Monthly Archives: August 2009
The Rumored 7D is finally announced! Specs and photos!
That’s right – Canon has announced the 7D along with a couple other new lenses. Amazing specs on it are here Here’s a few shots from the Press Room: Lots of specs, but most impressive to me: Spot AF mode reduces the size of a single AF point to focus on small subjects like an animal in a cage. AF Point Expansion mode uses a cluster of AF points adjacent to the selected AF point to automatically assist focusing on moving subjects, such as an athlete on the run. Zone AF divides the 19 AF points into five selectable focusing … Continue reading
The first ever Comment Contest!
After a short (and unexpected) break from blogging yesterday, here’s a Friday Free-For-All for you! Here’s where reader input is going to be what makes or breaks the content – that’s right, I am putting it all on the reading audience. You can link to your own site in the comments, and the “Comment Luv” plugin will show the most recent post for fellow bloggers too. Here’s what the content topics are to chose from (you can pick one, two, three, or all of the topics to address in your comment): What are your favorite iPhone/iTouch applications (for photography)? Who … Continue reading
Dealing with bad pictures
There’s no denying it – we’ve all deleted countless shots both off our camera and off our computers because they were just even to horrible to admit to publicly. And while filtering out the chaffe from the wheat is a good thing, if we don’t learn from our mistakes, we’ll continue to get chaff and never be able to make bread (take great pictures)! So, don’t just look at blurred photos and toss them instantly without thinking. Don’t immediately delete out of focus subject matter, and most importantly don’t blindly drag your less than stellar work to the trash bin. … Continue reading
Topaz Laps: Software Suite Review
So, as everyone is likely already aware, Topaz Labs approached me recently to sponsor a giveaway and generously donated their entire suite for some lucky listener/reader. As is always the case, I like to say “thanks” in my own small way by giving the vendor some “air time” on the blog with a personalized review of whatever it is they are contributing. In the case of the Topaz Suite – boy did I bite off more than I could chew! The Topaz Labs package consists of 7 different Photoshop plugins with somewhat descriptive names for each plugin package, ranging between: … Continue reading
Monday Chuckle
It’s rare for me to post twice in one day, but saw this from a friend on Twitter (I normally pick up WTD via my feed). It goes to show how complex (or simple) photography can be:
Post #501: Hardware Review – Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag
As you may recall from the video announcement on Friday’s post #500 – the giveaway product for September includes the newest bag system from Thinktank Photo. You read that right, it’s a bag system! Totaling $320 in value retail the bags include the following:
Post #500: Celebrating a Milestone!
Not sure where to begin really – this is all kind of surreal, because I really didn’t think that this milestone would see me where things are today with the blog. Needless to say, the blog has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, so thanks to everyone who’s made that possible. Without further ado, here’s the big news (via YouTube video, so feed readers, stop in and get the news by taking a few minutes out of your day for this exciting video news bulletin!): For the data hounds, here’s a rundown of some of the stats for a snapshot of … Continue reading
Post # 499: Audioboo Addition!
As promised, as we gear up for magical #500 tomorrow – more content has been added to the blog. This is not something that can be gotten from the feed though, so for you feed readers out there, stop over the the blog and check out the new widget in the side panel that has links to… AudioBoo! So, what is Audioboo? AudioBoo is a unique way for people with iPhones and iPod Touches to share their short audio recordings – courtesy of the folks at Audioboo.fm It’s kind of a cool concept, because the recordings (called “boos”) are typically … Continue reading
Post #498: A few shots from the Photo Walk
You’d think these would be shots from the Scott Kelby Photo Walk, but that’s only half right. Ever since the first photo walk last year in Golden, CO…several of us kept the concept cooking with regular meet-ups (through www.meetup.com, a great place to organize get-togethers for any type of group, not just photography). Anyway, this meetup group has been getting together on a regular basis (monthly to semi-monthly depending on season)…and we had our August photo walk back at historic Golden CO (in honor of last years Scott Kelby photowalk that was held there). Since I am on the subject … Continue reading
How to build a star tracker!
Rather than go through another hardware review today, I thought I would share a different kind of hardware with you – the DIY kind! Over the weekend I embarked on a little project on building a device to track stars as they move across the sky (even though it’s really the earth that’s moving and not the sky). Now granted, there are better ways to build star trackers, but many involve electronic motors, are more complex (in my mind anyway), and can get kind of costly (at least from what I’ve read). So, I figured I’d start simple, and go … Continue reading
Great Scott, Mat, and Contests, Oh My!
Heh, cheesy headline, but they all seam together on this week’s episode of Learning Digital Photography! Yup, the podcast is done, and for those that didn’t catch my Twitter tease, this week I had the distinct pleasure of talking with none other than Scott Bourne on the show! If you don’t know who Scott Bourne is, then you’re living in a cave. Scott is a regular contributor to Mac Break Weekly, This Week in Photography, and owner/operator of PhotoFocus. You can find him there, via his Bourne Media Group online presence and a bazillion other places like Photoshop World, Aperture … Continue reading
I found three – need one more!
An upcoming (and much needed) vacation has me ready to unplug from the internet, twitter, email, and all that jazz. There’s still some time between now and then so as the time slowly approaches towards Margaritas, Mojitos and Coronas, plans are underway for the un-plugging from the grid for a week. First off, content is slowly being built up and scheduled to run for the week of the absence so fear not dear readers, things shall continue both here and on the podcast unabated. The goal of the vacation is to really unplug – from work, from the continued work … Continue reading
How I shot Lightning!
Today the post is going to revolve more around a set of photos I took the other day – you see while en route back to the house, I noticed that the clouds were passing over the mountains and the sun was starting to set. It had the makings for a really nice sunset. Never one to turn away the opportunity to capture a sunset, I hurried home and gathered my gear, and took off to my favorite spot near the house for landscape work. Well, the clouds and the sun didn’t really cooperate so I gave up on that … Continue reading
And the winner is…
Ladies and Gentlemen, Here today, I am happy to announce that the winner for the OnOne Software Plugin Suite Giveaway has been decided. So, without further ado, please give it up for Pete Petersheim! Pete submitted the following image to the LDP contest thread, which got the ultimate nod: Click the picture to go to his Flickr thread, wish him congratulations on a job well done. Note there are two images in his Flickr thread, a cropped version (which was entered) and the full-size one. I think that regardless of which he had entered, it would have won the day. … Continue reading
Reviews, Contests, and Blog Notes
Lots to cover today on the blog so I am going to get right to it. First up, I’m trying to maintain the schedule of hardware reviews, so rather than go into detailed analysis, I am just sharing an abbreviated review here today on the Canon 28-135mm lens. Also up on todays blog, the OnOne Software giveaway finalists have been announced! Last up, a few administrative things to address. So, without further ado, let’s get started: The 28-135mm Review The luck of this review is due to the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk. I had been hearing good things about this … Continue reading
Pick a theme – tell a story
When working on capturing your own creative vision, here’s another useful tip in getting the most out of your work – pick a theme when looking for creative inspiration. A theme can be a useful cornerstone or building block which you can use as a springboard to get started on projects. The reason why themes are such useful tools is because this can also give you the basis for telling a story, which is a commonality of many powerful and evocative works, whether that story is natural beauty (landscapes), urban decay (architecture), romantic moments (wedding photography), etc. I’ve put together … Continue reading
Teaching to Learn…
For those of you that don’t know – there is a cool little feature available for iPhone and iPod Touch users called AudioBoo, where you can record up to three minutes of audio soundbites and share online. It’s a pretty neat little feature, and allows for short bursts of ideas. I shared just such a recording (they are called “boos”) this evening after I left the Exposure Denver photo club meeting. You can listen to the recording here or continue reading below my thoughts on the Exposure Denver experience! Speaking of which, the gang from the group was so cool … Continue reading
Filling the Frame: Flowers, Faces, & Fixtures
Rules of Composition are all around us, and we are reminded of them all the time. Terms like Rule of Thirds are bandied about by everyone (including yours truly, having blogged about it myself here, here and here). Other terms and compositional “best practices” and rules of thumb include things like “The Golden Mean”, “Sunny 16″ and many many more. But one that I have found to be most successful is the one of “filling the frame”. This holds true for many types of photography. For instance, there’s floral photography: There’s also portraiture: Architectural work also can use this concept: … Continue reading
Exposure Denver Presentation
Tomorrow I will be speaking at a local photo club’s monthly meeting – Exposure Denver. It’s quite an honor and my first time presenting in any way so we’ll see how it goes. I’m sure the photogs there will have tons of questions I have absolutely no clue on what the answers are, but I am going to try to talk a bit about work flow – from capture to print. I’ll be sharing the process I use to import my photos from the camera to the computer and then my file management system, both for redundancy and output to … Continue reading
Canon 550EX Review/Eulogy
Hardware Review/Eulogy – The Canon 550 EX Ah, how I loved thee, the Canon 550 EX, with your 3 flash modes, ETTL, Manual and Multi mode. You were especially wonderful because of how well the ETTL worked in conjunction with the Canon bodies. Your typical standard hotshoe fit every Canon SLR from the first days of DSLR’s (I think)), and you worked beautifully both as a slave and as a master via the toggle just below the button panel. Another especially nice feature you had was the variable power settings when in manual, where I was able to adjust you … Continue reading
Contest News
As you all are likely aware, the July Contest to win a free copy of the superbly powerful OnOne Software Plugin Suite is now closed for entries. The next week or so will be spent poring over the entries and determining the finalists as well as the grand prize winner. It is somewhat disappointing though to see half the entries whittled away by virtue of the fact that the giveaway guidelines were not adhered to. In particular, it was noted in the blog specifying the guidelines that all images should be no longer than 800px or shorter than 600px on … Continue reading
Contests and Giveaway News
Lots to cover today, so rather than banter, let’s get to the news about all the contest stuff going on: The Comment Contest Talk about a huge success – had enough feedback and ideas in this one post to really get some great creative ideas in play for the coming months for the blog – after the re-design! Some lucky winner will be announced tomorrow (I am writing this on Sunday, while comments are still being accepted, so a winner cannot be announced right now.) Win a Wacom Giveaway The Learning Digital Photography giveaway thread over on Flickr has seen … Continue reading →