Description:  I took a stroll with my camera during lunch yesterday, as I try to do as often as possible.  When I came to the Transamerica Pyramid, I stopped and stared for awhile.  It’s amazing how many times you can walk by a building and still be in awe when seeing it.

Before capturing the image above, I had captured quite a few other angles of the building.  I kept moving around from Montgomery St. to Washington St.  Finally, I caught a glimpse of the reflections in the windows and knew, THAT was the image I was looking to create.

Location: San Francisco, California
Date Taken: February 25, 2010
Camera: Canon 20D
Lens: Canon 18.0-200.0 mm
Exposure: 1/60 second
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO: 100

Typically, they tend to use stock photography that fits their vision, but decided to take a different route this time, get a bit more personal, and visit a client.  The shoot went very smoothly and I had a great time working with IOA.  A few of the  images from the shoot can be viewed on Flickr.

Till next time…

So, are you using Google Buzz yet?  Are you looking to get your fix of images and interact with some photographers rather than get the typical tech mumbo jumbo?

After Thomas Hawk announced that he would start sharing his favorite photographers on Buzz, I wondered how many photographers were already on AND active on Buzz.

So, I posted that exact question and since, have wasted a good few hours compiling this list in a readable format for everyone to enjoy.  I do apologize if I missed anyone, the thread got a bit out-of-control.  Of coarse, as Google Buzz continues to grow, this list will NEVER be complete, so feel free to leave a comment with a link to your Google profile if you consider yourself an ACTIVE Google Buzz photographer (I will filter the links posted in the comments).

Okay, on to the list!  Names with a * denotes the person either mentions “Photographer” or “Photography” under their name on their Google profile, their Google profile picture is of them taking a picture/holding a camera, or their Google Buzz stream consists of mostly photography or photography related topics at the time I checked it.

Enjoy…

1. Justin Korn *
2. Thomas Hawk *
3. Scott Kivowitz *
4. Brian Sullivan
5. Chris Luckhardt *
6. David Thomas *
7. Calvin Heinly
8. Jeremy Hall *
9. Kol Tregaskes
10. Benjamin Heath *
11. Dan Figueroa *
12. Sam Scott *
13. Tyler Wainright *
14. Anne Petersen *
15. Ignacio Pulido
16. Alexander Couey *
17. Aaron Hockley *
18. Daniel Kreger *
19. Mike Connell *
20. Keshav Khera
21. William Burrard-Lucas *
22. Daniel Peckham *
23. Cliff Johnson *
24. Nathan Smith
25. Ingo Meckmann *
26. nixter retxin
27. Colt Seavers
28. Russ Scheid *
29. Victoria Klum *
30. Squid Vicious *
31. Griffon Walker
32. Glenn Euloth *
33. Heather S
34. Steven Rose
35. Michael Wimmer
36. Gordon Reece
37. Karsten Behrens
38. Bruno Raymond *
39. Brian Auer *
40. Alan McBride
41. Robert Kenney *
42. Mike Baker *
43. Matthew Field *
44. Mark Forman *
45. Christopher Boffoli *
46. Edward Barnieh
47. Sean Davis *
48. Nate Lanier *
49. Jim Kirkpatrick
50. Mike Hellers
51. raf sanchez *
52. Mark Krynsky
53. ghill tochon *
54. Michael Hocter *
55. resiros M
56. Stephen Miller *
57. Ben Staley
58. Vincent Gearhart *
59. Gary Denness *
60. Michael Leggett
61. Paul Segal
62. Matt Penning *
63. Damien Franco *
64. Chris Martino
65. Nan Anastasia
66. Nick Fisher *
67. Pedro José
68. Dane Deasy *
69. Arianys Wilson *
70. Cathy McArthur *
71. Karthick Ramachandran *
72. Tom Harrison *
73. Kim Martin
74. Kenton Smith
75. Vicki Kadow *
76. Sameer Kumbhare
77. Jeff Henderson *
78. Morris Maciver *
79. Todd Heckert *
80. Dave Cohen
81. Stephen Dickson *
82. Mahdi Abdulrazak
83. Damien Pattrick *
84. Daniel Lashua *
85. Vando Nascimento *
86. Gary Thom *
87. Nir Alon *
88. Kevin Trotman *
89. Kim Thibodeaux *
90. Chris Nixon *
91. Henrik Johansson *
92. Jason Castillo
93. Carlos Ayala
94. Håkan Dahlström *
95. Lourens Rolograaf *
96. Jason Kravitz
97. Eric Booth *
98. Randal L. Schwartz
99. José Betancur *
100. Jeremy Brooks

And the list continues to grow HERE.

Till next time…

After doing a little investigation last night, I finally figured out how to get this blog automatically posting to Google Buzz.  For all those that might be struggling with the process, I thought I’d post a little how-to tip.

The first and most important thing you need to do is have a link somewhere on your blog to your Google profile with a relationship attribute (“rel”) equal to “me”.  For example, you can add a link to your Google Profile page like:

<a href="http://www.google.com/profiles/your.username" rel="me">My Google Profile</a>

or, like so within the head:

<link rel="me" type="text/html" href="http://www.google.com/profiles/your.username"/>

Once you have this relationship between your Google Profile and your blog, you are ready to add your blog to your Google Profile.  If you don’t already have your blog associated with your Google Profile, now is a good time to do that:

1. Go to your Google profile page:  http://www.google.com/profiles/USERNAME  replacing USERNAME with your Google ID.  Mine is: http://www.google.com/profiles/justin.korn If you are not logged into Google, log in with the “Sign In” link in the upper right corner
2. Once logged in and viewing your profile, click on the link in the upper right corner titled “Edit Profile”
3. Scroll down to the section titled “Links”
4. If your blog is not listed already in the “Add Links” section, right below it you can add it manually with the URL and name.  Click the “Add” button and your blog should now be listed on the right side under “My Links”
5. Once added, make sure the “This is a profile page about me.” check box is checked.  You can double check by clicking on the “Edit” link next to your new link.
6. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Save Changes” button.  If you don’t, these changes will not be saved.

Alright, with your Google Profile now all linked up to your blog, all you need to do is get Google Buzz to recognize it.  You have two choices, wait for Google to re-crawl your site, or force Google to re-crawl your site.  Did you even consider option one?  I didn’t think so.  So, to force it:

1. Check out the Social Graph API
2. Once logged in, you should see all of the links you’ve designated as “profile pages” in your Google Profile
3. Find the link to your blog and click the associated “Recrawl” button

Finally, it’s time to hook up your blog to Google Buzz:

1. Bring up Google Buzz (within Gmail)
2. On the main page, at the top, next to your name, you should see “X connected sites” where X is the number of sites you have connected to Buzz.  Click on that link.
3. You should now see your blog as an available site to connect.  Go ahead, click the “Add” button and then the “Save” button at the bottom.

That should do it!  Good luck!

Till next time…

[UPDATE] Just discovered the Google “How-To” page that explains this MUCH better than me.

Description:  Taken during a lunch photowalk with Thomas Hawk awhile back.  Not much to add to this one.

Location: San Francisco, California
Date Taken: September 4, 2008
Camera: Canon 20D
Exposure: 1/30 second
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO: 100

What I DO want to do is remind those using all of these networks (or even only 2 or 3 of them) that those following you pay the price when you do not pay attention to how you manage your social network flow.  Feeding all of your networks into each other is NOT a good idea.  You end up with duplicate data all over the place and sometimes in formats that don’t make sense for the platform displaying it.

At this point, if you connect Twitter and/or FriendFeed into Buzz you’ve probably either lost followers or pissed them off.  Twitter feeding into Buzz is not currently real-time and if you post to Twitter often, it causes a flood of tweets to flow into your Buzz feed at once, overwhelming your followers.  FriendFeed feeing into Buzz is ugly and redundant to say the least.  Don’t even get me started on those feeding Twitter to FriendFeed to Buzz.  It’s a mess.

(This post/image is not aimed at anyone particular.  This is just what I had up at the time of taking the snapshot.)

So, if you don’t want to lose your followers, here is my simple suggestion for you, manage your social network flow NOW!  Here is how I am attempting to manage my flow (keeping track of comments is an entirely different ball game):

1. Setup a Ping.fm account posting to your Twitter, FriendFeed, and Facebook accounts (others as you wish).
2. Within Ping.fm, make sure email is enabled and take note of your special email address.
3. Within Buzz, disable your FriendFeed and Twitter accounts from flowing in.  Yes, remove them!
4. Within FriendFeed, remove Twitter.
5. Now, when you want to post something that goes to all of these services, send an email to buzz@gmail.com and your special ping.fm email address.  That’s it!
   1. For posting an image or other media, you can send an email with the media attachment to the appropriate email:
      • FriendFeeed: share@friendfeed.com
      • Buzz: buzz@gmail.com
      • Twitter: Use your personalized TwitPic email
      • Facebook: Use your personalized Facebook email

Remember, this is specific for sharing updates and other information across all networks in one shot.  If you feel the need to share something directly to any given network, it should be tailored to that network and will not propagate to the others.  I realize this is not perfect, however, at this point, it’s the best I have come up with for the time being.  If you have other thoughts or ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Till next time…

Description:  “Hello lamp-post, whatcha knowin?  I’ve come to watch your flowers growin’.  Ain’tcha got no rhymes for me?  Doot-in’ doo-doo…”

This photo was taken a few years ago shortly after I decided to pick photography backup more aggressively.  I remember waiting in this exact spot for a good 30 – 40 minutes for 1) the lamp-post to turn on and 2) the sun to hit the perfect spot in order to silhouette  the entire backdrop and capture the colors of the sky.  The entire time, the Simon and Garfunkel song, Feelin Groovy was running through my head.

Location: San Francisco, California
Date Taken: April 28, 2008
Camera: Canon 20D
Exposure: 1/10 second
Aperture: f/32
Focal Length: 59 mm
ISO: 100

I’ll be taking the next few weeks/months/years to go through all of these entries.  A special thanks to Jim Goldstein for putting this together for the 3rd year in a row.

Enjoy!

1. Best Photos of 2009 – Jim M. Goldstein | JMG-Galleries
2. Best of 2009 Photo Set – Heikki Salmi
3. Top 10 2009 – Chris Moore | Exploring Light Photography
4. Best of 2009 – Wat Chedi Luang | FocusPocus
5. Best of 2009 – Dave Wilson | News and Views
6. Five For Friday – Favorites of 2009 - Craig Ferguson Images | Cultural Photography
7. Best Photos of 2009 – David Cleland | Flixelpix
8. Best Photos 2009 – Chuq Von Rospach | chuqui 3.0
9. 2009 Favorites – G Dan Mitchell | G Dan Mitchell Photography
10. Best of 2009 – Roberta Murray | Uncommon Depth
11. My Year in Pictures – Jon McCormack Photography
12. Top 10 Photos of 2009 – Steven Bourelle | SierraVisions
13. 2009: Year in Review – Stephen Zacharias
14. 2009 – A Photographic Year in Review – David Taylor | Sixtyone North
15. Best Photos of 2009 – Tony Rath Photography
16. Top 10 of 2009 – Steve Cole Photography Blog
17. my top ten shots of 2009 – Tom Varden
18. Best of 2009 – Mario Batalla
19. My Top 10 Photos from 2009 – Justin Korn [dot] com
20. Best of 2009 – Inge Fernau | Magical Glow Photography
21. My Favorite Photos From 2009 – Brian Auer | Epic Edits
22. Best Photos From 2009 – Janis Janums Photography
23. Best of 2009 – Tim Parkin | Still Developing
24. 2009 Retrospective – Jan Klier | AllKlier Photography
25. Best of 2009 – Jenni Brehm | Changing Perspectives
26. 2009 in Pictures – Hitesh Sawlani | A Visual Treat
27. Year 2009 in pictures – Minna Kinnunen | The Quiet Picture
28. 2009 in front of my Lens – Marcin Retecki Photography
29. Best of 2009 – Peter Carr | Vanilla Days
30. Best of 2009 – Dave Reichert
31. My top favourites from 2009 – Ricky Law
32. Best of 2009 – Joshua Beckman |PhotoVandal
33. 2009 Top Ten – Jessica Sweeney | Quotidian Photography
34. My favourite shots in 2009 – Catalin Marin | Momentary Awe
35. Best Photos of 2009 – Suzy Walker | Reef Beasties
36. My Best of 2009! – Michelle Johnson | My Two Seasons
37. The Best of 2009 – Photographic Phantasy: Photography by Samantha Genier
38. Best of Photos Part I-IV - Chuck Goolsbee
39. Statue of Liberty 2009 – Scott Dunn
40. My Favorite Photos of 2009 – Ed Rosack | Central Florida Photo Ops
41. Best Photos from 2009 – Jim Wheeler
42. Year in Review 2009 – Laurie Ballesteros | Photine
43. Favorites of the Year – Ken Trout | Lunch is Optional
44. Year 2009 in Korwel photography – Iza Korwel | Korwel Photography
45. Best of 2009 – Uschi Gerschner Photography
46. Top Five Images from 2009 and Keeping It New – Mike Cavaroc
47. Wrapping up 2009 – Ivan Makarov Photography
48. Favourite Nine from 2009 – Todd Metcalfe | Daily Grind Photography
49. Favorite Images of 2009! – Allison Pluda | Seneca Creek Photography
50. Best photos of 2009: Non Portrait Pictures – Julie Provost | Julie Loves Photography
51. 2009 in 12 beelden – Jeroen Mentens | FaunaFlora.org
52. Reflections on images of 2009 – Mark Graf | Graf Nature & Wildlife Photography
53. An End of Year Retrospective for 2009 – Derrald Farnsworth-Livingston | Journey of Light Photography
54. Top Ten Photos Of 2009 – Jed Link | Mr. & Mrs. Link
55. YEAR IN REVIEW – TOP 5′S OF 2009 – Matt Graham
56. Ten Best for 2009 – Dan Baumbach
57. Top 10 Photographs For 2009 - Seung Kye Lee – fine art landscape photography
58. My 10 Favorite photos of 2009 – Alex Budak | Unpopped Collar
59. Best Photos of 2009 – Dave Hammaker Photography
60. My Best Photos of 2009 – D. Travis North | Shutter Photo
61. Favourite Pictures of 2009 – Janne Moren | Janne in Osaka
62. My Best Photos of 2009 – Michael Spivak | Developing The Fixer
63. 2009 Favourite – Marc Hodges | sevennine
64. NZ Opera: Macbeth behind the scenes – Alexia Sinclair
65. The Best of ‘09 – Porter Watkins
66. Respect - Paul (Slimeface) Tarin
67. Best Images for 2009 – Giovanni Russello | GRGalleries
68. Happy 2010 / Best of 2009 – William Neill Photography
69. Top 10 Photos of 2009 – Digital Kloc Photography
70. Best Photos of 2009 – Dave Schumaker
71. Best of 2009 – G. Kaltenbrun | gZphotoGraphs
72. Favourite landscape photographs from 2009 – Jonathan Martin-DeMoor | Silvicola borealis Images
73. Top 5 of 2009 - Jim Maher | Jim Maher Photoworks
74. Favourites 2009 – Chris Gin
75. Best Photographs of 2009: Globetrotting – Justin Shifrin | J. Stuart Studios
76. Best 10 of 2009 – Duffy Knox | The View Through My Glass
77. Best of 2009 – Rian Castillo | Digitized Chaos
78. Best of 2009 – Rick Goldwasser
79. Best of 2009 – Jeremy Brooks
80. My best from 2009 – Massimo Belloni
81. Favorites of 2009 – Pat Ulrich Photography
82. Best Photos of 2009 – Nick Fuller | JadeGreenImage
83. Best of 2009 – Stig Nygaard | Rockland
84. My Fave 5 from 2009 – Greg Russell Russell
85. Best Images of 2009 – Peter Cox Photography
86. My Favourite Photos of 2009 – Daniel Loshak
87. Favorite photo – Lacey Smith | Lace’s Photography
88. 2009 Year in Pictures - Lane Hartwell | The Post and Review
89. Ten More from 2009 - Ann Torrence
90. Best of 2009 – Ken Snyder
91. Best of 2009 – Simon Ponder | Simon Says
92. TOP Photos of 2009 - Gary Crabbe | Enlightened Images
93. 2009 Top 10 – Steven Scherbinski | Randomness
94. Looking back, looking forward - Kevin Ebi | Living Wilderness Nature Photography
95. Best of 2009 – Todd Heckert | Great Lakes Exposure
96. MY BEST PHOTOS of 2009 – Sean Willis Photography
97. Best Photos of 2009 – Andre Maltais | Maltphoto
98. Top 9 of 2009! – Jenna Stirling
99. 2009 in review, the photo version - Sam Bloomberg-Rissman Photography
100. Favorite Photos from 2009 – Ron Niebrugge | Niebrugge Images
101. Niner for Zero Niner before Zero Niner of Zero Ten - Jay Goodrich Photography
102. Best of 2009 – Prajit Ravindran
103. Photos of 2009 + Flickr Set- Carl Donohue | Skolai Images
104. Top 12, 2009 – John Fujimagari
105. Top 10 Photos of 2009 – Mike Criss
106. 2009 IN REVIEW – Kriz Cpec | kRiZ cPEc Photo Blog
107. My Favorite Photos of 2009 – Greg Lato | latoga photography
108. Best of 2009 – Andree Oulmann | On Linden Way
109. 10 Favorite Pictures of 2009 – Chris Williams | Hidden Light Photography
110. Your Best Photos From 2009 – Gurbir Singh Brar | Fotovala
111. Landscape Photography My Best of 2009 – Steve Sieren
112. Best of 2009 – Torsten Curdt
113. Best of 2009 – Stefan Neuweger | addicted2pixels
114. Image Picks from 2009 – Neil Corman Photography
115. Jahresrückblick (fotografisch) – Steffen Goethling | Lens-Flare.de
116. Best Photos of 2009 – Mike Reys |pl?dys
117. My Best Photos from 2009 – Terri Jacobson | Greyhound Gardens
118. My best photos of 2009 – Bryan Villarin | All Narfed Up
119. Best of 2009 – Heidi Donat
120. Best of 2009 – Pedja Pavlicic
121. Best of 2009 – Matthew Sallee | IAmMatt
122. Top 10 of 2009 - Steve Cole Photography Blog

Description:  I processed another capture of Deon using the same post-processing technique as Free I Roam.  I am very pleased with the end results and have officially started my 2010 Favorites Set on Flickr.  I hope you enjoy watching this set grow as the year goes on.

Since Deon confessed he was trying to quit getting high, I’ve also submitted this photo to the first week of the first photochallenge.org challenge of 2010, Resolution.  If you are looking for a photography project for the year, come join in!

Location: San Francisco, California
Date Taken: January 5, 2010
Camera: Canon 20D
Exposure: 1/320 second
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 37 mm
ISO: 200

Meet Brady.

As I headed from work to the Metreon to catch AVATAR, Brady was sitting on the sidewalk along 4th Ave. kindly asking for change.  I approached him and explained my BW$P project.  Brady agreed without hesitation and not once asked for more.  I asked him what his name was and how he was doing this evening as I prepared my camera settings.  In a very calm, almost shy voice, he responded, “Brady, thanks.  I’m doing alright.”  As I checked my surroundings, I realized the light was not very good and could  not move Brady into better lighting since he was sitting on the ground.  I captured a few images, but since I was already running late and wanted to be sure to talk with Brady a bit, I stopped fiddling with capturing a perfect picture.

I asked Brady how long he has been in San Francisco and if he had any family around.  Again, very gently, he told me, “Been in San Francisco 46 years and I’ve got some family in Oakland.”  Brady’s quiet voice was hard to hear, but I believe I heard him mentioning that his brother and sister have passed away, but his mother now lives in Oakland.  He further explained how he was waiting to get surgery done on his leg so he could try and get work again.  I really wished I was not in a rush and had more time to ask further questions as Brady seemed like a very kind man with a story to tell.  Unfortunately, I had to leave it at that.  As I handed Brady his promised dollar, I wished him luck with his surgery and job hunt.

This image is part of my Black and White Dollar Portrait (BW$P) Project.