Category: podcast

Great Scott, Mat, and Contests, Oh My!

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Heh, cheesy headline, but they all seam together on this week’s episode of Learning Digital Photography!  Yup, the podcast is done, and for those that didn’t catch my Twitter tease, this week I had the distinct pleasure of talking with none other than Scott Bourne on the show!  If you don’t know who Scott Bourne is, then you’re living in a cave.

Scott is a regular contributor to Mac Break Weekly, This Week in Photography, and owner/operator of PhotoFocus.  You can find him there, via his Bourne Media Group online presence and a bazillion other places like Photoshop World, Aperture Nature Photography Workshops, Bosque Del Apache, and much much more.  I could link to it all but that would take an entire post of it’s own, so will point you to his main presence at Photofocus and Twitter:

http://www.photofocus.com

http://www.twitter.com/scottbourne

We had a great talk on this week’s show, covering his photo background from Motocross to Wedding work, and of course his Avian work as well.  We took a look at a little of the gear side, got some nuggets on branding and the business side, and even had a chance for a couple twitter questions.  Great stuff and all packed into a mere 30 minute interview!  Thanks again to Scott for taking the time to talk to me on the podcast!

Other content from the show includes a discussion on some of the things to consider on matting and framing (hence mats in the title), and an in-depth look at the finalists from the last LDP contest.  There’s also nuggets and links for other contests out on the web as well as what to look for in future LDP contests, so some teaser stuff there too.  All in all, a great (but long) show so grab it from your preferred source point, whether with the folks at PLM, or in iTunes!

Here’s the links, as promised from the show!

Mats and Framing

  1. American Frame
  2. Redimat
  3. Guide to Preservation Matting

Contests

  1. OnOne Top Ten Finalists
  2. Wacom Giveaway
  3. Bogen Imaging Macro Giveaway
  4. Music/Band Photography Contest

Gear: Ring Flash

  1. Canon Ring Flash
  2. RayFlash
  3. Metz Ring Flash

Technique: Causes of Blur

  1. Camera shake
  2. Subject Shake
  3. Sharpness/Depth of Field

So, there’s the link love for the show – it was a lof of fun this week, but the weekend is almost upon us.  This Saturday it’s another photoshoot with the Meetup Group and then some night photography as I prep for the next article of PhotographyBB Magazine! Make sure you get out and do some shooting too.  Have a good weekend everyone and we’ll see you back here on Monday!  Happy shooting!

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Show Notes for Episode #28

Jason3 Comments

No cheeky title today, just a straight up informational one because the podcast was a super long one with all the news, interview time, and listener Q&A so I’ll stick to the meat and potatoes.

  1. On the Photo News Beat
    1. Canon Announces Hybrid IS technology
    2. Stock Exchange joins Getty Images
    3. Think Tank Photo Announces a New Bag System
    4. OnOne Software expecting to release a Remote Capture update soon
  2. LDP/CB Notes
    1. The OnOne Software Plugin Suite Ends Friday – last chance to get your best image in the Numbers Contest
    2. The August Prize is announced:  A Bamboo Fun, courtesy from the folks at Wacom
    3. Exposure Denver Photo Club
  3. Interview With Matt Timmons – MTM Studios
  4. Listener Q&A
    1. The Sony A100 DO Range Optimizer – Bog Segrell from NJ
    2. Martini Memory Lighting Setup? – Alistair M from New Zealand
    3. Where do you get the EOS Digital Capture from Canon? – George Maskaly from Nevada

Here’s links, as promised for the show notes to for those coming over from either PLM or iTunes.  Please let me know if I missed any (it’s getting late here)…

A last little bit of blog news – closing in on 2 yrs, 500 posts, and 1000 feeds – I don’t know how this ever happened, but there’s definitely going to be some prizes coming soon in celebration and to say thanks to all the loyal, faithful readers and listeners!  I teased the date a few days ago on Twitter so if you’re not on Twitter, get there for extra added value too! Happy Shooting All, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Grab the Feed

Win, Listen, and Bang!

Jason3 Comments

This week’s show is a doozy – I talk about the latest contest, (#3 for 2009), have a fun conversation with Jason Loucks, then tackle some tips on photography fireworks.  Of course the show always takes care of a couple listener questions and answers, so it’s 45 jam-packed minutes of photography fun.  Here’s the show notes:

The Third Photo Contest, sponsored by OnOne software.  Rules and entry information are posted on Tuesday’s blog, and you can enter your photos here.

Here’s the sites and twitter folk we talk about during the show:

  • www.freelanceswitch.com
  • www.smashingmagazine.com
  • www.tutsplus.com
  • www.css-tricks.com & Chris Coyer on Twitter
  • www.w3schools.com

Shooting Fireworks

  • Use a tripod
  • Make sure you have spare batteries (and fully charge all batteries)
  • Shoot with a low ISO
  • Set your shutter between 4-8 seconds for best results
  • Try adjusting the zoom in or out for attention grabbing light trails

Enjoy the show, hosted by the folks over at Personal Life Media!  Happy shooting, and be sure to share your own tips and tricks for shooting fireworks by tomorrow and I’ll try to put all of them together along with some (hopefully) inspiring photos for enjoyment.  In the spirit of the show, don’t forget the trailing question:  What was your first camera?

Reviews, Interviews and Vista Views

JasonLeave a comment

The latest episode of the Learning Digital Photography podcast is now live and for those of you picking this up in your feeds, make sure you stop over to iTunes or the via PLM to download the show.  This week, I go into a little more depth on how I conduct reviews of hardware and software as there have been quite a few listener questions about that particular subject matter.  Thanks to everyone who wrote in to share their thoughts and feedback!

In the second segment, an interview with fellow photog and NAPP member, Erik Bernskiold where we talk about not only what we like about NAPP, but about how we are gearing up for the summer fun of photography, with tips, tricks and suggestions from Erik on everything from Floral Photography to Landscapes.  We also get a little insight into Eriks’ blogging and web design background as he’s become quite the expert on the subject matter!  Not too bad for someone who’s not even out of school yet!  For more details on Erik, follow these show note links:

Many thanks to Erik for taking the time out of his schedule to sit down and talk with me on the show.  It was a lot of fun!  For the remainder of the show, I throw out some additional tips on landscape photography, and tackle a few listener questions.  Lots to listen to, so be sure to tune in, either from the download over at PLM or via iTunes.

A final little asterisk on the show:  I mistakenly recorded the intro as episode #25, when it’s episode #24.  Also given that I forgot to add the theme music to the entire compliation – it might as well be called the “blunder” show…but rather than spend time on a few minor nits trying to fix it, I’d rather just get the show and respective notes out to y’all for your listening enjoyment.  So, on that note, happy shooting, enjoy the show, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Photo Contest – Win Adobe Lightroom

Jason2 Comments

Happy Saturday all.  It’s a rare weekend post here – since Friday was silent.  Two things – first off, Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there!  Second, as the podcast on Tuesday announced, don’t forget the first ever Learning Digital Photography Contest is under way – all during the month of May, submit your shots to the Flickr group (2 entries per person) for your chance to win a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0!  Not only is it a great chance to win this wonderful program, but a great way to get increased visibility of your work and to network with others.

Information is available in the podcast, but you are welcome to just submit your entries directly to the Flickr group.  This is a prize package worth $300 retail, so definitely one worth entering!  Good luck and happy shooting!

Podcast

Flickr Pool

Creative Vision – or not!

Jason4 Comments

When looking at image composition, many of the things we use as our foundation are the typical rules of the trade – things like the the Rule of Thirds, Sunny 16, Golden Mean, etc., etc., etc.  While these rules are all well and good, and they definitely are some of the fundamentals that we all incorporate as we see to create beautiful images – they do not constitute the entire picture (pardon the pun).  As photographers, we should also be challenging ourselves to look at things in unique and new or innovative ways.

For instance, take the Eiffel Tower.  This particular piece of architecture has been around for so long now that photographers have had an opportunity to capture this from pretty much every angle and in virtually all lighting conditions.  You would be hard pressed to come up with a new angle or an unused lighting style for this monument.  So, what if you take a trip to Paris – should you not even bother with a picture?  Of course not!  Snap away, be a tourist  want and get your other half mugging next to the Tower.

The same could be said for the Sistine Chapel, the Venus de Milo, or any other of thousands of historically significant and/or interesting works.  And seriously – what do you think would happen if you went on a trip to Paris, came back and said “Nope, no shots of the Eiffel Tower, been taken too much already, no sense in taking yet another shot of it.” If your family is anything like mine, people would look at you and wonder – “But, you’re a photographer!”

The point here is that you don’t always have to be “on” and looking for that next great shot.  In fact, the minute you stop trying so hard to find inspiration, in general, the faster inspiration finds you.    Let the boring snapshots happen – they’re fun, and a great way to connect with others.  Imagine being at some social function and you’ve got your camera.  Are you looking at the light, wondering what aperture/shutter settings you can feasibly hand hold at without over cranking your ISO, or are you enjoying the time spent with family and friends?  Before you answer that – answer this – which circumstance do you think will provide more inspiration and creativity?

Just the other day I was delivering some computer stuff to another building, which happened to be 14 floors up.  Sure, I have my camera with me – and I looked out the window.  Aerial photography has always intrigued me, but I had never given it another thought – until the other day.  So, didn’t really think much and pointed my camera out the window, just having fun and taking a few snaps of the scenes:

denverabove1

Quite the boring shot eh?  Certainly not even close to being on par with something like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Venus de Milo, or anything like that.  It’s pretty much a scene of nothing.  But from nothing, and from not even trying to always be “on” you can find your creativity and inspiration.  This shot was taken only ten seconds apart from the previous one:

denverabove2

Okay, so it’s still not as breath-taking as any of the other historical monuments, but you gotta admit, that curved line of the building receding into the distance is kinda neat, eh?  This isn’t really looking for props or accolades though.  The point here is to not let yourself become too preoccupied with achieving your next great “hero” shot on every capture.  That is only setting yourself up for failure because no one can attain that.  Sure, it’s important to try and stretch your creative muscle, and try new captures, and experiment with new styles, using different lighting and all the stuff that goes hand-in-hand with being a photographer, but remember, before you can be a photographer, you gotta be a person!

Enjoy photography, but don’t forget to live your life!

Don’t forget to pick up the feed for the blog and the podcast – all during the month of May, you could be shooting to win a copy of Lightroom!  One of the best ways to do that is to just go out and have some fun.  Forget about the details from time to time and just enjoy life – because that is when you will most likely get your hero shots – when you least expect them.  So, just enjoy life, and enjoy photography – the rest comes naturally!  Happy living and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Win a copy of Adobe Lightroom 2.0!

Jason6 Comments

box_lightroom2_150x150

Just last week, I had the distinct honor of interviewing Tom Hogarty, Senior Product Manager for Adobe Lightroom.  Needless to say, I postponed the podcast for a few more days so I could include the interview.  He really gave a good breakdown of the function of Lightroom, what to expect from it, how to incorporate it into your work flow, and what (in general) we can likely expect to see in the future of image processing development.    We spent a good deal of time going over the nuts and bolts, so under the general heading of Software discussions today, I’d like to introduce you to Adobe’s Lightroom.

Lightroom is a very different way of handling your images.  Rather than taking a single image at a time through something like Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom allows you to not only address single image edits, but also manage an entire library of images.  The key here is management, because that’s what Lightroom really does – it takes the idea of asset management and incorporates it into a program so that you don’t even have to think about it!  Rather than belabour the point here though, it would probably be best to encourage everyone to just download the podcast and give it a listen.  Not only do we discuss Lightroom, but we also take a lot of listener questions, both specific to Lightroom and general photography questions too – and, oh yeah, a contest!

That’s right – Adobe was kind enough to donate a copy of Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 to some lucky listener.  At an estimated retail value of almost $300 ($299), this is by and large, the best contest I’ve could ever come up with!   It’s very exciting!  I’d love to share the details here, but if I did that, you wouldn’t listen to the podcast.  So… want to know the details?  Listen to the podcast! In the meantime, here’s the show notes on the things we discussed and where to get the latest and greatest info on the product:

Be sure to stop over at Twitter and start following these folks, because they are the ones who you can really learn a lot from!  Then don’t forget to listen to the podcast for your chance to win a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0!  Happy Shooting and good luck one and all!

Oh yeah, here’s the teaser link for the contest:  Learning Digital Photography Flickr Group

Portraits, Promotions, and Planning

Jason2 Comments

This week’s podcast episode should be available shortly over at Personal Life Media.   You’ll want to listen when you really can dedicate the 25 minutes as it’s a pretty rapid fire show this week.  A couple learning opportunities presented themselves to me recently and I wanted to share these before they got too fuzzy.  As a result, I didn’t really get into the news of the last week, or address any listener questions.

So, the show notes will be pretty short and sweet, but here they are:

First up, I took a moment to challenge the listening audience to take a whirl at self portraiture.  In the interests of sharing efforts in that vein myself, here was one of the better ones from last night:

selfportrait

I also took a look at the idea of self-promotion, and that the listening audience should not be following my example thus far.  Use your blog to promote your work!  That’s what blogs are for – and never sell yourself short!  For all the details, make sure to catch that segment.

Last but not least, when you are involved or asked to participate in a photo shoot of some sort, take ownership to the extent that you are able in the planning and logistics – it will only help you in the long run.

It’s a busy day, so not much time for the other incidentals – happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!  Diggs, reviews, and such (as always) are appreciated and encouraged!

Artist Statement Appeal – the power of the pen

Jason2 Comments

On this weeks show, I take a look at the power of the pen – the artist statement.  For those of us with aspirations of sharing our work with others via art shows, galleries, and contests/competitions, the value of the artist statement can make the difference between getting into a show, gallery or other event and buying a ticket.  So, if you want to learn what the artist statement is, how to write one, and things to consider, this is the show for you.  Here’s the show notes:

Another news item I forgot to mention in the podcast is an upcoming web seminar series for photographers, free, from Adobe.  Here’s the dates:

  • Photoshop: April 23rd
  • Lightroom: April 9th and May 7th
  • Both: May 14th

Link for more info and to register is here

Make sure you stop in and grab the podcast from the good folks over at Personal Life Media, and visit our show sponsor Lensbaby if you are thinking about the Lensbaby Composer.  Diggs from PLM and reviews from iTunes are encouraged, welcomed, and appreciated!  Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!  🙂

Don’t forget, you can email me from the show link with any questions, comments, feedback or thoughts, as well as share comments here, and reviews on iTunes.  For those without iTunes or Zune, I can provide an mp3 version of the show on request.

Blur, Baby… blur!

Jason5 Comments

Hey all, this week’s show is done and boy are you in for a treat!  Not only is there some pretty ground-breaking news from the computing world, but the theme for this podcast is blur!  I take a (hopefully) clear look at different types of blur you can get in your images, what can work, what will not work, and how to correct for different types.  Got some great listener questions and answers that tie in very nicely to the theme, and as, always the photo tip of the week.  Here’s the show notes:

News Links – HP Z800 Specs (listen to the show to find out why this is so amazing it’s the only news story!)

Focal Length/Crop Factor/Shutter Speed settings –

  • 50mm converts to 85 crop factor, which means a shutter speed of 1/100th
  • 100mm converts to a 160 crop factor, which means a shutter speed of 1/160th
  • 150mm converts to a 240 crop factor, which means a shutter speed of 1/240th
  • 200mm converts to a 320 crop factor, which means a shutter speed of 1/320th
  • 300mm converts to a 480 crop factor, which means a shutter speed of 1/480th
  • 400mm converts to a 640 crop factor, which means a shutter speed of 1/640th
  • 500mm converts to a 800 crop factor, which means a shutter speed of 1/800th
  • 600mm converts to a 960 crop factor, which means a shutter speed of 1/1000th

Listener Questions:

  • DOF Preview button
  • Battery Length
  • Portrait Lenses

Be sure to stop over to the good folks at PLM to get the podcast, and check out the Lensbaby Composer – a great resource for managing blur in your photos!  Happy shooting all and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!