It's time for me to move on

There comes a time when someone has done something for so long that they are no longer driven or inspired to continue doing it and I'm saddened to say that I've reached this point with WyldRyde.

Today, I'm handing over control of WyldRyde to Jeff Weisbein and he'll be assuming the operation of WyldRyde from this point forward.

You'll still be able to find me on WyldRyde but I'm planning on playing a significantly smaller role there so I may fully dedicate myself to my photography and workshops/tours.

You can also keep in touch with me on Twitter at @usrbingeek and @vtphotog and on Facebook.

Ethics of competing and solicitation

Do respectable business owners go to their competitors' place of business, or send their employees and friends, to talk with their competitors' customers in an effort to get additional business?

This act is called solicitation and most business prominently display signs stating, "Solicitation and distribution of flyers on this premisses is prohibited."

Let's look at why this is called Solicitation and it's meaning. The New Oxford American Dictionary included with OS X describes it as follows;

solicit |səˈlisit|
verb ( -ited , -iting ) [ trans. ]
ask for or try to obtain (something) from someone : he called a meeting to solicit their views. See note at BEG .
• ask (someone) for something : historians and critics are solicited for opinions by the auction houses.
• [ intrans. ] accost someone and offer one's or someone else's services as a prostitute : [as n. ] ( soliciting) although prostitution was not itself an offense, soliciting was.

So, solicitation essentially means begging. When has begging ever been polite? Hell, prostitutes were thought to be so immoral that this word was applied to them in the last century.

I guess I was brought up different. I strongly believe this type of behavior is immoral. It's certainly not ethical, nor WJWD. I also believe it stinks of desperation and shows off the sleaziness of the snake that engages in it and/or encourages his friends to take part in it.

If you must hangout on a competitors' IRC Network at least have the decency not to promote or discuss your own. If you can't control yourself perhaps you shouldn't tempt yourself by using it. That's the ethical thing to do.

My Twitter Follow Policy

I love Twitter. I even have a couple accounts. vtphotog for photography, birding, and Vermont related tweets and usrbingeek for IRC, politics, and more general subjects. However, Twitter is not completely free from drama or problems.

Recently, I silently unfollowed someone without any comment because of their constant personal attacks on another person that I followed. I have no interest in getting involved in their argument and wasn't getting anything valuable from following this person anyway so it wasn't a hard call to make. But, they must use one of those follow management services because they immediately sent me a particularly nasty email that restated some of their rants about the other person and also chastised me for unfollowing them. This situation has motivated me to put together this formal Twitter Follow Policy:

In general I follow my friends, associates, photographers, Vermonters and others that are otherwise interesting or funny, but only if I believe they are genuine, know what they're talking about and aren't insulting or disagreeable.

I don't try to limit my follower count to some arbitrary number but there are some things that will ensure that I wouldn't reciprocate your follow or could cause me to unfollow you, or maybe even block you. In no particular order, they are:

• Personal attacks or hate speech against any group or individual;
• Excessive updates within a very short period and are about nothing special;
• Excessive rants in all capital letters;
• Any Squidoo or Knol links or links to any "make money online" site that is just as bottom feeding and ridiculous as Squidoo;
• "*ad*" or "paid to twitter" posts;
• All or nearly all your posts are '@' relipes and are of no interest to anyone but who you're replying to (that's what DMs are for!!);
• Every, or nearly every twitter, is a link to your blog, your RSS feed, or something else you're promoting;
• You appear to be a minor and act like it;
• Bathroom updates or toilet humor (You're not Howard Stern, nor do I want to follow him either);
• DMs or excessive posts about #spymaster;
• Spammy with #followfriday (Don't be lazy or stupid and recommend the same accounts every week);
• Spammy posts about generating so many followers per day by signing up for a crummy service like tweeterfollow;
• Multiple "listening to" twitters within a short period;
• Automated DMs;
• If your profile doesn't mention your real name, where you're located, and/or have a photograph of yourself;
• No updates and I don't know you in real life;
• Appear to be a bot or any other type of spammer.

Fly like an eagle

The music is a bit strange but this video from a small camera attached to soaring Golden Eagle is quite amazing.

My path to discovering Vermont Waterfowl

Living in Vermont provides me with constant opportunities to make lots of landscape photographs. Everyday, no matter where I go I come across some picturesque scene and can't stop myself from photographing it. Sometimes even when I'm running behind or late. I hope I never become blasé to the beauty here.

There are many times of year when I do nothing but crisscross the entire state going to my favorite spots to make photographs at sunrise and sunset or wait hours at some barn until the clouds, light and shadows are "just right."

When the weather is changing and the sky is going to be dramatic I obsesses about going out to capture it and where I can work it best into some specific landscape. I couldn't care less if I get soaked in the process. All I want to do is get the image I pre-visualized.

Next generation PocketWizards Impresses

Earlier today PocketWizard announced their next generation of PocketWizard flash syncs and they look nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, for Nikon shooters, we'll have to wait until the 2nd Quarter of 2009, whereas Canon's version will be available in March.

In short, you can dump all your unreilable PC sync cords and just slide these on your cameras and flashes and let your camera completely control the flash. You can still take over and do things manually if you like but wow, it sure sounds like using off camera flash just got really quick and simple.

Photography is not a crime or terrorism

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FolderShare to the rescue! Mozy fails, it's gone! - 11-16-2008
My thoughts on the RED Scarlet and Epic - 11-13-2008
NEWDealFinder.com Launches! - 11-10-2008
10 reasons why you should be reading usrbingeek's Deal Finder - 10-21-2008
The only political ad worth watching - 10-10-2008
Comcast's new Data Usage Guessing Game is the last straw - 10-03-2008
usrbingeek's deal finder - 08-27-2008
The Omnivore's Hundred - 08-20-2008
PhotoCalc is pretty neat - 08-15-2008
Nikon swings and misses by a hair with the Coolpix P6000 - 08-08-2008
Nikon D80 replacement specs? Will it be the Nikon D90? - 08-06-2008