Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

I took this photo of the San Francisco skyline through the Golden Gate Bridge about two weeks ago on a semi-warm afternoon that turned to chilly evening. I was pretty please with how it came out. I think it might be one of the better San Francisco photos I’ve taken in sometime. I suppose that makes it a personal favorite of mine.

After posting this on Flickr it would seem I’m not alone in liking this shot. I was pleasantly surprised it made the Flickr Explore page. Seeing that others enjoy it as much as I makes freezing my butt off in the Marin Headlands all the worth while.
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In case you were unaware there has been a lot of controversy around TXU, Texas’ largest utility company, and their plans to build 11 new coal burning power plants. Plants that combined would produce enough greenhouse gases to offset the entire effort made by California’s tough environmental laws.
TXU faces a Texas coal rush

Today a huge event happened… TXU announced they are being acquired and in the process they’re reversing their stance on the controversial coal power plant production. They’ll be producing only 3 of the 11 plants. A lot of effort was made to court environmental group support, Environmental Defense and the Natural Resources Defense Council, for this acquisition. Lets hope this is the beginning of a trend towards environmentalist/corporate partnerships.
TXU takes $32B deal, cuts coal plans

Private Equity Buyout of TXU Is Enormous in Size and in Its Complexity

After holding on to a rental of “An Inconvenient Truth” for 3 weeks I finally got a chance to watch it. I expected it to be depressing, but after watching it I realized the only thing depressing about the movie was not doing anything to address the problem. I have some co-workers that are hung up on Al Gore and have a tough time looking past him. Whether you like Al Gore or not you have to respect the effort he is making. Hopefully people and our government will start to open their eyes and begin to recognize the problem. If you haven’t seen the movie rent it.

If you’re looking for ideas on what to do next, see the link below:
50 Things You Can Do To Stop Global Warming

This is something that didn’t get a lot of attention, but it speaks to the resilience of nature when protection is given. Beavers… yes beavers have started to show up in New York City rivers. It’s been 200 years since they were hunted out of existence in the area. Sad when you think that the Beaver is on NYC’s official seal and only now are they making a comeback in the area.
Beavers return to New York City after 200 years

Lets hope that they make it back to a healthy population.

I’ve been posting photos online since 1993 and have been utilizing a variety of online photo forums since 1998. In that time a lot has changed… digital has over taken film and Web 1.0 has given way to Web 2.0. The result has been a boom in photographers taking part in these forums. The advent of social media mixing with photo forums has been very exciting and sites like Yahoo’s Flickr have taken off. Flickr as of today ranks 40th in Internet traffic according to Alexa.com and is a great avenue for photographers to gain exposure to their work, receive critiques and enjoy the work of other photographers covering a wide spectrum of skill level.

The amount of traffic generated by sites like Flickr means that photographers have an opportunity to share their work with a large audience. This is something I’ve particularly enjoyed as of late, but in the process I’ve experienced and taken note of an alarming trend of small and large companies looking to take advantage of photographers. Flickr seems to have become a stock photography alternative where companies entice business naive photographers into making their photos available for use for free. What blew my mind this week is the attempt made by Yahoo to do this with my photography. Yes! Yahoo. While flattered with the initial inquiry to use my photo I relayed my basic licensing terms only to be told “unfortunately, we do not have a system or mechanism in place to offer payment for photos.”

Did I read my email correctly? Yahoo not having a mechanism in place to offer payment for photos? Thats funny the same page that the image would have been linked to (news.yahoo.com) had images with attributes to AP and Reuters who certainly do not license their images for free. Even better is that Yahoo would have been running their advertisements on the page with my image and those of others for the piece being put together.
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It’s early but this is one of my favorite images taken this year. For me the lighting is what makes this shot. Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge lit with the Transamerica Building in the background gives a three dimensional feel to an otherwise compressed scene. I thought this was pretty neat, but the next image in this sequence (to be posted soon) surpasses this in my opinion.

My long weekend began and ended the very same way…
Blowing bubbles with my dogs. Apparently this is the sure fire way for me to forget my worries and have a good laugh. Seeing my German Shepherd, Zoe, and Jack Russel Terrier, Moe, chase, jump and bite at bubbles is nothing short of comical. Here are a couple images of Zoe in bubble attack mode…

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I’m not a huge advocate of fast food, but when I take road trips I do gravitate towards In and Out Burger. It doesn’t seem like a road trip unless I stop off here for lunch. Going through some images from last year I rediscovered this gem. I stopped in Carson Valley, Nevada on my way to Lone Pine, California. As I finished my double-double a storm was passing through and this beautiful rainbow magically appeared. For many In and Out Burger fans I’m sure this will hit home. Posting this is making me hungry….

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