YourPhotoTips features Amazing Photographers

I’d like to extend a hearty thanks to the YourPhotoTips blog for including me in their 20 Amazing Photographers Around the Internet post yesterday. Damien’s blog is a great source for finding the best photography and photographers around the blogosphere.

The other photographers featured in the article definitely are artists you want to check out.  I feel honored to be featured next to them.

If you are wondering about the photo they used for my blog, it is View 30: Foggy Bottom Metro Station and has an interesting story behind it.

View 74: Oswego Sunset

Sunset on Lake Ontario from Breitbeck Park, Oswego, New York.

Another Memorial Day weekend here in the United States and, like last year, I am featuring a sunset from Lake Ontario. This time from Oswego, New York, which is famous for its sunsets. This photo was taken from Breitbeck Park along the newly expanded Oswego Harbor Trail. The evening was unusually calm.

Sailboat anchored behind the Oswego Harbor breakwall for the night as the sun sets.

After the sun had gone under the horizon, I took out my tripod and took this photo of the large power plant whose stacks dominate the Oswego city skyline.

Power plant in Oswego, New York, on Lake Ontario at dusk.

View 73: A Mother’s Moment

Quiet moments with a young son are rare and fleeting.

Being patient at a Mother’s Day cookout, I captured this special moment between Mother and Son (and a sock).

Endangered Species Day

Back in 1973, Congress passed the first enactment of the Endangered Species Act. While there had been a couple of other versions before 1973, this is the one which brought real protection and gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a way to designate species as endangered or threatened. This allowed for ways to protect and manage these species and their habitats for the betterment of themselves and for Man.

However, while this posts celebrates a day of wisdom and foresight of Congress and the people of the Unitied States back then and today. The places where animals and plants are not endangered or threatened use the term management very loosely when it comes to a couple of species: wolves and harp seals. One killed because of a precieved threat and one for its fur. Really, is anything a threat to mankind other than itself? Do we need to kill any animal for fur?

Why are Alaskan Wolves Under Siege?

I guess wolves are so plentiful and dangerous in Alaska as to allow the use of snares and poison gas in and around the dens of the pups. It’s not enough to chase wolves to exhaustion using airplanes and then kill them with high powered rifles? Wolves might take a few trophy caribou, moose or deer from hunters they say. I suggest if you think that to read Farley Mowat’s account of studying wolves in his book, Never Cry Wolf. For wolves are no match for healthy prey and must rely on the weak and infirm to stay alive. This is nature’s way of keeping healthy and viable populations in the wild.

Harp Seals are beautiful creatures and are no threat to overfishing the waters in the Atlantic Maritimes of Canada. They are also owners of warm and highly sought after fur. The annual “hunt” is brutal and inhuman and unneccesary.

I understand management principles in wildlife biology. I studied them when I went to the College of Envionmental Science & Foresty in Syracuse, New York, where I earned my degree in Forest Biology and Wildlfe Management. These two species, the wolf and the harp seal, are not being “managed” but are being used for the sport of killing and for greed. Both are unacceptable and unneeded in the 21st Century.

To help stop these and other atrocities against wildlife, I ask you to support such organizations like the National Wildlife Federation, World Wildlife Fund and Defenders of Wildlife. Happy Endangered Species Day!

View 72: Winery Owner

Andy Watkins, owner of the Lakeland Winery, at his booth in the Central New York Regional Market on Saturday, May 8, 2009.

Andy Watkins was having a good time at the Central New York Regional Market on Saturday morning. The Market was very busy being the day before Mother’s Day with many people getting flower gifts for their Moms. Andy was giving out free samples of wine he produces at the Lakeland Winery and talking to any and all who would stop to try some wine or listen about his business. Andy is one of the people that make going to the market a treat.

Checking Email

Professor Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason checking email between graduate ceremonies at the University of Michigan.

Professor Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason checking his email outside the Mendelssohn Theater before the University of Michigan School of Information’s graduate recognition ceremony on Friday, May 1, 2009. Professor MacKie-Mason is wearing his Ph. D. robes from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has good taste in laptops.

View 71: University of Michigan Campus

Tulips on the University of Michigan campus with Hill Auditorium and Burton Memorial Tower in the background.

Visited the University of Michigan over the weekend as my daughter received her Master’s degree in Archives and Records Management from the School of Information. The weather threatened some which was okay by me as it brought out the tulip’s colors which were everywhere on campus and all over Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Burton Memorial Tower (pictured above) is a 212 foot (65 meter) high structure housing a 43-ton, 55-bell Baird Carillon.

PS. If anyone knows of a digital archivist position open in a corporation, library, museum, government agency, etc. Drop me a comment and I’ll pass it on to my daughter. Thanks!