For a while now, my good friend Kerry Garrison (of Camera Dojo) and I have been working in concert with Nations Photo Lab to build a new interface up at their website for a learning resource guide, which will be serving up free monthly webinars! With both myself and Kerry Garrison as hosts, we launched our first webinar yesterday with a sellout crowd of 100 people in attendance! It was a lot of fun as we tackled several subjects relating to Lightroom and how to process your images. I took on creative crop overlays and ND filters while Kerry handled the portrait retouching aspects of Lightroom.
The Live Learning Lab
Our schedule is the second Wednesday of every month so another will be forthcoming here in a few weeks for February. We’ll be covering a lot more than Lightroom, including Photoshop, probably some photography composition techniques, and much much more. We’re working on a guest host schedule too, so it’s worth checking out. There’s no gimmicks, no fuss, no muss – just a way for the group to collectively give back to the entire community! Each webinar is about an hour long (our first went about 15 minutes over), and they will all be accessible via instant archives immediately following the webinar too. It’s great to view live because you can ask questions as you think of them, but if your schedule doesn’t permit, the archives will be available for your enjoyment too!
Do you like New Year’s Resolutions? I don’t. We always make vague references to “become better with portrait work” or to “improve my flash techniques”. There are countless others of course, but you likely get the idea – resolutions are often too vague. Even when it comes to the classic ones of “lose weight” and “eat better”. The problem lies in the inherent nature of such resolve.
While the effort and idea are splendid – they are vague by definition and thus, difficult to define success in achievement. How would you define “better” or “improve”? There is also no accountability when these statements are made. So, when making resolutions from a photographers point of view, it helps to define your resolutions clearly, and to share those resolves with others, so as to make yourself accountable.
My goals? Funny you should ask, because I have the same goal I made last year – to shoot at least one project each and every month. And I did it! Here’s the project I did for each month:
The goal for the year was to shoot more and write less. While I still plodded away at the blog in an effort to provide continued content for the readers here (and I hope you enjoyed 2010)…more effort went into advancing my own photography library in 2010. The stakes are raised for 2011 though. As you may have noticed, some of the “shoots” weren’t as planned or dedicated photo shoots as others. The Pumpkin Patch outing was definitely a multi-functioned event!
So, for 2011 – my goal is to go on an outing with photography as the primary focus! And, here I am happy to report that the month of January for 2011 has already been covered with a snowmobile outing on January 1st!
It was indeed quite the outing, and I learned quite a bit about shooting in extreme cold weather. More to come on that as I put together the assembly for publication later this week. Another shoot might be forthcoming on the same vein, so more is also pending there as well.
Pretty exciting (although my wallet is nervous!) for 2011. Sort of a photo/travel/expedition blog post will be something to look for each month during the upcoming year! If you have any places in the area (i.e. Colorado/Wyoming/etc.) that you would like to see me capture, say the word so I can take it into consideration sooner rather than later. I’ve got some irons in the fire already scheduled for certain points during the year, but nothing affirmative as of yet.
What about everyone else? Have you made any concrete resolutions? Do share them in the comments or via email – an upcoming podcast will likely take some of your thoughts, comments, and feedback into consideration! Happy New Year all and keep on shooting!
A special thanks and Merry Christmas wishes to everyone who has been so supportive of the blog, podcast, and everything through 2010! It’s been a wonderful year, and it would not have been so without all of your support. Throughout the weekend, enjoy free downloads of any of the ebooks (Shutters and Apertures, 49 Photo Tips, Vol 1 and 49 Photo Tips, Vol. 2) using discount code: CHRISTMAS at the online store! (Click the graphic below to go directly!)
Merry Christmas!
I’ll be back next year with more photo goodness, and plenty to come for 2011! Thank you again, and enjoy the holiday season! (Which means get out and shoot with that new camera/lens/flash/etc.!)
As you may recall from yesterday’s post, I did not get the entire solstice eclipse from beginning to end due to cloud cover. But, from the halfway point forward, the clouds cleared and I was able to get some adequate coverage. After wrestling both mentally and processor-ily with the amount of images (98) and trying to figure out a good way to present the series, I decided on the spiral approach…
2010 Winter Solar Eclipse
What kinds of shots did you get? How are you presenting them? I debated on a video showing the movement across the sky, but that was very labor intensive, so decided on the above. Thoughts, comments, feedback? Share your shots too!
The first lunar eclipse to occur on the winter solstice occurred. It’s the first time it’s happened in 600 years…and apparently won’t happen again for another 400 years. I had two strokes of luck with this amazing astronomical event:
#1 – the path of the moon tracked almost directly over my house! Literally! I took maybe ten steps out my front door, and there it was, beautifully tracking across the sky.
#2 – Let me re-phrase that…beautifully tracking across the cloudy sky.
At first it was just a few wisps…I started to capture a few shots at 10. You know, to sort of document the before, during, and after. But, by 10:30 the wisps were sticky patches of cloud cover. By 11, even my naked eye could not discern any detail anymore. It was very disappointing…
So, I put the camera away, began this post and went back out to glance at the sky for a bit before bed. And as the first yawn escaped my tired body, sure enough, the clouds began to peel away. At the halfway point, I finally grumbingly ran inside, bundled up, and grabbed the camera/tripod set which were already in place. I’ve not done much post production on these, but here’s a select few:
I am sure others will get wonderful views, and the folks at NASA, Roswell, SETI, and all the others will document it quite nicely for the rest of us. But…it’s just not the same as viewing it in real time. When all was said and done, I was glad I stayed up to watch it. Not only did I end up getting some nice shots, but I got to see almost the whole thing before heading off to bed.
What about others? Did anyone else stay up to watch it? I’ll bet some pretty cool time lapse productions come out of this! Share your own thoughts and perspectives in the comments. Would love to hear from you! Happy shooting, and I’ll likely have a full set posted tomorrow.
Editor Note: Episode #53 of the podcast is ready for your holiday listening enjoyment! This should have gone out last week, so my apologies. System problems with the post production delayed the publication, but better late than never is my motto! Anyway, enjoy!
Many notable photographers have spoken and alluded to this idea of shooting photography with passion. The idea is to approach photography with your creative voice, and a vision of what it is you want to accomplish. So, what do you do when the voice is silent, or the vision is blinded? Re-igniting the passion for photography is something we all face, and while we can all agree that shooting with passion is always a good thing, the question really is how to achieve that intangible in your work. Tune in to the latest podcast here with Andie Smith as we broach the subject head on.
We also tackle some really engaging listener questions, so be sure to listen in – yours may be answered!
After some serious burning of the night oil, I’ve got the last Newsletter of the year ready for release – if you want to get it, the push goes out at 10:30am eastern time. This means subscribers will also get a sneak peak of the final 5 items on the 25 for $50 gift guide list for 2010. That final list will be released here on the blog tomorrow with full photos and write-ups of each, so if you miss the newsletter, be sure to stop in on Wed. for that.
The final podcast for 2010 is recorded and in the gates, ready to be run on Thursday too, so this is going to be a week with lots of multimedia and distributions for everyone to download and enjoy as we head into the holiday season. On that note, I’ll be enjoying the rest of this week off (so no blog post on Friday), and hopefully get the rest of my own family and friends shopping completed in short order. What is it – ten shopping days left? If you’ve not started yet, time’s a wastin!
And, oh yeah, one last item to note…Lightroom has had it’s latest update to 3.3, and Camera Raw (for CS5 users) to 6.5! You can grab the downloads here for Lightroom, and on the Raw Converter the downloads are Windows and Mac specific.
So, on that note, I am going to let the powers of scheduled posts and media distribution do their work while I catch up on a few Z’s and other things! I will check in periodically for comments, questions, and other feedback items, but for the rest of the week, this baby’s on auto-pilot! Happy shooting, and we’ll see you next week…..unless of course anyone has any questionszzzzzzzzzzzzzzz?
Did you meet your goals in 2010 photographically speaking? It’s an interesting question, especially for me because as I started to move in toward the holidays, with a new job ramping up, had felt as though work in the photography arena had stagnated for me to a degree. It really was not the case actually – and the back story here is what is important. None of us are an island – we all need help to both keep ourselves motivated, and to keep the fires and energies burning. Sometimes we recharge from a break other times it’s from a good kick in the…well, you get the idea!
The Back Story
Colleagues, mentors, tutors, and others in the field can be a hugely helpful influence, and one sage such associate recently told me to shoot more and talk less. The whole idea of “shut up and shoot” had come back to haunt me! This is advice I give to others when they approach me – how dare he suggest that. But then I considered…and in all honesty, the last month or so of photo production had not been as productive as I had wished. I had excuses of the new job, sure…but the bottom line was that my colleague was right! I needed to get out and shoot more! So I did just that. In doing so, I got a few good decent photos together, including one for the desktop download series…
Then, another industry association (although I use that term lightly), is none other than Mr. David DuChemin. You may recall he paid a visit to the podcast a while back, and occasionally we have had a few exchanges on Twitter, but it’s definitely a one-sided relationship where I learn from him and not vice-versa! 🙂 (There I go again with the self-deprecation – someone needs to shock me so I stop doing that!) Anyway, he reminded me that the whole point of our craft is to share our vision and work with others. It came through a Twitter exchange when I was giving a compliment to his work by also using my well-known tactic of self-deprecation. It stuck with me so much, that I’d rather just share his exact words:
Sage Advice from David DuChemin
– and that is exactly what I had not been doing photographically. Oh sure, test shots from lens reviews, a few sample photos here and there…but nothing really from the inner core that had apparently been needing some voice. So, with that I decided to go ahead full force – not only with capturing more images, but completing the last of the Desktop Downloads for the year!
The 2010 Desktop Downloads
What’s that? You don’t know about the Desktop Downloads? Of course not, because I had been neglecting to share the information with everyone on the regular monthly basis that a new photo for inspiration and enjoyment had been uploaded. For many months of the year, I was capturing photos and content to share, and not sharing it! The legwork behind it was lost in the business. So, I owe the audience an apology and 12 downloads for the year! No worries though – you know why? Because I met my goal for the year! In going back through each month for the image I had selected, I realized that this was also tied to a “project” I gave myself for 2010 – to shoot more often, and take on more projects. The goal was one a month, and I did it! With my personal success finally realized, it’s high time to share that success with everyone else. For the monthly desktop image for December, you can get click the appropriate link and download for your own inspiration and enjoyment!
To get the rest, simply hit the Downloads page and save for your own desktop wallpaper or screen saver as you prefer… As an aside, there are a couple months I had done the download as a calendar, thinking it would be more functional (May and June), but after toying with the idea for 2 months, decided it detracted too much from the image for my tastes (all due respect to Jeffrey Friedl and his PS plugin that helped produce those months though.). Nevertheless, with the year far from over (most of December is left for us), I can officially say I met my goal for the year with 12 photo projects. Already, I’ve shot nearly 20% more than I did last year, because of directed projects and diligence. Have you met yours? There’s still time, so get out there and shoot! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow…
Editor Note: (Who am I kidding, that’s still me…) I know the Monthly Newsletter is still not out as promised and I expect that to be out tomorrow as well, so if you’d like to still sign up for that, there’s still time!
From the title, you likely correctly guessed that with the end of November comes the end of a monthly contest cycle. The prize for November is a pack of the fabulous Polar Pearl Metallic Paper from the generous folks over at Red River Paper! Continue reading “And the November Winner is…”→
The tryptophan hasn’t quite kicked in yet, and your afternoon football game needs a break. Stretch those legs and surf along to one of these fine buys – Black Friday or any day! Continue reading “25 Gift Ideas for 2010 – Part 3”→
