Maintaining a Platform on Google

Google the vast behemoth does indeed rule. Maintaining a platform--websites, blogs, social networking pages, profiles and images--on Google is a chore.  All photographers--amateur and professional--are dependent upon the multitude of features it offers. Whether you're a photographer who has a business of his own or an amateur who wants portfolio exposure, everything you do on the Internet affects your exposure on Google.

The primary rankings for photographers are dependent upon the images they upload to their websites, blogs, social networking sites, microstock portfolios, fine art selling websites, all of which end up appearing in search results. Where they appear is dependent upon many factors from what you upload, how you name it, how substantive the information is, how frequently you post information on blogs/websites and, more recently, how you set up Google Plus.

The most recent development in the search engine--a must for photographers to initiate--is Google Plus and the associated Authorship program. Deciphering the information to get a higher search engine ranking for your platform is at best challenging. The number of ideas you need to succeed in Google's placement of your portfolio and associated contents runs in the multiple digits range.

Organizing the maintenance of a platform for optimal Google placement requires a plan of one time, yearly, monthly and daily tasks:

One-Time Tasks
Setting up Google Plus, Getting the right domain name, Setting up a blog using Blogger as a resource to increase your rankings, Google Authorship information/set-up, YouTube Account Set-up

Yearly Tasks 
Everything you Wanted to Know about Duplicate Content but were Afraid to Report--Searching for copyright violation/duplicate content/images on all websites.
Reporting violations to Google TOS regarding your content.

Monthly Tasks
Updating Platform on all Google listings, including Facebook, Website Directories (Technorati, for example), YouTube...

Daily Tasks
Naming your images, image sizes, blog posts, SEO basics, Survival HTML, watermarks



A platform that remains stagnant results in poor Google search engine placement, the bane of any person working on the Web. 

landscape photos

Number One Camera on Amazon

You might be wondering about what the number one camera on Amazon is these days. these days. The fact that the number one camera on Amazon is a Canon is no surprise. Canon digital cameras are usually number one on Amazon.

You've probably heard that point-and-shoot camera sales are down because of the improvements in mobile device cameras (cell phones). This would lead you to believe that a point-and-shoot camera wouldn't be the number one camera on Amazon's list, but at this time that is not the case--Amazon's number one camera is a point-and-shoot, the Canon PowerShot SX260.

What makes this camera so special that people are snapping it off the shelves of cyberspace? For starters, the 20X optical zoom makes it easy to zone in on your subject from up to a mile away. That combined with the image stabilizer results in your taking a sharp image of a far-away subject much more likely. 

The next reason the Canon PowerShot SX260 is on the list is that the lens is also capable of shooting at wide angles--up to 25 mm, which means you can get a whole-lot of a landscape in the frame.

After that, the camera offers high-definition video (1080p), which means that you can shoot video of of anything from far-away subjects by zooming in with  the telephoto lens to sweeping vistas by zooming out to catch a scene with the wide-angle lens.

Finally, there's the price. To be sure, that's the last straw when making a decision to buy a budget compact camera for not very much money. At $229, this device is a bargain by any standards for a 12 MP point-and-shoot digital camera, making it a better camera than any one attached to a cell phone. 

1960s photos

Morning in New York

Skyscrapers at Times Square 

Good Morning America

HDR of high-rises

Morning birthday celebration

Starbucks

landscape photos
mid-century art

Five Reasons to Go to Egypt Now

Being here in Egypt is a transforming experience. Here are ten reasons to go to Egypt now:

1. It has become very affordable.  
 The images we see in the United States are often related to political events beyond any 
 every-day Egyptian's control. 

Egyptian man on one horse towing another

2. Putting the politics aside, you'll find some of the most dedicated people in the world tourism.   industry.
They'll gladly assist you in visiting of the ancient ruins and other sites that run from Lower to Upper Egypt along the River Nile, one of the most important bodies of water in the world. 

3. Your Egypt Tours is one of those agencies that has made a visit to Egypt the golden opportunity of a lifetime.
They make every accommodation you'll possibly need for an enjoyable, an informative and a safe trip.

Close-up of one of the pyramids at Giza

4. The tourist infrastructure in Egypt is on par with any other countries. Egypt houses numerous ancient architectural, cultural and historical achievements that have been preserved and/or restored after thousands of years buried under the ground until the twentieth century when some were discovered and excavated.
The stories of history of the Pharaohs, including Ramses, mesmerize you, taking you to another time and place. The stories of excavation show you men performing nearly impossible feats of lifting and moving in some of the greatest restoration efforts ever.

Obelisk  in Luxor

5. You can't leave out the authentic Egyptian setting among which these monuments lie from men riding camels (also an option for you, the tourist)  to donkeys attached to carts loaded with supplies for maintenance of the infrastructure.
To be sure, you'll get culture shock. But is that a bad thing?

sky photos

france photos

Nikon's Full Frame dSLR, the D600 Cheif Complaint is Clipping

Call it what you want--clipping or blown highlights-- that white or one-tone color blast that sometimes appear in your images, a color tone that can't be fixed and that makes a really good photo not-so-good.

Frequent clipping isn't the only complaint about this camera. Spots also appear in the frame from particles of lubricant that land on the sensor when the mirrors move.

The full-frame (24X36 mm sensor) dSLR camera most likely to cause your image to reveal fewer tones in an object or subject and occasional spots in the frame is the Nikon D600, a seemingly good camera upon first inspection, but one with two fatal flows that similar models such as the new Canon 6D don't have. That's according to last October's CNET review of the Nikon D600.

The 24 MP camera has all of the features any professional or advanced amateur would want--low ISOs for good detail and tonality, fast burst-shooting (5.5 fps) and HD video mode, but the camera's weaknesses far outweigh its strengths.
france photos

Pyramids of Giza--Still a Worthwhile Visit

Egyptian leading camel with Pyramids of Giza in background

Just about everyone around the world has heard about the trouble in Cairo. One of the most important parts of this conflict and so-called Revolution is that the rich historical sites that cover the country be kept open and safe now and in the future.

Keep in mind that despite the news, the Pyramids of Giza and other Egyptian historical sites are safe and are in dire need of tourists.  If the tourists don't come, the sites might be in jeopardy of staying open and even being available for future generations.

If you decide to go, most Egyptian people will be thrilled to see you and treat you like royalty. When you come as a tourist you are helping to save some of the most beautiful historical sites in the world.

The prices are very reasonable now and the crowds are light, making it a wonderful time to visit. The weather is near-perfect in spring. Before you go, take the precautions you have been hearing about in Cairo, keeping on eye on the news and taking staying away from downtown and surrounding areas on Fridays  when the protests take place and on other days when any significant political news makes the headlines. 

hdr digital art

Egypt Tourism Suffering from Bad Press

Getting to Cairo is inexpensive these days. If you look at the fares online, an e-ticket to the massive, seemingly out-of-control city is little-more-than-next-to-nothing--$650.

To be sure, you'll suffer from trepidation before the trip, especially if you watch a lot of CNN, glued to the television screen when Tahir Square breaks out into bedlam. Cairo is undergoing an identity crisis brought on by the mainstream media's constant barrage of out-of-control protestors screaming out from the TV tube. Cairo and Egypt as a whole are suffering from bad press day in and day out.

Despite all of this if you decide to go it's the best travel bang-for-your-buck. The ten-hour flight from New York isn't bad these days. You can sleep in the main cabin because it's only about half full. In every other row people are sprawled comfortably on three seats, a make-shift bed that is better than the one in business class.

Lest not forget that Cairo is a city on the great River Nile, a broad expanse of water that flows from south to north thousands of miles from deep down in the African savannah to the Mediterranean. The heart of this massive body of moving water is Cairo, and the water is looking good that it's suffice to say the misnomer of the Nile being smelly and unattractive is far from the truth. It's beautiful, amazing, calming and sweeps a cool breeze over the city in the spring.

One comment people frequently make is that Cairo is a dangerous place with religious undertones that makes it no fun--no drugs, alcohol and debauchery.  This fact can be an amazing asset to the tourist in that the people you see on the street are clear-headed, lively and, yes, even friendly. 

Photographing Flowers Part 2---Cameras and Lenses

Flowers are candy to a photographer. Their beauty in spring gives photographers of all levels a special opportunity to shoot some of the most beautiful objects on earth.

You can shoot flowers with any lens, each giving different results, the best coming from a macro lens. While a macro lens on a dSLR offers the sharpest close-ups of flowers, most point-and-digital cameras and cell phone cameras are also capable of taking some excellent flower photographs.

Both point-and-shoot lenses and phone camera lenses shoot flower images just as well as a dSLR with a kit lens and/or some macro lenses. This fact may surprise you because the point-and-shoots and camera phone cameras are much less expensive than cameras with larger sensors.

There is a simple explanation as to why point-and-shoot cameras are so good at taking close-ups of small subjects and objects. Macro photography is defined to have a 1:1 ratio between the object and sensor. For a dSLR camera with a full size sensor to be 1:1, you need a 35 mm object to fill a frame. Point and shoot and camera phones have much smaller sensors so that a much smaller object will fill the frame, giving more sharp close-up details.

If you have a choice between a dSLR camera and a point-and-shoot for flower photography, go with the later. Since a point-and-shoot cameras (and phone cameras) are  easier to maneuver than a dSLR, put one in your pocket for shooting the spring flowers you will want to stop to shoot when hiking or biking.