Category: personal

Wednesday on the Web

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For my first post of “Wednesday’s wonderfully wise web gems” (it’s an addiction, I know…), take some time to stop over at Scott Sherman and Michael Stein’s Digital Photography Show. Self-admitted non-pros give great information on events in the industry, interview industry-leading experts and big wigs, as well as some pretty innovative contests with cool prizes. Their average podcast length ranges between 45 minutes to an hour and change. Another great resource is Photoshop User TV. Adobe gurus Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, and Matt Kloskowski deliver tips, tricks, news and events relating to Adobe products and share their thoughts on gear in a half hour long video podcast every Monday. They are all part of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals that offers training, and workshops for people of all skill levels on many of the Adobe products. Well worth the cost of membership too, and you get access to much more than a weekly video podcast including discounts from some of the most respected vendors of photography gear and products in the industry.

Last, but not least is Fred Miranda’s online photo community – with so many forums and communities it can seem like an insurmountable task to find the right ones that gel with your interests. Fred’s site is well organized, and offers something for everyone whether you’re a Canonite, Nikonian, a gear hound, a color guru, or like to just look at pictures. Another added bonus is that Fred sells actions for improving your work flow efficiency, and these are a great resource for a minimal investment ($5-$20). Product reviews, articles, and a great sense of community round out the forums quite well. Granted, I may be partial as I have been a member there for almost three years now, but the thoughts and perspectives of that community are quite valuable.

Don’t forget to vote in the poll – and see what is the most popular image editing software. The answer may surprise you! (It surprised me to see this one in the lead.. 🙂

The Digital Photography Show

Photoshop User TV

Fred Miranda

Tuesday Trivia Tickle…

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Well, the Monday Minutiae did not happen as I had hoped (my pillow convinced me to deal with it instead…), so I guess Tuesday will get a temporary trivia tickle (I can’t help it – alliteration is my ”thing”.) Did you know that Canon currently has 64 lenses on their website for purchase as of 12-17-07. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Number of lenses w/IS: 17

  • Number of lenses w/USM: 46

  • Number of lenses at 2.8 or higher: 32

  • Number of dedicated macro: 5

  • Number of non EF-mount types: 4

  • Number of L Lenses: 25

  • Third Generation lenses: 3

  • Second Generation lenses: 9

  • First Generation lenses: 52

  • Digitally Optimized lenses: 2

  • Fisheye lenses: 1

  • Fixed Focal length lenses: 34

I put together a full spreadsheet of all these lenses including their body mount type, focal lengths, aperture size/range, glass quality, IS presence, generation, designation and USM presence. It’s a pretty handy reference, and if anyone wants a copy, feel free email me to request one. I’ll probably post it for download later this evening, so if you can wait until then, stop back to the blog after 4pm (Eastern time) to see if it’s available yet. Tonight I should have the weekly video tutorial finished so don’t forget to mark your calendars tomorrow to stop back and check out the latest. This weeks subject is “Applying an antique effect to photos”, specifically designed for those using Photoshop CS2. Watch the show to see where you can view the same methods for other software platforms! Until tonight then, happy shooting (and surfing)!

The spreadsheet file has been uploaded and can now be downloaded from here: Canon Lens Availability & Features

Alternatively, you can view a PDF version of it here:

Canon Lens Availability & Features

Scott Kelby’s 7 Point System

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Reknowned photographer, and Photoshop/Lightroom posterboy Scott Kelby has released his latest book, the 7 Point System for Photoshop CS3, and it’s marching it’s way into people’s homes left and right.

While I am looking forward to getting a copy, I am also a little concerned about the fact that CS3 is in the title. Usually when a specific type of software is in a books title, it means that specific generation is required to take full advantage of the concept behind the book. This concerns me because while I do plan on getting to CS3 eventually, I am still fairly happy with CS2, and was not planning to upgrade any time soon. It also strikes me as a little odd as Scott has also indicated that Lightroom has also become a standard part of his work flow. So…what should the rest of us be doing? Should we be upgrading to CS3? Should we be going out and getting Lightroom? What about both? What about those that use alternative setups like Corel’s software, or even (gasp) The GIMP?

It seems that if this is a 7 point system that teaches you how to identify the “7 things” to take your photos from bland to beautiful, that these 7 things could theoretically be applied under a multitude of software setups. Is this another way of trying to convince us to upgrade to software when we really don’t need to? I am all for innovation and upgrading, and for improvements in technology, but if this is a system or a way of working with photographs, I would rather have a system that can be applied across multiple environments regardless of the underlying software.

I guess it’s the computer geek in me, because when troubleshooting networks and hardware problems, we follow a standard procedure for pinpointing problems. Very much like the scientific method, this works well regardless of whether you are in a Windows environment, Macintosh, Unix,Linux, Solaris, or any other setup. It works universally.

For the 7 point system to be effective (and the fact that Scott is trying to get copyright protection on the process) it seems this would thus be a process that could be applied across many environments. Ideally, that would be the case. et the title, and some of the comments on his blog, seem t suggest this system is somewhat proprietary to the CS3 setup. I’ve posted the question on his blog, so hopefully we’l find out about portability soon. More when/if that happens.

So, what about you, readers of CB? Has anyone out there read the book? What are your thoughts on it? Can you take the concepts and methods and port them to CS2, Lightroom, the GIMP, or some other software setup? I’d love to hear your feedback here (or via email). Thanks in advance for sharing any of your thoughts!

Saturday’s scenery

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Normally I take the weekends off from posting while I go out shooting and recording podcasts and such, but the fun of todays outing was such a high that I wanted to put a few shots out after processing just because I thought they were something anyone could enjoy.

peoples_office_bldg21.JPG

citylights2.JPG

church-steeple.JPG

Not sure the low-res will work, but I thought these were good examples of how an entry level SLR is still quite capable of taking some great shots! Feel free to critique and share your thoughts in the comments section of the blog! 🙂

Finally Friday…!

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Well, it was quite a long work week, but unfortunately, I cannot vent here as I have signed an NDA, so it will suffice to say TGIF!!!  Some long hours this week, especially in the latter half, so the video tutorial I wanted to work on anad post today will not be up like I intended.  In my last tutorial, I mentioned a new page of content that is coming to Canon Blogger.  That is still in progress, but since I have not gotten all the links in place yet, I shall keep the URL mum for the time being as well.   I was supposed to go out shooting with some Flickr friends today, and got my head so turned around, thought the shoot was for tomorrow.  My apologies to that group for no-showing…it would have been fun to meet y’all!

Hopefully next time though…but since I did clear my schedule for shooting tomorrow…I’ll be out and about then to make up for it.  Will post pics here if anything good turns up.  Until next post then…happy shooting all!

No video or photo post today…

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With the holidays now on our heels, my better half wants some time spent compiling images into holiday calendars, portraits, and other suc gifts. While flattering (and cost effective), it has taken a day away from my current photography-related pursuits. Aside from that, Baltimore is ahead of New England in the 4th quarter of MNF with less than 9 minutes to go and is about to get the ball back…they were 20 point underdogs! ANd I am hoping against hope that NE will get handed the loss here. Go ahead and win the Super Bowl if you want NE, just stop the swaggering – it’s not becoming of professional athletes. While I am at it, the ’72 Dolphins need to get over it….they got lucky as they had the cheesiest schedule that year, and it was before free agency, media hype, and all the rest of the intensity associated with the game now. The ’72 Dolphins would never have gone undefeated in the last 15 years.

Back to photography subjects though, I am looking at both Cafe Press and Mpix for the calendars. Both seem adequate, but the latter seems to have a little more polish to it. I will be doing two different layouts, one of family and the other of various landscapes, with the portraits going to Mpix and the landscapes going to Cafe Press. We’ll see how the results are…

A tutorial should be forthcoming tomorrow…I’ll attempt a little suspense by not revealing the subject prematurely (primarily because it’s not recorded yet, so I don’t know the subject! I have a pretty good idea, and it should be an enjoyable one. Until tomorrow then…happy shooting!

Welcome to the Land of Confusion

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Well…I am torn now. After administering both this blog and two other ones (granted the first was very half heartedly), I am finding that Wordpres, while apparently becoming the de facto standard for blogging, is not without it’s problems. It seems themes are not universally cognizant of several features that I would have thought would be common to many bloggers – first and foremost, being multimedia. Sorry, but the plugin and configuration settings for getting basic videos to play right in a blog is just damn confusing for me. Now I grant that I am no web designer extraordinaire, but I know the basics of html, CSS, php, etc., and am (hopefully) developing my multimedia skills by virtue of this blog, but this is rediculous.

The other problem that I am noticing about WordPress is documentation. Or should I say the quality of documentation. Nothing is very easy beyond adding a plugin. Once it’s added, then you must activate it. Beyond that, configuration. God forbid you want to publish multimedia in different formats (flash for the blog and Quicktime for iTunes). The whole thing requires practically a full-time job. Blogging I thought was a venue for hobbyists who wish to share their thoughts and experiences on a more visible level. Sorry, but the requirements for blogging and podcasting are WAY beyond a “hobbyist” level.

And now, here’s the kicker….say you want to customize your blog!!! Either I am making it too difficult, or my expectations for customization are too high, but I rather do not care for the default headers others choose. I get that everyone has different takes on things, and that’s the whole purpose behind themes, but if you are going to design a theme and make it WordPress-friendly, I would ask three minimal things:

  1. Write your documentation well…don’t assume I know what php stands for, nor expect me to have read all the ins and outs of how to adjust CSS styles and scripting. I would wager that many who would be otherwise inclined to share their thoughts regularly via blogs and such toss the idea either after investigating or trying a few things and getting wrapped in a confusing set of circular logic.
  2. Consider that your “theme” is just that…a theme, which means it should be customizable, and done so easily. If you want people to use your theme, then let us change the background color easily. Let us change the header image easily…and most importantly: tell us how!
  3. Finally, in recognition of your web skills at creating themes, help those less fortunate by ensuring your theme is widget friendly, multimedia friendly, and validates. Also, if you want people to sing your praises, and continue to use your theme beyond a few months, when releasing updates and fixes, see if you can’t deliver them in a way that doesn’t re-set everything back to default values. It’s a roya pain to re-load every customization (especially when you’re not a designer by trade that instantly knows the header image is stored in the wp-content/header.php file, and that the sidebar widgets you’ve configured need to be re-installed and activated (and sometimes reconfigured afterwards). Seriously…how the hell am I supposed to remember all that crap – if I knew all that I’d design my own theme!

I would actually pay good money for a blog that did that. Any takers?

Video tutorial delayed

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As the Thanksgiving holiday recedes into the past, a few lingering tasks remained so the tutorial that I had planned for production tonight is not complete yet.  But, never fear, fellow photogs, I have something to share.  It seems recently that there has been a lot of focusing (bad pun) on photoshop techniques, yet we have these amazing devices that can really do wonders if we know how to use them – called cameras.  As a service for those that could use some additional explanation, and as a refresher for the rest of us, I’ve put together a paper on determining the best apertures and shutter speeds for various compositions.  Check it out below.  In the meantime, happy shooting, and I promise a tutorial will be available for viewing tomorrow.  Until then…enjoy the written word!  

apertures-and-shutters.pdf

Postscript:  As an additional thought – I keep a cheat sheet of this info in my camera bag as a reference chart for what different apertures and shutters accomplish at each stop’s setting.  If anyone would like a copy (it’s laminated and easy to fit in a side pocket), email me and I’ll get you a hard copy.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING – and thanks to all the viewership!

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Thanks to the good folks over at www.good-tutorials.com, I’ve hit a new personal record with Canon Blogger and in the last 24 hours got almost 500 hits – 451 to be exact… beating the previous high mark of 421 back on October 29th. Quite exciting for a blog that’s only been around for 2 months. Thanks to all that have found interest in the blog and the tutorials to take the time to visit.

How appropriate to be giving thanks to all that have enjoyed the blog thus far – on THANKSGIVING! Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and we’ll see about getting a few holiday-themed tutorials up in the next week or so. Until Monday though – it’s holiday time for me! 🙂

Home project extension…

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Well, the homeprojects are almost done…with one minor extension…the acrylic based paint I added in teh guest bath does not apply easily, so to get the edge area where I had hand brushed to match with the roller-applied areas beneath it, I guess I need to get an edge roller and blend that in after taping off the popcorn ceiling.  What a drag…my hands and arms are really sore and sick of paint and cleaning, paint and cleaning, paint and cleaning.  Too much time working, not enough time shooting!  Anyone out there have any shots or photo stories to share?  Things here have been kind of on hold for the past few days (since Saturday anyway)…