This week it’s my Birthday. While playing some soccer with my kids last Friday, I was feeling younger than my years. Then when I woke up the next morning, the muscle aches reminded that feeling old is physical, while feeling young is mental. C’est la vie. As a nice Birthday…
Ever wonder how the truly gifted photographers get that special shot? Well take a look at these enlightened shots, many revealing the tools and techniques needed to “bag that shot”.
Picture: Women backpackers camping in Desolation Wilderness, near Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County, California I’ve been really itching to get up to the wilderness this year, and now the itch seems worse than ever. One problem I have is that I almost need many many more ‘fixes’ of getting into…
Over on a microstock newsgroup, someone posted link to an interview with a pro photographer at ASSIGNMENT ZERO. Never heard of them? A place where amateurs write “news” stories and interviews, which are then edited, published, and used on the Assignment zero web site, and the original writers happily accept…
Picture: Moray Eels on exhibit in aquarium tank at SeaWorld, Mission Bay, San Diego County Coast, California This is just one of those images that caught my attention as I was cruising through some photo files. I’d thought I’d share a little technique I use at times to get photos…
Enjoy the Game, do your Job, but remember – we own your a$$. This seems to be the sentiment passed along from major league teams of the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), and many other national sports organizations. And if you’re a photographer, videographer, or reporter working…
I just need to share this; It’s finally done. My summertime backyard make-over. As of 7:30 this evening, the last plant has been planted, the last bag of dirt has been put away, the wheelbarrow is propped up against the last section of new fence, (which was installed on Tuesday),…
Picture: Young boy playing with stick next to dog and stream at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, Monterey County Coast, California This image comes from my most recently keyworded batch of photos that I downloaded last night. Here is a sample of the keywords for this image, which will eventually make…
There’s so much talk about how hard it is to be a professional photographer these days, especially if you rely on income from stock photo sales for a living. To be honest, there’s a lot to be said for the difficulties of being in this industry, watching supply soar and…
About The Image reported today that UK Agency Wellcome Images, formerly Wellcome Trust Medical Photographic Library, is now offering all of it’s imagery to teachers, students, researchers, and the public under a Creative Commons License. The non-commercial accredited, (sometimes non-derivative) license is a great resource, and serves as a fine…
Bye, Bye, OnRequest Custom Stock? Professional photographer, John Harrington, who runs the PhotoBusinessForum weblog, made a very interesting post a few days back, regarding a comment made by the head of OnRequest images. If you’ve been a pro stock photographer over the last few years, you likely heard about OnRequest,…
Picture: Hiker in the Zion River, Zion River Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah. This is an image I took while my buddy, Michael Routh, and I trekked up the Zion River Narrows last fall. During our return walk to the valley, Michael ditched his camera and pack on some nearby…
“Would you mind taking that off? Just set it over there…” So the big question is; would you ask Queen Elizabeth 2 to remove her crown for a portrait photo? I can imagine that words to that effect were asked by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz while she was shooting a…
Picture: Morning sun behind pine tree rising over mountains, Desolation Wilderness, near Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County, California This image was taken a year ago tomorrow while on a backpacking trip into the Desolation Wilderness, near Lake Tahoe. This was literally the scene that greeted me when I awoke. I’d…
Picture: Moonrise in evening over road through vineyards in the Carneros Region, Napa Valley Wine Country, Napa County, California I’d like to announce the start of a new promotional partnership. Regular readers will know that I have had ‘issues’ with keywording. Over the course of this last year, I began…
Picture: Full moon rising through clouds lit by alpenglow at sunset, Desolation Wilderness, near Lake Tahoe, California. Last night I had one of those pure “Doh!” moments. The root cause of this started 24 hours previous on Wednesday evening. I’d been out tending our new garden when I looked up…
During every other week of summer, our city offers a free concert in the park. It’s a good place for a Sunday evening picnic, let the kids run around, dance, and hear some music. Most of the time, these are just local cover bands. But this weekend was refreshingly different;…
I’d written recently about some time I’d taken off from normal business while working on outside projects, including the landscaping of our backyard. I thought I was done, and last week was ready to get back to my normal routine. Then came the flies in the ointment. First, my idea…
Last night I was escaping the lull in the current heat wave by enjoying the night air (81 degrees F) lounging in my patio recliner. As I looked up, I saw a bright light moving through the sky. Normally, I’d just chalk it up to being another one of those…
Picture: Storm light on Bridalveil Fall, from Tunnel View, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California See a much larger version of this image. This photo was taken this last spring from the most famous, most photographed vantage point in Yosemite Valley, called Tunnel View. The title is meaningful for me,…
Picture: Shadow of space shuttle exhaust plume pointing to a rising full moon at sunset. People who have followed this blog, or seen my email signature know that I have a fascination with space sciences. One place that I feed my fascination is that APOD; Astronomy Picture of the Day….
Justin Black, who originally took over my old job, and now run Galen Rowell’s Mountain Light Gallery, has posted a series of questions on “Turning Pro” over at Photo.net. It has generated some very interesting discussion worth reading. I was short on time, so I just made a quick reference…
Picture: Grape vines on hillside at Viansa Vineyards, overlooking the Viansa Wetlands, Los Carneros Region, Sonoma County, California My wife and I recently got to spend our first consecutive two nights away from our kids since our oldest was born eight years ago. We stayed at a new resort at…
