Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

Sea Otter and Sleeping Pup (Enhydra lutris)

The innocence of youth California Sea Otter style. This very young pup seemed to have found a save and comfy spot to sleep on a cold morning in Monterey, California. It’s always impressive to see how strong the mothering instincts are for Sea Otters. The females will swim constantly to ensure their pups are a safe distance from any potential threat. This particular photo was taken at a focal length of 1200mm and is not cropped. Even still you can see the watchful eye of this mother making sure no one is coming near her precious pup.

Technorati Tags: wildlife, photo, photography, California Sea Otter, sea otter, pup, super telephoto, Enhydra lutris, stock photo

This month Part II of my article on Web Optimization has been published in Outdoor Photographer. If you don’t subscribe to the magazine be sure to check out the online version.

Web Optimization Part II
Working with sharpness, watermarks and metadata

In addition I have 9 photos published in an article titled “Big Wheel Racing Isn’t Child’s Play – Outlaw downhill races are serious fun” by Laine Yvkoff in Penthouse magazine.

For the benefit of 99.9% of you that do not read this magazine you can view my Bring Your Own Big Wheel photos featured in this article in the following gallery sets on my web site:

Bring Your Own Big Wheel 2008

Bring Your Own Big Wheel 2007

For those unfamiliar with Bring Your Own Big Wheel check out the following site to learn more about it.
9th Annual BYOBW – Jon Brumit

Technorati Tags: April, Outdoor Photographer, Penthouse, magazine, photography, photos, BYOBW, web optimization

Right underneath my nose something horrific has happened, my desk has slowly been taken over by hard drives. What once was a vast open space has quickly became a cluttered mess, consumed by box after box with noisy fans and an octopus of cords.This weekend I decided to do something about it now that I had a storage solution in place (see A Happy Ending to My Drive Crash) that was scalable and a tad more reliable.

Quite simply I removed 10 external drives from my desk. Yes 10! If you count my old 1.5 TB drive that was removed in January it would be 11. All 10 drives add up to 2.9 TB of space.

Drives Removed From My Desk

Now that my desk space has been reclaimed I have the space to work and I no longer live in fear of blowing a fuse (not that it ever happened). All of these drives have since been replaced with (1) one Firmtek enclosure housing (5) 1TB drives. Now as I need more space I can swap out drives from my enclosure, expanding storage space while maintaining the same drive footprint on my desk.

My FirmTek Drive and More Desk Space

While double checking that I had all my content backed up this weekend was time consuming, keeping me from other photo work,  I’m elated that this is finally done. Of course the other great thing is that I’m no longer consuming so much electricity to access my data. One might say this was a “green” project.

If anyone local is looking for some drives let me know.

I wonder how long my clean desk will last?

Well it should stay this way, if not become less cluttered as I put in place my new Powermac and sell off my old dual G4 workstation and Quad G5 workstation. I can’t wait until this is all done.

My Drive Free Desk

Technorati Tags: hard drive, clearance, desk, workspace

The past couple of weeks I’ve enjoyed the following articles, blog posts, podcasts and videos. I thought I’d pass them on to be enjoyed by those who check in to my blog regularly. Enjoy!

Earth Hour
This past Saturday was Earth Hour, an event to highlight the worldwide need to address global warming. Landmarks, city skylines, local communities and individuals dimmed non-essential lights or turned them out completely from 8:30-9:30PM to “vote Earth”. The video below documents many of the landmarks world-wide that went dark this past weekend. If you missed this event put it on your calendar for next year.

PhotoNetCast: Going Beyond your Comfort Zone in Photography
A great discussion on improving ones photography by pushing oneself beyond your perceived comfort zone. If that weren’t enough there is an announcement regarding a new aspect to the podcast centering around photo critiques of listener submitted images.

Congress Passes Wilderness Bill to Protect 2 Million Acres Across 9 States
A landmark piece of legislation, Omnibus Public Land Management Act containing 16 wilderness bills, passed the U.S. House of Representatives this past week. The impact of this legislation extends protection to 2 million acres of land across 9 states. The map of impacted areas can be seen in the following map (2.7MB PDF)

Tax Tips for Part-Time Photographers
Ivan Makarov, a part-time photographer and accountant, shares some tips and answers some frequently asked questions regarding the intricacies of the U.S. tax code for those who are part-time photographers.

Creating the Night Fisherman – Art Wolfe Blog
Art Wolfe has added a great video to his blog detailing the process that went into capturing his iconic photo “The Night Fisherman”. I’ve talked to him about this and other photos in a past podcast of mine for EXIF and Beyond “Art Wolfe Interview Part II” (at roughly the 1/2 way point). In Art’s video he goes into greater detail with alternate photos detailing his progression to the final photograph.

Stack the Odds in your Favor – Guy Tal Blog
I missed this when it came out a couple weeks ago, but its well worth passing on even if I’m a little late in reading it. Guy provides a very eloquent reminder to take the time to view and appreciate the beauty around us rather than getting caught up in maintaining our way of life. A great read.

Saul Griffith: Inventing a super-kite to tap the energy of high-altitude wind
This video was both fascinating and inspiring. If only such innovation were more widely supported.

Killer whales roam Gulf of Mexico
Who would believe it. Confirmation that a large pod of Killer Whales calls the Gulf of Mexico home feeding on dolphins and tuna.

4AM Project
April 4th at 4am capture your neck of the woods on film or digitally and share it with a growing community of photographers taking part in this photo project.

Conservatory of Flowers Valentines Day Lighting in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

It’s been a while since I’ve photographed the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, but this past Valentines Day I was able to stop by and was pleasantly surprised to see the dome of the building glowing a fitting color. I wonder if they’ll make lighting of the dome a regular occurance like the lighting of the Empire State Building in New York city. Either way it was fun to see this historic building lit up in such a festive manner.

Technorati Tags: photography, travel, San Francisco, California, Conservatory of Flowers, stock photo, Valentine’s Day

Borrowlenses.com has been kind enough to make available a free week long lens rental (excluding super telephoto lenses) to be given away here on the JMG-Galleries blog.

In order to be eligible you need to (updated 3/27/09):

• Contest open to only those in the US. Lens rentals cannot be shipped to other countries.
  Be located in the United States.
• The lucky winner will place the order online at BorrowLenses.com and they request a credit card number to cover the risk of a no-return. They will not charge your credit card. BorrowLenses.com is a reputable business but if you don’t feel comfortable with this condition, please don’t enter
  Be able to place an order online with a credit card. No charges will be made, this is merely a technicality.
• The offer excludes super telephoto lenses and pro camera bodies.

HOW TO ENTER

1. Peruse Borrowlenses.com to find something you’d be interested to rent. Feel free to let me know what catches your eye. I won’t hold you to this if you win. I’m just curious.
   Note: Available lenses are for Nikon and Canon cameras. Not a Nikon or Canon user consider their lighting and tripod equipment.
2. Add a comment to this post with the item you’d be most interested to rent.
   Note: Your blog comment is worth one entry to the raffle.

For an additional entry to the raffle…

• In your comment here point me to a post on your blog, Twitter stream, or Flickr photostream referencing this giveaway and Borrowlenses.com

Deadline: April 1st at Midnight PST
The winner will be randomly chosen and announced no later than April 2nd 4th.

Thanks for taking part and good luck!

Technorati Tags: photography, borrowlenses.com, borrowlenses, equipment, rental

Golden Gate Bridge & Surf at Sunset

The interesting thing about San Francisco is that summer time weather is never during summer. It’s in the spring and fall. During the summer its cold and foggy. I ramble about this because I often see so many tourists on the bridge in shorts and t-shirts during the summer and it brings a tear to my eye. Ok maybe it doesn’t bring me to tears, but I feel for them. I should also say if you’re traveling through the area don’t take the “summer” like weather for granted. If you’re out and about at sunset like I was to capture this photo of the Golden Gate Bridge you’ll want to dress like its winter. Even when clear and sunny the wind can make it deceptiveIy cold. Of course it gets even colder if you opt to get your feet or legs wet to get that perfectly timed photo. If only I got a quarter for every time I spent my evenings blow drying the inside of my boots.

Technorati Tags: photography, stock photo, golden gate bridge, san francisco, california, beach, surf

When I first started out in photography it took a while to learn one of the best kept secrets…  rather than buy expensive lenses you can rent them. With the popularity of the Strobist it should also be noted that this is true of lighting equipment as well and numerous professional photographers prefer renting lighting equipment rather than owning. Ultimately renting photography equipment is one of the best ways to get the most out of your photographic experience.

Out With The Old
In the very near past the standard means of renting was through local camera stores. “Convenience”, loosely used, was the upside as you could drive down to your local camera store as needed.  The downside of course was few stores provided this service, you’d end up with older gear, “modern” lenses lacked IS or VR, higher end gear often required insurance or a large deposit,  lens selection was both sparse due to limited stock & subject to demand if a local events was happening in your area, and in some cases reservations prone to cancellation due to less than punctual renters not returning lenses on time.

In With The New

Fortunately a new breed of online photography businesses have developed focusing exclusively on the lens and lighting rental market. One such business is San Mateo based Borrowlenses.com. Borrowlenses.com is in the unique position to offer a broad variety of equipment including lenses, lighting, tripods, light meters, filters and even camera bodies for Canon and Nikon alike. Due to the young age of Borrowlenses.com all of the gear they rent modern and in great condition.

Ease & Simplicity

Borrowlenses.com rents photography gear to anyone in the domestic United States providing delivery by mail. Their web site is easy to navigate. Placing an order is as easy as finding the equipment you want and using a standard shopping cart to order your rental. You can create a regular account upon checkout or even become a member to obtain frequent rental discounts. Obtaining damage insurance is optional and there is no requirement for a deposit. For those in a rush FedEx overnight or 2 day delivery is offered and pre-paid return labels are included.  If that was not enough, for those who are lucky enough to be in the San Francisco bay area you can save on shipping by picking up and dropping off gear in select locations in San Mateo, San Francisco and San Jose.

My Experience & What Others Are Saying

I was very fortunate to have my Canon 500mm f/4 super telephoto lens rental comped to me as part of this review. Even still I went through the complete process of ordering my lens online to evaluate the process from beginning to end. The process was incredibly simple. I opted to pick up the lens in San Mateo both to see the Borrowlenses office and to meet their staff.  The office was clean and professional in appearance. Their staff was friendly, easy to talk to and very helpful. Normally when picking up a lens you need to return it to the same location, but due to my tight schedule they were flexible in letting me drop the lens off at Action Camera, that is 1/2 a mile from my home in San Francisco. The folks at Action Camera were courteous and the drop off was super simple. I have to add that being able to drop off my lens at Action Camera, where I used to take my film to be developed, was extremely convenient. It gave me an opportunity to stock up on miscellaneous supplies that I had been meaning to purchase and support a great local resource.

I know what you might be thinking, all this praise surely must be tainted by the free rental provided by Borrowlenses.com. Don’t believe me on how easy & reliable this service is and how friendly the Borrowlenses.com staff are? Check out their stellar reviews on ResellerRatings.com (9.95/10 rating from 462 reviews) and Yelp (5/5 stars from 29 reviews).

The Bottom Line – Would I Recommend Borrowlenses?
Absolutely. Borrowlenses.com is easy to use, has a wide selection and the gear is top notch.  I’ll certainly be using Borrowlenses again and it has moved to the top of my list for local resources to rent camera gear from.

Get a 5% Discount
If you’re interested in trying out Borrowlenses they’ve extended a special introductory offer to my blog readers. When placing your order enter the discount code “JJJ5” sans quotation marks to obtain a 5% discount.

On Twitter
Following the latest with Borrowlenses? Be sure to subscribe to their Twitter feed Borrowlenses and if you’re not already be sure you’re also following my Twitter feed jimgoldstein

Photos from the Canon 500mm

Canon 1Ds Mark III, 500mm + 2x TC with a mild crop
Wild Turkey – Marin Headlands

Canon 1Ds Mark III at 500mm (no crop)
San Francisco Ferry Building as seen from Treasure Island
Read more…