Featured Image of the Week

This week's Featured Image is being posted a couple of days early as I will be on a well-deserved cruise with my family in the Eastern Mediterranean next week.

I fear we have set a very high standard for our children when it comes to Spring Break vacations. You see, living in Europe we've always had such easy access to places I only read about as a kid growing up. So my children think that a normal Spring Break trip is a cottage overlooking Loch Ness in Scotland or touring Italy by train. Oh, what have I done...LOL!

This image was taken on just such a trip and Jill and I were able to escape one evening for a walk around Rome one evening. Our walk took us along the Tiber River and as we passed some trees we happened upon this wonderful sight of St. Peter's dome hanging in the night sky was the river quietly flowed beneath our feet. One of the most iconic images of the trip and the image I always think of when I hear the word Vatican.



As my Featured Image of the week you are able to purchase the base print for a reduced price for this week (actually 2 weeks due to our holiday break!) only from my preferred top-quality printing e-commerce partner ImageKind. Normal matting and framing prices apply. To see this image at my ImageKind gallery page please click here.

Please check back next week to see a new Featured Image from my image collection of "Unique Imagery From Around the World".

My first Featured Image

Today I start what will be a (hopefully) regular feature of my blog: the weekly Featured Image!

This week's image comes from some time ago but still to this day remains one of my favorite images I've ever captures. While living in Alaska there are often strange weather occurrences due to the fact that Anchorage is surrounding on three sides by mountains and the remaining side open to Cook Inlet leading to the Ocean.

On this particular day we had a weather front move through that brought with it lightening. No that doesn't sound like a big event to most of you but lightening is a rather rare event in the city. As the front pushed through there was a very definate line where the air masses were meeting and it happened that as it was passing overhead the sun was setting and grazing the bottom of the clouds. Throwing open the window I quickly was able to capture and entire roll of images before the moment was over.

It was a tough wait the next day as my friends at Photowright Labs processed the slides and when I saw them I was not disappointed: 36 glorious glimpses into the combination of clouds, sunset and sky lay before me. The image seen below was the pick of the litter, eventually earning an Honorable Mention in the Alaska WILD photography competition and going on tour across the state of Alaska as well as being hung in the International Photography Hall of Fame.





As my Featured Image of the week you are able to purchase the base print for a reduced price for this week only from my preferred top-quality printing e-commerce partner ImageKind. Normal matting and framing prices apply. To see this image at my ImageKind gallery page please click here.

Please check back next week to see a new Featured Image from my image collection of "Unique Imagery From Around the World".

ImageKind Making a Great Photo Better

There's good news and bad news about the print I'm about to discuss, but in typical storyteller fashion I'm going to wait until the end before I let you know what that news is. Cheeky monkey, ain't I?

So back to today's topic: print-on-demand (POD) enterprises. Some of you may remember how excited I was about finding a company that made prints of my work that were just as good as if I had made them myself slaving over my own square-eyed monster (the computer). ImageKind has continued to prove themselves as a firm I can entrust my most prized images to for top-quality treatment. Case in point: my Mammatus and Crepuscular images.

This series of images was captured from the drive in front of my English farmhouse and lasted for, oh goodness, almost 2 minutes. Luckily I was able to capture a few that exceeded my expectations. One in particular I got my creative digital artist fingers into and made what I think is a stunning image very suggestive of an oil-on-canvas painting. So, off it went to ImageKind to be printed on canvas and shipped to me.

Awesome doesn't begin to describe what I pulled out of the shipping tube a couple of weeks later.

Rich colors, fantastic textures and the incredible feel of heavy canvas boasting an image I created on its surface. It went right from the Post Office to the Frame Shop at RAF Lakenheath(since this is a personal piece I can use their services) and now, hanging on my family room wall, it a piece of art I am very fond of.

Now, as promised: bad news and good news.

Bad news: this particular print is MINE and if you want it, you'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.

Good News: this particular image is available for you to purchase (along with many, many other of equal quality) from my ImageKind New Arrivals galleries. The print you see is 32 inches x 21 inches set in a 1-inch deep distressed black wood frame.

Well-done ImageKind and RAFL Frame Shop. You make my images (as well as my walls) look great!

Cheers!

~James

Sidebars and Moles

You might be looking at the new element to the right, how cool is that? My friends and e-commerce partners at ImageKind have developed a way for YOU to quickly browse a featured gallery from this page. Plans are to rotate the galleries on a weekly basis. I am SO glad to be partners with the best and most innovative fine-art printers in the country!

As promised, here's a small peek at what I was able to capture in pixels after my boys caught a European mole (Talpa europaea) in our bathroom (entry point unknown). When seen close-up, he can actually look quite frightening (although he seemed to be yawning)! I was amazed at the purpose-built nature of this creature; an organic tunnelling machine capable of making up to 20 meters of yard-devastating passages a day!


On the home front: still no rain. After the driest and warmest April in recent memory we still haven't gotten any measurable precipitation. A fencing project around the yard (for rabbit control, pesky little, well... pests) is on hold as you can't get into the ground at all. Good news is the clouds have moved back in, let's pray for rain!

Cheers!

~James

When the Wind Blows

Winter to me used to be snow, snow and snow (and not necessarily in that order). With those three magical ingredients you could become occupied for hours making snowmen, quinzee shelters or pelting the city busses with snowballs. But for the last 2 years (and perhaps the next three) winter has taken on another meaning.

England is the second island I have lived on that is in the Atlantic Ocean. Despite being a 4-hour plane trip north of the Azores, winter here seems to be the same as it was there: windy and rainy. This morning just around 8am there have been wind gusts of 99mph reported at the Needles on the coast south of London. The winds here have picked up greatly and torrential rain squalls are frequent. Polar winds are to follow the storm but I'm not getting my hopes up for any form of wintery precipitation. In fact, if you were to peer into my head when someone says winter you'de likely see this image flash into my brain. Storm battered coastlines appear to have replaced snowmen.

Experiencing life around the world is part of the life we lead and because of this we can bring you such images. We continue to meet fascinating people and make great friends and often we both wax and wane about the "good old days" when winter meant snow. What will it be like when my kids are grown I wonder?

To view the image shown in various framing and matting options, click the link below to be taken to my ready-to-hang fine art print gallery:

Storm Sentinel


Cheers!

~James

How Strange Art Thou, oh Weather?

Is the weather crazy where you live? Well it is here in England. According to the folks who track the weather this is the warmest winter in a couple of centuries. Trees budding, bulbs springing and I'm having to contemplate getting that darn lawn mower out.

From the news it sounds like the "typical" weather of my childhood has reared its ugly head in the States with my mother-in-law reporting 7 inches of snow and -10F temps in Nebraska.

It may be hard to believe but strange weather can often give you fantastic results with your camera if you seek out the opportunities.

This image is from the forthcoming image gallery of amazing cloud images I have collected over the past few years. When strange weather happens at odd times the sun is often in a different position than it normally is when this type of system develops giving you a chance for a rare series of images.

And remember you can subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog simply by clicking on the post title.

Cheers!

~James

Products, products, everywhere!

NEWS

First, the blog you are currently looking at is going to now host the majority of the news happenings from my photography studio including new products and new locations discovered. Updates will continue to happen at the main website, fear not!

To subscribe to RSS updates, click the link above!

Speaking of locations I had an incredible trip to Norwich (for the Cinderella panto at the Theatre Royale) home to a Benedictine cathedral built in the 1000's (yes!) and home to the second-highest spire in England. Fantastic is an understatement.

The military aviation shop is now open featuring my military aviation images on ceramic coffee mugs and steins (what would go in there I wonder???) for both American and international air forces. As you know this was a particularly productive time in the Azores for aircraft photography so new images will be added regularly.

James O'Rear: Military Image Shop

Images of England are slowly coming on-line. As there isn't a huge backlog of them they will appear as a trickle at first, but know that with some long weekends coming up there are ample opportunities for the whole family to go who-knows-where!


Cheers!

~James

Busy, busy, busy...

Well the holiday season is behind us, wrapping and (excessive) packaging all disposed of so I can finally get to work. Well, get to working more.

Exciting news again! I have just released 4 2007 calendars filled with my images. One of them, Fly Azores, is offered with 3 holiday dates (USA, UK and Portuguese). I can also confirm that there is a photo book in production as well. These products are available here.

Also, like there isn't enough going on with the new e-commerce partner imagekind I have a new home that will focus on dispersing my wealth of photographic knowledge at Squidoo. I'm in the process of selecting topics from the mini-classes I gave while president of the Lajes Field Photo Club for posting so be on the lookout for those in the days ahead.

No snow, lots of wind. Thinking about buying a kite. ;-)


Cheers!

~James

ImageKind update

Great news for you APO/FPO customers!

I just got a message from customer support at ImageKind and they told me two important pieces of information:

1) Thay are actively working on a way to ship using USPS mail, thereby opening up the APO/FPO/PO Box customer base, and...

2) If you e-mail or call them with your purchase request they can arrange for a USPS shipment NOW.


I love this company.

Why Didn't I (or you) Think of That?

One of the things I have always hated about e-commerce and my images is that I always get asked about framing options. To tell you the truth, having been in the contest world for some time I'm of the mindset that everything belongs in a black frame with a white mat.

My lovely wife disagrees with me. And she's right.

As usual.

I have wished there was a simple, one-stop-shopping way for my customers to select an image, pick out a nice frame and then select the mat colors to suit their homes. Wouldn't that just be the coolest thing?

Well, our wishes have come true! IMAGEKIND has apparently picked our collective dreams and done exactly that. They spent quite a bit of time in my brain as they offer a LOT of things that I have always wanted as well: the ability for me to caption my images, their use of EPSON gilcee' printers using EPSON archival inks and EPSON papers (all things I firmly believe in), rag and suede mats, metal AND wood frames, single/double/triple mat layers, acrylic or glass glazing options and the big one for me:

PRINTS ON CANVAS! IN TWO OPTIONS NO LESS!

YES, I'M SHOUTING!!!!!!

My brain is literally buzzing with excitement about FINALLY being able to offer my images with a partner that allows YOU to select what holds my prints. Listen, you can hear the buzzing I swear, even from here in England.

The only downside is they don't currently ship to APO/FPO addresses but I've already started begging them to figure some way to help the military folks out. If you'd like to see that as an option, kindly let them hear your voice in a quick e-mail.

Stop by the site and give it a good look-through, images are being added frequently so check often. If you know of an image you want seen on the site, drop me a quick e-mail and I'll see what I can do!

~James