Bay Nature Magazine / Flickr Group

I have become a big fan of the magazine Bay Nature and have mentioned it before on this BLOG. A fantastic magazine focused on the natural world in and around the the San Francisco Bay Area region of California. I also received a subscription over the Holidays.

Their website is also a great resource and full of very interesting content. One of the cool features is how they highlight their FLICKR Group - a community of photographers focused on shooting nature around the Bay Area. Many of the folks who have joined have actually had their photography highlighted within the magazine. The magazine will actually reach out to this community via the FLICKR Group with specific requests for images they need for future articles (my first submittal). Once I stumbled upon, I eagerly joined and have subsequently learned a lot - a very active photo community!

That in and of itself is pretty cool. But what I think is even cooler is how they randomly select recently posted images and rotate them on their homepage (scroll down a bit when you hit the homepage). So once you upload images to the FLICKR Group you can then go to their site - usually within an hour or so and sometimes see your image on their homepage.

Nothing earth shatteringly technological. Nothing that is necessarily seen by the masses. Just a cool way to share what is going on in their FLICKR community. Below are some screen shots that I have captured just to prove I'm not BS'in you!

^ Frog infested cattle trough in East Bay Hills

^ A shot from my Urban Redtails collection

^ Juvenile Night Heron, Mission Creek, San Francisco

^ Flotsum from Ocean Beach, Winter 2010

^ Mother Nature reclaiming Sloat Street, San Francisco

Bay Nature Magazine: Great White Sharks Submission

I have mentioned Bay Nature magazine previously within this BLOG. I find it to be an outstanding magazine focusing on our natural world surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. They have a great website filled with interesting content too.

Beyond just recently joining their FLICKR Group online, I submitted my first set of photos for an up coming article slated for the next issue. The article focuses on Great White Sharks and will be written by the SF Chronicle's former environmental reporter Glen Martin. Within the submission request they asked for photos of the Sharks themselves. Photos of the sharks I could not help out with, but I do have a collection of images that I submitted that could essentially help to tell the broader story of the Bay Area's connection to Great White sharks. The following text is the introduction I sent to Dan Rademacher of Bay Nature:

Dan, Greetings. First time submitting. I've fallen in love with the Bay Nature Magazine. It is my personal goal to get some of my photographic work published in your fine magazine. This may take awhile as it seems you are connected with some very talented photographers! While I do not think the attached images fit the exact description of what you described on the website, I did want to send them to you anyway. As a local surfer and photographer (I live with my family in SF), I am constantly reminded that I recreate within the home waters of Great White Sharks. It humbles me and I often think how incredible it would be to run into one of these creatures - while on a boat of course! I do have a couple friends that have had confirmed run in experiences while surfing. I often find myself shooting images that relate to GWSs when they present themselves. This collection of images are random but definitely a part of our daily fabric that intertwines with these awesome creatures habitat - small reminders they are never that far away from us - even heavily populated City Centers! Isn't that what makes the Bay Area so special? So enjoy, I hope there is something you find interesting here, if not no harm done. Again, hope to contribute to the magazine someday.

Just joined the FLICKR Group. Take care.

DAK WAS HERE

Below are the images that I submitted. Enjoy and please leave me a comment if you are inspired by these images or if you have a Great White story to share.

Car @ Ocean Beach

Posted Flyer @ Stinson Beach

Posted warning at front gate to Stinson Beach

The Farallons, seasonal home base, Mile Rock Light

Posted warning @ Ocean Beach near deceased whale

Pt. Reyes, North Beach, "Shark Area"

A Bolinas "welcome/warning"

FOG of a World Class nature

DAMN!!! There it is again, lazily hanging and ever so slowly creeping into the contours of the City, almost tar like in it's consistency. The past several days, while the entire Bay Area "suffers" from a heat wave, us hearty residents of the Sunset District have been dealing with some truly World Class FOG.

This is not the wind whipped FOG that we typically get pushing through to the East Bay, this FOG bank has just hung over the City's low points and through the Gate. Talk about a change in climate - 60s, wet and dewy when I start my commute to the East Bay, arriving to clear sunny blue skies already tipping into the 70s. Fantastic example of the Bay Area's micro climates.

Carol Schulz, Queen of the Beach, recently stated, "Jeez Dickson, I'm usually a pretty positive person, but this Summer has been pretty bad with the FOG.". This is someone who has lived in the Sunset her whole life and knows it like the back of her hand! You know it is bad if Carol complains about it. Typically by this point in the year we have shaken off our FOGGY weather.

All I can do now is pray for a cold front to sweep through the Bay Area, dust the Sierras with a layer of the Winter Season's first snows and then it will be on... yes our (San Francisco's) Summer will then arrive being blown in via the East! Bye, bye FOG don't let the Gate hit you in the ass on your way out!!!