Category: news

Finally Friday – A Week in Review

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Yes, it’s finally Friday, and with a long weekend ahead of us, we can enjoy a little more down time. Mine will start about 30 seconds after I finish this post! Anyway, some updates on the Orphaned Works Act – some very passionate members of the NAPP community have been working together to get a website up to get the word out on a broader basis, so keep your browsers tuned to www.defendyourart.com over the next few days as updates, links to news items, and representative info will be going live. Additionally, posters and graphics are being compiled for people to share in their own regional communities too. So, if you participate in the arts (and you likely do if you’re reading this blog), tag the site as a bookmark: www.defendyourart.com

Brian over at Professional Snapshots got a G9 and shared some initial thoughts on that (as well as an interesting test shot), so stop over to his blog and see his feedback. Comment if you get a chance too – Brian always has fun stuff to read and share.

1001 Noisy Cameras does their latest update to the Canon SLR Market Price list indicating that prices pretty much remain the same, but now we have rebates! There’s also a link to a lengthy review of the Canon Xsi (and apparently somewhere in there a comparison between the 40D and the 450D??? I, like them, don’t understand – it’s apples and oranges. Anyway, stop over to 1001NC and read all about it – thanks guys for your info -you are on my must-read list since I learned about y’all! (Also, the TOP Test you linked to had some updates – see below for more)

Scott Kelby reminds us to back up our hard drives today (which I need to do btw…)

Ctein makes a passionate plea to avoid using music in website design over at The Online Photographer (thank you!)

Last, but not least, here’s some blog updates for CB:

  • I am almost done with the article compilations on creating your own photo website, so thanks to all for their patience.
  • The Online Photography Test has moved and now as TWO tests: Basic and Advanced! The latter still needs a few questions so stop over and take it, see your scores and share thoughts to round it out!
  • My photo shoots have been keeping me busy, but a gallery has been published here for viewer enjoyment: A Day in the Park
  • Another gallery should be forthcoming shortly too – still waiting on a model release.

Finally, lest I forget the Friday Funnies, stop over to What The Duck for a chuckle – or would it be a Duckle?

What the DUck - Friday May 23rd

Tuesday Trip around the Web

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There’s been a slight change of plans on the weekly schedule this week. Friend and fellow-blogger Jason Moore is out on “assignment” again (partying things up in France actually!), and a couple of us are filling in for his weekly P&P blogroll post where he summarizes the imagery activities of fellow Photoshop and Photography bloggers as they share them with the world. Three of us share the duties this week, so be sure to visit Andrew’s blog (Visual Realia) and Michael Palmer’s site for the other portions of the P&P. So…without further ado:

  • PhotowalkPro – Jeff Revell had a couple interesting things this week, but the most recurring theme is the upcoming photo walk for the Georgetown area. Make sure you get the dates when you visit his blog.
  • Samuel Barr is out traveling (great travel shots too), but congrats go out to him for being selected for the “Photo of the Week” over at Calumet Photo.
  • Sean Duffy is traveling to, and has some pretty incredible shots of the Eiffel Tower.
  • Strobist – It seems everyone is traveling as David had a few posts left from his trip to Dubai, and as recently as yesterday was sharing shots from Joe McNally’s trip. Pretty incredible stuff, and you can always get your fill of lighting gear, including beauty lights and trash bags for the really hard core.
  • Terry White’s Tech Blog – Read about Snowballs, Snowflakes, and Screenflow, but don’t get him started on DirectTV (I feel ya Terry – had a few experiences myself with large conglomerates).
  • The C Spot – Clayton talks about his visit to Michael Switzer’s open house for Design Works Studio.
  • The Digital Story – Derrick’s podcast talks about the merits and downsides of keywording your photos. Worth a listen, and it seems the best time to do that is on import – *phew! Got one right*
  • travel+ photography – Michael appeases the readership with a weather shot from Arkansas, but has had his hands full with buying a house – stop over to congratulate him on the new digs!
  • Visual Realia – Andrew demonstrates again his creative talents with some great photography and poetic verse. I don’t know how he finds verses that fit the imagery so well. Check out Old Friend, Bloom, and Josh McElwee for some truly inspirational captures!
  • watchThisspace – Steve takes a break but leaves us with a really cool apple abstract – come back soon Steve – your vision and creative talents will be missed!
  • What The Duck – Cartoon + photography + humor = Aaron Johnson – a new chuckle every day!
  • Weekly Photo Tips – Scott is taking his blog down for Memorial day to commemorate the occasion and is asking for readers to contribute imagery for his slideshow. A truly awesome gesture and I would encourage everyone to join in the effort.
  • What The Heck Journal – Martin has some great shots here, but without dates it’s hard to tell what’s recent and what’s been up a while. Lost in the Woods is kind of spooky, but an amazing shot nonetheless. Corridors is also an amazingly unique perspective and presentation of B/W photography.
  • Where is Ben – This week, Ben is teaching a fine art class on nudes at the LEPP Institute (Los Osos, CA). His blog photo is pretty abstract, but just indicative of the breadth of his vision and skills.

Monday Pictures and Puzzles

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Monday morning news. This past weekend I had a photo shoot I did for a co-worker and her kid (he apparently did not get very good school pictures this year). After about 20 minutes of shooting and putting him in various poses, I figured I had enough (about 50 shots) to get four poses for her to choose from. So, having done that, we sat back and sipped our morning coffee while the kids got ready to hit the beach. The older youngster was sitting around with us (older being relative – she was about 10-12). Playfully, without even looking, I fired a few snaps at her, letting the AF kick in. As luck would have it, this turned out to be one of the most phenomenal shots from the entire outing. So much so that I am going adding it to my portfolio. For those that read the blog though, here’s a sneak preview!

Portrait Close-up

Don’t forget, the TOP test has moved to it’s new location as a sub-folder of the Canon Blogger moniker. It can now be found at it’s new site: www.canonblogger.com/top so don’t forget to stop over there and take the second test (still a work in progress) measuring your advanced photography skills! Share results here in the comments or directly via email. I’d love to hear feedback on this too, as I move forward with more user-requested content.

My other Monday tidbit is a cool site I heard about (from my folks of all people to boot!) this last weekend: www.jigzone.com You upload your pictures and can turn them into flash-based jigsaw puzzles that you can share with your friends over your blog. Quite the time waster, but otherwise very fun and very cool! I uploaded a few images to test it out and since it seems cool enough, thought I’d share that with the blogosphere as other creative types might be interested in seeing it in action:

Well, that’s it for today. As we shutter-click our way through the week, enjoy it and remember to keep things in focus (happy shooting and watch those apertures!)

Canon Canada Rebates announced!

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As kind of an unannounced PSA, it seems that a mere two weeks after the news hit the airwaves that Canon was adjusting their gear prices by about 5% due to “increased fuel costs” and “unfavorable exchange rates”, Thursday they announced their Canada rebate program.  Since I missed this in my Friday post, I figured a weekend post would be in order.

For the newcomers to the world of photography and Canon and rebate programs, Canon typically does start rebates in Canada every year.  This rebate program will then migrate to US retailers and e-tailers about two weeks after Canada, so the price increases will now be offset back to around their original rates.  The Canada pricing info can be found here:  Canon Canada Rebate Information.

I did take the liberty of downloading the PDF and am making it available here for those that don’t want to make the extra click.  Of specific interest to me is the $100 rebate on the 40D.  With the current pricing at B&H showing up as $1140 (direct link), then the out of pocket will be only a shade over $1000.  Look for the used pricing on various forum communities to drop below $900 (10% less than new pricing is typically what to expect.)    So…shop smartly and save! 🙂  Happy shooting all, more to come on Monday!

Canon Full Rebate Pricing Info

Another Photo Finish Friday

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With another Friday coming to an end, I am squeaking this one in under the wire too. After a deluge of rain delayed dinner and a few other odds and ends, I find myself finally sitting down to write the Friday post at 10:47 pm. Thankfully, the details are all worked out in advance so it really requires no additional work on my part.

As promised, my latest web gallery is up and viewable on the photo site directly at this link here: A Day in the Park, but a few previews of the ones I really loved have lightbox versions below:

One of the boys

Another One of the boys

Also of interest, and just in time for the weekend, the latest installment of the TOP test has been compiled and published. I still have a few questions to finish, and 2 of these I am culling from my image library for samples, so you will have to examine pictures this go around – so it’s real life shots that need evaluation, not just textbook definitions…although there’s plenty of that too. Hopefully this one will be a little more challenging, so take it and share your scores today: Top Test – Advanced Photography Exam

The portal page is also new, and the original exam page has almso moved relative to the folder structure movement from outside CB to inside CB (makes tracking easier)…Enjoy the exams and let me know if you have any ideas (An Expert or Pro level exam is also something I am considering compiling but I really would need some pros help in putting that together).

Until Monday then, here’s your weekly installment of WTD;

What The Duck

Until Monday, then, enjoy the weekend, happy shooting, and watch those apertures!

Geographic Composition

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Jason Moore has a weekly feature on his blog, titled Geographic Composition. I was invited to join in that weekly activity, and am honored to do so. This week, my first in participating, the theme is “Yellow.” Stop over to Jason’s blog to see the entire grouping of shots…

Triumph Motorcycle

In other news, the TOP test will be officially moving to within the domain for Canon Blogger this evening. With the migration comes a new portal so you can take tests of different difficulties. The Basic Photography test is the one that has been out and in place for about a month now. The next test, nearing completion, is the Intermediate Test. Questions are more difficult, and should challenge you in new ways, including evaluating actual pictures! I am still working on some questions for it, so it’s not completely finished, but I will likely have at least a partial version available for beta testing, so more on that tomorrow once the migration is done (including a link to the new URL).

Finally, the photo shoot from last week has been assembled into a gallery of images and published on my photography site. Stop over there to take a look at the featured pictures. It was a lot of fun and the kids were really great to work with!

Not much other news, so until tomorrow, happy shooting and watch those apertures! 🙂

Just another manic Monday

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You know I had to do it eventually…

Although, this week it could not be more true…I was on the first item of a “honey-do” list yesterday, upgrading the thermostat, and could not get things reconnected.  Since it was a Sunday at 7pm the odds of getting an HVAC tech out was just not an option.  As the temperature went up throughout the house, it had similar effects on my processing…I actually had to shut dwon after a thermal warning from the main PC.  So, today after work, I had an HVAC tech out to fix the A/C, and resumed my post processing.  With another 200 or so shots to go through for the shoots that I have CD’s due for tomorrow.  With the evening meal behind me and an early start tomorrow, I really am not going to have time for a regular post  today, so to catch up on the news, stop over to Jason Moore‘s site for the latest in the last week.

If the blog links are not your style, some excellent reading fodder can also be found over at The Online Photographer – there actually was an excellent article there over the weekend that talks about the increasing use of advertorials in magazines.  Very similar to the idea I talked about recently that the “fluff” in magazines is starting to out-weigh the content.

As always, enjoy the week, and don’t forget to trip that shutter occasionally – happy shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you tomorrow!

Day swap

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I was having some issues with the post production and rather than hold off until late tonight to release the tutorial, I figured it’d be better to just swap Tuesday and Wednesday’s posts, so today is an early edition of my week around the web:

  • Jason Moore did his weekly round-up, and also saw his 600th post – congrats Jason!
  • Andrew at Visual Realia has a really great take on the theme of flowers and dewdrops – check it out for some inspiration!
  • I read up on the Copyright Law and Orphaned Works Act pending in Congress. Not good for us – good for corporations. Read up and submit your works today!
  • Thanks go out to Lisa, from Sage Family Studios, who is a fellow NAPP member for mentioning this in those forums.
  • Mark Brian, (sorry Brian, I am always wanting to call you Mark for some silly reason) from Professional Snapshots, has an image that will melt your heart (congrats again mark), and a Layers book review (by Matt K.) to make you green with envy (I want the book now).
  • The Online Photographer did an article on the sadness following the Kentucky Derby. If you are a softie like me, be warned, kind of heart-wrenching, and my heart goes out to the owners.
  • For fellow bloggers, this may be of most interest, as I finally took some time to read ProBlogger. I still have my work cut out for me! Definitely worth a read (or twenty) if you have the time – lots of ways to improve your niche, writing, style, professionalism, and much more!

Finally, it is worth noting that Dubai seems to be the hot spot lately. many of the most active and visible blogs on the web including the likes of Scott Kelby, Jeff Revell, Joe McNally, and now David Hobby, along with other notables have been visiting a growing body of budding photographers in the area. Some gorgeous and inspiring works have been posted over the last few weeks on all these guys blogs. Go check them out for a major dosage of creative inspiration here, here, here and here. If you stop in, take some time to share your thoughts with them – if you think I work hard at blogging and photography, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to these guys, both in breadth and depth! Amazing stuff out there…

Well, that should keep you tied over until the tutorial can get wrapped up tomorrow afternoon (I’ll forgo a morning post since this is going up later than normal). Until tomorrow; Happy Shooting and Watch those apertures!

Now is the month of Maying

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There is an old saying that goes something along the lines of “April showers bring May flowers.” While this is generally a principle that holds true, in the photography world, it is also the time when things start really hopping. Below is a list of just some of the activities that drive the photography industry as we move into late Spring and early Summer:

  1. Wedding season kicks into high gear (wedding photographers)
  2. High school and college graduation parties are scheduled (which is great for portrait photographers)
  3. Engagements are announced (with anticipation of #1 the following year) (portrait photographers again)
  4. Family portraits are planned in conjunction with all of the above (portrait photographers yet again)
  5. A new season of sports swings into gear such as baseball, soccer, lacrosse, swimming, and countless other summer leagues (great for sports shooters)
  6. Mating seasons begin for birds (nature photographers)
  7. Rivers, streams, and waterways are teaming with new life (landscape photographers are just ecstatic)

Continue reading “Now is the month of Maying” →

Wednesday Web Gems

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Getting back to the basics, my original plan was to feature some unique links I’ve found from around the web on Wednesday, so the theme would revolve around “Wednesday Web Gems”. That theme returns today…here’s what’s goin’ on:

  • 1001 Noisy Cameras does a price check for the Canon bodies at various online retailers – very good info!
  • Canon themselves announced that they have surpassed the 40K mark for EF lenses. Interestingly, the first 30K took about 19 years, but the last 10K only took 2 years…says something about digital photography, eh?
  • My favorite Lighting resource, David Hobby’s Strobist site did a feature on how to sync a Canon G9 at 1/2500th of a second. Very much for the lighting enthusiast, but since it’s Canon, it fits my theme for the day, thanks David!

I’d do more, but it’s rather late and the pillow is loudly calling my name.  Happy shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you tomorrow!