The Motley Pixel and Lens Review Volunteers...

[lextalionis]

Hey gang,

First, I hope this is appropriate and the correct forum to post. I respect and enjoy this community so be open and honest in your replies.

Okay here goes… I have been working on my website now for about 4 weeks and I have a staging and production environment set and finally a method to my madness so going forward should be streamlined enough to manage efficiently.

I’ve decided to provide prospective lens buyers a decent repository of higher resolution sample shots of particular lenses, along with all of the pertinent exif data. This effort is not aimed at a technical review; rather, this effort is to give a short summary of opinions for the lens and a series (~ 5-15) high-res photographs taken with the lens. The reviewing user is giving the ability to directly download a 40% scaled image by clicking the floppy disk download icon. Essentially, I’m trying to differentiate my self from the other very good and reputable review sites by aiming at providing more and higher resolution sample photographs. I'm basing this solely off of my past lens reviewing sagas. I always hit fredmiranda and slrgear and they are great sites. I found myself honing in on those reviewers with sample shot links.

What I am able to offer to potential volunteers:
- Add appropriate “artist: name” in the EXIF field of each slide
- Add appropriate “copyright: xyz” in the EXIF field of each slide
- Add image specific information provided by the volunteer under the rating vote box
- Add the volunteers plug for the lens on the opening lens review slide (limited to about 4 sentences)
- Keep all photographer’s source files secure.

Volunteers can add watermarks or signatures to the photographs if they wish. To participate, I require full post-processed jpg images (saved with original exif data), photographer's name, copyright information, image description (can be different for each image or the same for every image), and your high-level review of the lens for the opening slide.

I am looking to review the following lenses as of now, but I would also consider others:
Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM
Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM
Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS USM
Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro
Canon EF 180mm f/3.5L Macro USM

Here’s my review site:
http://www.motleypixel.com/reviews/index.html

I am fully sponsored by my hosting provider and I have used them for 3 years now. The hosting servers are in Orlando, FL I have unlimited BW and currently about 10gigs of space left. I am currently working on saving a few $$ to trade-mark “The Motley Pixel” and a slogan on my own. I also live and work in the Austin, TX area.

Why am I doing this? Honestly, mostly because I love the hobby. But also as you can see, my site provides my family a secure photo album, a nature and events gallery, guestbook, and my favorite links page. You’ll notice that my nature and events photographs are offered as a digital file full-resolution download for $1 (my first buyers said that's too cheap). You will also notice that I use Google Ads (I also use Google Analytics). I hope to reach a revenue level from Google Ads and photo sales to pay for my photography gear (this is a hobby and not my how I make my living). So far for this past month on-line I have sold one photograph to someone in the UK and have made $5.40 in Google Ads.

Thoughts, criticism, and all of the above are welcome. Most of all, if anyone wants to participate, then please let me know.

Thanks,
Roy

 

[lextalionis]

Alright, let me summarize ;-)

Anyone have some sample photographs taken with a specific lens they would like reviewed here: http://www.motleypixel.com/reviews/index.html

Photographs are 40% scaled for slide download images (see example by clicking the floppy disk icon to download a larger image). exif author and copyright added to the exif properties.

Thanks,
Roy

 

[Alex_B]

no offense, but you you just asked us to generate content for your webpage so that you get more traffic and hence more income?

 

[lextalionis]

Yes, in my second-to-last paragraph in my OP I pretty much stated this. No offense taken, it's completely voluntary.

If you think about it, the volunteering party could also benefit...water-mark on images, photographers name and website in the exif field display.

Roy