock library between you and the buyer, but at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to getting paid. But whilst you need to meet the technical specifications of the library and other submission requirements, it’s the picture buyer you must be thinking of long before you even contemplate picking up the camera.

The image library will do the sales and marketing of your images, for a percentage which varies from library to library, but they must have images that buyers want.

Before you sign up, read through the agreement and see if the set up suits your requirements.

Diverse Sectors

Each of these publications, Gossip magazines, The Times Newspaper, Corporate Publications, serve a specific market – but each buy photos from Alamy to mention just one library – they also buy from many others too – in order to make the publication that day, week or month.

So what sort of pictures do these publications buy? Well it’s very varied. Just glance through and look at the side of the shot, it’s likely to have an image source next to it.

• Take a Break – items / products, staged poses – youth etc.
• Daily mail – travel
• Environment – utilities, waste, pollution etc, – front cover.

Get Rich Quick – NO!

Some say it’s a numbers game – true to some extent, but the way I look at it is this, if you’ve got 10,000 images of shots that won’t sell – you’ve got very little.

For me as a professional photographer that provides photography services, it’s the long term view – looking to grow and maintain a set of saleable images.

Remember pictures are perishable – i.e. – they go out of date – and this will vary dependent upon the industry sector or subject they relate to.

Transport, fashion, IT, business, communications all need, in my view, re-shooting each year. For example a man in a suit by a computer the size of a house in the 1950′s isn’t the modern industry image of today.

Wildlife, sky scenes, landscapes, travel pictures – less so – but look at any developing city – take London – since the Wheel and the Gherkin went up all the skylines are out of date , also look at Dubai – developing all the time.

Get rich quick – no it’s not – but you can build up an underlying income if you think about saleable pictures and keep them relevant – remember they have to illustrate a story – so need to tell a story in their own right.

What is Stock

So let’s take a look at how you get accepted and who there is to choose from. Each Library has its own benefits and key target markets, so find one that suits you and what you are good at shooting.

• Getty
• Alamy
• Comstock
• Jupiter
• Superstock
• Fotolibra
• Istockphoto,
• Pixtal
• Jumpimages
• Adams
• Nevstock

Most will have web sites and these will stipulate how to join of make submissions.

$ Sites

Personally I don’t like them and here’s why. I’m going to set you a project and at the end of it I will buy the photograph off you. So you go and shoot a subject you like, do your research, do the shoot, post produce the image and upload it to my site and hey presto – I pay you 50p at today’s exchange rate — any takers ? I rest my case!

Submission Rules

All picture libraries will set technical standards and these will vary depending on how much server space they want to invest in.

Alamy work to 48mb TIFF minimum – 1, to keep the bar high enough that only the serious photographer applies and 2, to give their customers’ choice and immediate access to high quality images. Now they’ve changed this from the above to accept JPEG images – so your file size is down to around 8 meg.

Others work on thumbnail sizes then let the buyer contact you. Personally, I think, trying to judge a shot off a 100 or 200k image is not doing the shot justice.

Others specify minimum specifications of camera / model, or make you go though an approval or recommendation process. The thing with this is to find a library that matches your needs and capabilities. Also the amount time you have available to dedicate to stock photography.

Licenses

Non-Exclusive License

The buyer pays a licence fee each time they use the image, but another picture buyer can also purchase and use the image under the same licence.

The picture buyer must specify, each time: intended use, media, territory and duration.

Pricing is based on intended use, media, duration and territory. The territorial pricing will be matched to the specific country.

Exclusive License

The image buyer pays a licence fee each time they use the image.

The image buyer obtains exclusive use of an image under the terms of the licence: these terms may affect the use, media, territory and/or duration in which the image can by used by other buyers.

Rights protection can be an advantage for high-profile projects such as ad campaigns and promotions.

Royalty Free (RF)

The picture buyer pays a one-off fee – they do not have to pay royalties to contributors on a use-by-use basis.

The picture buyer will not know who else is using the image.

The picture buyer should check that the image has the appropriate releases before using the image where a release is required, for example Model release for people and property release for prominent buildings or logos.

Commission

  • 50/50
  • 60/40 but with global distribution
  • 70/30
  • 80/20 – Photographers Direct

Again find one that works for you and also find out when you’ll get paid and any minimum balances you must have to get paid. Sometimes you can wait 3 months for your money.

Work Flow

As a provider of photography services I shoot RAW and make minor adjustments to images. Now I’m using Adobe Lightroom in place of Raw Shooter and it’s speeded up my work flow considerably. Photoshop – I use this far less now but only to colour and touch out any dirt or what might look like dirt – by this I mean the occasional bird in the sky can look like sensor dirt if it’s a way off in the distance. Resize your image. Output the file to the required format.

Then depending on the library upload over the Internet or cut a CD / DVD.

An Example

Take an older camera the Nikon D70 – 6.1 mega pixel camera. Raw files were around 4 or 5 MB and a TIFF was at 17MB with the JPEG at 4MB.

To meet the submission guidelines you need to Interpolate the image – make it bigger. In Photoshop this was Image > Image Size>Percent. Increase by 168% to give a 48 – 50 MB sized image. Then Save as Jpeg – 5 – 7MB.

I now shoot on a Nikon D300. RAW files are now 18 – 19 mb, opened in CS3 at 34 mb – requiring interpolation by only 20%.

What I’ve Sold

Wonderful sunsets, superb travel pictures, glamour images, or maybe my Dad’s cat! These are just a few examples of shots that have sold.
My dad’s cat, police cars, road signs, street scenes in New York, studio models and traffic jams.

Finding More Value

There are plenty of magazines that will promote your sold work, FPME (Now out of print March 2009) is just one of them and if you have sold a shot just let the editor know – chances are it can earn you some more money.

Not only that, look out for sites like Photographer Direct that provide an Image Request service – all you need to do is send 1 email. Also look to the corporate clients – they too may take an image if it fits with their style – be brave, make that approach, but do your research first.

Top Tips

 

  • Find a stock library that suits you
  • Don’t be put off by submission guidelines
  • Know your end image buyer
  • Start shooting what you are comfortable with – then move on
  • Check out what pictures already exist
  • Read the Picture Needs
  • Remember pictures images are perishable
  •  

    Check out how many images of your subject matter already exist in a library, then ask yourself – can these be improved, shot differently or updated.

    Read the picture needs issued by Stock libraries, they tell you what sells and what is needed, don’t ignore them.

    Thank you for reading this article, I hope you found it interesting, should you have any questions, please feel free to make contact through the web site.

    Author : Peter Davey Ma DipM
    First edition Feb 2007 – updated March 2008 and March 2009 

    Celiac Disease Depression And Constipation

    By , December 23, 2009

    Though we acknowledge coeliac disease may easily extend to constipation if not addressed by a strict gluten-elimination diet, many studies now appear to indicate that coeliac disease can likewise result in depression.

    How precisely? Well that piece isn’t too distinct just yet. We may name the issue celiac depression, but its sources might be from celiac disease itself, malnutrition ensuing from malabsorption deriving from celiac disease or gluten intolerance, or even just the anxiousness and stress individuals often confront while conforming to a gluten-free lifestyle.

    Several researchers believe that malabsorption can interfere with the body’s handling of the neurotransmitters which regulate mood. In particular, malabsorption-related deficiencies of tryptophan appear to contribute to depressive disorder within celiac patients. Tryptophan is all-important for the body’s output of serotonin, which is the central neurotransmitter expected by the body for mood regulation as well as the neurotransmitter which empowers our body’s tolerance of anxiety.

    Thus one must question then if adjusting to a gluten-free diet can assist in treating depression while also minimizing celiac disease symptoms. If the patients clinical depression is affiliated with malabsorption of nutrients, then being gluten-free may facilitate treatment, as the bowels mend and nutrient assimilation increases.

    With most cases, it appears the malnutrition theory seems to be the most substantive and legitimate. And what happens before you start suffering this malnutrition from gluten intolerance? That’s right, celiac disease constipation. Gluten intolerance constipation, in particular, results from the break down of villi which line your small intestine. This villi is essential for nutrient assimilation. So I hope you now see how constipation from celiac disease can lead to a kind of celiac depression.

    DISCLAIMER: I do hope my blogging on this matter assists individuals reading this blog, but please note that I am not a doctor so you must consult with a medical doctor before taking any medical suggestions from the World Wide Web.

    http://extrawidewomensshoessite.com/Blog/

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