Videos on Vimeo

I shoot mostly still photos, not video.  But my Canon 5D Mark II camera can also shoot HD video, and I occasionally use that function (e.g., for motorcycle clips, a few crude underwater videos, etc.).  All my videos - including the photo montages I've created with Animoto - are on Vimeo.com, which is similar to YouTube, but without all the clutter and ads. You can find my Vimeo stuff HERE.

What a small world!

Yesterday, to help "promote" my photography to raise money for ICSF (see link in the right margin), I issued a little "press release" (using PR.com) about my appearance last week on Evening Magazine.  Less than an hour later, I got an email from a reporter in London, and a few hours later, one from an editor in the Maldives (Indian Ocean).  How amazing that two people on the other side of the world responded mere minutes after something was issued from Seattle!  That's the power of the internet!

Although I have concerns about internet security, the truth is that I've made some great friends by participating in forums for activities like photography, SCUBA diving, and motorcycles. Some of those people live across the country - or even in other countries - and when I've finally gotten to meet them in person, I feel like I already know them!

Speaking of friends, I was recently contacted by email by two old friends - Ron from college and Rick from childhood days.  These are friends with whom I've had no communication for over thirty years, and both of them just happened to come across my email while tinkering around on the internet!

Before email, my siblings and I sometimes went for years between contacts - all busy with our own lives, and seldom even talking on the phone.  But we now communicate by email almost every week, sometimes several times a day!  I feel like I'm always "in touch" and have grown closer to them as a result.

So...as much crap as there is on the internet, I see the positive side, too - it's a tool for establishing, re-establishing, maintaining and even improving relationships!

Photo Exhibit at Clyde Hill Tully's

I encourage any of you in the Seattle area to stop into Tully's at  8805 Points Dr. NE in Clyde Hill (just off Hwy 520 on the East side of Lake Washington).  They have a group of special prints of my photos by Prestige Graphics (the same firm that produces the prints for Smithsonian exhibits!). They're by far the best quality prints I've ever seen!  One of the cool things is a 5-foot high print of my grinning shark; it is an exact replica of the one that was in the Smithsonian Nature's Best Photography exhibit for 6 months last year. 

It has been really fun seeing/hearing how much people are enjoying this exhibit, and it was featured in the Evening Magazine segment referenced in my previous post below.

My TV Debut!

Here's a link to a TV segment about my underwater photography on Seattle's Evening Magazine last night: CLICK HERE (Click "Native" at top when frame opens. Segment starts after a 1-minute intro.) If that doesn't work, try the lo-res version on King TV's website HERE.

I was really self-conscious (being my first time on TV), but I think they did a nice job, and I was happy that they mentioned ICSF by name - hopefully that will garner some donations! Of course, they only used a few short "sound bites" out of the hour-long interview they did with me (I talked about Nature's Best Photography, the PKD Foundation, shark fin soup and shark conservation, and tons of other stuff), but I realize that in a few minute story, most of it had to be left out.

Just for the record, I did NOT suggest "staring down" sharks! I simply said that, with small sharks, often if you just looked straight at them, they will veer away because they seem able to recognize your eyes (I guess they felt a need to spice it up a little!). ;-)