Hoover Dam at Dusk

So this photo, which is currently titled Hoover Dam, (I’m a photographer, not a writer) won Best in Show for the Springs Preserve Photo Contest.  I haven’t had a chance to see the whole show yet, but if you get a chance, stop by, take a look at it.  Supporting the Springs Preserve is a good thing, and if you’ve never been there before, it’s a cool place in Vegas.  The show will be running till the beginning of October.

So I’m working on a new thing, a thing to get more visitors.  As some have probably noticed my images are now watermarked, they also link to my store so you can buy them in various forms.  That’s all well and good, so now I need to get them seen more.

To that end, below this post, and all previous posts is a box that gives you the code to insert one of my images on another website or blog.  Hopefully it’s easy to use and people do use it.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not a fan of copyright infringement, but I am fine with people using my images, sometimes even at no charge, as long as it’s done with my permission and my terms.  This is a way to make my terms clear, and make it easy for people.  I’m a believer that most people want to do the right thing, they just need to be given a way to do it, and I want to give people a way to share my images that benefits them and me.

Over time I’ll probably change the code a bit, I’m trying to figure out to get the code to make the link to my site the page which the image was viewed on and not the homepage, but that’s just more coding fun.  I love my coding fun.  But for now, it’s here, it works and let me know if it helps you.

The changes I’m making appear to be coming along nicely, except, and this is a biggie, they don’t work quite with Internet Explorer, the lastest version, they work fine with older versions, Firefox, Safari, all the decent browsers (I’d include Chrome I just haven’t tried it yet.)

Anyway, I had been going back and forth on some changes, but as Plan A won’t work with Explorer, I’ll go with Plan B, which should, I had been leaning towards Plan B anyway.  So, more changes coming over the weekend.

I’m now implementing a host of new services.

First and foremost, if there is an image you want to buy, you should be able to just click on it, maybe twice, once to get to the post, then in the post, and it will take you to my site where you can directly purchase the image.

If you follow the same routine, you can also license the image, if say you own an ad company, or you can get a link that will let you, totally legitimately, post my images in your blog or site.  I want people to share my images, I make them to be seen after all, but I do also want the credit and hopefully, some money.  So now, you should be able to do that, easily.

My sales site isn’t finished yet, by any means, and it will be a few weeks till it is.  Finishing it is a fair amount of work, and the people it’s through are updating some stuff next week so I’m going to wait a few days and do it when it will be easier anyway.

The blog portion of my site will probably be moving off the front page and onto another page, probably named blog, so that people coming here from search engines see what I want them to see first rather than what I did yesterday.  This site is still staying a blog, and I’m still going to post everyday, just a slight change of url.  I may make it overlap for a week or two, or I may not, but I’ll definitely tell ya when it happens.

Also, maybe not every time, perfectly, right away, but you’ll regularly start seeing footers on my posts (and currently it’s not working, hmm).  I feel bad when people come to my site looking for info about hiking around Vegas and I don’t direct them anywhere.  So I’m going to try to direct them someplace useful for outdoor info.  Also I’m going to encourage people to buy and share my images.  So hopefully this happens soon.

The copyright logo is going to change, many times probably.  Any useful feedback I’ll take.  Thanks in advance for that.

So please bare with me as things change, and in a few weeks when the dust settles and I’ve made my first million, let me know about problems.  I would say do so immediately, but I know of way to many I’m working on and hopefully the problem you’re seeing is already on my list, but in a month I’ll need you’re help.

Thanks, and have a good weekend.

(Get posters, cards and prints of this image here.)

The name of the peak, I now know, is Turtlehead Peak.  It’s tall, not really tall, but tall enough.

The easiest way to get to it, and easy is a relative term of course, is a 2.5 mile hike with 2000ft of ascent.  800ft of that ascent is in .4 miles.  It has a steep part.  The ascent, just so you know is from the other side of the mountain.

This last Sunday we, Erin, me, Stella and Roxy, made it to the top.  On Monday we were all tired, and at least a little sore.

It’s one of those things that’s cool to be able say you’ve done, and it certainly provides a feeling of accomplishment having done it.  It was, tough, quite tough.  But certainly fun.

Next week I think we’ll do something easier though.  Tough, but less tough.

Here’s the view from the top looking back towards this image.  Las Vegas is in the background, through the haze.

Get posters and products with this image here and framed photographs here.

Prints available via Imagekind.

Ya know ya wanta calendar.

Anyhow, I’m selling a calendar (yeah, a little late, but it’s me, I’m so charming you know you’ll forgive me and buy it anyway), as you can probably see.  (Did you notice the changes on the right?)  It’s all outdoors scenes from southern Nevada from the previous year.

There is a page with all the images from the calendar here. If you want a preview.  Plus I want you to be able to know what you’re buying first.  Just seems fair.

I rather like all the images in it.

The big Lulu one should look especially nice, fyi, though it is a bit more, but you can’t expect me not to make a really nice big one for those who want it.

Anyhow, buy a calendar.  One for you, one for your dad, two for your mother!  (It’s your mother, she gave birth to you, don’t you owe her something nice?  And some grandkids too?)

The 2010 Southern Nevada Outdoors Calendar
13.5″ x 19″
$34.99

The 2010 Southern Nevada Outdoors Calendar
11″ x 8.5″
$19.99

Also I’ve started making prints of these available. You can purchase them here through my ImageKind store. (A guy has to make a buck or two somewhere.)

You can also get a print of this image here.

Prints available here.

It’s almost a new year and that, of course, means you need a calender. Right? Yeah, you know I’m right. Well, as luck should have it. I was told a few weeks ago I apparently had a calender coming out. Okay, not totally accurate that last sentence but close enough.

Chicago Tap Theatre has for the second consecutive year given me the honor of producing the imagery for their yearly calender. It’s a chance to get the calender you need, need, help support the arts, help support some really great dance, and hopefully get some imagery you’ll enjoy all year long.

You can get the calender through their Lulu store, or at their upcoming Tidings of Tap performances (at UIC Dec 12th, 13th and 14th) and while you’re their you can go see some excellent tap dancing. It’s family friendly and you may even show up the night Dr. Taps and I go on stage and do the shim sham at the end (she promised she would if I would, I don’t think she thought I would, enthusatically. That reminds me, I’ve got to learn how to do the shim sham).

So go get yourself a calender, and see a show, and say “Hi” while you’re at it.

Otherwise, here’s the deal. As I’ve said many a time, I think Chicago Tap Theatre is wonderful. They have totally blown away my preconceptions of tap dance and what tap dance can be, and I love it when I’m proved wrong so beautifully.

So for the last two years I’ve done what I can to help them out with photos (though I should say, easier photo ops are not to be found. As long as I can focus the camera, they’ll fill the frame with beauty.) They have taken some of those images and turned them into a calender for 2008. Possibly even the first ever tap dance only calender. I never would have thought of a tap only calender, but apparently I helped make one. Neat.

So, you need a calender? It’s $15, downright cheap at twice the price if you ask me. On top of that, you help out one of my favorite dance companies, you help keep the arts alive and well in our fair city and nation, and I get a small cut to boot. (Though I should point out, my small cut, where did I put that contract that says what my cut is?, anyway, my small cut is going to be used to either drive up prices at their next silent auction or buy the dancers drinks so they don’t think I’m a complete nut job when I try to figure how they dance so much and keep real jobs. Seriously, two weeks touring in France and Spain, that’s most of my time off for a year.)

So don’t be shy, if you need a calender, go for it. If your mom needs a calender, your aunt, your uncle (the ladies are hot, and I say this is as professional observer of hotness, maybe don’t get it for your nephew though, his standards for feminine beauty will be set to high for the rest of his poor life after seeing them), your arty friend, who ever, they need calenders, feel free to get them all one.

As you know, I don’t sell or push products much, even my own, but I am this time, take that to mean something.

To bastardize a grand old Chicago saying, “Buy early, buy often.”

Top Tap Calender 2008 for sale here, and if you can’t wait to see CTT get tickets to the holiday oriented, Tidings of Tap show (okay, you still have to wait till December, but you can get tickets before they sell out).

Getting “out of town” requires a bit of effort when you live in Chicago. First you’ve got to get at least sixty miles from downtown because the city itself stretches a long ways. Then you’ve usually got to drive at least another hour or so to get past the corn fields. Welcome to the Midwest.

My solution for getting “getting out of town,” when I’ve only got a short a while to do so. Northerly Island.

Northerly Island, isn’t really an island, and isn’t really north of much of anything, it’s pretty central. It is right off of downtown Chicago, it is pretty reasonably large, and has some relation to the plains that this area used to have. Though Northerly Island itself is a man-made island.

For anyone who played with Microsoft’s Flight Simulator it was the starting point of that game. It used to be known as Meigs Field. An airport off of downtown Chicago on Lake Michigan.

We’re going to ignore the fact that it was 70 degrees and somewhat sunny the other day, and that I felt like being outside.

Northerly Island is also a place where you can have some wide open space, on the lake, but within sight of the city.

It also makes an odd statement being a man made version of the nature that used to exist in this part of the country, while yet overlooking downtown Chicago. All the tall buildings being the first thing you see.

It also to me says something about what we, we as in Americans, have destroyed, reduced and otherwise left behind. It makes me want to get out of Chicago for a few days. Alas, that will have to wait till summer. And that’s fine, I’d prefer the nice weather. But for an afternoon hike I’ll take Northerly Island.

Also, if you want to buy either of this images as print, go here. There are also a couple more images available for purchase.