5 Reasons I Made The Upgrade

I finally took the plunge and reactivated my Flickr Pro account. I had one awhile back, but it expired and I was too cheap to renew it. Now that I am getting back into organizing my photos, I decided I really wanted it back because for the small cost of $24.95, I can get all of this:

1. Space…Lot’s Of Space

The Flickr Pro account offers Unlimited Uploads and Storage. Not only do I take a lot of photos, but I take large ones. I have a Nikon D40 that takes really good pictures but it uses up a lot of space.

With a free Flickr account, it does not let you upload the full-size originals. Not a very good solution if you are hoping to use Flickr as a way of backing up your photos to avoid losing your photos if you experience a computer meltdown (I Have).

2. Unlimited Collections (And Sets)

Keeping photos organized makes it a lot easier to manage them and allows easier browing for your viewers. Therefore, I like to use Collections and Sets to break down the different photos I have uploaded to my account. Now I do not have to worry about running out of collections I can create, so I can come up with new ones for any category I can think of. See what I mean: My Collections

3. Access To Original Files

Like I mentioned in the first reason, the Flickr Pro account offers you the ability to keep your original files, in full size. This is especially important if you have a higher end camera that takes very high resolution photos. Why use such a nice camera, only to have the free Flick account shrink it to a smaller size.? Plus, it is a great way to show off your photography and  keep it safe at the same time.

4. Flickr Stats …And Pretty Graphs

The Flickr Pro account gives you a Google Analytics style dashboard to your Flickr account. It shows the amount of views each of your photos gets, as well as the sources of those viewers.

It is pretty cool to see that people find your photos from search engines. Plus it is a great way to see which photos have become more popular.

5. A Great Mobile Solution

I travel A LOT and plan on doing it even more in the upcoming year. The problem with that is you need a place to keep files safe, but still accessible from anywhere. Keeping them on a hard drive is one way of doing it, but it still does not keep your photos safe if you lose it.

Therefore, I plan on uploading all my pictures as often as I can while traveling. That way, I can keep them all online, and never worry about losing them if something were to happen to my MacBook. Plus, the unlimited space is a great way to avoid running out of hard drive space while on the road.

So There You Have It

Overall, I am very happy with the upgrade. Besides, $24.95 a year isn’t much to keep your photos safe from harm.

Do You Have A Flickr Account? If so, is it a free one or a pro one?

Why It’s Probably Not A Good idea

This weekend was another adventure out in the wilderness. I did some hiking in Sedona, Arizona and almost got struck by a massive bolt of lightning. It was pretty intense, but luckily I got some pretty cool pictures of the whole thing.

I’d like to start this story from the end with this picture I snapped of a lightning bolt at the bottom of the hike:

That’s Not Good

I am no expert on weather, but I am smart enough to know that lightning and thunder at relatively the exact same time means get out of dodge. Especially when you are standing on a rock in the middle of the desert. I found this paragraph explaining the risks over at InteliHealth:

“For example, if you are caught in a lightning storm while outside in an open space, especially at an elevation (for instance, while hiking on a mountain trail), your risk is considerably higher than the estimated overall risk of one in 600,000. (That’s according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; other estimates vary from one in 10,000 to one in 5,000,000.)”

So apparently hiking on a mountain trail can significantly raise your chances of getting struck by lightning. The crazy thing was the fact that after we made it safely to the car, we noticed another group of people still near the top of Bear Mountain. Right after we saw them, we saw a lightning bolt actually strike the mountain between the people and our car. It was literally less than a thousand feet away.

We figured it would be a good idea to call the ranger station and let them know that there were still people at the top of Bear Mountain when the storm hit. As it turns out, rangers only save people on the weekdays. The ranger station was closed and had a message machine with another number to call. So we called the other number and informed them that the lightning struck right next to the people and we could no longer see them. Our guess was they ran for cover somewhere after pissing themselves from the burst of lightning.

We waited a good hour for the ranger to come but no luck. They never even came to make sure everyone was alright. Luckily, a little over an hour after the storm we saw the people come walking down to their car. That is pretty shitty service if you ask me.

The Bear Mountain Trail

Anyways, the hike I did (attempted) was the Bear Mountain Trail, which is 2.8 miles one way with an increase in elevation around 1,800 feet. The hike was very steep, but provided some awesome views from start to finish. Along the trail, I managed to see a Jackrabbit, 1,300 June bugs, and some pretty cool caves. Here are some more pictures I got along the way:

If you would like to see the rest of my pictures from the trip, check them out over at my Flickr page.

Conclusion

As you can see, it is pretty amazing to see the surrounding areas from up top of Bear Mountain. It reminds you how beautiful Arizona can be, in good weather and bad. The hike is well woth the work, as long as it isn’t in a lightning storm. Luckily, I am still alive and sitting in my cubicle recapping the whole experience.

I had the privilege of checking out the Tonto Natural Bridge, near Payson, Arizona this past weekend. It was a really cool experience and I would love to share it with everyone.

If you have never heard of the park, it is a natural bridge that was formed by running water from a small creek. While I was there I also learned that the Tonto bridge was discovered by David Gowan in 1877 , while hiding from Apache Indians. It is a pretty interesting story to read about because he eventually moved his whole family to this location.

My Photographs

I took a lot of pictures, but narrowed them down to a few I would like to share. So check them out (click to enlarge):

Top of Tonto Natural Bridge

Tonto Natural Bridge Waterfall

Believe It or Not, This Is the Creek

Lizard Along the Trail

Standing In One of the Caves

Look How Small The People Look Inside

The Hiking Trails

When I first arrived at the Tonto State Park, it did not look like anything special. It looked like a grass field with a parking lot and a ton of people picnicking. But I was amazed once I finished all of the hikes.

There are three separate trails to hike, and they all lead to different places. Here is a little information I gathered from the trail guide they had at the park:

Pine Creek Trail - about 1/2 mile long, which leads to the Pine Creek natural area. They recommend wearing hiking shoes and say to allow one hour for the hike.

Waterfall Trail - about 300 feet long, and ends at a waterfall cave.

Gowan Trail - about 1/2 mile long, and it leads to an observation deck at the bottom of the creek. This trail also recommends wearing hiking shoes.

The hiking trails are a little rough, but overall pretty easy to walk along. There are a lot of stairs when heading to the creek bottom, so plan on walking down a ton of wooden steps. Also, plan on getting a little wet if you really want to snoop around in the cave. The water leaks through the rock from the top of the bridge, and makes it feel like a light rain at the bottom.

If you are taking your camera (I highly recommend it), bring along a case to put it in so you don’t have to worry about getting it wet.

Location

The Tonto Natural Bridge is pretty easy to find if you are coming from the Phoenix area. You simply have to head towards Fountain Hills and take the SR 87 north to Payson 80 miles. From there, continue north another 10 miles until you see a sign for the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.

Just a word of caution, there are some steep roads after you turn left towards the State Park. Some of the roads reach as much as a 14% grade.

An Awesome Trip

Overall, this was an awesome thing to do. It was cool to see this thing in person, because it looks so much different in person than it does in pictures. I highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in Arizona, specifically in the Payson area.

Saturday night, I made my way up to South Mountain for some hiking and sightseeing. If you are unfamiliar with the valley, South Mountain is south of downtown Phoenix and has an elevation around 2,600 feet. There are some old ruins at the top and some pretty cool views of the Phoenix metro area.

Along the way, I saw a few coyotes but managed to get away without seeing any rattlesnakes. It is still too hot here in Phoenix to do any intense hiking, but it was still a good work out. I drove to the summit and then hiked down a ways before turning around and heading back up. There are trails all over the mountain, so I am planning on going back in the near future. Perhaps after the weather cools down a bit.

The Photographs

I took my camera and tripod along because I am looking to get back in to photography. I have been slacking with it lately but hope to hop back into it. There are so many cools things to see around Arizona, I just need to get out and get some nice shots. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the top of South Mountain:

View of South Mountain and Phoenix

An Old Building Near the Summit

View of Phoenix Area (about 1/3 of the city?)

A Very Weird Photo of A Plant

A View of the Sierra Estrella Mountain Range

I have a few other photos I took and I’ll be putting them up on my Flickr account this week.

Next Stop, Tonto Natural Bridge

This weekend, I also made my way to the Tonto Natural Bridge, located near Payson. It is a natural bridge formed by water running over the rocks. I took some really cool shots of it, and will be posting the summary of the trip tomorrow.

As promised, here are a few pictures I took while I was out in Honolulu. I wish I would of taken more, but I realized I already took over two thousand pictures while I lived there. That and I cannot find my charger for my digital camera, so I ran out of juice before the trip was over.

Anyways, here are a few new pictures. (Click the picture to see it in full size)

Now That’s A Mai Tai

On The Side of Diamond Head

View Down The Ala Wai

Honolulu from Diamond Head

Honolulu from Tantulus