The death of the book?

So I wouldn’t have a crate full of books to carry on my trip to the west, I bought myself an Amazon Kindle. As I do with most things new, I took some shots for stock.

I took this and uploaded the pictures to Alamy two weeks ago. It made it’s first sale last night!

By the way; I’m finding the Kindle very satisfying. As an avid reader, I thought I’d have all sorts of printed page withdrawal symptoms. Not at all. Since I left I’ve read the “Stephen Fry Chronicles”, Keith Richards’ “Life”, Kipling’s “Man Who Would be King”, Thoreaux “On Civil Disobedience” (I was thinking of the Tasmanian pulp mill protests), and am presently in the middle of Gregory David Roberts “Shantaram”. The total cost of all these books was $36 (the Kipling and Thoreaux were free). The price on the last paperback I read (Greg Bearup’s “Travels in Caravanistan”) was $39.95.

While I wouldn’t predict the death of the book, I think traditional books are probably going to go the way of the vinyl LP or even the CD. There will be less and less of them printed and their cost will increase as they become more and more collectable.

I downloaded the Lonely Planet Guide to Australia before I set out on my drive across Australia. I’m using this every day as I travel.  The eBook  is $16 as opposed to $48.99 for the paper edition and the advantage of the Kindle edition is that it is keyword searchable. I’m looking forward to testing the download capabilities of the Kindle in the middle of the Nullarbor. And of course, as a travel aid and a photo prop my Kindle now becomes tax deductible…

One of the thousand reasons I live here…

Double Rainbow over the Derwent, Hobart, Tasmania

One of the many reasons I choose to live in Tasmania, is the beauty of the constantly changing light. At this latitude, even the worst of days is likely to offer something of interest to the photographer.

I photographed this double rainbow over the Derwent River a month or two ago. At my back was the vibrantly beautiful, pocket city of Hobart (population: 150,000)… and I was less than ten minutes from home.

More please…

Last year this simple, straightforward picture of my daughter was licenced for over $US9,000. Used on billboards throughout Germany in advertising for Germany’s biggest health fund, it was the probably best stock photo sale I’ve ever had. While it is obvious that Rights Managed licence fees are declining, I’d be well content with a couple more sales a year at this level. Let’s hope that the market can still sustain them.

For those of you who might be concerned  that I am exploiting my children, we have a deal: they get 5% of the gross fee.  Cassie’s $450 that week was pretty good pocket money for an 11 year old. She spent it wisely buying herself a plane ticket to the mainland to visit her aunt and on a shopping spree in Melbourne. Please note: No children were harmed in the making of this ad.

To see more of my stock photography go to here.