Monthly Archives: September 2009
Classic Questions on Photography: Which Lens?
Every photographer, whenever they start or dip their toes in the proverbial waters, starts wondering about their gear, their work, and how to do things. And, in search of answers to questions – we start asking them. One of the classic questions is “What camera should I buy?” Another similar one is “What lens to get?” There are more (of course), but these are two of the most commonly asked questions I’ve had proposed to me (and that I’ve proposed myself in the past. The answer though, is a bit more problematic, because there are qualifiers to everything. More often … Continue reading
Tuesday Top Five Nuggets
In lieu of a software review, today instead just a couple news nuggets for you. First up, the finalists of the $500 giveaway have been determined. These six finalists are being considered to win a pretty impressive package of stuff including a Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag System and a complete set of the Topaz Labs Photoshop Bundle. View the finalists gallery here. Next up, a recommendation: Even if you aren’t a subscriber to the Rangefinder Magazine (although you should be), you can read the current issue online here, (it’s a PDF download) which includes in the most recent issue an … Continue reading
Hardware Review: XRite Colorimeter
Eventually you knew it was coming – the subject of color management. Now before you mosey along, or your eyes glaze over, rest assured, this is not going to be the typical discussion of color management. I am not going to talk about LAB color vs CMYK, vs RGB, or anything like that. And even though the term “colorimeter” may sound like something Marvin the Martian was going to use to destroy Earth in the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon (that was the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator), there is nothing overly scientific in today’s post. Well, that’s not entirely true … Continue reading
Peruse your archives
First off, I’d like to extend a big time “Thanks” to Andie Smith for bravely stepping up to the plate and delivering a home run of a first Guest Blogger post. With 17 responses to her post, it is already ranked among the top five posts ever! Make sure you stop over and check out her blog and portfolio. For this Friday, I’ve got a fun little photo tip for you and that is to peruse your archives occasionally. You may find something of interest where previously you didn’t. Since inspiration and creativity can strike at any time and anywhere … Continue reading
For the Love of Gravy Focus on the Eyes …. Please
I hear a lot of chatter out there about how many photographers are in the market, and how soccer moms with a camera are taking your clients. Are you sure they are taking your clients, or are you losing them because you are not trying to be the best photographer you can be? (sounds like the army!) Just because Digital SLR cameras are affordable doesn’t mean everyone can be an amazing photographer. Your job is to be the best photographer you can be, and stand out among the others. How, you ask? Well, start with the basics as it builds … Continue reading
The First Guest Blogger is…
Andie Smith! She is taking the reins tomorrow on the blog, and after uploading the content and photos, I am pretty stoked. She has a naturalness to her writing, and her portrait work really is amazing. Make sure you stop in and give it a read as well as the samples of her work she shares. Then, visit her larger portfolio and enjoy the feast for your eyes- some pretty inspiring work there! Here’s Andie’s particulars: Website: http://www.andiesmithdesigns.com/ Blog: http://andiesmithphotography.net/blog/ Twitter: http://twitter.com/andiesmith And of course, be sure to tag tomorrow’s post for a very special read! Until then, Happy Shooting!
The Scenes and Sounds of the Surf
Well, the video I had planned for today fell through, and since everyone seemed to enjoy the stills from yesterday, I thought it might be kind of fun to share some scenes and sounds of the surf down in Cabo San Lucas. It really was breathtaking, and the little shaky (hand held) point and shoot video really doesn’t do it justice…but you can get the general idea! Anyway, here’s the “Abbreviated Post Tuesday”…enjoy! Only four days left to win the $500 package of a Thinktank Photo Multimedia Bag System and the Topaz Labs Photoshop Plugin Bundle over at the Learning … Continue reading
Cabo Creativity
Last week’s first ever 5-day series of written work “The Five Elements of Control” featured 5 distinct ways in which you can control and increase the impact of your work. Those elements were through controlling for luminance, color, geometry, context, and composition. Hopefully, the perspective can be one many will find useful in elevating their own work. In taking the task to heart, today (my first day back after a week-long break in beautiful Cabo San Lucas), I am sharing a slideshow of some of my favorite recent shots. So, rather than suggesting others incorporate these techniques, I am trying … Continue reading
Five Elements of Control: #5 Composition
You knew it had to come back to this, right? I know, everyone is screaming by now “But Jason, you’ve talked about the Rule of Thirds until the cows literally came home!” Truth be told though, most people think about compositional positioning with their subject matter. While it’s true that subjects are ideally placed on a hot spot or along one of the gridlines in the ROT grid, but you can break the rules too, ya know! I say, put anything you want on a grid spot. Or don’t have a specific point of interest! Make the subject of your … Continue reading
Five Elements of Control: #4 Context
Have you ever seen something that looks so out of place that it catches your eye? Well catch it with your lens too, because contextual positioning of subjects in interesting or unusual/unexpected areas creates visual interest. This is what I refer to as controlling the context of your subject. So many times I’ve heard people tell me “but how can I change the surroundings?” The answer lies not in changing the surroundings of subjects you want to shoot, butin reversing that idea: find unusual subjects in your given surroundings. Say you are on a photo walk and in a city … Continue reading
Five Elements of Control: #3 Geometry
Earlier this week, we looked at the idea of how contrast/luminance can impact a photo, and that your creative style may tend toward a wider contrast or a narrower contrast. Then, yesterday we looked at how the element of color can impact a photo, both in the sense of how colors can balance and compete against one another, and how bright versus dark colors can play off each other. Since we’re moving from more theoretical to more tangible elements that we want to include in our photos, next up is the geometry of our photos. So, what is geometry? Basically, … Continue reading
Five Elements of Control: #2 Color
Yesterday was all about light and the way that contrasts or changes in that light can have a pretty dramatic impact on your work when you present it to others. Of equal importance to photography though is the element of color. If you don’t take color shades and variances into consideration, then you have lost an element of control in your photography. When we think of color, many of us are familiar with the three primaries. Red, Green, and Blue as these are letters of one of the most common color spaces (Adobe RGB). Surely though, even though we may … Continue reading
Five Elements of Control: #1 Luminance
This week I am doing something special here on the blog – starting a week long series on the subject of Control. We can control our photography in several different ways, and I’ve seen different outlets talk about each of these (and others) to a certain degree, but I’ve not seen many that address all of these elements collectively. Since a discussion of all the elements that go into a photograph would be both exhaustive and likely impossible to touch on everything, it would probably be better to narrow that focus (pardon the pun) on some of the more salient … Continue reading
MPix Pro: Review
LIke many other serious hobbyists and enthusiasts, I had heard a great deal about Mpix and their new featured printing options for professional and serious photographers under the umbrella of Mpix Pro. I recently had a chance to sit down and go through the application process. it was pretty painless, and as long as you have a website for photography, and a decent stable of work, you can opt for the Mpix Pro option. After submitting your name and website for review, you will receive an email with a link to upload 5 images for print. These 5 images are … Continue reading
Covering the Photo Beat
In the latest release of the LDP podcast, a shorter show this week as I prep for some other ventures, but there’s still enough material to really sink your teeth into. To start things off, Leica released two new cameras in a synchronized announcement including a full frame ranger finder camera for $6995 and a crop factor camera with 12 MP for just under $2K which will release around the holidays. More info on both cameras here The other big photo news of the week comes to us courtesy of Apple, with the latest updates to iPods not only by … Continue reading
Super Santa Fe
As a kind of salute to the Santa Fe trip from this last weekend, I thought it might be fun to do just a photo-sharing day here on the blog so you can see some of the fun stuff from down in Santa Fe. We did a lot of walking around both days, so it was definitely a photo-walk type of atmosphere. The opportunity to take a solo vist over to the historic rail yard in Santa Fe also presented itself so I took advantage of that too. Here’s a sampling from the trip: As you can see, we had … Continue reading
Wacom Winner!
For those of you that don’t follow the twitter news and stuff, you may not know that I cut a finger pretty badly late last week. A visit to the doctor on Thursday pretty much confirmed that I needed to keep from using that hand for at least 24-48 hours. This meant no keyboard or computer use. SO Friday, when I started to disobey the doctor (shame on me!), the spousal unit found out and intervened. Since then, we had a nice little weekend trip to Santa Fe (only about 6 hours away from Denver) with some friends. We took … Continue reading
Access Denied
Hey all, gotta a lot of great stuff to get to, so let’s jump right in Sorry everybody, but Jason has been cut off from computer access per doctor’s (and spousal) orders. He will be back on Monday. In the meantime, he says to wish everyone “Happy Shooting” and “Have a great weekend!”
The Benefits of the Back Story
We all know that our photography at its best can stand on its own – no jazzy or snazzy music, no cheesy frames or doohicky slideshows. However, some of our best (and worst) photos also come with some pretty incredible stories. Just one read through Joe McNally’s “The Moment It Clicks” will give you unique insight into how setting the stage or giving some insider perspective on a photo or body of work can both add value and meaning. A while back, I posted a photo with the title “The Boneyard and the Back Story”. In that post, the story … Continue reading
The Topaz Labs Plugins: Details
Another exciting plugin from the folks over at Topaz is the Details plugin. This smart little plugin is, well…not so little. A simple click from the Filters Menu chugs at your processing speed for a good while as it scans, reads, and takes your image through several unique variations of detail adjustments. With 12 variations in this single plugin, you can take your image from bland to beautiful in just five minutes or so (depending on computer specs)! Check this out. I took a sunset picture from here in Colorado a few months ago, and ran it through the entire … Continue reading
Taking it to the next level!
Writing, writing everywhere We all have aspirations of taking our work to “the next level”. How we define our “levels” of success is largely a personal matter. Here I am always happy to share my aspirations and goals with the larger community. It is likely no secret that as a blogger, the written word is an enjoyable “tool” for me. In writing both blog posts here, and articles for the PhotographyBB magazine (and special shout outs and thanks to Dave Seeram, editor-in-chief of said magazine), it has become pretty clear that writing for blogs and writing for magazines requires different … Continue reading →