Wow – Wednesday went fast!

Wow…a long day at work, a short dinner, and a few diversions, now it’s 9:30 and the only “news” that I know of is that Canon released a firmware update for 2 cameras in the line – the 5D and the 30D.  News hit the wire yesterday, and there’s a pretty good synopsis of it at the Adorama site, along with links to grab the updates.  Check it out here:  Canon Firmware Updates

In other news, today it seems Macworld got the bead on a new X-Rite product, called the Colormunki Photo

I am sure other news is out there to be had, but I’ve still got a frog in my throat, so will have to assume y’all know the news reels for the day.  Since it’s kind of a skimpy web gem Wednesday, here’s a POTD I contributed to a thread over at the NAPP forums, theme of the thread:  BOATS

Cypress Gardens, SC

Enjoy the break from the weekly post-news.  We’ll catch up more tomorrow.  As always, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Adding Blur – and some more Photo Walk News

Sometimes, no matter how careful you are with your setup, the in-camera limitations simply cannot compensate for a vision you have, whether it be the color range of an image, its tonal range, or even the depth of field you want to achieve. A perfect example of this was posted in our regional clubs photo site www.scphotogs.com last week. I shared a technique for adding blur to an image. While normally you wouldn’t think blur is something you want to add, as intuitively we are trained to think of images as sharp and crisp subject matter that is in focus. blur is something that can really enhance an image. I shared a technique I learned with the photog-friend, and in light of the tip, decided it would make a good tutorial as well. Check out the link for it at the end of this post. Here’s the web-version of the finished product, and a link to Jon’s photo site if you’d like to see more of his work.

jobblog.jpg

Don’t forget to vote on the poll to the right, asking how many cameras are in your house? We’re still a long way from the 100 mark, so it’ll be staying up for a while…unless we start “rocking the [proverbial] boat”. Another thing I always like to remind people about is that I am offering up some of my own imagery for sale on the artist site, Redbubble. Click the link to visit my profile and see the images I have for sale (at a steal too – just wanted to share a few with the community!) Lest we not forget, B&H is also the place where pretty much everyone gets everything photography-related, so if you visit their site, use one of the banners here. It’s the same price to you on all gear but B&H does help off-set the hosting expenses with each purchase made through these links, so help a fellow photog out! 🙂 Continue reading “Adding Blur – and some more Photo Walk News”

Monday Morning Meltdown

As a part of our daily routine, my wife and I take our dog for a walk every day of the week. Usually we both go, but if I am busy, or she is, the other will take the dog out so she gets her daily exercise. (The vet told us the dog was a tad on the heavy side – we just think she’s curvy!) Well, due to the time change, the sun was just coming down to the golden hours, so I couldn’t help but grab the camera and take it along in case some chance opportunity came up to get some good pictures of the dog. She’s a good girl, but she’s become very much like my wife in that they both look away (or flip me a particular finger or paw)) when I point the lens at them. Continue reading “Monday Morning Meltdown”

The Canon ST-E2

As a follow-up to my post from yesterday, let me back up a little and set the stage for a multi-faceted question, in the hope that perhaps someone will know some of (or ideally all of) the answers. Recently I purchased an ST-E2 from Canon which allows you to trigger a flash without cables or wires. It uses a radio signal an infra-red signal and when mounted on your camera, pressing the shutter, trips the sensor in the ST-E2 which in turn fires the flash. This ST-E2 uses a fairly common battery type, the 2CR5, and is readily available through any number of vendors. Continue reading “The Canon ST-E2”

Thursday Thoughts

Well, I am still not back to 100% but am heading to bead early tonight.  Just a short thought on rechargeable batteries.  I bought some Energizer 2500 NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) AA’s for my 550 EX last fall when I bought the flash.  Having recently acquired an ST-E2, I was excited to put it to use.  It worked for a while, and then died rather quickly.  Thinking it was the batteries, I recharged them last night and tried again this evening with very little success (one flash then kaput.) Continue reading “Thursday Thoughts”

Wednesday Woes

Okay all, a tutorial just isn’t gonna happen this week…feeling really exhausted today…I think I am coming down with something.  I’ve got a few things going on tomorrow, Friday is booked up as is Saturday, so it’s really unlikely I’ll get that tutorial out I’ve been promising.  So, for the interim, I’ve bumped up the schedule on some articles I’ve been throwing together.

Today, it’s a short essay on a trend I saw for a while in lost of photo communities and forums debating the validity of high res LCD screens on SLR’s.

What happened in the photo world today?  Couldn’t tell you…anyone have any fun/interesting/noteworthy news they want to share…add it to the comments and help a guy out who’s apparently got some sort of bug he can’t shake.  Although I suspect it’s related to successive days of only 3-4 hours sleep and running non-stop.   After working from 5am-3pm, I was off to a Dr. appt, then dinner with the wife, then off to a photo club meeting and it’s now 11:45pm.  I have to be back at work at 5am – maybe I can get 4.5 hours sleep tonight…*grin*

Happy shooting though and keep those apertures tight! 😉

Tuesday Troubles

Sorry all, the trip out west must have done a number on me because I was out as soon as I got home from work today.  In trying to muster up the energy to record, produce, and output a tutorial today, I just could not find it in me.  So, rather than deliver less than meaningful content, I’ll call this a no blog Tuesday and hopefully come out firing on all cylinders tomorrow.  Happy shooting and keep them apertures in check!

Monday Evening Musings

The routine and time change caught me ff guard this morning so I didn’t get a chance to poke my head online and make a post for the day.  So, a little late, here’s an article I had put together on the basics of shutter speeds and apertures a short time ago.  Hopefully a fresh spin on the basics of how they work.  More tomorrow.  Keep on clicking those shutters, and watch the apertures (how appropos!)!

Westward Ho!

On this last full day of our travels through Colorado and Arizona, I must say there is something about the South and Southwest.  In Denver the mountains were as breath-taking as I remembered.  The sunshine, the skyline, and everything about it was just amazing.  The same could also be said of Arizona with its clean fresh air, the beauty of the landscape, and the sheer vastness of the scenery.  It revealed to me that the West has been and always will be in my blood.  As we endeavor to find career paths that take us to our goal of Colorado, we’ll have to enjoy it from the pictures I have taken while on vacation.  I’ll share a few of these at the end of this post. Continue reading “Westward Ho!”

Wednesday news and info – lots about light

Back into the cockpit today for the typical Wednesday news and information…

In the interests of full disclosure, and sharing news across the photography spectrum, there is a full review out for the Nikon D60, which is the Nikon equivalent of the Canon Rebel XTi – the entry level SLR for each vendor.  They seem pretty happy with it overall.  Check the review out here, and thanks to the Digital Photography Show for pointing me there.

Strobist offers some sage advise today on it’s most recent post, where David reminds us to not think of lighting as the be-all, end-all, but to use it as a tool for accomplishing a goal or to solve a problem.   Always a good read, but particularly useful for me since I have a model shoot coming up soon, where I hope to take this advice to heart.  Stop over and read the latest when you have some time.

Another useful lighting scenario played out over at Scott Kelby’s blog the past few days.  Scott had a shot set up and a couple of us asked to see the setup, and he shared that today.  Pretty useful info and further solidifies the idea that moving lighting of camera and diffusing it is the ideal route in any shoot setup.  I guess that means I need to get a diffuser too.  The gear quest never ends…*sigh*

In a little self-pimping, I’ve got a new poll up – how many cameras do you own.  Forget about SLR versus P&S versus medium format, wide format, film, working, non-working, or any other caveats.  Grand total, all-in, how many cameras do you currently own?  I’ll reserve guesses on results this time as in the past I’ve been famously wrong.  Also, stop over and view some of the photos I’ve put up for sale on Redbubble!

Here’s a short slideshow of some of what’s available:

Some of my photos for sale

Until tomorrow, happy shooting and watch those apertures.