Going to Cumberland Island has become an annual thing for me and my family. This years trip was so much fun. The weather was perfect for us again. No rain and it didn’t get really hot unti the last day or so. There was always a breeze coming off the water which made it much cooler. We even stayed an extra night this time so we weren’t as rushed and we were able to take things a little slower.

We didn’t see as many armadillos this trip but we heard some sneaking around our campsite at night. There were more horses scattered about this time and we even saw a gaggle of turkeys scurry off. The raccoons also pretty much left our stuff alone this year.

Took all digital this time around. Had my new 50-200mm lens I wanted to get used to and it worked out great for some of the wildlife shots.

The Flickr set is here. Both years are combined here so if you start at the end, you can see the ones from this year.

I was contacted recently by Jezebel Magazine about a photo of Piedmont Park I have on my Flickr.

The deadline was really tight, so I had to go back and search through my images to find the high res version that night. I did find it, and it wasn’t a full 300dpi resolution, so wasn’t sure they were going to be able to use it. If they were, I figured it would be small.

This was the first time someone has contacted me about using a photo in a magazine, so I did some online research. In doing so, I found that there are some important questions to ask:

1. How large is the photo being printed?
2. How many copies will be printed?
3. How long will the photo be used?
4. Will it be used anywhere other than print? (ie, for promotion, online, etc)

In this instance, my contact wasn’t sure how large the image would be. (Not sure if he was just saying that because he knew it would be full page and didn’t want the price to go up or what. That was really the thing I cared about the most.)

It can be tough as a designer and photographer to put a price on the things you’ve worked on. This was my first experience with something like this, and I quoted Jezebel only $150. My contact seemed to think that was a “fair” price. If I had known it was going to be used full page, I would have quoted more — but I’m still glad they were able to use it and that I got something for it.

People will come out of the woodwork and want to use your work for free — some with proper credit and some without. I tend to agree with the idea that if you let the first one go for free, they will be less likely to pay for something the next time — so that’s definitely something to keep in mind.

You should ALWAYS demand proper credit, but it’s hard for me to say you should charge for everything in every instance. Sometimes to get exposure you have to let some things go for less than you want. It’s circumstantial – use your best judgement, ask your friends and colleagues their opinion, and draw your own conclusions.

If it’s a well-known magazine or website, they usually have the budget to spend on freelance photographers and purchasing images for the content. They get money from advertisers and make a profit, so it’s only fair that they pay for their content if it’s coming from an outside source.

This Flickr Forum answered some questions for me – link

Kai Eiselein in that forum posted a link to a Stock Image Price Calculator – link

Link to Jezebel Magazine – here
Link to digital version of current issue – here

Printed Image.

Original Image. Click for Flickr Page.

I was recently asked to go take some shots for Urban Farmer Magazine (First issue out 3/31) of the Decatur Kitchen Garden groundbreaking event.

via Patch.com article.

Global Growers Network, a nonprofit that helps international refugee farmers find places to till the soil, explains the concept behind the garden in a press release.

Decatur’s Kitchen Garden is designed to foster community, offer education about healthy food traditions and growing practices, and enhance biodiversity through cutting-edge sustainable resource management.

“A range of annual and perennial foods, with an emphasis on specialty cultural crops, will be grown at this community market garden site,” she continued..

It was a beautiful morning before it started raining but even the rain was fitting for this garden groundbreaking.
They have quite a large area next to the lake. The garden will be beautiful.

See some photos below of the event.

Mayor Floyd

Garden Space

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – January 10, 2012 – Comedian Tone Bell earned top honors at NBCUniversal’s eighth-annual “Stand-Up for Diversity” comedy search held recently at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood, California. Hosted by comedian Kevin Shea, the event concluded a five-city outreach to find the nation’s funniest diverse comics.

My photo looks pretty good over that NBC logo dontcha think? Maybe they’ll think so too.

See the post on his website.

NBC Link

My girlfriend and I recently took a trip up to New Orleans. She’s been there many times and had friends up there we could stay with so we took a long weekend and drove up.

I had only passed through NOLA in the past and was excited to see the French Quarter and eat and drink anything good I could get my hands on. We were successful on all counts.

New Orleans definitely has a feel all it’s own. I compared it to Savannah, Charleston and suprisingly Jacksonville rolled up into one. The food was amazing and the weather was beautiful. We gambled a little and ate seafood. Drank coffee and ate beignets. We discussed the state of New Orleans with the local homeless (“New Orleans is the toilet of America but everyones got to take a use the bathroom sometime” he told us) and Jess had her palms read and fortune told with incredible accuracy.

We spent most of our time in the French Quarter. The undefeated LSU Tigers beat undefeated Alabama that Saturday and the Saints won on Sunday so the city was buzzing.

We stayed with some of her friends that had rebuilt after Katrina. It was very interesting to hear the story about the devastation, the clean-up and also the rebuild that could still be seen throughout the city. I tried to imagine what it must have been like during that time while we were walking around and it must have been another world.

I had a lot more photos but they were all way over-exposed.
I took some shots in a voodoo shop that I wasn’t supposed to so I am blaming the over exposed photos on black magic.
Lesson learned.

Definitely want to get back and explore and stuff my face with the amazing cuisine.

Check out some photos below. Flickr set here.

New Orleans News






Mother’s Restaurant . Had an amazing sandwich here. Great home cooking . Expect a wait here too. Used to be a locals spot but it’s blown up into a tourist spot now. They brag about having the “world’s best baked ham”. I smirked a little at that but I had some on a sandwich with roast beef and “debris” (all the roast beef goodness that falls into the pan when cooked). Didn’t have a chance to get a pic of the food before I devoured it. So good.



Cafe Du Monde . They only serve coffee and beignets and they do both of those extremely well. Expect a wait but it’s move pretty quick and it’s totally worth it.



Cafe Du Monde . Coffee Machine

St. Patrick’s Cemetery . Amazing Light.



St. Patrick’s Cemetery . Amazing Light.



St. Patrick’s Cemetery . Amazing Light.



St. Patrick’s Cemetery . Amazing Light.

Malia was playing in the Fall leaves and I had to get some shots. The light was perfect with the sun setting behind the trees.

My girlfriends daughter, Malia, was playing in the Fall leaves and I had to get some shots. The light was perfect with the sun setting behind the trees.

Some of my photos documenting The Living Walls Conference this year have been used on the official Living Walls website. Head on over the LivingWallsConference.com to check them out and see some of the walls I wasn’t able to get.

Click to visit the Living Walls website.

Click here to view the Flickr set from this year.

Click here to view the 2010 Flickr set.

Click to see a map of the wall locations.