Monthly Archives: January 2008
Uh Oh…
I spent too much time surfing after dinner and not focusing on the tutorial…and paying the price now. I just finished cleaning things up and am entering the 2nd half of production. I fear with he time being 10:30pm, it might not get out until after midnight. But, in the meantime, I had an interesting dialog this evening on a stock agencies forums debating the question of whether fine art and stock photography can co-exist in the same market. The discussion never had a resolution, but it did open my eyes to a few outlets online for those who are … Continue reading
Walking Wounded on Wednesday
Well, it seems my wife’s illness was a little more contagious than anticipated. Suffice to say the bug bit me and with this lethargy the already belated Tuesday tutorial will have to wait another day. In the meantime, the usual Wednesday rounds seem appropriate. So, here’s my wounded walk around the web from Wednesday: Check out The Online Photographer for a unique opportunity. It’s a call for photos on his companion site, www.photoborg.org The Digital Photography show has their latest podcast available for download as they head out for the PMA show. And of course, Photoshop User TV has their … Continue reading
waterfront pier
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } waterfront pier, originally uploaded by Canon Jason. I’ve finally taken some time to get some of my pictures processed and online both on my dedicated photo site, and on Flickr. Since Flickr has this means of posting to the blog built in, it makes a handy means of sharing my photos back to the blog as well. So…here’s a random Pic of the Day. The tutorial should be out late tomorrow (Wed.) night. In the meantime, … Continue reading
No blog Tuesday…
Some things have come up that are requiring me to take some time off work (sick spouse), so I likely will not have time to get to the tutorial today. It should be out tomorrow morning. That being the case, today will officially be a “no blog day” for me. Happy shooting all and watch your apertures!
Canon in the News – XSi body to be released
Well, since I am an admitted Canonite, and the blog name has Canon as part of the identity, I guess I should also chime in with a report on the announcement that Canon is adding a new body to it’s SLR lineup. The XSi was announced last Thursday by Canon, and this is apparently an incremental upgrade to the XTi that now serves as the baseline consumer grade SLR. Designed to compete with the Nikon D40, it offers a slightly larger pixel count, and makes the transition from CF cards to SD cards. I’m not sure if existing Canon shooters … Continue reading
Five Fabulous Photo Fixes! (for Friday)
Woo Hoo! Friday is finally here – time to go out photoggin’ again! Tonight I head up with the better half to Columbia to celebrate an in-law birthday. Then, Saturday, back to Charleston for a photo shoot with some fellow photogs from Flickr (hey, that’s some cool alliteration, and it was unintentional there! ). Then Saturday evening I am meeting up with some good friends from my days at the College of Charleston. We’ll probably turn a few up that night! Then, Sunday a current co-worker will be stopping by the house to help me assess some options for further … Continue reading
As the old saying goes…
This Thursday, as I reflect on the happenings from Wednesday, I am reminded of an old saying, that encourages one to be vocal if things aren’t right. A while back I related the tales from our holiday travels and tribulations here on the blog. Suffice to say, the experience was less than pleasant as the airline pretty much left us flailing about aimlessly and helplessly. On top of the travel troubles, we were also frustrated by the severe lack of customer service (which in my opinion was the very essence of not right). It was on the lack of customer … Continue reading
Wednesday Update – Three things…
Three things: Just a quick update and thanks to those who pointed out that the resource page was not updated with the latest tutorial. That page has now been updated and is current. For those of you that don’t know of the resource page, it can be found here: Canon Blogger Video Tutorials I also made an update so you can go straight to the iTunes page via the admittedly lame graphic on the right sidebar. (I did it on a whim and have not had time to go back and do a real graphic that will blend better. Jump … Continue reading
Wednesday Weblinks
As I corrected the missing links from yesterday’s podcast, I started surfing my usual photo sites, and I came across this neat site sponsored by Kingston, called Icons Of Photography (IOP). Four well-known photographers offer up their professional albeit short critiques of user-submitted images. I read through a few and all seemed very well-meaning and kind in their deliveries. What a great resource for the budding photographer: Icons of Photography Thanks to the contributors, Harry Benson, Colin Findlay, Gerd Ludwig, and Peter Read Miller for their generosity in sharing views and perspectives on their contributions to the field. For those … Continue reading
Links lost in translation
The perils of posting early in the morning were evident today…apparently the links that I had inserted prior to publishing the tutorial post were not saved. So…the entire day a post has been sitting there with references to all this great stuff, but no way to get there. Well, the problem is solved and the links are there. Sorry for the confusion on my end *yawn*…
Blue Skies…
Tutorial Tuesday looks at recovering the blue tonal range in your photography. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been out shooting landscapes with some really great colors, but due to limitations, the camera sensor just can’t handle the tonal range. With that limitation in mind, I’ve always focused more on getting the richer reds and oranges, than the amazingly blue skies. Well, today I am going to share a tip on how to restore that blue sky in your photos. I picked this tip up from the most recent issue of Popular Photography, which gave an abbreviated … Continue reading
BRRRRR!!!!
Here’s what’s going on as I enjoy MLK day off…first, the Sunday football yielded Super Bowl berths for New England and the Giants. The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field (as Chris Berman says), was quite cold at 0 and the wind chill at -20! Makes the teens of SC seem timid. Nevertheless, it’s cold here in South Carolina too. At times like this, it makes me wonder whether or not Global Warming really is a problem. The South Carolina Photography Guild had their monthly shoot yesterday at Middleton Plantation, and while it wasn’t in the teens, it was still very … Continue reading
Friday Filter Fretting (and a funny)
Well, I’ve decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on two purchases… first on an ultra wide angle lens that has been noticably missing from my bag thus far. The winner of my internal mental anguish is the Sigma 10-20mm lens. With the free shipping thanks to my NAPP membership, I’ll be picking this up from B&H Photo (which I would probably use even w/out the bonus of free shipping – B&H rocks!). Canon just did not make a wide angle that would fill my needs (nor fit my budget), so this Canon Blogger could theoretically be called a … Continue reading
Thursday’s Thoughts, Take Two – Courtesy of Scott Kelby
I’ve been catching up on some work from shoots over the past few weeks and came across a set of shots that was prompted on my way home from work. In looking at the shot some time later now, I realized this would make a perfect candidate for the “Scott Kelby 7 Points System”. After spending some time with the image, I thought it might be fun to share the before and after with the blogging community. Here’s the before: And here’s the after:
Thursday’s Thoughts
Today is decidedly a non-photography thoughts kind of day. I am taking the morning off of work to supervise the installation of some new kitchen counters! That’s right – we pulled the trigger on some new counter tops back in November, and the fruits of the effort are being completed today. The crew does seem competent enough, but let’s just say it’s a good thing I am keeping a close eye on things. I suspect that (like most outsourced jobs), corners would be cut to save time and materials if I wasn’t in there asking if this detail or that … Continue reading
Weekly Web Gems
Usually I will put some stuff together while at work for posting when I get home, but today was rather busy, so this is going to be off the cuff. I just sat down and hit my blog list (see the “Top 7 of ’07″) and busted a gut at Scott Kelby’s blog. He posted a clip of Dan Margulis doing his kelby Training tutorial, where Dan really gets his dander up acting out a Shakespearean scene. The final segue into the LAB color space is where I just lost it. This guy is wicked smart and making me realize … Continue reading
Web 2.0 Style Graphics
In keeping with the theme of last weeks tutorial, I’d like to round out the discussion of Web 2.0 styles. Last week we took a look at using Photoshop to create Web 2.0 style text and type, while this week we turn the focus to Web 2.0 style graphics. With the emphasis on Web 2.0 style effects lately, one may ask what this has to do with photography. Well, in creating our photographs, we often like to use the web as a means of displaying them. With the myriad of cookie cutter templates out there, creating a customized and personalized … Continue reading
Monday Minutia – Top 5 B/W Conversion Techniques
Given the activity and response I received from the “Top 7 of 2007”, it seems the blogging world really enjoys lists. It makes sense if you think about it too. Lists are nice, simple, bullet points that don’t require more than a few seconds to take in. There’s not a lot of prose or bloated paragraphs of meaningless text to scan through. In fact, creating lists does seem to be a common practice bloggers use to attract attention to their sites. The internet is inundated with lists, whether they provide value or not and on as many topics as you … Continue reading
Maintenance Post
Tonight around midnight, the blog may go offline briefly or look a little funny as I go through some maintenance updates on the blog, both from the WordPress side, as well as some of the plugins. For those who have been following the blog for a while now, you may have noticed that the “Feed Me” graphic I created for the feed link is no longer showing. I suspect that is due in part to an outdated plugin. In addition, the atom feed seems to have a <rel link=’self’> tag that is not formatted correctly, and that is native to … Continue reading
Friday Photo Fun
Well, the funnies take a back seat today as I wanted to share some thoughts on image restoring with those who are tuning in. My father gave me a shot of my great-great grandfather holding a slug he was shot with during the Civil War. I had it scanned, and then took the digital version into Photoshop for some work. It’s okay, but his right arm looks a little “off” to me. I’ll give it some more work, but think it should work to give him a nice 8×10 back. If anyone has thoughts on this, or would like to … Continue reading
Thursday Thoughts 2.0
Recently I made a post on the blog sharing my seven favorite blogger resources from 2007. I titled the post “The Best 7 of ’07″, and published on Monday (or thereabouts.) After making the post, I’ve seen quite a few trackbacks to it from the sites I referred to. I’d like to first say thanks to all those that took the time to both notice, and reply in kind. In following the trackbacks, I’ve also found a few new resources and fellow blogger and photography-related websites that have some appeal. I also noticed amidst all this fun surfing a few … Continue reading
Thursday Thoughts – Part 1
I was catching up on the video recording today and realized that I had downloaded the last two Photoshop User TV shows from the end of December and this week but had not listened to either. So, I remedied the situation and watched both. Man! That last show had just tons of info in it. I couldn’t keep up they went so fast through stuff (especially at the end). Then, I thought – how can ANYONE keep up with that? I bet it’d be neat to have a condensed text version of all those shortcuts! Well, guess what, I am … Continue reading
Shiny Web 2.0 Text Effects Tutorial
As promised, the Tuesday tutorial is up today for viewing. The web version will be linked first, with the iPod/iTunes version for download listed second. A brief note on this – I’ve made some adjustments to the video quality, and am trying to keep the sizing consistent, so these are set to display now at 1024×768 which is the standard resolution for a 15″ LCD monitor. If you are at 15″ or higher, you shouldn’t have any problems. I’ve also added a graphic to the web flash, and cleaned it up a little more in my production software. The effect … Continue reading
Tuesday Tutorials Temptation…Trashed
Well, I came home from work today, set up the tutorial for recording (with my new preamp in place for truly the best audio recording thus far), and after a few dry runs, recorded everything with no interruption. When I went to review it, I realized that the “microphone” option in my recording software was not checked. I never recorded the audio! So, the hype and setup for the Tuesday tutorial has thus been a tease, as I had to trash it. (Doncha just love my alliteration? It literally rolls off my fingertips! ) I will re-record it tomorrow (with … Continue reading
Best Blog Sites of 2007
Rather than regale the CB audience with some trivia for the Monday Minutia, I thought it might be fun to start off 2008 with the list of MUST SEE blogs for the year. These are blogs that I have come to know and love for very different and varied reasons, ranging in purpose and perspective from tips and tricks, to the nitty gritty of lighting, along with casual conversation and the occasional in-depth reading jaunt. Without further ado, I give you: THE SEVEN OF ’07! 1. Photoshop Insider – Daily posts from Scott Kelby, who is very well-known as both … Continue reading
