Category Archives: News
August Winner – September Begins!
Ahhh, month-end. Contest announcement days! As most know, this is the time when the previous month’s winner is typically announced and the next month theme is opened up for entries. Today is no exception… First up, congratulations go out to Evelyn B. for her winning metal-themed image: Not only is this a perfectly-lit image, but the details are spot on, and it totally fits the theme of Metal! Congrats to Evelyn B. from Flickr – please email me your contact information so I can submit to Red River Paper for you to get the pack of Pearl Metallic Paper (which … Continue reading
Hardware Review: Think Tank Airport International V2.0
We all have camera bags. Whether you use a Point-and-Shoot, an SLR, or any other type of camera, you are putting it somewhere eventually that could be defined as a bag. These bags are made in such a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and straps, it’s really amazing sometimes how many options there are for the photographer today. But like it or not, if you have a camera – you are gonna need a bag!
3 Years down! What’s Next?
In the blogging community, a year is a significant milestone, as most bloggers don’t make it to this point. Interests wax and wane, jobs and passions change, and audiences swell and sag as the community of readers often will gravitate toward new topics and content. The idea behind retention of readership is to change with the times. Here at CB/LDP, that has not been a problem. From the beginning, this blog has always been about sharing my experiences in photography with the larger community. So, as new technologies develop, and I learn about them, the writing reflects changes and advances … Continue reading
The Newsletter is Back!
After a hiatus on the newsletter, I thought it might be a fun experiment to bring this back (enough of you have also sent me email asking if it would be coming back ever so thank you for your support)! However, rather than just putting it out there, I have decided to make this a bonus feature for the email subscription group. So, if you’d like to receive the newsletter, please let me know by signing up for the free delivery monthly! Here’s what I hope to include in each newsletter:
The problem with words…
Recently, I learned that the Isle of Palms (IOP) in South Carolina has made it illegal for photographers to take commercial photography onto the public beaches. The specific phraseology of a recently posted page for IOP states that: “Commercial activity, including photograpy, is prohibited on the Isle of Palms beach. Unless a special exemption is granted by City Council, photographers who take portraits or photographs on the Isle of Palms beach as part of a commercial transaction are in violation of City ordinances.” For now I will ignore the part where they mis-spelled photography as ‘photograpy’ (because it’s probably just … Continue reading
Lightroom 3 Contest Winner!
After much deliberation over the fantastic compilation of images for the July contest, I’ve finally had to just make probably one of the toughest judging decisions I’ve had to make thus far in the history of the contest series. However, in light of the theme of the contest (Slick), and the creativity that went into the image itself, I have to give the nod to Stephen Ludgate for his submission:
Blogging for Photographers
With the huge expanding nature of blogging and sharing your photography through an online blog, there’s been a lot of photo-blog projects started, and while many are quite good (and also inspirational), others have been started and it’s pretty obvious from the start that while the photos may be decent – the blogging platform has left a little to be desired.
49 Photo Tips – The Sequel
About eight months ago, I cobbled together a laundry list of almost 50 photo tips and tricks to help with everything from gear to composition, photoshop, and more. Given the penchant for sharing these things online, I decided to launch it as an eBook – but in the interests of keeping it simple, didn’t add much of anything. It was basically a spreadsheet with a category on the left and the tip or trick on the right. Given the minimal overhead I had put into the design, decided on a bargain basement price – $1.99. Half a cup of coffee, … Continue reading
Book winners!
I’ve been a little remiss in doing the comment drawings, so without further delay, here’s the video where I randomly picked the three lucky winners for “Taking Stock” by Rob Sylvan: For the winners – you know who you are, so drop me an email and I’ll get your mailing info over to Scott at Peachpit Press! Thanks to everyone who commented and thanks to Scott for his generous offer to sponsor this spur-of-the-moment giveaway. And for those that haven’t checked out the podcast with Rob Sylvan where we talk about (among other things), his forthcoming book, check it out … Continue reading
The Workshop Tour Takes Off!
After extensive preparations, logistical planning and coordination, it is very exciting to finally announce the often teased and hinted at Learning Lightroom 3 Workshop Tour! Kerry Garrison and I have pooled our collective resources and we’ll both be at all the classes! We’ve got an initial launch in six cities, with dates and locales already in place at: Sunday Aug 1st – Anaheim, Ca [Register Now] Saturday Aug 14th – Phoenix, Az [Register Now] Saturday Aug 28th – Denver, Co [Register Now] Saturday Sep 11th – Minneapolis, Mn [Register Now] Saturday Sep 25th – Seattle, Wa [Register Now] Sunday Sep … Continue reading
Lightroom 3 is here – Now What?
With all the hubbub of the release of Lightroom 3 and all the resources that cropped up online in mere minutes of the announcement, we often find ourselves asking more questions once the excitement and energy that surrounds a product release has drained. I took these questions with me to a conversation with Senior Product Manager Tom Hogarty last week, and got a lot of insights and answers, with both a technical perspective and that of long-term development. I give you this week’s podcast:
The Photographer’s Workout
You’d think with toting camera bags chock full of bodies, lenses, field drives, lighting equipment, filters, tripods, monopods, and batteries would be enough to give anyone a workout who carries it all day. It is a lot of stuff to carry, and you can certainly accredit some cardio to this activity, but there’s other ways to work out as a photographer. Today, I give you: 5 Photography Exercises
A New Look…
For those of you coming to the blog via feeds, this is something you’re gonna have to come to the site to see, but the re-launching of the site is ready! After design, development, and testing over the past two months, we are now live and ready to surge forward! Special thanks and major kudos to Erik Bernskiold of XLD Studios for all his talents and patience with me in both seeing my vision for the blog and website, and for pulling it off almost to a T – and ahead of schedule to boot! For those interested in web … Continue reading
Lexar Pro 300X CF Cards – Giveaway and Review
Got the need for speed? These new Lexar cards are just insanely fast. I got a few of these recently to give away on the LDP contest series over on Flickr (which is underway now by the way). It was actually a set of three, but a review was in order, so one of the three got opened for testing.
Cultures Colliding – a Podcast with Martin Bailey!
On this week’s show, we’ve got a lot to talk about including a couple of particular news stories to note, with a little insight from the crew, we’ll be taking your questions and answers on the show and the special guest of the week for this show is none other than the well-reknowned Martin Bailey! Photo News 1. 3rd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk has been announced by Scott Kelby, and details are here. 2. Lightroom 3 was announced last week Monday – and is available to purchase and download…you can also download a 30 day trial for free from Adobe … Continue reading
Lightroom 3 FAQ
With the release of Lightroom 3 the other day from the folks over at Adobe – I’ve had an influx of several repeating questions. While I’ve replied to (hopefully) everybody, it’s useful to note those questions and the responses here as well for my first ever: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Frequently Asked Questions 1. I tried the tethered capture, but Lightroom does not appear to let me adjust shutter speed, aperture or ISO with my (fill in your camera body type). Is this model not supported? Answer: The tethered capture is only intended as a capture function. The display shows … Continue reading
Worldwide Photowalk Update
For those in the Denver area, the photowalk that I will be attending has been uploaded and is now available for registration. Thanks to photo walk leader Tim Tonge for publishing the locale and info to allow us to register! If you’re in the area, here’s the direct page to sign up. Walk limit is 50, so there’s room for only 49 more people! See you on July 24th! Denver Photo Walk Don’t forget, there’s also a really good cause going on too for the photo walks this year, so stop over to the Cafe Press store for Towner Jones … Continue reading
Lightroom 3 Learning Center!
The news is just out the door from the folks at Adobe, and Kerry Garrison from Camera Dojo asked me to help out with preparing some completely free videos and first look tutorials on how to use everything that Lightroom 3 has to offer. It’s a pretty kick butt content area, and I’ve covered 3 or 4 of the 12 videos we’ve put out so you can get insights from the both of us. We’re pretty excited about this new resource that Kerry has set up, so make sure you stop over to Camera Dojo and check it all out. … Continue reading
Lightroom 3 Q&A (Beta)
What a great day to release a new podcast – with the final release of LR coming out very soon, I had the distinct opportunity to talk with Rob Sylvan, author of LR2 for Dummies, and the forthcoming Taking Stock. We talked a lot about Lightroom, working at NAPP, and took a few listener questions and answers. More photo news, additional Q&A, and a new feed for the podcast start today, so be sure to download the latest show. You’ll notice I have pulled the feed back to this site, and the format is more iTunes compatible (m4a) so you … Continue reading
Nothing But the Tail Lights
In the course of pursuing creative inspiration, I’ve often found that just picking a subject and sticking with it can be a good exercise in creativity. Taking something and focusing (no pun intended) on that subject and only that subject can help you see things differently. The exercise is good whether your subject is flowers, thumb drives, coffee mugs (which I’ve done in the past), or in this case – tail lights! [cincopa 10624678] As you can tell, some of the shots are pretty cool, others – well, not so much. Some are out of focus, some are boring, but … Continue reading
Photo Montage Tuesday
Normally, I start the week with either a hardware review, a software review, or something along those lines, but there’s a couple things that have bumped the traditional schedule. So, check these tidbits out to start the week: First off, Scott Kelby has announced the 3rd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk! It’s a pretty big deal now as there are some major sponsors that contribute prizes to this, and it’s just a super cool time. There are usually a couple that start up for the Denver area, and if you’ll be around, let me know and I can post which group … Continue reading
What Kind of Photographer Are You Anyway?
Just for fun, this holiday weekend – What kind of photographer are you? Choose the option most appropriate…
Hawking your wares…
It sounds painful, and in the current climate, it can be. For some though, this phrase may not sound familiar, so let me expand a little here – I am talking about selling your pictures. It’s competitive for sure, as there are many more of us than there were a mere 10 years ago. That, combined with the fact that buyers are paying less for them than before due to shrinking budgets – does not mean that no one is buying photos. It just means you have to look in more places. One such resource is the publication “The Photographer’s … Continue reading
This is only a test (but a fun one)…
As many of you know, the forums for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), is a place that I really enjoy spending my spare time in. It’s an excellent resource for a number of reasons: first of all, I learn a lot! Second, some great questions come through there that get my brain going. Third, and most importantly, when I contribute to discussions in there, it often turns into some meaningful content I’ve created to help explain things. That content then becomes some very useful tools in creating – yup, blog posts for the readers out here in the … Continue reading
It’s a process…
With the latest release of the Creative Suite from Adobe, I have added yet another item to my learning library. For those of you that follow me personally, you also probably know that I have recently added two projects to my learning library: databases and PHP. Neither of these is very intuitive to me, so it’s taking a bit of patience to remind myself that we all have learning curves, and that learning is always a process fraught with frustration. I take it for granted some times that certain technologies just “make sense” to me, and wonder why others can’t … Continue reading
