Favorites

http://www.zazzle.com/god_luck_postcard-239903232355801167
is a nice and funny card related to God. Instead of saying Good Luck I say God Luck (with some art). Its meant to be funny, so take it that way.

GOD LUCK
by SerenethosArt

Portfolio at Dreamtime

Here are some pictures of mine from my portfolio at Dreamtime that I shot in the Fort Lauderdale Florida area to give you an idea what this part of the country looks like. I will just list commercial images of mine on this blog but I do also have many Editorial images you may license for use.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida
A Beautiful View of the Beach in Fort Lauderdale

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Flock of Caspian Tern Birds on North Beach in Fort Lauderdale

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Some wild manatees in a canal in Fort Lauderdale Florida.

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Lauderdale by the Sea, Florida
Early morning sunrise.

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Daytime picture of the famous dock pier in Lauderdale by the Sea with people enjoying themselves on the beach.

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Picture of the Pier in Lauderdale by the Sea in Florida
Long pier with people fishing in Lauderdale by the Sea

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Dania Beach Florida, Street Sign of Dania Beach Boulevard in front of a blue sky.

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Tropical Water background of water seen below the pier in Dania Beach, FL.

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
People in the distance on the jetty at Dania Beach on a sunny day.

© Photographer: Serenethos | Agency: Dreamstime.com
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Happy Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. As this year comes to a close I have plenty to be thankful for. Since around 1997 I began publishing art paintings and drawings of mine on zazzle as www.zazzle.com/serenethosart, the first site I ever was published copies of my art for sale and then a few years later, photographs in the summer of 2010 when I bought a DSLR Rebel T2i camera. In 2010 I began licensing my images through stock photography companies to sell licenses to the public. As of now November 2014 I am selling through over a dozen places that sell licenses of my images. I also began filming and selling stock videos through about a half a dozen companies since about 2011.

List of Current Sites

Current List of  sites where my art is listed. Oldest to Newest in each list.
MY PRINT ON DEMAND SITES
zazzle.com/serenethosart*

zazzle.com/merrygazelle*

zazzle.com/billsadventures*

fineartamerica.com/profiles/lee-serenethos

lee-serenethos.artistwebsites.com


MY STOCK PHOTO, STOCK IMAGE SITES

dreamstime.com/Serenethos_info

Added my own website, serenethos.com

Well, I just added a new website on  March 10, 2010, http://www.serenethos.com/ to refer to all my sites.

It's very basic right now. Mostly just to list all my print on demand, stock image and stock photography sites, and blog. Later I will add more copyright information for the stock image sites.
I hosted the site through hostgator and created the web site through host gator's site builder. Simple to use to start out with. I will find out how to do more complicated things with it later but at least it's out there. I have not submitted it to google or msn or other search engines yet. Will do later if not picked up in visitors once more built and shared.

Joined Dreamstime Stock Agency

Night before last, March 4, 2010, I joined Dreamstime stock agency, my second stock image site I joined to sell licenses of photos and illustrations of mine.

I have not uploaded any images to my profile at  http://www.dreamstime.com/Serenethos_info  yet because they said I can upload up to 50 images my first time uploading and I want to make sure I get only the best of my images organized for my first upload.

I also noticed that they now require images be a minimum of 4.0MP for new submitters. Some of my files need to be redone to meet the larger requirements.
I have been reworking the files for about a week now besides other things and am getting better at working out the file structure of managing my images.

I am reworking the IPTC data of the images I will be sending to Dreamstime and putting together a file of the first 50 images I will upload to Dreamstime created from Original files. I'm making sure the files are as perfect as possible before I start uploading.

UPDATE March 11, 2010

I have been reworking my file management system with the help of the DAM book. I am republishing with new IPTC data showing my new website, expanding relevant keywords, making sure artwork is up to par, and making sure Proofs for stock only come from Originals. And, knowing how to locate them again in my system which I'm liking more and more.

Of the 50 for submission to Dreamstime and have gotten together 25 files now from my art collection, mostly scans of illustrations, mostly I colored or enhanced on computer with Photoshop elements 8. I have a lot of artwork and ideas I can contribute to stock photo and stock image sites.

It will be interesting to see how my images do at Dreamstime. Dreamstime seems like a very lively community. It seems like a good and friendly community of like minded people to share with. I look forward to meeting new art and photography friends at Dreamstime.
*

Once I get the new camera I will contribute more photos to stock.

http://www.cutcaster.com/studio/pub/549947172/

www.zazzle.com/serenethosart/

http://www.zazzle.com/merrygazelle/

http://www.serenethos.com/

Digital Asset Management for Photographers

Lately I have been working on digital asset management. I have been reorganizing my files, adding IPTC data, and generally learning how to make sure I can find all my art files as they are now.
It's a big task even though I don't have that many images, maybe a few hundred. I ordered a very recommended book to help me get a better grasp of organizing all my image files, backing them up, and the documentation that goes along with them, the book is The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers
This is an incredible book! You might be surprised how much there is to learn about digital asset management. Who knew you could write a 400+ page book and learn that there was still more to learn about it. It was a surprise to me. There is even a web site that goes along with it and a form too at http://www.thedambook.com/

I am backing up all my work better after only a little while of reading the book. I am still learning and will continue enjoying reading this book. Very easy to read. Lots to learn. Great insights. For any person serious about their images who is finding a need to find better ways to manage their images. 5 star rating. Worth it.

XMP metadata of Description, IPTC and figuring out how much I can fill out the rest of the data in each image has been an important thing to figure out and work on over the past few weeks.

I've been re-doing the XMP Data and images from the top originals and putting them into file forms I can find easier. Trying to make sure everything is in order, is filled out correctly and completely and to not have to re-do.

One thing I have thought about Title, Description and Keywords or tags as I sometimes call them that would be good to do it to make it as maxed out as possible with relevant information . Not too much and not too little.

My general guidelines that will be adapted to who I am submitting art work to could be for Title, from at least 3 words up to about 15 words max; Description, minimum of 20 words up to about 90 words max; Keywords, minimum 20 up to about 50 key words.
I am working on keeping this more in mind as I re-do metadata of images and will try to max out the information I can provide about each image so who is meant to find it will.

LIGHT Graphene, light emitting electrochemical cell, LEC, LED, Parabolic

Something I've come across in my search for great lighting for photography is something called LEC, short for light emitting electrochemical cell, made mostly from the material graphene. This is one I consider one to watch, so I signed up for news for this light source and its developments as well as LED's, and parabolic.

One sight in my alerts was where they talked about glowing walls made from this material light source.

I think this light source could have wide spread applications, possibly creating so many surfaces with
various light tones adding a pleasing glow to the world.
I am now getting regular news on graphene, light emitting electrochemical cell, LEC, also LED related topics related to photography. Hopefully they are low cost enough and work well. I'm interested in it especially for its photography applications, as well as home use.

I would love to see more pictures of LEC's in use and places to buy them soon.
I'm wondering if LEC's can get as bright as LED's and have daylight balanced color temperature of light screens around 5600K? Preferably adjustable in brightness and possibly with color changing gels or electronics of some sort?

Hopefully they are low cost enough and work well. I'm interested in it especially for its photography
applications, as well as home use.

As for LED's, they seem very pricey. A one foot square panel, the kind used to shoot some movies and TV shows like the Desperate Housewives and Three and a Half Men, cost about $2,500. The bicolor, adjustable ones cost more.
I have been looking around online and other searching for adjustable daylight balanced LEDs at a lower than cost than $2,500 for a square foot, but comparable in features.

One other source of direct focused soft light is Parabolic, the ones from alienbees I found really impressive for the quality and price. The one that won the 2010 Professional Photographer Hot One Awards. The PLM - Parabolic Light Modification System won for the "Light Modifier" category. They are less expensive than others mentioned. Actually pretty reasonable.

Recent Developments in my Art

Well, it's been a month since I updated this blog. What have I been up to lately?
This past month I've been getting into my art work even more. These past few months I've really gained a reawakening of my creative pursuits after just very sporadically over the last few years.


It's been fun working on stock images. Learning how to do it all, perfecting my images to be good enough.
I have been learning Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. Working with it exclusively for the past month or so. I really like the variety of things it can do. And since I am working on images one at a time right now, I find it sufficient for now. When the come out with the new Adobe Photoshop I may upgrade then.
Some of the things I like about Photoshop Elements 8 are the high quality file saves in 12 bit. The large variety of ways there are to edit images. The before and after previews. And more.
I have also been perfecting my main Zazzle site and one Zazzle site I am doing of a friends photographs mostly taken in Hawaii.
He sent some images of Hanauma Bay in Oahu Hawaii recently that I posted to the MerryGazelle site.
I added a lot of color saturation to the photos so it is a bolder print on tshirts and other items. I like it. Makes it a bit different and painting like with strong rich colors.

Ordered a few items from my Zazzle sites for a friend and a couple of family members besides myself.

Bought Adobe Photoshop Elements 8

Yesterday I bought a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for around $100. at the local Office Depot. I thought I would try it out and get used to Photoshop before possibly buying the more professional version of Adobe Photoshop CS5 that is supposed to come out in April of 2010 or so. I finally got it installed last night and played around with a few illustrations. I liked how it seemed to work better than the older program I have. There is a definite learning curve switching from Corel Paint Shop Pro X. Tonight I will learn with the tutorials to start learning all the wonderful editing features available. In this new version they even have a face recognition feature that is pretty cool. They have a lot more than that I will learn about over the next few months. Along with Photoshop Elements 8 I also picked up the book Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for Dummies. Just started reading it last night a little bit.

Top 10 Funny & Philosophy Art

UNIVERSAL IMPRESSIONS Mouse Pad by SerenethosArt
Shop other mousepads on Zazzle

http://www.zazzle.com/inspired_by_gloria_steinem_quote_of_a_woman_needs_tshirt-235487361574325057

Love Happens by SerenethosArt
t-shirts made by zazzle.com

CATS WHO PAINT, cat s painting in a bathroom by SerenethosArt
postcard printing using Zazzle

stop whining color pencil coloring over drawing by by SerenethosArt
Create a customized t-shirt using zazzle

In Heaven there are no religions... by SerenethosArt
Shop for a t shirt on Zazzle

Yin Yang and Gray by SerenethosArt
Buy tshirts at zazzle

You're so hot. You're so cool. by SerenethosArt
Make custom t shirts at zazzle.com

Best Microstock Forums and Blogs

While searching for places to list my images I found this great site called http://www.microstockgroup.com/ They describe themselves as a meeting place for microstock photographers. They have a big forum, blogs, lots of interesting ads and links concerning the microstock business, they list large, small and up and coming stock photography sites, have polls, and other.

Update of Activities with SerenethosArt

Tonight I have been working on creating more complete titles, descriptions and tags on my http://www.zazzle.com/serenethosart site.
Also, started organizing my backstock of massage pictures still to be published on serenethosart in the Massage pictures section.
I think I will add some massage photos on various products tonight and keep the best ones created.

Best MerryGazelle Art.

Here is some nature and landscape photography of a friend of mine I made into a zazzle art site, called MerryGazelle found at Zazzle.
There are a lot of photos of birds mostly made in Hawaii.

Welcome to Serenethos Art Blog

Welcome to my blog SerenethosArt about my art creations mainly located at http://www.zazzle.com/serenethosart

I have worked on my art since about 1993 when I became more interested in exploring the world of art to create art that has meaning in my own life and the life's of others.

At first I started out cartooning various philosophical ideas by myself and with a few other artists.  It was a time of discovery into what I found most fascinating about certain images that made people think and remember to be present in the moment.
After a few years of creating, drawing cartoon type of art I ventured into the world of painting, did some photography. Some of the philosophical and humorous drawings and photographs inspired some of the paintings.
These days I am moving more into photography. Although I still like to paint. I was wondering about painting electronically with an electronic pen and electronic art pad, creating art on the computer.

I've created art in various ways such as drawing in pencil, pen, painting in watercolor, painting in acrylic,film and digital photography, hiring artists to help me flesh out ideas, commissioning art, working with various art materials an dmore over the years.

A few years ago I started putting some of my art on a site I created with Zazzle at zazzle.com/serenethosart
Below is a panel of some of my current most popular art on Zazzle.

make custom gifts at Zazzle
People have bought my art on various products over the years and sales are increasing.

Lately I've added even more artwork and have republished many pieces of art in the gallery to improve the way it looks. It's still a work in progress as I continually improve my Zazzle SerenethosArt site.
I am still researching a better dSLR camera and want to rephotograph and republish all my artwork with the new camera so the details come out better, clearer. And, to make sure the future photographs I take to share are the best to let the art shine through. Might as well give it all the help it can get. ;~)

I've also started creating an art site called Imagekind. Those gallery's have a lot of improvement to be done.

Sometimes there doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to work on my art as much as I'd like to, but recently with renewed interest in stock photography and other art sites,  I've begun to make more time in my day and evening to expand the work and play I get to do in art.

In this blog I will share with you the world of my art in various art interests I am exploring personally and in business as an artist selling his artwork in a variety of ways. And, also other interesting things I am learning about becoming an artist selling more of his artwork, interesting art websites such as etsy, red bubble and more.

We'll see what develops.