Friday Freebie – Top Ten Forums on the Internet

One of the most dynamic ways to share photos in real time is via photography forums. There are literally hundreds upon thousands to choose from. So…how do you know which ones to visit? Well, find a Forum Ranking post from bloggers like myself – usually you can find a few good ones from blog posts. So, on that note, here’s the Friday Folly – A Free Top Ten list of Photo Forum communities! Naturally, this list is highly subjective, and indicative of the ones that I have found useful for my own purposes over the last two or three years, but it is a good starting point. Keep in mind, these are not rank ordered by any means – just forums I’ve perused and found useful. Enjoy!

  1. Fred Miranda
  2. Digital Photography Review
  3. Photography on the Net
  4. Nikonians
  5. Photo.net
  6. Naturescapes
  7. NAPP Forums
  8. South Carolina Photography Guild
  9. Popular Photography Forums
  10. Shutterbug Forums

It wouldn’t be a Friday without a funny, so here’s my weekly reference to What the Duck:

What the Duck Cartoon

Until Monday then, Happy Shooting and watch those apertures!

Woot! Another Wisdom-filled Wednesday of Web Wonder!

As promised, here’s another set of things to inspire, amaze, and tantalize your senses from what I’ve been reading and seeing online in the last week or so. In the interests of keeping things from rounding out to increments of fives and tens (Sports Night reference – anyone know it, or am I alone in my vagaries?), here’s 6 links for Wednesday:

  1. Joe McNally’s Video on creating a shot of the Empire State Building (Although I think I posted this before – but worth a second watch anyway…)
  2. Earthbound Light – Very good site – particularly the photo tips archives
  3. Action Central – probably one of the best resources for Photoshop actions (and they’re all free!)
  4. A History of Photography – everything you could want to know (from an historical perspective that is…)
  5. NAPP Member Portfolios – some of these will take your breath away!
  6. Happy Belated Birthday to Photoshop (yesterday)! The first version ever shipped on Feb 19th, 1990!

Well I’ve wasted enough of your Wednesday, so happy shooting – just remember to…(wait for it)…watch those apertures!

Tuesday Tricks and Treats (and a tutorial)

This Tuesday, I’d like to share some neat tricks I came across online. First, How to Light a Shot on Two Planes – this came courtesy of The Strobist (one of my regular reads) – plus it includes a really cool-looking shot of some Turkish Delight! Apparently he (David Hobby, Strobist author) did this workshop in Florida last weekend with industry folks like Scott Kelby and others from NAPP in the room – no, that wouldn’t be at all intimidating!

Another neat treat I read about through PhotoJoJo was a blog where two friends who live a fair distance (3191 miles to be exact) from each other and they each share an image a day on their blog, one from each region. A definite cornucopia of inspiration as sometimes it’s the regular snapshot-types while others it’s truly breathtaking scenes…and when the two complement each other, it’s just too cool (February 7th is my favorite day so far)! Stop over when you get a minute and comment on their work – they deserve the accolades. The blog name, coincidentally, is titled 3191!

And last, but not least, the tutorial for the week – my inspiration for this came from (surprise surprise), NAPP contributor Matt Kloskowski. He had done this trick on the show (and in the NAPP member space) for Macs, with a little verbal instruction set at the trailer for Windows users. After sharing a few msgs with him – I decided to do the counterpart tutorial this week for Canon Blogger – the Windows version of creating a Desktop Calendar. So…to Matt, thanks for the creative idea, and to the rest of the world, here’s how to create a desktop calendar for Windows. Enjoy!

Windows Desktop Calendar

A long weekend…

President’s Day has afforded many of us the pleasures of a long weekend.  I took advantage of the opportunity by catching up on some over-needed Z’s, visiting with family, and making strides on the back car-port-turned-screened-in-porch.   So, it’s now Monday afternoon and I am just now sitting down at the computer for some meaningful minutia to share.

One fun little tidbit I got came from the Red Bubble community where a lot of fine art photography can be found.  It seems many there are familiar with another community called EyeFetch.  I know, there’s tons of communities out there, but these seem to be different in that they are full of really positive energies, contests, and great sources of inspiration that is sometimes lacking in the more technical communities.  So, stop over at EyeFetch and see if it’s to your liking.  I could get hooked on these fine art communities.

The other is a couple videos from Joe McNally, who apparently has a dedicated channel on YouTube for some of his videography.  Pretty cool stuff – if you’re afraid of heights, then don’t watch the one on the Empire State Building.

That’s it for today – tutorial Tuesday is only 24 hours away, so stay tuned!

Another Wednesday Walk around the Web

I mentioned it in the latest video podcast, but it also bears mentioning that Popular Photography’s annual Photo Wizard  contest is now underway.  Visit the contest page here for all the info and to download the images for compositing.  Good luck to all.  In other web news, did anyone else read about Apple’s latest update to Aperture 2.0?  Sounds like they are trying to compete with Adobe Lightroom – over 100 new features including one called Recover Slider…hmmm.

Other fun and inspiring sites I saw in the past few days:

  • Joe McNally’s blog – a little blurb about his book that is rocketing up the charts at Amazon.
  • Moose Peterson’s blog – always a great source of knowledge and inspiration
  • PhotoWalkPro – a great idea, and keep it in mind – they may take it on the road to a city near you!  Either that or schedule your own (Charleston SC did here)
  • JPG Magazine is always something I mean to get, read, and even submit work to.  Here’s a link to their site for more photography fun.

Don’t forget, the tutorial is still available, the poll is still going on, and I’m always excited about comments, feedback and ideas! 🙂

Friday Follies for February

Okay, my Friday follies are a little later than normal (I usually either post super early or before diner). Anyway, without further ado, here’s some fun diversions for Friday:

Stop over at Photo.net and enjoy some amazing photography from Rarindra Prakarsa. I found him through Scott Kelby’s blog.

Another fun site to enjoy some photography fine art would be a recent discovery I found: Red Bubble. (I even created a profile there to see how things work)

Need a tripod in a pinch? Try Photojojo’s suggestion of using a screw, a string and a weighted washer. It’s not really as stable, but makes for a neat and compact way to add a little stabilization while on the go. Check them out for a fun diversion: Photojojo

This also came up in conversation over on the new blog of Michael Johnston (of T.O.P fame), www.photoborg.org

Last, but not least, a little humor from What the Duck:

wtd408.gif

Re-visiting stock versus fine art photography (does noise matter)?

I mentioned briefly in a post last week about a discussion that took place in the forums section of a prominent stock agency.  The question was raised (by me) about whether fine art photography can co-exist and sell as “stock” when the agency itself is marketed as a stock site rather than as fine art photography.  The question never had a clear resolution, but some common ideas did seem to bubble to the surface.

First, there is the idea that if a photo does not meet certain criteria in terms of noise, sharpness, chromatic aberations, etc, then it does not qualify as a “stock” photo.  The question of whether it qualifies as art really doesn’t matter in this context, because it would never get in the front door.

The other idea that emerged seems to suggest that the term “fine art” and even “art” is very subjective, and usually a function of the beliefs of either the artist and/or the viewer.  This portion of the discussion is what never was resolved., and likely never will be, since there are obviously so many dynamics of defining “art”.   The question then turned to one of excusing photographic imperfections such as noise, grain, sharpness and such under the guise of believing something is fine art.  After the fact, the shooter can always say “Yeah, I wanted it that way…it’s there by intent.”  While we can never second-guess the intent, it still leaves me wondering, do things like grain, noise and such have a place in a fine art community?

From the discussion, I found out about a site called Red Bubble.  It was intriguing enough that I decided to join and share a few of my images as a “test” of sorts.  All seem to have been received fairly well as I’ve heard cordial and pleasant remarks about them.  In perusing some of the other work on this site, it seems equally clear that the better quality images do tend to get more visibility, and are likely viewed, commented on, and as a consequence, sold more often.  There were very few images I found that had visible grain, noise or other clearly intentional imperfections.  So, while the “stock versus fine art” question may have been at least partially addressed, the lingering question of noise still lingers.  What do you think?  Please share your thoughts in the comments, as I’d be very interested in feedback on this subject.

So, that’s the “Thursday Thoughts” for this week.  Feel free to visit Red Bubble and enjoy the imagery that artists are offering there.  A link to the few shots I shared is also available on the side panel for Canon Blogger.  Happy shooting and watch your apertures!

Wednesday Update – Three things…

Three things:

  • Just a quick update and thanks to those who pointed out that the resource page was not updated with the latest tutorial.  That page has now been updated and is current.  For those of you that don’t know of the resource page, it can be found here:  Canon Blogger Video Tutorials
  • I also made an update so you can go straight to the iTunes page via the admittedly lame graphic on the right sidebar.  (I did it on a whim and have not had time to go back and do a real graphic that will blend better.
  • Jump in on the poll too – what gear do you enjoy shooting with?

Wednesday Weblinks

As I corrected the missing links from yesterday’s podcast, I started surfing my usual photo sites, and I came across this neat site sponsored by Kingston, called Icons Of Photography (IOP). Four well-known photographers offer up their professional albeit short critiques of user-submitted images. I read through a few and all seemed very well-meaning and kind in their deliveries. What a great resource for the budding photographer: Icons of Photography Thanks to the contributors, Harry Benson, Colin Findlay, Gerd Ludwig, and Peter Read Miller for their generosity in sharing views and perspectives on their contributions to the field.

For those of you equestrian aficionados, there’s a new photo contest for 2008 tailored to your interests from the folks over at Equestrian Magazine. (I personally have tried to take a few photographs of some horses and they make for challenging subjects sometimes, so good luck!) Here’s the contest link for those that are interested. Good luck!

Another little tidbit for photo news of the week – as a former graduate student in Political Science – I watch political news fairly regularly. While I try to stay away from divisive content and hotly debated subjects, I do have reason to share a political story here: New Photos from Lincoln’s second inauguration have been discovered and added to the repository for the Library of Congress. Truly amazing shots and in great detail considering the era: 22MG tiff files are available with no constraints on usage (in other words, they’re in the public domain!). Rather than try to reproduce smaller thumbnails here that simply will not do them justice, here’s links to the Library of Congress Announcement and the 4 images:

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4

Last but not least – my last hobby before photography was scuba diving (I can never seem to take up something cheap like writing poems or anything along those lines), so I try to peruse news about scuba from time to time. While underwater housings have been around for a while, a company named Aquatica has confirmed they are making an underwater housing for the Canon Mark III. I went to the company’s website, and they have quite the variety of housings that are guaranteed to protect your gear underwater. Like all high quality gear though – it has a price. On the order of $2 G’s US. (That’s two thousand dollars…) Very cool website though and makes me think about mirroring the two hobbies together once again. (I am sure my wife would divorce me though…)

That’s it for today. What photo news have you heard today? Sound off in the comments or to me via email.

Thanks, and as always, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Shiny Web 2.0 Text Effects Tutorial

As promised, the Tuesday tutorial is up today for viewing. The web version will be linked first, with the iPod/iTunes version for download listed second. A brief note on this – I’ve made some adjustments to the video quality, and am trying to keep the sizing consistent, so these are set to display now at 1024×768 which is the standard resolution for a 15″ LCD monitor. If you are at 15″ or higher, you shouldn’t have any problems. I’ve also added a graphic to the web flash, and cleaned it up a little more in my production software. The effect is a little more polished, but I may tweak the html a little as time permits. The PDF version of this will also be up shortly too, as the video moves pretty fast (I cover a lot of ground in this one…)

For the Wednesday Web links, since I am talking about text effects in the tutorial, it seems only fitting to mention a few resources for fonts on the internet. Here’s a couple I know of…if anyone has their own suggestions or resources, feel free to share them in the comments section. So, here’s the font sites I’ve used and heard good things about:

www.dafonts.com – Great resource for tons of free fonts online.

www.myfonts.com -If you need a professional set of fonts with a little more polish and visual appeal, some really well done ones are available here.

www.minifonts.com – This should be self-explanatory, but this site specializes in mini fonts. Tiny ones used in avatars for example, or in favicon images for websites (note the new one used for Canon Blogger – refresh your cookies if it’s a fuzzy CB logo)

Now, on with the tutorial materials:

Web Flash Version

PDF Download

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