About mikebaird / Mike Baird  

A shortcut to my Flickr photostream is flickr.bairdphotos.com
My Photo Gateway bairdphotos.com
Our Photomorobay Gateway to the photomorrobay Yahoo! Group and photomorrobay Flickr Group/pool
My personal site mikebaird.com
A business incubator firstonline.com
Morro Bay, CA pro-bono community site morro-bay.com
Some of my favorite photos DigitalChocolate.org
My book "Engineering Your Start-up" eysu.org
A Yahoo! Group for Morro Bay, CA photographers photomorrobay.com
A list of many of my web sites baird.ws
An older site that had some of my better photos free for non-profit use stealthispicture.com
mike [at} mikebaird d o t com

Michael "Mike" L. Baird is an avid amateur photographer, and a retired Silicon Valley Internet Entrepreneur, now living in Morro Bay on the Central Coast of California, where he edits the community service site morro-bay.com. Mike has a PhD in Computer Science, and an MBA, and was the first VP of Engineering of the successful $7 billion ask.com start-up, and is author of the 16-year best-selling entrepreneurship book entitled “"Engineering Your Start-up: A Guide for the High-Tech Entrepreneur" ( eysu.org ). As a volunteer docent for CA State Parks slodocents.org since 2001, he has specialized in nature and wildlife photography along the California Central Coast. bairdphotos.com is his gateway to over a dozen of his various photo-related sites. Mike is a Canon equipment enthusiast, and specializes in mastering technical aspects of nature photography, including long-focal-length telephotography, and optimization of imagery using post-processing environments such as Lightroom and Photoshop CS3, etc. Howto.dchoc.org contains Mike’s online version of his Lulu booklet LuLu.com/mikebaird entitled “San Luis Obispo County California Nature Photographers -- Their Works and Techniques: Interviews with local nature photographers about how they take such great photos.” Mike enjoys interacting with his readers – e-mail Mike Baird via mike [at} mikebaird d o t com

Brief bio for 2010 Morro Bay Annual Winter Bird Festival (rev. 23 July 2009a): MIKE BAIRD, Morro Bay, CA, State Park Docent since 2001, leads Digital Photowalks photomorrobay.com. A PhD Computer Scientist with MBA , retired from ask.com, and author of Engineering Your Start-up eysu.org. Editor of morro-bay.com. Prolific local photographer, publishes at bairdphotos.com, birdsofmorrobay.com, and flickr.com/people/mikebaird/, where his images have been viewed 2 million times, and he is an active social network leader.



If you are using one of my photos under a Creative Common license (most are licensed for use with attribution), please attribute the photo in one of the ways as follows (listed in order of preference):
Michael "Mike" L. Baird, flickr.bairdphotos.com {link text and image to the respective image comment and overview page on Flickr} or
Mike Baird, flickr.bairdphotos.com or if you have very limited space
flickr.bairdphotos.com
and if purposed online, please link your text and image to my related Flickr image comment and overview page - I want viewers to know exactly where the source image you are using is located, not just the domain within which it is housed. This is the biggest failing of people who use my images.
Except for clearly identified derivative works, removal of my copyright notice or watermark by manipulation or cropping is not permitted.
I would appreciate a note via Flickr mail or directly to mike [at} mikebaird d o t com indicating which image was used (please include the URL to the framed image comment page - not just "your otter" or a link to a static farm .jpg). If appropriate I will add to the image description a link to your project. You are also encouraged to add a comment to the photo with links to its use by you, and add tags (labels) to further enhance its visibility. If you use my image(s) in a printed publication or video production, I'd love to get via postal mail a copy of the publication or tear sheets for my portfolio if practicable. Mail to Michael L. Baird, 2756 Indigo Circle, Morro Bay, CA 93442. USA. Life is short, and I get a kick out of seeing others enjoy my images in a responsible way. My motivation for freely sharing almost all of my photographs without compensation, and for almost any purpose, comes from my interest in contributing to my legacy, which I define as the bits I'll leave behind on the Internet. This can only be done by having a fair number of my images with attribution persist in perpetuity, through inclusion in a wide number of educational, wiki, archival, governmental, NGO, private, and corporate websites.
mike [at} mikebaird d o t com
Be sure to use the full-resolution versions available under "all sizes" for best reproduction (you may have to log in with a free Yahoo or Flickr ID to see all the options). If you are using my image(s) in a composite such as a slideshow, screen-saver, flash package, etc., it must be clearly evident which images are mine via watermarks and/or embedded/attached list of sources. It is not adequate to have a credits page elsewhere that states "some images are used from bairdphotos.com etc." This last point is especially relevant for for-profit uses of my images that are not purely non-profit, charitable, or educational in nature.
Paintings/Drawings: Artists are welcome to use my Creative Commons Attribution photos as well as a basis for a drawing or painting in exchange for attribution. If an image of your artwork based on my photo is displayed online, attribution should be as specified above and state for example, "partially based on a photo from Michael "Mike" L. Baird." The same note should be used in any printed description of the work. If you also post your paintings on Flickr it would be cool if you add a comment at my source photo to your version, and at your painting, linking the two together.
Advertising use (publicity rights): Unless otherwise noted, my Flickr photos of people do not have signed model releases. Advertising usage of my photos (e.g., in brochures, catalogs, print ads) is very different from editorial usage (e.g., in newspaper, magazines, books). Neither you, nor even I, can use my people photos in any form of advertising, especially if any people in the photo are recognizable and might be interpreted as endorsing a product, service, cause, candidate, etc.

People often ask how they can acquire a gallery quality print of one of my photos. Prints can be ordered in a variety of formats and framing options by clicking the "Prints & More" button above any image so licensed, to go to fulfillment at Imagekind. I earn no commissions there. If you want to make a totally optional related donation, you can click the PayPal donate button at bairdphotos.com/ for "Photo usage rights - photo by Michael "Mike" L. Baird bairdphotos.com" to mike [@} mikebaird d o t com -- For any amount you deem suitable.

View my most interesting photos here via Flickriver

My test Imagekind sales gallery is mikebaird.imagekind.com/

Equipment recommendation: I recommend a Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS USM Super Telephoto Lens for Canon SLR Cameras on a Wimberley Head II from tripodhead.com on a Gitzo GZGT5540LS Gitzo Series 5 tripod, Systematic Tele Studex 6 X Carbon Fiber 4 Section Tripod Legs with G-Lock, Maximum Load 55.0 lbs. Maximum Height 59.4 from adorama.com - I would not recommend anything less with the 600mm f/4 IS lens. mike [at] mikebaird d o t com bairdphotos.com flickr.bairdphotos.com
Q: What lightweight tripod can you recommend?
A: Gitzo GT1540 6X Carbon Fiber Series 1 G-Lock Mountaineer Tripod
Q: What heavy-duty highly portable monopod can you recommend?
A: Gitzo GM5561T 6X Carbon Fiber 6 Section Series 5 Traveler Monopod

How to vastly improve your Flickr browsing experience (reduce number of clicks by 10X) using Firefox (the only browser I use), Firefox Add-ons, and Greasemonkey Scripts. Download and install the Firefox Browser (which is much better than Internet Explorer) from www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/?from=getfirefox .
Add the Greasemonkey Firefox Add-on addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748 . (Add-ons extend Firefox, letting you personalize your browsing experience.) Go to userscripts.org/ - search there for "Flickr" or say "Flickr Exif" - sort by number of "installs" and you will find the most popular and useful scripts. Here are some I like to use currently... these are managed in Firefox under Tools > Greasemonkey > Manage User Scripts.
Experiment with what works for you. New and updated scripts are constantly being added. This list is current as of May 2008. Better Flickr 0.3, Flickr Groups Organiser,
Flickr Exif Info, Flickr Exif Decorator, Flickr image unblocker, Flickr Buddy Icon Reply, Flickr - Multi Group Sender, Flickr Rich Edit, Flickr Auto Page, Flickr Group Page Enhancer, Flickr Refer Comment, FlickrPM, Flickr Photostream Graphr, Flickr Contacts Organiser, Flickr MultiMailer.
FlickrDown (untested?) (download Groups...)
Flickr Original (untested?) (download original from thumbnail)
Saleen Flickr Downloader (rec'd by Kevin Cole)
Steeev's Flickr Projects contain the most valuable and comprehensive scripts of all - no contest!
Also make sure you have Exif Viewer by Alan Raskin

Check out my Flickr Galleries. Morro Bay Sunsets, etc.