A Reason to Shoot Myself

It isn’t as bad as it sounds… harmless fun (self-portraits that is...). Istockphoto.com turns 10 on April 7^th and they are asking their members to submit a headshot to build a gallery of the people who helped make it what it is today. From the forum thread on the topic:

Faces of iStock
To kick it all off we're creating a massive online gallery and we need your help. We want to see everyone out there involved in the iStock world: all you photographers, designers, illustrators, photo-retouchers, scrapbookers, video editors, musicians, Flash coders, marketing execs, iStock Inspectors, Steel Cagers, Australians, forum hanger-outers - everybody. And yes, you’ll get to see what we all look like as well. 

So, I took the time and did a few self portraits of my own. I have a bunch of self-portrait headshots already, but why not take the opportunity to shoot a new quick one. But I had to do SOMETHING a little unique. I didn’t want to just do a “pretty face” pic. So, I used my motorcycle as a prop, and not just because I enjoy motorcycling, but because motorcycling is what caused me to adopt my online moniker: Motoed (pronounced: moto-Ed).

I narrowed the choice shots down to these few. I have a fav and my wife does as well. I’m curious to get the opinion of my audience as well. Which shots do you prefer? Add comments below, please.

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Desertlypse IV - istockphoto Minilypse in Arizona

Just did an iStockphoto Minilypse in Arizona (Desertlypse IV). The trip was awesome. The weather was outstanding. It made it hard coming back to the "coming winter" about to hit this area. Aside from great models and locations a few trip highlights included:

• Being picked up at the airport by SnapFactory's Mark Wallace and having a burger and a beer. 
• A near-miss with a javelina
• A pre-lypse hike in the desert (see pics below)
• Fellow photographers I haven't seen in one year or two years.
• Harrassing photographers I just met (you know who you are, lol)
• Phoney mustaches from grocery store kids toy vending machine
• Hectic, but fun shooting schedule
• Ending it all, with a sunset shoot and giving a shot at some HDR technique.

Check out my YouTube channel for some cool behind the scenes from the trip.

Here are a few of the MANY shots that need keywording for submission to my portfolio.

[Travel Photography] DesertLypse

It’s been a while since I “lypsed” (is that really a word?). My last istock event was last summer in Toronto and I’m excited to be visiting some place new this time. My friend Ethan Myerson is putting on DesertLypse 4 in November and fortunately, I made it off the standby list.

This will be my first time to “the desert” region so it should be fun. I’ve been to Las Vegas on a previous trip, but I never made it off the strip. So it wasn’t much different then any city.

Time to get my thinking cap on and start visualizing what I’m capturing!