Ethan Myerson Stock Photography

Found on VOX's front page, filed under "This is Good":

This is good.

We just went for our twenty week ultrasound this morning. We had a feeling we knew what we were having, but the doctor performing the ultrasound told us we were wrong! As it turns out we're having a

********** SPOILER ALERT **********

boy

********** END SPOILER ALERT **********

We're very excited! Of course we would have been excited if it went the other way, but this is great. Now when we talk to Jonah about the new baby, we can start using an actual pronoun and the name we've picked out.

So, just 20 weeks to go until we meet the new little one!

I've been organizing a new meetup.com group for Tucson-area photographers. Our first meeting will be early next month. So far we have 11 members signed up, and about half have RSVPed that they'll be there. The other half have said maybe. So we may have about 6 people, or maybe 12, or perhaps just 2. I know there'll be at least two, because I'm going, and member Dave is hosting it at the church where he is pastor.

We don't really have an agenda for the first meeting, other than to decide what it is we want to do or be. We've kicked around some ideas - comment and critique sessions, lighting seminars, model shoots, photography hikes and more. I think there will be two constants at each monthly meeting: a C&C session and a photography challenge. Beyond that, we'll probably try something new at each meeting until we find stuff that we all like.

Most of the members have written to me saying that they're thrilled someone has finally stepped up to start this meetup. I've also heard a variety of interests and skill levels from the group. There are some fine art photographers, some very technical photographers, a very few commercial photographers, and a lot of hobbyists. It should be fun to get everyone together and mix it up.

Anyone out there in VOX-land have any experience with photography groups? Good or bad experiences you'd like to share? The only photography groups I've ever been part of have been iStock 'lypses. And that's a hell of a yardstick.

What are your deal breakers in a relationship?

"Between you and I..."
"Irregardless..."
"Please return this to Dave or myself."

I know it's sort of a meaningless milestone, but it made me smile all the same. I got my first blue flames today on this image. :)

Bowling

1 comment

One of my plans for 2007 is to explore ways to make money with photography beyond my affiliation with iStock. Obviously there are some caveats; I can't violate my exclusivity agreement with iStock, and I can't quit my day job. One path I've begun walking is doing photography for my company. I work for a large manufacturer of equipment and reagents for the oncology pathology industry. High science stuff. Recently, I shot the two-day symposium that we hosted. That was a lot of fun, and there were some good shots to come from it.

Last week, the marketing department asked me to shoot some products as well. So now I've got that as an ongoing project here. The challenge with that is that our packaging is a plain white box with a white label on it. It's as vanilla as a package design can be. Marketing has plans to upgrade the packaging, to give it a little more visual impact. Until then, I'd planned to shoot it on a colored background. That didn't really fit with what Marketing had in mind, so yes, I shot white on white. Not what I'd intended, but I think it came out OK.

The second product shot at least had a blue box, so that has a little more appeal.

Marketing has also asked if I can do the headshots for corporate bigwigs and the board of directors. I said absolutely! I enjoy doing headshots and portraits, so I think that could be a lot of fun. Plus, to really do it right, I'd probably need one more Alien Bees light. :)

Just got download #10,000. It was a medium size DL of this one:

That pleases me to no end, as that is one of my favorites.

I remember when I got my first download a few years ago. I recall thinking that obviously there was some kind of mistake, and it would be corrected in a few hours. After a few days, and a few more downloads, I finally believed that it wasn't an error, and that someone actually did want to buy an image I created. Huh.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what five people would you eat first?
Submitted by James Poling.

1. Porky Pig
2. The Chic-Fil-A Spokescows
3. Foghorn Leghorn
4. Jessica Alba
5. Daffy Duck
   

Wow, these quizzes are surprisingly accurate:

You are The Amazing Spiderman, Issue #66
You are a classic issue of Spiderman, the one wherein Mysterio breaks out of prison to get revenge on Spidey. He traps him in this cool death trap amusement park. It totally rocked. Also, this one was before Gwen Stacy died, so there was some well written personal stuff too. You were penciled by John Romita, and written by Stan Lee, so you basically represent the ass-kickingest era in Spiderman history.