Quick Hit Monday: Jasmine Star - One Of The Best; A Creativity Workshop; Media Life Expectantcy; Twitter Ediquette; and Geek Technique

Good Morning Everybody,
We had a great time at the wedding this past weekend and spent more time enjoying the wedding than shooting images. I was trying to get something going with video on my 5D Mark II but it was a bit more frustration than quality as the final result. I plan to keep plugging away till I get it solved - I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, lots of good stuff from me again this week. This week's Wednesday Webinar [link] is getting pretty full but, there is still plenty of seats left. If you are planning to attend, I recommend a computer with both a working microphone and speakers. It just makes the webinar experience that much richer. I'm starting to put the finishing touches on the presentation today - it's looking good.

'Nuff said, let's get right to Quick Hit Monday.

New Jasmine Star Interview
Since Crash Taylor featured me on his blog last October [link], I have been keeping an eye on what he's been up to. I love the concept that Crash has put together. He pulls together wide ranging ideas and imagery from wedding photographers from around the world once a week. It's cool to see how each of them approach their craft and their art from a different perspective. It's always worth a visit now and then to head over to Crash's place and see what he's up to.

I wanted to take the time today to encourage you to head over there for his latest post. This week he is featuring an interview with Jasmine Star. Jasmine is an energetic, talented photographer whom has developed quite a stir over these last few years.

Jasmine story is both illuminating and uplifting. She's originally a photographer who was going to law school but then decided photography with her passion. I love her photography to. Head on over to Crash's site and give her interview a read right here. Also enjoy a generous helping of her imagery and thoughts over at her blog right here - all good reading.

Marc Blake's Creativity Workshop
Last week I had mentioned a talented photographer and videographer, Marc Blake, who had produced the Westcott video that I featured in last week's Technique Tuesday. A few days ago I was on the phone with Marc discussing some other projects and the subject of his blog came up. I headed over to both his website -- link right here, and his blog entitled, "Marc Blake's Creative Workshop" -- link right here, and loved the images that he was featuring. Just spend some time scrolling through the images on his website and I think you be quite impressed with what you see. There are several gems in the mix.

On his blog, he has spent some time discussing some of his assignments which include traveling with the band Pablo Cruise recently. Scroll through several of his posts including one of my favorites, "Biblical Portraits." It's a nice peek into the creative mind of a working photographer -- worth the visit.

DVD & CD Media - Is It Fading On You?
So, how many of you have considered that your CD's and DVD's have been fading over the years. The fact of the matter is most people don't realize that there's a great difference between the quality of the CD's and DVD's being sold out there. To photographers, this should be a huge concern for us particularly when it comes to archiving your clients images.

I did quite a bit of research in those early days and found out that there were indeed some brands that were substantially better than others. As a matter of fact, Kodak, who was the maker of the film that I shot, was also manufacturing gold CD's at the time. Yes, they actually included a very, very thin layer of gold in the manufacturing process which gave them an extremely long life. You can still find them online. How long do they protect your data - 100 - 300 years!

I thought I would bring you up to date on some of the data that I had uncovered about six years ago. I recently received an e-mail from one of my suppliers that speaks to this subject. I strongly suggest that you check out this link right here. It includes a discussion of the first, second, and third rate CD and DVD media available. It discusses the longevity of that media and what to look for when purchasing CD and DVD media.

One of my sponsors for my Digital WakeUp Call tour, Delkin Devices [link], offers some extremely long-lived media including Blu-ray disks. Check out their White Paper on archival media right here. Media is not cheap, it's actually a bit pricey, but, I still think it's a small price to pay for preserving our images in the long term.

Twitter Etiquette - You Need To Know
Okay, many of you who are following me on Twitter know I have not been the best Tweeter out there. Frankly, I've been trying to find my way around both the significance and value of Twitter.

Last week I had the honor of being interviewed by David Warner of LensFlare35.com. LensFlare 35 is an audio podcast community for professional Canon photographers to stay informed. I'll let you know when the interview goes live.

Anyway, Dave and I had a great conversation for about an hour about Twitter before we even got into my podcast. It turns out he's quite the expert on the subject. He gave me some great pointers and my eyes were opened to just how viable this might be to our profession. As a matter of fact, I even "Tweeted" three times during our conversation. I know many of you think I'm crazy for even considering twitter but let me invite you to head over to SocialPhotoTalk.com.

SocialPhotoTalk.com is written by Aaron Hockley, a photographer and technologist living in Vancouver, WA. Aaron has fifteen years of experience in the technology industry and is part of the active tech scene in the Portland area. Aaron, a friend of this blog shows us neophytes how to get the best out of Twitter and goes a bit further in pointing out proper Twitter Etiquette as well. I had a nice browse through the site and found it quite informative. SocialPhotoTalk For Twittering ears who want to know more, let me point you towards Aaron's site right here.

Geek Alert! Wait There's More... About Lenses
I'm not sure how many of my readers receive the magazine Digital Photo Pro but I find it an extremely informative magazine. Not only do I enjoy the printed magazine, but you can also find all of the information online at DigitalPhotoPro.com.

Two recent articles spoke to the "geek" in me. One article described just what was under the hood of our high-tech auto focused, image stabilized lenses. Anyway, if you're into this kind of stuff it's a nice read right here.

And speaking of focus, DigitalPhotoPro has a second article on how to get exact focus with your auto focus lenses. Here is the link to that article.

Hey gang, that's it for me today. I've got a few things on the back burner that are moving to the front burner this week. One of the projects in my post on panoramas for tomorrow. I'll give you the low down on just how to create them simply and easily to get a great result. This just might be a piece you want to clip out and put in your keeper drawer. Anyway, check in tomorrow for the rest of the story. On that note gang, I'm signing off. -- David