I spotted this officer riding through the drained reflecting pool, and did my best to document the scene. The sun was setting, and made for some awesome light as he approached. I bracketed all the shots at 3 shot and 1 stop per shot (-1,0,+1) and I'm glad I did.

I've posted a couple to flickr and the rest are here.








-Nikographer/Jon

How to make a flickr badge.

Flickr lets you search your photos and make an html or flash based badge of your images.

http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne

Here's one of mine:

february / html

www.flickr.com

More of Nikographer [Jon]'s stuff tagged with February

Rest In Peace - Jean Keene
Originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon]

larger
Jean Keene (wiki) passed away yesterday at age 85.

I saw the news on Gregg's photo.



From wiki:

Keene's career as the "Eagle Lady" began shortly after her arrival in Homer, when one morning she noticed two bald eagles on the beach near her motorhome. Keene saw offering food to the eagles as a natural extension of her practice of keeping bird feeders filled with sunflower seeds for wild songbirds. She began to bring home surplus fish from her job in a bucket, and each morning would throw some fish to the eagles over the short driftwood fence she had made around her motorhome. By the end of that spring, a half-dozen eagles were showing up for breakfast.

Here's Gregg's photo tribute:


And here's a couple of Woody's photos from his trip to Alaska and the Eagle Lady's place.





-Jon

Western Low Land Gorillas at the US National Zoo - baby born January 10th 2009.

Mandara's new baby was born yesterday (1/10/2009) at the National Zoo in Washington D.C.

All the Gorillas are still on exhibit, including the 1 day old baby.

I'm going to post one image to flickr, and a bunch just here.

(flickr)


(here only)

























-Jon

Podcasts and advertising... Please give it a break.

I listen to a bunch of podcasts. Some of them have pre-roll and post-roll ads, and some have quick breaks to cut to an ad and then come back to the show. Those are all tolerable because they are quick ads, and are clearly just that, ads and not the content of the show.

Today I was listening to This Week In Photography (TWIP - 1/4/09 episode). They're sponsored by Drobo, and have the pre-roll ad. But what finally bugged me today was that it seems like every recent episode now contains a segment where they pimp the Drobo as part of their content. I can see mentioning them every now and then, but it has pretty much become a regular component of the show where they try to talk candidly, relay stories and the status of their Drobo's and it has finally reached a point where it bugs me. If I want to listen to a Drobo Podcast I will go searching for one. I want to know about photography.

I think I'm going to change my links to their site to This Week In Drobo.

I probably wouldn't be as bothered by it all, but I listen to This Week In Media too (TWIM), where advertising in podcasts was discussed not too long ago, and they talked about how much better the candid discussion of products is better than the short taped ads. If it was done in moderate amounts it wouldn't bug me, but I think they've finally gone too far with it all.

:/

Red Fox Mates @ BBH NWR DE
Originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon]

Red Fox Mates @ BBH NWR DE


I'm coming up on my 3 year anniversary on flickr, which is basically my anniversary of getting my first digital SLR (Aug 2005).

The way I first started shooting and posting was to take lots of shots, edit them, and try to learn from what worked well technically as well as what worked best on flickr.

Flickr is a brutal judge in some regards. If someone likes an image they will view it, and if they like it more they'll comment or fav it (or post an invite).
Posting things and getting little or no response is a real measure of how an image can evoke response. I'm not saying it's a measure of quality. It could be, or it could be some thing else entirely. But if an image doesn't go over well, the budding photographer should wonder why. And I did, and I think I've managed to learn a bunch about photography at an accelerated pace...

Fast forward a couple of years and here's how I generally shoot, edit and then post.

When I am out shooting I can usually get the camera settings right, not always, but most of the time. Lower light and I will boost ISO. I use a tripod a lot now. White birds and I compensate down. Overcast days and I adjust WB and don't protect the highlights (no harsh light = no harsh highlights). So, lots of lessons learned over the past few years of shooting digital.

Then I wind up with a lot of ok images, and I edit sometimes 50% of them, cropping and adjusting levels mainly.

During this initial edit session I usually have an image or two catch my eye immediately and I post one. But in this batch can be tons of good images technically.

Because I shoot so much, sometimes it is just this first pass that I end up doing in a timely manner. But later I look at the originals again (hopefully), and for sure I look at the images I've edited a second or third time.

By taking time to let a set of images soak in, and coming back to them repeatedly, I think I've managed to learn to be critical, and focus on what really makes an image work, for me at least.

And all too often it is behavior in a subject (animal) that makes something hit a nerve. Part of the problem of making all those judgements right after the images were taken is that as the photographer there's a huge amount of context already in your mind's eye. Images are but a moment in a timeline of a day or encounter. And seeing an image shortly after it is taken makes me recount the day and all of the context.

By letting time pass, and revisiting images, I think I've developed a more keen eye for what is in the image vs. what I recall from the encounter.

My goal is to tell stories, and provide glimpses in to nature and understanding of animals, so I can appreciate this place we all call home, and if I can share that moment with others too then all the better..

---

It's with all that context that I post an image from around 6 months ago from the foxes mating day at Bombay Hook NWR in Delaware. I've already now posted around 13 images, and this one caught my eye tonight. I had tried to crop it and make it work but something didn't feel right. It wasn't quite sharp enough for a close up crop, and the story of the moment seemed to be lost. So, this is the full frame version and I think I am finally happy with the image.





-Jon

Location, Location, Location - Osprey @ Belle Haven Marina

Location, Location, Location - Osprey @ Belle Haven Marina
Originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon]

big
So much of what I see and photograph is made possible by location. This spot at the marina, brought to my attention by Kim, is a great example of location at work.

In the second half of the day, the sun gets lower and is to the west (duh) while the action is to the east. This creates a very predictable good setup for light.

Another thing the location has going for it is that the osprey nest is in a fairly high traffic part of the Potomac river. There's a boat launch, and docks right near the nest. This gets the birds more accustomed to people and tolerant of them. Another good example of this is with the Hawks I've photographed at the national zoo, as well as the Black-Crowned Night Herons there too.

From the animal's perspective in all those cases, they see tens or hundreds of people on a given day.

Comparing that to a animal or bird, that might see one or two people a day (or none) the odds of getting a good encounter are much much lower with the isolated subject.

Part of why I wrote the above was to encourage other people to keep venturing out to new and different locations in search of better encounters and photos. Flickr has a been a great resource for me when it comes to discovering locations, most places I go are a result of flickr searches, contacts, etc.

Above cropped for effect, I had the entire bird in frame, and select sharpening was used (ie only the bird part of the photo was sharpened, not the sky). Taken with D300 and 80-400mm VR f/4.5-6.5.

I've been happy with the 80-400mmVR lens, but I want more. Kim has gotten me jealous of her gear, but I don't think I will be happy with a huge lens that requires a tripod. So, I think I might be looking in to the 200-400mm f/4 Nikkor lens. The only person I know on flickr that uses this 200-400mm lens if Michel and his work is amazing, inspires me, etc. If you're not familiar with his photos, start by checking out his girl friend.

Here are some photos and videos from Belle Haven Marina.













-Jon

I just heard about the Gettyimage / flickr thing. There was a post on strobist about it, and then a link to probably a better more informed take on it from Photoshelter. (And I read this too - You just have been Flickered (updated)
. This was interesting too, from 2006, strobist's take on photography, stock, etc.

My barely informed opinion on the flick/getty alliance after reading those... Gettyimages is not going to make us all rich. They won't even make a bunch of us rich.

If they were to contact me I'd be flattered I suppose, but would probably not pursue it. I'm planning to setup a site to sell prints, and have started the work on picking the images out from the nearly couple hundred thousand I've taken in almost 3 years.

I've sold a handful of images through flickr (someone emails me in flickr) that were used a couple of different ways (ie not a print for personal use). I've also given away tens if not a couple hundred images to good causes for free (educational or promoting nature or the environment).

That said I submitted a request for a free photoshelter account. I may or may not use it. I know someone that has some images on istock I think, and they make a few bucks from it. I don't think I'd want to give away some of the photos that mean a ton to me for potential sale at a cheap price for commercial use. So, I might just try to shoot specific images for photoshelter, or submit only a certain type of image (ie not my personal favs, etc). If I have a photo that I can sell individual prints for $50 or $100 or more, why would I sell someone the image for 10 bucks so they can sell prints, or use it in an ad or whatever???

There's just no way I'd part with these on the cheap:

Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth, ME
Originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon]

The boat: Bagheera

Shot from Spring Point in South Portland Maine. These were my manual settings. I was using manual on the Osprey, and kept shooting afterwards with M-mode...
Exposure: 1/1000
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 185 mm
ISO Speed: 400


D300 and 80-400mm, not cropped I think:


-Jon

Gerber Daisy, from my Mom's Garden

Gerber Daisy, from my Mom's Garden
Originally uploaded by 0 W8ing

Such an eye catcher, had to blog it for y'all.....

JSOH / Joint Service Open House / Air Show 1 Week Away

Help Wanted: Exhaust Detection Specialist, No Experience Required.
Originally uploaded by Nikographer [Jon]

The air show at andrews AFB in Maryland is one week away! Make your plans to go now....

Here are a few from the last two years.

Help Wanted: Exhaust Detection Specialist, No Experience Required:


*Protection* - Joint Service Open House (JSOH) 2007 @ Andrews AFB, MD


Joint Service Open House 2007 - SkyTypers


And here's a video from of the A-10 I took....



Visit the web page for the Air Show here:
http://www.jsoh.org/

-Jon