Big Bucks

Big Bucks, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

Taken on June 30, 2008 and posted with in a week on Flickr, this image is my first 1000 plus hit image. I want to take a moment and thank everyone for making this my most popular image.

I encourage you to take a look through some of my other images both for wild life and sports. I am branching out into other avenues of photography as well such as portraits, events, and yes, weddings.

Wedding images displayed on Flickr are drastically down res'd and watermarked for the protection of the Bride & Groom. If you are of the wedding party & want a specific image please contact me or the Bride. If you are interested in finding out more information on how I can be of service to you please contact me at PreyingJaws(at) America On Line (dot) com

Clutter

purple ticket, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

I'm fighting the clutter on my hard drives this week while adding to it.

Photography for me is an art form while it is also a stress relief. The best part of this hobby is the creative aspect of seeing life 'just' differently enough to make an impact. The hard part is the post processing of what I take. If I get the post processing started within 48 hours then a few images have a chance to be viewed within a week.

I've starting recently to make decisions before I go shoot. If the purpose of the shoot is personal casual walk along then I take the point & shoot. If the purpose is artful then I prep the folder & keyword file before hand while making sure I have the primary lens on the dSLR.

The purpose of the Purple Ticket shot is that, art. This image also was a conscious decision weeks ago to join the Photo Walkers on the Turkey Shoot downtown. A group of 30 met downtown SLC for a casual evening of photography. Check out some of the images other turned over.

This new added marker on my work flow is helping cut the clutter.

Details of the shore

Details of the shore, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

Long before I realized my keys were safely in my car, I wandered the mud flats of the Great Salt Lake. This image is one of the few images that captured all the elements I went looking for: fore ground interest, textures, sky, and the setting sun.

The last couple of nights were fabulous on the mud flats near Saltair. Today a storm is blowing in. I hope it dumps enough snow in the mountains for a good opening day for the ski resorts. I added a couple of links just for the winter.

Several of my shots from the last few nights are up on deviantArt. Please swing by and take a closer look as something to decorate your wall.

Hello? Where's My Bride?

double_rdc_JAM_Oct231865, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

By request of the bride, I've posted the wedding pictures I've shot so her guests can take a look at them. She will get her wedding album shortly. The images posted on flickr are not of print quality unless you like grainy 4x6's.

Vote for Me

Anastasis in London, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

Please take a moment and head over to http://www(dot)jpgmag(dot)com/people/PreyingJaws I have submitted several items for December's Competition. Clicking on this image will not take you there. The above image is on flickr.

Speaking of competition. I submitted a couple of my images to Wasatch Camera Club's November Competition. Check out http://wasatchcameraclub(dot)com/html/competition(dot)html
My images are Who Me (a remix of a Bull Elk), Three Posts (Great Salt Lake), The Proud (UT St Capitol), and Dress Rehearsal (Proletariat Theatre). I doubt I'll be in the novice category much longer (wink). I'm personally finding our volunteer judges are leaning more towards images with emotional people connections.

Please do take time to visit my images on flickr, deviantArt, and JPG Magazine. I always welcome critiques and comments. If you can't comment on the image itself, email me.

Zemijon taking the goats to market

Zemijon taking the goats to market, originally uploaded by MercyWatch.

I took a fast look into one of the flickr streams I follow. The above picture is from MercyWatch, Denise Miller. She is one of the many volunteers with Mercy Ships International. Currently in Benin West Africa the m/v Africa Mercy is providing medical care and community education to this needy nation.

When I saw this image my own time with Mercy Ships came to mind. There were many a times I took the local transit affectionately known as the chicken bus. Along the coast of Nicaragua the name changes to the fish bus.

Do I dare say this guys is riding a goat-cicle?

Thanks Mrs. Miller for sharing a clip of what you are seeing.

For more information about...
Mercy Ships
http://www.MercyShips.org
Denise Miller
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mercywatch

Nov 13 Jordan River

Nov 13 Jordan River, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

The region between 6400 South and 90th South along the Jordan River in Salt Lake is seeing rapid development after years of neglect. Even in the midst of this construction I find beauty along the pathways near my home. It's all in perspective if you ask me. What's not scene here is the construction of a new office park hidden by the bull rush grass and willows.

There is still open areas for deer to roam and ducks to land. In the field behind me in this picture I've seen a small herd of deer on the occasional basis. One day I keep saying to myself I'll get a good picture of the Jordan River Deer Herd.

The years of neglect along the River brought caught the attention of the EPA. Not far from this site is the sight of the old Midvale Smelter. Now encased by tons of clean fill and monitored for ground water contamination it's a stark reminder that we need to pay attention to our rivers nation wide. Our Rivers are our life stream.

30 years ago the river had a stench today it's a refreshing breeze. I am glad to see the Jordan River is regaining some of the prestige it had when settlers first came to the Valley. There are numerous projects under way to restore natural habitat to remaining wet lands and for cleaning up environmental disasters. There are also many areas where parks have sprung up. A path way of sorts now weaves its way from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake.

Grease Monkeying Around

I'm wasting time but, since I'm wasting it I may as well waste it a little more efficiently. I'm all for open source, though not a programmer myself, I appreciate those who's hobby is to tweak, create, and produce high quality software. One of the best aspects of course is for the casual end user who just doesn't know the difference from a bug from a crash, with open source a fix may be as simple as saying hey look what just happened. You could say I am an apostle of open source.

Open source goes beyond just software it delves into making even pay for use software more usable by customizations. One of the best way to customize everything is via Grease Monkey Scripts (GM). GM itself may not be open source (the info I've looked at for this article is not clear on it) but the customizations that can be implemented by GM are endless and open.

From the Greasespot Blog (http://www.greasespot.net/2009/09/who-uses-greasemonkey-part-2.html#links) 91.5% of GM scripts are Window Users. Hum, does that tell Microsoft something? It should & they do take it into consideration.

A quick Google search for GM scripts produced more then a hundred pages of scripts many of the articles begin with "The Best GM Scripts to Use..." It's an easy fill in the blank. I'll highlight just a few of those pages for productivity, deviantArt, and for crossovers like myself Flickr.

For the most up to date info on Grease Monkey and the GM Scripts visit:
the Wiki
http://wiki.greasespot.net/Main_Page
the Blog Greasespot
http://www.greasespot.net/

For deviantArt we can thank a few of our own who highlight specifically what GM is and does.
In the news, from Sathoro
http://news.deviantart.com/article/68563/
In journals, from Philho
http://philho.deviantart.com/journal/15970524/
http://kabukikatze.deviantart.com/journal/24602932/
In miscellaneous regions
http://swik.net/lightbox+Greasemonkey
From UserScripts.org
http://userscripts.org/scripts/search?q=deviantart&x=0&y=0
That was a fast search that pulled 177 different scripts. I haven't looked at more then a page full of these & I will say, interesting. Some of these I may use others I'll disregard.

For crossover users on Flickr check out:
Slick Affiliate
http://slickaffiliate.com/best-of-greasemonkey-scripts-firefox/
Flickr Hacks
http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickrhacks/

For productivity which does include vast manipulations of G-mail and other big G services. These links produce a mixed bag of what can be done.
From Y! Tech
http://tech.yahoo.com/gd/17-greasemonkey-scripts-to-turbocharge-your-browser/209049
Irony strikes with this article for it highlights how to control a few G-mail features while only touching on one Y! owned web page.
From Lifehacker
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/top-10-greasemonkey-scripts-to-improve-your-productivity.html
Another mis-labeled article on how to control G-mail but then again how integrated is the Big G in not only our surfing lives but now into our un-virtual lives as well?

What then are my favorite GM scripts? To many, I've got more then a megabyte of saved scripts. Most of these scripts are to manipulate Flick. dA does a great job of handling their own services in a user friendly way I have little use of manipulating it.

Fire Prevention

rdc_TPFT_DSC_2520_20091104, originally uploaded by preyingjaws.

The last several weeks have not been tops for one of the nation's refinery of oil. They suffered several set backs in regards to fires. Thankfully, few if anyone were injured in the fires which were quickly contained & controlled. The most recent fire damaged some homes in a Woodscross neighborhood which were damaged due to being within an unknown blast zone.

I'd hate to think about the fire damage done had teams not been on location. I know when I hear the local fire units roll out, they heading out for damage control. Seldom do the brigades arrive in time to stop the spread of immediate damage.

The day of the Woodscross fire the Wasatch Camera Club had the opportunity to experience the training that went to use earlier that day at another facility. The above image is taken at the training facility.

Before going out to the location one of the firemen (a club member) briefed us. He said the local fire brigades will not enter the facility under their chief's command, they will take up defensive positions outside the property, and follow instructions as directed by the facility's team if their help is requested in the facility. He went on to say the company's fire brigade is staffed by employee volunteers who train regularly and who are on a rotating on call duty roster. They have teams on scene literally within seconds verses minutes if they relied on an outside source.

As I set up my camera gear in the designated viewer area I thought back to my own fire fighting training with Mercy Ships. It was train, train, and train some more. Review the materials list, know the lay out of the ship/facility, know the gear, concentrate on the task at hand, etc.

Not only do I remember the physical aspect of it I also remember the preparation of it. The best way to put out a fire is not to let it start. Most of our would be fires were because of an over loaded power transformer 220v stepped down to 110v. These transformers would overheat, sizzle producing acidic smoke, and blow a circuit breaker. We'd keep our eyes and noses on the look out for overloaded transformers.

The designer's of the m.v. Africa Mercy took the lessons learned, the safety requirements, and implemented them. I haven't been to the m.v. Africa Mercy but I have seen her design, talked with the engineers, and those involved in the project. I know that our old ship issues were addressed. I'd say she's a very safe ship from that aspect.

As we head into this year's holiday season, as we pull out our decorations, as we pull out the memories of years gone by, please remember fire safety is more then not playing with matches. Fire safety begins by inspecting electrical cords and connections. Fire safety includes resisting the temptation to overload a circuit. Fire safety includes making sure flammables are away from the flames and heat source when a flame is lit or a heat source turned on. Fire safety begins with common sense.

I live in a multifamily community, not a rack and stack as some apartments are but, still I share a common wall with 2 other families. I'd hate to loose out because of a simple over sight by one of my neighbors. Even more so I'd hate for them to loose out because of me.

As we head into a season of lights, jolly, and good times please remember...

Fire safety begins with prevention.

Prevention means using common sense.