Adrian Alexa Photography

Visit to Demanovska SlobodyJaskyna Cave

2016-02-23T13:54:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been again in Jasna. I've been there actually because I went for ski. The truth is that this year the weather wasn't really that appropriate for ski. Raining, heavy snowing at high temperatures.

Hopefully the next year we will be more lucky.

However, on Saturday, though it was a very nice day for ski, the previous night it snowed continuous, I've decided to go with other colleagues visit a nearby cave.

I've heard about it, they say that it is a nice one. Well I wanted to convince myself. Went from the hotel to the cave. In order to get at the entrance you first have to climb a zigzag road by foot. That is just in order to warm you. The cave has 991 steps. The price for entrance was 8 euro. We catch the visit that starts at 11:30. All takes about an hour and 10 minutes. It is presented only in Slovak and Polish Languages. Such a pity.

I will let you see the pictures yourself.

All I can tell you is that I was very impressed by this cave. It has all kind of landscapes/elements that you could find within a cave.

Don't forget to share with your friends if you enjoyed it ;)

Thanks for watching!

Winter at grandpa's village, Borod

2016-02-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

Hi,

well, it is almost one year since latest post. I am really ashamed of it. However, the good news is that I have a lot of nice albums that I really want to share with you.

These photos I've taken 2 weeks ago on a chilly weather in the village where I grew up, Borod, is 60 km away from Oradea. It is a hilly place with lots of forests, wild animals, waters and so forth.

Now I hope that you will enjoy viewing this gallery. And if you liked at least one of them it will be a great encouragement for me if you will write down a comment.

Don't forget to leave a comment. Thanks!

How should you react when you see your stock image in a magazine?

2015-02-03T10:06:00.003-08:00

Today was a very beautiful day for me.

It happened that a colleague of mine promised that will bring me a magazine where, she said, I will see information about a ski resort, called Val Gardena, where just happened that I have been 2 weeks ago. It is a magazine that is freely distributed by MOL well known filling station and company. The edition is January 2015. Can be found here.

I opened it and there they had photos and info with ski resorts from Europe. One of them was Jasna. It is a resort I have been last year. If you remember I wrote about it. You could see this post for more info at http://adrian-alexa.blogspot.ro/2014/11/ski-vacation-in-jasna-february-2014.html

Well, there was an image I spotted which resembles very much with one of my stock photo I have online. And then quickly I navigated to check it out. Indeed it was. Yeeeei!!! I was so happy!! My!! What? My image in MOL's magazine???

Here is the online version of magazine. The image I talk about is the one under the black arrow.
The article talks about Jasna Ski Resort.

The image could be downloaded from http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-skiers-snowboarders-enjoying-good-snow-image38170577 or from ShutterStock website:

The truth is that I don't know for sure from which of stock websites the image was downloaded, however I am very happy. It could be any of them. On dreamstime it was downloaded once and on shutterstock for 5 times, so far.

It is not the money you got that makes you happy but the fact when you see your images used by someone so important.

I will keep going on! Hope to increase my portfolio this year a lot :)

Cheers!

PS: if you want to find out more about revenues and how to start in stock photography read my article.

Ski Vacation in Jasna, February 2014

2014-11-27T14:29:00.000-08:00

It is now almost an year since I went in Jasna for my winter holiday. I wanted to share this right after that time(in feb) but unfortunately I didn't. Well it is, I suppose, welcomed even now.

On the 12th of February we started our journey by bus towards Jasna. It is said to be the best, biggest, nicest ski resort in Slovakia. I say 'we' because the company where my brother works had their Ski Winter Camp. So I happily joined the team on behalf of my brother.
I just feel to update you that now I am part of that company too. Happy to be part of Qubiz where I work as a developer now :) The good news are that in the year that comes we will go again there. I can't wait for it.

It was a nice experience being the fact that I've never skied before in a resort with so many long slopes that are very nice organized and maintained. There are plenty of slopes for everybody regardless their experience: blue, red, or black slopes. Also they do have lots of ski lifts and modern cable-ways. When you are cold and frozen you could serve a hot tea or whatsoever you wish at high altitude right nearby the slopes. High up on the mountain, at Rotunda which is at 2002 m, there is arranged a nice restaurant from where you can have the best view of the region. Breathtaking!

We staid there for 2 days and half. On the first day we had nice weather, not so cold but just enough. It was a nice blue sky with white spread clouds. Excellent.

Then on second day all changed. It was very windy, as you will see in images above. I had such unique experiences. One of them was that when I was on top of the mountain and being ready to get to the base I took my goggles out and wished to take my eyeglasses too underneath. But as it was at least -10 degrees both pairs started to mist over when I tried to take them on. So I couldn't use any of them, as I was seeing only white. It was very windy and I could feel each of those tiny snow flakes on my face. I could barely see 1 meter ahead. So I had to follow my brother at that distance for at least 400 meters where the visibility was better. I was just skiing but without seeing the path. It was one of the insanest think I've done there.

Another funny thing it was that if you started from the top of the slopes which is at 2004 m altitude, Rotunda, then starting descending towards Lucky which is at 943 m you were passing from -10 Celsius degrees(which could be felt just like -15 due to strong wind) to 2 Celsius degrees. The descend could take maximum 10 - 15 minutes. So when I reached the finish I felt to be so incredible hot. Funny experience :)

Well enough with the story, I will let you see the images.

Waiting for skipass

Me, happy

Incredible view

Silence of moving

Some Slovakian food, cabbage soup

Most modern cable-way in resort

When is windy then it is :)

Can you feel it?

Rotunda, 2002 m

Thanks for watching and also for the share. Have fun and go for ski too.

Few of autumn colors

2014-10-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hi,
this time I come up with some of my weekend photos that I took outdoors. I waited very much for this season cause I like autumn a lot. Hope I will have time to ride/go wherever I want and I know nice places around my city.

By the way - recently I upgraded to Canon 60D. Nice camera, so far I am happy with it though there are some features missing, comparing to Canon 450D.

Don't forget about sharing tool - this in case you really liked what you saw :))

New images from Oradea, May 2014

2014-05-11T09:55:00.003-07:00

Hi everyone, I just want to share with you few more images with Oradea I took recently while I am preparing to submit few of them on stock websites.

Prepare to share ;)

Spring in Rome, march 2014

2014-04-04T12:21:00.002-07:00

I gladly want to share with you few of my images I have taken during my last visit to Rome in March 2014.
Enjoy!

Two flower sisters

Hyacinth

Beautifulness is so simple

Hope you enjoyed this images, did you?

Stock statistics by March of 2014

2014-03-31T11:32:00.003-07:00

Again, it has been passed a while since I haven't shared with you how stock goes on. That is because I have been busy with some other things around.

Surprisingly this month I had 29 downloads on ShutterStock that was $9.44, which is not that bad. And I haven't uploaded photos for a while either. The last ones were those from Jasna Ski Resort which fortunately sold a few.

Well here it is the report. This is just to make impulse you start off :)

In case you would like to apply as a submitter use these links as they will help me - for is about referrals. Finally I will thank you ;-)

For dreamstime you may use: http://www.dreamstime.com/register#res109945
For shutterStock use: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=282376
For Fotolia use: http://eu.fotolia.com/partner/204329949

First sale of 2014 - stock photography

2014-01-08T02:54:00.002-08:00

I want to share with you first sale of this year, 2014. As you might see in my portfolios I am not that rich, yet. On ShutterStock for the moment I have 68 images, DreamsTime: 139, Fotolia: 35, 123rf: 48 images. I haven't submitted all images to all agencies, yet.

Enough with statistics. This is the image first sold, it was on ShutterStock actually.

Leaning Tower of Pisa in Tuscany, a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of the most recognized and famous buildings in the world.

This image was sold in fact for 2 times in same day.
Have a nice day and good luck.

Sunset at Livada Lake

2014-01-02T05:48:00.000-08:00

This is going to be my first post of this year - 2014. I wish you all a happy fully year and God be with you.

I wish that this year I will post more frequently and more beautiful images :)

So, having said that, I will post some images from last year. It was in may 2013 when I went by bike to a lake in Livada de Bihor, close to my city. It is about 15 kilometers away. I had a very nice evening, a quiet one with a nice sunset over the lake. Enjoy the images and share if you like them.

Gear: Canon 450D, Canon 17-85 mm.
Don't forget to share :)

Crisul Repede in Oradea by autumn

2013-12-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

Today as I haven't posted for a while I quickly searched for an image and I decided for this one :)

It is from downtown of my city, Oradea. It was taken in this autumn from tower of city hall. Very nice day.

Crisul Repede(The Quick River) in Oradea.

Have a nice day ;)

Relaxing in an autumn day in Suncuius

2013-10-20T10:33:00.000-07:00

After a hard working week it seemed that I got too much tired. So I decided that hiking on nearby mountains is the best decision for: "What do I do this week-end" question.
I had to go alone, so it was quite a relaxing day. There are days in your life when you must stay alone and talk to yourself. Only trees, two deer and a fox heard me.
The place I went to visit, called Suncuius, is 50 km away from Oradea. Easy to get there by train which makes 1 hour and half. Not forget we use CFR which goes pretty slow. :)) Hope that one day they will decide investing in the infrastructure.
Ready with description, enjoy the view. In case you like the images it helps me a lot to know it so I am encouraged to post often. Share buttons can make wonders :) See you.

Beech branch in autumn colors

Add caption

Beech trees

Fallen autumn crocus

Old tree reflected in water

Old house in Transylvania

Bio golden apple tree

Old house of Transylvania

Yellow branch

Just hear the noise

Equipment: Canon 450D with Canon 17-85mm/Canon 50mm 1.8.
Don't forget to share :)

Stock stats by Octomber of 2013

2013-10-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

As I promised in previous article, which in case you did not read so far you can do it by going to How I started in Stock Photography, I want to show you some of my incomings.

I want to tell you that in case you do not involve much time on stock photography you may not expect extraordinary results. In my case, being a software developer, after at least 8 hours a day working on a computer I find hardly to continue on after I arrive at home selecting images, processing and then upload. In fact there are more steps. But anytime I fill in a good shape or on weekends I try to continue on. For example now I am still having images from June unprocessed. That is 4 months so far. So, it takes time. That is all depending by you.

I will show you the statistics for September. Honestly being with you it was the best month so far. I never earned so far in a month. It helped me a lot the Enhanced Download. At the bottom of image I attached the total earnings row. I am very close to first 100$ from ShutterStock. I can't wait for it. This are the results since January this year.

As concerns DreamsTime so far I have earned: 17.08 $. I am still patient.

How I started in Stock Photography

2013-09-28T11:55:00.001-07:00

Well, it is a while since I plan to tell others about me and web stock photography agencies experience.

First I would like to describe you what are web stock photography websites and what they do.
Basically it is like this. There are many designers, web designers, news portals, owners of presentation websites, and the list goes on, which they need very high quality images. I like to say images of 11 grade (in Romania maximum grade in school you may get is 10 :-) )

Telling my story: I heard about these websites many years ago. Actually in 2008. By that time I had a Nikon 4100 and just after that a Canon PowerShot S5. They were good but so good for this purpose. I always said: "Man!!! You got to buy a better one!" It is the ideas we always have. "I need something extra in order to do something better." The truth is you should begin with equipment you have in hand, I refer at a decent camera, though. After you understand truly what kind of images are required by agencies then you may go to a highest level. It is the idea I like to follow.

Well, the truth is that I just started with a very poor image which I don't know how, guys from DreamsTime accepted. It as an image of a crop detailed orange. Nobody bought it :) Finally after 4 years I removed it. Anyway, since then they raised higher their standards, which of course is better.

Continuing... in 2010 I bought a more decent camera, which I still have. It was a Canon 450D + a Canon 17-85 mm lens, and later I also acquired Canon 50 mm 1.8 lens + Canon 430 EX II speed flash. So I kind of fulfilled my thoughts. I had good equipment.

Then it started the challenge. What I noticed is that always when I was thinking what images to do in order to upload on stock sites is something that I never done. It was a bad approach. You should always do in life, generally speaking, what YOU know best. Improvements you get as you go on.

As I have seen on websites(the list you will see bellow) there were food images or object images with fruits, vegetables and stuff like that. So in order to take nice images of that you must have a light box and other light equipment. Well, I bought one from a friend of mine. I started to take shots of nuts, apples ... Then I edited them a while in Photoshop and submitted.

There are many stock photography websites. First I applied it was www.dreamstime.com.
After the experiment of above, I upload some of the images on dreamstime. Some got accepted some didn't. When you get accepted of course you are happy. When not - you are not. It is that filling - why, why didn't they liked it? So it is time to dig more about stock concepts.

The second one is www.shutterstock.com. Each time you upload images somebody must check them strictly and only then if they say is a good image, market oriented - so somebody will need your image - the image gets approval. It is a long journey. On ShutterStock you must upload 10 images at once, your best and various categories. If you get accepted at least 7 out of 10 you go on otherwise you must wait one more month. In the while it is assumed that you learn more and you may try again.

After all shots, I gathered 10 of my best images(especially those that were also approved on dreamstime) and uploaded them. Eh, mostly all of them got rejected. I was very disappointed.
It passed a while. In the meantime I visited many places so I upload some of the images I took in my journeys. I uploaded also some images of my city, Oradea. Some got accepted, some received a reason why not. I tried to learn from mistakes: issues of composition, white balance, lack of commercial value, crop, noise, focus, and the list goes on.

The time passed on and only few downloads.

In 2012 I was sent by company in Florence where is our mother company :) By the way, I work as a software developer. In that week I took many images in beautiful city of Florence and on last day I visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There I took also many images. Maybe to many. I say this because it was so hard to choose the best of them. This time I started to take in RAW though I was not expert how to process raw images :P

It passed almost 2 months and only then I had time to process images and upload on stock sites. Some got accepted for my happiness, and since then I am very happy because some of them are bought for many times.

As this post is already so long I will write another post where I will tell you about revenues.
Hope that this encourages you in case you have just heard about this business and may help you to start on. For the moment I based myself on travel photography but is not the one that sells the best, as I heard. But in future, by God's grace I would like to take a step higher.

In case you would like to apply as a submitter use these links as they will help me, for is about referrals. Finally I will thank you ;-)

For dreamstime you may use: http://www.dreamstime.com/register#res109945
For shutterStock use: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=282376
For Fotolia use: http://eu.fotolia.com/partner/204329949

Peisaje din Piatra Craiului - iulie 2013

2013-08-30T04:39:00.000-07:00

(In acest blog am preferat sa scriu in limba romana fata de postarile anterioare. If there is anybody that wants this blog to be posted also in English please tell me.)

Am pornit intr-o zi de iulie, 25, 2013 cu Timotei, fratele meu pe un traseu din Muntii Piatra Craiului. Am dorit sa ne incepem urcarea pe partea dinspre Plaiul Foii. Traseul a inceput pe un drum de tara prafuit, cam 3 ore dupa care intr-un final am ajuns la zona numita - Plaiul Foii. Pana aici am vazut multe cabane frumoase, pensiuni, hoteluri. Ce m-a impresionat e ca multe din ele aveau panouri solare pentru a-si produce energie electrica si posibil pentru incalzirea apei. Aceasta desigur e pentru ca nu exista curent electric tras pe aceasta vale. Ceea ce e bine :)
De la plai incepe adevarata urcare. In aceasta imagine se vede cum ne primeste Piatra Craiului cu 'stancile deschise'.

Parte din Creasta Muntilor Piatra Craiului.

In drumul nostru dupa ce ne-am intalnit cu o capra neagra chiar pe traseu ajungem intr-un loc numit "La Zaplaz" - o adevarata minunatie creata de Dumnezeu prin puterea vantului, apei, inghetului/dezghetului. Nu stiu nici eu exact cum.

La Zaplaz

La zaplaz - vedere de deasupra.

Dupa ce am trecut de acest monument frumos al naturii a urmat adevarata urcare 'sustinuta' a traseului asa cum scria si in ghidul ce il aveam la noi. In imaginea de mai jos se vede ceea ce urma sa urcam in urmatoarele 2 ore. A fost un traseu chiar foarte dificil. Am auzit ca ar fi defapt cel mai dificil din Carpatii Romaniei. Cine cunoaste poate sa ma contrazica. Am avut de catarat multe stanci unde ne foloseam de lanturile montante acolo de ani de zile. Cu grija, cu 16 - 18 kg in spate, cu apa luata cat sa ne ajunga pentru doua zile, cu ochii pe norii din spate, cu sudoare pe fata, cu ajutorul lui Dumnezeu am ajuns in creasta seara. Sus in creasta ne asteptau vreo 5 capre negre, un tap si un apus de soare superb plus un refugiu unde aveam sa ne petrecem noaptea. In refugiu am dormit vreo 8 persoane. Erau vreo 3 romani, un neamt si cativa cehi. Unii din cehi au dormit si la cort sau chiar sub luna plina pentru ca nu mai erau locuri in refugiu.

Apus de soare in Piatra Craiului.

Tapul admirand asfintitul soarelui.

A doua zi ne-am continuat drumul de la Refugiul Grind 2 pe creasta catre Cabana Curmatura, prin Vf Ascutit, unde aveam sa si campam. Am avut din nou parte de fenomene ale naturii foarte frumoase. Desi am mai fost aici cu 5 ani inainte de data aceasta peisaje m-au suprins inca o data. Am avut parte de ceata si vreme racoroasa fata de cea caniculare din vale. Pe traseu am gasit foarte multe garofite, clopotei de munte, cimbrisor cu un parfum ce il simteai de la 10 metrii cel putin, si multe alte flori ce nu le cunosc numele :) Pentru cei care nu stiu, doar in acest lant muntos al Pietrii Craiului exista aceasta floare numita "Garofita Pietrii Craiului" ce este unica in toata lumea. E incredibil de frumoasa.

Abis in Piatra Craiului.

Garofita Pietrii Craiului.

Clopotei de munte.

Clopotei de munte crescuti din stanca.

Cate o felie de stanca pentru fiecare :)

Jos, Plaiul Foii.

Hrib, Funghi Porcini

Cabana Curmatura

Paznicul emblematic al Cabenei Curmaturii.

Poiana de flori.

Cimbrisor.

Garofita Pietrei Craiului

Albinuta la munca in zi de vara.

Garofita alba

Un fluture foarte frumos.

A treia zi si ultima am facut un traseu pe 'la lanturi' de doar 3 4 ore dupa care am coborat de la cabana Curmatura la Zarnesti, un traseu de 5-6 ore.
Ei bine, daca va placut aceasta galerie de imagini atunci da share si la prietenii tai sa se bucure si ei :) O zi cat mai frumoasa.

Andrei riding the bike - Cross Country

2013-07-19T13:32:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I have been with Andrei, one of my friend, in a forest, close to Oradea, 10 km away to take some images of him and his bike riding crazy around. Joking. He just made some 'movements' for me to take photos.
In the forest we met another friend of him(of Andrei) and I also caught him in viewfinder.
The light was not that amazing. We got too late in the evening. But with a flash Canon 430 EX II I did a pretty good job. Have a look. Camera used: Canon 450D with Canon 17 - 85 mm IS and for few pictures: Canon 50 mm 1.8.

Visiting Museum of Oradea in the 'Night of museums event, 18th of May 2013"

2013-05-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

I wished a lot to catch this nice event when in Romania mostly all museums are opened from 18 o'clock to 2 o'clock in the morning and they are all free of charge. Nice idea, hm? It happen actually to pass nearby museum when I noticed lots of people coming and getting out of the building. I remembered about the event so I decided to visit myself, too. The nice point was that I had my camera with me.
So I want that you will enjoy this collection of images. Basically you will see wood toys.
Notice: this collection is not an 'artistic' one, enjoy!

As you see there were a lot of wood boards. And it was smelling so nice: fir flavour, and so on.

Nice presentation of Dolomite Mountains. I really want now to visit them.

Gear: Canon 450 D with 17 - 85 mm lens.

Spring flowers, part 2

2013-04-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

In this post I will continue with some other images of this spring of 2013.

Home special flower decoration.

Tree in blossom and city.

Plum blossoms.

Flowers field of daffodils

Brownies with Goji

2013-04-13T10:17:00.001-07:00

What do you think about a nice cake for today? This cake I have prepared few days ago after I recipe I found on a vegan recipes website. I will come later with another address where you will see how to cook it. Just in case somebody wants to know.

Spring is here, nature is raising up

2013-04-11T12:46:00.001-07:00

Today was one of the first days of spring with sun. Except of low temperature and lots of raining days we had just wind. Awesome. So today in my lunch break time I took my camera, rided the bike and went into park. So here are some of them. I will try to update other images in the days that are to come.
Don't forget - if you like them - share :)

Continued

Today I continue with other images of same series. What do you believe about?

If you liked them, forget not about sharing. That will help me ;;)

Last snow of this winter season, hopefully

2013-04-07T10:02:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since my last post. Hope at least somebody waited for new images to be published. Last week, in a certain morning, when I woke up I saw on the window outside that it snowed. I was amazed. We are all waiting for spring but it is just not coming. So, I decided to take my camera with me and take some pictures outside while it is still snow. Indeed, this winter I took very few images with snow in the city. So enjoy viewing images from my city. Hope that next time I will come with new images will be real spring not only on calendar :)

Andrew riding the bike

2013-04-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

Some days ago I went riding the bike with one of my friends, Andrew. He has a nice bike, good quality and expensive as well :) Here are some pictures I took of him and his bike.

If you liked these images and my blog you may share it and help me get known. Many thanks. Have a good day.

Rebeca's Portrait in Winter

2013-03-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to publish some portrait series. These images were taken on the first day of this year somewhere close Cluj Napoca. It was a sunny morning with snow and temperatures bellow - 15 degrees. The light was awesome. I hope you will enjoy seeing these images. The girl's name is Rebeca.
Gear: Canon 450 D with Canon 50mm 1.8 and 17-85 mm.

Horses

2013-03-19T14:07:00.002-07:00

Today I remembered about nice time I had last year when I was in Suncuius with my brothers and other friends. There I saw lots of horses but I only photographed this one. He/she was pretty, don't you think?

Horse at Suncuius

This image I took in Baile 1 Mai in a place where you can ride the horses. The image I modified a little bit as many would notice. I added a blue sky, just for fun :) Hope you enjoy it too.

Horse riding in Baile 1 Mai near famous tourist city Baile Felix

Horse and his shadow

Flowers

2013-03-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here I attached an orchid image and other images I took last summer. Enjoy.