Michael Silverman: Featured Galleries and Collections

Outside Lands 2009

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:04:09 GMT

Here are a couple of photos that I took at Outside Lands Music Festival in August 2009. I was also volunteering at the Global Inheritance Recycling store, collecting bottles in exchange for cool festival merchandise as a kind of clean up the park for stuff thing. Check their website out here. It was a lot of fun and you can see all of the bottles that we collected in just one day.
In addition to helping out, I got to see quite a few bands as well. While I only took pictures for Dave Matthews Band and Incubus, I also saw Blind Pilot, Dengue Fever, Jason Mraz, Pearl Jam, Black Eyed Peas, Cage the Elephant, Thievery Corporation, Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, M.I.A, The Dead Weather, and Atmosphere. Take a look!

Bryce NP - Utah

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:24:11 GMT

Bryce Canyon National Park is a national park located in southwestern Utah in the United States. Contained within the park is Bryce Canyon. Despite its name, this is not actually a canyon, but rather a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce is distinctive due to its geological structures, called hoodoos, formed from wind, water, and ice erosion of the river and lakebed sedimentary rocks. The red, orange and white colors of the rocks provide spectacular views to visitors. Bryce is at a much higher elevation than nearby Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. The rim at Bryce varies from 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,400 to 2,700 m), whereas the south rim of the Grand Canyon sits at 7,000 feet (2,100 m) above sea level.
The Bryce area was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and was named after Ebenezer Bryce, who homesteaded in the area in 1874.[1] The area around Bryce Canyon became a U.S. National Monument in 1923 and was designated as a national park the next year. The park covers 56 square miles (145 km2) and receives relatively few visitors compared to Zion Canyon and the Grand Canyon, largely due to its remote location. The town of Kanab, Utah, is situated at a central point between these three parks.
More info here.

Rocky Mt. NP - Colorado

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:13:45 GMT

Rocky Mountain National Park is a National Park located in the north-central region of the U.S. state of Colorado. It features majestic mountain views, a variety of wildlife, varied climates and environments—from wooded forests to mountain tundra—and easy access to back-country trails and campsites. The park is located northwest of Boulder, Colorado in the Rockies, and includes the Continental Divide and the headwaters of the Colorado River.
More info here.

Zion NP - Utah

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:16:44 GMT

Zion National Park is a national park located in the Southwestern United States, near Springdale, Utah. A prominent feature of the 229-square-mile (593 km2) park is Zion Canyon, 15 miles (24 km) long and up to half a mile (800 m) deep, cut through the reddish and tan-colored Navajo Sandstone by the North Fork of the Virgin River. Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park's unique geography and variety of life zones allow for unusual plant and animal diversity. Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds, 75 mammals (including 19 species of bat), and 32 reptiles inhabit the park's four life zones: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest. Common plant species include cottonwood, Cactus, Datura, Juniper, Pine, Boxelder, Sagebrush, yucca , and various willows. Notable megafauna include mountain lions, mule deer and Golden Eagles, along with reintroduced California Condors and Bighorn Sheep.

Human habitation of the area started about 8,000 years ago with small family groups of Native Americans; the semi-nomadic Basketmaker Anasazi (300 CE) stem from one of these groups. In turn, the Virgin Anasazi culture (500 CE) developed as the Basketmakers settled in permanent communities. A different group, the Parowan Fremont, lived in the area as well. Both groups moved away by 1300 and were replaced by the Parrusits and several other Southern Paiute subtribes. The canyon was discovered by Mormons in 1858 and was settled by that same group in the early 1860s. In 1909, U.S. President William Howard Taft named the area a National Monument to protect the canyon, under the name of Mukuntuweap National Monument. However, in 1918, the acting director of the newly created National Park Service changed the park's name to Zion as the original name was locally unpopular. Zion is an ancient Hebrew word meaning a place of refuge or sanctuary. The United States Congress established the monument as a National Park on November 19, 1919. The Kolob section was proclaimed a separate Zion National Monument in 1937, but was incorporated into the park in 1956.

The geology of the Zion and Kolob canyons area includes nine formations that together represent 150 million years of mostly Mesozoic-aged sedimentation. At various periods in that time, warm, shallow seas, streams, ponds and lakes, vast deserts and dry near-shore environments covered the area. Uplift associated with the creation of the Colorado Plateaus lifted the region 10,000 feet (3,000 m) starting 13 million years ago.

More info here.

July 4th Fireworks on Camelback

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 23:01:44 GMT

DISCLAIMER: ATTEMPT AT YOUR OWN RISK

THIS IS A DANGEROUS ACTIVITY AND I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS

Basically, I hiked up Camelback Mountain at night to take some pictures of the fireworks from the top of the mountain. I, nor the other 20 people who had hiked up with the same idea were disappointed. There were usually multiple fireworks shows going on at one time, sometimes as many as 15 at once (yes, I counted). It was really cool and was by far the best view in the city. It was a perfectly clear night and you could see for miles in every direction.

I took quite a few pictures, and for my first time taking pictures of fireworks, I am really happy with how they came out. Exposures ranged from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. I used my Canon 30D with the remote timer on the lowest ISOs usually. You can see full metadata on my photo site.While I didn't do any HDR exposures, I did manage to get a couple of panoramas in, so be sure to check those out.
You can see my blog post on these photos here.

Camelback Mountain At Night

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Tue, 26 May 2009 05:43:32 GMT

Earth Day 2009

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:29:30 GMT

PCDS's Earth Day celebration for 2009 turned out quite well. We had a great turnout and little bit of cloud cover so that it wasn't hot. We were covered by 12 News on the early show and the local newspapers in the days after the event. A big thank you to all of the exhibitors that took the time to come to our Earth Day event. Also, thank you to the entire Green Team who made this happen. And also to maintenance, who were incredibly helpful as well.

We were honored to host exhibitors from the Sierra Club, Roots and Shoots, Corgan Geothermal, American Solar Electric, SRP, Project Wet, AdRover, Bike Barn, Westech Recycling, and GreenBuild. We also had a composting booth, an e-waste collection, an electric car, snow cones, and a dunk tank to spice things up a little bit. These are all in the video here http://vimeo.com/4472871.

For even more information, please visit my website, michaelwsilverman.com/blog/tag/earth-day.
Also, feel free to check out pcds.org.
Thanks for looking!
Be sure to check out the video tour I made here

Solar Golf Cart Charging Station Photos (By Me)

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:16:05 GMT

Paul McCartney at Coachella 2009

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:02:26 GMT

Paul McCartney. What can I say, if you have never seen him, you need to. Right now. Go out and find his next tour location. He is a living legend and he gave a spectacular concert. I had seen him once before in Arizona, but this was something else. He went for almost an hour past his time limit, and he was having a great time.

Best Of Peru

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:49:00 GMT

Renewable Energy World Conference 2010

photo@michaelsilverman.net (Michael Silverman) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:02:15 GMT

Here are some of the pictures of the Renewable Energy World Conference 2010 in Austin, Texas that I attended courtesy of the Stanford Wind and Energy Project (SWEP). You can find more information about the conference here and more info about SWEP right here. It was a fantastic experience and I learned a great deal. You can check out my blog posts on the conference here.