Content – Page 10 – CanonBlogger

Just When You Get Caught Up…

February 3, 2009 Jason5 Comments

Life throws more at you! Today, I got word from the good folks over at Personal Life Media, that the web page is now set up and ready for porting the pre-existing podcasts from CB over for their hosting. Unfortunately, they can only take the audio, so video will have to remain here. It also means a naming convention change, so here’s the shows by blog post title that will be ported over, their existing Track # and their Future track #:

Noise Lighting and Links, Oh My!, #49 – will become Episode #1
Monday Morning Quarterback, #54 – will become #2
New Podcast is Up, #55 – will become Episode #3
Don’t Fear the Forums, #56 – Will become Episode #4
Nitty Gritty Details, #57 – Will become Episode #5
Photowalks and Software Cycles, #58 – will become Episode #6
Creative versus Communicative Process, #59 – will become Episode #7
Money, Socializing and Freebies, #60 – will become Episode #8
Cool Christmas Cards and other Candy, #61 – will become Episode#9
Food for Thought, #62 – will become Episode #10
The Final Broadcast of 2008, #63 – will become Episode #11
The Show Must Go On, #64 – will become Episode #12
The Meat is in the Maintenance, #65 – will become Episode #13
Three Competing Interests, #66 – will become Episode #14

I am in the process of porting the audio files, blog post materials, and links over to the new interface, so it may not show up completely yet. You know what they say about an ounce of prevention though… I’ll probably also make the above bullet points a dedicated reference page to refer to here on the blog for those that may want to see how the migration goes.

When things go live, I will make sure to cross-post here with the new URL, iTunes, and RSS feeds. Rest assured though, fellow photogs, CB will not be let go though as I will continue to make my regular posts here including photos, articles, text interviews, and other photo goodness. Thanks to all for your patience, and if you want to get a sneak peak of the new look of the show, you can peer through the fence here

While it may seem like there is a lot of work involved in this proces (and there is), in the long run it will be well worth it for everyone because the resulting show will have much better audio quality, and we’ll gain access to a wider distribution, which means sponsors, contests, and really cool product reviews. I may as well go ahead and spill the beans in the form of a teaser – so look for some upcoming professionals to give some insights on Lensbaby and the Composer! This also means discounts on purchases, and free give-aways too, so listeners can enjoy discounts, insights, and feedback from working professionals, enthusiasts, and many across the industry.

Three Competing Interests

February 2, 2009 Jason3 Comments

Episode #66 of the Canon Blogger Podcast Series (CBPS) is up and ready for download. In this weeks’ show:

The three competing interests of quality, quickness, and cost.
Is grey market gear a worthwhile alternative for decreasing overhead
Blog and Podcast notes, including an update on the Think Tank Photo Streetwalker Contest
Listener questions, and the Photo Tip of the week, covering dark prints and the DOF preview button.

On the blog front, for those of you who had been suffering through the feed breakdown – I figured out the source of the problems, and was able to reconcile the feed XML file against iTunes. So, the history of shows is up again back through May of 2008. As I go through more Archives of both audio and video podcasts more should come back to life as time permits. If anyone would like to hear a specific subject addressed in future podcasts, please feel free to share your thoughts with me in the comments section or via email.

Another little tidbit – the graphic for the “Archives” of all blog posts and for the “About” page has been changed too, so be sure to stop over there and see the new layout! Lots of fun stuff from over the weekend to share! The final bit of news is that a fellow NAPP’er will be in town this week and we’ll be getting together for a mini photowalk here in downtown Denver. So, if anyone is in the area and would like to join us – drop me a note and I’ll get you the details. Hope everyone else had a fun weekend. Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

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License Lockout

January 28, 2009 Jason4 Comments

First off, a bit of quick news about the blog in general: the layout has changed. Can anyone tell the difference? It’s a rather significant one, so hopefully it won’t go unnoticed! 🙂 Chime in and that’s your chance at winning the Think Tank Photo Streetwalker bag I reviewed a few weeks ago right here on the blog!

So, back on today’s post topic, as part of my maintenance routine that I recently posted, last evening I was doing some of my extended “IT” maintenance on my Windows computer. As a part of that maintenance, I was trying to optimize my hard drive performance, and thus resorted to cleaning out temp files, cache files, history files, restore points, and other sundry stuff. A defrag procedure on the hard drive, and I was back up to some pretty screaming speeds again. Puffing out the chest at getting a 5 year old Dell running a 2.4 Ghz Celeron processor, Windows XP, and 2 GB of RAM to move that fast without over-clocking, I checked off on what I thought was a job well done.

Then I opened Photoshop:

CS3 Error

Uh oh – it seems I cleaned things out a little too much. Well, since I have diligently kept all my media, documentation, license#’s and other information in multiple places, I was easily able to find the needed materials to re-install. But, here’s the thing – that would require importing all my actions again, re-installing other elements like Noise Ninja, and then also go in and customize all the features I like (scrolling with my mouse to zoom in and out of the image, curves menu with more lines, etc.) Who wants to do all that? Well, not me! So, off to Google I went.

That five minutes on Google doing some research saved me probably two hours of software maintenance time. Adobe has a neat little utility that can be downloaded and run when things like this happen to restore your licensing info without having to go through the entire re-installation. Not sure what it does or how it does it, but the utility is very handy, so I thought to share it with the reading audience today. Here’s the download link, and supporting reading materials.

Licensing Service Update

The underlying point here though, is that even the extensive maintenance I itemized the other day does not cover everything. Go into Photoshop, copy your preferences down via image pastes into a Word doc or other such format. Make a copy of your plugins folder external to PS – the same goes for Actions, noise removal, automation tasks, brushes, etc., etc., etc.! With as advanced and complex has an application like Photoshop has become – you can save a ton of time if you take some proactive measures.

What do you save from your Photoshop configuration settings? Share your ideas in the comments! As always, thanks for tuning in, keep on shooting, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow – Thursday Thoughts returns again with Chris Breedlove!

Defining Your Image Composition

January 27, 2009 Jason4 Comments

Composition in photography can have many origins. You can take a pretty concrete subject and place it in an interesting environment. The Rule of Thirds is one that is often used when creating photographic compositions. Other times, the way that lines or curves within a scene are the compelling factor. Architectural images use the idea of linear direction to compell the viewer. Finally, the nature of light can also be a huge factor when composing an image. After all, when looking at the word “photography”, it’s pretty clear how integral light can be to capturing your vision. The Greek root “photos” literally means “light” (while “graphos” means to draw or paint – so photography really could be pretty succinctly defined as “painting with light”.)

So, we have three elements that can contribute to image composition:

Positioning your subject
Directing viewer via leading lines
Compelling the viewer via light

While there are no hard and fast rules in any form of artistic expression, these are three fundamentals that I try to keep in mind when capturing the world around me. Sometimes I’ll find my images successfully utilizes only one of these elements. Naturally, there are also times where two are executed well. Naturally, I am luckiest though, is when all three are effectively brought into an image.

Here’s an example of what I am talking about. Can you identify which elements of image composition are present? Is there a defined subject that is well positioned? What about compelling lines to define the image? Finally, is there anything that draws your eye from the light or shadows? Sound off in the comments, and let me know:

: Brick Circle

A Dose of Inspiration

January 19, 2009 Jason2 Comments

For those that are keeping up via feed reader, you may have noticed some Flickr additions over the weekend. As the “What’s This?” arc came to completion, I thought it might be fun to compile all the images into their own dedicated set on Flickr for everyone to enjoy. As it turned out, I had not been keeping up with cross-posting images there as much as I had thought, so it took several visits back and forth between the site files and Flickr to get everything together. The Flickr images show up as their own feed posts, so there were a few extra feeds over the last few days. It’s rather fun to see the collected images all in one place, and it also brings a project to completion. See the complete 22 week collection here: What’s This? Flickr Gallery

Seeing projects come to completion can be a motivating force and can drive inspiration, so I’ve also brought myself current with the latest photography magazines. Most especially relevant for today was the latest issue of Rangefinder magazine. The web version can be found at www.rangefindermag.com and is enjoyable to be sure, but the print version really shows so much better. Get your copy off newstands – this issue is well worth it! Artists such as Dixie Dixon and Jay Stock give a great dose of inspiration and demonstrate that anyone can be successful if you have the passion and inspiration, no matter if you are new to photography or have been around the block a few times. Also in this issue is an excellent article on creating your own fine art photography books. The price tag is high, but the end results seem pretty amazing!

From the blog front:

I also would like to take a moment to thank Crash Taylor again for his Thursday Thoughts interview last week. Some great imagery in there also serve as excellent sources of inspiration, so be sure to stop over at his site and see the latest developments he has to offer. Thanks Crash!

For those of you that have not downloaded the podcast yet, be sure to take some time to give it a listen – you can win the new Streetwalker backpack from Think Tank Photo! I did my review on the show, and am giving the back to some lucky listener. Find out how by listening to the show. It’s a $140 value and you can have it for free! How’s that for a dose of inspiration?

Feel free to share your images too – remember, at the end of the month, I will be doing a montage of all the images submitted to the “Flat” theme thread over at the Canon Blogger Flickr presence to feature here on the blog, so get in while you can to win fame and fortune! (Well, maybe not, but it’s always fun to see your images online, right?)

Thursday Thoughts with… Crash Taylor

January 15, 2009 Jason4 Comments

Welcome back, and a happy Thursday to everyone. My apologies for the apparent “no blog” post yesterday. Just when you think all is going well, work goes and serves up a crashed server that sidetracks you completely all day. Needless to say, it looks like it’s still not back up this morning, but the blog must roll on! So, today, we’re gonna stick to our regular schedule of the Thursday Thoughts series. This week, I have the honor of sharing and enjoying the company of the blog with Crash Taylor. An excellent photographer, and interviewer himself, this is kind of turning the tables, as the interviewer is now being interviewed! SO, without further ado, here is Crash Taylor!

Q: Everyone always wants to know some of the basics, so let’s get a few things out of the way at once here…How long have you been a photographer?

A: Professionally 4 years.

Q: Canon, Nikon, Sonly, Olympus, Pentax or some other brand?

A: Canon 5D Mark II’s all the way baby! It’s the ultimate wedding camera.

Q: Mac, PC, or Linux?

A: Mac’s rule!

Q: Chocolate, Vanilla, or Strawberry?

A: Vanilla of course.

Q: Moving into a little more granularity, photographers often enjoy hearing helpful and constructive critiques of their work, as we are aware of how much we can grow from it. However, we’ve also all had the “nice shot” and “cool” comments when we’ve shared our work. With that pretext set, what was the singular most useful critique or comment you’ve ever had on work you’ve shared publicly?

A: My wife is my biggest fan and holds nothing back when critiquing my work. Her favorite phrases are I LOVE IT or I HATE IT.

Q: Normally, I’d ask next who said it, but that’d be kind of redundant now. So, let’s skip ahead to the next question. If someone was asking you for an honest critique of their work, what 3 factors would you look at most (excluding friendships or family relatives, we’re talking professional or fellow photographer-types here)?

A: LIGHT, COMPOSITION and EMOTION to me are the key elements to creating a stunning still image.

Q: Got any war stories from field shoots or outings that you can or would be willing to share?

A: Not yet. I’m sure I will have some by the end of my career though. Ask me then.

Q: If you had to choose between the gear or the software as the only way to create, which would it be and why?

A: I definitely need both to create my signature style images.

Q: If you had to pick three pictures out of your entire portfolio to represent your approach to photography, or your artistic vision, which ones would you pick?

Q: Any final thoughts you’d like to share about the state of photography or any catch phrases that you keep in mind when shooting?
A:

Move it from the middle, move in close, watch the light, aim for impact and then capture the moment.
Life without passion and photography is unforgivable.

Thanks so much to Crash for taking the time to sit down and participate in the Thursday Thoughts series. Like his outlook? Then check out his site – it’s a must see, and can be found on the web here. Got anyone you would like to hear from on the Thursday Thoughts series? Feel free to share ideas, comments, suggestions in the comments. Until tomorrow then, happy shooting.

Best 8 of 2008

January 2, 2009 Jason3 Comments

A new year has begun! Happy New Year to my online friends and family! Last year was a great year – it marked the first full year of blogging for me. It showed me how challenging it is to generate new, useful, and meaningful content for readers on a regular basis. Format changes, layout changes, content delivery changes, and a host of other things have kept the blog active for going on almost 18 months now. So, what has kept things going? A great deal of fellowship and other bloggers have shared their wisdom and experiences with me, both personally, professionally, and through their own regular posts. To all of them, I would like to issue a collective “thank you.” However, just as in anything, some are more instrumental in their value, and I would like to deliver special thanks to a few of them. So, without further ado, here are the “Top 8 of 2008“!!!

The Online Photographer – Michael Johnston delivers a steady stream of photography-related content, including articles, news, reviews, and insights into such a wide and diverse range of subjects, it astounds me. Thanks Michael for your regular pearls of wisdom!
Photoshop Insider – Scott Kelby is perhaps one of the most prolific writers of our time on photography and Photoshop. Suffice to say, he definitely has his finger on the pulse of the photography community. If you want to know what’s going on, and what’s coming up soon – stop by Scott’s blog.
Strobist – David Hobby’s blog/site has become the de facto resource for anything and everything relating to lighting for photography. If you want to get schooled on lighting, Strobist is the place to go. He has several resources including the Lighting 101, Lighting 102, and regular content that is both educational and inspirational. If not in your bookmarks, add it today!
This Week in Photography (a.k.a. TWIP) – Led by Scott Bourne, and contributing photographers Alex Lindsay, Steve Simon, Ron Brinkmann, and Fred Johnson, these professionals get together once a week in a podcast to deliver some of the best audio content on the web. A little more than a year old, they’ve risen quickly to become the creme de la creme of audio podcasts. The blog also has great tips and content delivered regularly by Scott. Thanks to this entire crowd for raising the bar on audio podcasting!
Digital Photography Life – Led by Scott Sherman and Michael Stein, this podcast started under another name by another sponsor, and their departure from the airwaves shortly was a source of great concern for me. These guys are the normal guys, the enthusiasts of photography – just like me (only probably more knowledgable, insightful, and entertaining). Their weekly podcasts are always a kick to listen to and make for perfect commute killers! Thanks to Scott and Michael!
Jason D. Moore – I would be remiss in not mentioning Jason’s influence not only on my blogging, but also on my photography. Jason was generous enough not only to include me in his now famous “Weekly P&P” listings, but also as a contributing member to the now well-known and respected Geographic Composition series. Without his generosity and kind words of support I would not be where I am today either as a blogger or a photographer. Thanks Jason!
Photowalking Pro – Jeff Revell has become a household name for introducing the idea of photowalking to the masses. From there he has springboarded to become a well-respected member of the photography community. He has tutorials, reviews, and just tons of great content that are inspirational and meaningful for anyone of any background and ability. He was generous enough to also donate time to being on the CB Interview series. Thanks to Jeff for taking the time to participate, and to also serve as a source of inspiration!
Michael Palmer Photography – Michael has shown me, both through his comments here, as well as through his contributions to the Geographic Composition Series and on his own blog, that when push comes to shove, in the end, it’s always about the photograph. He has produced some amazing images that he has willingly shared in a variety of outlets including those mentioned, as well as on his won website. Whenever I need a dose of pure inspiration, I look through his photography, as well as his comments here. So, thanks to Mike for all your support and motivation through the past year!

These are just some of the resources and friendships I have developed that have had a meaningful impact on the quality of both my photography and blogging in 2008. Thanks again to the whole gang! It’s been a great ’08 – let’s make it a fine ’09! (Yeah, that was cheesy, but it rhyhmed!)

In the meantime, keep on shooting and best regards to the entire community for a prosperous and bountiful new year! Happy Shooting!

The Final Broadcast… of 2008!

December 23, 2008 Jason1 Comment

That’s right, this week is the final podcast broadcast for CB this year! It’s a good one though with an announcement of the new product line I’ll be reviewing. For those of you getting this in feed readers, here’s the short version:

Christmas Wrap-up: A few last minute gift ideas for the photog-type in your circle
The New Product Line Review Announcement (you gotta listen to find out! 😉 )
The Value of Starting Over
Listener Questions and Answers

Dave from PA – Hot shoe flashes: tungsten or flourescent?

Lynn from WI – Are 3rd party batteries safe?

Kevin from CO – Best way to learn photography

Tomorrow, the last What’s This of the Year, and then lights out…nothing again until next week. The next edition of Thursday Thoughts will come back the second week of January (I couldn’t find it in myself to ask someone to put something together for New Years Day any more than Christmas Day!) That means you’re actually gonna have to spend time with family, friends, and loved ones for a few days. Oh darn! Hope that shopping is almost done! If not, be sure you tune in for those last minute gift ideas! Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

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P.S. What made this week’s podcast different from any other podcast I’ve done this year? (Other than the fact that it’s the last one of the year…)

Year in review

December 22, 2008 Jason3 Comments

As photographers, we are always anxious to get out and capture more images of the beauty that surrounds us. Whether that beauty come in the form of architecture, portraiture, landscapes, wildlife, or any other genre, each has a commonality in that it lures us to keep capturing, and eventually sharing our images with others, whether they be clients, family and friends, or whomever we choose to share our vision with, in whatever form we choose.

One thing that can often elude us though, is the review of our own work. It is this review that kept me from posting on Friday. I was trying to find a few choice images to print out for some photo frames as gifts when I realized I had gone almost two years without a serious evaluation of my work. This means a serious quantity of images had built up that was in need of review. While I have winnowed things down significantly, (and thus freed up a fair amount of hard drive space), a few stand out head and shoulders above the rest. So, for this last full week of 2008, I thought I’d share some of what I feel are the best shots I took of the year. I would encourage others to perform the same ritual. Not only will it help winnow your hard drive space, but it can also give you an honest assessment at how your skills have developed, and help define where you want to go from here. I will give fair warning in that you may have seen some of these before, and that the slideshow does have a music score. I went for something subtle, but many do not like music forcibly pushed on them, so if that’s the case, please mute your headphones or speakers now. So, without further ado, here’s some of my best from 2008:

Jason’s Photography – Best of 2008

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: fine wildlife)

In closing, a few things to consider:

What do you think?
Should I be happy with this?
Could I be doing better?
What about the reviewing? Good idea/bad idea?
Have you seen other photos I’ve shared that should be included?
What about your own reviews? Anyone have any photo reviews to share?

Feel free to share your thoughts/comments/feedback here. As always, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Money, Socializing, and Freebies!

November 25, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

Hey all, welcome to the Tuesday blog post for CB – today the latest in the Canon Blogger Digital Podcast Series is up for your mobile listening pleasure. It turns out I can ramble on for quite a bit as I take a look at three distinct topics:

Making Money in Photography
The Value of Social Networks
and some Free Web Resources that you may have missed

I also take the usual spate of reader/listener questions (great ones this go around, so thanks and shout outs to Marcus, Krista, and Nick! In the future, send me links to your websites so I can return the generosity on the podcast and here on the blog post. For now though – thanks! So, share your questions, comments, and feedback through the many opportunities here at the blog and via email.

A couple of show notes:

The 1st segment is a more detailed look from yesterdays post on “The Cost of Doing Business“, and talks about the details involved in creating a business plan.

The 2nd Segment looks at the value of social networking, so naturally here, I will suggest you stop by and say hi to me on The Twitter, LinkedIn, and through the various forums I participate in.

And last but not least, on the subject of freebies, my apologies for the two contest mentions from Popular Photography, but they have since closed (I hate it when they don’t indicate that at the source page!), sorry! Dave Cross blog can be found here though, and Scott Sherman/Michael Stein’s podcast can be found here. Anyway, thanks for stopping in, and as always, share your feedback, comments, and ideas either in the comments or via email.

That’s it for today, don’t forget to vote in the latest sidebar poll at the blog! Hope all your shots are good ones… happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

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