Category: Uncategorized

I Am a Teapot!

Jason2 Comments

Nothing too fancy, just a short post today to share a particular “vision” I had.  Hopefully it helps to illustrate that even the mundane can be interesting if you think outside the box!

Teapot

For the inquisitive, this was shot with off-camera flash, using Radiopoppers.  The EXIF data:

Shutter Speed = 1/250th
Aperture = f/18
Focal Length = 70mm
ISO = 100
Flash = 580 EX II

Since EXIF data doesn’t record flash settings, I want to say that this was at 1/4 power, bare bulb (no diffuser, umbrella, bounce or anything like that).  The hint of yellow reflection off the background of the stove is likely due to bounce off the yellow color of the teapot itself onto the black metal on the stove.  It was an unintentional but cool side effect, so I left it in!

As the old saying goes: “Keep on shooting!”

And the book winners are…!

Jason3 Comments

Last week Monday, the latest Learning Digital Photography podcast went out, and with it, an extra special bonus for the readers and listeners – not one, but two books from guest Nicolesy (a.k.a. Nicole Young)!  I just closed the post for comments, and counted up the replies…we had 22 unique commenters (excluding twitter references) for this post, making it one of the most popular ones ever!

I know, you’re all really here to find out who the winners are, so without further ado – comment submissions #6 and #10 are the lucky folks:

Comment Contest Winners

Thanks to everyone for their participation…and to Chris and Joe, if you could send off a quick email to me, I’ll make sure the folks at Peachpit get in touch to arrange fulfillment for you.  Once again, I’d also like to thank Nicolesy and Jason Cate for their participation in the show as well as Peachpit for their generous contribution.  It was a lot of fun, and the comment contest also ratcheted things up a notch too, so hopefully we can make these more of a regular occurrence with the podcasts.  With that in mind, are there any other authors, photographers, or folks you’d like me to bring on a show,?  Now’s your chance to sound off and get the folks on that you really wanna hear from!  Sound off (you knew it was coming) in the comments!

Happy shooting (and Happy Valentines Day for the romantically inclined out there), and we’ll see you back again soon right here – same time, same station!

What’s Going On…

Jason2 Comments

A couple fun news items to share today…including some prize additions, a webinar announcement, and more!

Comment Contest

I just got word last night from Nicole that a copy of both her 60D and 7D books will be donated to the comment contest – so there’s gonna be two winners!  All you have do to is comment on the podcast post from Monday!  Yup, that’s it – no fuss, no muss – just comment and win!  Pretty generous of her and Peachpit to donate like that!  Oh yeah, and be sure to listen to the podcast, we have a great conversation about how to strike a balance in your photographic life!  All that’s available from here.

Photoshop Cs5 Webinar

The folks over at Nations Photo Lab just keep on giving!  In addition to the monthly Flickr contest (where you get $50 certificates just for playing), they’re also the sponsors of the Live Learning Lab – a free live webinar served up on the 2nd Wednesday of every month, hosted by myself and Kerry Garrison of Camera Dojo.  We just had the February one last night, and it was quite the hit!  You can watch the archived shows for free too if you can’t be in attendance – just can’t ask questions in real time.  Anyway, the archive is here

Live Learning Lab

If you’d like to participate in the March webinar – be sure to sign up in advance as we can only take 100 people.  More details are forthcoming on that shortly.

And more…

Okay, there really isn’t much in the way of “more”, but since I like to have images for every post, here’s a quickie from my own archives just for a dose of inspiration (in hopes of a Spring thaw soon!).  Happy Shooting!

Arizona Cactus

For the Birds

JasonLeave a comment

One of my annual clean-up sprees happened over the weekend and ran a little long into the week…this was not a task for the light of heart because it requires seriously chimping your own work – and even admitting that some you’ve kept just aren’t worth keeping anymore because you’ve never touched them ever since capture.  I cleaned quite a bit, and although tedious, the task really is for the birds because you should be doing this all the time, not just annually.  Sometimes a diamond in the rough can squeak through though…and here’s two that might be a exception…what do you think?

For the Birds

For the Birds 2

I wish the birds eyes were more viewable, and the ISO was pretty high so took some serious slider dragging in LR to make presentable here.  Not sure the second is close enough to be worth it, but then again there is something to be said for negative space!  Consider it a photo critique day – so do thy worst fair readers, critique the author! 🙂

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again soon!

LDP Episode #54: Striking a Balance

Jason28 Comments

The latest and greatest episode of the LDP Podcast is now live and available for download!  This week not one but two guests…special guest Jason Cate from the listening audience, and an established photographer in his own right, and Nicole Young returns to the show.  Here’s the show notes (and show for download)!  Enjoy the show, and thanks to everyone for their continued support and interest:

1.  Personal Work versus Client Work – What brings clients in is your own creative vision yet at the same time you also have to be able to recognize the client vision too…striking a balance there can be demanding and challenging.  There are several strategies to cope:

2.  Shooting versus Promotion/Marketing – We have to produce work to survive, but by the same token if we don’t tell others about the work we are producing, how can one even begin to survive without some measure of success.  Balancing the creative and business ends of photography is equally demanding and can take a pretty heavy toll if you’re not careful.  There are several approaches to take here as well:

3.  Capturing and creating photos and projects versus down time – With the internet, Twitter, Facebook cell phones, email, and everything assaulting us literally 24/7 – there has to be a way to balance personal time with work time.  In this case personal time means actually putting the camera down and spending time with family, friends, colleagues, and otherwise “unplugging” from the digital photography world.  Can we even afford to take these periods of downtime anymore?  Is it worth the risk of fading?  Things to consider when balancing personal and professional growth and development, and strategies to cope:

4.  Listener Q&A

  1. What’s the best way to deal with noise in photos?  I’ve heard several options out there ranging from using plugins in Lightroom, to layer masks in photoshop, while others just avoid high ISO at all costs. – Karen in New York
  2. Just getting started in photography and wondering if I can build a business in this market.  What are the pitfalls I should be wary of?  On that same note, would it be better to begin solo and keep things small to avoid getting in over my head or should I work with other photogs to defray costs while making larger projects available to the business? – Phil in Las Vegas
  3. Everyone always talks a good game about lenses, but it’s tough to be taken seriously when people have better camera bodies than I do that have 1/10th the experience or knowledge. How do you deal with clients who have better gear than you? – Katherine in Milwaukee

Co-Hosts:

And, for those of you that listened, and are paying attention, you’ll know that Nicole has generously donated a copy of one of her latest books “Snapshots to Great Shots” for some lucky commenter.  So, leave your comments, thoughts, and/or feedback on the show here, and you’ll be automatically entered to win either her 60D or 7D book!  (We’ll know for sure which book it is hopefully later today – Monday)…

[display_podcast]

Book review: Photo Trade Secrets

JasonLeave a comment

Zeke Kamm puts together an interesting set of books in Vols 1 and 2 of “Photo Trade Secrets”  This is not your typical book though, so I’m not really sure that a normal review is warranted.  It’s a pretty simple concept though:

Each book is a series of “hero shots” – just some really cool photography, ranging from studio work, to portrait, landscape, and everything in between.  The concept behind the series is that each page can be torn out (they’re perforated) so you can go and try to duplicate the effect in your own images.  I tore a few pages out of the books to show you the idea in practice.  Keep in mind that it seems my scanner is having some issues, so the image quality here is not very consistent nor is it necessarily accurate – the end result in the book look much better!

Sample 1 (back)

You can see the front image (left) shows the end result, and the rear of the page (right) shows the setup with how and where things are positioned.  I do wish he would have included the technical data such as aperture, shutter, ISO, light settings (1/4 power, manual, TTL, etc.), but it’s a neat idea regardless.

Here’s the rest of the sample images…

With 25 pages per volume, it’s nothing too meaty that will leave your head swirling with technical minutia and yet it’s got enough creative directions from all the contributing photographers to give you plenty of ideas for inspiration.   It’s all a lot like “lighting recipies” with a boiler plate template, from which the author (and contributing photographers) expect you to springboard from.  They give you enough to get up and running, but not enough to completely duplicate w/out a little of your own flavor and tastes in to season appropriately…

Depending on where you are and what you are looking for – this could be a two thumbs up or one to skip.  For me personally – I love getting creative and inspirational ideas from other photographers, so this medley gets two thumbs up!  Cool idea, well implemented, and lots of inspiration going forward!

Garbage leads to Beauty

JasonLeave a comment

Tuesday night is trash night in the Anderson household – and whether mild and comfortable, or sub-zero and bone-chilling, it’s my job to gather all the bags and roll things out to the curb on my appointed night.  Last night was no exception.  However, even in such mundane tasks as “taking out the trash”, one can find beauty and art if you are open to it.  Thankfully, I was on this night.

You see, not only is it trash night, but this also is going to be one of the coldest nights I can remember in Colorado – we are on pace to be at 17 below zero by morning!  Like I said – bone-chilling!  In our house, that translates to fires in the fireplace.  A bundle of wood costs around $3 and it heats the entire house to where we almost have to open windows.  So, we needed no encouragement to add the warmth of a fire last night.

Also, as an admitted “guy”, there is nothing more fun than poking and stirring a fire, whether it be in a fireplace or in a campsite.  So, my face was naturally glued to the fire for most of the evening.  Twist twist, poke poke.  Then a log here and there…and some old cardboard I tore up to throw out (remember, it was trash night).  The smell of the crackling wood and ash is still lingering in my mind too.  That, combined with a nice red vino made for probably one of the most relaxing evenings.

Fireplace Flames

It was quite relaxing too…and even Tracy joined me for a few minutes of quiet time just gazing at the embers before finishing things up for the night (a.k.a. the trash).  The flames from the fire, still flickering inside my head, were doused by the chill of the air on stepping out to the garage.  The frost already on the door was right there, in my face, reminding me of how cold it actually was/is outside.  (Bone-chilling, in case you didn’t get that yet.)  And right then, it hit me – frozen snowflakes of ice on the window – with the light coming down behind it…just gorgeous!

Cold and Ice

When thinking about these two images, and how much I liked them, it dawned on me further that these are great examples of how juxtaposing themes can work really well together…and it all came from taking out the trash!  The point:  keep your eyes open, the next dose of inspiration can come from anywhere, even the most mundane task on the planet!  And wit an amazing contest going on now – this is as good a time as ever to keep your artistic eyes open!

Love is All You Need

Jason5 Comments

As most of you know, we took December and January off for the holidays.  This hopefully gave everyone time to recharge, enjoy a little down time and just relax with family and friends for December and January.  Well, it’s February and we are back in full force with the first contest of 2011.  The sponsor for this month are the folks over at Nations Photo Lab.  They really have ramped things up a notch for the new year, because this not only marks the first contest of the new year, it’s also the first contest where we will have not one but two winners!

That’s right, two people will be announced the winners for the February contest and giveaway!  Each winner will receive a generous donation from Nations Photo Lab – a gift certificate worth $150 of free printing!  That’s right, $150 of free printing from Nations Photo Lab! This prize is available to anyone, regardless of whether you are a current NPL  customer or not.  The theme for February, as chosen by our always talented Sue from the Flickr group (due to her win during the non-award winning off month submission) is the applicable theme of Love!

A couple new wrinkles that are being thrown in this time for such a huge contest…first off, all previous winners are usually ineligible for consideration in the month immediately following their winning entry – we are starting with a new year, so it’s also a clean slate, so everyone is eligible!!!

The second wrinkle (and probably the most exciting), is that for February only – every entrant will receive a $50 gift card to Nations Photo Lab – just for participating! That’s right, all you have to do is submit a qualifying entry in the Flickr contest thread for February to win a $50 gift card for printing on any product of your choice at Nations Photo Lab! *   So, all that’s left to say are the criteria to qualify.  It’s super easy:

  • Make sure your image is theme-appropriate (and family friendly/work safe).
  • Make sure I am able to download your image from Flickr.  (See the explanation for how to make sure I can download it here.)
  • Each image considered must be in the contest thread.
  • Each person is entitled to submit one image for eligibility.  Multiple entries will not be considered.
  • Each image must conform to the standard guidelines in terms of dimensions (longest side must be no longer than 800 pixels or shorter than 600 pixels).
  • All images must be taken after January 1st, 2011!
  • Entrants retain full copyright and ownership of images, but allow me to display the image here on the website to display when winners are announced, and in the monthly newsletter.
  • Entries must be submitted no later than 11:59pm on Sunday, February 27th, 2011.
  • Last but not least, have fun with the images you capture!

Questions about the submission process should be addressed in either the Contest Overview Page or the Rules of Engagement Page.

Last but not least, you may be interested in how to get to, sign into and participate in the Flickr Contest thread!

Good luck to everyone and remember to have fun!

*ETA:  In the interests of full disclosure, the $50 certificate is for new customers, so if you are already an NPL customer, feel free to enter your images as well, but the goal here is to not only encourage people to take pictures, but to print them, and to consider Nations Photo Lab as your lab of choice.  I use NPL almost exclusively (except in rare cases where they don’t have what I need, like printing on aluminum) and highly recommend them.  Here is your chance to sign up for an account for free and get up to $50 worth of printing just for participating in the contest.

The Winner Is…

Jason3 Comments

Ladies and gents, we have a winner!

From the comment contest last week, the winner it none other than Richard Hales – a.k.a. #4 from the Random Number Generator:

Easy Release Winner

Congrats to Richard, and thanks to the folks from Easy Release for their contribution – if you could get in touch with me via email Richard, I’ll connect you both to arrange distribution of the license or discount code for iTunes.  Thanks to all for their participation!

Did you miss the comment contest?

Jason1 Comment

On Wednesday I put out a review on some very cool software that is available for both Apple and Android devices – Easy Release, which lets you take digital model and property releases out with you in the field and people can sign the release right on your mobile device, using only their finger!  You can also email the release to yourself and the model as PDF files too!  It’s pretty slick, and while you have likely read the review, perhaps you missed that there is a comment contest going on to win the app for your own phone/device!  Priced at $10, and you can win it for free, just by throwing a comment up in the post!

Live Learning Webinar

In other news, the next Live Learning Webinar that Kerry Garrison and I are heading up for the folks over at Nations Photo Lab is ready for registration.  We can take up to 100 registrations for this event.  It sold out fast last time, and we expect things to go quick for this one too.  Sign up here:  http://livelearninglab.eventbrite.com For the inaugural one we covered some great stuff on Lightroom, and this go around, we’ll be talking ‘Shop (as in Photoshop)!  It’s only for an hour and it’s completely free!, thanks to the sponsorship of Nations Photo Lab!

Last Chance Sale on 49 Photo Tips, Vols 1 and 2

This weekend is also the last weekend before the 49 Photo Tips books are pulled from the eJunkie store to be completely revamped for an entirely new product line, so get ’em while you can!  The laundry list of tips (49 Photo Tips, Volume 1) is only $2.99 and the full color photo-included list (Volume 2) is only $7.99.  Get them both and save $5  (that’s nearly 50% off…) using the coupon code FINAL !

That’s it for the Friday Freebies (and discounts) for this week.  Be sure to get your own comments in for a chance to win!  Gotta be “in it to win it”!  Happy shooting and see you back here next week!