Category: competition

You can win a Drobo!

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That’s right – a drobo is up for grabs.  For those that already tune in to This Week In Photography, hosted by Scott Bourne, you probably already know about this, but he and his crew of friends (Steve Simon, Frederick Van Johnson and Ron Brinkmann) host a photo contest about once a quarter.  The goal of the contest is to get you out shooting with a theme in mind.  Well, this month, in order to motivate people they are also including a Drobo for some lucky participant.  So, how do you get in on the action?

  • Well, first, go to Photrade and set up a free account.
  • Then, join the TWIP Photo Contest
  • Finally, upload your favorite photo (that fits with the theme).

That’s it!  Three easy steps to winning a Drobo!  As luck would have it, I just happen to have a link to Photrade here at CanonBlogger.  Simply click on the picture over to your right to get over to Photrade, where you can register and then upload your own entry (or if you run out of time, you can just vote for mine! 🙂 )

In any case, it’s a great prize, and also an excellent backup solution for anyone from a beginner to a serious photographer as the scalability of it rocks!  You can learn more about Drobo here.

Don’t forget, for those RSS readers out there.  Stop over to the blog to see the latest poll and contribute.  It’s more fun and revealing when we all throw our 2¢ in the mix!  Happy shooting, have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!

The 40D versus the XT

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40d versus XT

We are now in day 5 of the first ever photo contest from Canon Blogger, so keep thinking freedom as you point that lens – it could win you cold hard cash!  Check out the details from the post of July 3rd, here. In new news, I got a good long weekend with family to shoot with the 40D, and after some pretty extensive shooting (over 1500 shots in 48 hours), I’ve had a chance to get at least a good handle on the basics of the 40D.  Granted I do not have the minutia of it down pat like on the XT, but I suspect that will only come with more time behind the lens.

Anyway, I thought now might be as good a time as ever to give you the lowdown on my thoughts of the 40D as they compare to the XT.  It was definitely worth the upgrade!  I put together a short video showing a comparison of some of the benefits of the 40D over the XT, as well as one rather disappointing thing.  I should be back next week with a regular Photoshop tip – just the last few weeks have been rather crazy with prepping the house to be “show ready”.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the 40D versus XT home video I recorded earlier today.  Enjoy and we’l see you tomorrow with the latest edition of “What’s This?”.  Happy shooting and watch those apertures!

The Beauty of Bokeh

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Happy Monday to all – before getting into this week’s first post, I’d like to take a moment and remind everone of the NEW CONTEST that CB has started.  The theme is Photograph Freedom, and there are prizes to be had.  More details can be found on the post from 7-3, linked here.

On to new news, I was thinking about subjects over the course of the weekend that could serve as useful material for fellow photographers and aspiring photographers that has not seen much coverage lately (no sense in repeating everything that everyone else has already said 10 different ways, right?).  I got to thinking about everything that makes for capturing great images, and one aspect that contributes (or detracts from) that I’ve not seen much attention on lately is that of bokeh.  So, in the spirit of putting out new and original (as well as useful) content, I did a bit of research over the weekend, and have put together an article on The Beauty of Bokeh. Any who would like to read this initial version are welcome to download the PDF file attached to this post.

In closing for Monday, I’d like to leave it to the readers out there:  what are your thoughts on the quality and nature of bokeh?  Do you clean up your bokeh or do you like the effect it has on images?  What types of bokeh appeal to you and what do you find not as appealing?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

What’s This: Week 4

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Now in it’s last installment for the month of June, “What’s This?” has become the most popular subject for the blog. Gary correctly guessed that last week’s What’s This was a shower head, so props, kudos, and congrats to Gary! Let’s see if someone else can mount a challenge this week. Here we go (and no more hints)…this week’s What’s This is:

What's This? - Week 4

Good luck to everyone!  If the fun continues, I may be able to start offering prizes too (depends on whether any vendor would be interested in sponsoring the “What’s This Weekly”…so, Canon, Adobe, USRobotics, Apple, Microsoft, Joe’s Tire Shop…anyone interested? 🙂

Just kidding – this is all just for fun, so there’s not any prizes, just bragging rights, and hopefully a way to provide creative spark and motivation to look at things differently! 🙂

In the web news this week, just a couple things that may be of interest:

  • ProPhotoLife has another video out on studio product lighting – 10 minutes well spent!
  • TWIP does a video podcast on lighting a model in studio – also about 10 minutes…
  • Digital Photography School has a 6-tip session on reducing camera shake – about a 3 minute read if you include the comments
  • Tim’s Digital Darkroom via  a connection over at Hyperphocal has some very cool shots of a light bulb shattering (scroll down)…1-2 minutes depending on what else you may find of interest
  • Naturally, Hyperphocal gets a nod too, not only because of the great articles they have there, but also because I have the “Cleaning your Gear” posted as an article there from yesterday – stop over and read their other articles – the one for today on Inkjets versus Dye Sub printers was very educational for me!

Altogether, about 30 minutes of stuff, so if you have half an hour to spare – take some time and visit these resources as they all have some really good content.  In the meantime, feel free to share other links to resources in the comments (as well as guess at this week’s edition of What’s This”).  Happy shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you back here on Thursday!

Monday Morning Travel Recap

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Well, the weekend was a cornucopa of Denver tourism. We left SC at the not-so-bright hour of 5am and arrived in Denver by 10. That gave us time to make the last tour of Invesco Field. As a dyed-in-the-wool Bronco fan since pretty much as long as I can remember, this was the epitome of the entire 7 day trip. Needless to say, my camera pretty much clicked non-stop for the entire visit. I’ll share some shots later this week when I can get some time to work a few up.

Yesterday we visited the Celestial Seasonings tea factory. After Invesco I owed my wife that, but I have to say it turned out to be much more interesting than I would have thought. No cameras allowed in there, and just as well – the powder from the herbs and roots and spices in the air sometimes made my eyes water. If you’re ever near the Boulder area, I would highly recommend a tour – it was free and well worth the time.

Back to the real world of photography Continue reading “Monday Morning Travel Recap” →

Another Wednesday Walk around the Web

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I mentioned it in the latest video podcast, but it also bears mentioning that Popular Photography’s annual Photo Wizard  contest is now underway.  Visit the contest page here for all the info and to download the images for compositing.  Good luck to all.  In other web news, did anyone else read about Apple’s latest update to Aperture 2.0?  Sounds like they are trying to compete with Adobe Lightroom – over 100 new features including one called Recover Slider…hmmm.

Other fun and inspiring sites I saw in the past few days:

  • Joe McNally’s blog – a little blurb about his book that is rocketing up the charts at Amazon.
  • Moose Peterson’s blog – always a great source of knowledge and inspiration
  • PhotoWalkPro – a great idea, and keep it in mind – they may take it on the road to a city near you!  Either that or schedule your own (Charleston SC did here)
  • JPG Magazine is always something I mean to get, read, and even submit work to.  Here’s a link to their site for more photography fun.

Don’t forget, the tutorial is still available, the poll is still going on, and I’m always excited about comments, feedback and ideas! 🙂

Thursday’s Thoughts

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Wit the sidebar poll continuing to generate some increasing preferences toward PS CS3, I can’t help but wonder why more are not adopting LR as an alternative. My guess is that it has something to do with familiarity of the interface, as well as the support for dual monitors, and the added benefits of layers and filters. I’ve also heard from a few that profiling papers using LR is more challenging as well.

From this I am thinking that it may have been a little counterintuitive for Adobe to launch not one, not two, but three new software lines that in essence are competing with one another for market share. While I can see the merits of appealing to a [b]wider[/b] market share with a multi-faceted approach, I can also see some downsides. For those on a budget it seems clear that LR is the way to go, but with CS3 and CS3 extended, and the myriad of ways to obtain the software at serious discounts, I can’t help but wonder why LR would still be an option. I saw an academic price for CS3 extended recently at [b][i]under[/i][/b] $300! That’s within $100 of Lightroom!!! For me it’s a no-brainer, and I will definitely make the move to the Extended version after the holidays.

It does seem though that in using this multi-faceted approach, Adobe is appealing to a wider range of shooters. The “other” category seems rather low, which tells me people are not only choosing an Adobe solution for their work flow, but that they are also moving toward a dedicated solution that is geared towards their goals. I kind of feel bad for the competition as it seems with this approac, Adobe is goig to become the sole provider of photo editing software (that can be taken seriously anyway). That brings anti-monopoly issues into play and I can’t help but wonder if Adobe had considered this in their long-term strategizing….

In other news, the Photoshop Guys over at NAPP and Kelby Training have announced a whole new online training system. Now, instead of paying per class, you pay fur usage of the training resources, much like Lynda.com Some pretty big names in the photo education field are hopping on the coattails of Scott Kelby and his ever-rising presence in the training environment. Kudos to them and best of luck. Feel free to stop over at the NAPP site for more info as they will likely pimp that heavily for the next few months. Nothing wrong with self-promotion, and these guys definitely have it down to an art form. Anyone wanting to monetize their photo presence should take a hint from the methods they’re using over at NAPP and follow the leader (anyone else remembering the Honda commercials?)…congrats to the NAPP crew, and watch out Lynda.com!

Another totally random thought I’d had recently was on the layout and purpose of Canon Blogger.  As I’ve spent the vast majority of my posts either addressing industry news, events, information, and presenting tutorials, tips and tricks, that Canon Blogger could also use a face of just photos.  So….I started a blog over at the blogspot domain.  Canon Blogger was taken so, I had to take the next-best thing:  CanonBlogger1.  So…for a view of my photoblog (or as close to a photo blog as I dare to go), stop over to that page:  Canon Blogger’s photo posts to enjoy some of my digital photos, all taken from my Rebel XT.  (Some day, the elusive 40D will be within my grasp…with fellow photogs and blogers as my witnesses, I promise that will happen….when I can’t say, but my suspicion is shortly after the X-Mas tree comes down! 😀

Last but not least, it seems the latest Tutorial from thursday is going to garner a new record number of site visits based on my analytics metrics as of right now, so thanks to all who have stopped in to view the tutorial. It’s down a couple posts by now, but feel free to visit the flash page from here: Faded Antique Effects

My wife and I are sitting in an airport in Charleston SC waiting for our flight to Ohio for the holidays, so I might not post again until after Christmas. I have a feeling I will get an opportunity, but just in case, let me take a moment to be specifically and intentionally non-PC and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

That’s all for today. Anyone that would like to share their comments/replies/thoughts from todays post is encouraged and welcome to share in the comments section below, or to email me directly. My addres, as always, is jason <AT> canonblogger <DOT> com. Happy shooting, and have a good afternoon – get that shopping done!

Top Five Reasons I am getting the Canon 40D

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It wouldn’t be a year in photography without at least one of the Big Boys of photography world (those boys being Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Pentax) announcing some new piece of equipment that sets everyone off, racing to give their money away so they can have the “latest and greatest” that money can buy. As a technology buff, I am particularly susceptible to this tendency, so I always have to take a step back and look at my current setup, as well as the rest of the options available before I can pull the trigger (or trip the shutter, since we’re using “photo speak” right now).

So…I set out to look at the major features in the EOS line since that’s where my lenses are. Within my price range (under $1500) are the XTi, 30D, and 40D. I also included the 20D in my comparison because even though it’s been discontinued, it still is available through online auctions and various community forums for sale, and the spec sheet is readily available online (I used the specs from B&H). Given the number of options, even within the Canon line, I had to set some minimum. So, I told myself that in order to make it worth the expense, I would need to see at least 5 major features/reasons in order to justify the purchase. I defined a “major” feature/reason as something that either represented more than a 15% increase in numerical value, or a feature that was completely lacking in my current setup.

With my benchmarks set, and my expectations in place, I put together the following chart for the consumer/entry pro level EOS bodies that Canon offers:

chart

The benchmarks indicated the following results:
• XTi – 2 features/reasons: Discarded
• 20D – 3 features/reasons: Discarded
• 30D – 5 features/reasons: Candidate
• 40D – 8 features/reasons: Candidate

With two pretty clear favorites, I looked at the differences between the two, and the 40D does seem to have enough of a distinction (3 features) from the 30D to justify the increased expense (Mega Pixels, screen size, and Frames/sec). What also tipped the scales for me in my decision was that since I don’t buy new bodies as regularly as some, as there have been 3 new releases since my last purchase. That being the case, I will probably be better served by getting the newest one so that it can last as long as my XT has (3 years).

For those with other Canon bodies, a similar system could be used to determine whether an upgrade is justified, depending on what you are looking for. For those with Nikon bodies looking to upgrade, the decision-making process should likely be weighed within your own DSLR system, but the principles used above could be applied equally there as well. As for Olympus, Pentax, and Sony – what are you guys smiling at? (Something tells me they will be following the lead of Canon and Nikon but at lower price points down the road…)

Canon’s Competition…

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Although this is primarily a venue for discussing Canon gear, since it is also about photography news, in the interests of full disclosure, it only seems fair to at least acknowledge the competition.  Apparently, Nikon has responded to the Canon release with their own new DSLR cameras.  Whereas Canon has the 1Ds Mark III and the 40D, the Nikon has announced the release of their competitive bodies, the D3 and the D300.  The Online Photographer and DPReview have reviews and information on the new product lines.  For those interested in more info, each venue is hyperlinked for your convenience.

From a personal perspective on the matter – it seems more and more the two largest market share holders are losing something of their signature and recognition by having the confluence of naming conventions.  While I understand that the “D” is for digital, and there is no getting around the English language in that regard, one can easily see how the average consumer could become very confused very quickly.  Sure, one has the “d” before the numbering system, and the other has the “d” after, but when both vendors have a “40” series, the possibilities for confusion between a 40D and a D40 seem just obvious to me.

While I realize it’s an exercise in futility as both product lines were established well before my entry into the field, and will likely continue long after my ashes are scattered – I can’t help but wonder how much easier it would be to identify Canon and Nikon brands with a naming convention along the lines of CD and ND respectively.  Of course some might confuse this with the abbreviations for the Congo Democratic Republic and New Delhi or something like that – the odds are minimal at best.  Okay, that’s enough for my Thursday rant. Now for the Thursday apologies:  Due entirely to laziness factors that were totally within my control, the previously promised podcast that looks at the Canon EOS 40D was not recorded for release yesterday as my initial post had suggested.  Boy, I’m off to a great start here, eh?  Okay, well, that’s the joy of being a one-man operation (again):  no one to blame but yourself.  I accept full responsibility and will forewarn any of the probably three or four people that have discovered the blog thus far that I have several previously scheduled obligations today, tomorrow, and Saturday that will require my presence, so it looks like the promised podcast will not be delivered until Sunday.  So…look for the podcast on your feeds Sunday night, and download to your music player for Monday morning enjoyment… I will likely stop in with random bits of news between now and Sunday, but that’s the latest on the elusive podcast front.