BlueBloodRed CD Cover - "Fill the Void"

Just finished assembling a C.D. cover for a local band called BlueBloodRed. My older brother Jeff is in the band and plays bass guitar and they are releasing a C.D. in the near future. Jeff stopped by today to go over the final layout, font and a few other details. I'm extremely proud of my brother Jeff for moving forward with his music and passion. Jeff has released a handful of C.D.'s in the past, but, I have a feeling this work of art is going to have a lot more meaning behind it.
Not just saying this because he is my brother, but, I think Jeff is musical genius and he will eventually do something big with music. He has truly inspired me over the years and has helped me tremendously to pursue my goal of playing guitar.
As soon as the C.D. is released I will post a link to where it can be purchased or heard and do a little write up about the entire band.

http://www.myspace.com/bluebloodred
Check out, "The Rain Song" on their myspace page. 5th song down. Just me, but, I dig the simplicity in the guitars.

Birthday Cake & Actions

Celebrated my sister-in-law Damaris's birthday the other day and I think her baby daughter Dina had a splendid time as well. After a great dinner we had some chocolate trifle cake which was unbelievably good. Pretty sure I could have finished off the whole cake myself...
Before dinner Michele and I tried to keep up with baby Dina as she crawled from room to room as I tried to snap a few images. Below are a few images from the birthday party.

Decided to mess around with a few different actions on these images. Finally decided on using "Old School Fast ", by Totally Rad Actions. Actions are used by photographers to put an effect on a single image or perform a repetitive task on multiple files. For those who have no clue what actions are, follow this link to give yourself a better understanding, Peachpit Articles.
Totally Rad actions and a few other companies have given me the tools to speed up my work flow and put artistic effects on my images when needed.

Stock Photography Update

I've been busy the past few weeks working on my Stock photography portfolio which has been fun. It has been truly interesting doing all the research on what stock sites look for in your work and what they actually accept. As of today I have been accepted to 9 different stock agencies and hands downs the only one that provides me results is Shutterstock.
136 of my images have been sold through Shutterstock and below are a few of my top downloads.
This has been mentioned before that this is not going to get me rich overnight, but, there is a lot of potential in this and I learn quite a bit along the way. If you are constantly shooting you are constantly learning, (maybe just my philosophy..). I've made a goal to try and get 25 images approved per week and slowly build up my portfolio.
We will give the other sites another few weeks to see if we get any results before I give you another update. I will follow up with a detailed critique of their site and pros & cons of each site I have used.

Photographers interested in submitting images to Shutterstock please use my referral link.
http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=628330

Kirstin & Todd's Wedding Orfilia Winery 7.31.2010

Just finished photographing Kirstin & Todd's beautiful wedding which was held at the Orfilia Winery in Escondido, CA.
Stay tuned for some more images from this wedding, I will post more as soon I have them touched up.
Wanted to post this one image and express how much I love what I do. Of course I had to come home and immediately work on at least one image...
Working with such a wonderful couple like Kirstin & Todd surrounded by their family & friends was very cool to be a part of. I would like to thank the both of them for allowing me to be a part of their special day. Best wishes to you both and have a good time in Hawaii!

Special thanks to Greg Davidson for assisting me on this wedding today, you did a great job.

Real Estate Photo Shoot out on Del Dios Highway

Had a real long day today and finished it off with a real estate photo shoot out off of Del Dios Highway near Lake Hodges. After the hectic day it was nice to have this house completely to myself with the peace and quiet and the real nice views to photograph.
Definitely time for bed for me..., long day ahead of me tomorrow. Shooting a wedding at the Orfilia Vineyards and Winery which I am really looking forward to.

Have a good night!

Close up shot of the front of the house.

View of Lake Hodges from the Master Bedroom.

Sewing Lesson with Grandma Barros

Had a great lunch and got a first time sewing lesson from Grandma Barros (my wife Michele's grandmother) today up in Murrieta, CA. With the help from Grandma we were able to knock out this hand bag today which you see below. Must say I am beyond impressed with the outcome for a first time. This whole idea stemmed from Michele having similar hand bags and always being asked where and how she got the hand bag. After the 40 to 50th time of people asking, we thought we might try one. Today was the first day we took a step forward and gave it a whirl. For never been on a sewing machine in my entire life, I think Grandma and I did a pretty good job. The next hand bag we are going to make is black & white and Michele is going to do that one on her own. Grandma is going to show us the ropes before we get the confidence in doing it all ourselves.
All in all I had really good time spending some quality time with Grandma Barros and learning something new. I really appreciated the time we spent today and it is times like these you look back on and hold in high regard.

Love you Grandma, you're truly awesome!

Grandma sporting a pose with the new bag.

Sell your photos Online

If you are an amateur photographer or just someone who loves to dabble in photography, you may be able to make money from your images. The business of stock photography has grown significantly on the internet, which in turn has allowed photography enthusiasts to find a marketplace for their images.


I'm extremely happy to say I stopped procrastinating and finally submitted some images to a stock agency. The stock site I heard the most positive reviews on was Shutterstock. After working on some images I thought were worthy enough of being stock images I finally uploaded them. Reason why I procrastinated so long was because I read up on Shutterstocks forum about their entry requirements. To get "approved" to have access to upload to their site you must submit 10 images for them to critique. You must get 7 out of 10 approved or you cannot submit again for another 30 days. Long story short, I submitted the images and got an approval within 12 hours. I got 9 out of 10 approved which I am really happy about. The image that was rejected was a image of the word "health" spelled out in Scrabble letters. Copy right infringement, which is a no-no, I had to learn somewhere though...

Now that I am approved I can upload as many photos as I want. All images still go through the review process, but, almost all are getting accepted. I'm getting rejected for focus, noise, no commercial value, etc.
Again, I am really happy that I finally followed through with my goal of pursuing my stock. Now I just need to keep making milestone goals with my stock to keep pushing it. You are not going to get rich over night doing stock. But, if you keep chugging away and keep feeding the machine you will build a nice portfolio, make a few bucks, and enjoy yourself in the process. To me, that is living. If you do look into using Shtterstock please use my referral code: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=628330
Please take a look at my current gallery which I will be building upon.
http://shutterstock.com/g/joehamilton
After being accepted 7/20/2010 I have already sold 46 images! It is really quite cool to check in on your stats and see what is being purchased and downloaded and seeing your money adding up. Of course it is not a lot of money right now, but, I do see the potential.

If you have good images, you can easily earn anywhere from $300 to $1,000 a month. Here are some places where you can sell your photos and earn money from them:

Shutterstock - one of the most, if not the most popular micro stock photography sites on the Web today. Some photographers earn about $600 a month from this site alone. The site pays you $0.25 per download of your images, as well as referrals both in terms of other photographers and photo buyers.

Alamy - as a contributor, you get 65% of the sale of your photos while you retain copyright and editorial control over your images.

iStockPhoto - royalty structure is 20% if non-exclusive and 40% if exclusive.

Other sites that you need to check include:

Corbis - http://www.corbisimages.com/
BigStockPhoto - http://www.bigstockphoto.com/