With an extensive Demo Rig setup I was there not only to shoot but also try and capture some video.

123rf.com have started to make quite an impression in the Paul D Smart Photography offices.
With some great stock images at really good prices we thought we’d have a chat with Alex to get a little more information.

Tell us a little about “Alex”, and what your role at 123rf.com is?

People within and outside the organization would recognize ‘Alex’  as the go-to person for all matters related to 123RF.com. I focus mainly on the operations and content acquisitions aspect of the site and handle a lot of communications between our contributors and our Account Managers who in turn service their clientele. I also dabble in recommending solutions and make our contributor’s suggestions heard during management meetings that have a direct impact on what 123RF will deliver next.  In addition to that, I look through legal documentation for special cases raised by our large corporate customers and help train as well as provide special custom package recommendations to our Account Managers. I consult and on the overall strategy for 123RF.com as well.

Obviously, running 123RF.com is not a one man show, we now have dedicated teams that take care of communications with Contributors, our Online Marketing team who man our Facebook and Twitter accounts also an excellent Content Review team under the direct supervision of an experienced Senior Content Acquisitions Executive. We also have Keyword Specialists who will contribute various content to the Twitter accounts and perform periodic clean ups of the Keyword index on the site.

What does 123rf(.com) stand for?

123RF came about as an amalgamation of two central ideas. The first 123 – buying and licensing images from 123RF is supposed to be as easy as 1-2-3. The second is the “RF” portion in our URL which at time of conception stood for royaltyfree as our main products are mainly royalty-free images.

Where is 123rf.com based?

We’re registered and based in Hong Kong but we have offices, representatives and partners located in all around the world like in USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, Germany, Spain, Mexico, France, Malaysia and Australia.

When did 123rf.com launch?

We launched 123royaltyfree.com in the middle of year 2005. At that time, we only sold subscription packages with a total content count of approximately 120,000 images. We’ve certainly come a long way since then.

How did 123rf.com start and what makes you different from other stock photo websites?

123RF.com was conceptualized from the concept of subscription. We realized that there was a market for Royalty-Free images for large clients who needed images on a daily basis. We eventually evolved to adopting a download credit model as well on 123RF.com to facilitate special licensing models and to cater for lower volume customers.

We treat our customers like they’re premium clients and we offer better pre-sales and after sales support as we operate 24 hours round the clock from Mondays to Fridays. So if our clients ever need a hand, we’re just a phone call or a chat away.

We’re also very proud of our value added service and loyalty reward system where we attempt to deliver the most value at unbeatable prices, our clients feel and KNOW that 123RF.com’s pricing and breadth of content will surpass most of the competition out there.

Have you come across any interesting challenges at 123rf.com?

Certainly! We’re always facing a chicken and egg issue, in order to attract good amount and quality of content we must first have sales, but without sales, how does one attract good contributors to provide outstanding content?

Tell us about your Social Media use of Twitter, Facebook etc?

Our adventure into social media come about in 2009 where we did it out of a need to just follow the trend. However, things have turned pretty serious lately as we tried our best to establish 123RF’s brand on social media groups. Our primary focus on our Twitter (http://twitter.com/123rf) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/123RFfans) as a method to foster closer relationships between our clientele and as a platform to share opinions and developments of 123RF.com. We also plan to add even more value by linking in useful resources that are beneficial to both Contributors and our clients.

Tell us a joke?

Take a pick : http://lotsalaff123rf.blogspot.com/

Tell us about the iPad competition? Why give away an iPad?

We know that the creative community would be very excited with the iPad just like the iPhone we had hoped to gain a lot more viewership and traffic from running such promotions on 123RF.com. We’re in effect joining in the craze of the iPad feeding frenzy.

What’s in the future of 123rf.com?

At the moment, we’re expanding and sourcing for partners who would be interested to become partners for 123RF.com and expand to new territories and markets. Do write into partners@123rf.com if you have such an interest.

Thanks to Alex for taking the time to chat with us and we hope to catch up soon…

Yesterday (22.6.10) was no exception and even with low wind speeds, Sponsored Kiter, Dan Smith jumped for the camera in ways that astounded me.

Rest assured there will be more of Dan Smith coming soon…

This time I was commissioned to shoot images for the upcoming website as well as press and print for, Clem Jackons… Pig Rearing for beginners.
The day in particular was very busy, with regular pig keeping activities, an interview with BBC Radio Devon and the whole process being filmed even before you introduce myself with a stills camera.

It was the first time I had been around little weeners and allthough it had been joked about I certainly did not take comments of, “they are going to eat you up”, seriously. Perhaps I should have. One insisted on trying to eat my shoe and jeans.

The afternoon just flew by and I am pleased to say that no piggies managed to eat me. How ironic would that have been!?

Here is a small gallery of images from yesterday.

Trying to choose which images I wanted to keep and which I wanted to discard was very VERY hard, and thats why there are thirty photos in total in this collection.

Comments appreciated as always

I headed up to Dartmoor in the glorious weather today after giving her a nice clean.
All my kit in the back and below are the final images.

A great example of my editorial photography I think you’ll agree… More coming soon!

For those of you that know me I do not really do Landscape shots! So, 10 mins later David had arranged a model (Shanna), who was happy to come along and stand in front of the camera so that we could take some photos of her in front of the setting sun.

I found a good location and a few mins later we were off.

Below are a few of the photos.
Shanna was great for someone who had never modeled before…

I’ve had a number of shoots across London over the past 10 days and thought this would be the ideal bag to get my kit in and make it portable.

The bag has plenty of room. I can happily get two pro bodies, 5 lenses (including a 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM), 3 speedlights, 4 pocket wizards and numerous other kit.

The bag is well padded, providing a whole selection of padded dividers. There are plenty of straps around the top/front of the bag that are ideal for keeping the bag tight. That’s important. Especially on a tightly packed tube train. The size of the bag is just right for getting all the stuff you need in it. It feels heavy to hand carry, but with the well padded shoulder straps it does not feel heavy at all on your back. Because it’s so big, it does tend to get in the way of other people. I even managed to catch it on some armour at the Tower of London shoot, breaking one of the strap buckles. The build quality from Lowepro shone through though, with the buckle still being useable depsite the break.

There is a very handy small pocket at the front of the bag. I used this to put my Oyster Travelcard in, which made it very easy to get access to as well as other items such as passport.

Under the lid of the bag is a set of pockets, ideal for storing paper work, books, pens and other stuff!

I found it really handy while shooting the Skateboarders from todays shoot. I spent a decent amount of time moving around the skate park. I didn’t want to leave my stuff in a single place and the need to switch between bodies and lenses in an unknown situation/location meant this bag came into it’s own.

The bag is shown below, modeled by me and I have thrown in a few photos from todays shoot.

Can’t remember who it was, but I saw some street photography and thought i’d give it a go.

It’s actually VERY difficult to do. To see using the lens, rather than see through the lens.

Anyway.. Shot with the purpose of being black and white… High Contrast… Here is a small gallery of shots from today!