There is a lot to be said for serendipity when taking photos.  Earlier in the year after a planned excursion to photograph Japantown at dusk here in San Francisco, I was returning to my car when I saw a really bright street lamp out of the corner of my eye. Taking a double take I realized that it wasn’t a streetlamp in the distance, but the full moon rising over Geary Blvd.  I was unable to set up my camera in

A few weeks back I was hunting for music that I could use on a web based video and had a challenging time. As a photographer who cares about rights to my work being respected, I felt it was important to share that same respect to musicians whose work I wanted to use. Searching and gaining permission to use music for my photo video proved to be a huge challenge and got me to respect the Creative Commons initiative all

While in Switzerland on my last trip there I found a quiet brook running through the alpine countryside and was in awe of the fall color. The brook itself was a beautiful turquoise (I’ll post a photo of that in the near future) and the ceiling of color provided above it by the trees was a real visual treat. The gray rock cliff behind seemed only to enhance the color to my eye. When the rain began to fall that i

I’m trying out a new commenting system here on the JMG-Galleries Blog and I’d like to solicit your feedback on it over the coming weeks. DISQUS is rolling out a new version of their blog commenting system (v3) this week, integrating blog comments and corresponding comments found on other communities such as Facebook, Twitter and Friendfeed. I’m patiently waiting for the full roll out and looking to

Working with a long lens you never know what might squeeze into the narrow field of view when photographing masses of animals. I was very lucky on this one morning in Monterey finding these huddling California Sea Lions in a symmetrical pairing as they interacted with each other. Watching sea lions never gets old and I’d imagine the experience of seeing them underwater where they’re far more nimble would

The magic of Glacier National Park is that its bigger than life beauty is seemingly presented like acts of a play. Through out the day or sometimes slowly over several days various acts are revealed.  Most know Glacier from its iconic sun kissed glacially carved peaks and valleys (see Swiftcurrent Lake Panoramic, Glacier National Park), but between these amazing moments curtains of clouds descends as harsh weather co

The past few years online have been an interesting ride and things are only going to get more interesting thanks to Social Media. We are all consumers and now through Social Media the strength of our voice and influence is amplified by the size of our networks (see my previous post 4 Metrics of Social Media Impact). On the other side of the coin many of us are also our own company and brand, this is particularly true

With an eye towards big landscapes its easy to become focused to the point of having tunnel vision when trekking around. These days with every step I take I’m often taking note of what’s beneath me as much as what is in front of me. In some instances this is to make sure I’m not at risk of being bit or stung by animals or insects, but its also to look for photo subjects that I might otherwise quickl