Tag: updates

Do My Eyes Deceive Me?

Jason7 Comments

This week is shaping up to be an exciting one here at CB/LDP.  Here’s what’s in store for the upcoming week, both on the blog, and for the podcast:

  1. Hardware Review
  2. Software Review
  3. Podcast Publication
  4. Comment Giveaway for Scott Kelby Digital Photography Book, Vol. 3

So, with four days of the week already accounted for, what the heck am I doing on here talking about it rather than doing it?  Well, if you are reading this via feed, then get yerself on over to the blog, because something should look drastically different to you!  That’s right, the blog has gone through a major update in layout and design change.  As you can see, the upper right has a rotating gallery of images, so each time you come back, you will see a new image featured in your browser.  You will also notice the headline looks a lot cleaner with tabbed links to major sources of content, including an About Page, a Flickr Page (for contest news and such), and soon to come is the Digital Photography page.  A slight shift in layout is taking place there in development mode and will roll out soon with dedicated galleries, client contact forms, and bunches of other stuff.  I will also be incorporating a podcast link across the header so you can get your latest fix of podcast news from there as well.

I know, it’s a lot to take in, but I seriously would like some feedback.  Is there anything substantial missing that you used to like or enjoy?  What about stuff you would like to see (excluding the teaser info above about what’s forthcoming)?  Is it too empty?  Need more color?  I am trying to take advantage of the appeal of “negative space”, but at the same time, don’t want it to be too boring.  What would you (the readership) like to see?  Sound off in the comments, and who knows what may come of it! 🙂

Here’s a sample view for the feed readers to entice you to seriously stop in for a critique-style visit to the blog:

newlook

With the blog updates nearly complete, and the schedule kind of “leaked” a little early for the week, I’ll leave you in the dark as to when each item will come out, so just keep on stopping in for your daily fix.  In the meantime, keep on shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for…well, you’ll have to stop in to see, won’t ya? 🙂

Don’t forget the Flickr contest now underway…it’s linked in the header (remember that?) navigation, but here’s a quick link for the less adventerous:  November Contest

Feedback and More Fodder

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First off, I’d like to thank everyone who has been taking the time to share their thoughts and feedback both in the comments and via email – it’s always fun to get the insights of others. A few people had mentioned some loose threads though that I’d not tugged on in a while, so I thought I’d give an update as to the activities and status of those projects. (As an aside, I am probably becoming famous for starting projects and never finishing them – I do eventually, it’s just that I keep adding more projects so the others start to fade as new ones come into focus.)

1st – The How-to’s of Website design: I did take a leave of absence on this primarily because there is an area that I am not as fluent on that I was hoping to find some help in the form of a second contributing author, and that has not come to fruition yet. So, if anyone is interested in co-authoring a book on the subject, feel free to let me know!

2nd – The Online Photography Test: The Basic test is complete, and the Advanced test is about 90% complete. I’d like to get some ideas and more feedback before taking that phase to completion, so again, if anyone has some suggestions on good questions for an advanced online photography test, I am all virtual ears! As for the Expert Test – I am nowhere near getting ready to even put that one out there. I am of the old school variety in that I don’t think it’s right for someone to pose a question for others to answer if they cannot provide some basis of an answer themselves. (The idea is that how can one teach or offer knowledge if one does not have that knowledge themselves.) Although higher education and high schools are rife with examples of this – I, in good conscience, cannot pretend to be an expert when I have so much more to learn on the subject of photography.

3rd – The Weekly “What’s This?” series saw an abrupt halt a few weeks ago, and I never came forth with the answer. The last shot was this:

What’s This?

And the answer is: the grill from the front of our microwave. Unfortunately, we are no longer in the house, so I can’t capture a full version of the appliance to show you a zoomed out perspective. But anyway, thanks for those that waited patiently to discover the answer. I should have a new “What’s This?” back up and running tomorrow.

Finally, as I endeavor to get back into a steady routine of tutorials and regular writings, I have a video tutorial put together for this week. Since I did get a few questions from people who asked if I could show the method for achieving a panorama rather than just writing the methodology out, here is the “outtro” for how to post process a series into panoramas. Since the podpress plugin is still misbehaving, I’ tried an alternative means for feeding things for the time being, but that doesn’t seem to work either.  So, I am going to have to go another week with a link to both the Flash and the Quicktime!  Sorry again for the continued inconvenience.

I’m not adjusting the iTunes feed just yet as I have confidence that the podpress developer will have an update coming sooner rather than later, but if people wish to add the secondary feed to their readers, that will be in play until the original feed comes back online. I am posting it to the podpress feed link too though as a test to see if it comes back online, so if you subscribe to the original feed and it shows up, let me know. Otherwise, continue to visit the blog (which is preferable anyway) to catch the flash version. Hope you all enjoy it!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a Wednesday Walk around the Web, and a new installment of “What’s This?”! Until then, happy shooting, and watch those apertures!