Money for sh*t…

It’s been an unusual week for stock photo sales. A couple of years ago I wrote about wintering with wombats. One of the photographs I took on that field trip was of the curiously cubic crap of the wombat. The shape, it seems, serves the purpose of preventing the wombat’s droppings from rolling away as it marks out its territory.

Currently Alamy has over 30,000,000 pictures. Do a keyword search for wombat droppings and you’ll get just three pictures. All mine! All mine! My own little niche market. You might be surprised (as I was) to find that this week a publisher in the United States paid $500 to use this picture. OK, now don’t all rush out and start shooting wombat shit. For most of you, it’s going to be almost as hard to find as that proverbial rarity, rocking horse sh*t…and with this sale, I imagine I’ve probably filled all the requests there’s likely to be for this particular subject.

Money for sh*t. This picture of the curiously rhomboid shaped wombat droppings sold again this week.© Rob Walls 2011

The other unusual picture sale this week, was of this poignant memorial which was erected in the outback New South Wales town of Broken Hill almost 100 years ago.

Monument in Broken Hill, New South Wales, to the bandsmen of the RMS Titanic who went down with the ship off Newfoundland on 15th April, 1912 © Rob Walls 2011

A moving memorial to the musicians of the RMS Titanic in the Australian outback mining town of Broken Hill. This picture was licensed for use in an audio-visual in Ireland.

Now, just in case you can’t avoid the temptation, I’ll warn you in advance; comments that refer to me as a “sh*t photographer” are unlikely to be published:-)

Sunrise on Salamanca Market, Hobart

It’s nearly three months since I last posted here. 2011 was probably the most intense year of picture taking in the 50 years that I’ve been a photographer. In the last year or so, I’ve driven almost 50,000 kilometres across Australia photographing work for my project, This Working Life. By the end of last year, I had reached a point where I could feel that burn-out was imminent. Left with the choice of taking pictures or blogging, I decided to neglect the blogging. But now I’m back.

On Saturday last, I went to Salamanca Market to photograph the stall holders setting up for the day. Held every Saturday in Salamanca Place (or just Salamanca) as the locals call it, the market has for nearly 30 years been a bustling and lively scene. Last Saturday, I had reason to be there early and decided to get there in time to see the stall holders setting up.The early morning light, the interaction of workers and early-bird market goers, the mounds of fresh produce and the promise of a hot, sunny, late summer’s day was well worth turning out of bed in the dark for.

Setting up for the day. Good coffee and fresh donuts. My breakfast at 6.30am, © Rob Walls 2012

Stall holders setting up © Rob Walls 2012

Oranges waiting to be juiced © Rob Walls 2012

Lentils, oats and rice © Rob Walls 2012

Display of pumpkins, Harvest Feast, Salamanca Market, Hobart © Rob Walls 2012

Vested interest. My wife grew the beets and a lot of the herbs in this fine display © Rob Walls 2012

 

Attention to detail. Every carrot meticulously displayed © Rob Walls 2012

 

Good friends of organic produce, Michelle Dyer and Jonathan Cooper of Harvest Feast © Rob Walls 2012

 

ABC and Organic Gardener, trying it on…

This week I received a “deed of copyright” from the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Organic Gardener, a publication I have on a few occasions contributed to. I was at first puzzled as it is nearly two years since I’ve had anything published in that fine magazine. Now, I’m all for contracts when it comes to publishing, but this particular deed I was being asked to sign, wanted me to grant them a fixed re-use price for my photographs of $20 per use, plus the use of my work “on any website owned or controlled by the ABC…for an unlimited time gratis”.

The specific clauses in the ABC Copyright Licence Deed

Normally I would just ignore a rights grab like that, but in this case I felt compelled to respond. I wrote to the ABC as follows:

Thursday, 22 September 2011

 Dear Ms White,

 I am puzzled by the request to sign a deed of copyright related to my material previously published in Organic Gardener.

 While I respect the need for contracts within publishing, I will not sign overarching deeds of copyright related to material already published, that gives the ABC retrospective re-use rights at rates so low.

 Organic Gardener is entirely free to re-use my material whenever they choose, at a rate negotiated with me at the time. I am sure your experience is the same as mine, but I have yet to encounter any supplier of goods or services that will allow me to decide what I want to pay. As the author and licensee of my photographs, it is my prerogative to decide the rates they are offered at. If you disagree with what I ask, it is your right to say negotiate or say no.

 I have forwarded copies of your deed of copyright to the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance and the Australian Commercial and Media Photographers.

 Yours sincerely,

I’ll let you know if there is any follow-up….

Taking stock…

I’m excited about  conducting a two-day, stock photography workshop at SHOOT Photography Workshops in Perth at the end of next month. Apart from giving me yet another excuse to visit Western Australia, I’m looking forward to using the superb facilities at SHOOT. The workshop will be conducted over the weekend of Saturday 29th October and Sunday 30th October. If you are interested in learning how to make money from your photographs and want to spend an entire weekend immersed in the world of photography enrol now! To find out more, go here.

Winter harvest…

© Rob Walls 2011

Like a Japanese print

black currawong

stealing ripe persimmon

in my garden this morning…

For the bird watcher, these are Strepera fuliginosa. More can be read about these very clever birds here.

A marvellous Melbourne Sunday…

Sunday, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy © Rob Walls 2011

Kat Macaulay, bartender at The Gypsy Bar, Fitzroy © Rob Walls 2011

His first protest; Climate Action rally, Melbourne June 5 2011 © Rob Walls 2011

Exuberance personified at the Climate Action rally in Melbourne © Rob Walls 2001

Brunswick Street, Fitzroy © Rob Walls 2011

 

Postcards – travelling West to East…Part two

Abandoned farm kitchen in the West Australian wheat belt © Rob Walls 2011

Salt mine at Lake Deborah, Western Australia © Rob Walls 2011

Truck driving sunrise, Nullarbor Roadhouse June 1, 2011 © Rob Walls 2011

Roadside shrine, Nullarbor Plain © Rob Walls 2011

My last campsite for this trip © Rob Walls 2011

Did it never occur to the signwriter, why "Shielas" required a grocer's apostrophe and "Blokes" not? Toilets at the Iron Knob Motel © Rob Walls 2011

Hitman? Probably a lucrative sideline for the butcher at Crystal Brook, SA © Rob Walls 2011

This puzzled me for nearly 1,000km. When I got to where I could get a broadband signal I looked it up. Means creeping over the speed limit © Rob Walls 2011

Racing my shadow home © Rob Walls 2011

PART ONE here

EAST TO WEST ON HIGHWAY ONE

EAST TO WEST Part tw0

Some postcards from Kal’…

Have been less than 48 hours in the vibrant gold mining city of Kalgoorlie and already have pictures to post:

It takes an hour for these giant ore trucks to drive from the bottom to the top of the Superpit at Kalgoorlie © Rob Walls 2011

A family watching work below in the Superpit © Rob Walls 2011

Kalgoorlie is famous for the pubs of Hannan Street. The Exchange Hotel in the late afternoon light © Rob Walls 2011

Bar staff at The Exchange © Rob Walls 2011

The Palace Hotel has a constant update on the gold price on its facade © Rob Walls 2011

The top end of Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie © Rob Walls 2011

The facade of the Questa Casa bordello in Hay Street © Rob Walls 2011

No longer quite the rip-roaring town it used to be, a resident takes his dogs for a quiet walk on Hannan Street at sunset. I did note though, that they were a matched pair of Dobermann. © Rob Walls 2011

Postcards – travelling West to East…(Part one)

A kitchen hand takes a smoke break outside Gino's in Fremantle © Rob Walls 2011

I thanked the owner of this 1978 Mustang for providing this visual treat © Rob Walls 2011

High risk activity © Rob Walls 2011

Wave Rock. One stock shot I can claim is model released © Rob Walls 2011

Life is stranger than fiction in Corrigin © Rob Walls 2011

They love their dogs out Corrigin way © Rob Walls 2011

Taking the high ground…

What do you do when signs like this condemn you to staying in heavy metal suburbia? Acres and rows of caravans, SUVs, Winnebagos and mobile homes?

© Rob Walls 2011

I’m getting the impression that every morning in Australia entire tribes of grey nomads uproot themselves and move off in a clockwise direction around Australia, like those great swirling schools of fish that are rounded up by dolphins. Millions upon millions of dollars, entire cities on the move each day.

The night before last, I complied for a single night for $45 for a “powered site”; a place to pitch my swag, park my truck and charge my computer, take a shower and walk 150 metres every time I wanted to take a piss. Faced with those kind of options, there is only one choice for me, become an outlaw.

Suburbia on wheels © Rob Walls 2011

In Exmouth, Western Australia, the tourist guide books recommended watching the sunrise falling on the ridges at Shothole Canyon in the Cape Range National Park. After doing a recce during the day, I calculated both sunset and sunrise would be good,. But risking driving in the dark over several miles of rough gravel road regularly crossed by kangaroos and stray livestock seemed a logical justification for ignoring the law. So, I found myself a well-concealed little campsite, well off the road, a few hundred metres from the canyon and pitched my swag to wait for the light.

My campsite at sundown © Rob Walls

I know which of these two campsites will linger in my memory.

Taking the high ground in Cape Range National Park © Rob Walls 2011

Late afternoon sky Shothole Canyon, Cape Range National Park, Western Australia from my elevated ridge © Rob Walls 2011

The brightest stars of the Southern Cross linger in the morning sky above my campsite as the sun begins to comee over the ridge © Rob Walls 2011

My camp at 6.30am, Cape Range National Park WA © Rob Walls 2011

The morning sun clips the range tops, Cape Range National Park, Western Australia © Rob Walls 2011

The irresistible self-portrait of every solo travelling photographer at sunrise © Rob Walls 2011

I could write a lengthy diatribe about loss of freedom, the shrinking of our horizons, the nanny state, but if I did, I’d have to admit that part of the enjoyment is in defying the restrictions that would corral us all in fenced-off, controlled areas where one’s wallet is captive to the conventional.