Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

On my last Sea Otter photo tour I caught this Great Blue Heron landing in the slough with great late afternoon lighting. If I had to nit pick I only wish I caught more of a complete shadow of the birds head in its wing. Such compositional concerns are never a thought in the split second needed to capture such a photo and only surface when editing a photo. Ah the joys and pains of being your own worst enemy.

Technorati Tags: Photography, Wildlife, Nature, Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, stock photo

The work of Mario Zanaria is the fourth of five prints to highlight from my Buying Prints from Your Favorite Photographers blog project.

To be honest I got caught off guard with Mario’s photography. I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled on to Mario’s flickr photostream, but I did and I’m really happy that it happened. I really enjoy Mario’s photography and he never ceases to amaze me. His photograph titled “S.” in his “Naked Truth” series struck a nerve with me. The connection of his model with him and his camera is something that I see very rarely. While it is a nude, there is no nudity, as the pose and framing conceals anything that would be revealing. For those curious to see this photograph click on the “read more” link below, but out of courtesy for those at work and who may not feel the same way about the photo as I do I’ve put it out of view so you can opt out of viewing it or wait to view it while at home.

Earlier in the week I discussed how the photo of Senator Barack Obama struck a nerve with my wife and I. In this instance this photo struck a nerve with my wife in the exact opposite way. My wife is not happy that I picked up this photo, but the experience revolving around our different perceptions of this photo has been an eye opener. As mentioned when I look at this photo I see nothing but a technically fantastic photo with an incredible moment captured. To me I see nothing but artistry and photographic mastery… something to collect. I find the gaze of his model hypnotizing and any sense of nudity is non-existent to me. On the flip-side my wife sees a naked woman and expressed concern that I would purchase a photo such as this.

I still scratch my head over this past situation as I see this photo no differently than any other photo I purchased. This photo, as with the others, are technically excellent and visually engaging. My reaction to this photo is equivalent to the other nature photographs I’ve purchased. I suppose this makes me a photography geek. The best analogy I can make is even geekier. In the movie the Matrix, people could look at a screen of passing code and see what was going on at a deeper level… interpreting the code to picture what someone was doing or what scene was unfolding. For myself I suppose the experience is similar but the reverse. I see a photograph and see not just the magical moment captured, but everything going on behind the scenes. It is this depth of perception to such imagery that adds to my appreciation of the work. With that said my enjoyment of such work is compounded by the essence of a photograph whether it is a magical moment between model and photographer or magic lighting combined with an amazing series of natural events. No photograph is the same between photographers. Each photographer brings their own experience, vision and artistic interpretation to a scene or situation and this is a huge reason why I love photography.

I am really happy to have discovered Mario’s photography and am elated to have added this photograph to my nascent, but growing collection of fine art. While this won’t be going up at home I am looking forward to including it in a larger collection to display at a later time. Read more…

The 21st episode of PhotoNetCast is out. In this special episode the Flickr Collection on Getty is discussed.

Take a listen:
PhotoNetCast #21 – The Flickr/Getty Partnership

From the PhotoNetCast site:

On January 21, Flickr made a second announcement stating that invitations to Flickr users to start submitting the “chosen” images to Getty were being sent en masse.

What does this all mean to photographers, either pros or amateurs, and specially to those that are not so much into the photography business and want to get a foot on the door?

In this episode we try to approach the issues and look at the pros and cons of accepting such invitations.

Jim published on his blog his own view where he mentions that he is not going to accept the Flickr/Getty invitations. To provide some balance to the discussion, we have the pleasure of having as guest Dave Wilson, a serious amateur who wants to start monetizing his work and sees the Flickr/Getty invitations a good opportunity.

Technorati Tags: Getty, Flickr, Flickr Collection, PhotoNetCast, podcast, interview

The work of G. Dan Mitchell is the third of five prints to highlight from my Buying Prints from Your Favorite Photographers blog project.

When I conceived of the prints blog project Dan was instantly on my short-list and as soon as I started perusing his blog and flickr photostream I knew I’d approach him to buy a print. As good fortune would have it Dan expressed interested in a print exchange and that is exactly what we did. Our meeting to swap prints was a little delayed, but around the holidays we were able to meet for the first time and talk shop. Dan is an avid printer and brought a collection of prints over to review and discuss. I was impressed! Not only does Dan have a great eye, but he’s got printing down.

Of all Dan’s great photographs I chose Submerged Boulders, Precipice Lake and Dan chose a copy of my photo Primitive Coastline. Thanks for the great print Dan. It’s up in my living room (photo to be posted later).

Submerged Boulders, Precipice Lake

Technorati Tags: G. Dan Mitchell, Photography

The work of William Neill is the second of five prints to highlight from my Buying Prints from Your Favorite Photographers blog project.

In my enthusiasm for prints I learned you have to be careful what you ask for.  For some time before the project kicked off I had been following Bill’s blog and Flickr photostream. Before and during most of the blog project Bill was marketing his Impressions of Light eBook and I was quite forward in my interest in a printed version in a comment made to one of his Flickr photos. I found it ironic that Bill was exploring electronic distribution while I was promoting collecting printed work. Towards the end of the blog project Bill released a deluxe edition book of Impressions of Light with a signed print. I was sold.  The book is great and I’m enjoying the print immensely. If you’re not familiar with Bill’s work you should definitely check out his web site and read his regular column in Outdoor Photographer.

For now Bill’s “Giant Sequoias” print graces the wall of my office. At some point in the future I’ll pair it with other prints in a more artistic presentation.

Giant Sequoias by William Neill

Technorati Tags: William Neill, Photography, Impressions of Light

In early January I kicked off a ticket giveaway to (3) three Epson Print Academy events in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The results are in from a very random selection process… namely a number on paper, for each comment/trackback to my original post Epson Print Academy – I’m Giving Away Tickets, thrown into a bowl. Duplicate entries were removed for those making multiple comments and selections were picked blindly.

A reminder even if you did not win… I highly recommend registering for the Epson Print Academy event. The information shared on workflow, post-production and print preparation is well worth the discounted $99 registration fee. With out further ado the winners are as follows for each location..

Seattle on January 31st, 2009

• Jesse Fueng
• Jay Chadney

San Francisco on February 7th, 2009

• Andrea Pook
• Greg A. Lato

Los Angeles on February 21st, 2009

• Mike Cavaroc
• James Bau

Congratulations! I will be contacting winners by email to arrange access information with Epson.

Technorati Tags: Epson Print Academy, digital printing, digital photography, photography, contest, giveaway, Epson

Last year’s blog project Buying Prints from Your Favorite Photographers wasn’t my most successful by comparison to others I’ve run, but it was definitely one of the more rewarding. Given my passion for quality photography prints it is certainly a project that I will be running again in the future. As an extension of this project through out the week I’ll be highlighting one of the 5 prints I purchased or acquired through print exchanges.

Today I feature a photo of then U.S. Senator Barack Obama by Lane Hartwell. Lane photographed now President Obama while on the campaign trail here in San Francisco at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. As noted in my Flying High On Prints blog entry when my wife and I first got this print we were ecstatic and now that we have it framed the excitement over it has yet to subside. I’m so stoked on how this photo looks framed that it graces the wall of my office.

Barack Obama by Lane Hartwell

Technorati Tags: Lane Hartwell, Photography, Barack Obama

I just received word from my podcast hosting service that my podcast EXIF and Beyond: Photography Discussions was one of the Top 5 Most Popular Podcast of 2008. It would seem that I was #2 right behind the Knit Science podcast. Knit Science!?!?! Come on folks help me reach #1 in 2009 LOL

Seriously it’s an honor and I can’t wait to bring even more interesting and timely podcast episodes to you this year. One notable update to the podcast is that I’ve upgraded my recording equipment to address some glaring sound quality issues. Stay tuned and thanks for your support of the podcast.

Be sure to subscribe to EXIF and Beyond on iTunes and if you haven’t already a testimonial would be much appreciated!

Technorati Tags: EXIF and Beyond, Photography, Podcast