Superstition Mountains

A few weeks ago my youngest son and I went out to the mountains for a little hike. Of course I had my camera with me and he had agreed to not push the pace too hard for me so I could take a few pictures. I thought "a few" was vague enough. After all, I took about 400 pictures in just a few hours at Ironman Arizona in November. Some of my favorites from that race and from SOMA a month before can be found in the "The Race in On" gallery.

We had decided to go for an afternoon hike since we were going to be on the West side of the mountain. It was a great day for a hike, no rain and not too hot. It was just warm enough that we were happy to have brought our water bottles with us.

Besides the mountains that seemed to be way off in the distance at first, the great Saguaro cactii all around, there was also some wildlife out and about. I saw a number of birds (come back soon, I am still working on identifying some of them and will have another post up in a few days) including a few really colorful hummingbirds.

The trail was pretty easy for the first mile or so, then started to climb. We turned around at about the point where this next picture was taken. You can see how much steeper the climb got at that point.

We had a great day and managed to get about 4 miles of hiking between stopping for pictures. That included a total of about 1500 feet of climbing. We were tired, but it was a good tired when we got back to the car. As we were driving away, I spotted a coyote cross the road just ahead of us, but he was too quick and by the time I stopped the car, he was out of range for a good picture.

What do you think? Have you had any fun outings recently? Any suggestions for other Arizona hikes? We are thinking about Picacho Peak in a few weeks, wanna join us? Let me know in the comments or head over to Twitter and give me a shout. Stay tuned for some of the bird photos I took that day, coming soon. I promise.

In the meantime, feel free to visit my main photography page and bookmark it. From there, you can jump to my photo galleries by clicking almost any of the photos or links in the left column. Thanks for stopping by. Remember "Take nothing but memories and leave nothing but comments."

Custom Shirts

I ran into a site the other day that I really enjoyed seeing. I always enjoy seeing intricate and fancy designs so when I saw Twice His Designs, I had to take a closer look.

Even though I am not able to wear a t-shirt at my day job, I still enjoy wearing them, especially when they have a good message and look really cool. I think my favorite one is Apocalypse or Wages, but as they are adding more designs all the time, so I will probably have a new favorite soon.

Head over to their web page and check out their designs. If you are on Twitter give them a shout at @bornover.

Do you like their shirts? Do you have a favorite site? Leave a note in the comments here or give me a shout over on Twitter.

What do you park next to little pink houses?

Why, pink cars of course. Yes, I do like some of John Cougar Mellencamp's songs (whichever of his names he is going by these days) and when I saw the pink car, the first thing that popped into my head was "little pink houses".

I played with the first one with the trial version of Lightroom that I am using and I like the way the pink of the car and the green of the pine needles pops out. I like the second picture better because of the angle of the car and the wheel next to the front of the car.

What do you think? Your comments (here or on the photo site which you can get to by clicking either of the pictures) are HUGELY appreciated and will always be acknowledged. If you are part of the Twitter nation, I would be honored if you follow me as that is a good way to get updates on new posts here as well as a great source of a lot of neat photography sites. If you have a Google account, you can also choose to follow this blog as well to stay in touch.

If you have a blog that I or other readers here might enjoy, please feel free to let me know in the comments. I am willing to do a link exchange with many sites (though I reserve the right to politely decline if I do not feel like your site is right for my typical readers).

Thanks for stopping by.

Must have photography accessories

Jeff over at PhotoWalk Pro did an article on Must Have Accessories for your Photography.

The short version is here along with how I feel I am doing in each category:

1. Filters -- A+, UV/skylight filter on every lens for protection and a polarizing filter moved to different lenses as needed.

2. Flash -- F, but that is not really my fault since it is on my list as soon as I can afford another accessory.

3. Tripod -- A, I have a great tripod and an older more compact tripod. If I start doing more serious portrait work, I'll probably need another to hold off camera lighting.

4. Camera Bags -- B, The bag that came with my camera just does not work for me. The backpack I bought is pretty good, but it is a pain to get things in and out without putting the pack on the ground and unzipping the whole thing.

5. Cleaning Supplies -- B-, I have a lens cloth, but still need to get a blower of some kind and probably one of the other items mentioned in the comments to the article.

So, what about you? How are you doing in these categories? Any additional things I should be thinking about? Leave me a note in the comments here or holler over on Twitter.

The Best Things in Life

are not things at all...

Great loving and caring parents
A loving, kind and beautiful wife
Crazy, fun intelligent and talented kids


Good, reliable and trustworthy friends and the beauty found in God's creation round out the things create the memories that no real-estate bubble, financial market drop or even a major economic depression can take away.


(Thanks to the digital life for giving me the idea for this post.)

What are the best "things" in your life? Tell me in the comments here or drop me a shout out over on Twitter.

Is that a woodpecker?

That is what my son asked me as we were out for a run last night. At first I didn't see what he was talking about, but then when we were about 10-15 feet away, I saw what he was talking about. This guy:

He could easily pass for a woodpecker to the untrained eye (like mine). We ran back home and grabbed the camera and came back hoping he would still be there. Sure enough, he was still there and was more than willing to pose for some pictures. He was so unafraid of us that when my watch alarm went off, he didn't fly away, but simply stopped what he was doing until my watch quit.

I walked to within about 10 feet of him clicking away the whole time and he never flew away. I guess he must be hungry.


Oh, and by the way, after looking up woodpecker in my Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of North American Birds, I learned that he was a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker Red-Naped Sapsucker (look at page 130 and you will see this guys brother). That book sure comes in handy.

So have you seen any neat looking critters in your neighborhood lately?
Are you a bird-watcher that can confirm my name?
Just dropping by to say "Hi"?

Any of the above are great reasons to hit the Comments link below and leave a message. You can also give me a shout over on Twitter if that is more your style (but a comment here is quick and easy and greatly appreciated).

------- Updated 2/23/2009 -----
Thanks to a tip in the comments below and after looking a bit closer, based on the habitat map, I think I need to revise my identification slightly. I am updating this entry accordingly to the closely related red-naped sapsucker.

Stock Photos -- Part 2

One of my regular stops when I am reading blogs is Jim M. Goldstein's blog. I frequently find useful information there and was pleased to learn a bit more about how he evaluates stock agencies since I am undertaking this journey into stock photography for some of my photos.

On January 22nd, Jim posted about Getty Images and their growing collection of Flickr photographs. You can read the whole post here as it is a good informative post. The nugget I am concerned about in this post though is where he outlines his process and key factors when considering working with a stock agency. From the above referenced post, he states the following:

When I evaluate stock agencies to work with I first check three things: Exclusivity, Royalties and Rights to Control Claims.

He discusses these in more details in that post and I do not think I could do a better job here. I also do not know how these terms apply in the growing area of microstock and will be investigating that in more detail.

To wrap up for now, microStockU has just started down this road to selling photos via a stock agency. He is doing a podcast as he goes and already has the first episode up. Take a look and listen, as I know he would appreciate feedback and suggestions. If you are just getting started down this road, then we can share the journey together. If you are a veteran of stock and microstock photography, then you have likely learned lessons that could save us some headaches and we would be eternally gratefull for some pointers along that way.

As always, please feel free to leave any comments here on this blog. I have relaxed the posting requirements, so you can leave a comment without needing to be logged in to blogger. I have started to always reply to all comments, so please know that your thoughts are read and appreciated. You can also say "hi" in the Twitterverse if you are so inclined.

Thanks for dropping by and be sure to swing by my photo galleries for a selection of my photographs.

Of Cardinals and Flying Things

The Arizona Cardinals football team made it to the Superbowl. They played a good game. Not great, but good with some great highlights. But for a last-minute Steeler touchdown, they would be celebrating as Superbowl Champions.

Even without the win, some 4000 Cardinal fans in Arizona were on hand to celebrate their return and congratulate them on the best season they have ever had.

At the airport, there was an official welcome and some congratulation speeches from local dignitaries inlcuding Arizona's new governer, Jan Brewer. After this, the team boarded a caravan of buses.

A short time later, at the Cardinals practice facility in Tempe, News Chopper 3 was overhead, presumably gathering footage of some of the team or staff making a stop on their way home.



Has anyone realized that I enjoy taking pictures of flying things like helicopters? You can see more of my vehicle photos here.

Any football fans reading this? Did anyone go to the cardinals welcome rally? Any favorite ads?

Intro to Stock Photography

I have heard about stock photography and I hope that some of my pictures will be saleable that way as well as through my own website. What is Stock Photography? The simple answer is that it is a collection of photos that can be searched and sold to someone that has a need (usually commercial) for a specific image. People that use Stock Photography agencies may not have the time to surf the net looking for a photographer with the perfect image, but can find something they can use quickly by going to an agency.

So I started poking around to see what the options were. I soon realized that there are quite a few sites dedicated to versions of what is usually called Micro Stock Photography. This is used quite often for people like advertising or other graphic design folks when they need an image and are on a budget.

As a result, these sites sell the privilege to use these images for fairly low prices. The goal being to sell many, lower-priced photos to many customers. Over time, this has the potential of providing an ongoing income stream for quite some time after you stop taking pictures (will that ever happen? I sure hope not).

There is an almost endless list of places, so I am not going to try to cover all of them. I will list all that I have heard about in the next post, but for this post, I will only try to share some of the factors that I think should be considered when deciding to use a given service or not.

More importantly, I will be making a list of questions that I have about stock photography. I figure that if I have a question, then it is probable that some people have the same question and more importantly, hopefully there will be answers.

Questions
1. What Tier to use? One list (the 4th post in the thread) I saw was broken down by tiers. However, there is no explanation as to what the tier breakdown means. For this post, I will say that tier is based on reputation.
2. Do I need a lawyer to review the contract from a stock photo agency? I am sure that the lawyers reading this will say "ALWAYS". Realistically though, will a single photographer be able to negotiate a special contract if there are terms that are not acceptable or will the result of a lawyerly review simply be to work with another agency?

3. What should I watch out for with a stock agency contract? Is there a guideline of liability or a payout clause that could be problematic?

4. Can I submit an individual photo to multiple agencies? The information I have seen on several sites indicates that the photographer retains copyright on the photo, so I would hope that would mean I could submit my photos to multiple agencies to increase my chances for selling it.

5. Do I need to track which photo I have submitted to which agencies? Or is that overkill?

6. When do I need a model/property release? It is my understanding that a model release is needed if the model is identifiable, thus a photo like this violin player probably does not require a release. Again, it is my (limited) understanding that a property release is needed where either a) the item being photographed is covered by copyright or b) is identified as being on private property. Please shout if you have a different understanding on either of these.

I am sure more questions will surface, but in the meantime, I am starting the process of looking into a few stock agencies to see what I can figure out from their sites. Stay tuned for updates on this soon.

In the meantime, do you have any thoughts on stock photography or any of the questions above? I would love to hear from you. The comments below would be great, and I have relaxed the requirements so you don't need to be logged in (though if you leave a web page, I am almost certain to stop by and visit). Click the email link on my main web page profile would be fine as well. Heading over to Twitter is another option, if you follow me, you can send me a direct message and I am pretty certain to see it.

Book Review - Mastering Digital Flash Photography

I just bought this book and have been anticipating sitting down for more than a few minutes with it, but it seems that everytime I go to sit down, something else comes up as soon as I open it up. Nonetheless, I have read enough now to be able to say I am happy I picked this book out.

I am an analytical person and thus am happy when I get a formula or chart with numbers. This book has some great charts. Very few photographers are going to carry around a book to reference charts, but reviewing the charts when looking at a picture that didn't turn out quite as expected can help. By understanding why it did not turn out the way you expected, you will be in a better position to take a similar picture the next time the opportunity presents itself.

An example of a good chart that will be handy to understand is the Max Flash range chart. It shows how to take the Guide Number of a flash, the aperture and ISO you are using, and figure out about how far away from your flash will still get light from the flash.

Another thing that I like about this book is advice that I put into a category called "rules of thumb". (I know I didn't coin that phrase, but I like it.) Advice like this on page 27 "it is almost always better to have clipped shadows than clipped highlights". In other words, it is easier to recover a picture that is too dark than one that is too bright. That is one I can file away in my mental checklist as I am reviewing shots on my LCD to know if I need to tweak settings and reshoot.

Pictures always tell a story and photography books are certainly no exception. That said, a picture with explanation is good, but several pictures with the explanation of why they are different and how they were taken differently really makes a lot of sense. One great example of that is on pg 55 where pictures show the difference between direct flash and indirect (bounced) flash.

Before I bore you all to tears, I will just mention one more thing that I really like about this book. Diagrams. Lots of them, showing where the camera, lighting, reflector and subject were in relation to each other for a photo.

An old boss used to say "Stephen, give me the short version"when I started to give him more details than he wanted. So for those of you out there that are still reading, here is the short version: "Mastering Digital Flash Photography is a great book with a lot of very helpful information on flash photography. I'm not sure how helpful it would be if you are already a master of the flash, but for anyone that is just getting started with flash photography or has a few problem areas with their flash, this book is worth the money."

Do you have any good books? Photography-related or not, I am always interested in a good book, so please leave me a comment here below this post or give me a shout over at Twitter.