Due to regulatory changes in Europe, Excitations Archive Cookies policy requires you to Opt-in or Opt-out of accepting cookies.
I know, just another thing to do. We don’t use cookies to track browsing history, however, our hosting server requires the use of cookies.
We have also dropped Google Analytics. This is because Google records IP addresses and stores the information. Storing users private information is now outlawed in the European Union.
We are currently using Microanaylitics, which conform to the European requirements.
For the record, we don’t actually use analytics at all but our server requires them to be installed.
Bactrocera tryoni or female Queensland Fruit Fly, stinging an apple, Mildura, Victoria, Australia. Queensland Fruit-Fly is a major pest to horticultural industries down the easter side of Australia. Gradually spreading further south, possibly due to climate change.
Data security
While I’m waffling on about tracking and personal data, we don’t store any of that stuff directly on our websites. Instead, our Stock site collects email addresses when you place an order for a license. Which we only use in case of a problem with delivery. We do not directly market to you using any collected data.
As for payment details, all of that information is handled by PayPal and Square, which means we never see your financial information.
The Summer break usually is our time to reflect and make decisions about our business as we head into a New Year. However, his year was a little different as we had a lot of stuff going on. So planning ahead for our stock photo and video business was put on the back burner.
It is now time to look at our stock imagery business. And, at this point, I have to say, I’m not feeling optimistic that we will continue as we have in the past. The catalyst was NYE when we sold 14 royalty-free images through one of our agencies. But be honest, it wasn’t so much a sale as a bloody insult. Seriously, a deal that returns 84 cents to the photographer is a joke. Oh, that wasn’t 84 cents each, but instead, that was the total sale for worldwide royalty-free use in perpetuity.
Watch this space:)
The 14 licenses above, I suspect, will be the straw that broke the camels back. We haven’t decided yet, but we will start adding more content to our stock photo library. And spend more time promoting that, rather than supplying large libraries for a 1-2% share of the license fee.
If we market our stock images of Australia that way, the buyer gets licensing at lower prices. And we get a much larger cut of the fee. Life should be better for all. Currently, you can find our royalty-free and editorial images at Excitations Stock Photos of Australia.
I’m not sure when I became interested in creating Australian weather photos. I suspect, watching my dad. Grab his camera and race out to photograph massive dust storms rolling in over barren farmland may have been the catalyst.
Late evening Summer thunderstorm skips past a salt lake at Yelta just as the sun sets.
Interestingly, these dust storms were unlike most we see today. With all the talk of climate change, the current dust storms are no match for the dramatic, and frightening dust storms of my teenage years.
I have vivid memories of waiting and watching the storm build. It would be deathly quiet standing on top of a small hill, not the slightest breeze or sound, only anticipation of what was about to unfold.
The sky darkening at the horizon first, and as the front moved closer, clouds would begin to stand up, towering into the air. Inevitably, as the clouds took on a very dark and ominous blue/black colour, you would start to notice the horizon change to a dull brown colour.
The visual effect of the colour changes made the approaching front look like a gigantic roller, slowly moving towards you. I remember waiting with my father, as he frantically tried to capture the power of the incoming event.
The trick was to wait as long as you dared. Usually, the trigger to start us running for home would be, the first angry sounds of the wind howling in the distance.
Then it was grab everything and run as fast as we could home. Amazingly, we use to beat the storm most times. Racing into the safety the house just before the wind arrived and the sky turned dark.
Bi-weekly events
These rolling dust storms were from memory a bi-weekly event during Summer. Usually only lasting an hour or so before settling down.
To be honest I miss those old storms. I can’t recall having seen anything anywhere near the size, or with the dramatic skies for at least 20 years, maybe more. I suspect better dryland farming practices have mostly eliminated soil erosion of that magnitude.
We have a few video of current day dust storms in Australia over on our Pond5 Weather Collection
Pattern in dry mud, in bed of drought effected creek bed.Flood water lies in vineyard after heavy rain, Mildura area of Northern Western Victoria.
Hail stones lay across a headland of a vineyard after a severe thunderstorm caused hundreds of thousands of dollars damage as it swept across vineyards and horticultural crops in Western NSW and North Western Victoria.
Minutes after a severe hail storm swept across a wine grape vineyard near Ellislie, North of Wentworth, NSW, Australia.
Should anything in the above stock video promo catch your fancy, and you are not able to locate the clip in our stock library. You will notice in the bottom left hand corner of the video the timecode for this clip. If you contact us here with the relevant timecode we can arrange licensing for you. Everything in the above stock video flora Australia promo is available in longer lengths, typically 10-15 seconds.
