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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Equinox Summer

After a lousy, grey, cold, wet summer in the UK, this weekend has paradoxically been gorgeous. The sky has been blue, the sun warm and we've even been able to eat in the garden - only the second or third time in the year.

As I noted in my links, I've finally succumbed to the inevitability that I can't take the 20D with me unless I am travelling with luggage, so I've taken the opportunity of price reductions related to the announcement of the G10 to buy a Canon G9 to travel with me on shorter journeys. I love it so far.

Since the weather is near perfect today despite it being the autumnal equinox, I'm taking the chance to practice, so expect a few sample snaps!

Labels: Photography

posted at 4:12 PM (UK) | Comment? (1 so far) | links to this post | |

Please Vote For My Photo

You may remember last year my posting about being unable to get my photograph of Sydney Opera House onto iStockphoto. The problem was that the Opera House has an over-broad interpretation of trademark law that they are trying to use to control the market in photographs, and iStock is respecting rather than challenging it. I still can't post my photo to iStock, but there is a chance to get a bit of airtime for the issue if I can get some votes for the photo! And I need your help.

I just entered the photograph into a Sydney Opera House photo competition (thanks for the anonymous tip), and I'd love to get your (hopefully 5*) vote for it if you feel so moved. I actually have a second photo entered if you're in the mood. My entry looks like it is the very first in the competition and the prize is notoriety, just what the issue needs.

Labels: Photography

posted at 9:28 AM (UK) | Comment? (7 so far) | links to this post | |

Flickr Stats

I'm not sure how I missed it, but Flickr has implemented a statistics tracking for all photos. I noticed in the metadata smallprint for today's upload that there was a link that said "Photo stats". I clicked it and turned them on and a few minutes later had full stats on all photos going back as far as I wanted, referrers and all. Way cool.

Labels: Photography

posted at 4:16 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Opera House, Dawn; Copyright policy, Night-time

If you're a regular reader, you may be aware that I sell some of my photographs for commercial use over on iStockPhoto. It's earns pennies, but I like the thought of actually heading in the direction of my aspirations.

Anyway, I think this photo of Sydney Opera House is quite good, so I submitted it to iStockPhoto. I've recently received a rejection from them on the grounds that it would be a breach of Australian copyright law to sell this image. When you consider that I can stand in public places throughout Sydney and take photographs that include the Opera House, this restriction seems pretty ridiculous.

Labels: Photography, Rights

posted at 8:43 PM (UK) | Comment? (8 so far) | links to this post | |