Being a responsible Nature/Wildlife photographer

With the thought of many others in the upper United States during this oncoming winter, I'm posting this link so that many of those with cameras will know better than to scare off or flush a Snowy Owl (or any wildlife), and leave it in peace!

Recently recorded image of a Snowy Owl

Sure, everyone wants a "great" image of those elusive white birds but at what price? Please BE a responsible human and photographer, and do not harass, throw things, or otherwise scare it into flying off, just for a photograph. Also, do NOT bait or otherwise feed them. Keep your distance away from the bird (or ANY wildlife), get your picture, then move out.

Are you active on trails and paths and often encounter a photographer? How many times have we been in an area photographing wildlife somewhere, when the loud voice of a visitor/walker/runner is heard long before they actually appear. You'd think they were shouting at their friends right next to them, or using a phone (why? You can hear them even in the next county!).

Please, while out in Nature and its nice trails and paths, respect others. Keep your voice low, and be respectful of others. If you bring it in, carry it out. Humans are so disrespectful of Nature and litter everywhere!

If you SEE someone harassing any wildlife, snap a pix of that immature irresponsible person and report them!! I do always!! Please teach your children not to feed wildlife, and not to chase wildlife. It's not nice. Would you like a huge ugly animal chasing your kids? That's how humans are, always chasing some animal or birds around!

Enjoy your winter and other seasons, and please allow other animals and species to enjoy it too!

Click here to read a great article with incredibly gorgeous imagery by Joe Gliozzo
 The article opens in a new window

When will it ever stop?

The image at the end is of tonight's Waxing Crescent, 44% visible moon over western Michigan.

That image wasn't snapped with my "new" 77D but with a nikon replacement purchased earlier this year when my canon 70D was in and out of the repair shop. Yet again, my camera is sent in to the shop. This EOS 77D I now have, was one of the replacement options for my 70D which in the last few months, was in and out almost continuously after dying during a chilly night shot in Cordoba, España earlier this year. Almost every digital canon eos camera I've owned since 2003 has been to the shop to be repaired or replaced (usually in those times, it was replaced at my own cost with another store-purchased camera). These days, it hasn't changed much when considering the December 2014 theft of my camera in San Francisco while it was in use. I replaced that stolen camera with another 70D months later. Not even a full year yet, that replacement camera was on its way to the shop already!

When my 70D went in and out of canon repair facilities after it snapped its "last image" in southern Spain in late February of this same year, and sent off to canon to be "repaired" (a purely relative and very subjective matter as far as I am concerned), within hours of returning to the states, and later resent back to canon four more times to be refixed, the last problem on the 70D was that which developed after they "fixed" it (again, but now displayed a parallax problem in which the recorded image displays an unlevel horizon); Well, it seems that after having this replacement camera since late June 2018, this 77D is now also suffering from the same parallax problem!!

So, I want to ask: Why is canon selling and replacing cameras that suffer so much from the people they have "repairing" their cameras, and why is there NO type of responsibility and accountability, and most of all: QUALITY CONTROL in their repair facilities?

All I have to ask is: if you are thinking of buying a canon, watch out.

I'll never buy a canon eos camera again after this current 77D is deemed UNusable and nonfunctional (which might be sooner than I think!).

Anyone want to take a look at my list of EOS lenses which may become available if I sell my cameras + lenses, if this poor workmanship, terrible repair "service" and negative quality control of work continues?

This UNcropped picture was snapped with a nikon P900 at max optical zoom handheld with stabilization off

settings: iso400 f/7.1 at 1/80th handheld 

fototaker's canon EOS lenses
In the future, should I sell my lenses and camera, these are up for grabs as is:
  Canon EFS 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS
  CANON EFS 55-250mm f/4-5.6
  CANON EF 50MM f/1.4
  CANON EF 75-300 F4 III USM
  Canon 18-55 F/3.5-5.6

  CANON EF MACRO 50 F/2.5
  TAMRON 1.4x Teleconverter Model 140F-CA
  TAMRON 16-300 f/3.5-6.3 DiII VC PZD Macro
  TAMRON SP 150-600 USD Dii (the Monster!)

Virtual negatives and moments of Another Life

Over the last months, though it seems an unending project, I've been going through my in and other boxes at my online webmail. It has a 15gig limit and I was then up to 12gigs of virtual newsletters, letters, conversations with friends new and old, and more. I've been wanting to do this forever, and finally put my mind to starting it, and continuing till it gets to a reasonable level. About the first of this month, I finally hit the LESS than 6gigs of virtual mail in my inbox! WoW!

I continue weeding it all out, archiving my newsletters as text files, and attached images all neatly organized into a folder named after the newsletter's subject theme. In the old days, I just deleted the newsletter (which I delightfully call Spams), after I had replied to any emailed comments.

These newsletters started way back in the old days of chunky huge heavy computers with hard drives heavier than a car, as I typed of events and activities I thought others would be interested in knowing about, then mailing it out to friends and family. It looked like a newspaper, complete with pictures and columns, a banner page and all!

I delighted in doing this, as I had been a navy journalist at one time. Of course, as I type more and more each day, I tired of the work and eventually began writing/typing all in lowercase. I never proofread anything and as it would be sent out, I'd see all sorts of errors and typos!

I remember while living in Germany and sending out delightful observations of my everyday Life in Bavaria, and when I went on a month-long trip from Spain to Sweden, I wrote daily of my scenes and sights captured by both my eyes and cameras!

I've enjoyed creating and sharing those newsletters, and though they may not be much in real content, I am hoping everyone enjoyed the images too!

When I recently remarried, I still sent out newsletters but now in a shared life with such a lovely lady, I have discovered there is little time to do some of the many things done previously, but then alone, I also stayed up to 2-3am each and every night, with a full daily schedule that kept me quite occupied from morning and till the wee hours of pre-dawn! Eventually, those newsletters went on pause mode as I maintained the everyday photography and its own daily work that devours a lot of hours, and every-week life.

These are images sent through a newsletter lost in my virtual shoe boxes of virtual dust and shadows, and I'll share these memories snapped years ago, forgotten but never archived, till now.

Hope you enjoy the memories, as much as I did in its creation waaay back then.

Seal Rock at sunset

Seal Rock and the Cliff House

Looking below and past the Golden Gate Bridge
to Point Bonita Lighthouse

Framed!!

Just wanted to share this image snapped with my Samsung S5 just a few minutes ago. It's amazing how far phones in general, and smartphones have progressed. Who needs a camera these days when one is carried in your purse or pocket practically every minute?

This is looking out a panel of a window, showing the Fall colors still very apparent in my little area of SW Michigan, though we have had two snowfalls within the past three days, and temps are in the 30s and lower during the night!!

Naturally framed by the window frame
and roof overhang, those yellows really pop out!

Great Lakes activities

It's been cold and windy, as can be expected in these Great Lake areas, and where we are presently. Back in western New York (WNY), it gets cold and windy also, but it's nothing like a visit to a Lake Michigan park beach, and to be slapped in the face with chilling cold that will really wake up anyone!!

We had just arrived and walked to the beach where there were some great waves!! Sheila mentioned that the waves at that beach reminded her of seeing the Atlantic Ocean waves, huge on a very windy day! It was indeed windy but since I have seen huge waves in my life near waters of the world, it seemed those waves were small but still, it always feels good to be near water.

It was just a few minutes later that Sheila shouted out "Eagles" and pointed north. I looked up to see two large birds, and snapped a few. We didn't have our monsters on the cameras, but one could easily see the white head and tail. We are having an eagle of a month, with over 10 eagles seen now within the past few weeks!

Here is an image link to my images at fineartamerica, which feature quite a few western NY scenes

We stayed and froze a little bit longer till the sunset. We snapped pixs to our heart's content with the chilled wind on our faces, and the waves crashing onto the shore. The intense color quickly faded but it was one of the nicest sunsets we've been able to enjoy in over a week! Just days ago we experienced the first snowfall of the area, and brushed off almost two inches of snow from the car. We drove looking for Fall colors and snowfall, but the high winds of last week had already stripped most of the leaves, and instead just found white expanses of snow....  except for a leaf-print in the snow. I've been to many areas where snow is the norm, and I have never seen these ice cube sights ever...  have you?


On the other hand, I am porting my cell number over to a company offering very lost cost data for those on the move. I still have my old number which I've had since 2009 at least, with its various groups of numbers originating from the area code of Oregon, the area code of Sevilla, and lastly, using a very easy-to-remember combination of keypad presses. I've never been one remembering all the previous numbers I've been assigned, but this I've had for too many years but never forgotten since it's so easy to remember! If you know it, you've still got a means to call me! If you don't, no sweat as I make very few calls but also receive even fewer calls!

The only exception to this newest company is that I now have - for the first time ever - data on my Samsung S5! We use digimobil while in Spain, and they have been offer rollover-data for their data users! Why can't we have that in the USA? Unfortunately DigiMobil is not in the USA!

UPDATE: As you probably know, the image links in this post doesn't take you anywhere since those linked images are gone; I change out the various images I have on fineart every week. I apologize but you can always see other imagery I have displayed at redbubble