Phone Scam Calls from Jamiaca New Varient - Beware!!!

Over the last two weeks, I've received a couple of phone calls indicating that the caller would like me to call back to discuss delivery of a package.

The strange thing was that these message called me by my first name. The second indicated it was Mr. David and that he wanted to talk with me about the delivery of a package and to call him at his office at 876-283-0759. Since I was not expecting a package, nor have I sent a package to Jamaica nor to the Dominican Republic - I am/was suspicious... Thus I did a reverse phone look-up and was not able to find any (free) information about the number. I then did a check on the area code and found that Jamaica and the Dominican Republic share this area code.

This sounded like a phone scam that I remembered hearing about awhile ago, yet with a different twist - instead of calling to either claim a lottery, or that one has won a large amount of $$$, yet to claim need to send some money via Western Union,
This one was to call about a delivery of a package.

If one is curious about finding out more about scams check out fraud.org

Day Trip to San Francisco

Day trip to San Francisco - San Francisco Viewed From Ciot Tower in San Francisco down Greenwich St Near turn around.
Alcatraz Island Viewed From Leaverworth n Francisco St
St Peter n Paul Church
Golden Gate Bridge n the fog

Large Spider in "his" web

A shot of a spider that caught my attention as I was driving out of my son's High School's Parking lot this morning. shows the spider from the sid
The Spider's body is Approximately the size of a quarter. While I was photographing it, one of the security guards came up to me and asked if he could help me - of course he noticed the camera... I told him that ihad just dropped off my son, and noticed the spider so I thought I'd take a few shots of it. The security guard looked and said that there were two of them - I looked to the right, and sure enough there was a second spider about three feet away. Both spiders had a web that was eight feet tall, and three feet across. I thanked him, and he walked off. It is nice to see that one can actually take an image in public.

Two Peregrine Falcons standing on a light pole

Saturday 2009-09-11, as I was returning home from a quick trip to Los Angeles International Airport, there were two Peregrine Falcon's standing on a light pole in a parking lot! Of course, I turned into the parking lot and slowly drove over to the light pole with my trusty camera (Canon G2) in hand to take a couple of quick shots before the Peregrine Falcons decided to fly off...

CF Card Collection now at 88 unique cards

CF collection now at 88 different CF Cards ranging in size/manufacturer from 2 MB to 16 GB - with an additional 5 different sub-types cards... One subtype http://bit.ly/3XiVzV has 5 different CF cards.

Latest addition includes a SanDisk 10 MB White & 512 Sandard Grade; Kodak 8 MB Red Picture Card

The collection can be seen at: http://bit.ly/C3lC6

examiner.com uses images without permission

Very disappointing that a web site, let alone this one, will tolerate an "author" that uses an image that was not taken, produced, purchased or even had ask permission to use prior to the image actually being used (ref Grilled Flatbread Pizza with Gorgonzola Figs - dated Apr. 2).
As this image (albeit it a larger size) was used in an article "published" on October 29, 2008 as seen at Fig Apple and Gorgonzola Flatbread - Also refer to FigAppleFlatbread where a series of photos illustrate how the image in question was taken...
Ms. Lovier also didn't give credit to the person that actually created the image (Ms. Jaden Hair), who is a TV Personality, Author, and photographer.
Was the original created under creative commons - doubtful, as the web page above didn't explicitly indicate it as such...

Actions like this tarnish the credibility of the web page, in this case examiner.com... If left unchanged, what message does this send to others that create content? To those who actually do will be less apt to create it, and to those who use content without permission/payment reinforce the notion that it is o.k. to steal.

Ms. Hair also posted a comment on the subject article (Grilled Flatbread Pizza with Gorgonzola Figs) asking that the web site/"journalist" to take down her image...

Please note I'm not affiliated with Ms. Hair - I'm just a photographer that is very disappointed and dismayed at the increasing number of "journalists" and web sites that feel that it is o.k. to steal someone work with out compensation / credit. Let alone the moral issue of stealing...

I certainly hope that the web site takes down the image, give Credit to Ms. Jaden Hair, and at least write a letter of apology - her twitter page is at: steamykitchen

Photography Tips and Information

I've been following multiple blogs and podcasts on Photography. The best ones are:
Photofocus
My Digital Life