Contact: extremeinstabilitymail@gmail.com
Stock and Licensing: To license images, simply e-mail me with the images wanted(there are ID's in the stock section near each image) and as specific a usage as you can. I'm pretty much always around a computer and can handle things quickly. I can then send a quote or e-mail back. If agreed I can get the file to you in a number of ways. Your ftp location, my site ftp, e-mail, or one of the file sending services.
Prints: The prints are done in lustre finish and shipped directly from a lab. I'm open to other print types.
Short Bio
My name is Mike Hollingshead. Just a guy that liked storms as a kid then started chasing them in 1999. Bought a still camera in 2002. Quit my job in 2004, with zero intentions beyond simply chasing that spring, then getting a job somewhere again that summer. At least 8 years later now I've still not gotten that job. Somehow this just happened and has worked. It was never a plan to do this, it just happened. I'd have chased every year all the same, but it being my soul income was the furthest thing from my mind. And heck, it's only barely worked(debt) the whole time. It's a long story, but more or less it's not nearly as great as it sounds. There's no peace of mind in hoping sales come along and your old hobby sometimes feeling as if you have to do well at it. I could write a book on this topic now. For every up about it there is a solid down.
Publications
There have been a lot now(2012). Couple hundred image licenses on my own without stock company sales. Billboards US and overseas, a whole lot of magazines around the globe, including the Cover(and inside) of National Geographic(September 2012), spread ads in Time, Newsweek, etc, Book Covers, images on TV shows, even images used as cgi backgrounds in the movie Take Shelter, ads for all sorts of stuff, even Rum, heck a dress has even been made.
I've never really been one to get crazy excited because something I took a photo of is being published. I'm happy about it since it currently pays the bills, but the image should be cool before it's published I guess is my thought on all that. The above might be two things I've had a little exception to that rule. Something was just really cool about storms I shot being animated on the big screen, even if it was a limited release and even if I never went to a theater to see it myself lol. I did buy the dvd though(good movie btw). I just thought, ok yeah that's kinda cool and unlikely to ever happen again. The cover of National Geographic would be the second one. Like, really? It must just be the things that happen that you are pretty darn sure won't again.
Gear
2002-2003 a Sony F707. 2004-2012 was 95% all Canon Rebels. Had/have the Canon 17-40L, 10-22 EF-s, 50 F1.8, and 100-400L. I've recently went back to having a Canon 5D II, which I had for a few months in 2010 before I had to sell it for money. With this recent 5D II I wound up selling my 10-22 and picking up 3 primes, all none Canon oddly enough. I realized, holy hell I got these and managed to do all non-Canon glass(odd after 8 years of nothing but Canon glass). Samyang 14mm F2.8, Sigma 50mm F1.4 and a Zeiss 21 F2.8. I still have my Canon 100-400L though.
A bit about animals:
I'm a huge animal lover. All life really. I am truly bothered by how animals are treated and wish I could somehow change things. Example. A dog on a chain is just flat out wrong. If it were up to me this would be illegal. So easy for me to see how wrong it is. It boggles my mind someone can do this to their pet. Accepted things aren't always right. It's a LIFE on a chain, no other way about it. One night after a chase I saw this little dog in a backyard on a chain, sitting there all by itself in the world, looking towards this house. I hoped it was just out there for the time it takes to go potty and that that wasn't the norm of its life. I really sort of doubted that was the case. I just see this LIFE just like mine and yours with all this curiosity stuck to that pole for its little eternity. What was its point in being created if that is its life? Fed and ignored perhaps, we know this happens out there. I want to run around and cut chains when I see it's not just out going potty. Sucks there have to be pets as is, least one could do is make that animal's life as free as they possibly can. And a chain....well.....truly horrible if you stop and look at it and think. Thinking is not the hardest thing to do. We all see the same thing(s). Wish we all could have a bit more compassion even if it means "going out of our way". Accepted things aren't always right. Take a second and look again. Open up your mind to what it is you are seeing, not the fact you are used to seeing it. Here is one way to look at it. Say 10 years is the average life span of a dog. Now think back 10 years and how long ago that was. Imagine all of the things that have happened in your life and instead of those times being free to you to do what you wanted, put your neck in a chain and strap it to a tree or pole for that whole time...long boring day after long boring day...years worth of them. And it really isn't about just pole and chain, but even just being ignored and left isolated. It is not hard to do a few things to make a LIFE better.
Links
If your link disappeared it's likely when I updated/checked links there was nothing there/it wasn't working.
Force of Nature Photography.com