Tag: 500px

Smashed my 500px lens.

500px Now 100% Owned by Visual China Group (Michael Russell Photography Photoblog)

So what now?

No matter what networks you share your work to – having your own website and making it the center of your activity is a good idea. It is only on your own website that you can truly control your content. Buy a domain name if you don’t already have one. I host mine with Dreamhost.com, though there are a lot of other great hosts out there. Research them before you sign up – and get the level of hosting you require. I also host my Image Library on a site called Photoshelter. If you just have a few photos online at this point you could start with a some basic WordPress galleries and get some experience with that platform.

Good luck!

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I deleted my account and sent a request to 500px to delete my images from all servers under their control. Fingers crossed.

Keeping my images on my website may be the only way I can keep some control of my copyrighted content. Now what about Instagram?

Photographic Binge Eating

You know that type of photo: amazing locations, wonderful light, colorful sunsets, starry skies, waterfalls, ocean waves, tropical beaches, brilliant colors. Most of them revealed a mastery of technique, accurate choice of location, delightful composition, masterful post-processing. Each one of those photos could have won a contest, get printed on a calendar or poster, graced the pages of a magazine or got a million likes on social networks. There was even a photo that was almost identical to Peter Lik’s Phantom, the most expensive photo ever sold.

And yet, after having seen the slideshow roll around three or four times, I was disgusted and wanted to throw my jug of beer at the screen. I even contemplated giving up landscape photography and picking up some other genre. That much beauty had left me numb and a feeling not unlike how you feel after binge eating a ton of chocolate or sweets.From “Will the Real Landscape Photography Please Stand Up?”

One of the Arcanum assignment involves doing an analysis of 10 images from at least three photographers I admire. After looking around on 500px I felt exhausted and dejected. My images are shit compared to what I found.