Quick Hit Monday: Lightroom Twitter Queen: Wide Angle Lenses; Humidity Control; Slow-Mo Video; and More.

Good Morning Everybody,
We wrapped a great weekend in the Portland area and headed down the coast Saturday towards San Francisco. What a beautiful drive it is too. We stayed the night in Redding, Ca and finished the trip yesterday just in time to take Chris and Gail up on their dinner invite. Chris and Gail are Bridge champions and wrote us about getting together when we came through town - one thing lead to another and there we were enjoying their beautiful home and gardens, a great meal and a fine glass of wine after we landed in good ol' San Fran.

This week we are bringing the Digital WakeUp Call tour to San Fransisco, Sacramento, San Jose, and Fresno. Hope to see you there. This, by the way, is the week we get to visit the Googleplex in San Jose. I'll keep you posted on our visit. Hey, let's get right to Quick Hit Monday because I have a ton of information to cover today. Here we go...

Let's Meet The Lightroom Twitter Queen:
Last week I did a post [link] covering some cool Lightroom sites and mentioned I was trying to nail down a site mentioned by one of my DMC attendees. It turns out it's not a site at all he was referring to - it was a Tweeter feed. Here is the link to LR_Mellisa right here. OK, gang this is about the best source of Gatling gun Lightroom info I have ever seen.


I promise you, if you head over there, be sure it is after hours, otherwise you will spend your entire day there. Melissa is truly the Lightroom siren on the net with more good LR info flowing everyday. Don't crash your Internet ship on her LR rocks. You'll be drawn in and may never leave! Be forewarned;~)

Wait, there's more - yes, there is another Lightroom Queen too. You can find her blog right here. It's a much safer landing spot and still lots of good stuff.

Wide Angle Lenses - My Favorites
Over the weekend, I was cruising the net and came across fellow blogger, Brian Auer, post on wide angle lenses. His post entitled, "8 Tips For Shooting Extremely Wide Angle Lenses" right here, speaks to my digital photography heart. Anyone following this blog knows I'm a wide angle lens fanatic.

Here is one of my 12mm shots made on the Canon 5D - it follows Brian's rule #7. Brian's post offers some really good info on how to shoot with those puppies - good stuff. Hey, Brian, hope to see you in San Diego next week.

Gear Bag News And Reviews:
Lens Baby Composer
Fellow blogger, Kerry Garrison, had a nice post over at CameraDojo recently discussing the new Len Baby Composer [link]. I've only played with the early Len Baby products but I do like how they keep adding to the functionality of their gear. Kerry has a really in-depth post on the LensBaby Composer right here. Being a wedding shooter himself, he shows some wedding image applications. It's a good review - worth a peek if you want something just a little different to spice up your imagery.

Canon Rebel T1i Review
I found this review via 1001 Noisy Cameras. By the way 1001, thanks for the nice words about DPT. I still can't figure out how 1001 gets all that content up everyday - has three arms, 12 fingers and must type at 200 wpm;~) Anyway, always good information over at 1001 Noisy Cameras.

Here is the link to the Canon Rebel review right here. I've got a quick comment to add. I was most interested in the review because of the Hi-Def video capabilities of the new kid on the block. I thought, WOW - I spent 3x that much on my Canon 5D Mark II. What gives? Well, it seem in the video department the Rebel's frame rate at 1080p is slowed to 20 FPS down from the 5d Mk II's 30 FPS. Folks, that's a big difference if you are shooting 1080p.

Seems at 720p the frame rate is back up to 30FPS. I guess that's one of the reasons I spent $1800 more for my camera. Anyway, it is a very good in-depth review and worth a peek if you are looking to bring video into your media arsenal for your clients at a super reasonable price.

What To Do In High Humidity
I haven't been to JMG Galleries for a while but when I visit, it's always a refreshing view at what is going on in our digital world from the perspective of the very talented landscape photographer, Jim Goldstein. Jim has a nice post on how to shoot in high humidity right here. I know what you are thinking - I live in Phoenix, we don't have humidity. Still, I like Jim's well thought out post. If you are heading to some humidity heavy areas, this article offers some sound advice for camera/lens care.

And Finally - One More Video
Ever since watching the "Wonderful World Of Disney" when I was a kid and "Planet Earth" as an adult, I've been hooked on the time lapse/slow motion photography. Seeing video shots like the one from a BBC program called South Pacific should make all of us very excited about the technology advancing. Here is the link. The footage was shot with a $100,000-plus cam that shoots HD footage at 20x the frame-rate of a normal one. Here is the link right here - be sure to play it in HD - way cool.

Hey gang, that's it for me today. We are off and running again this week throughout California. Hope to see you at one of our stops. Oh, by the way, check in tomorrow for a different Technique Tuesday - How Slow Can You Go - Handheld? I'll show you some images I made at 1/2 second hand-held and show you how they were taken. See ya' then, -David