I am a scientist by training (Eckerd College, BSc; Caltech, Ph.D.). I worked for 27 years as a Chemist in the Pharmaceutical Industry developing processes to manufacture medicines for human and animal health. I now spend my time as a photographer and world traveler. My interests include the natural world, wildlife, landscapes, sky, and seascapes, travel, and astrophotography. I look for unique ways of viewing the world and presenting my images. I have traveled to over 55 countries in six continents, often on Semester at Sea voyages. While at home in New Jersey, I spend time on home renovation and expansion of a wildflower garden/meadow.
Multi-Exposure Waxing Gibbous Moon — Going Up, Going Down. A ten exposure image of the waxing gibbous moon going up or down using the in camera multi-exposure function. The exposure times were varied in 1/3 EV increments (1/1000, 1/800, 1/640, 1/500, 1/400, 1/320, 1/250, 1/200, 1/160, 1/125, second). The exposures were taken every 30 seconds and used mirror up to minimize camera/lens vibration.
The Photographic Art Society of Florida. “Black & White and One Color” Exhibition.
I just got word that a print of my image “Girl with Yellow Pants Running” won First Place at the The Photographic Art Society of Florida exhibition last night. The theme of the show was “Black & White and One Color”. I took this image while on the second Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop (UTPW-II) earlier this spring while returning by bus from a field trip to the Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala (02-May-2011) in the town of San Francisco de Sales. The image was processed with Capture One Pro 6 using the inverse color selection tool to select the yellow color of the pants and notebook and decreasing the saturation of all other colors to black and white. Other processing was performed with Nik Viveza, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5. I thank my sister Kari Sheppard for persevering while printing the image for the exhibition since it kept coming out too dark.
Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright Abuse on the Net.
I was reading Jeff Revell’s Blog yesterday “Google Image Search Helps Me Track Down Abuse” and decided to try it out on one of my images. Surfer Girl is one of the most viewed images I have on my sister’s ShepArt Studio SmugMug site. I found four instances of the image in locations that I didn’t know about or authorize. Two were in a Maui Surf Report blog where someone was trying to help me identify the surfer so I could send her a print. Unfortunately, there is no copyright notice or identification of me as the photographer on the image that they posted. The image then showed up in a “Quit-Your_DayJob-16-pics” blog at UberGnome.com. I reported this to the webmaster at the site, and he removed the image within 10 minutes. The fourth location was on the home page for Home Management Services in Maui. I have not received response yet to have the image removed. Alternatively, I will be sending them an invoice or a free rental in Maui.
Waxing gibbous moon with 100% illumination (data from the US Naval Observatory site). The full moon is on the 15th. This month the full moon is known as the “Thunder Moon”. Image taken just after midnight with a Nikon D3s camera and Questar 3.5″ telescope (ISO 1600, ~1500 mm, f/16, 1/1000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro and Photoshop CS5.