Mood: Pissed off and bitter.

So it seems if it's a wolf dick or a lion pussy it'll sell. Not my photography though. I read comments like "Stunning!" and "Awesome!" but it won't sell. Five bucks a print, that's all. Meanwhile any two-bit pic of some wolf getting rammed up the ass goes for $20. Winter is coming and that is no joke in rural Manitoba. My boots are shot (eaten by Benny last spring) and I've got shit for a winter coat. Anyone wanna buy some prints, cheap?

Ok, all the pieces are finally together. Got the printer, and the ink system. Yahoo! Soooo, I can now crank em out. Best size is 8.5x11 inches and a half inch border looks nice. Cost? How does five bucks a print sound?

But hey, seems we're closing in on that so-called magical 1,000 mark. I hadn't even noticed until I forget who mentioned that they were. Seems I'm supposed to give whoever some prints for being 1,000. Ok, fine by me!

PRINTS!!! The ink system has arrived, I've installed, and it works great! I tell you if you do any sort of color printing at all, check to see if there's a continuous feed ink system for your model of printer. I'm cranking out 8.5x11's of full-coverage full-color photographs and not giving a damn.

Still though, it's work to do and far far far far far more work to get the pictures so here's prices. Buy for your friends! Buy for yer mum! Buy my prints and show me I'm on the right track!

$10 a piece, $20 for three and that includes shipping.

 salavin turned me on to this new photographer, fresh off the turnip truck I present to you  foxkin! Only 17 and already showing some serious talent. This was the first pic that caught my eye: http://www.furaffinity.info/view/666079/ Some other shots that I thought stood out, this for the nice play with the lens-flare: http://www.furaffinity.info/view/642052/ and this for the composition http://www.furaffinity.info/view/558937/
Lots more there, have a look and give him some tips, encouragement, and a warm welcome.

Hell no, work tools! Oh fuck, no, it's toys. Got me a Nikon D70s today! Trades for a couple of digital cameras. Here's how it went down. Long story short? My dad is an idiot who believes he can buy love. Gave my nieces that camera last year at this time. Bought it because my mom told him that he was running em broke with his spending habits. Yah, that'll show her. Blow a grand on something you can't use! Yah, then give it to two young teenage girls just because they took a couple of quick snapshots with it.

He has a ton of lenses for this thing too, bought over the years (with my college fund) because they were 'neat!'. Wonderful. You taught photography, bought all this shit, and yet in all these years you've yet to have taken a single decent picture. Not one. I've never ever seen one single decent picture. Ah well, who cares. MINE! I will be getting some damn use out of it though!

Vids! Well, did that time-lapse thing I wanted to try. Links to that and some other beaver vids and pics here:
http://atomicat.livejournal.com/241998.html
http://atomicat.livejournal.com/242611.html
http://atomicat.livejournal.com/242386.html

Busy busy! Yah they be for sure. Me too. Up at 4:30 to get out to do the panorama pics I posted here --->
http://atomicat.livejournal.com/241678.html
Vid there too! Have a lookie. Also, wanna see the absolute cutest thing you've ever seen in the whole damn world? Oh ok, here...
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/649160/
Aieee! Told you so!

Gotta welcome watergazer  watergazer. Comes in with a flood of nice stuff! You just gotta look.
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/watergazer/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/644052/

Well it's finally here and I can finally crank out proper prints. It's so nice to be in control of the print process so I can make sure everything is as it should be. First runs look excellent! The easiest print size for me to run off is an 8.5x11" with a 1/8'th inch border but I can do up to 13" wide. I still have two problems though...

1: Pictures! Gods I've got a lot of them and everyone has their own tastes. So what do I do? I'll have to make a pile of gallery pages on my site I guess but choices choices choices! *sigh* Guess that's my next thing to do. Ain't gonna be easy. Don't want to have too many to wade through, leads to browsing fatigue.

2: Price! Gah! I am very bad with this. On one hand I know what most people charge for prints, but on the other hand photography is entirely different from drawing, painting etc. Most artists can pick up a pen, pencil, tablet, and just create. I can't. It's exactly like hunting. Sometimes I'll go out and get nothing, sometimes I'll get something pretty good, and once in a while I'll get something quite stunning. There are typically only two decent times to take outdoor pictures also, early in the morning and late in the day. Recently I've been getting up at 4:30 in the morning to catch the sunrises on the lake, and that's only IF it's a clear morning. So far, there's been exactly two. So there it is. I don't want to undervalue the pics but I can't charge too much if I want to make some sales. With that in mind this is what I've settled on: $15 for one print, Two prints for $12 each and three or more for $10 a piece. I'm hoping this will encourage people to buy three or more of course.

So that's it I guess. I'm going to need this continuous ink feed system quite soon. Probably have enough ink to run off what I need for enough orders to cover it but that's about it. Resources for the month? Large bag of dog-food, freezer full of food, shelves full of food, credit at the local store, pack of Drum tobacco and *digs* Oooo! A big $65 in pocket for the month. Sweet!

Broke. Not just the "Oh shit I can't buy that videogame I wanted this month" kind of broke but the "I have $50 for the month of June" kind of broke. Oh, and 1/8'th of a tank of gas. Fortunately I've got a large bag of dog-food and can charge things at the local. Gotta pay that off at the start of next month though so hey, does that even count?

I need some sales, not just for the money but for the boost of confidence it would give me. I know that I've got good stuff it's just that I haven't the faintest hope of getting it into the hands of people who'd appreciate it. It gets rather depressing seeing someone's basic smut sell on Furbid for $100 when I can spend hours or days getting one excellent image and not see a penny.

One of the reasons I'm so broke right now is that I've spent everything on getting a basic set of postcards printed to shop around a few places. If anyone can sell some prints for me or hook me up in any way, name your cut. I'm past caring, I just wanna get some stuff out there and on a few walls. Please cross-post this if you would and point a few people to my gallery. It would mean the world to me.
http://atomicat.storm-artists.net/

*sigh* Well so far I've reminded about three people for using this site as a personal little Photobucket. One stupid slag came back with a "Deal!" which promptly got her a nicely humiliating blast. No reply! Ha! Fine and dandy.

*SIGH* I know this is a site for artists to post their stuff, get critique, suggestions, help and all that but sometimes I really wish there was just a wee bit of discretion being exercised by the posters here. It's just a wee bit frustrating to do a post and then find it's been bumped off the main page in 30 seconds by someone's quick scrawl.

I'd almost wish for a two-tiered system for posting but that would instantly lead to insano drama and screams of elitist bastard (which I am, deal). On the other hand that might be kinda fun. Please do bitch people out once and a while though when you see them posting pictures of their new guitar though eh?

Ever wanted to do wicked huge panorama shots? Sometimes wish you had a fish-eye lens? Here's a wicked tool, Autostitch. Put out by some students at U of BC. Just toss it a pile of pics and let it rip! Here's their site. Have at it and have fun!
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autost.....utostitch.html

Yipee! Traded in a shit-load of air miles because well, I won't be able to travel for quite a while (hoping for Further Confusion in Jan) and a new camera will be of great use this summer. So, features? Well, what sold me was the fact that it's wide-angle. 28 mm vs 35. What's got me popping wood though are things like the 14x zoom, image stabilization, and it's general all-around ease of use. Oh, and it's 7.2 megapixels for nice large prints.
Model: Panasonic DMC-FX07
The only pic from it I've posted so far was the one of the pelicans, oh, and that last shot of Gracie's tail-wagging dynamics.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/545903/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/548345/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/548332/

Other rules of photography. When you get that subject, work it like a five-dollar Mexican mule (I'd say whore but I wouldn't want to insult any of my friends who might be five-dollar whores). So anyways, out on the beach tonight I did all them pics of the Crocus and the sunset. Yah yah, I know I know, sunset genre, but hey, when else you gonna get killer light? *grumble* Ok, I'm justifying my cheap-ass methodology of filling out the portfolio. Blow me. So here's the skinny, as per usual there's a good handful of pics and well, if you've got the time could y'awlll tell me what works, what don't what's wrong, what's right, and which you like best?
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f.....ock/?start=120
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f.....ock/?start=140

Don't we all gotta sell something once in a while? Yarp. Me too. Site is up (somewhat). Have a browse and please consider buying a print or two.
http://atomicat.com

Well, put up the basic gallery today. No hurry.
http://atomicat.com/

Well, I've put it all together and cross-posted a few places. Suggestions? I really really really really really really really really really really need some cash here!
http://community.livejournal.com/cr.....urs/51889.html

Well, we're right down to it this month. took the Benster to see the vet today as the wound on his leg wasn't healing well. Turns out he has a fracture. The gal at the vets was very nice though and waived a pile of fees she could have charged. It still cost $85 though to get the cast put on though. So here we are at the beginning of the month and I'm down to $15 in the bank and $25 in my pocket. Bill at the local store for last month was a hefty $170. Yargh! Not a good two months for cashola with two more mouths to feed. So here's the deal... I'll be selling prints right away, framed 8x10's. Price? Well, bad with that. I figure somewhere between $20 and $30 is fair considering that they're framed and all. Suggestions? As for the pics I've removed many from this site but all the really good ones are still here. Others can be found at Storm-Artists and I'll be adding more now that the press is on.
http://atomicat.storm-artists.net/

So, please consider helping Benny out here. I've never begged in my life preferring to steal the occasional apple from the vendors on Commercial drive when I was down and out in Vancouver, but hey, this ain't begging. I know how nice those "Fire and Ice" pics will look as framed prints. Oh, and for the record... dare to look in the eyes of da poor Benny! *sigh*
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f.....BennyAnime.jpg

Well, I've decided my home site for photography will be Storm-Artists. Small homey place that has a better policy than DeviantArt. Of course there's no restrictions there on what I can post so, hey anything goes! Hope to see you there.

http://atomicat.storm-artists.net/

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in having a friendly (moi!) print distributor. What do you think customers would pay for a 13x22 high quality color print? I'm thinking of buying a printer capable of this. I guess the deal would be, send me the file, I print and send to customer. Any interest? Whatchall think?

First five people to respond that they want to be a part of it get pimped - I go into your gallery, pick a piece that I like, and highlight you here. Also, christmas trade! Anyone drawing da punk-ass cyber-lion with the steel mohawk gets some origami (requests if I can do em) and an ISO DVD of wild shit.

It looks like I'll soon be able to get 11x17 prints on the cheap. What would be a fair price to charge for em? Desperate to sell a few pieces and I know that those "Fire & Ice" pieces are frame-worthy.

Good lord! *choke!* Unbelievable pics! So much potential! I'm gonna go out on the lake with a huge rasp, a blowtorch, and some water... gonna make ICEHENGE! Make it in time for the solstice of course. Photographs of sunset taken through a model of earth's first astronomical observatory, recreated in crystal! Also, got someone who can do 11x17 professional quality prints for absolutely diddly-squat!

I forsee a slow flood of wicked pics from this site. Just found this huge ice jam on the far side of that island with the inuktuk on it. Counting 1250+ pics from there so far with no end in sight.

P.S. How do I change the featured submission? I mean, it's a decent pic of a robin but certainly nothing special.

Absolutely wicked photo shoot down at Steep Rock today, unfortunately this po system be a bit stressed these days. Anyways, I've got most of my faves up on Photobucket. Best to hit it via LiveJournal.
http://atomicat.livejournal.com/138431.html

Three more days of clear skies! Three more days of opportunities to go back there with a clear idea of what I wanna do. Glorious!

So I'd been waiting for a clear day to head down to Steep Rock beach and do some shots now that we've had a bit of snowfall. Wow! What a surprise! Ok, bit of an explaination of the geology here. It's the east shore of Lake Manitoba so of course, the sunset casts that nice glow on the beach that made the summer shots so warm. It also means that the wind comes in from the west almost all the time. Now, we've had at least three cycles of snow and thaw since winter started, so all that melt has built up the fantastic sheets of ice that are coating the rocks. It's also allowed the waves to splash up against the cliffs, freeze, stick, fall away, splash again, freeze again, etc. There's actually places that have almost two foot high sheets that have slowly sagged out at different angles! So I'm walking around this scene, honestly wondering how it would be possible to take a shitty picture. Unfortunately, I brought the pups with me. This meant that I couldn't exactly take the shots I wanted. You try operating a camera in one hand while you've got two play-fighting excitable pups on leash in the other. Oh, add onto that rather smooth-soled boots and well, ok, you're standing on ice. Get the picture? I sure didn't. Today it was cloudy again but I'm sure the ice formations won't change that much inbetween now and the next sunny day. If it starts to snow again before that though, I'll be out there for sure! The sunset light didn't seem to add to much to the pictures though. I think a harsh diagonal light would be best. Show up the contrast and edges of the forms and give more reflections and refractions. This is going to be one hot place for pics this winter!