Alex Ciopata

New Home

2010-12-14T18:18:00.002+02:00

I just finish work on my new site... http://alexciopata.com.
Needs a little work around the edges but you can visit my new home.

Kind regards,
Alex

Pinhole

2010-10-17T15:41:00.004+03:00

Pinhole photo on Ilford XP2
"Camera" - downloaded from here: http://huberokororo.com/files/Rubikon2_EN_2_0_3_7.pdf

Street Love

2010-10-13T01:51:00.002+03:00

Phase of life

2010-10-13T01:46:00.002+03:00

Homeless

2010-10-13T01:43:00.001+03:00

Aastonished smoke

2010-10-13T01:40:00.001+03:00

Wistful kitty

2010-10-13T01:35:00.002+03:00

Silo

2010-10-13T01:27:00.002+03:00

Fly 18-55 kit lens reversed

2010-10-13T01:22:00.001+03:00

Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens - reversed

Moto X Country

2010-10-13T01:17:00.003+03:00

It's time to bring back this blog to life!

Layers of dust and contrasts

2010-08-15T23:12:00.005+03:00

Incepand cu data de 19 august 2010 va astept la Restaurantul Malagamba ( Str. Sf. Dumitru, Nr. 2 - în Centrul Istoric, lângă Teatrul de Comedie ) la expozitia "Layers of dust and contrasts"!

Prieten de drum

2010-08-01T08:59:00.002+03:00

One of Us

2010-08-01T08:56:00.000+03:00

Descending into garbage

2010-05-15T14:45:00.001+03:00

Everything was like before

2010-05-15T13:58:00.001+03:00

Share icons - vector pack

2010-05-09T22:02:00.005+03:00

Sorry, this post was been removed...
You can download this pack from here

Old Herimtage

2010-05-04T02:16:00.002+03:00

kiss the green queen

2010-05-04T02:12:00.002+03:00

Almost Forgotten

2010-04-17T00:14:00.003+03:00

Eternal Solitude

2010-04-12T00:50:00.002+03:00

Nuns

2010-04-12T00:40:00.001+03:00

Street tranquillity

2010-04-04T16:29:00.002+03:00

Stirs gently in the color pot

2010-03-28T16:45:00.001+03:00

Through shallow cities

2010-03-28T16:25:00.003+03:00

Are we drifting in shades of nowhere

2010-03-24T19:25:00.001+02:00

I stepped on hallowed land

2010-03-19T06:14:00.001+02:00

White silk

2010-03-19T06:07:00.003+02:00

Forsaken forest

2010-03-19T05:45:00.002+02:00

Cata need our help

2010-02-22T23:54:00.002+02:00

Catalin was diagnosed with a brain tumor (meduloblastom). On 18.12.2009 this little boy was admitted at the Bagdasar-Arseni hospital because he had terrible pains in his head. Following an NMR test the doctors found the brain tumor, and on 21.12.2009 they had to do a surgical drainage. Because the tumor complicated in a hydrocephalus this procedure was absolutely necessary, the pressure of the cerebrospinal was 4 times greater than normal. A week later a second surgical procedure follows (28.12.2009). These two weeks were simply horrific because he was completely immobilized in bed.
Can you imagine the drama of their parents, they just pray to the God for helping him.
7 years ago they lost a little girl. At that time they did not understand the seriousness of the illness. 10 surgical procedures were necessary following a year of treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy (Fundeni hospital in Bucharest). But theyr little girl could not beat the terrible disease and she passed away too soon.

IF YOU HAVE A BIG HEART AND WANT TO HELP THIS LITTLE BOY, JUST VISIT HIS PAGE AND YOU WILL FIND THERE MORE DETAILS ABOUT HIS PROBLEM AND HOW YOU CAN HELP HIM! - http://sperantaptcata.blogspot.com/

Way through the woods

2010-02-22T21:30:00.001+02:00

Obliviousness

2010-02-21T20:18:00.002+02:00

Free Photoshop brush

2010-02-20T21:59:00.005+02:00

I just want to give you a free Photoshop Brush with footprints.
Here it is. It's free to use under creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported
That's mean you are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work and to adapt the work.
Under the following conditions:
- You must attribute the work in the
manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that
suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
- You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

Just become a fan on Facebook and download it!

Smothered

2010-02-19T17:36:00.009+02:00

Come on God, answer me, for years i´m asking you why? why are the innocents dead and the guilty alive?.
Where is justice? where is punishment??
Or have you already answered? have you already said to the world: "here is justice, here is punishment, here in me?"

Alone in speed's darkness

2010-02-17T16:24:00.004+02:00

The cat that stole the colour of night

2010-02-11T22:46:00.002+02:00

Urban theme illustration

2010-02-10T01:05:00.002+02:00

What about this?

Available on Shutterstock

Farmville, farmville, farmville

2010-02-09T21:47:00.004+02:00

Gata fratilor, voi nu aveti altceva mai bun de facut decat sa jucati farmville?
Click to zoom!

For EN visitors ~ translation:
12: 20 "Mom!! I am hungry!" - "Wait, I must harvest this strawberries and plant some pumpkins"
13:30 "Mom!! I am very hungry!" - "Wait, I must harvest this pumpkins and fertilize some neighbors crops!"
16:00 "MOM! What part of "I am hungry" you don't understand??!!"

Pie chart about sales

2010-02-08T13:35:00.007+02:00

Here is a little pie chart about my sales on stocking sites.

Because from February 11, all activity on Stockxpert will be closed, sales fall here.
So here it is:

You can sign up on one of this sites here:
Shutterstock
Fotolia
123RF
Dreamstime
Bigstockphoto
Pixmac

Good luck!

Silver Bullet Tears

2010-02-06T00:14:00.004+02:00

Just a little experiment, no photoshop or illustrator this time.

New illustration

2010-02-03T01:38:00.003+02:00

One of my new illustration available on shutterstock

Children story

2010-02-01T10:09:00.003+02:00

Shesdead

2010-01-27T01:12:00.004+02:00

Benson (Bass) from SHESDEAD

Sounds

2010-01-27T00:48:00.002+02:00

Snow and clouds

2010-01-26T18:03:00.002+02:00

Snow

2010-01-26T17:59:00.003+02:00

Retezat Mountains

2010-01-26T17:52:00.001+02:00

Bear

2010-01-25T20:51:00.003+02:00

This shoots was taken in 2006 in Rasnoave Gorges, Romania.

Black Guardian Angel

2010-01-24T17:34:00.003+02:00

Even cats have a guardian angel

Was once upon a time

2010-01-22T18:25:00.002+02:00

Icy Cry

2010-01-20T20:37:00.003+02:00

Iron Cobweb

2010-01-16T07:50:00.003+02:00

Retezat National Park in Autumn

2010-01-11T08:50:00.004+02:00

Do You wanna see more images from Retezat National Park, Romania?!
Just take a look on my Picasa Album

Wretched World

2010-01-11T02:09:00.003+02:00

Welcome to Bucharest!

2010-01-08T18:57:00.001+02:00

Year 2010

2010-01-08T18:15:00.005+02:00

In the world of distortions
Procreation our doom
Images set before us
Weigh false in truth...

This image is not from third world! It's just near the center of one's European City!
Homeless people...

Politicians... what you gonna do?!

Half Tube

2010-01-08T18:09:00.004+02:00

It's time to put new pictures here!
A subway station from Bucharest.

Shepherd

2009-12-24T02:50:00.004+02:00

Yes, I know I have a problem with my camera and my images are not sharp and out of focus.
That's bad because I have thousand images good for stoking but... nobody accept blurred images. Hope this year Santa will give me a new camera.. but I was a bad boy, a real bad one :)) !

Aristotel

2009-12-24T02:38:00.005+02:00

This dog arise from nowhere in the middle of Parang Mountains. It was stay with us about two days and he love the massage!! We don't know it's name and we think Aristotel is a good name for this dog with smart face!

And sorry for legs from the top right, I don't want to crop and I don't say this is a good image, just a snapshoot!

Summer dreams

2009-12-24T02:33:00.004+02:00

Despite I like winter, and I love mountains covered with snow and ice, I still think at summer.

House of the Mountain King

2009-12-17T03:39:00.004+02:00

Listen Hall of the Mountain King here... a masterpiece, you loose a lot if you don't listen this great song by Edvard Grieg.

Better Than Walking

2009-12-13T05:46:00.001+02:00

Sweet memories

2009-12-08T02:49:00.002+02:00

‘Cause whatever you may think I forgot
You know I’m still thinking about it
Sometimes I wish I could stay
But no matter where I go, no matter how long
You know I’ll keep hanging on. Sweet memories
I’m leaving but my mind will surely stay...

Morning hunter

2009-11-30T09:33:00.003+02:00

This morning I was out before sunrise. Hunting mist, clouds, and morning light, here is some results:

H3D -39 meet the forest

2009-11-29T20:50:00.003+02:00

Look at the follow image and tell me what you think.
You can read exif data and you will see at the camera model Hasselblad H3D-39

Now, the truth... this is just drawing, photoshop artwork, some PS brush and no real picture.
I write the new exif data just for fun! I upload this image on a photography site and they still think this is a real picture taken with a Hasselblad!!!

Best deal for stock buyers!

2009-11-24T21:17:00.002+02:00

From now Pixmac make a big step in image stocking! Pixmac now offers images from two big sites: Fotolia and Dreamstime! This means there are more than 10 million pictures in just one site.
A simple site where you can buy a photo in just 3 minutes, without registration forms and credit packages and without expiration dates. This is a big step for this Czech company!

More images, more places, more sales

2009-11-19T23:17:00.007+02:00

I am very happy cause in last week my application was approved for some stocking sites. That means my images is now seen by more possible buyers. So I am happy to announce you where you can find my portfolio, and of course where you can sell yourself your pictures and drawings!
So here they are:
- 123RF.com they offer 50% of the net proceeds from each photo downloaded
- Pixmac.com here if you wanna buy some images use that code PX106635 and you will get 10 credits! Fair Enough?!
- Shutterstock.com at this time, big part of my earnings comes from here. Great deal with this site is because they accept footage clips. And with 480 pixels in height and an aspect ratio of at least 4:3 is great deal. If you have a digital video camera you must see how easy you can make money from just 10 seconds of video footage.
- Fotolia.com Fotolia provides a compromise between photographers and buyers, you must join it
- Dreamstime.com here is a little problem, the time for review is big, sometimes you can wait one week, but online images sale well.
- Stockexpert.com it was hard but now they approve my account
- Bigstockphoto.com here.. I don't know to tell you much about. I am new over here, just few hours :P

I am in pending line on other sites, if they accept me... I will make more money, hope so! Of course.. money! Who don't need it?

Hope you will have inspiration for images and drawings, and don't be disappointed if your application is rejected. I try to join shutterstock 4 times and finally the 5th batch my application was approved. Just think at this, if your batch is rejected you must wait 30 days, that means 5 months . On stockexpert the same thing, few times, here time between reviews is bigger . Now I still try to join istock. Idea is to don't give up, more that 60% of my photos was rejected for quality or subject !
So... good luck!

Later edit : As long as I write this entry I sell 2 drawings on shutterstock! Just think of that and you will understand how much you can make in a month! There are some people around the word, that stay home and drawing, or travel and take pictures! I wish I can do that too!

Snowboard

2009-11-07T20:32:00.006+02:00

Winter=Snow... Snow=Snowboard... Action!

Download vector from Fotolia or Shutterstock

Winter

2009-11-07T16:04:00.006+02:00

Because winter is so close, and designers start thinking about the winter advertising, I start drawing some stuff for that.

Here they are:

For stoking sites, idea is to have more images, ... more images= more sales!

Floral ornaments

2009-11-07T15:58:00.004+02:00

Another vector for decoration. Can be downloaded from Fotolia or Shutterstock

18-55 kit lense = super macro lense

2009-11-01T10:31:00.008+02:00

I try a little experiment with a kit lense, canon EF-S 18-55.
If you reverse a lense you will have a super macro one, but the problem is if you have a big lense something like 55-200 or bigger the result will not be great, because, the little is focal lengh the bigger is magnification. So.. idea is to use a lens with a small focal lenght. Here is some results.

Here is pixel points from a CRT Monitor

That is a mobile phone SIM card

This is a fish (Ancistrus Dolichopterus ) from my fishtank

The big problem is... you can't fix the lens on your camera and you will can't control focus and aperture ( if your lens doesn't have manual setting for aperture). Soon I will show you another images with that idea!

Spider web dew

2009-10-29T17:30:00.004+02:00

A little work in Illustrator, need a little work around the edges.

"Rebranding" Guideromania.com

2009-10-29T01:39:00.004+02:00

I start redesign that site, Guideromania.com, and first thing in my mind was a logo, a sign to define it!

Idea is simple, site is about mountains. Especially about trekking, despite we have somethings about climbing and mountain biking. So what will define well this site? Let's see: first of all a mountain and edelweiss; second place, because we have a lot of forests still wild, some animals will represents well, I choose a buck and a falcon.
OK, now, all that elements was included into a triangle. It's look like a coat of arms for a national park. Now I add a ribbon and type the name... Here is the result after I place that on a glossy background:

Wrong way?!

2009-10-26T17:45:00.003+02:00

Today, I start thinking about what I do in the last week, and I see I don't touch my camera, I don't take any pictures. I sit here in front of my keyboard and draw, learn and draw.
I think about what I do... I don't have a job, I don't sell much images or vectors.... so what's wrong?! I think it's time to do something about that!
I know to work with photoshop, corel draw, illustrator, concept draw, dreamweaver, zend... few things in Autocad... but it not help me. I had no paper to confirm that, and here in Romania, HR departments don't care if someone know or not how to work with something, unless you have a degree ( or a paper that confirm you graduate something). So.. what can I do? I don't wanna work again in climbing services, I don't wanna work again as electrician, industrial automation.
That's all... it was enough, I can do more and I will try harder!

124 signs pack

2009-10-21T10:29:00.006+03:00

A vector graphic pack. 124 signs can be downloaded from Fotolia or Shutterstock

Walking to the sky windows

2009-10-19T04:19:00.004+03:00

Thanks Milu !

Landscape vectors

2009-10-17T07:19:00.007+03:00

Because vectors have a low rejection rate, I start draw more, and more... here is two of my landscape vectors!
You can buy this vectors from Fotolia !

Another new stuff on my blog

2009-10-14T18:30:00.010+03:00

Due to success of my "hi5 skin tutorial", I decided to create some hi5 skins for free download!
So here is first skin that can be downloaded. Fairy Skin Download

What you need?
First download archive and unzip.
Go to Hi5 and select change skin, then click create a new skin. Give a name fairy for that skin.
Now on first column under Page Global- Page background type on background color #afa98a
After that scroll down and on Text Headers, choose any font type you want and what color you wish.

Now on second column, Main section, browse files you unzipped, and select main header.jpg (956x35 pixel), for background color set #afa98a ( same as page background) and text color what color you wish.
Next browse for main nav.jpg (956x30 pixel) same color for background #afa98a and for link color again what you wish.
For Section Body browse for mainbg.jpg(956x500 pixel) same background like above, set position -top and for text color it will be nice to use Black or #000000
OK, we browse again in footer background for file mainfooter.jpg (956x60 pixel).

We jump to next column, Mini Sections. Here in section header we browse for modulehead.jpg (470x60 pixel), set, fond and color as you wish. In Section Navigation we browse for modulenav.jpg (470x25 pixel) and in Section Body we set Background color to #6d593e.
We must go to Footer background and browse for module footer.jpg(470x30 pixel).
Press save and preview!
Enjoy!

If you use that skin it will be nice if you put a backlink for this blog and please do not remove "Skin made by bocutz.hi5,com" I not urge you to do that but I will appreciate that! Other thing.. leave a comment with your hi5 address here, I am just curious to see it on work :P !

Deviant Art

2009-10-13T03:53:00.002+03:00

Ok.. I have an account there... check it at http://alexciopata.deviantart.com/

My first vector drawing

2009-10-04T01:27:00.010+03:00

This is my first pretty vector draw, I try hard to learn Illustrator, despite I know something about Corel Draw, I never use Illustrator before, But I need to learn, because I can't do (I don't know), how to do some pretty things in corel! I must learn how to work with this programs because I wanna do vectorial graphics for sale on stoking sites. I sell just photos, and I wanna see if my drawings can give me a good reason for make more money. Yes, I need money! Who don't need it?
Vector images are great because if you want to print a huge billboard ( something like 100 feet (~30 meters) on big side) you can't do it with an image that have 10Mp with good looking quality, but vectors it can be sized up at any dimensions, if your computers can suport it you can scale it to .. let say 100.000 pixels on big side!
So.. here is my first vector drawing intended for sale! Available on Fotolia and Dreamstime .

One image 10 results

2009-10-02T04:05:00.015+03:00

I got a flu ( not swine, hope so! :P). So sitting home and got remedy I became so bored, what to do .. I start with a photo and play a little in photoshop ... here is the results:
Enjoy!

LOMO

Old Photo

Vignetting

B/W

High Pass

Sepia Tone

Midtones/Levels

Grunge

Gothic efect ( cooling ?)

Original

BTW, not really the original image. Original was Black and White but I shoot in RAW, so I still have the color image and I play a little with white balance and contrast.

Rusty

2009-10-01T17:59:00.002+03:00

Thanks "Umbre" for ideea!

Where I have seen the unseen

2009-09-30T00:24:00.004+03:00

Image taken in Retezat National Park, Romania. You must visit and climb up here, despite have just 2509 m! In Background is "Papusa" Peak with 2508 m and here starts 2 nice ridge one "Custura Papusii" and "Portile Inchise"!

Dreamland with blue eyes

2009-09-28T13:25:00.002+03:00

Bridge

2009-09-27T22:32:00.005+03:00

This bridge is near Petrosani, Romania. Here is the place where we camp for one night!

Mercy

2009-09-15T22:00:00.003+03:00

What images works for stoking ?

2009-09-13T00:29:00.008+03:00

Well are so many subject you can use. First of all we must talk about the quality.
Highest technical quality, this means all your photos must be properly exposed, in focus, sharp, free from noise dust and other artifacts. Photos with natural contrast and bright colors usually sell and print well. You can use Photoshop or other software to make little correction. Few things you must keep in mind :
- Do not interpolate or upsize your images!
- Try to shoot in RAW format and then covert to Jpeg
- Set your camera sharpness to the lowest level
- Check your images at 100% zoom for noise, dust and other artifacts

About the subject.
Here is the trick, not all great photos are good for stoking, that means you can have so many fine art images but you can have a big surprise when they are rejected! Don't try to sell on stoking sites images like Black and White street photography with frame, grunge effects, sepia. That's not mean street photography will not sell but they must give some emotions and remember quality is first!

If you think family pet including dogs, cats, ducks, insects; or flowers, sunsets and surprise money will sell, you think wrong! Just take a look over the net and you will find thousand millions images like that.

But what they need? It's so easy, you must have a simple subject related to something of follows category:
- Health and medical field
- Business related photos
- People in activities ( that works great)
- Technology photos ( but not CD's Keyboards, Mouse... try move further than your pc and TV)
- Different occupations( workers)
- Objects ( again try something new like... strange stones(maybe))
- Under water photos ( if you can take it)
- Illustrations, they love it! Vectors and digital graphics have a great potential and sell well!

As I say in other posts a few sites where you can sell your images are:
- Dreamstime
- Fotolia
- Pixmac
- Shutterstock

There are more other sites where you can sell your images!
Be creative! More images mean more sales!

Light at the gates

2009-09-02T20:25:00.006+03:00

Trei, Doamne... si toate trei

2009-09-02T20:16:00.006+03:00

~ EN Translation " Three, God... and all three!"

Old Bucharest

2009-09-02T19:59:00.005+03:00

How many time we must wait to see that construction site closed?!

Everything was like before

2009-08-28T21:25:00.004+03:00

Walking Down

2009-08-19T02:24:00.004+03:00

Childhood Race

2009-08-19T01:45:00.004+03:00

Keeping Closer

2009-08-19T01:39:00.003+03:00

Ballerin Game

2009-08-18T09:04:00.005+03:00

Just few steps

2009-08-17T09:53:00.008+03:00

I start a project few years ago, a site about mountains from Romania, after many free hosting domains, now with a friend, which hosting this site , we start a real one . The site is GuideRomania.com ! We still work at this project, but you can find there a huge archive about mountains from Romania. It's not a very nice design but this is just "beta" version! Although , now it's just in Romanian language, as soon is possible we finish to translate this site to english language!
So if you have a site and you need hosting or design just contact us !

Another red flower

2009-08-07T00:53:00.004+03:00

Old Iron Horse

2009-08-07T00:27:00.004+03:00

Feet and fingers

2009-08-06T22:33:00.006+03:00

Thanks to "Umbre" for this shoot!

Sky Windows

2009-08-06T22:10:00.004+03:00

Tyre

2009-08-06T06:35:00.004+03:00

This shoot is a tyre of a "humvee"! Shoot taken when the Romanian Army retiring from Irak. Wellcome back boys! I will post soon some shoots with Romanian Army war machines!