Last Friday afternoon the local photography meet-up group for the metro Denver area got together and paid a visit to historic downtown Brighton (about 30 minutes northeast of Denver. It was a fun get-together, and with a smaller than average turnout of 6 of us, we really got a chance to not only converse and interact with one another, we also had some great opportunities for photographs. The highlight of the day was when we happened to be walking by the Brighton Armory. As it turns out, this building was recently renovated as part of a new cultural center for the area. The Operations Manager saw us walking by and invited us inside, as well as a tour of both the upstairs and downstairs areas.
Not only did we get a little piece of history about the place, we got some great shots of the building itself. With several hundred to parse through over the weekend, I’ve trimmed it to the slide show below showing some shots from both around Brighton and the Armory itself. The other thing that was exciting about this is that after expressing an interest in volunteering our photographic services for any events, they seemed interested in taking us up on the offer. We shall see what may come of these serendipitous meetings. It just goes to show you that it’s always a good thing to support the arts, and always good to think about networking – even when you are just having fun on a photo walk!
Here’s a couple links for those interested in learning more about the area and the Armory:
http://brightonarmory.org/
http://heartofbrighton.org/ArmoryVideo.htm
Enjoy the slide show and we’ll see you back here tomorrow – happy shooting!
Don’t forget too, the January Flickr contest thread is open, and the Circle theme should be producing some interesting images. Speak your creative vision and enter today!
As with every new year, there is always talk about setting New Years Resolutions – and setting goals is always easy to do, but what about keeping those resolutions? Sometimes it’s a challenging thing to do, because we either set goals that are vague or not very specific. For example, “lose weight” is a common goal, as is “exercise more”. From a photography perspective, we often will hear (or say) ones like “shoot more”, “get organized”, and other such platitudes. While the ideal is always good, the intangible goals are always the most difficult to reach simply because they are…well, intangible!
Do yourself a favor and not only set some concrete goals, but share them with colleagues, peers, and friends. If you write a blog, announce them! Make your readers hold you to your goals. Not only will you be more likely to achieve your goals, but your readers will also become more vested in your blog! It’s very empowering, and I would encourage everyone who writes a blog or has a web presence to do something like that.
Uh oh, I just realized something – I kind of set myself up there didn’t I? Okay, yeah, it was kind of intentional, but it came from the heart! 🙂 My biggest resolution for this year – finish projects! I can’t tell you how many projects I have started to get distracted by other projects, ideas, or things, only to never make it back to the original project.
For example, I had set a project once of getting all my resume and personal information in an easy to access text file for copying and pasting into database driven websites like USAJobs. So, it was off to getting various records for inclusion, including my military service. That led me to the filing cabinet (insert Psycho music here)! Before I knew it, I had spent 3 hours organizing the filing cabinet into tabbed folders of all things non-job related. Gas receipts, electric bills, and all sorts of other things kept popping up at me saying “file me file me file me”! It got so bad I even found myself at the local Staples getting tabbed divider label things for each category instead of getting the original project done!
In keeping with the idea of finishing projects, I would like to share the completion of project #1: The Sunrise Shoot at Rocky Mountain National Park! I mentioned it in December before the holidays and I had every intention of completing this sooner, but first the layoff, then Christmas, then New Years, and many other distractions pulled me away. No more! The trip is completed, the shots processed, and the videos montaged! I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the RMNP trip:
[display_podcast]
So, project #4982163 has been completed…I have all the rest to do! What are your resolutions and projects for 2010? Do they include getting a circle shot ready for the January Giveaway? (Announced here yesterday…) Here’s the link for the contest thread on Flickr in case you missed it!
Share your own thoughts and ideas, resolutions and projects in the comments and we’ll help keep you on track! In the meantime, keep on shooting, have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday! Happy Shooting!
One of the resolutions I had wanted to do was publish a “Best of” series from the Flickr group each month. That did not come to pass, but I did want to take some time to share some of my favorites of the past year with you here. Not much to say in the way of prefacing these, other than to say that I liked them. Whether for the technical quality, the compositional quality, the message, the colors, or the perspective – they stood out for me. Feel free to visit the Flickr group pool and peruse for your own favorites, but here’s mine:
Thanks to everyone who continues to share their photos in the Flickr Community. I will try my best to get some “favorites” put out monthly from this group, as that is one of many New Years Resolutions I am going to try to commit myself to for 2010. Some are personal, some are inspired by others. I’ll likely share more of these commitments going forward as well. Do you have any resolutions for the 2010 calendar year? Sound off in the comments!
Finally, stay tuned for the December Giveaway Winner which will be announced later this week too! Tomorrow, be sure to stop back for more top picks from 2009. Happy shooting and we’ll see you then! 🙂
Can anyone guess the significance of the post title right off the bat? Any takers at all? For those that could, cool! For those that can’t, 37 is a reference to the last podcast for 2009! Episode #37 (Longevity of Lenses) is now available for your listening pleasure in iTunes and with the folks hosting the show directly on the web at Personal Life Media. It might be an hour or so actually before the show is available for download on iTunes, so hold off for a little there before downloading – you might get the previous episode! It does take a look at the subject of lens longevity much along the lines of the previous post here on the blog, but it also speaks to things like depreciation, and considers the business element of lenses too – so there’s always more in the podcast for blog readers to enjoy!
I can’t guarantee I will have a post ready for tomorrow, so this could also be the last post for 2009 as well. It’s always fun to look back and review the year this close to the end. I’ll have some more details trickling out once we’re into 2010, including the always popular “Best Blogs”. There does seem to be a trend as in 2007 I posted my “Top 7 of ’07”, followed by the Top 8 of ’08, and most recently, the “Top 9 of ’09”. Can you guess what is coming soon in January? 🙂
Here though, it seemed appropriate given that the podcast was released today, to note that it is episode 37 of the show. That means 37 episodes in 52 weeks – that’s more than one every other week. I am not sure what the average show length is, but am guessing it is in the 30-45 minute realm, which means some people out there have spent at least 26 hours (over a day!) listening to me talk about photography! Got another day available for 2010?
I hope so because we’re going to have a lot more fun and cool stuff coming up in the podcast, and on the new radio show for newcomers over at WebtalkRadio! More guests, more articles, more tips and tricks, and yes…more contests! These shows and articles and contests though really are here for you, the listener and reader though, so if you want me to cover anything specific, please feel free to let me know in the comments of the blog or via email!
Anyway, enough of the “back story”. Here’s the show notes:
Last but not least…don’t forget the contest deadline is rapidly approaching – tomorrow midnight is your last chance to get your favorite Giving photo into the Flickr thread to be eligible for the prize bonanza! Lots of stuff is going to go to some lucky participant, so get it up there and good luck! Happy New Year one and all, and we’ll see you next year here on the blog/podcast/etc.! Happy Shooting!
While recently listening to This Week in Tech (a great podcast, and I highly recommend it), the show host, Leo Laporte, made an interesting observation about the advancement of technology. He was musing about the changes that have happened in audio consumption. We listen to much of our music in iPods and portable music players, when not too long ago, we were confined to a certain space. To that end, he noted that the technology of audio in those days revolved around things like the number of amps, tweeters and woofers, quadraphonics, decibels, and much of that technical information. We jam-packed our houses with stereo components, our cars with subwoofers, and on and on. To get truly high quality audio you needed to have resources (a.k.a. money), and the producers of that audio content was restrictive because of the costs.
Not today – these days you can plug a $5 microphone into a USB port on a $400 computer, say or sing anything you want, and almost instantly have beautiful high quality digital recordings of whatever you like. This is a good thing though – because even though more people are recording audio, what matters is what the message of that audio is saying. I can’t just go on the podcast and talk about nothing because no one would listen…although sometimes it feels like I am blathering on and on! 🙂 As the old saying goes, “content is king“! Leo’s observation was that in the audio world, it’s a wonderful thing because anyone can produce audio, and there are now more voices for creativity. With the lower cost of entry to producing high end audio, two questions came about. The first is “What does that content say (what is the point, or message)?” The second is “How do you want to consume that media?” (With the options being whether you want it on a CD in your car, on your iPod at the gym, on your computer as you work, or where ever.)
It was a very astute observation, and that description applies to other media as well. I am, of course, thinking about photography. Think about the analogy for a minute. For the longest time we had the film world, and as ASA speeds got better, grain got finer, the size and quality of image development improved as technology permitted. With the movement to the digital world, and the subsequent “Megapixel Wars”, capturing high quality detail in your photography was no longer such an arduous process. I believe we are at a crossroad now in digital photography, where the technology has expanded to a quality level that anyone is able to produce excellent quality images, in terms of technical details. The portability factor for audiophiles doesn’t really apply as much to photography though as the medium is more portable by definition. You are also looking at the image rather than listening to it.
The advances in the technology of photography has also introduced a creative outlet for many where it previously did not exist. The decreasing costs of production have allowed many to find their “photography voice”. With the holidays upon us, many are likely to get a shiny new camera with lots of bells and whistles, and for some out there, this will be an opportunity to “sing”! It’s an exciting time to be a part of the chorus because with so many voices, there are lots of melodies and harmonies to be heard and enjoyed.
This will undoubtedly lead many to ask “So, how do I make my pictures sing?” It’s a great question, and one that I have been tackling in some way, shape, or form for some time now from various points of view, including technical, compositional, and subtle intangibles that are all part of this larger question of how to better express yourself photographically. There’s more to come on that, and I’ll be sharing more thoughts on this in the weeks to come. But it is a good exercise, so I would like to throw it to the reading and listening audiences. As we take a blogging break over the holidays, ask yourself (and post your thoughts here in the blog) the following two questions:
Can pictures really “sing”? Why, or why not?
If so, what does it take to make your pictures sing?
Share your thoughts in the comments below! As a reminder, you can also now embed photos in your comments by using the link to attach a URL. Happy shooting, Merry Christmas, and we’ll see you back here next week!
P.S. Don’t forget – next week is the last week to add your “Giving” themed photos to the December Giveaway! Should be lots of opportunities to capture some photos with that theme over the weekend! There’s over $400 in prizes will go to one lucky person, so post your best photo to the Flickr thread here. The guidelines are posted there, so be sure to check those to make sure your entry is counted…Happy Shooting and good luck to all!
Is your shopping done? Mine isn’t – I am going to be braving the stores tomorrow for some last minute ideas I had that popped in my head over the weekend. Unfortunately for Tracy, she is not a photographer, so camera-related items are not really an option. But, if you are running out of time and ideas, rest assured, I’ve got a few more here for you today. Fair warning though, because when you’ve waited this long to shop, the sticker prices for items are generally in the higher end rather than the lower end. (You may recall that I did a list of 25 for under $25 a few weeks ago.) So, without further ado, here’s the final recommendations for this holiday season…
1. Membership: Being a member of organizations has perks, and there are several out there that can help different types of photographers for different reasons, but three that I would highly recommend are membership to NAPP (of which I am a member – $99/year), PPA, ($194/yr) and ASMP ($140/yr). If these are a little out of your league – a Flickr Pro membership is only $25, and gives you access to lots of things that aren’t available in the free version.
2. Prints and Framing: I’ve talked up Mpix before, and would highly recommend them as a printing outfit for anyone, but regardless of your preferences, giving prints as gifts is always appreciated, especially when accentuated by frames, and photographers are no different. Gift certificates to places like Mpix, and even your local frame and print shops is something that will not only be appreciated but used!
3. Seminars and Workshops: Having been to only one, this is something I would love to get more experience with, and there certainly is no dearth of these available. Kelby Training is the one I know best, but there are literally dozens of outfits that offer on-hand seminars and workshops on everything from lighting, post processing, One that interests me specifically is the Santa Fe workshops, where Joe McNally teaches, but others are all over the country from Maine to California, Florida, and everywhere in between. If you know of any particular seminars and workshops, feel free to post links in the comments!
4. Software: High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is here to stay, and for those of you interested in getting great results, you’ll need some software to help you process those images. Photoshop is okay at it, but if you want better results, a 3rd party product that is dedicated for the tone mapping and processing is really required. The one I like (and that most others like as well), is Photomatix, from the folks at HDR Soft. They have educational discounts as well for students, teachers, and the like.
5. Video: I know, convergence and the ability to shoot video inside your camera is becoming increasingly common, but this video recorder is just too cool (and low cost) to shrug aside…I am talking about the Flip video Ultra HD Camcorder. For $150 from B&H, it’s a super deal, and the recording quality is superb. I’ve seen lots of people with these, and I’ve seen the results – remarkable quality for the cost.
So, get out those credit cards, and get the gift that suits your photog best! In the meantime, we’ve got a couple things going on here now at the blog, so be sure to chime in before the end of the year:
December Giveaway – Win $40+ of prizes, including books, prints, paper and software
Share your Best photos from 2009 – I’ve added the ability to embed photos in the comments section, so if you have an image you like from 2009 and it’s online, share it in the comments for Saturday’s post
That’s it for today – happy shooting and happy holidays as we count down the remaining days to Christmas!
While recently participating in a Photowalk group outing to Rocky Mountain National Park, with the fellow local photogs, I learned about this great little plugin for Lightroom that allows you to export your photos directly to Flickr…all within Lightroom! It’s a pretty cool little plugin, and as you know, when I learn something new – so do you!
This plugin comes courtesy of Jeffrey Friedl, and one of the greatest features of it is the cost – absolutely free! Well, that’s not exactly true, you do need to spend one cent via Paypal, but for a penny, check out what you can do:
I started off downloading the ZIP file (and it works for Windows or Mac) and expanding the archive. Then I moved the plugin to the root of my Applications folder on the Mac (you can choose where ever you want to store plugins, you just have to tell Lightroom – and for me this is an easy place). The icon for it looks like this:
Flickr Uploader Plugin Icon
Nothing too spectacular yet, and there’s a little bit of installation and customization needed. Your needs may vary based on how you want to use the plugin, Flickr, and Lightroom, but the cool thing is that Jeffrey has put together a plugin for most online locales including Smugmug, Zenfolio, Facebook, Photobucket, and many more. So, if you use another resource, it’s worth checking out. I’ll continue here for the Flickr plugin and you can decide for yourself if it’s worth adding this tool to your workflow.
Next up, I went ahead and configured the plugin from inside of Lightroom to use my Flickr account. Here’s what I did. To start, click on Export, just as if you are exporting to disk or some other resource
Open Export Dialog
One the export dialog box is open (and here’s the tricky part), look to the far right of the gray bar across the top that says “Export to Disk”. You’ll see two little arrows which means there are menu options:
Files on Disk
If you click on those arrows, you’ll get a new dialog box (bet you didn’t know that was there – did you? 🙂 ), and the Flickr option will show up. Select the Flickr dialog one for our purposes here:
Flicker Exporter
Once you select the Flickr Exporter, you will get a new dialog box that will start the authentication process that Lightroom will use to log into Flickr. If you have multiple Flickr accounts, or specific authentication methods you prefer, these steps may change a little based on your needs. But here, I am doing things the most straightforward way:
Flickr Authentication
Next up, if you are logged into Flickr already, the plugin will open a page that will grant access to the plugin. So, it helps if you are already logged into your Flickr account on the internet. So, you’ll get a dialog box that looks something like this from the plugin to that effect:
Warning Notice from Plugin
On clicking the OK button, it will take you to the grant access page, and you’ll get another dialog box that grants the plugin access to post photos to your Flickr account (which, after all, is the goal, right?). The one notable difference you will see in yours is that my face won’t be staring back at you like here. That is the avatar for my Flickr account, so your screen should show your avatar – if it shows something different, then you are in the wrong account (but I guess that goes without saying)!
Granting Access from Flickr Side
A second confirmation screen from Flickr will also let you know that this is a 3rd party application, and just acts as a security measure to make sure you are aware of what that means. Click the button that says “OK, I’ll authorize it”, as shown below. Again, while it goes without saying at this point, your dialog will look a little different different. If it doesn’t and you see my avatar in your Flickr account, I am gonna be calling soon! 🙂
Authorization
Finally, you will get a confirmation screen on Flickr, noting what you’ve done (they make it pretty clear what you’ve done, and how to delete it if needed on the Flickr side):
Flickr Confirmation
On return to the Lightroom interface, you’ll get a confirmation screen there as well – just click it to continue:
Lightroom Confirmation
On granting access, you’ll get an authorization code, which for obvious reasons I am not going to post here, but make a note of that code and enter it back when you return to Lightroom. On completing that you will be presented with the Flickr Uploader Dialog. Here I am going to show you a few key ones that you have to scroll down to be aware of in making your uploading preferences.
Your Flickr Account login in Lightroom
This first shot (above) shows the top part of the dialog, and shows how you are authenticating on Flickr. Now, use the scroll bar on the right side to move down through the options. First stop, the Photo Set. On authenticating, the plugin will pull your complete list of photo sets from Flickr. If you don’t have any photo sets built, then none will be here. Since I do have photo sets, it will default to the first one alphabetically. You can change the sort order, and specify what photo set (if any) you want the uploaded image to be added to, as desired. For this example, I did not add the photo to an existing set, or create a new one.
Photo Set Choice
Pretty straightforward, but let’s keep scrolling through a few more key items you will want to think about utilizing or disabling depending on your work flow. The next one I think warrants mentioning here is the groups. One of the ways you can increase the visibility of your photos on Flickr is by participating in groups. More people look at them, you’ll get more feedback, and sharing our photos with others is the goal anyway, so go ahead and add the appropriate groups here. I selected the group “CanonBlogger” for obvious reasons! 🙂
Publishing to a Group
Only a few other options that I think are useful from this plugin, so we’re almost done. Next up, is another social networking one that I tend to use fairly regularly – Twitter:
Twitter posting
Last but not least are the meta tagging options you have available to you from the plugin interface. The options are just to diverse to go into detail here, and I prefer to tag photos on Flickr differently than in Lightroom, so I leave these blank, but in the interests of full disclosure, here are some of the tagging and naming options in the plugin dialog:
Tagging Photos
If you think about it, for a penny, this is a pretty good deal (I went ahead and made a donation, which I would also encourage you to do as well – Jeffrey has clearly put a lot of time into developing these plugins, and he needs to eat, just like the rest of us). So, there you have it – the process of finding, downloading, installing, configuring and using the Lightroom Flickr uploader. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, there are other uploaders available as well, and I am going to probably go get the one for Smugmug as I have an account there too. It just makes the sharing of your photos that much easier. (Who knows, the Facebook one may also make its way into my utility belt at some point once I get more comfortable with it…)
If you have questions or problems with the installation or the uploader itself, Jeffrey has a good FAQ page here that should answer most questions for you. If not, I am sure he has an email address available somewhere for specific questions not addressed online. For my work, I think this plugin totally rocks! It’s going to become a staple in my work flow, and if you are into social media at all, I would highly recommend it for those purposes as well.
In talking about all of this, it bears mentioning that some of us are not fans of Flickr, Twitter, or Facebook, and while I can understand the hesitation of some, it’s really a matter of personal preference, and maximizing the time you spend on your computer. if these outlets aren’t your cup of tea, that is totally fine. But if you have the Flickr plugin – it is that much easier for you to participate in the Monthly Giveaways here at Canon Blogger/Learning Digital Photography!
With those thoughts, I’ll leave well enough alone as this post has gone on long enough for one day. Happy shooting (and uploading) and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.
Last night I got the bug to try something I’d seen before – the classic Christmas-y look with a score of music and a shallow depth of field. It was straightforward enough and after putting a piece of sheet music on the piano, and trying it that way, wasn’t getting the drop off in depth-of -field as I had hoped for. So, I took a different approach and put the music sheet flat on a table, knowing the dof would drop off that way, with the foreground out of focus and receding off in the background too.
So, the second one came out okay, but the plain background of the table didn’t really work all that well…it needed something else – Christmas lights! So, I got an extra garland that wasn’t used in the house and threw that down, encircling the paper. But something was still missing…a little color. What goes with green and white? Red! Enter a blanket strategically placed underneath it all to add a touch of color. So, took a few shots, and liked it, but the shadows seemed kind of muted, and the lights were getting a little blown out. Hmmm…could I be dreaming of an HDR Christmas?
An HDR Christmas
The fact that the little star burst off the one light happened was purely incidental, but I think helped the overall composition. How about the reading audience? What are your thoughts? Does it work? Need something else? What about your own holiday-themed work? Feel free to share thoughts, feedback, samples and such in the comments!
In other Friday news, CB now has a Facebook fan page, so if you get a minute – stop by the Facebook page and sign up. I’ll be sharing more photos, tips, tricks, and such there in the weeks to come as well, and you won’t know unless you’re a “fan”! For those of you getting your news from the feed, the direct link to the Facebook page is here.
Don’t forget, the December Giveaway is also still underway – over $400 of super cool prizes including software, books, prints, and papers! Just a cornucopia of prizes, all waiting to be given away for free! Just enter your photo at the Flickr thread: December Giveaway. The theme this month is GIVING. Interpret however you like and good luck to all. The rest of the contest details are here.
That’s about it for this Friday – have a great weekend everyone! Going on a sunrise shoot in the mountains tomorrow wit the Meetup group here in Denver, so it is going to be an early riser for me tomorrow. Start time of 4am! More on that next week! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here on Monday!
I know – the blog has not gotten much attention lately. My apologies – but after the job loss, and pounding the pavement, my schedule has tightened up considerably, so the “planned posts” have pretty much been exhausted as I let myself get behind. The good news is that with several opportunities on the horizon, I am a little less stressed about “real world” economics, and can dedicate some time back to the blog. A few items of note:
#1 – The Year End Blowout Bash is underway – and LDP/Canon Blogger is giving away a ton of goodies. I posted details about this last week, but in the interests of giving it a little more “face time”, I would encourage everyone to start thinking about their “giving” themed photos – could mean some seriously cool prizes coming your way to start the new year off right! More details on the prize package and such here:
#2 – The 3rd edition of the LDP Newsletter is forthcoming – with some little known tidbits about the guests on most recent podcasts, including nuggets from David DuChemin and Andie Smith, as well as the monthly roundup, great quotes and christmas/holiday ideas for the photo buff in all of us.
#3 – With many things under way both professionally and personally for this time of year – the posting schedule that I had been adhering to for most of the year (hardware, software review, composition, podcast, etc.) is likely not going to be followed as strictly as things will be done more on a “catch as catch can” sort of thing. If you like tuning in for one thing or another – keep on reading because the stuff you like will be there, just maybe not on the schedule you are accustomed to.
#4 – Last up, I’d like to point out that the donations tab is still active, and all are welcome to contribute via that conduit – but in the interests of getting some tangible things back to the reader and listeners that have been so encouraging, I am going to be coming out with some short eBooks (5-10 pages max) and there is a new link for the website to bookmark for that content: https://canonblogger.com/store While I am getting a fairly good idea of things readers and listeners would like to see/hear, feel free to send in questions, comments, suggestions and the like for store content as I am open to input.
So, with the vegetables out of the way, I’d like to delve into the “meat and ‘taters” segment of today’s post and that lies in the title: bokeh
For those of you that may not be aware, bokeh refers to the blurred portions that are out of focus behind your subject matter. The quality and nature of that out of focus portion can really enhance a photo, and can even become the subject matter itself when looked at creatively. Now, I‘ve talked here on the blog about bokeh in the past, but in the spirit of the holidays, I thought it would be fun to share some samples of images where I actually forced the entire scene out of focus, to basically make the bokeh the subject:
The Beauty of Bokeh #1
The Beauty of Bokeh #2
The Beauty of Bokeh #3
The Beauty of Bokeh #4
The Beauty of Bokeh #5
As the samples show, you can make some pretty fun use of blur and bokeh. Shapes lend themselves well, and varieties in colors, as well as monochromes too. Another thing – when getting bokeh and blur – don’t worry too much about noise and crank the ISO if need be – it’s all about your creative mind. You can remove noise if you must, but the idea is to capture something in a new way and getting bokeh this time of year specifically can be a lot of fun. A few suggestions though:
Look for shapes, as suggesting what the subject might really be can catch visual interest by teasing the eye – you know what it is by the shape…
Look for light, because without much variation in light or bright spots, the bokeh will end up looking like just some smudges of a limited tonal range
Use your best lens(es) as these produce softer bokeh – less angular edges, and more rounded or smooth textures, which is usually better for bokeh (“better for bokeh”, did I just say that?)
Shoot wide open, then switch to manual focus and intentionally blur – push the lens further out of focus for variations on your bokeh elements. Watch what happens and adjust to taste.
So, there’s a few ideas for you – there could be an eBook coming out on this later with more samples and suggestions so let me know if this whets your appetite. Do you like the idea? Want to see more? Get more tips on shooting for the abstract? Do the photos above help or hurt the idea? Do you like them or think there are better samples? Got any of your own? Feel free to post links to your own libraries of bokeh and blur for everyone to enjoy – there might even be a newsletter mention in it for ya! 🙂
That’s gonna do it for today – coming up later this week, the aforementioned newsletter, another podcast, and much more, so keep on shooting, until then, may your batteries be charged and your memory cards filled with lots of photos this holiday season. Now get out there and shoot ya some! 🙂
A few days late, but the year-end giveaway is quite exciting as there is just a ton of good stuff going into this giveaway. Here’s the inside skinny on what the winner is going to walk away with in December:
A free copy of the “Within the Frame”, the wildly successful and great book donated by David DuChemin!
A free copy of “Visionmongers”, the latest book from none other than David Duchemin!
A free copy of Photomatix, the software known for its HDR processing, donated by the folks over at HDRSoft!
A free 16″x20″ gallery wrap of a print of your choice, printed (and donated) by the folks over at MPix!
and as if that is not enough, the folks at Red River Paper have also expressed interest in joining the gievaway frenzy, so it looks like there will be a paper bundle in the mix too – (more details on the bundle specifics as those come in!)
With over $400 in free stuff, this is surely going to generate a lot of interest, so this go around, the guidelines are a little stricter than normal. Here they are:
Limit of one photo entry per person.
Also, please make sure your photos are taken during the month of December. I know – there’s a few days missing, so it’s less than a full month to shoot, but the theme is somewhat appropriate…more on that in a minute. Just remember, no archives!
The longest side of your image should be no larger than 800px or shorter than 600px. Don’t confuse this with a 800×600 aspect ratio – the second side of the photo can be any length you want – just make sure the longest side is no larger than 800px and no shorter than 600px. All entries should be posted in the Flickr Contest Thread.
All entries must be live before midnight December 31st.
So, the theme is all that remains. Since it’s a season of holidays far and wide, we’re going to go with the theme of:
GIVING
That’s it – interpret however you like. Just tie in that theme somehow, and enter your best photo in the Flickr thread. Good luck all, and may the best shot win! Happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow! Many thanks to David DuChemin, Mpix, HDRSoft, and Red River Paper for their generous contributions. Now, let’s wow them with some amazing photography!
P.S. Just a little reminder that the blog is still taking donations to not only help offset the cost of maintenance, but also now to help pay the bills – the “curveballs” referenced the other day was an abrupt notice that my position was being terminated. So, please help to keep things alive and online through the holiday season! I am going to try to get some extra special content out there for everyone so you can also get some use out of this feeble old mind for any donations (or purchases…) but no guarantees there yet. (Special thanks to Rob Jones from Towner Jones Photography who has already donated very generously to the cause though…)
