Whether tacit or not, Adobe seems to have listened to the concerns voiced by many in the creative community over their impending pricing and licensing policy changes.  As you may recall, I ran three posts late last year, first calling attention to the new policy.  Secondly, as discussed on Scott Kelby’s video podcast “The Grid“, called “Why Scott Kelby and Crew are Wrong“  Finally, I started running a poll to tally people’s thoughts on the policy shift.  Scott himself ran an entire post as an Open Letter to Adobe shortly thereafter, both addressing the issue squarely, as well as offering an alternative.  Apparently, Adobe was listening!

A news post came to my attention a few weeks ago, and while in the midst of the holiday fracas, I did not want to minimize both the significance and importance of this change. So, with the holidays behind us and a new year ahead, I’d like to give some kudos to Adobe for recognizing the painful effect their new policy would have on legacy customers.  They’ve made a change to their plans, allowing CS3 and Cs4 customers to upgrade at a reduced pricing schedule (very much in keeping with what Scott Kelby suggested), thus easing the cost of upgrading for them.  The full release is here:

Adobe Special Upgrade Announcement

For those not wishing to follow in-post links, here’s the full text of that announcement:

 With these great new releases coming in the first half of 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to determine which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to customers who own CS3 or CS4. This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

The only caveat here is that we still do not know when the CS6 suite will be released (well, some of us do…but as they say, those that don’t know guess, and those that do know – can’t say a word!).  All we can ascertain from this is that CS6 is coming in the first half of the year.  No surprise there, but if it is released closer to June, then that shortens the window for Cs3 and CS4 customers to take advantage of the reduced cost upgrade that Adobe is offering.  Still, better to not look a gift horse in the mouth.  Adobe has heard our concerns, and responded in what I think will be an appropriate manner.  While we don’t know the specifics of the pricing offer, we do know that they have heard us and are giving customers an opportunity to upgrade for a limited time.  So, start saving pennies now to make your eventual upgrade that much easier to swallow!

Of course, Cs5 or Cs5.5 customers will be able to upgrade at normal rates, so this announcement doesn’t really affect you – but it’s a welcome sign that companies and and do listen to their customer base!  So, thanks Adobe for listening!

Thanks so much to all the participants for your wonderful images of Cheer!  It really did bring a smile to my face going through all the images and selecting a winner!  As always, the decision was quite difficult, but ultimately, the nod goes to Pan Shovel for the annual holiday giveaway.  As you all may recall, the prizes this year were donated by the good folks of Craft & Vision (David DuChemin), Thinktank Photo, and Photojojo for the books, bags and lenscap holder respectively.  So if you get a moment to check out their respective product lines, you can say thanks to them in your own way too!

The downside after all this excitement is that the January giveaway does not have a sponsor (same as last year), so this means the prize will be the ability to choose the theme for the February contest giveaway.  Think of January as a practicing month to take your own shots of whatever you find appealing.  No themes to restrict your creativity, but the rest of the standard rules apply:

1.  One photo per person

2.  Must be work-safe/family-friendly

3. Posted to the Flickr thread

4.  Largest side must be no more than 800px or less than 600px (this is only so that the winning image can be displayed well…)

5.  Taken within the last 60 days (preferably during the contest window)

6.  Images must be done by Feb 3rd (Friday).

7.  Theme is open (no theme)

8.  And most importantly, have fun!

Congrats again to Pan Shovel, and good luck to everyone in the coming months for the 2012 giveaways – keep the great shots and creativity churning!

I should be getting a print soon, and you know a review will be forthcoming once in hand, but for now, it’s exciting and news enough to announce the giveaway!  Thanks to the folks over at Image Wizards for sponsoring the November contest!  Here’s the particulars:

1.  One image per person, with the longest side between 600-800px.

2.  Share your photo in the Flickr thread here.

3.  The theme is Shiny!

4.  All images must be work-safe/family-friendly.

5.  Taken within the last 90 days (preferably during the contest window).

6.  Image submissions must be done by December 2nd.

7.  Have fun!

Notice that the deadline actually extends past the end of November.  This is partly due to the fact that we are starting a tad late, but also because November ends in the middle of the week, so it just makes sense to finish things up on that Friday.  The winner will be announced the following Monday, and the December giveaway will also be announced then.  Good luck to everyone!

Special thanks and shout outs go to the folks at Image Wizards!  (I can’t wait to get the print to review!)  If you have some time, do check out their products and services over on their website – the results seem to certainly speak for themselves!

1 – Wired networking capabilities…seeing that LAN port on the body was pretty cool! I do wonder what kind of battery drain will result from usage but we shall see!

2 – In camera HDR processing…cal it what you want but the folks at Canon seem to have sensed that the masses like HDR processing, and have added a 9 image built in processing engine to meet those needs.

3 – Bigger pixels! – The Canon 1Dx seems to also have embraced the pixel principle – the one that recognizes more isn’t necessarily better.  Instead, they’ve increased the pixel size on sensors.  What this results in (most likely) is less noise and smoother gradations between colors and tones in print results.

When you factor these new features in with the almost expected advances in processing, like new sensors, video, faster burst rates, more AF points, etc, this is going to be a serious consideration for professional photographers looking to make their work flow more efficient.  Likewise, enthusiast gear heads will also find plenty to salivate over with all the upgrades and additions.  For me though, the nearly $7000 price tag ($6800 MSRP) makes this probably out of reach to justify for my own needs.  After all, it’s not the gear that takes the photos, it’s you!

Of course, this is all just my own first take on the gear as announced from Canon.  What do you think?   Game changer?  Incremental upgrade?  Is this the way of your own future needs, or is this something you can pass on?  Sound off in the comments with your own thoughts!  The full details are here:

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/about_canon?pageKeyCode=pressreldetail&docId=0901e024803b812e#

Bill M. Carroll

Congrats again to Bill – if you could drop me an email, I’ll coordinate to get your info over to the right folks at NAPP to process everything going forward! You are sure to enjoy countless resources, tips, tricks, tutorials, and other content NAPP provides to all its members!  Everyone, if you could take a moment out of your day to congratulate Bill for his awesome shot (and a great expression on the kid too!) that won the contest!

*****

Don’t forget, the October Contest is now also underway, so gear up those cameras to capture the idea of “stacks” somehow!  The winner this go around will become the proud owner of a Lensbaby Composer!

Nevertheless, since photos have not been at the forefront, I wanted to dedicate an entire post to sharing some photos from the trip here with you.  So, without further ado, some selects from the trip!

To finish things off, a quick reminder that today is Webinar Wednesday!  Kerry Garrison (Camera Dojo) and I go live tonight at 7pm Mountain Time, 6pm Pacific.  If you’ve got time to stop in and check out the show, or even want to share the info with friends, it’s always free to join!  Here’s the sign-up page…see you tonight!

This month the folks at Hoodman have stepped up to contribute one of their patented Loupes to the giveaway series.  I know, I am overdue on several product reviews, including the Backlitbox from last month, and now this Hoodman Loupe, as well as some RadioPoppers that are currently being tested for another review prior to the giveaway!  Since the Hoodman Loupe is next on the agenda, they get the honor of the May giveaway!  Here’s the rules:

1.  One photo per participant

2.  A new wrinkle – the winner must be able to receive the prize at a U.S. address.  With the blog and pocast having an international following, I typically have the vendors ship the prizes direct, but because I have to ship it this time, in order to keep costs down – a U.S. address is required.

3.  Photo must be work-safe/family friendly.

4.  The longest side (either the top/bottom or the left/right) must be no larger than 800px or smaller than 600px.

5.  The photo must be included in the Flickr thread (which I will post up on Monday) with the May 2011 title.

6.  The Flickr photo must be downloadable – we share the winning photo via announcement here on the blog and in newsletters – so I need to get it to do that!

7.  Since the prize for the contest is a Hoodman Loupe – the theme for photos is:  BLOCK (The Loupe blocks stray light…get it?   You can interpret any way you like, so get creative as that always makes it interesting.

8.  Have fun!  Remember photography is supposed to be fun so keep that in mind as you approach the May giveaway.

9.  Reminder Guidelines and Rules of Engagement links are here for easy reference.  (I’ll also update the link to the contest page on Monday too).

10.  If you don’t follow me on Twitter, do so here, then tweet the following:  “I just posted my photo in the #CanonBlogger Hoodman Giveaway!  http://tinyurl.com/3jlw78x”

Thanks to the generous folks over at Hoodman for their contribution!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here on Monday!

It has officially now been three years since I started this blog!  For the duration, it’s been a way to “pay it forward”, and after three years of it (officially 3 years as of yesterday), I am amazed at how far things have come.  I’ve gone from writing occasional posts to weekly content ranging from hardware and software reviews, to articles and eBooks, and now offering up workshops and webinars!  It really is amazing to see the growth, development and learning I’ve gone through as the blog and website have literally transformed me on many levels.

I’d like to take a brief sappy moment and thank the community that has literally launched me into working within the profession.  Your continued support is so awesome, I really don’t know what else to say other than “Thanks!”!  For a little comparison between the blog then and now, I’ve looked at the Wayback Machine and had to chuckle at some of the earlier layouts versus what is being in place today.

Here’s a look from all the way back in 2008!

I liked the idea of having a graphic in the header, and somehow incorporating the name, and overall purpose into the graphic, but after a time, it seemed very…well, amateurish, and I wanted to update to more of a “Web 2.0″ look, so the next iteration was born:

I copied the content over to a photography-based website (which is still active by the way, but receives way to little attention from me) over at www.jasons-photography.com.  The photo in the upper corner gave a regular image for people to see, and the RSS feed addition, as well as the calendar, and sidebar gave a little more of a professional look to the website.  After a while though, I decided it looked too much like a template and not very original, so I decided to move to a paid theme, which offered more customization and really sounded great because it would optimize SEO, Pagerank, and all that jazz.  The Thesis theme was born, and the concept of white space brought a new look to the blog and website:

As the site began its foundations as a business medium, I decided after a fair amount of time in delving through the code and Thesis hooks, that it was time to go to a completely custom look for the site.  I interviewed a few web designers, and friend-of-the-blog Erik Bernskiold offered to help me update the look to its present form.

It’s always interesting to see how the look and feel has changed over time.  Another facelift may be in store as the educational and writing elements of the website may take more of a front seat. (You know about the workshops, webinars, and eBooks right?   )  So, on this 3 year mark, I’d like to put it to the reading and listening audience.  What would you say are the “must haves” on the homepage?  Anything missing that you want?  Anything there that you don’t want?  Sound off in the comments…I’d really like to hear what people think!

In the meantime, keep on shooting (and writing too!).  We’ll see you back here again tomorrow for the beginning of the next three years!

The final notes for today:

1.  The upcoming Lightroom 3 workshop in Denver still has some seats left.  We’d really love to see you join us, so sign up today before all the seats are gone!  Here’s a link to register now:

2.  The August Giveaway is almost done.  If you’ve not gotten an image uploaded to the Flickr Thread yet, this is your last chance (this week) to do it.  The winner gets a cool package of Polar Metallic paper from the folks at Red River Paper, so get in while the gettin’s still good!  Submit an image now

After a few months of feedback and suggestions, it seemed the idea was pretty good, but people wanted examples, or at least something to liven things up a bit – the “spreadsheet style” was a little tedious on the eyes.  So began the latest project for me (as if I don’t have enough projects, according to Tracy)!  Well, after 6 months of blood, sweat and tears, it’s finally here – 49 Tips, The Sequel!

All the tips are new, just as useful, and even more in-depth, but here’s the best part – it’s really an eBook now!  With a cover page, a prologue, epilogue and, as you can see, there’s a photo for every tip! Okay, so some are screen captures so technically not photos, but each one gets the point across quite well (I think anyway).  A few of these tips have been shared out via Twitter and Facebook in recent weeks to give everyone a sneak peek of sorts, but it’s “out there” now, and very excited to see what people think.

So, let me know what you think of the new style and layout!  It’s only $4.99 , which is less than a grande white mocha at Starbucks (at least that’s what I’ve heard…b/c I don’t drink Starbucks…right?)!  And for the time being (through the end of July, anyway), there’s an additional discount code for $1 off if you use it in your shopping cart:  “Sequel“

Since it was 6 months between Part One and The Sequel, my guess is it will be another 6 months before I come up with a third installment, so feedback, thoughts and input are always welcome!  There’s a link in the feature product are on the blog, or you can go to the full store here to see all three product downloads!

Apparently the WordPress eCommerce does not work as advertised as several people have gone through the process and not received their digital download email.  So, to hopefully make things easier for everyone, I’ve signed up with a company friends have used called eJunkie, and after a little configuration and setup, it’s available for purchase through their system (still using Paypal).  My apologies for the hassles initially, here’s the new download location:

Enjoy, and we’ll see you back here again next week!

A friend told me about a site that produces tons of free applications for things like video, audio and stuff – that I should check them out.  I took a look and sure enough – there’s literally dozens of apps they offer for free.  Now, my mantra is always that “you get what you pay for” but when I saw they had a photo-specific app, figured I had to at least try it.  It’s called 3-D Photo Maker, and is a pretty quick and easy download/install and to create the images.  (I don’t think there’s a Mac version as of yet.)

It’s a neat idea and I am not sure what algorithms they are using, but here’s the upshot of what it does.  You reference two images and it does some sort of processing to them that theoretically creates a 3-D look.  It was hard to tell the results because you do need those 3-D glasses to view the results, but on a first glance, it’s kind of neat.  Here’s a few sample screenshots from the program:

For those interested in trying it themselves, the download link is here:
Free 3D Photo Maker

• News
  • Nikon Contest – $100,000 Giveaway!
  • Saturday Night Live recorded on a Canon
• Techie Tips for Shooting at Holiday Events
• Interview with Andie Smith
  • AndieSmithPhotography.net
  • Andie.Smith on Flickr
  • @AndieSmith on Twitter
    
• Recommended Reading
  • American Cowboy
  • Texas Highway
    
• Listener Questions and Answers
  • Gift Ideas
  • Monopod Recommendations
  • Why the 800×600 Aspect Ratio for Giveaways?

That’s it for today – make sure you go grab the podcast from either the folks at PLM or via the iTunes feed.  I’ve now added a page (check the top header) where you can go grab them if you forget…

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

This week is shaping up to be an exciting one here at CB/LDP.  Here’s what’s in store for the upcoming week, both on the blog, and for the podcast:

1. Hardware Review
2. Software Review
3. Podcast Publication
4. Comment Giveaway for Scott Kelby Digital Photography Book, Vol. 3

So, with four days of the week already accounted for, what the heck am I doing on here talking about it rather than doing it?  Well, if you are reading this via feed, then get yerself on over to the blog, because something should look drastically different to you!  That’s right, the blog has gone through a major update in layout and design change.  As you can see, the upper right has a rotating gallery of images, so each time you come back, you will see a new image featured in your browser.  You will also notice the headline looks a lot cleaner with tabbed links to major sources of content, including an About Page, a Flickr Page (for contest news and such), and soon to come is the Digital Photography page.  A slight shift in layout is taking place there in development mode and will roll out soon with dedicated galleries, client contact forms, and bunches of other stuff.  I will also be incorporating a podcast link across the header so you can get your latest fix of podcast news from there as well.

I know, it’s a lot to take in, but I seriously would like some feedback.  Is there anything substantial missing that you used to like or enjoy?  What about stuff you would like to see (excluding the teaser info above about what’s forthcoming)?  Is it too empty?  Need more color?  I am trying to take advantage of the appeal of “negative space”, but at the same time, don’t want it to be too boring.  What would you (the readership) like to see?  Sound off in the comments, and who knows what may come of it!

Here’s a sample view for the feed readers to entice you to seriously stop in for a critique-style visit to the blog:

With the blog updates nearly complete, and the schedule kind of “leaked” a little early for the week, I’ll leave you in the dark as to when each item will come out, so just keep on stopping in for your daily fix.  In the meantime, keep on shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for…well, you’ll have to stop in to see, won’t ya?

Don’t forget the Flickr contest now underway…it’s linked in the header (remember that?) navigation, but here’s a quick link for the less adventerous:  November Contest

Podcast news:  I had an opportunity to sit down with none other than David Duchemin this last Monday and we had a blast – talking about how to create compelling images, his background, his thoughts on gear, and the future of photography.  It’s a great session and I can’t wait to get this together…look for it early next week.  Also coming up in forthcoming podcasts include none other than AJ Wood, Becky Thomas, and many others.  Like the names?  Wanna see more?  Let me know who you want to hear from and we’ll book ‘em!

Review news:  There has been so much pouring in recently, I’ve literally been swamped with gear sitting around me.  The good news is that a lot of reviews are coming out…you’ve seen the Sigma 50mm and the Ray Flash, but coming up is a literal cornucopia of review material including the Drobo, the Expodisc, Lightroom 3 Beta (on both Mac and Windows, now that I’ve upgraded to Snow Leopard), and much more.

Blog news:  The impending format change to the blog is getting closer and closer – with lots of exciting additions hopefully before the end of the year including links to newsletters, photo galleries, and all other sorts of stuff.

Contest news:  The last contest winner took home a copy of Noise Ninja from the folks at Picture Code!   This month, the winner of the Winter themed contest will take home a book from Matthew Bamberg, a $25 gift card fro B&H, and a DVD from NAPP’s famous Photoshop User TV, The Best of Season 11!  And if you think that’s not enough – ho boy, wait until you get a glimpse of what’s on deck for the Year End Giveaway…more stuff than you can shake a stick at!

So, stay tuned, let me know what else you want to see, hear, and win – and we’ll start gearing up for 2010!  Happy shooting all, and don’t forget to stop in tomorrow for a surprise to take us into the weekend!

And now:  A Newsletter!

That’s right, I am happy to announce that the inaugural issue of the Canon Blogger Newsletter (CBN) is now ready for download.  It’s pretty much an introductory issue more than anything else, in hopes of doing three things:

1. Tempting your taste buds (photographically speaking)
2. Letting you know what’s in store for future issues
3. Getting some preliminary feedback

As with anything, the first incarnation will have room for improvement, so here’s what I’d like to know…What are your thoughts on the design and layout?  Content?  Creativity?  Please let me know what you’d like to see as this really is your newsletter!

Here’s the link to…  download the Newsletter Here

Last up, the September contest giveaway is closed to entries and finalists announced.  I am waiting to hear back from the vendors on the grand prize winner, btu while we await that news, the October contest forges on.  This month, the lucky winner gets a free license of Noise Ninja, one of the best known and most widely used software resources for photographers.  Coming from the folks over at Picture Code, this is an $80 value for the Pro Bundle – well worth the money.  To win this, simply enter a recent photo in the Flickr Contest Thread, for October – the theme for the contest is FALL! Good luck to everyone – let’s start snapping!

On that note, hope everyone had a great weekend.  Surely there’s photos out there, so keep on shooting! (Don’t forget to sound off in the comments section with your thoughts on the newsletter!)

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 what’s that’s happened thus far on the blog:

• Posts = 500
• Comments = 1107
• 107 Categries
• 544 Tags
• Total Visitors = 231,000
• Single Highest Traffic Day:  Thursday, April 10, 2008
• Subscribers:  1006
• Highest Subscriber Count Ever:  1018 (4 days ago)

That’s a lot of stuff when you think about it.  So, for all the thousands of you that have been tuning in regularly, thanks so much for all your kind thoughts, words, and contributions over all this time.  Tune in to the YouTube video for the contest news and some other fun stuff!  In the meantime, keep on shooting – you know what’s coming up in the next 500 posts!  Happy shooting everyone.  Have an awesome weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday for post #501!

1. On the Photo News Beat
   1. Canon Announces Hybrid IS technology
   2. Stock Exchange joins Getty Images
   3. Think Tank Photo Announces a New Bag System
   4. OnOne Software expecting to release a Remote Capture update soon
2. LDP/CB Notes
   1. The OnOne Software Plugin Suite Ends Friday – last chance to get your best image in the Numbers Contest
   2. The August Prize is announced:  A Bamboo Fun, courtesy from the folks at Wacom
   3. Exposure Denver Photo Club
3. Interview With Matt Timmons – MTM Studios
4. Listener Q&A
   1. The Sony A100 DO Range Optimizer – Bog Segrell from NJ
   2. Martini Memory Lighting Setup? – Alistair M from New Zealand
   3. Where do you get the EOS Digital Capture from Canon? – George Maskaly from Nevada

Here’s links, as promised for the show notes to for those coming over from either PLM or iTunes.  Please let me know if I missed any (it’s getting late here)…

• Flickr “Numbers Contest” thread – Win a copy of OnOne Software Suite 4.5
• Canon News Feed
• Stock Exchange-Getty Merger
• Think Tank Photo Multi-Media bag
• OnOne Remote Capture News -( thanks to Mike Wong for his blog reports!)
• Matt Timmons Media
• Elinchrom at B&H
• Learning Resource courtesy of Bob Segrell
• Contact Canon Support

A last little bit of blog news – closing in on 2 yrs, 500 posts, and 1000 feeds – I don’t know how this ever happened, but there’s definitely going to be some prizes coming soon in celebration and to say thanks to all the loyal, faithful readers and listeners!  I teased the date a few days ago on Twitter so if you’re not on Twitter, get there for extra added value too! Happy Shooting All, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Grab the Feed

1. First off, don’t forgot the OnOne Software Plugin Suite contest that is going on all month.  Share your images over in the Flickr thread (with a theme of “Numbers”) to be eligible.
2. Second, the winer of the Fotoquote Pro discount is contributing commenter Fred from the comments posted in June.  Fred won the discount code for a copy of Fotoquote Pro – congrats to Fred.
3. Third, the next contest is also going to be an exciting one because the folks at Wacom have generously offered to let me give away the Bamboo Fun I reviewed a couple weeks ago.  That will be going live next month though, so definitely something to look forward to there!

Last but not least, if there are products you would like to see reviewed, given away as prizes in photo contests and such, just share your product ideas with me here in the comments or via email (you all know it by now – jason AT canonblogger DOT com).

I know, it’s a lame way to self-promote things, but the lucky listeners and readers also ultimately benefit from these types of giveaways, so please let me know what types of things you would like to see in future giveaways.  (Still working on a few ideas myself, but hearing from readers and listeners is the best way to generate content you like, so let’s hear from the audience!)

Happy shooting out there, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.  I should have the next podcast up and ready for your weekend listening enjoyment too!

• The Podcast (with the specific details of the contest)
• Flickr Group (where to post your entries)

In some other maintenance notes, the podcast has gotten a few more reviews at iTunes and Diggs over at Personal Life Media – thanks to those that have shared their thoughts and feedback, your support means a lot and every little bit helps. Here’s the links for those that would like to add to the support:

• Review on iTunes
• Digg the Podcast at Personal Life Media

Last but not least, it became official the other day that I will be in attendance at the Lightroom workshop here in Denver coming up on May 20th Being led by none other than Scott Kelby, of NAPP fame, I’ll be getting even more up to speed on how to use Lightroom as the primary means for my photography work flow. I’ll likely have a few posts worth of material to share with the readership shortly thereafter. (Who knows – I might be able to snag a pic or two out of it too!

So, that’s it for today – sorry for the lateness of the post.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Just last week, I had the distinct honor of interviewing Tom Hogarty, Senior Product Manager for Adobe Lightroom.  Needless to say, I postponed the podcast for a few more days so I could include the interview.  He really gave a good breakdown of the function of Lightroom, what to expect from it, how to incorporate it into your work flow, and what (in general) we can likely expect to see in the future of image processing development.    We spent a good deal of time going over the nuts and bolts, so under the general heading of Software discussions today, I’d like to introduce you to Adobe’s Lightroom.

Lightroom is a very different way of handling your images.  Rather than taking a single image at a time through something like Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom allows you to not only address single image edits, but also manage an entire library of images.  The key here is management, because that’s what Lightroom really does – it takes the idea of asset management and incorporates it into a program so that you don’t even have to think about it!  Rather than belabour the point here though, it would probably be best to encourage everyone to just download the podcast and give it a listen.  Not only do we discuss Lightroom, but we also take a lot of listener questions, both specific to Lightroom and general photography questions too – and, oh yeah, a contest!

That’s right – Adobe was kind enough to donate a copy of Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 to some lucky listener.  At an estimated retail value of almost $300 ($299), this is by and large, the best contest I’ve could ever come up with!   It’s very exciting!  I’d love to share the details here, but if I did that, you wouldn’t listen to the podcast.  So… want to know the details?  Listen to the podcast! In the meantime, here’s the show notes on the things we discussed and where to get the latest and greatest info on the product:

• Adobe’s Lightroom Journal
• The Adobe Twittering Crew
  • Eric Scouten – Computer Scientist
  • Tom Hogarty – Product Manager
  • Troy Gaul – Project Lead
  • Philip Clevenger – Experience Design Manager
  • Kevin Tieskoetter – Computer Scientist
  • Jeffrey Tranberry – Photoshop QE Product Lead & Lightroom Evangelist

Be sure to stop over at Twitter and start following these folks, because they are the ones who you can really learn a lot from!  Then don’t forget to listen to the podcast for your chance to win a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0!  Happy Shooting and good luck one and all!

Oh yeah, here’s the teaser link for the contest:  Learning Digital Photography Flickr Group

Well, I completely lost track of the week and did not get the weekly podcast recorded in time for publication today.  So, while I could have gone with the alliterative “Forgetful Friday” blog title, I figured that would have been a little too on the nose.  So, instead, I’ll share the exciting news that the latest issue of PhotographyBB magazine has been published.  Dave Seeram, editor-in-chief, announced it a few days ago on the website, so do stop over and download the latest article now. Make sure you take a peek at the article Photography Food for Thought (pgs 19-22), it was the contribution of yours truly to this months issue!  Of course the rest of the magazine is a worthwhile read too.  I particularly enjoyed Dave’s article on Photoshop Retouching.  He’s got a unique balance of technical expertise and translating that skill to the written word. Thanks go out to Dave and the entire publishing crew over at PhotographyBB for another opportunity to share an article with a wider audience than is here at CB!

That’s it for this week.  Happy shooting, have a great weekend, and we’ll see you back here Monday with the belated podcast!

From the Canon Blogger news front:

• Canon Blogger has been picked up by Personal Life Media (the same folks that host Digital Photography Life and Camera Dojo).  This means future podcasts will be uploaded to their service, which will do a number of things for the podcast.  First and foremost, they will optimize the audio quality for the listening audience.  Second, they are also going to fix some podcast feed issues that I didn’t even know I had so that the show comes up better in your favorite feeds like iTunes and the like.  We’re also going to update the graphics to give the CB podcast a little bit of a sexier and professional look.  It’s quite exciting to see that there has been enough interest to warrant this kind of leap forward.  It does mean this week will be the second in succession with no show, but as we flesh out the details and get all the archived content uploaded, we can move forward with new shows!

• Due in part to the holiday schedule, and to the subsequent flurry of personal and professional activity, the What’s This series and the Thursday Thoughts Series took a brief hiatus this week.  Yesterday was just insane at work, so I didn’t even get a chance to post to the blog saying I wouldn’t have time to post, so Wednesday was both figuratively and literally a No Blog Wednesday!  I should be back to a regular and more predictable schedule with those next week.

• As you may recall from my last podcast of 2008, I announced that Think Tank had generously donated their new StreetWalker bag to CB for a review.  I have been putting it through its own paces over the last couple weeks and am now working on the finishing touches of my first official product review.  That should be coming out some time next week.

In the rest of the news:

• JPG Magazine has announced that it is closing its doors.  There are efforts to keep it afloat through donations and contributions, but while you still have some time, it’s gotten a short respite so people can download and archive the entire collection of work, thanks to good folks like Photojojo and others.  They also recently noted that they may have some offers to keep things running.

• Fellow blogger and photographer, Jason D. Moore made a bit of a splash the other day when he announced a new interview series he is doing that is leading off with an impressive list of folks including John Nack, (if you don’t know who John Nack is, welcome to the world photography and Photoshop – he’s the cheif  Product Manager for Adobe Photoshop !),  Larry Becker (of NAPP notariety), Jeff Revell, (Photowalk Pro) and several other notables.

• Photo-restoration as a craft gets a jolt!  Fellow NAPP members Mitz and Janine both have some excellent posts on what it takes to be effective with photo restoration work.  While I knew from my own amateur efforts that it’s not easy (and definitely a craft that takes time to develop), these two bring awareness to the next level with the thoughts they share on their blogs.  Definitely worth reading when you have time.  Mitz can be found here, and Janine can be found here.

Well, is that enough content for one blog post?  I hope so…sorry if things went on for a while.  More tk!  So, until tomorrow, happy shooting – hope all your shots are good ones!

Top 100 Blogs of 2008

1st – The How-to’s of Website design: I did take a leave of absence on this primarily because there is an area that I am not as fluent on that I was hoping to find some help in the form of a second contributing author, and that has not come to fruition yet. So, if anyone is interested in co-authoring a book on the subject, feel free to let me know!

2nd – The Online Photography Test: The Basic test is complete, and the Advanced test is about 90% complete. I’d like to get some ideas and more feedback before taking that phase to completion, so again, if anyone has some suggestions on good questions for an advanced online photography test, I am all virtual ears! As for the Expert Test – I am nowhere near getting ready to even put that one out there. I am of the old school variety in that I don’t think it’s right for someone to pose a question for others to answer if they cannot provide some basis of an answer themselves. (The idea is that how can one teach or offer knowledge if one does not have that knowledge themselves.) Although higher education and high schools are rife with examples of this – I, in good conscience, cannot pretend to be an expert when I have so much more to learn on the subject of photography.

3rd – The Weekly “What’s This?” series saw an abrupt halt a few weeks ago, and I never came forth with the answer. The last shot was this:

What’s This?

And the answer is: the grill from the front of our microwave. Unfortunately, we are no longer in the house, so I can’t capture a full version of the appliance to show you a zoomed out perspective. But anyway, thanks for those that waited patiently to discover the answer. I should have a new “What’s This?” back up and running tomorrow.

Finally, as I endeavor to get back into a steady routine of tutorials and regular writings, I have a video tutorial put together for this week. Since I did get a few questions from people who asked if I could show the method for achieving a panorama rather than just writing the methodology out, here is the “outtro” for how to post process a series into panoramas. Since the podpress plugin is still misbehaving, I’ tried an alternative means for feeding things for the time being, but that doesn’t seem to work either.  So, I am going to have to go another week with a link to both the Flash and the Quicktime!  Sorry again for the continued inconvenience.

I’m not adjusting the iTunes feed just yet as I have confidence that the podpress developer will have an update coming sooner rather than later, but if people wish to add the secondary feed to their readers, that will be in play until the original feed comes back online. I am posting it to the podpress feed link too though as a test to see if it comes back online, so if you subscribe to the original feed and it shows up, let me know. Otherwise, continue to visit the blog (which is preferable anyway) to catch the flash version. Hope you all enjoy it!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a Wednesday Walk around the Web, and a new installment of “What’s This?”! Until then, happy shooting, and watch those apertures!