The following are my hand-picked links to worthwhile sites on the Internet:

Natural History and Birding Links

  • Rich Stallcup's Wild Tendencies web page on the Point Reyes Bird Observatory Web Site.  Although Rich is most widely known for contributions in ornithology/birding circles, he is one of the finest all-around naturalists there is. The Wild Tendencies web site reflects his widespread interest in the natural world.
     
  • Joe Morlan's California Birding Pages is the best single source for information on California Birding.
     
  • Kathy Bigg's California Odonata web site is a good starting place for those interested in the dragonflies and damselflies of California.

Photography Links

  • Photo.Net is simply the best photography site on the web.
     
  • Michael Reichmann's excellent Luminous Landscape web site is a good resource for landscape photography.
     
  • Stephen Joseph creates incredible panoramic and three-dimensional landscape images of Mt. Diablo and other special places like Mono Lake.
     
  • Thom Hogan is the author of the "Nikon Field Guide", which is an indispensable resource for Nikon shooters like myself.  His web site, www.bythom.com, is definitely worth a look.  I found his essay "Shooting the Boobies" to be invaluable in making photography plans for our trip to the Galapagos Islands.
     
  • The University of California Berkeley's CalPhoto searchable collection of 40,080 images of plants, animals, people, and landscapes.

Digital Photography Links

  • The Digital Photography Review website (www.dpreview.com) is my favorite all-around digital photo site.  It has in-depth equipment reviews, comprehensive forums, and digital photo-related news updates.
     
  • Rob Galbraith's web site (www.robgalbraith.com) is another great digital photo site and is oriented more toward the digital professional.
     
  • Juergen Specht's D1scussion list is a great resource for photographers using any of the D1-series cameras.
     
  • Moose Peterson and David Cardinal's nikondigital.org site is oriented toward photographers using the Nikon digital system.  They also produce DigitalPro software, which I use as the "front end" to my digital workflow.  Finally, they also co-authored "The D1 Generation", one of two excellent books that can help D1 users be much more productive with this new technology.
     
  • Thom Hogan's Complete Guide to the Nikon D1, D1h, & D1x, is an "e-book" that is delivered on CD-ROM, and is a must- have resource for D1 shooters.  Thom also publishes The D1 Report: a quarterly newsletter that is also distributed on CD-ROM.

Organizations

We support the following non-profit organizations that preserve and protect open space and habitat, improve our understanding of the natural world through scientific research, and help educate the public about important wildlife and conservation issues:

Vendors

I have found the following vendors to be reliable sources of mail-order camera gear and optics.

The following vendors make unique products for photography:

  • Really Right Stuff makes the finest quick-release plates for cameras and lenses with tripod mounts.
     
  • Kinesis Gear manufactures a high-quality modular belt system for carrying photo gear in the field.  Their long lens bags are the finest made.
     
  • Hindsight Ltd. produces StockView and InView: software to help the photographer manage their business and portfolio.
     
  • Wimberley, makes specialized (gimbal-style) tripod heads to support long lenses.  I use their Sidekick along with my Arca-Swiss B1 ballhead.

The following vendors sell products for the Digital Photographer:

  • Color Vision sells hardware and software products that help calibrate and profile computer monitors and printers so that what you see on the screen is what you get when you print an image.  I use their OptiCal software and MC7 hardware puck to profile my monitor, and ProfilerPro software to calibrate my Epson 1270 photo printer.
     
  • LaserSoft Imaging produces Silverfast scanner software.  Silverfast replaces the scanner manufacturers scanning software, and adds many capabilities that improve your ability to generate high-quality digital images from negatives and transparencies.
     
  • Photools.com is the publisher of IMatch, a very flexible image management database system that I use to track my "digital negatives" (raw NEF files from my D1x) and to create my gallery web pages.
     
  • DDI Software's QImage Pro can also read and manipulate Nikon's NEF file format, but it's strength is in it's flexible printing engine.
     
  • I use Panavue Image Assembler to stitch together consecutive digital images to produce high-resolution digital panoramas.
     
  • WNSoft's PictureToExe allows you to create great stand-alone computer "slide shows", complete with fancy transitions, and synchronized music.

Other vendors who provide worthwhile products and services:

  • AviSys bird listing software.  I have used AviSys to keep my birding life list for many years and have never felt the slightest need to change to another product.  AviSys also has the ability to keep Herp, Mammal, Butterfly, and Odonata checklists.  They recently released a checklist utility for Palm organizers that allows field checklists to be synchronized with the main database - cool stuff!
     
  • ABE Books is the largest network of independent book sellers.  This web site provides a great way to find and purchase rare and out of print books.  This is an indispensable resource for those trying to fill out their natural history library.
     
  • I highly recommend Wings and Field Guides birding tours and Shearwater Journeys pelagic birding trips from Monterey, California.
 
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