Tag: blogs

Taking it to the next level!

Jason5 Comments

Writing, writing everywhere

We all have aspirations of taking our work to “the next level”.  How we define our “levels” of success is largely a personal matter.  Here I am always happy to share my aspirations and goals with the larger community.  It is likely no secret that as a blogger, the written word is an enjoyable “tool” for me.  In writing both blog posts here, and articles for the PhotographyBB magazine (and special shout outs and thanks to Dave Seeram, editor-in-chief of said magazine), it has become pretty clear that writing for blogs and writing for magazines requires different approaches.  To that end, there is some content on the blog that has never been incorporated into any magazine.  Likewise, some magazine content has never seen the light of the blogosphere.  Well, that convergence begins today, courtesy of my good friend, Eizabeth Gast (a.k.a. “Firgs” of Design by Firgs).

In looking at her work online with her own blog, and her social presence as well, I thought she might enjoy reading an article I wrote for the magazine.  Well, she has helped with editing, and it now also has a great blog form to it as well.  Since she was so instrumental in its transition from magazine to blog, I offered it up to her for use if she liked – needless to say, I think she liked it enough because it’s on her blog today!  Thanks Firgs!  You are the best!  If you want to read more about the importance of how social networking can play into photography – stop over and read her blog.  Heck, stop over anyway and tell her thanks for me! 🙂

The Comment Contest Winner

In other news, the Comments Contest was a huge success!  With only one repeat and one tweeted link, the count totaled 15, matching the highest total ever received for a single post!  After taking out the repeat and the tweet, lucky #13 is the number I plugged in over at www.Random.org (another link I picked up from Firgs!).  Wit the Random Number Generator (drumroll please…) the winner in the Comments Contest is – believe it or not, lucky #13!  That winner is is andie! So, Andie, if you could drop me an email, you are the lucky winner of a $25 gift card to B&H Photo!

The “Win a Wacom” Giveaway

Submissions for this giveaway are now closed.  Over the next few days I will be going through all the entries and winnowing out the best of the best and choosing a winner!  Be sure to tune in as we move toward Friday!

The Super September Giveaway

Remember the Topaz Labs software I mentioned yesterday?  And the Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag System? Yup, it’s now time and they are up for grabs in the latest and greatest giveaway over on the Flickr page.  A new thread has been created (yes, a little ahead of schedule), so feel free to start putting your work in there.  The direct link to that thread is here.  The theme is Think in Color, so I am sure a rainbow will appear in short order, with lots of creativity!

I was going to do a write-up of some more plugins from the Topaz Suite, but time and space just got away from me, so if you wanna see more about this great plugin set, be sure to stop back in tomorrow as I promise to have that review together for your reading enjoyment.  On that note, have a rockin’ day and happy shooting!

When it rains, it pours!

Jason3 Comments

Well, yesterday I had a great conversation with Tom Hogarty, senior Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for inclusion in the upcoming podcast.  In my excitement to finish the post production side, I came downstairs at 3am to my man-cave, and found that Jason Moore had finished an article I sent him for possible inclusion in his “Workflow Friday” series, and posted that out there.  Egads!  Thanks to Jason for that outlet as well.

What’s kind of exciting about that article, is that not only did Jason find it interesting enough to include with the collection of folks that have been featured thus far on his blog, but the good folks (Hi Dave!) over at Photography BB have released their latest free online magazine, and the article was included in there as well!  (I must be doing something right!  *grin*)  Be sure to download that magazine as well, because there really are some talented writers and photographers sharing their perspectives.  I’m also honored that Dave has included the CB Learning Digital Photography podcast in his list of favorite online media sources for photography (we’re #1 in the audio section – woOt!).

When it rains, ir really does pour!  However, because of the interview with Mr. Hogarty, the podcast is thus delayed again, because the two themes of Listener Questions and Answers and Questions with Adobe seamed together pretty well.  I may have it compiled early enough to post before the weekend, but don’t expect any miracles there.  More likely that will be published next week Tuesday under the software heading of the new schedule (since it’s about Lightroom – there’s also some great links you’ll want in the show notes).

For today though, I do have a little maintenance announcement as well: for those of you picking up the blog via Feedburner, you will likely be getting a double dose of images, because as promised, I am also uploading the images from yesterday’s post to share on Flickr, so you will likely see some repetition there.  It’s also a little exciting to share that the feedburner subscription hit an all time high not once but twice this week of 691 listeners/readers.  So, thanks to everyone that has signed up – it really means a lot that so many have found the CB resource useful!

That’s about it for this first Friday in May – have a great weekend everyone!  Happy Shooting and we’ll catch you back here on Monday for the latest in the hardware reviews.  I’ll leave you with one of my favorite selections from this past week in the What the Duck series:

wtd398sun

Monthly Poll – Twitter and Blogging

Jason5 Comments

I was talking with a friend on Twitter last night, and despite the etiquette against chatting back and forth repeatedly, we had quite a lively discussion on the subject of using Twitter to promote/market/advertise your blog. Rather than regale the readership with the discussion, I’ll simply leave the voting unhindered by personal bias, save for one link – a post one of us read on Twitter etiquette a while back: http://tinyurl.com/5lcrqr

With that pretext set, we’d all be interested in hearing the blogosphere thoughts on this subject. So, vote in the poll, then chime in with the comments – the fate of the universe rests in your hands (not really, but join in anyway, it’s fun! 🙂 )

I promise tomorrow I will return to photography topics.  In the meantime, Happy Shooting!

Best 8 of 2008

Jason3 Comments

A new year has begun!  Happy New Year to my online friends and family!  Last year was a great year – it marked the first full year of blogging for me.  It showed me how challenging it is to generate new, useful, and meaningful content for readers on a regular basis.  Format changes, layout changes, content delivery changes, and a host of other things have kept the blog active for going on almost 18 months now.  So, what has kept things going?  A great deal of fellowship and other bloggers have shared their wisdom and experiences with me, both personally, professionally, and through their own regular posts.  To all of them, I would like to issue a collective “thank you.”  However, just as in anything, some are more instrumental in their value, and I would like to deliver special thanks to a few of them.  So, without further ado, here are the “Top 8 of 2008“!!!

  1. The Online Photographer – Michael Johnston delivers a steady stream of photography-related content, including articles, news, reviews, and insights into such a wide and diverse range of subjects, it astounds me.  Thanks Michael for your regular pearls of wisdom!
  2. Photoshop Insider – Scott Kelby is perhaps one of the most prolific writers of our time on photography and Photoshop.  Suffice to say, he definitely has his finger on the pulse of the photography community.  If you want to know what’s going on, and what’s coming up soon – stop by Scott’s blog.
  3. Strobist – David Hobby’s blog/site has become the de facto resource for anything and everything relating to lighting for photography.  If you want to get schooled on lighting, Strobist is the place to go.  He has several resources including the Lighting 101, Lighting 102, and regular content that is both educational and inspirational.  If not in your bookmarks, add it today!
  4. This Week in Photography (a.k.a. TWIP) – Led by Scott Bourne, and contributing photographers Alex Lindsay, Steve Simon, Ron Brinkmann, and Fred Johnson, these professionals get together once a week in a podcast to deliver some of the best audio content on the web.  A little more than a year old, they’ve risen quickly to become the creme de la creme of audio podcasts.  The blog also has great tips and content delivered regularly by Scott.  Thanks to this entire crowd for raising the bar on audio podcasting!
  5. Digital Photography Life – Led by Scott Sherman and Michael Stein, this podcast started under another name by another sponsor, and their departure from the airwaves shortly was a source of great concern for me.  These guys are the normal guys, the enthusiasts of photography – just like me (only probably more knowledgable, insightful, and entertaining).  Their weekly podcasts are always a kick to listen to and make for perfect commute killers!  Thanks to Scott and Michael!
  6. Jason D. Moore – I would be remiss in not mentioning Jason’s influence not only on my blogging, but also on my photography.  Jason was generous enough not only to include me in his now famous “Weekly P&P” listings, but also  as a contributing member to the now well-known and respected Geographic Composition series.  Without his generosity and kind words of support I would not be where I am today either as a blogger or a photographer.  Thanks Jason!
  7. Photowalking Pro – Jeff Revell has become a household name for introducing the idea of photowalking to the masses.  From there he has springboarded to become a well-respected member of the photography community.  He has tutorials, reviews, and just tons of great content that are inspirational and meaningful for anyone of any background and ability.  He was generous enough to also donate time to being on the CB Interview series.  Thanks to Jeff for taking the time to participate, and to also serve as a source of inspiration!
  8. Michael Palmer Photography – Michael has shown me, both through his comments here, as well as through his contributions to the Geographic Composition Series and on his own blog, that when push comes to shove, in the end, it’s always about the photograph.  He has produced some amazing images that he has willingly shared in a variety of outlets including those mentioned, as well as on his won website.  Whenever I need a dose of pure inspiration, I look through his photography, as well as his comments here.  So, thanks to Mike for all your support and motivation through the past year!

These are just some of the resources and friendships I have developed that have had a meaningful impact on the quality of both my photography and blogging in 2008.    Thanks again to the whole gang!  It’s been a great ’08 – let’s make it a fine ’09!  (Yeah, that was cheesy, but it rhyhmed!)

In the meantime, keep on shooting and best regards to the entire community for a prosperous and bountiful new year!  Happy Shooting!

Top 100 of 2008 Honors!

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For the interim posts between Christmas and New Year, I am not going to be introducing much in the way of new content, but while traveling recently, I got word that CanonBlogger receieved accolades as one of the top 100 blogs for 2008.  Thanks so much for the recognition!  In looking at the other sites mentioned, I would also highly recommend the entire list of other blogs as many are in my daily read list.  Be sure to stop over and see the others honored this year:

Top 100 Blogs of 2008