This Weeks Friday Freebie iPad Wallpaper: Grand Teton Sunrise Friday Freebie features an image to liven up your iPad display with images from my travels… all for free.
Grand Teton National Park is truly a special place. The towering mountains, scenic valley and abundant wildlife makes for an amazing nature experience. I’m embarrassed to admit before my first visit to Grand Teton National Park I was of the mindset that it would be a pitstop rather than a point of focus. Boy was I wrong. The park made such an impact on me I’ve since revisited numerous times and look forward to my next visit. To get a better idea of what has caught my eye here visit my Grand Teton National Park photo gallery. Thanks for checking in and enjoy this Friday’s Freebie.
Note: This image is distributed for personal use only and all rights are reserved. If interested in using this photograph commercially please contact me.
The Raygun Gothic Rocketship is one of my favorite public art displays here in San Francisco. Located near Pier 14 on the Embarcadero in downtown San Francisco it sits right on the waterfront and with in view of the historic San Francisco Ferry Building. Every chance I get I like to stop and admire this 40 foot rocket built by Black Rock Arts. If you’re visiting San Francisco or live here be sure to get the most of seeing the Gotchic Raygun Rocketship as it is only on display through September 2011.
Raygun Gothic Rocketship - San Francisco, California
The 40-foot-tall art piece, The Raygun Gothic Rocketship, offers rococo-futuristic, highly-stylized vision of space travel circa 1930’s-1940’s science fiction and is the latest in a series of temporary public art exhibitions sponsored by BRAF with the aim of enlivening and activating public spaces. The installation first landed at Burning Man 2009, and has subsequently appeared at NASA Ames for Yuri’s Night, and at Maker Faire. The piece is comprised of a single rocketship, poised as if to board passengers for a typical run to a nearby stellar destination. When installed in San Francisco, the sculpture will be accompanied by a descriptive exhibit, a “rocket stop”, which tells the story of the rocketship, provides route, schedule and other information. The installation will be illuminated for nighttime viewing.
Raygun Gothic Rocketship & San Francisco Ferry Building on the Embarcadero
Raygun Gothic Rocketship & Local Earth Sign - San Francisco, California
Ever wonder why mobile phone photography is exploding?
A discussion I had last night crystalized why this is indeed the case. Mobile phone photography, in particular iPhoneography, has distilled down the simple and core attraction of taking photos… simply put it facilitates taking photos for the sake of taking photos and exploring visually. There is no preconceived notion of what is right, acceptable or marketable. You see something interesting, you shoot it and there is no major post-processing effort required.
There are catalysts to this craze including the BestCamera, Hipstamatic and Instagram apps that are bridging phone photography to social media and making a big dent in how most people think of photography. In the near future when someone says in conversation they took a photo, the interpretation by default will be that the photo was taken with a mobile phone and not an SLR. You want proof? Just last week the New York Times pointed out that the iPhone 4 is just quickly rising to become the most popular camera used on photos submitted to Flickr.
To Be A Poppy
Of the three community based photography mobile apps previously noted, I’m most heavily using Instagram. Why?
It’s free
It has a similar posting vocabulary to Twitter (hashtags, @ replies, etc.)
Vibrant community of users (2 million who joined in 5 months!)
Easy to share via Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Tumblr, and Posterous
The app keeps improving with new features
Like Flickr there is an API facilitating new services and sites to view & share photos (ex. Postagram, Webstagram, Instagallery etc.)
The user interface is refined and simple from registration to sharing & reviewing photos
Clarity of Message
Rating:
I won’t sugar coat it. Instagram has had their rough spots (ex. their version 1.6 release having cache issues for some), but overall the functionality, and track record of regular incremental improvements has been impressive. It is the Flickr of the Mobile world and my most frequently accessed app on my iPhone and iPad. Instagram is by no means a finished product and ever expanding and improving. Instagram clearly has a larger plan expanding beyond the basic app, the release of their API and burgeoning sister apps like Postagram are a sign of the future. The mobile market is huge so it’s likely that there will be multiple players in this field and I’ll be keeping close tabs on BestCamera and Hipstamatic. For now I’m having the most fun with Instagram because its so simple, makes it easy to share output from other photo editing apps and most importantly has made it easy to take photos for the pure and simple joy of taking a photograph.
One of the best modern traditions in San Francisco is the Bring Your Own Big Wheel event held every Easter Sunday afternoon. Having photographed BYOBW 2007, BYOBW 2008 and BYOBW 2010 you’d think there would be nothing new to see, but in fact each year it keeps getting better. Last year the die hards endured cold San Francisco rain, but this year the sun came out making for a great day of tricycle carnage and whacky costume revelry. One nice touch to this years event was a heat dedicated to attending kids and a sign of the event getting bigger and more formal was the requirement of each rider to register and sign a waiver. Still a great time to be had by all. Here are my Bring Your Own Big Wheel 2011 photo highlights plus a video to give you a sample of the BYOBW experience:
Highlights from Bring Your Own Big Wheel 2011 in San Francisco, California. This years event was held Potrero Hill on 20th Street and Vermont Ave. on Easter Sunday April 24, 2011.
This Weeks Friday Freebie iPad Wallpaper: Pristine Rainforest Friday Freebie features an image to liven up your iPad display with images from my travels… all for free.
In honor of Earth Day I thought I’d share what Mother Earth looks like when she’s at her healthiest. Today’s Friday Freebie was taken high above Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica. While traveling to this remote refuge by small plane (and by small I mean a 2 person plane) I was blown away at the density, vibrancy and health of a completely wild & pristine rainforest. While it was great to see only a few miles away a stark reminder remained of how quickly such terrain is razed for farmland and industrial use. Costa Rica boasts an amazing amount of biodiversity thanks to the rainforests here. If you’re curious see what types of plants and animals are found here take a look at my Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica photography gallery. Thanks for checking in and enjoy this Friday’s Freebie.
Note: This image is distributed for personal use only and all rights are reserved. If interested in using this photograph commercially please contact me.
I’ve always been fascinated by abstract photographs. There is something liberating about seeing something beyond the literal, something that challenges the basic principles of how you normally see the world. While I am incredibly fond of traditional nature and landscape photography I take great pleasure in escaping the confines of the genre to apply my creative interpretation to a scene. The process of exploring and finding an abstract that works is creatively exhilarating.
The genesis of my Color Fields work began on a hill in Utah while I was photographing lightning in the distance (see Lightning Strike – Henry Mountain). As I watched storm clouds form over the dramatic Utah landscape I began to dissect and analyze the scene and ultimately found it was the color before me that captured my imagination. While traditional nature photographic opportunities were present something lay beneath that I felt I could draw out as its own subject. With time to burn and inspired by Color Field paintings I had seen in New York several years earlier I began experimenting to bring color into the spotlight. The more I experimented, the more I realized that I wanted to extend my photos into a series highlighting color in various locations where natural light contained special qualities. This is where my Color Fields journey began.
This Weeks Friday Freebie iPad Wallpaper: Ocean Light Friday Freebie features an image to liven up your iPad display with images from my travels… all for free.
While most people think of flowers during Spring I think of clearing weather fronts along the coast. Late season rain clouds can create some very dramatic lighting conditions over the ocean. Photographing such coastal scenes at sunset is a really special thing if you’re lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. If you’re curious to see more of my stormy sky photos look no further than this link. Thanks for checking in and enjoy this Friday’s Freebie.
Note: This image is distributed for personal use only and all rights are reserved. If interested in using this photograph commercially please contact me.
I recently had a great time leading a client on a private wild flower photography workshop and was blown away by the beauty of the very green hills of the San Francisco bay area. If you’re unfamiliar with California Oak Trees you might think they’re always this green and beautiful, but in fact such vibrant color is fleeting as the vast majority of the year their leaves are yellow, orange and brown.
Turkey Vulture Flying Over Green Oak Trees (Quercus lobata) & Meadow - Ranch San Antonio Open Space
Amidst the sea of green were early signs of wild flower season, With late rains and cooler temperatures peak wild flower season has yet to reach Northern California, but even still a great variety of wild flowers cold be found. I’m still sorting through photos of the outing, but we had a good deal of luck at Rancho San Antonio open space and Pacheco State Park. Stay tuned there certainly will be more photos from this trip to come and I’m looking forward to the next time I’m able to share the beauty of wild flower season on my next private wild flower workshop.
Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) Under an Oak Branch
If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets
Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) - Rancho San Antonio Open Space, California
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