Wrong Way Over the Bay

Wrong Way Over the Bay, a photo by fenriq on Flickr.

Flying to Vegas and the pilot got lost almost immediately after takeoff and headed west. Uhh, dude, Las Vegas is east and south of Monterey.

Actually, flying out of Monterey Airport is great. Small terminal and the views are simply fantastic!

First Gallery from the 2012 Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival

My first gallery is up and available from this last weekend's Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival held in Aptos, California.

The 100 photo gallery is available here. These photos are from the kid's "race" fun lap and you can't tell me these kids weren't putting the hammer down and going as fast as they could!

More galleries as I am able to finish processing the images. I will also try to gather up the threads of other photo and video galleries

Nat Geo Wallpapers

Hit the link, Photography - Desktop Wallpaper - National Geographic Magazine, and you too can download gorgeous images from National Geographic.

Not all are desktop type images but all are thought provoking and that's more to the point, ya know?

Explosive Sunset over the Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Explosive Sunset over the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, a photo by fenriq on Flickr.

One of my recent and favorite photos. The fiery sunset, the beach, the boardwalk. It's all here and it is all awesome.

Here's How To Piss Off Your Customers

Here's a lesson in how to insult and alienate your customer base and come off like total assholes in the process! Well played, Nikon. Or not.

Nikon’s Facebook page is blowing up with comments. But not for the right reason Giant camera manufacturer Nikon has found itself the subject of scrutiny on the web, but not for the reasons the company might have hoped for. In yet another example of how social media doesn’t always work in your favour, Pixiq points to a post on Nikon’s Facebook page which reads:

A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses, and a good lens is essential to taking good pictures! Do any of our facebook fans use any of the NIKKOR lenses? Which is your favorite and what types of situations do you use it for?

Needless to say, the post didn’t go down well with Nikon fans, or photography fans in general. The backlash on Nikon’s Facebook page has been brutal with over 2,000 comments on the post, most of which are critical. And the post has been the gift that just keeps on giving, with additional comments on Nikon’s Facebook page in the past 12 hours questioning the thought process behind the post.

While some are under the impression that this is all one big publicity stunt by Nikon, going by the adage, any kind of press is good press, others feel that insulting your userbase isn’t going to gain you any points.
Most photographers are highly insulted by the statement that implies that the camera does all the work for you, or that you can only take good photos if you use expensive equipment. It is also this kind of misguided marketing which makes people believe that all it takes is buying a DSLR camera to turn them into a professional photographer, or that the number of megapixels make a huge difference. The reality is, your camera is not what makes you a photographer.
One commenter, Chad Hudson, succinctly got his point across in two words, and we have to agree:

eye > lens

It’s been 12 hours since the unfortunate statement was posted, but so far Nikon has kept quiet, and has yet to respond to the backlash.
It would seem that there are many more lessons to be learned the hard way in social media. Despite the fact that it has become an intrinsic part of any company’s marketing strategy, the boundaries, risks and mistakes that can be made are still very much an issue that companies will have to continuously deal with.
What do you think? Does Nikon need a lesson or two in social media or are people over-reacting to the statement?

Quick Draw Camera Holster

Everybody knows that something you can wear in a holster or in a quick draw style off your waist is cool. It just IS one of those things that is beyond debate. That said, I'm not so sure I want to wear my mildly expensive DLSR on my hip. I can see how useful it would be for quick draw shooting. But really, in that instance, I've got my camera around my neck already.

Notwithstanding the lack of a strap to help prevent the dreaded "Dropsies" where you go to grab your camera, almost get a full grip and pick it up only to have it slip out of your hands and towards the nearest rock hard surface it can find.

Also, this issue would be exacerbated by the use of a larger frame DSLR. It might be more doable with one of the new small frame mirrorless cameras though.

This solution seems to be asking to whack your camera into stuff when you forget its there. And that whack would be an expensive and painful one. Precision optics and getting slammed into hard objects are a bad mix.

While I think its a good idea, it also has some flaws but I suppose the type of person that would end up whacking their camera in a rig like this would probably be about as likely to smash it in a car door or otherwise destroy their camera.

Is This Sexy?

So, one of the few pleasures I still have left to me these days is checking in on Chick and Bikes, a pretty basic blog that does nothing but post pictures of women and some aspect of bicycles. It isn't rocket science but there are some rather compelling images posted from time to time. This was one of the posted pics and it got me to thinking about whether this was sexy or forced or both?

What do you think?

My own opinion is that its too forced and posed to be sexy. Her leg is up way high intentionally to show off her white panties and she's looking into the camera knowing you are looking at her crotch and not her face. Its an interesting image but I'm going to vote it as not sexy.

It could have been incredibly sexy if she were not looking into the camera and had been nonchalantly tying her shoe with her foot on the handlebars and the panty peek was semi-accidental.

via Chicks and Bikes

Lens Shaped Pillows? Awesome!

What photography buff or pro wouldn't want to have one of these awesome telephoto lens pillows? They've also got some primes if you're not a zoomer type.

I, for one, have totally loved the rise of awesome photography related goodies.

Not so much a fan of the camera cakes (I am not a fan of destroying art, I know, call me crazy) but there are so many other awesome things that folks have come up with. I could go broke a dozen times over happily!
via Plushtography

Gonna Get Some!

Gonna Get Some!, a photo by fenriq on Flickr.

Nande and I got some beach time together yesterday for Father's Day. She made the absolute most of it! And I was able to keep her from rolling in the huge dead seal halfway up the beach for the bonus!

Fujifilm X100 Leica-Lookalike

Classic looks, new technology: Fujifilm's X100 gets release date and pricing

The X100 looks like a classic old film camera but it also looks quite a bit like a Leica M9. Which is most definitely a compliment. I wonder if could be called a Leica-like?

Fujifilm says:
"The true enjoyment of photography begins with the thrill of seeing the world through a viewfinder," says Fujifilm. "The new Hybrid Viewfinder has been developed to reintroduce users to this essential camera experience. It combines the window-type 'bright frame' optical viewfinder found in rangefinder-type film cameras such as the classic 135-size or medium-format cameras, with the electronic viewfinder system incorporated in most compact or mirrorless digital cameras."

Now, I don't know if my true enjoyment of photography involves squinting through a viewfinder personally but I get what they are saying. I rather enjoy using the screen on my pocket cam to frame a photo and not just because I don't particularly care for mashing my face up against a camera body (I have to desmudge my DSLR regularly or it looks NASTY!).

It has a pretty impressive list of features which is should since it retails for a whopping $1200. If money were no object then I'd strongly consider getting one of these nice little cameras. But, honestly, if money were no object then I'd be snapping up one of the utterly gorgeous Leica M9 Titanium for a mere $29,000! I'd also expect a camera this price point to have an interchangeable lens system like the new Four Thirds standards or the EVILs.