Category: personal

Thursday Thoughts 2.0

Jason8 Comments

Recently I made a post on the blog sharing my seven favorite blogger resources from 2007.  I titled the post “The Best 7 of ’07”, and published on Monday (or thereabouts.)  After making the post, I’ve seen quite a few trackbacks to it from the sites I referred to.  I’d like to first say thanks to all those that took the time to both notice, and reply in kind.  In following the trackbacks, I’ve also found a few new resources and fellow blogger and photography-related websites that have some appeal.  I also noticed amidst all this fun surfing a few surfacing eddies that have prompted my mind to wander.  It’s these wandering musings that I am sharing today.

Chief among my musings is the association with Canon.  In order to quell any intial thoughts to the contrary – the idea behind the web address (and blog) was to share my thoughts and ideas as a photographer – who happens to use Canon gear.  I do enjoy the Canon brand.  However, I am not blind to the fact that there are other gear options out there that provide alternative choices for photographers of all ilks.  In fact, while my body and direct acoutrements are Canon-branded, outside of a shutter release, the body, and 2 or three lenses, nothing else in my gear bag has the Canon stamp on it (or even the bag for that matter.)  It also bears mentioning that I am not getting paid to endorse any one particular brand or another on this blog – I simply share my thoughts on photography, tips, tricks, tutorials, and other tangential subject matter.  I have no affiliation with Canon and they have none with me.  As the blog continues to develop and mature, the look and feel may change a little bit, my gear choices may change, but I suspect the Canon line will continue to be my choice, simply because it’s what I’ve learned on and am most comfortable with.  Additionally, as we all know, when making an initial camera purchase, you are not just buying the camera, you are also buying into a camera-system.  To this end, I suspect that I will always maintain some times to Canon gear (simply because much of my admittedly limited equipment now centers around that system).  While I can obviously never be completely neutral since I am somewhat biased toward Canon gear, the gear selections of others is a matter of personal choice, and I hold no negative associations with anyone for using Nikon, Sony, Olympus or any other brand.

In order to demonstrate my complete lack of allegiance to any brand beyond the basic ones (for example, I couldn’t easily use a Nikon flash on a Canon camera), I thought it might be useful to share my entire gear lineup with the blogging community, and my thoughts on each component.  So, I will be putting together a web page “My Gear”, and linking that to the Tutorials/Resources area.  Once up, people are welcome to peruse my array of gear and equipment, as well as read my thoughts on each component.  For the time being though, here is a short list of what I own:

  • Canon EOS 350D (Rebel XT)
  • Canon 18-55mm f3.5 – 5.6 (kit lens)
  • Canon 70-200 f4.0 – 5.6 (zoom)
  • Sigma 70mm f2.8 Macro
  • Canon 550EX II Flash
  • Canon Wireless Remote Shutter Release
  • Bogen 3021BPro Tripod
  • Bogen 488 RC Ball Head
  • Desktop:  Dell Dimension 2400 2.4 Ghz Celeron Processor 2.0 GB RAM
  • Laptop:  Macbook Pro 15″ 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo Processor, 2.0 GB RAM

I am in the market for a wide angle lens, but as of yet have not settled on a lens that will complement both my current gear list and my photography goals.  If others have a gear list they’d like to share or suggestions/ideas on wide angle lenses for this gear setup that would be good for landscape photography, by all means, add it to the comments section.

Thursday Thoughts – Part 1

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I was catching up on the video recording today and realized that I had downloaded the last two Photoshop User TV shows from the end of December and this week but had not listened to either. So, I remedied the situation and watched both. Man! That last show had just tons of info in it. I couldn’t keep up they went so fast through stuff (especially at the end). Then, I thought – how can ANYONE keep up with that? I bet it’d be neat to have a condensed text version of all those shortcuts! Well, guess what, I am a little tired, but here’s a condensed version (PDF). Thanks and major shout outs to the guys at Photoshop User TV – always ahead of the curve and the rest of us (me anyway) are just watching in amazement at the prodigious amount of material y’all put out. For those of us with less time though, here’s a lite version. if you’re handy with PS – it helps. if you still are learning the ropes, better watch the video over at Photoshop User TV .

Tuesday Tutorials Temptation…Trashed

Jason2 Comments

Well, I came home from work today, set up the tutorial for recording (with my new preamp in place for truly the best audio recording thus far), and after a few dry runs, recorded everything with no interruption. When I went to review it, I realized that the “microphone” option in my recording software was not checked. I never recorded the audio! So, the hype and setup for the Tuesday tutorial has thus been a tease, as I had to trash it. (Doncha just love my alliteration? It literally rolls off my fingertips! 🙂 )

I will re-record it tomorrow (with audio) and finish production on it tomorrow, so it’ll be a day late this week. For the time being though, I got this question in an email from Dave in California:

Hey Jason,

Can you do a video demo on how to set up and use the ST-E2 with multiple
flashes and different light ratios?
That would really helpful.

-Michael

This is a great idea Michael, and I would love to do one – but alas, I do not have multiple flashes, nor the ST-E2. Additionally, my recording capabilities are limited to on-screen subject matter, as I do not have a video camera. I could tell you how it’s done according to some stuff I’ve run into on other sites, but that kind of defeats the purpose of preparing tips, tricks, and tutorials for you to read on Canon Blogger directly. So, I’d love to see if anyone else has the means to do so! That’s right – open audition night for CB – submit a video clip (in AVI or MOV format please) of the set up, and I can port that into the format. Naturally, the original recorder would retain all copyright, and I would be more than happy to help promote your work if you have a website.

The terrible truth about me and lighting is that I tend to prefer ambient light. I do have a 550 EX, and have used it on occasion, but am not very well-versed in off-shoe lighting techniques. I’ve read all about it and know it’s the way to go, but I’ve just not pulled the trigger (or should I say “tripped the shutter”? ) on doing much of that yet. A great resource for learning about this is one of my favorites too: Strobist, a site run by David Hobby that truly is the mecca for anyone with lighting questions. If you have a question, post it in the comments and believe it or not, you will likely get an accurate answer, usually within about an hour or so. His site is just hoppin’! Not meaning to leave you in the dark Michael, but lighting suggestions and recommendations are really out of my league. I did find something within the vicinity of an answer on SportsShooter, so check this out along with Strobist for more details.

Feel free to throw me audition tapes! 🙂 Thanks to Michael for the great idea, and I’ll be sending you an email shortly. In the interests of full disclosure, I would also like to help Michael out by offering a link up to his website – he’s got some really cool photography set up at Sage Photography. My one recommendation would be to add title tags to your header info. Each page comes up with a title in my browser of “Untitled Document.” Does not help with Google crawling…

In lieu of a tutorial, I would like to point out a key factor in the behind-the-scenes of the tutorial – stamp visible! This is a great utility in Photoshop that lets you create a new layer out of all existing visible layers that is fully editable. This is great if you want to have multiple versions of a base workup, you can create multiples with this function. The keyboard combo is Command + Option + Shift + E. (In Windows it’s Control + Alt + Shift + E). Quite a large keystroke set to remember, but it sure provides the ability to take things to the next level! I’ll show it to you in action tomorrow – I promise! In the meantime, Happy Shooting!

Best Blog Sites of 2007

Jason2 Comments

Rather than regale the CB audience with some trivia for the Monday Minutia, I thought it might be fun to start off 2008 with the list of MUST SEE blogs for the year. These are blogs that I have come to know and love for very different and varied reasons, ranging in purpose and perspective from tips and tricks, to the nitty gritty of lighting, along with casual conversation and the occasional in-depth reading jaunt. Without further ado, I give you: THE SEVEN OF ’07!

1. Photoshop Insider – Daily posts from Scott Kelby, who is very well-known as both an author and an instructor. Scotts contributions to Photography include the formation of NAPP, the implementation of the highly regarded (and highly expensive) annual Photoshop Expo, and now the Kelby Training online learning website where you can subscribe either monthly or annually to get all the education and learning you want. With heavyweights like Adobe, iStock, CDW and a host of others offering discounts to NAPP members, Scott and his gang pretty rule the roost and have the enviable position of setting the standard by which all others are measured. From a blog perspective, Scott’s site is a great info-mercial for keeping up to date on the latest learning strategies and materials that the NAPP team has to offer, as well as occasional insights on various tips and tricks. For me, PI is a great place to go to get some light reading in and pick up some tips or tricks along the way. A great learning resource to have in your toolkit. Given his instructional methods and techniques, the only thing missing here would be a weekly podcast or vlog posting, but that’s mitigated by Photoshop User TV, so it’s a very minor nit. Otherwise, I do not go a day without reading the musings and postings of Scott.

2. Strobist – If you want to learn about lighting, this is THE place to go. Everything from demonstrations, to techniques, and even instructional guidelines (See Lighting 101, and its sequel, Lighting 102). I am still something of a lighting virgin as I admittedly have not taken my flash off the camera yet, but this is a great place to go to learn the nitty gritty, see sample shots, and pretty much get all the info you could ever want on lighting.

3. The Digital Photography Show – Hosted by Scott Sherman and Michael Stein (but it’s really more Scott with a dash of Michael), this is a great resource to keep current on industry news, participate in contests, and hear from top people in the industry on everything from camera and photoshop techniques to file management and printing. One of the nice things about TDPS is that they do a brief text-based version on the blog, and then a more detailed version in a podcast – great for downloading and listening to while on the go.

4. Photoshop User TV – This is the insanely popular weekly vlog of the Photoshop Guys – Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, and Matt Kloskowski where they demonstrate and share techniques, tips and tricks on how to get the most out of Photoshop. If memory serves, this regularly gets premiere billing in iTunes.

5. Tips from the Top Floor – Chris Marquardt has made this show very popular both in his homeland of Germany and across the pond to the U.S. This is in no small part due to his regular workshops he conducts to share his knowledge with others. From his last trip to the states, I think he hit close to a dozen cities for workshops, and these were spread all over the country. Videos and online training is one thing, but Chris brings his knowledge to you, and at a very wallet-friendly rate.

6. Photojojo – This is a very kitschy kind of site but also very handy. Regular informative posts show how to do unique things with your photos, ranging from making a photo cube to photo mobiles, and even making useable stamps from your photos. Some of the tips and ideas that come out of here are better than others, but by and large, it’s a very outside-the-box kind of delivery, and makes for a great RSS feed.

7. The Online Photographer – From the mind of Michael Johnston comes a daily dose of photography-related news and information. The Online Photographer really raises the bar in terms of the quality of the writing material. This is not to say that other resources are not well-written, just that TOP writes better than most. The range of subject matter is also quite extensive – and has educated me on more occasions than I would care to admit. The one caveat is that I do sometimes have to pay attention to what I am reading – much of TOP’s content would go beyond a brief scan or skim which is what I usually do on web sites. TOP is also not a place to go if you’re looking for a quick tip or trick on how to do something. Rather, TOP is a collection of very well-written articles and commentaries on the state of the photography industry. The best analogy I can think of is a newspaper…where most blogs are like the comic section, TOP would be the equivalent of the New York Times. Overall, TOP is a highly recommended source for reading material related to, but fair warning – come ready to read!

So, that’s it. The best seven from ’07! I could have done five, or ten, or some other common multiple, but the the alliterative potential would have been lost. Ya know I just can’t let that happen. Have a good day, and tomorrow is Tutorial Tuesday!

Friday Frenzy

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Rather than the Friday follies, it was something of a Friday frenzy. I realized belatedly that next week Tuesday is New years Day, and I would be spending that time with family. So, to avoid going that long without putting out a new tutorial, I decided to put together a short one on vignetting. Since we’re all enjoying some slower times at work, and more times with family over the holiday season, I figured a vignetting tutorial might be an appropriate one given all the family and portrait shots that people are likely capturing.

So, I put together some materials for posting as a PDF, and decided to do the video-versions as well. So, in a rather rushed manner, here’s the latest tutorial from Canon Blogger. Since I will likely not be posting again between now and after the first, this is probably my last post of the year. I had wanted to get 25 in before years end, but falling only one shy is okay in my book. The other piece of exciting news is that I have finally finished the addition of a tutorial section for the website – ALL the video, PDF, and article contents, nicely assembled in one page. I’ve also thrown together some contact information, started a photo gallery section, and some other neat stuff. Many links are still not verified, but I suspect will be finished before the end of the year. Feel free to check back on your own as I’ll likely not have a chance to make that announcement directly until after the 1st. Here’s the link to that page:

Tutorial and Additional Resource Center

So… without further ado, enjoy the tutorial, linked below (I am using larger sizes that are not blog friendly, but on completion of the video, you do get bounced back here…)! Also take some time to enjoy family, friends, and loved ones for the rest of the holiday season, and I’ll resume the posting and podcasting next year! 🙂 Happy New Year all…

CB #24: Artistic Vignetting

Wednesday Web Links

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Having travelled during the recent holiday, a few photography-related issues came up during my travels.  First off, was the procedures used to handle photography equipment.  While travelling, my gear list included the following:

  •  Apple Macbook Pro
  •  Canon Rebel XT
  •  Canon 18-55mm kit lens
  •  Sigma 70mm f2.8 lens
  •  Canon 530 Speedlight EX
  •  Various CF cards, batteries and charging mechanisms

 Prior to entering security checkpoints, I pulled my laptop out, set it in its own container, and sent it through the security X-Ray.  Nothing I had was ever submitted to additional inspection.  This was quite the opposite experience that others have recorded on their blogs (see Scott Kelby’s experience recounted here). It was quite a pleasant experience.  One thing that helped me move through my travels with ease was in knowing the expectations of the TSA, and what they look for and like to see.  For example, I also know from previous experiences that leaving your batteries inside the flash will display oddly on their X-Ray scanners, so I always make sure batteries are removed from devices when packing.  It also helped to check the TSA restrictions and guidelines on their website (especially since my wife enjoys her lotions and potions).  So, in the interests of sharing that information with others, here’s the TSA link for permitted/prohibited articles:  TSA List.  Needless to say, DSLR’s are not subject to additional searches or inspections by any regulation in place with the Transportation Safety Administration.

 The other thing that I encountered specific to photography was how and where we are permitted to take pictures.  Without regaling all the details, here it’s enough to say that after a frustrating experience with a supervisor, I wanted to report him to the customer service department for his airline.  After snapping his picture, he suddenly became much more animated, and dashed off.  A few minutes later he confronted me with two local policemen who stated that “You can’t just take people’s picture anymore.”  At this point I replied, “Well, I am not sure what he told you, but the only reason I took his picture was to assist in reporting him to his superiors because he refused to even try to help me.  As far as taking people’s pictures, legally speaking, he has no right to privacy in a public place, and I can take his picture as long as I don’t use it to promote a commercial product.    Here’s a printout on Photographer Rights that may be of interest to you.”  For those interested in what I handed them, it said in part that:

 ” Members of the public have a very limited scope of privacy rights when they are in public places. Basically, anyone can be photographed without their consent except when they have secluded themselves in places where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy such as dressing rooms, restrooms, medical facilities, and inside their homes.”

 Suddenly these two officers, who were intending to interrogate me, turned their heads to him questioningly, clearly indicating he had recounted a very different story from what actually occurred.  Having this document also bolstered the evidence that I was within my right to do what I was doing.  So, I would encourage everyone to carry a copy of this with them.  Check it out here:  Photographer’s Rights.  Thanks to Bert Krages for putting this information together. Other than the flight delays and dealing with less than helpful airline supervisors, the holidays were quite enjoyable, and I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too.  See y’all tomorrow!

Monday Merriment

JasonLeave a comment

Good evening to the photo community.  As Tracy and I return from our travels up to the frigid northern territories of Ohio, we are so happy to have made the trip to visit family.  Christmas, after all, is about spending time with family.  So, a short post today, simply from me and my family here to you and anyone else out there who may be reading…

Merry Christmas !!!!

God bless us all…

(and no post tomorrow)

Friday’s Follies (but not really…)

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Fun stuff for the first Friday follies from Canon Blogger…but it requires a little prep, so bear with me. (I need to get in a program to help me with my alliterative tendencies, don’t I?)

First off, I had a thread started in an online community that was getting a lot of dialog on the latest Scott Kelby book and what people’s thoughts were on it. Specifically, I was interested in the reaction to the nature and trend of his teachings – in recent publications, I’ve noticed that his tutorials and work flow seem geared to be recipes for how to process certain types of images. Before investing in the book, I thought it might be good to hear from others who are software cautious in their purchases like myself.

It seems my suspicions were well-founded on a number of fronts. First off, the book is very proprietary in it’s dictum. Now granted, the title does clearly indicate for CS3, but given that there are commonalities between CS, CS2, and CS3, one would think that some things are portable from one application to the other. Apparently not, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. How do you get people to buy a book? By making it specific to a particular product. That way, you have something called built-in obsolescence. The knowledge learned will eventually go out of style, as newer applications are built that have new features or different ways of doing things.

What’s so funny about this? Well, the funny part was that I made the mistake of referring to Scott as a “re-known photographer” on my initial post.

That was quite funny because some people took great exception to the two words being used in conjunction with one another. Very odd how people can often take a subject matter, and disregard it completely to argue over the minutiae of semantics. Eventually, I acquiesced and changed the phrase “re-known photographer” to “re-known author”. After appeasing the hypercritical crowd, some very good dialog continued afterward. Jeff Schewe’s name has been added to the mix for discussion on the forum, so if anyone knows how to cross-connect these two, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments too!

As for the rest of my “review” of his book, I will have to defer until reading it myself. Given the initial response though, I think I will wait for it to come to our local library.

Thursday’s Thoughts

Jason4 Comments

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!