Landscape, Nature And Travel Photography

Swiss Fall Color and Cliffs

I’m in pre-trip cramming mode and a Fall Color photo is what the doctor ordered. While I ramp up to photograph spring landscapes I like to remember how drastically the landscape can transform. This particular landscape was taken near Interlaken, Switzerland where the range of color in the forest during Autumn is simply amazing. With fall color in mind I look forward to escaping the new golden hills of Northern California and taking in some green scenery. Green… I can’t wait so see and photograph that color again before it disappears for good until next year.

Technorati Tags: Photography, Travel, Switzerland, Fall Color, Landscape, Nature

In the past week I learned of some great Twitter related sites and tools during my attendance of the first official Twitter conference  (140 | The Twitter Conference) in Mountain View, California. Seeing as how I’ve been using Twitter for sometime with out posting much on it, over 2 years now, I wanted to put on a different hat and pass on some knowledge I picked up so those not in attendance could also grow in their use of Twitter.

To frame this post I will tell you that what I got out of the 140 conference is that more and more data tools are being developed to make sense of the vast amount of information being passed through Twitter. You may not think actively about this, but your network is built on common interests or data points if you want to be clinical about it. In either case this data is useful for numerous purposes. As to what purposes I leave that to you to evaluate for your needs.

1. TweetReach
This site is one that is so simple yet so magical. Retweeting is when you forward the tweet of another person to your network of contacts. Retweets are in the purest form word-of-mouth marketing. While Retweeting can be effective not everyone in your network may have the exact same interest as you on every topic you track. Twitterreach gives you a window into who found your Tweet of interest and retweeted it. What sets Twitterreach.com apart is that you can see how many times your Tweet was seen, clicked through and who had the greatest reach in distributing your tweet. A great tool to learn who in your network likes particular topics and has the means to distribute it widely.

2. xefer
Find out when any Twitter user is most active on Twitter. This sounds a little odd, but its a good window into the activity of others as well as your own. This information might come in handy if you’re trying to more scientifically time the release of certain information for widest distribution.

3. TweetBeep
Set up an automated alert to be notified when certain certain keywords are detected in a tweet, when a particular person has tweeted or if someone has tweeted near a particular location or any combination there of. You can also narrow down the alerts by the “attitude” of the post whether positive / negative or if it contains links. Quite a handy way to keep on top of trends and topics.

4. Twist: See Trends In Twitter
Track trends on particular topics or people. The display is in graph form and can be useful in mining data for particular projects. If someone is talking about a topic you have great knowledge of it might just provide you an in to make an introduction.

5. Backtweets.com
Type in a link URL to see who has tweeted/retweeted it and who is discussing it. This is a useful tool in finding other like minded individuals to grow you network. So simple, but oh so useful.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Social Media, Tools

Two announcements that I’m happy to share:

1. I will be leading a PhotoWalk here in San Francisco from the Ferry Building to North Beach as part of Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk on July 18, 2009. I invite you to sign up and join me for an evening of urban adventure. Be quick as San Francisco PhotoWalks have been filling up super quick and there are only 50 spots available. The cost is of course free.
North Beach, San Francisco PhotoWalk Sign-Up Page

2. I’m giving away yet another BorrowLenses.com lens rental.

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:

• Contest open to only those in the US. Lens rentals cannot be shipped to other countries.
  
• 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
  
• 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: Tweeting ” Win a free BorrowLenses.com lens rental ( via @borrowlenses ) Follow @jimgoldstein for a chance to win http://bit.ly/UGMeZ ” on Twitter 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: June 3rd at Midnight PST
The winner will be randomly chosen and announced no later than June 4th.

Thanks for taking part and good luck!

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