It’s official I’m back. Back from 5 days of a very hectic but relaxing travel schedule to photograph the beautiful natural landscapes of Utah and Wyoming. Not counting my flight from San Francisco to Salt Lake City I logged nearly 1100 miles in my trusty rental car. In a very strange coincidence I seem to have captured a tad over a photo per mile. As we all know it’s not the quantity of photos it is the quality of the photos that matter. Over the coming weeks you can expect to see photos and read vignettes from my trip.
Click to Enlarge
With an aggressive schedule and so much ground to cover
even while driving my camera wasn’t getting much rest.
On this trip I had the pleasure of meeting several great people across the region. I am looking forward to sharing in the coming week a conversation I had with a very talented and for now unnamed photographer in my next episode of EXIF and Beyond. I’ll also introduce you to a local environmentalist with a great cause that needs your support.
Before ending this entry I should also note that just before and during my trip quite a bit has happened that is noteworthy.
N. Rockies Wolves Get Federal Protection Restored - National Geographic
I have to admit I was very happy to have heard this news while in Wyoming.
My Arctic National Wildlife Refuge photos were referenced in a ThinkProgress.org blog post titled Boehner falsely claims there’s no ‘wildlife’ in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (with video of Congressman Boehner’s idiotic claim)
PhotoNetCast #8 has been released with discussions around Photography Contests with special guest professional photographer David Ziser
An Interview With Jim M. Goldstein on Bild och foto
Today there was a good conversation on the subject of photo manipulation on NPR “In A Photoshop Age, Can You Believe Your Eyes?” that I highly recommend listening to if and when they put up a recording of the program. As expected the ethics of photography played heavily in the discussion with many references to last years incident with Allan Detrich of the Toledo Blade details noted in my post Ethics of Photography: Career Suicide by Photoshop. What brought this to the forefront of discussion was recent news of a widely published doctored photo of an Iranian missile test showing 4 missiles launched when only 3 actually did.
What really made this program note worthy was a side point made by photographer Vincent LaForet that got little attention regarding reader based photojournalism and how much it can be trusted. With the advent of iReport on CNN and other news outlets publishing reader submitted photography it makes me wonder…
If photojournalists have a tough time sticking to the ethics of photojournalism how is the general public expected to?
Taking a quick look at the iReport Terms of Use I see nothing of photo manipulation or photojournalist ethics guidelines. Granted most people are submitting photos/videos from their cell phones and time is of the essence. None-the-less there is a risk that such news outlets take with such content and the burden to catch manipulated photos is clearly on photo editors.
I pose the question to you…
Do you trust everything you see when you know it is a photo submitted by a non-professional photojournalist?
It’s quite common to see iconic photos of San Francisco with the spans of the Golden Gate Bridge emerging from the fog, but here is a view of just the fog at sunset. On this particular evening I had no time to get in place to photograph the bridge in the fog. Instead, much closer to home, I caught a view I’ve yet to see of the fog partially covering the western portion of the city “San Francisco Sunset“. Shortly after that photo was taken the fog and lighting became much more intense. Watching the fog roll in while the light of sunset danced over the rapidly transforming cloudscape was quite a treat. On this evening I’m glad there wasn’t a bridge to ruin it.
View more photos of San Francisco Fog
Technorati Tags: sunset, fog, photography, stock photo
Photographed below is an Eared Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) at Moss Landing. Birding isn’t my primary focus when it comes to photography, but the red eye of an Eared Grebe is a tough subject to pass up. The red eye of this bird is truly an eye catcher. Sorry I couldn’t resist the pun.
Have a great weekend everyone.
If you’re interested in capturing photos like this consider joining me on my Sea Otters of California Photo Tour for a day of great nature photography.
Technorati Tags: Eared Grebe, Podiceps nigricollis, California, Monterey, wildlife, photography, stock photo
Looking forward… I cannot wait until early September. The prospect of photographing Sea Otters again is keeping me going these days. The act of photographing a landscape or nature subject has always been a meditative experience for me. Add to the mix a cute furry critter like Sea Otters and you have a magical combination that adds up to a relaxing and fun time. Only 62 more days to go…
Join me on my Sea Otters of California Tour for a day of great nature photography and you’ll know what I mean.
Technorati Tags: Monterey, California, Sea Otter, wildlife, stock photo, photography, Enhydra lutris
PhotoNetCast Episode 7 has just been released where a healthy discussion is covered regarding the Philosophy and Ethics of Editing and Processing . As always the photographers and bloggers involved in this podcast include Brian Auer of EpicEdits, Jim M. Goldstein of JMG-Galleries, Martin Gommel of Kwerfeldein, and Antonio Marques of Words: irrational.
Access the podcast and its RSS feeds via PhotoNetCast.
Technorati Tags: podcast, photography, editing, processing
7
Jul
Posted in Copyright, Flickr, Photography by Jim |
There have been many stories over the past few years about copyright infringement on Flickr. To date most have been about individuals maliciously downloading the work of others to resell it as their own or companies using photographs commercially violating either the licensing restrictions of the photo or ignoring the need for a model release. What most remain unaware of is that Flickr fosters copyright infringement through their API. The most egregious part of this is that Flickr knows it. Even if done with out malice you can expect them to spin it that they do not foster copyright infringement through their API or, as you’ll later see, that they’re immune from being liable for improper use of their API because of their API terms of use.
6 months ago I realized that two applications leveraging Flickr’s API were ignoring photo licensing settings that every user configures in the “Privacy & Permissions” section of their “Your Account” page. Even now regardless of a photos designated licensing setting, whether Creative Commons or All Rights Reserved, these and other applications are publishing Flickr photos to 3rd party web sites and image files, high resolution if available, are being downloaded for reuse on personal computers. Worse still is that as recently as this weekend MyxerTones employed Flickr’s API inappropriately in effect making every Flickr photo available for sale as cell phone wallpaper for 2 days.
My first realization that there was a problem with how Flickr’s API was being managed was when Read more… »
3
Jul
Posted in Links & Articles, Photography by Jim |
This is by far one of the most beautiful sets of photos I’ve seen of Earth taken from orbiting satellites. Chris Ingham Brooke from Environmental Graffiti has posted a set of the 30 Most Incredible Abstract Satellite Images of Earth. Below are a few of my favorites, but it is very much worth your while to check out the full post. Each image is wallpaper sized and includes information about environment photographed.
Top Left: A stunning outcrop of black rock covered in swathes of shifting sand - Terkezi Oasis, Chad
Top Center: Bolivian Deforestation - an image of the once vast carpet of rainforest in the Amazon basin.
Top Right: Dasht-e Kavir, or valley of desert, Iran
Bottom Left: Malaspina Glacier pours into the Bay of Alaska
Bottom Center: Karman vortex, a repeating pattern of spinning vortices caused by the unsteady separation of flow over bluff bodies.
Bottom Right: The rivers of this small country in West Africa, Guinea-Bissau
Technorati Tags: photography, satellite, abstract
