Testing new waters

Moo cards & Wikipedia

Around 18 months ago, Smugmug had a promotion with Moo, who had just opened their US office. I decided to try it out, and tested a cross-section of my images. From this first attempt, I narrowed it down to 4 final images. I've just made my third order, refining those images with the new tools Moo has available.

Virtually every person I've given one of these photo business cards to has said, "Where can I order these?" Now I have an easy answer: click the square on my blog.

Links are included for Europe & the UK. Not sure if I really need those, but just in case, they're available, as well.

Wikipedia, on the hand, stands a world apart, and quite amazingly so. During their recent 10th anniversary, it was remembered: "This is an idea that could only work in practice." I've been so impressed with recent entries I've found, that I donated. Maybe you will, too. For instance, need info on a pharmaceutical or herbal remedy that you're taking? Search it here. Good unbiased info. I was surprised. Maybe you will be, too.

Rumi quote

Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot;

seek the path that demands your whole being.

Leave that which is not, but appears to be;

seek that which is, but is not apparent.

— Rumi

waldo647images RIP, part 2

I just changed the Blogspot/Blogger URL away from waldo647images to chriswesselmanphotography, as well. Hopefully, everything is properly linked now... It always surprises me how long it takes to adjust all these links. Should interconnectedness be this complicated?

Enough of this!

Soon: my new Nikon D7000 — and reflections (finally!) on low-light photography.

waldo647images RIP

At the end of day (month, year, decade) — it became clear: waldo647images sounded like a stock agency, and it meant something only to me.

It was actually a further development of waldo (as in Ralph Waldo Emerson), which I’ve used for hard drive names, logins, etc., for years. And when I googled waldo647, I got back lots of hits — so maybe this was my brand?

Well, time to move on... and rebrand: the new URL is ChrisWesselmanPhotography.com and the new email address is cw@chriswesselman.com. For the time being, chriswesselman.com will redirect to the new web URL, as well. It’s easier to type and use/remember for an email address.

waldo647images.com (or .org) may return in some future incarnation, but for now — clarity is the order of the day. The old domains and email addresses still work and automatically forward to the new ones, so nothing is lost.

And finally, here's my new favorite Ansel quote — it speaks volumes and incorporates my Zen practice:

When words become unclear,
I shall focus with photographs.
When images become inadequate,
I shall be content with silence.
— Ansel Adams

Some website organizational changes

A couple of things that I've been thinking about over the last few months:

A Big Sur gallery — to contain my best shots from there. I thought this would replace my Coast & Bays gallery, but things went in a different direction. For now, at least, this won't be the case. I renamed it California Bays, and allowing it to begin accumulating more best of shots from San Francisco Bay, Tomales Bay, and other California bays, as distinct from coastal images.

My New Mexico gallery in the Nature category (as opposed to the galleries under Travel) has also been re-aligned to include only best of shots.

The category Portfolio has been renamed Nature. This grew out of a somewhat unexpected development with my new Moo photo-business cards, on which I included: Portraits, Events & Nature Photography. In the grander scheme of things, it makes a whole lot more sense to rename my old Portfolio category to Nature, which more accurately reflects that content.

The tabs in the Navbar on the website have also been re-ordered for greater convenience, with About at the end now, and Events second after Home, followed by Nature (the old Portfolio tab). For most visitors to the my website, this should all be transparent, and simply easier to use. The Event tab only goes to the Home page when clicked on. This is because all of the top level items are already categories on their own. Some day, if Smugmug supports sub-sub-sub-categories, this might change, as well.

I haven't been updating this blog much at all lately, and will try to continue to post things here that are relevant to my photography and the site.

The main thing now is that my creative work is re-aligning along the broader areas of Portraits, Events, and Nature Photography. Hopefully, my Smugmug Pro site can keep up with this evolution, making my best work available online.

Update 4/15/2011: The Portfolio category was revived for my Best of 2010 images. I’m considering doing this every year, and may “retro” this for past years, too. Showcase galleries might also appear here in the future.

Happy Thanksgiving, Part 2

(continued from Part 1)

I'm actually quite comfortable working with my Nikon D80 with its vertical grip, and our Tamron zooms and Nikon prime lenses. The Tamron SP 17-50mm F2.8 has pretty much become my every day lens, unless the situation clearly calls for a different focal length. My wife is using the Tamron 18-200mm that was initially purchased with the Nikon D50, and frankly, I continue to be blown away by some of the images she is able to capture with that lens. I would have no problem taking it on another trip to Nepal & Tibet. It’s an excellent walk-around lens. We also have the Tamron 70-300mm which she acquired with her Nikon N65 (aka F65) film camera and its 28-80mm kit lens some years ago. (We keep thinking we're going to shoot more film, but we never seem to get around to it.) The Tamron 70-300mm is a fine lens for the price. Neither of us do a lot of longer telephoto work here in the SF Bay Area, though I might bring it along on an overseas trip, even though it's not that fast. Our Nikon primes (50mm F1.8 & 35mm F1.8) are tack sharp, and have more than proven themselves on multiple shoots, when using flash was not appropriate.

Then Nikon introduced the D300s. True, it's just an evolutionary progression from the already very popular D300, which already has some very nice improvements over the D80, and the D300s added even more. Based on the reviews, there were at least 6 features that would be very, very nice to have. In the meantime, my need for an external flash continued, if not increased...

We're blessed with an excellent pro shop nearby in Palo Alto, with a great rental department. Their amazing array of gear, total expertise and ready advice, makes renting lenses from them a very worthwhile experience. I've also been renting one of their two Nikon SB-800 speedlights for various event shoots. And even though they've always had one available, I wondered if the day might arrive when they didn't, and the event that really required a flash?

So a couple of weeks ago, I arrived at the pro shop, credit card in hand, ready to buy an SB-600. Yes, it doesn't have the reach of the SB-800; I've already discovered that, but it was also close to half the price of the SB-900. And there's always one of those two rental units, which could also open up the possibilities of using a second flash. Something my older son Tim was doing 5 years ago. (He was also, by the way, the one that encouraged me to move up from my point & shoot to a DSLR.)

Based on a couple of other podcasts, I also purchased the Gary Fong LightSphere Universal flash diffuser, and the secondary Chrome Dome disc for rooms with higher ceilings. I also ordered Joe McNally's Hot Shoe Diaries, Big Light from Small Flashes. I'm really enjoying this book!

Needless to say, all of this has added a whole new dimension to my photography. More in subsequent posts...

So there's much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, just in my photography world!