Well, another day of IT goodness is ahead of me so this is just a short post to say have a great holiday-shopping filled weekend! (We’ve only got 20 days left until the bg day – gosh I hate how commercialized this holiday has become!) In some photo news, I shared a few snapshots with Photography and the Mac – he asks for shots of a coffee cup and a phone for his Friday blog posts so readers can chime in on which is worth me. Kind of a fun exercise, so stop over there and check out all his installments – you might see the shots I contributed go up some time today. If I have time, I’ll put together another post later on today, but don’t hold your breath! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here Monday!
Tag: Friday Follies
The week in review
I know web links are typically done on Wednesdays, but a little schedule change was in order given the recent news from this corner of the internet. So, for this Friday, here’s some stuff I read around the web recently:
Brian Reyman of Professional Snapshots has released a beta version of a neat Flash program for schematics of lighting setups. It’s a very helpful in documenting studio work and other such photo utilities. Best of all, it’s Flash-based so it will work on Mac and PC! Many thanks to Brian for all the time and energy he’s put into this program.
Being very much a fan of DIY photography, I have to give shout outs to the guys over at This Week in Photography for their post on making your own reflectors from cardboard, styrofoam, or plywood and either paiting white or covering with aluminum foil. Very clever, and a great tip! Thanks to Scott Bourne for this…oh yeah, check out their weekly podcast too. Lots of info and always fun to listen to!
Scott Kelby needs no introduction, as he’s pretty well recognized throughout the industry. He also most certainly needs no help from me for publicity, but his post this week about the “School of Hard Knocks” really hit home as I forgot a CF card for my camera just the other day. So, sometimes I really am just like Scott Kelby!
David Hobby also gave a little nod to this over on Strobist, and while it’s a little late to be saying it here, there was a Shoot! the Day scheduled for today – photogs the world over will be sharing their shots taken from today over at Photoshelter in the coming week or so. I signed up, but because I forgot my CF card, was not able to participate. Still, stop over there to see a day in the life of photographers the world over!
Michael Johnston of The Online Photographer anounced his newist list of Top Ten Cameras, and Canon gear made it in twice (three times if you count them in with the “any entry-level DSLR” listing.) The top Canon recommendations are the 5D and the SD870 IS.
Finally, in Canon-specific news, we’ all have likely heard about the upcoming release of the Canon XS. Scheduled for release in July, it’s gotten a few reviews trickling out from various resources. The best review I’ve read is over at the Photokina site.
Last, but not least, don’t forget to take a break, and laugh a little over at What the Duck! My favorite one from this week:
Friday Flights of Fancy
I was out on a shoot Wednesday and in setting up, I realized I forgot my White Balance card. I always used my WhiBal card to get accurate settings – it’s the cornerstone of my entire workflow! I was sweating bullets…what would I do?
Well, I’d read about white balancing en masse off the eyes, so thought it might work out. But, with the sunny afternoon, pupils were dilated, and kids were squinting, so…I went with the next best thing – their teeth! Turned out to work okay, and I’ve got about 20 shots to share with the mother at work on Monday. In light of my “success” at setting white balance off a subject’s teeth, I thought I’d share that tip with the readership this Friday – take flight in charting new waters – shoot without a white balance card and just use what nature gives you.
Since I’ve not gotten the model releases signed by the mother yet, I can’t make a gallery of images, but I expect to have those on Monday, so stop back in to see the full gallery by then. For some reason I can’t get to WTD so will add my “Friday Funny” later. Alternatively, you can just stop over to www.whattheduck.net to enjoy the humor – I hit it every Friday and read the entire week.
Finally, I’d like to close this week out with a challenge – show me your shots! Let’s see everyone get out there and take pictures. Email me pictures taken from the theme for the week (or email me a link and I can download that way), and I’ll put a montage together here on the blog. With me being a Canon shooter, I figured it would be fun to start with a related theme – RED. So, show me shots with something red – anything you want, and I’ll put a gallery together of all of them and offer some thoughts and feedback on all contributions in a post the following week. So, the dates that I’ll take shots starts today, and will end next Thursday at midnight. Please re-size your shots to 800px on the longest dimension before sending.
Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to get out and shoot this weekend – remember the theme is RED! Happy shooting and watch those apertures! 🙂