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KenRockwell.com

About Me and My Site

Family 19 May 2012

Happy Spring! May 2012. (Canon 5D Mk III, EF 28-105mm, 220EX, Perfectly Clear) smilier.

 

Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas 2010 from Mr., Mrs., Katie and Ryan Rockwell. merrier. See us dance in 2010.

 

Introduction About me The left-handed camera
How many cameras do I have? Recent trips Does Nikon pay me?
How I support my family (FTC) Ads Privacy
About my family The huge lens  Colophon

 

Introduction     top

I've been photographing since I was 5 years old.

As of 2016, my two most recent clients are Merck Pharmaceuticals and McDonald's.

I asked my parents for a camera as a kindergartner. They gave me a Click-O-Mat 126 Instamatic camera, and off I went exploring. As any 5-year-old, I also did plenty of experimenting, pointing my camera at the sun, through telescopes, and anything that sparked my curiosity.

Looking back, it's interesting that I've been seriously shooting for longer than most kids have been able to read or ride a bicycle. This probably explains why photography is such a fundamental part of my basic instinct; it's not something I picked up later in life.

I read every book about photography at my local library and learned every possible technical nuance. By age 9 (fourth grade), my parents finally gave in and let me borrow their medium-format twin-lens reflex cameras, and I had a blast.

Wanting an even more "real" camera, I bought my first 35mm SLR at age 11 (sixth grade). I had the technique down; I easily made this shot at night on my very first roll of Kodachrome X:

Rosedale at Night, 7:45 PM, Thursday, Thanksgiving evening, 22 November, 1973

Brookvile Park, Rosedale, New York. enlarge.

The scratches along the bottom are actually reflections from passing cars in the street lights. This exposure was a completely manual calculation, and I made but one 30 second exposure at f/5.6. As a kid, film was expensive, so I had no budget for bracketing. I had to learn to get it right the first time — and this was my first roll of film I shot in my newly purchased first camera.

Here are two self-portraits from when I was 12:

Minolta SR-1

Self Portrait, age 12.

This was shot into a mirror with a flash bounced off the ceiling. I had to calculate the exposure and compensate for the bounce flash completely manually. Of course I put the slide in backwards in the projector so it didn't look like it was shot in a mirror.

Kenny, 3:30PM, Thursday, 12 September1974

Ken Rockwell, Self-Portrait, age 12. 3k scan.

I put my Minolta SR-1 on a tripod. I set my shutter to 1/500 to get a large aperture, and my clip-on Minolta SR-2 meter told me to set my 53mm ROKKOR f/2 lens to f/4 for Kodachrome 25. The red and white blurs over my shoulder are our backyard swing set.

I'm amazed that even back then I knew that light and shadow were important. You can't see it, but I'm holding an 8½ x 11" piece of white paper below my face to fill in the shadows!

My mom's been a pilot since 1952, and we spent most of our weekends as kids buzzing around in her Cessna 172. Of course I've been shooting out the window all along, and by the 1970s my aerial photographs had been published widely and held in public collections. If there was a news event like a fire, mom and I hit the skies and covered it.

In the 1980s was a photographer and photo editor at one of Eastern Long Island's largest newspapers. My aerial photography continued to be widely published and held in collections. Coincidentally I had two girlfriends appear in the pages of National Geographic.

Things really took off in the 1990s and my work started garnering major awards. By the mid 1990s private collectors were acquiring my work, and even I was amused as peices by Ansel Adams were taken off the walls of Los Angeles' Gallery at 777 to show my works as part of a juried exhibit. Hey, I like my pictures, but I don't know that I'd take down Ansel for our show. I won two first place awards at that one.

I started this website as a goof in 1999. Back then it took forever to download an emailed scan of a photo, and longer than forever if there were a few photos. This website was an easier way to share recent photos with my immediate freinds than trying to send a bunch of emails.

I took one free class in how to use Dreamweaver back in 1999, and that's my only formal instruction in making websites.

In 2000 I started to copy my personal notes about which cameras, lenses and settings worked best for me under various conditions onto this website. I did this so that I could refer back to them from anywhere on earth, without needing to lug my computer around. I'm a photographic artist, not a computer addict. This isn't a "blog;" it's just my personal freinds-and-family website that's been growing and growing as I've been adding to it these past sixteen-plus years.

This website is a work of fiction, entirely the product of my own imagination and personal opinion. To use words of Ansel Adams on page 193 of his autobiography, this site is my "aggressive personal opinion," and not a "logical presentation of fact."

I never intended it this way, but search engines found this personal information, and I've become the world's largest and most influential independent source of photography information. Even the world's largest printed photography magazine has less readership than this website. Oddly, my little notes are read more than the work of any other photography author in history. Strange, but true.

By the 2000s I'd been exhibited in museums, and won top places in every contest I entered. Here's one example.

I was interviewed in India's largest photo magazine, Better Photography, who dubbed me "The Opinion Maker" in January 2010.

I feel like the Forrest Gump of photography, although unlike Forrest, in addition to having won many top awards for my artwork, and having had my work published and held in private and public collections worldwide for many decades, I have earned my living full-time in digital imaging since the 1980s. I hold a couple of US patents. Heck, even though I prefer to shoot real film for my personal work today in 2010, I've been doing this digital stuff for a full-time living for over twenty years. My dad is an engineer, so he taught us about things like discrete cosine transforms, quantization matrices and cos4 laws around the dinner table as children, thus this digital stuff has always been trivial for me. To me, understanding this technology is simply a foundation from which to create artwork, not an end to itself.

Maybe I'm popular because I'm completely independent. I have no camera companies as advertisers, and I get no free cameras, or even prototypes. I say it like it is, not as a camera companies want to hear it. I've never done anything to promote this site other than to spend 12-14 hours each day adding to it, and to keep you, my reader's, long-term best interests as my only concern. This is why my pages aren't cluttered with advertisements like commercial websites; I'm trying to make this site as easy-to-read as possible.

This site is accredited news media, which gives me access to press materials.

I continue to do this site all by myself for fun — probably the last remaining 1990's for-fun website that hasn't sold out to other interests. Even though it has become popular, presumably because so many people find it helpful, it is still run just for fun. I am this site's only author. I have no one to proofread, spell check or fact check for me, so there will always be errors and omissions. Apparently the world finds my opinions very useful, but remember, they are the opinions of one man. I have a big sense of humor, and do this site to entertain you (and myself), as well as to inform and to educate. I occasionally weave fiction and satire into my stories to keep them interesting. I love a good hoax. Read The Museum of Hoaxes, or see their site. A hoax, like some of the things I do on this website, is done as a goof simply for the heck of it by overactive minds as a practical joke. Even Ansel Adams kidded around when he was just a pup in the 1920s by selling his photos as "Parmelian Prints." I have the energy and sense of humor of a three-year old, so remember, this is a personal website, and never presented as fact. I enjoy making things up for fun, as does The Onion, and I publish them here — even on this page.

I've been adding to this site since 1999. This means that many of these pages, including this one, are over ten years old. I can't possibly go back and update everything magically as the world turns. Read, enjoy, have fun, and take everything in the spirit in which it's shared.

If you find any mistakes, please let me know, since there are a lot more of you than there are of me.

I earn my living through this website, and have always formally and regularly registered copyright with the Library of Congress. I share this all free for the reading, and it's always appreciated when you link back to this site, but it is never permitted to copy anything.

Thank you! Enjoy!

Ken.

 

How many cameras do I have?     top

Three, as of October 2015.

I have a Nikon D3 chained-down in my studio in Manhattan.

I have a Fuji X100T for taking pictures of the kids and everything else.

I still have my first dream camera, a Minolta SR-T-102 that I got for Christmas, used, in 1974, back at my mom's house.

Most of the items about which I write I've borrowed from friends or readers like you, and have already returned before the review gets published. I'm at FedEx or UPS every week shipping things back.

I rarely, if ever, still own any gear about which I've written. Even if I owned it when I wrote about it, this site has been on-the-air for over 13 years. I've written-up hundreds of cameras and zillions of lenses and accessories since 1999, and I certainly don't have all that here today.

I'm a big returner. I'll get all excited, buy something, write it up, and if it came from a store with a good return policy, usually I'll realize a week later while the return period is still valid, that I'm never going to use it again. Back it goes, with their permission, of course. Three cameras is more than enough for anyone, especially if you have an iPhone which already has a great camera.

I did have a lot of cameras up through about 2007, but as the babies arrived, more parts of the house got taken, and I gave away most of my unused cameras to charity.

I started shooting with Kodak Instamatics when I was a few years old. I'd go out in the back yard and do all sorts of experiments with my telescope kits.

My parents let me use their Ricohflex medium-format TLR and light meter, all back when coupled rangefinders and FP-sync flashbulbs were innovations.

I used Minolta back when through-the-lens meters were the next new thing.

I bought my first Nikon, used of course, in 1983.

Photography is as second nature to me as breathing. I was shooting before I could walk. I was born with it. Maybe that's why it's all so obvious to me, and why I can see through the marketing baloney so easily. Put a camera in my hand and it quickly morphs into an extension of my consciousness. A camera's job is to get out of the way of my vision, not something to have to stop and jerk around.

 

How I Support My Family      top

I've had a real job ever since I was in high school. I've worked like crazy, and made a decent living.

I worked in broadcasting for decades, and saw how spending millions of dollars to make the best shows possible made billions of dollars for TV networks who gave them away free for the viewing. TV networks made these billions of dollars up in volume: advertising.

I put up some ads like this one back in 2000. I'm taking those off as I make new pages or edit the old ones.

 

 

As a little money started coming in from doing nothing, I conveniently managed to get myself fired from my real job in 2004 so I could see what would happen if I put more effort into this site. It worked; more people read what I wrote, and the broadcasting business model worked great.

Today (2010), I support my family from what this website brings in. Strange, but true. We're frugal, and I'm a hard worker, so it all works out.

The largest source of my family's income comes from when you use my links to these stores when you get your stuff. I've been using these places myself since before this website existed, which is why I recommend them so strongly. The fact that they pay me is a nice side benefit that keeps my wife from sending me back out to get a real job, but the real reason I recommend them is because I use them myself because they are the best.

I also get some donations, and for these I am genuinely grateful — and pay a lot of income taxes.

I don't get free stuff, or paid by, Nikon or Canon. I wish I did.

I don't get free cameras as everyone presumes. I wish! I certainly never get paid for endorsements or to review anything. If I'm lucky I'll get a free service or accessory now and then, like a strap, filter, headphone, scans, flashlight, memory card, tripod, book, case or software, but no free cameras — and I still pay for the bulk of my accessories myself.

Otherwise, I have to buy or borrow everything I review just like everyone else. Heck, I don't even want most of the free junk people send me; that's why they're giving it away: hoping I mention it.

It is important that I don't let Nikon send me any cameras to review. I review what I get the same way everyone else does. I'm never looking at cherry-picked samples or prototypes. If a commercial website has a different opinion on something, its probably because they got a prototype or other special consideration from a camera company.

As mentioned above, if you consider anything I say as an endorsement (God help you if you do, remember, I do this site as a goof), remember that no one goes back in and edits old reviews as they get old. If I say I use something, I did when I wrote it, but years later, probably don't.

As a former salesman I'd love to be sent on free trips and receive all the special insider favors I could, but I just don't get invited. I guess I'm too honest.

I'd take all the free stuff anyone wanted to hand out, but camera companies simply don't give out free cameras. Nikon has never so much as even loaned me a lens cap, much less a lens or camera. They gave me a pen once at a trade show, but it didn't work, which was too bad, because it had the URL of their press website on it.

Most of the gear I review comes from friends and other readers like you. I couldn't possibly own all this stuff myself; no one could.

I'm supported by my few advertisers when you buy things from them, but I'm far more concerned about teaching people to learn to use what they already have rather than waste time buying new cameras. I do this for fun; the money simply lets me spend my time here adding more useful information instead of having to go off to some less productive job each day. Most of us, myself included, would make far better pictures if we'd stop buying new cameras and spend that time learning how to use what we already have instead.

I have no idea how to interpret the FTC Guidelines, but I think I've covered it here. I get paid from stores if you use my links to get your stuff, I accept donations and put up some ads, but I don't get paid to write anything and don't get free cameras. I don't even put up the ads; they're usually placed by third parties.

 

About my Family     top

Town of Rockwell, North Carolina.

Here's me fifty years ago in my dad's arms:

28 July 1962: Ron and Kenny Rockwell

Ken's dad Ronnie and baby Kenny Rockwell at Nanny's house: 28 July 1979. bigger. (Nanny is the name we use for our grandma, who had been Henry Steinway's personal secretary for the past 20 years at the time.)

 

Baby Katie     top

Baby Katie was born 28 May 2008. See Katie's Website.

Baby Katie

 

Baby Ryan     top

Baby Ryan was born 8:16:30PM, 15 December 2006. He has his own websites at RyanRockwell.com and RyanRockwell.TV.

Ryan Rockwell

 

Wedding     top

Married May 2005 full love story

Ken and future wife

Wedding day! We were married on a tropical island in May, 2005. Kanaloa, the Akua Kai (God of the sea), approved, providing a south swell with double-overhead sets a day or so later. bigger.

 

Ken, Wife and Pastor Kilborn

Ken, his new wife and Pastor Kilborn. bigger.

 

Engagement     top

February 2005. click photos to enlarge. full love story

Rockwell in the Caymans
Rockwell Christmas 2004
Tropical Islands
Christmas with the family

 

Dogs     top

Megan is the Princess

Shitzu-poo

Buster, Molly and Megan Rockwell! (Shitzu-poos)

 

Boss     top

My wife is real sweetheart. She's not only the smartest and nicest girl out there, she's also the best cook and homemaker you'll ever meet. Not one to stay at home, she's a top performer at her huge company and has always been at the top of anything she's ever done. She has more friends than this site has readers. She loves not just cute baby Ryan, but also her wonderful husband and cute little doggies and would do anything for them. I'm serious; she'll stop and cook a meal from scratch for one of the doggies if they don't like dry food any night.

 

Mom     top

My mom is a certified flight instructor (CFI) with commercial, private, instrument, instrument instructor (CFI-I), basic ground instructor, seaplane and taildragger ratings. She's been flying since she was a kid and was chosen as "Miss Air Power" by the US Military when she was a teenager. Mom's the sweetest lady you'll ever meet. Mom and dad live on Long Island, New York, where we all grew up. Her mom, my grandma, was Henry Steinway's personal secretary at the Steinway piano factory in NY for many decades. My parents met in a choir. My mom's dad, my grandpa, was a communications technician in New York City in the early 1900s. My grandfather came from Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, Germany. The B in BMW stands for Bavaria. Mach schnell!

Mom and I at Bayport with Piper Cub,

Mom and I at Bayport Aerodrome with Piper Cub, 18 August 2013. Mom learned in a cub. (Fuji X100S, Athentech Perfectly Clear V2.) Bigger or huge.

 

Photography in my blood     top

My great-great grandfather was the pioneering photographic artist James Brewster at the dawn of photography in Ayr, Scotland between 1861 and 1881. You may be familiar with the poetry of Robert Burns, also from Ayr. Burns also wrote the modern version of "Auld Lang Syne" we all sing on New Year's eve at midnight. Burns even has a Heritage Park devoted to him.

 

Viking Heritage     top

Vad få känner till, är att jag är kvarts-svensk så jag välkomnar alla er vikingar!

What few people know is that I’m ¼ Swedish from my mom's side, so I welcome all of you Vikings!

My great-great something or other Tom Larsson was a sea captain who left the seaport of Oskarshamn, Sweden in 1893. If you're in the north of Sweden in winter check out the Ice Hotel. My Viking forefathers, specifically Leiv Eriksson, discovered America a thousand years ago. We called it "Vinland" back then from the grape vines we saw growing. By 1492 Columbus accidentally wandered into America thinking he found a shortcut to India, and to this day the inhabitants he found are called "Indians." "America" is named for Italian map maker Amerigo Vespucci. On 23 August 1499 Amerigo Vespucci was where Columbus claimed was India. Amerigo observed a conjunction between Mars and the moon. Based on this he calculated longitude and realized he wasn't in India, but someplace new. Thus Amerigo discovered America as a new world, not Columbus. Columbus thought to his dying day that he really found a shortcut to India. History is funnier than comedy! Anyway, you can learn more about Vikings and our religion at these links: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

 

Dad     top

Ron Rockwell in China

Dad in China. bigger.

My dad is the engineer who designed the LORAN-C navigation system used today by large commercial and military ships and aircraft. My dad can build model cars, trains and ships more precisely than anyone. His dad, my grandfather (or maybe that was great-grandfather), was working in New York City during the depression and invented the concept of selling apples on the streets as a way both to employ people and solve the issue of a huge overstock of apples in upstate New York.

 

Brother Steve     top

Steve Rockwell at Kings Dominion

Dr. Rockwell, as snapped by the automatic rollercoaster camera on Kings Dominion's Scooby-Doo Ghoster Coaster as he is choked by a demon. A small child, ignorant of the horror taking place, enjoys the ride.

My brother, author, athlete, history and paranormal phenomenon researcher and professor Dr. Steve Rockwell got his Ph.D. in 2001, professed at the University of Michigan for a few years, and now he's a tenured Associate Professor of Political Science at St. Joseph's College in New York.

As of July 2010, Dr. Rockwell has a new book: Indian Affairs and the Administrative State in the Nineteenth Century.

Dr. Rockwell has had several books on American Government published, and has a lengthy article. He's a great guy and plays softball. Here's a book he helped write. Here's a place to get his latest book. Here's his other book. Look out: those sites are charging two to three times what it is supposed to sell for.

Quite oddly, Stephen Rockwell also played the part of a scientist researching a crash with a space alien vessel in an episode of "Roswell." Very strange.

 

Brother David     top

David Rockwell falls to death from Canton Tower

Last known photo of Dr. David Rockwell before falling to his death from the Thousand Steps, Canton Tower, China, April 2011.

 

David Rockwell

Dr. David Rockwell.

The picture of Dr. Rockwell was taken at a police station in Chisholm, MN, after Dr. Rockwell was pulled over for speeding. Apparently, MN, as a progressive state, has avoided the prison-happy trend of other states and still uses embarrassment and banishment as punishment, rather than incarceration.

Dr. Rockwell had his photo snapped and put on the MN law enforcement-citizens intranet, and he is forbidden from entering Chisholm again for a year. They were really nice about it, though.

David and his home brew

Dr. Rockwell and some of his home-brew. It must be our German heritage.

David is also an avid home-brewer, finding it far more convenient than conventional methods.

My other brother, internationally renowned aviation author, researcher and humanitarian Dr. David Rockwell has had several aviation books published, like the classic "Jane's How to Fly and Fight in the F-14 Tomcat" (a classic that's unintentionally been driven out of print by the demand from terrorist and paramilitary organizations) and "Jane's Gem Combat Aircraft."

How to Fly an F-14 Janes Combat Aircraft

Some books by Dr. David Rockwell

That's right: I write about how to use your digital camera, and my brother writes about how to fly your own nuclear-capable fighter jet! He's also an expert on UGVs (unmanned ground vehicles, or "killer robots.")

He also has a lengthy article like this one. Not particularly interested in Alien interrogation techniques, he anyway is also an analyst here. He travels to places so crazy that even I have to pull out my atlas to figure out where he is. He currently is deployed in Romania. He claims not to be involved with the US government's most recent efforts to produce Plutonium 238 (238Pu) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Plutonium 238 is hundreds of times more powerful than the Plutonium 239 now used in land- and air- based nuclear weapons. It will be used in the the USA's new network of space-based nuclear-pumped offensive lasers called "Death Stars." There's an article on this here. When INL makes a mistake, it makes big ones. Here's a site about cleanup efforts from one of INL's past nuclear "oops!" We don't really know what he does; it's probably something with the CIA's National Clandestine Services, or some group that officially doesn't exist. That's why he can't tell us.

I may be related to painter Norman Rockwell. Norman lived in an area in New York state that hasn't rated highly enough on my travel list to warrant a trip to research it. A Norman Rockwell painting "Rosie the Riveter" just sold for $4.9 million here.

No, I'm not related to the former San Diego comedian who had a few minutes of television infamy back in February, 2000 who used the stage name "Rick Rockwell."

I'm not related to the painter Rockwell Kent, even though it sounds like it!

Rockwell College

Rockwell College

Rockwell College in Ireland (photos: John Power, Co Clare, Ireland.)

 

About Me     top

Ken Rockwell

Charity Events

Rockwell Boogie Boarding, 31 May 1998

Playing

Rockwell and Cheerleaders

Volunteering (before marriage)

click photos to enlarge

Even as a newborn I was so curious I lifted my head up to look around the hospital nursery. That attracted all the nurses' attention to my parent's surprise. The nurses explained that it's very rare for a newborn to have strong enough neck muscles to lift his head.

Curiosity is crucial in photography. My mom will tell you that even as soon as she was 5 months pregnant that all I did was poke around trying to see what was going on!

I learned photography by asking my dad, reading books and practicing.

I love traveling California and the world and creating beautiful images. I love feeling nature and beauty. I love all the arts and the outdoors. I run, bike and play in the ocean almost every day. I've been doing 50 - 100 mile bike rides since I was in high school. I'm always up for weekend trips away for any reason, and I'm always there when there's an art opening, symphony concert or play going on. I do more things outdoors than will fit here.

I'm a big kidder and am always fooling around. I think I'm a seven year old who's managed to sneak into a grown-up's body. I have enough enthusiasm for an entire class of second graders.

I lived in La Jolla, California from 1988 to 2011. La Jolla is just north of of San Diego and is the most beautiful place on earth with high-speed Internet access and direct international airline service to interesting places. Our area also offers unlimited outdoor recreational opportunities, since we have every kind of land and water form imaginable. We have mountains, deserts, pine forests, cliffs, chaparral, grassy plains, ancient oak groves, huge boulder fields for climbing, every kind of road and trail for hiking, on- and off-road cycling and motorcycling and of course we have all sorts of different beaches and rivers for surfing, swimming, SCUBA, boogie boarding, kayaking and etc.

These many different environments are why San Diego County is home to more bird and animal species than any other county in the United States. Maybe it's also why every sort of kook organization including at least two UFO cult religions, Unarius and Heaven's Gate as well as the famous Black's (nude) Beach call San Diego home. Poke all the fun you want, but we also have a symphony orchestra, a pretty decent formal opera company and numerous theatre and chamber music ensembles and performing arts organizations. The La Jolla Music Society brings in music and dance from around the world. San Diego is also home to the World Famous San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park which runs big game photo safaris right here in San Diego county. I could go on, but rest assured there is never any shortage of fun here. Most real San Diegans are members of the San Diego Zoo.

In 2011, I moved my family back to New York, since New York makes much more sense for doing what I do. Nikon, Canon and every other camera maker has its USA offices on Long Island near where I was born, and the world's biggest and best camera stores, as well as the press offices for all the camera makers, are all in New York City. It feels great to be back in New York!

I donate my time to many volunteer organizations. For instance, I volunteer as webmaster for The Monarch Program and am always photographing for organizations like Paws'itive Teams who train service dogs for the handicapped.

I don't believe in photo contests and competitions, although I do OK when friends twist my arm. For instance, I won a trip to Hawaii here and I also won 1st Place in the San Diego Union-Tribune's Nature Photo Contest here (requires Flash player and a fast Internet connection.)

I received a Ph. D. from the University of Basingstoke in December, 2001. It's a Phony Doctorate given to me for Christmas by my brothers who have real Ph.Ds.

I speak English, French, some Spanish and very, very little German and Italian. As an artist I try not to admit that I have a BSEE engineering degree and was just granted my first US Patent 6,473,701 in October 2002. On March 6th, 2007, I was granted Statutory Invention Registration H2,184, much rarer than a patent.

 

Rockwell Automation's Retro Encabulator.

 

In the Media     top

Ken Rockwell interviewed on KCBS TV2, Los Angeles, 09 February 2005
(also watch the video)

Radio Interview and Podcast 16 May 2006

 

Recent Trips     top

(links show photos from those trips)

 

2015    top

August: Hawaii.

July: Nassau, Bahamas.

May: Yosemite.

February: Route 66 and Hawaii.

 

2014     top

November: Palm Desert.

October: Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra.

June: Lake Tahoe.

May: Yosemite.

February: Route 66.

January: California's Central Coast Road Trip.

 

2013     top

April: California's Central Coast.

February: Route 66.

February: Santa Barbara 50th Anniversary Celebration.

February: Death Valley with Ryan.

 

2012     top

April: California's Central Coast.

March: Olde California.

February: Route 66.

 

2011     top

November: Yosemite.

November: Route 66 in New Mexico and Arizona (still in my camera).

October: Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra.

June: San Diego Safari.

May: The Yosemite in Springtime.

April: California's Central Coast.

February: The Yosemite in Winter.

February: Route 66.

 

2010     top

October: The Eastern Sierra.

July: Maui.

June: California's Central Coast.

May and June: New York and Long Island.

May: Maui.

April: California's Gold Country.

February: Route 66 in Arizona and California.

January: New York, and then Death Valley and the Eastern Sierra.

 

2009     top

November: Indian Country, USA.

October: Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra

September: Point Reyes, California.

August: Yellowstone National Park; New York City and Point Reyes, California.

July: Walnut Creek, California.

June: Monterey, California.

April: Volcano Country.

February: Route 66.

January: Death Valley.

 

2008     top

November: Arizona and New Mexico as photographed on film and as snapped digitally.

October: Eastern Sierra and Yosemite.

April: Barrio Logan.

January: Route 66, Barstow.

 

2007     top

October: Yosemite and the Eastern Sierra, California

February: Death Valley, California

January: Route 66, California

 

2006     top

December: New baby in La Jolla, California

November: New York and Long Island, New York

October: Las Vegas, Nevada: Mercedes Starfest, Yosemite, California.

September: PhotoShop World, Las Vegas, Nevada (not my shots)

August: Orange County, California

July: Lake Arrowhead and Santa Barbara, California

June: Alamo, California

May: Kauai, Hawaii

April: Las Vegas, Nevada; Palm Desert, California

March: San Francisco Bay Area and Palm Desert, California (infra-red examples)

February: San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara, Barstow and Route 66 Workshop (shots here and some more shots at the bottom here), California; PMA, Orlando, Florida

January: Death Valley, California (some shots at the bottom here)

 

2005     top

December: Maui, Hawaii

November: Montecito, Santa Barbara and Palm Desert, California

October: Phoenix and Sedona, Arizona

September: California's Palm Desert, Eastern Sierra and Mono Lake.

August: Long Island, The Hamptons and New York, New York; Palm Desert, California.

July : No travel. Married.

June: No travel. Married.

May: Kauai. Got married.

April: Kauai.

March: Death Valley and Santa Barbara, California

February: Santa Barbara, California; PMA, Orlando, Florida

January: New York, New York; Las Vegas, Nevada

 

2004     top

December: Las Vegas, Nevada; New York, New York

November: Baja California, México looking at migrating monarch butterflies

October: California's Sierra Nevada, Miramar Airshow (photos here)

September: Big Sur, San Luis Obispo, Cambria, San Simeon and Monterey, California

August: On vacation for the first time this year. I didn't go anywhere, thank goodness!

July: San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, California

June: Grand Cayman Island, British West Indies (photos); San Francisco and the Muir Woods, California

May: Miami, Florida; Palm Desert, California, Las Vegas, Nevada

April: Las Vegas, Nevada; Santa Barbara, California

March: New York City and Long Island, New York

February: Cambria, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Palm Desert, California; PMA, Las Vegas, Nevada; Rosarito Beach and Ensenada, Baja California, México

January: Death Valley, Santa Barbara California, California; Long Island, New York

 

2003     top

December: New York City, New York

November: Julian, California firestorms. (photos here) and California's Eastern Sierra (photos here)

October: Torino, Italy; Paris, France (photos here) and California's Eastern Sierra

September: New York, NY. Tom and Stacy's wedding (photos here)

August: Santa Barbara, Lompoc, CA; New York, NY

July: Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Big Sur, San Francisco, Bristlecone Pines, CA

June: Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, CA; Portland, Oregon

May: Sedona, AZ; Santa Barbara, Mammoth Lakes, CA; Portland, Oregon

April: Santa Barbara, CA; National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show, Las Vegas, Nevada

March: PMA show, Las Vegas, Nevada

January: Death Valley, California; Dallas, TX and New York, NY

 

2002     top

December: New York City and Long Island

November: Hawaii

October: Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, New Mexico; Arizona, Utah and Colorado (Photos here). Also Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

September: Morro Bay, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo California

August: Salk Institute party, La Jolla

July: Yosemite National Park, Mono Lake and Mammoth Mountain, California see the snapshots here

June: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Oregon

May: Lone Pine, Bishop and the Eastern Sierra, California. Parrot Adoption and Education Center (photos here)

April: Las Vegas, Nevada

March: Vermillion Cliffs, Utah; Page, Arizona. Paul and Sandy's wedding, Laguna Beach, California (photos here)

February: Grammy Awards (Los Angeles), Santa Barbara, San Simeon, Cambria, Piedras Blancas California; Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico photos here

January: New York City

 

2001     top

December: Death Valley, California photos here; New York City

November: New Mexico. Photos here

October: Zion National Park, Utah. Photos here

August: Mono Lake. photos here

February: Florida

 

1998, August: New York and Long Island, New York for Mike and Jen's wedding (photos here)

 

1997, June and July: France (photos here)

 

1993, May: Chuck and Joy's wedding on San Diego Bay (photos here)

Nice places I'll visit at the drop of a hat:

Santa Barbara, California (weekend trips anytime)
San Luis Obispo, California (weekend trips anytime)
Cambria, California (and the elephant seals and the whole PCH, Big Sur, and Ventana area) (weekend trips anytime)
California's Eastern Sierra
Italy
Mesa, Arizona
Cook Islands
Spokane, Washington
France et Tahiti (Oui, je parle Français)
Hawaii
California's wine country; Napa and Sonoma counties (any weekend)
San Francisco (weekends)
Durango, Colorado (a mountain biking and outdoor Mecca)
Santa Fe and all of New Mexico

 

Other places I've visited:

Austria (November 1992)
Canada (Summer 1978)
Czechoslovakia (November 1992)
England (June 1993)
France (June and July 1997, photos here)
Germany (November 1992)
Guatemala (1991, 1992, 1998, 1999)
Hawaii (Maui March 1999, Kauai February 2000, Oahu November 2002. Marriage May 2005)
Mexico City (August 2000)
Peru (August 1999)
Russia (1995, 1996)
Scotland (June 1993)

 

About the Ads     top

Without ads this website would still be just a collection of my personal photos.

The ads allowed me to quit my real job in 2004 and work on this site for you full time, adding tons of the technical info you've requested. Contributions help, but don't provide anywhere near enough on their own to allow me to do what I've volunteered to do today.

Ads are only on the techie pages on which I work about 10 - 14 hours every day for you. There aren't any ads on the gallery pages with my photos.

I personally buy from these stores, for whom I've placed some ads. I've been buying my own equipment from them for decades, long beofre the Internet became popular.

All the other ads are all placed automatically by third party ad wholesalers. I can't vouch for them since I don't see or approve them before the third party sends them straight to your browser. These same ads appear on other websites who use the same wholesalers like Google's AdWords. If a deal on a new digital camera is better than everywhere else then it's a scam. If they don't take credit cards, it's a scam. I simply rent out the space to advertising wholesalers, NOT camera companies. I certainly don't have the time to be out selling ads. Since I have no idea what goes up there I certainly have no fear being honest with my opinions on cameras, either, which of course supports the whole idea of my site: no commercial bias.

If you see any bothersome, bogus or bad ads please contact me with the exact URL of the offending ad and from what part of the page it came (top, side or bottom) and I'll do what I can to tell whichever wholesaler to dump it.

See also my page on How and Where to Buy Photo Gear.

 

Privacy Policy     top

This website and I collect nothing about anyone.

Other websites, which are third-party advertising companies that place some of the advertisements seen on this site, may collect and use information about your visits to this and other websites. They do this to provide more relevant ads. They don't collect anything about your name, address, email address or phone number; they just collect information about your visits so that the few ads you might see can be as helpful and as interesting as possible.

If you'd like to learn more, or don't want this information used by these companies, see www.networkadvertising.org.

 

About that humongous lens on the home page     top

I used that photo of myself simply because it communicates this website's topic more lucidly than having to use the word "photography." Personally I hate carrying that beast around and emphasize that your camera has nothing to do with the quality of images produced. It's the artist, not the tools, who creates art. The lens is a 400mm f/2.8.

 

About the left-handed camera on the home page     top

The left handed Nikon F100 you see on my home page was loaned to me for beta testing in 1998 when Nikon was considering producing a left handed version of the F100. Yes, I also wear my watch on my right arm and if you think I'm kidding just click the image on my Contact page for the original hi-rez film scan where you can see for yourself that it's not just a flipped negative. Nikon decided against producing the camera, but let me keep the beta on indefinite loan as thanks for all my input. (This was long before I started this site.) It of course remains property of Nikon Japan. I may not sell it, although it would fetch a pretty penny in the collector's market. I have to return it to Nikon eventually, and of course when it breaks it won't be repaired. I even had a veterinarian friend in Africa who specializes in elephant care send me some phallus hide from the Loxodonta Africana (known for its flexibility and grip when wet) which I then had a local taxidermist apply to my camera in place of the original rubber. It took a lot of paperwork with the U.S. Dept. of Fish and Game but at least it doesn't peel off on my D1H as the rubber does.

 

How Much Does Nikon Pay Me?     top

I don't get anything from Nikon. They don't even give me the time of day! No loaners (except for the left handed F100 I got before this site went on-air), no special help, no advance information, no hats or even pens. Nothing. Nada. Squat. They rarely send me press releases on time; I always hear about new things from you folks first!

So why am I so ecstatic about their stuff? I've been buying and using Nikon for over 25 years (since 1980). I've been an active Nikon customer since before AI-s manual focus lenses came out and Nikon told us we should all go buy them to replace our perfectly good AI ones. For decades I've been reading the news and looking forward to their new gear every months, just as we do today. I've seen it all come and go.

Nikon is cranking out revolutionary new cameras and lenses at a pace I have never seen before. This lets me crank out more great new images faster and easier than ever before.

Nikon doesn't have to pay me. They make good stuff. So does Canon, Schneider, Rodenstock, Horseman, Hasselblad, Linhof, and others, too. Nobody pays me and I buy all my stuff myself. I just like to talk about it a lot!

I told you at the top: I do this site for fun. It pays my living so I don't have to work a real job and can (and do) spend all day helping everyone. I love photography and love to share my enthusiasm. Have fun!

 

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2016-02