For Sale: HP Designjet 130

Why am I selling this printer? I own a small stable of wide format printers, and the DJ130 has simply fallen out of use and is taking up space. I bought this HP Designjet 130 printer brand new and it remains in like-new condition and in perfect working/printing order. I still have the original box and packing materials! The printer has always remained covered when not in use, has never suffered any technical problems, and has never required repair.

You can find more information about this printer on HP’s website, and the folks over at Digital Outback Photo provide lots of useful information on their website. Wilhelm Imaging Research has given the DJ130 with HP papers a permanence rating of 82+ years when displayed properly.

Some users have complained of paper feed issues with this printer. I avoided them by not purchasing the optional roll feeder (which seems to be the largest source of the problem), and have always fed it pre-cut sheets. Still, the printer can be finicky with paper feeding, so extra care is required to avoid problems.

This offer includes:

* Two brand new unopened 24″ x 50′ rolls of HP Premium Plus Photo Satin Paper. This is a really beautiful satiny smooth paper with a lustre-less surface;
* One partially used roll of HP Premium Plus Photo Satin Paper;
* Two brand new unopened HP85 Light Magenta ink cartridges;
* One brand new unopened HP85 Cyan ink cartridge;
* One brand new unopened HP84 Black ink cartridge.

The printer still sells new for around $1100, and the extras listed above are worth new about $225 on Amazon. I’d be happy to get $550 for the lot, excluding shipping or handling. If you think my price is too high or you can’t quite come up with $550, make me an offer. The printer is located in Long Beach, California, and can be test driven (suggested!) before committing to purchase. I’d prefer pick-up to shipping, and the printer should be easy to transport in most cars (that is, excluding the original box). I’ll provide you with a number of difficult-to-find URL’s to useful DJ130 online resources, and I’ll make you a free custom profile once you get everything set up.

Please shoot me an email (info AT michael-gordon.com) if you have any questions or you’d like to make an offer. Thank you for looking!

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

Although most are climbing and hiking guides, I own quite a few guidebooks. And once one owns and uses enough of them, one comes to a determination about what they most like about them and what they’d do away with. Although I haven’t written any field guides, Gill and Miniuk-Sperry’s highly logical approach to content, layout, and design is the one I would follow. This guide is designed in a fashion that works perfectly for me: Detailed (but not too much; you still need to bring your creativity to the shoots); indexing by location, flower color, AND bloom calendar; a section on AZ’s wildflowers and how to predict them; and filled with inspirational photos and detailed technical info (including 17 different photography tip sections). This guide is a robust 224 pages and features over 280 color photographs and describes 60 locations with detailed maps & driving directions. Further, guidebooks that get handled a lot tend to fall apart quickly. Wild in Arizona has a 6″ x 9″ laminated glossy soft cover that I believe will hold up to a lot of leafing and thumbing.

This book is not just for photographers: Leaf peeping is everyone’s business, and the painter, naturalist, and hiker will find plenty about this book to enjoy. Gill and Miniuk-Sperry have also established a blog to share “eyes-on” reports about what’s currently happening in the [Arizona] field. They’ve been posting fall color reports recently, but come spring they’ll shift back to wildflower reports. What I really like about the book is that alongside the detailed location specifics, they’ve included a legend/key that indicates where you can expect to find specific flowers (right).

An honest review of a product should explain its shortcomings or at least recommend ways to improve it. Quite honestly, I’m at a loss to recommend decisive improvements for this guide. One minor point for me: I’m not a fan of unnatural-looking HDR photography as Gill appears to be (as evidenced by a number of his photographs within), but HDR-style photographs have no bearing on this book’s effectiveness or its quality as a guidebook. The captions are detailed and include HDR notes (and aperture/shutter speed/ISO), should novice photographers with limited technical abilities question why their photographs do not look like Gill’s.

Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers – A Guide to When, Where, & How will help you discover new places to experience and enjoy within Arizona while saving you an enormous amount of scouting time. At only $24.95, I’d call it a great value. Order online and you get an autographed copy!

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

Large Format Photographer in the Alabama Hills

NO PREVIOUS LARGE FORMAT EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED! The large format camera offers the ultimate in control over the entire creative image-making process and large format negatives and transparencies that offer extraordinary resolution. The market is flooded with plenty of used and value-priced large format gear, and new high quality yet inexpensive field cameras have made this an excellent time to move up to the format with only a moderate amount of expense. This course is designed for experienced photographers who are ready to take their photography to the next level, and for those who have previously worked with large format but have struggled with it. At the completion of this intensive two-day workshop, you will be able to efficiently and confidently compose, focus, meter, and expose your own large format photographs. Please click here for more information and to register.

I hope you can join us!

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

Death Valley National Park is a desert wonderland of immense scale, beauty and power. Its 3.3 million acres, the vast majority of which are roadless wilderness, encompass a staggering array of landscapes, unique geologic formations and colorful vistas. The largest National Park in the contiguous United States, Death Valley is both beautiful to behold and rich in history, mood and mystique. Its towering sand dunes, seasonally snow-capped mountains, warm springs and vast empty valleys offer endless opportunity for exploration and ample subject matter for the creative artist. There’s no place on Earth quite like it.

Internationally acclaimed photographer, author, and educator Guy Tal and I have carefully selected some of the park’s most unique locations for this workshop, and we’ll combine outstanding photography with inspirational, creative and technical discussion sessions. In addition to classes in the field, Guy and I will work individually with participants to address questions, assist with compositions, offer ideas, and share our knowledge. Discussions will include informative reviews and critique sessions of each participant’s images made during the workshop.

This workshop is sponsored by Chamonix View Cameras and Gura Gear, and all workshop participants are eligible for discounts on Chamonix view cameras and accessories and on Gura Gear camera bags.

Fore more information and registration, please click here.

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

The short video below details the work of Philip Hyde, whose color photographic work in the American Southwest set the virtual stage for all other color Southwestern work that followed. Hyde’s influence is evident even in today’s most current Southwest photographs, even though many budding contemporary nature and landscape photographers remain unaware of his work and its impact on environmental conservation.

If you enjoy photographing the desert landscapes of the American Southwest, you owe it to yourself to check out Hyde’s 1987 book Drylands: The Deserts of North America. While you’re at it, check out Sierra Club: 100 Years of Protecting Nature, which details how the photographs of Hyde, Adams, and others were used to protect imperiled American landscapes. Enjoy the video!

Philip Hyde from Lumière on Vimeo.

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

Speaking of my exhibition, The Joshua Tree, Ann Japenga has announced it along with a few nice words about my work at the California Desert Art website.

On October 21, I was interviewed and quoted in a Public News Service article (“Report: BLMs Smart Solar Approach Good for the West, with Two CA Exceptions“). Click here to read and/or listen to this piece.

Drivers Wanted

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

Unless you live in the western United States, you’re likely unaware that the U.S. Department of Energy has fast-tracked twenty-four solar energy development projects on desert public lands throughout six southwestern states. Here in California, four Solar Energy Zones (SEZ) have been proposed, with the majority of the acreage occupying pristine California desert landscapes. It goes without saying that these are controversial and contentious proposals, and the conservation community has recommended that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) not designate two of the proposed solar zones in California (Pisgah and Iron Mountain) because of conflicts with wildlife habitat and nearby National Parks. Accordingly, TWS hired me to illustrate the diverse and undisturbed plant communities, wildlife habitat, and overall beauty found in these proposed SEZ’s. Because these SEZ’s are only in the proposal stage, no ground has been broken; there are no boundary lines or stakes on the ground; and no fences or other guides to indicate the exact boundaries of these huge proposed SEZ’s (the proposed Pisgah SEZ is 23,950 acres; the proposed Iron Mountain SEZ is 106,522 acres). So how does a photographer determine where to stand and point the camera when working with such a large and remote “job-site”?

I used all of the following technologies to research, scout, and photograph for this assignment: Google Earth (using provided KMZ files to indicate the SEZ’s); Ephemeris (I use an old desktop application; many prefer The Photographer’s Ephemeris); satellite images with SEZ overlays (provided by the U.S. D.O.E.); my iPhone; the iPhone compass app; the SunSeeker iPhone app; a paper San Bernardino County Map (provided by Automobile Club of Southern California; they make the best county maps and show roads that other maps do not); the WWW for various research and imagery while in the field; and finally, good old visual reckoning while in the field (does not break; does not require signal; requires no batteries). There is some overlap in these tools and I could have done away with one or two, but I used what was fastest and most convenient to me.

I had a one-week deadline. I did my research the afternoon and evening I received the assignment, and left the very next morning. In three days in the field, I covered nearly 600 miles of driving, a number of miles of hiking, and netted thirty-nine photographs for The Wilderness Society’s campaign. They’re soon to publish an extensive Solar Energy report which will use my photographs to hopefully to eliminate the Pisgah and Iron Mountain SEZ proposals.

I spent three days wandering alone these vast and primordial Mojave Desert landscapes. I was often overcome with grief and sadness when I could see before me the acreage that DOE proposes for these SEZ’s. These are huge and undisturbed landscapes where even during the most bearable season (Oct-Mar) you are more likely to see coyote, tortoise, or raven than a human.

No DOE employee nor Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has ever had encounters with tortoise, bighorn sheep, and coyote like I have. No DOE employee nor Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has ever scaled the Mojave Desert’s steep mountains to watch the new sun throw its blaze across these majestic and untarnished landscapes. And No DOE employee nor Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has ever had a physical or emotional investment in this desert or in California’s heritage. What right have they to designate these zones as wastelands fit only for thousands of square acres of solar panels?

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

The Mojave National Preserve is vast, and at 1.6 million acres is the third largest unit of the National Park System in the contiguous United States. Singing sand dunes, volcanic cinder cones, Joshua tree forests, and seasonal carpets of wildflowers are all found in this incredibly spacious and under-visited park (shhhh!). A number of the Joshua tree photographs in the exhibition were made in the Preserve, which is also home to the largest Joshua tree forest known to man (Cima Dome).

Because this is a remote park with no nearby accommodations (Baker and Needles are nearest but may not suit everyone’s taste), I encourage you to stay, camp, and enjoy the Preserve for the entire weekend (make it longer!). [UPDATED Oct 3] If you’d like to camp, I’ll provide directions to the developed campgrounds and/or suggest premier open desert camping locations within the Preserve (the beauty of the CA desert: you can camp virtually anywhere!).

Please join me at the Kelso Depot on November 5 from 2-4pm – I hope to see you there!

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

A few months back, The Wilderness Society released their 2010 Annual Report. It’s a great pleasure to have one of my photographs from the San Gabriel Mountains Forever campaign published full-page in this Annual Report!

Thank you Annette and The Wilderness Society!

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

In March 2006 I suffered the blow of my life. As I often am, I was in Joshua Tree National Park enjoying camping, hiking, and photography in one of my favorite places on earth. Up until March 2006, I had been continuously adjusting to and ignoring general lower back pain that had been increasing for months: “I must have pulled a muscle”. One can only successfully manage pain up until the point of catastrophic failure: I awoke in the Park to excruciating pain and the inability to rise or walk. The very next day I was hospitalized due to an 8mm lumbar disc herniation. Two additional lumbar discs were bulged, and I was diagnosed with a host of degenerative spinal issues. I’ve carried a lot of packs in my life; I’ve taken serious falls while technical climbing; and genetics are against me. But at a young 38 years of age, I never would have imagined that I’d be hospitalized and completely debilitated. It was the worst time of my life; naturally, it came to a screeching halt.

Despite the recommendations for surgery, I was well aware of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome and I instead elected to self-rehabilitate only with several forms of physical therapy and exercise. I came home with a walker and graduated to a cane. I was told that if I committed and worked hard, I could be back at play and work in 6-12 months. I listened, I desperately worked at it, and I recovered despite how at-the-bottom I felt at that time. It was an amazing journey, and by 2007 had worked my way back to backpacking with a camera kit. I rejoiced and my core was strong like never before.

Fast forward to July and August 2010, when I led two backpack photo tours into the High Sierra. Both tours were excellent, and I felt physically healthy and strong. Yet shortly after the August tour, I began to once again feel a tinge of pain in my lumbar spine, and slight worry began to set in. By early November 2010, I began to fully realize that I was quickly sliding in the wrong direction, and I had new lumbar MR images taken. Uh-oh. The new images revealed that *all five* of my lumbar discs were now bulged, yet none thankfully herniated. I got back into assisted physical therapy, and remained there for months. I did everything right and everything that I was supposed to do, yet unlike 2006, the therapies were not at all helping (ultrasound; acupuncture; traction; massage; TENS, exercise) and I was getting no better despite my efforts. It was frustrating and discouraging. Everyday life was becoming a challenge.

By May 2011, I was a physical wreck. There was not one moment per day that I was free from pain and discomfort. Sleep loss became routine (forget the bed; I slept on the floor for months), appetite- and weight-loss ensued, and before I knew it, I was not able to leave the house other than for doctors appointments. The only way for me to get through each day and night was through the legal use of opiates. And not even Oxycontin could alleviate my pain or help me to sleep. I quit caring about photography and life, and wondered if this was my new future. I really felt at the bottom when I recognized and was confirmed with muscle atrophy. My own mother suffered from chronic pain for more than twelve years. I had endured less than a year’s worth, and it was already too much (my mother was an incredible woman, it turns out).

My wife is a career Registered Nurse and knows just about everyone in her medical field. We sought recommendations and the very best doctors. I saw a respected spinal surgeon who declined to operate (Thank you, Dr. Chen). I followed up with a recommended neurologist who diagnosed me with neuropathy (nerve damage) in both legs (more depression!). I once again felt finished, but this time at the age of 43. A few more weeks of chronic pain passed, and then I saw another neurologist for a second opinion. He, too, was unable to diagnose the exact cause of my pain, nor was he able to suggest anything or anyone that could help me. To further corroborate lack of diagnosis was my regular pain management doctor, who insisted that my pain was indeed a result of lumbar disc compression issues (why didn’t Dr. Chen agree?).

By August 2011, after living with chronic pain and sleeplessness for months on end, I’d had enough. This was not the way I was going to live out my days, and being a full time Netflix’r and pill popper was not a lifestyle I sought. Despite my wretchedness, I decided to take control of my situation and began doing hours of online research (while squatting before my desk; sitting was still physically impossible). Thank goodness for the amazing WWW – I learned of something called Piriformis Syndrome (also spelled Pyriformis). Piriformis Syndrome is almost symptomatically identical to sciatica. Consequently, many doctors and surgeons who are inexperienced with Piriformis Syndrome (as mine were and as most are) will often overlook this diagnosis. Until then, I had never really quite known of the piriformis muscle (many back pain sufferers ultimately become quite knowledgeable about anatomy) even though piriformis stretches were part of my repertoire. After reading through pages and pages of forum posts from suspected piriformis sufferers, I became positive that this was my affliction, and I would allow no doctor to tell me otherwise.

Thank goodness for YouTube: I located a number of myofascial release exercises and stretches for the piriformis muscle, and immediately got to work (even though the initial pain was severe). Within one week (ONE WEEK!), the majority of numbness in my left leg was gone, and my pain level went from 9+ to 5-. On August 16, 2011, I revisited the second nuerologist, who upon my request injected my piriformis with cortisone. Within a few days of the injection, I stopped taking ALL medications (including Advil); the numbness was entirely gone; and my pain was a fleeting memory. It seems virtually miraculous, yet the miracle is that I had the courage to fight and take control despite my misery and the overwhelming darkness at the end of my tunnel.

I am very happy to report today that I have quickly swung back into business after months of inactivity and suffering. I am back to camping, hiking, and photography, and last week went on assignment for The Wilderness Society (an upcoming blog post). It’s great to be back at work. It’s even better to be back outside again where I can feel the desert winds blowing, hear coyotes howling, and watch the sun start and conclude a day. I am back and life is good!

The moral to this [long] story is that sufferers will suffer when they place their hopes and outcomes entirely within the hands of doctors or others. You are the #1 advocate for your care and for your situation. Empower. Fight like hell. Never quit. Research and understand Pirifromis Syndrome if you suffer from sciatica and are getting no relief despite your best efforts. Most of all, find a doctor who will listen to you, because this is your life.

Who’s joining me this weekend for a Star Party in the Mojave Preserve?

You are visiting the blog of fine art landscape photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.