Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

Perigee Moon & California Oak

Photo Info:
Canon 1Ds Mark III, 840mm (600mm + 1.4x TC), ISO 100, F/25, 1/40 sec

On the evening of Thursday the 12th of December and the morning of Friday the 13th December of 2008 there was a perigee moon that I was eager to photograph. Unfortunately Friday the 13th came early, clouds obscured the moonrise in the San Francisco area Thursday evening. Friday I happened to be up early in order to drive out to photograph Sea Otters in Monterey.  While the weather had cleared I had very few decent opportunities to photograph the moon. Not wanting to get frustrated thinking about my missed opportunity to photograph the moon at its closest point in its orbit to earth (perigee), while earth was closest to the sun in its orbit (perihelion)… translating to a slightly larger and brighter full moon I put this astronomical phenomenon out of mind.

Driving out with my friend Eliya we just happened to notice the moon clear from the clouds with beautiful early morning light. With the moon descending 4 degrees every minute I didn’t think we’d have enough time to get a photo off let alone with anything of interest in the foreground, but we tried. With in a span of 15 minutes we Read more…

With a better understanding of My Journey with Photography Watermarks and how the Evolution of a Watermark has factored into my online marketing, I wanted to share how these efforts have translated in my reaching new audiences and generated new client opportunities.

Effort and Reward of Watermarking

No doubt many after reading my first to articles on the topic of photo watermarking are asking, “Why put yourself through the effort?” As noted I’m a firm believer in ensuring proper attribution of a photo and notifying viewers that my photography is copyrighted. This addresses a high priority of mine to protect my photographic work from a legal perspective, in conjunction with my formal copyright filings with the U.S. Library of Congress (See Copyrights: Protecting My Photograph). In essence addressing a long term need of mine. On the flip-side the concept of using watermarks as a “calling card”, including my name and web site URL, addresses a short term need to notify others where to find my work and learn more about my services. My style of photo watermark serves this purpose well whether my photographs are found on my web sites, photo forums I contribute to, hot-linked from my server and placed on another web site or more blatantly illegally copied and distributed.

This is the part where several of you reading this post will think, Read more…

Having covered the basics of watermarks and why they’re important to use in my earlier post My Journey With Photographic Watermarks, I wanted to take you on a journey of how I’ve employed watermarks over the past 10 years. Not only do I plan on digging my old watermarks out of my archive I’ll tell you what I was thinking when I used them and why I decided to change them.

As previously discussed watermarks by definition are ugly, but a sad necessity. As I’ve dug up my old watermarked images I’ve shaken my head more than once in disgust. Disgust because 1) the intent of my photography has been to show beauty and dynamic moments not a watermark and 2) because as I go back in time I realize how horrible some of my watermarks were. Read more…

This past weekend I finally got around to revisiting some work from a couple years back when I was in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The trip was fantastic and yielded an amazing amount of imagery. Whether you’re aware or not, the photograph in the header banner of this blog was taken in the Arctic Refuge and is part of the large set of photographs, several hundred, I reviewed and released this weekend.

Rugged Beauty, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

With out hesitation I can say that I will return to the Arctic Refuge. The Arctic landscapes, wildlife, wildflowers and Alaskan villages & towns were incredibly fun to discover. The day I return is the day I’ll feel… at peace. I think the Arctic Refuge likely has had a greater impact on me that I’d have imagined.

Technorati Tags: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ANWR, Arctic Refuge, landscape, nature, wildlife, photography, photo, stock photo

Watermarks are one of the most under appreciated, yet most important components of online marketing of photographs. As a photographer my photography always comes first. Upon first read you are correct in reading this statement that I will always look to capture a scene as best as I can artistically and technically. This statement also holds a less obvious significance in that my photography is one that I always wish to protect and secure association with my photographic endeavors.

Over the past year several events have happened that have made me eager to write about watermarks. I am inherently an impatient person and combined with the heated passion of this subject I’ve been on the edge of bursting from my seams for sometime. The time is right to share my experiences and knowledge in this area, as a result this week expect a few blog entries devoted to this topic. First I want to share with you my journey with photographic watermarks and later discuss how & why my watermarks have evolved, the art of online marketing with watermarks and finally a review of a great watermarking tool.

My journey with photographic watermarks has been anything but Read more…

It’s seldom that lens lust will get the better of me, but its looking like it happening. Canon’s announcement of the 17mm Tilt-Shift lens (not to mention the 24mm Tilt-Shift II lens) has my attention. While I have the 24mm Tilt-Shift I at the moment I’m most interested in the 17mm Tilt-Shift. I’ve been out recently with my 24mm TS and been stymied by the narrower field of view. For most the 24mm would suffice in most situations but I can’t stop going wide. I suppose Frank Capa had his mantra  ”If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”. I on the other hand like to say “If your pictures aren’t good enough you’re not photographing the scene wide enough”. Easy enough to say if you’re into nature and landscape, but perhaps not so true if you’re a portrait photographer. Unfortunately the price point is steep. $2499. Ouch!

Technorati Tags: Canon 17mm Tilt-Shift

Earlier this month I had the great fortune to attend the Epson Print Academy for the 2nd time in roughly two years time. The first time I attended I took part in Track 2, the more advanced of the two tracks offered, with Jeff Schewe, John Paul Caponigro, Mac Holbert and Greg Gorman. This year I again took part in Track 2 led by Jeff Schewe, Mac Holbert and Andrew Rodney. I wasn’t sure how much I’d pick up that was new the second time around, but I was happy to gain some great new perspectives and tips with the most recent Adobe software.

Organization
First the Epson Print Academy is one of the best organized events I’ve attended. The great organization enables access to view prints both pre-made & framed and those made during the workshop, peruse vendors, talk to instructors, access documentation on software & printers and network with other participants. The day long event is packed with information and to help you not miss a beat lunch is provided. 

Vendors & Discounts
Epson did a great job in San Francisco pulling together (3) three local camera stores to set up shop and provide substantial discounts to their products. In addition the local Epson reseller Meridian Cyber Solution had great discounts on Epson printers (no tax and up to a $500 rebate on printers).  OnOne software, Lexar and others were on hand as well. The breaks were tough to endure as the deals provided were very tempting. I ended up buying a couple pieces of software but held off on a bigger ticket purchase… for now.

Topics of Discussion for Track 2

• Color Management - Andrew Rodney
• Printing with Lightroom - Jeff Schewe
• Printing with Photoshop CS4 - Andrew Rodney
• Art of Digital B&W – Jeff Schewe
• Fine Art Printing & Workflow – Mac Holbert
• Q&A with an Adobe Lightroom Software Engineer
• General Q&A
  Note: Speakers may vary in your city. 

What I Learned

While I still use Photoshop CS3 some of the time I have become growingly dependent on Lightroom 2.x, yet I found the concepts applied were easily translatable to those using CS3 and CS2. Your mileage may vary on this depending on your knowledge and comfort level with Photoshop. Both tips on Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2.x were provided through out the seminar. The discussions were never dry and the friendly yet sarcastic exchanges between instructors discussing Photoshop and Lightroom made the discussions all the more entertaining. If you’re unaware Jeff Schewe is a real ham, but one of the most knowledgeable people you’ll come across. The post-processing and workflow tips were incredibly valuable. Having attended once before I had some information re-enforced, but learned a lot more building on my existing knowledge. I learned several small tips… too numerous to list, but my favorite speaker of the day was Mac Holbert. Mac is credited with inventing Inkjet Printing and is one of the most knowledgeable people you’ll ever meet when it comes to printing and printing workflow. While attending the Epson Print Academy last time John Paul Caponigro was my favorite speaker as his workflow approach helped me optimize my own. While I was disappointed he was not an instructor during this session I ended up learning tons more from Mac. I should clarify in that I learned new approaches to similar challenges previously addressed by John. Mac just has a different approach and it was eye opening.

You’d think I’d have enough of the Epson events, but if I had the chance I’d attend the next one scheduled in San Francisco. Every time I attend I learn something new and while my time is extremely precious these days the value of what I learn far out weighs the time commitment needed to lock up one of my days.

Check the Epson Print Academy schedule to find when they’re swinging through your area. The admission price is a steal for what you’ll take away from the event.

Technorati Tags: Epson Print Academy, review, digital printing, digital photography, workflow, post-processing, Epson

For those that took an interest in my earlier post regarding Facebook’s revised Terms of Use “Facebook’s Terms of Use: From Bad to Beyond Worse“, news is just now coming out that Facebook has reverted to an older version of their Terms of Use dated September 23, 2008. Another notable development is that Facebook has created a Facebook Bill of Rights group to solicit feedback to future changes to their Terms of Use. Given the escalating buzz online about the Terms of Use change on blogs, social news sites like Digg.com and a pending Federal complaint someone at Facebook got the message.

While this news is a step in the right direction the older Terms of Use is still not ideal. Given that a newly created forum to discuss the Terms of Use has now been opened it would appear they’re making efforts to move things in a positive direction. Time will tell.

For more see Facebook Launches Facebook Bill of Rights, Reverts to Previous Terms of Use – RWW

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Terms of Use, Social Media, Copyright