Tag: What the Duck

Finally some good news – it’s Friday!

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Well, there’s some other good news too.  Wacom delivered the something to me door yesterday to review here on the blog.  I’ll be doing a more detailed write-up for both Windows and Mac in the near future, but thought y’all might be interested in the unboxing – seeing what you get from the good folks at Wacom when you order a:

BAMBOO FUN!

So, here’s a little teaser video for those that are interested:

This might be fodder for an upcoming contest or giveaway, but only time will tell, so keep your fingers crossed.   In the meantime, here’s the rest of the Friday news:

Okay all, that’s it – been a crazy busy week, and I am tired, but also geared up for the weekend.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here next week for hopefully a little more of an uplifting series of content!

Grab the Feed

When it rains, it pours!

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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:

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On the Coast of Somewhere Beautiful…

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A short vacation means that I’ve not had much time to generate any photo-related content, but hopefully the title will be a hint of things to come, so be sure to stop back in Monday for some photo goodness and other news and events.  In the meantime, enjoy the weekend, and have a Happy Easter.  On that note, enjoy a  Friday funny courtesy of What the Duck!

wtd686

 

Happy Shooting!

The train rides again (take two)…

Jason7 Comments

For today’s post you’ve got a special treat coming, because the train rides again!  If you recall, earlier this week I posted the results of a little miniature project where I tried some varying depth of field, angles, and such on a model train.  The project results didn’t yield anything breath-taking in picture, but I did learn where the best areas for focusing are on trains.  I found out what appealed to me, what appealed to others, and filed it away.

Then, as luck would have it – I had my camera with me today on the way home from work (there were some other trains I wanted to capture on my way in – but the clouds and lighting weren’t as conducive as I’d hoped – plus I would have been late…).  A now-defunct set of boxcars were sitting on an unused rail near the house, and as I was driving down the access road, I saw this scene with new appreciation. I felt compelled to stop and try my hand at a life-sized model!

The results are much better in my opinion.  The new problem – post processing.  As I always try to keep an open mind, after a little post work on exposure, sharpness and levels I said to myself “Wonder how this would look as a black and white…”  How is this a problem, you ask?  I like both!  So, it’s the new poll here – which do you like?

bwtrain

colortrain

Feel free to share your thoughts on which should be the “keeper” and why in the comments!  Meanwhile, enjoy my latest choice from WTD as we head into the weekend…

Happy Friday and Happy shooting!  We’ll see y’all back here on Monday! 🙂

Feathered Friday…

Jason2 Comments

A happy feathered Friday to all!  Permit me to explain…recently the subject of egrets became a popular tangent in a photo forum that I actively participate in, and after some fun dialog, I shared a few shots from work I had done in the past in capturing these amazing animals.  They really are quite beautiful, and on a whim I went through two shoots that had a lot of egret shots and quick processed theb into an Adobe Photo Gallery.  Since I don’t believe I’ve shared these shots previously, here are some shots for your fine friday!  (If you click on the links embedded with the picture, that should take you to dedicated album pages where the web galleries are for each shoot…)

Also as a reminder, today is the last day to participate in the contest poll – we’re sitting right at 19 votes thus far, so do stop in to the blog and share your thoughts by participating – it’d be super cool to see that vote tally get up over the 30 mark!

We got our first wave of snow overnight last night, and the dusting was just enough to remind me of how beautiful the winter months can be.  Once we’re completely settled in and I am back out shooting more often, I have a feeling the blog will be a venue for much of this photography.  So, there’s a prediction of things to come.

I’ll leave this Friday on that note, along with your weekly episode of What the Duck:

Enjoy the weekend, Happy Shooting, and we’ll see you back here Monday morning!

Camera Profiles

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So, today I had the day off work, and was catching up on a few things.  I read through most of my piled up photo magazines, caught up on some NAPP tutorials, and some overdue email replies to various asundry things.  One of the tutorials I watched was from Matt Kloskowski on installing camera profiles for ACR in both LR and CS3/CS4.  It’s pretty cool stuff.

Basically, Adobe has worked with various camera vendors to get the ACR to approximate the same colors that are shown in the vendor proprietary software (Digital Photo Professional for Canon and Capture NX for Nikon, and a whole host of others.)  Matt did a great job of showing how close it gets while even still in beta.  I was convinced enough to go ahead and download the plugin to use in CS3.  Fair warning though, you do need at least ACR version 4.5 or higher to use these profiles (I have 4.6 installed).  Since my bodies are Canon-specific my interface may look a little different, but thought I’d share the screenshot of what it looks like for me:

My thoughts are that the Camera Landscape beta is the closest to what DPP shows.  Since it’s all happening in camera raw, as Matt stated, it just gives you a better starting point with less editing to get to your final results.  I really can’t wait to see how this develops and moves out of beta.  Just hope that Adobe sees fit to release the final shipping version for CS3 owners as well as CS4.  What about others – has anyone else installed this?  How do your pictures look?  Are they close to your vendor software?  Feel free to jump in with the comments!

In other news for Friday, this is the last day to participate in the economy-photography poll from the sidebar.  You RSS readers – stop in and vote, we’re trying to break 30, and only have until midnight!  Other than that, it’s been a great day – I even got some cool shots of the dog after our walk with the sunlight glistening in her eyes.

I’ll leave with my favorite What the Duck of the Week.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again on Monday – have a great weekend!

Be careful with Adobe updates!

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I was just in the NAPP forums (a great place to learn by the way), and learned about the ACR update.  Since I already am good on the gear compatibility side, I went to the readme.txt file to see if there were any other updates to the programs that I should be aware of (Podpress has made me very cautious about updating too soon…)

Turns out there are some LR issues with a few tools and with XMP sidecar files versus database entries.  If this is all gibberish to you, then don’t worry you are probably fine.  For the more technically inclined though, their readme file is something to look at before you upgrade ACR this go-around.

Linked here

Proof positive that the old adage of “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” can still apply in a modern world.  If you don’t have a specific need for the update (a very recent camera purchase), I’d hold off until the next update ships as this could break Lightroom to a degree, as well as prevent respecting of previous edits if you use the database option for XMP data.

In more CB-specific news, the last poll finally wrapped up today.  With 30 responses, here was the final tally:

The newest poll is now up on the sidebar.  2 weeks does seem to return more meaningful information as that gives people enough time to respond.  Feel free to chime in at your leisure.  The question is:  Does the current economic downturn had an impact on new photography-related purchases?  For those reading in feed readers, stop in to see the options and vote!  Let’s try to crack the 50-count this go around! 🙂

On a lighter note, the WTD series this week was really pretty darn funny.  Here’s my favorite:

Have a great weekend everyone, Happy Shooting, and we’ll see you back here Monday morning!

Forgetful Fridays

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With my crazy work schedule, I completely forgot to write the Friday Funnies, so now it’s also the Forgotten Friday!

So, what happened that was funny this week? Well, anyone that follows photography found out about the newest additions to the Canon and Nikon line-ups.  Canon announced the 50D, and Nikon announced the D90 on the heels of Canon.  While this may just seem to be news and events, what’s funnt about this is that there have been rumors about the next bodies that each would be releasing for a long time now, and most were resigned to waiting until Photokina to hear the news.  So, it’s funny because apparently even Canon and Nikon couldn’t wait – the marketing monsters of each company likely wanted to get a jump on things and get the word and buzz out.  I just find it funny because here is yet another example (in my mind) of the tail wagging the dog.

That could just be me though.  Was it wise to make these announcements ahead of Photokina?  Will there be an economic upside to doing so?  Should the respective companies have waited?  Aside from the gear hounds and photo freaks, does anyone else really care about 10 MP versus 15 MP and a 920,000dpi resolution LCD?  Moreoever, should marketing be the driving force behind companies or should they just release product announcements when completed and let the consumers decide whether the gear is worth getting excited about?  In my mind, the gear should be able to speak for itself.  If it’s good, people will like it, and if it’s crap, people won’t.  Can it be that simple?  What do you think  Tell me in the comments!

In the meantime, happy shooting, enjoy the weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday.  Oh yea, continue to watch those apertures!

I’ll leave you with my favorite WTD comic from this last week:

What the Duck
What the Duck

Finally Friday – A Week in Review

Jason2 Comments

Yes, it’s finally Friday, and with a long weekend ahead of us, we can enjoy a little more down time. Mine will start about 30 seconds after I finish this post! Anyway, some updates on the Orphaned Works Act – some very passionate members of the NAPP community have been working together to get a website up to get the word out on a broader basis, so keep your browsers tuned to www.defendyourart.com over the next few days as updates, links to news items, and representative info will be going live. Additionally, posters and graphics are being compiled for people to share in their own regional communities too. So, if you participate in the arts (and you likely do if you’re reading this blog), tag the site as a bookmark: www.defendyourart.com

Brian over at Professional Snapshots got a G9 and shared some initial thoughts on that (as well as an interesting test shot), so stop over to his blog and see his feedback. Comment if you get a chance too – Brian always has fun stuff to read and share.

1001 Noisy Cameras does their latest update to the Canon SLR Market Price list indicating that prices pretty much remain the same, but now we have rebates! There’s also a link to a lengthy review of the Canon Xsi (and apparently somewhere in there a comparison between the 40D and the 450D??? I, like them, don’t understand – it’s apples and oranges. Anyway, stop over to 1001NC and read all about it – thanks guys for your info -you are on my must-read list since I learned about y’all! (Also, the TOP Test you linked to had some updates – see below for more)

Scott Kelby reminds us to back up our hard drives today (which I need to do btw…)

Ctein makes a passionate plea to avoid using music in website design over at The Online Photographer (thank you!)

Last, but not least, here’s some blog updates for CB:

  • I am almost done with the article compilations on creating your own photo website, so thanks to all for their patience.
  • The Online Photography Test has moved and now as TWO tests: Basic and Advanced! The latter still needs a few questions so stop over and take it, see your scores and share thoughts to round it out!
  • My photo shoots have been keeping me busy, but a gallery has been published here for viewer enjoyment: A Day in the Park
  • Another gallery should be forthcoming shortly too – still waiting on a model release.

Finally, lest I forget the Friday Funnies, stop over to What The Duck for a chuckle – or would it be a Duckle?

What the DUck - Friday May 23rd