Monthly Archives: February 2009
Facelift Friday
With February now in the archives, I figured this may be as good a time as any to get a head start on some Spring Cleaning with the blog. The theme I had been using for the last year or two had been getting a little dated, and the designer has not issued any updates since 2007. Additionally, some portions of the blog just were taking more muscling to conform to the evolving standards of CSS, XHTML, plugins, and even WordPress itself. So, consider this a Facelift Friday! Those of you on the blog, you can see what I am … Continue reading
Great Green Gobs of Grapes!
This week has been a particularly creatively filled one here on the blog: Monday I shared the HDR image workup from last weekend and published the weekly podcast Tuesday had another shot showcasing the benefits of looking all around for ideas (including behind you!) Wednesday was the more detailed explanation of the Lensbaby Composer and selective focus And now today, another source of inspiration from the kitchen! I was cleaning some grapes for lunches and was struck not only by their size (these things were huge!), but also by the cool way the light in the kitchen was bouncing off … Continue reading
The Lensbaby Composer
For those of you that are regular podcast listeners, you know I talked recently about the Lensbaby Composer and what it can do for your photos. In the podcast you heard the terms “selective focus” but the term is kind of hard to explain without a visual, so I thought I might be able to do it better justice with a visual here today. Take a look at this setup: So, if you are looking at a scene from camera view 1, and you want the sharpness of your image (your viewers attention) to focus on something at point B, … Continue reading
Look out behind you!
We’re always looking forward, upward and downward to find a unique perspective or angle on things – to create something unique and interesting. Well, today, I’ve got an example of how sometimes the interesting shots are behind you! In this particular case, it’s doubly true. This is also from the photo walk out in El Dorado from last weekend, and what makes it doubly true is because we were out looking to capture the beuaty of the mountains, the trees, and the amazing Colorado skies. At one waypoint between hiking trails, we took a rest stop and used some of … Continue reading
HDR, Web links, and a podcast!
So, this last weekend I went on the photo meetup group outing for the month of February into Eldorado State Park, south of Boulder, and had many an opportunity to capture some landscape and macro work. Some great views were had and I only hope that they all come out as well as this one did. While hiking up a trail of slippery snow and ice (it was cold out Saturday morning), I saw this fissure that was pretty intense looking because it was only partially lit. I thought about it for a second and decided to bracket some exposures … Continue reading
Can ordinary be interesting?
A while back I took Tracy out for an afternon/evening in Denver. I agreed to leave my camera behind, but in case she wanted to catch a moment for posterity’s sake, I grabbed the P&S one she asked for as a Christmas gift. After her initial interest waned in taking pictures, I ended up with the camera in hand (go figure) and even shared a few here on the blog (remember the bottle caps in the grocery?). Anyway, it got me to thinking about how to take ordinary scenes and make them interesting. I guess that’s part of the role … Continue reading
The Power of Action
Until this last weekend, I had very limited experience with astrophotography. The concepts and techniques of the field are well documented, and I have read several articles on the subject. What this last weekend demonstrated to me, (and what I often tell everyone who reads this blog), is that there is no better way to learn something than to just get out and do it! This is the power of action! Over the course of a pleasantly long weekend with my wife, we had an opportunity to view an absolutely breath-taking night sky, without the pollution of light interference. The … Continue reading
Long Weekends Rule!
A long weekend is always a good thing. When you combine that with the ability to literally “get away from it all”, they are even better. I had the great fortune of being able to secure an idyllic getaway cabin in the mountains of Colorado over this last weekend. We were quite literally cut off from the world with no cell phones, no internet – nada! It was quite refreshing to be honest, and is due, in no small part to the lack of a post at all yesterday. (I did get back in time to cobble one together, but … Continue reading
Thursday Thoughts with… Andrew Rodney
This is an historic day for CB, because our next guest here for the Thursday Thoughts series takes thing to a whole new level of quality information. Our guest this week is none other than Andrew Rodney. He has agreed to carve some time out of his already busy schedule to contribute to the series here. Who is Andrew Rodney? Andrew is a renowned instructor, NAPP Hall-of-Famer, published author (of Color Management for Photographers, Hands on Techniques for Photoshop Users), and well known contributing writer to several magazines including PDN, Publish, Photoshop User, Electronic Publishing, Digital Output, MacWeek, Digital Photo … Continue reading
Recommended Reading
Ever get the feeling that you are spending too much time at the computer, but you still are thirsting for knowledge? Well, for those of us that grew up before then internet, we had these great things called books! It goes without saying that there are literally thousands of books about photography, both film and digital. As in all things, the cream really does rise to the top though. Over the past 3 or 4 years, I have found myself constantly referring back to and seen others reference these, which in my mind means that they are well-worth the time … Continue reading
Multimedia Monday
With the “New and Improved” podcast starting out at PLM this week, there’s a couple exciting things to announce. First off, the drawing for the Think Tank Photo Streetwalker bag was done live on the podcast this week, and the winner was announced in the lead segment. Congrats go out to the winner (you know who you are!), so do get me your address so I can ship you the bag post haste! The meat segment (aka middle segment) I talk about some new sources of inspiration – specifically the grocery store and in a restaurant. The next time you … Continue reading
The Crop Factor…
First off, my apologies for the absenteeism yesterday. After a really fun photo shoot with some friends in downtown Denver (more on that next week), I got home super late (by working standards – my shift is 7-4 and I need to take a bus an hour to get there…so I leave at 6, which means I am up at 5!), and went almost straight to bed! Hopefully the content today will make up for this, because it’s time to talk about (cue fanfare music)…the crop factor! Now, before anyone gets all uppity because sensor crop factors have been discussed … Continue reading
CB Equals PLM
As previous posts have indicated, the time has been approaching where the podcast will be moving from being hosted here at CB over to Personal Life Media. After some of the initial duplicating of audio posts from here over to PLM, the feed is nw prepped and ready for migration. I’ll still have original copies of all podcasts, both video and audio here, but as we move forward, future audio podcasts will all be hosted by the folks over at PLM. I’m looking forward to the partnership, and hopefully it will result in better quality both in podcasts and in … Continue reading
Just When You Get Caught Up…
Life throws more at you! Today, I got word from the good folks over at Personal Life Media, that the web page is now set up and ready for porting the pre-existing podcasts from CB over for their hosting. Unfortunately, they can only take the audio, so video will have to remain here. It also means a naming convention change, so here’s the shows by blog post title that will be ported over, their existing Track # and their Future track #: Noise Lighting and Links, Oh My!, #49 – will become Episode #1 Monday Morning Quarterback, #54 – will … Continue reading
Three Competing Interests
Episode #66 of the Canon Blogger Podcast Series (CBPS) is up and ready for download. In this weeks’ show: The three competing interests of quality, quickness, and cost. Is grey market gear a worthwhile alternative for decreasing overhead Blog and Podcast notes, including an update on the Think Tank Photo Streetwalker Contest Listener questions, and the Photo Tip of the week, covering dark prints and the DOF preview button. On the blog front, for those of you who had been suffering through the feed breakdown – I figured out the source of the problems, and was able to reconcile the … Continue reading
