Quick Hit Monday: Zumbrella Makes Scott Kelby’s Gift Guide List; Canon 1D Mark IV – Your Next Wedding Camera; A Cool Digital Frame; And Much More!

Good Morning Everybody,

Last week Hawaii, this week Cabo San Lucas – Ahhh! are my pixels happy today!  After our 60 city tour the R&R is a welcome break.

We are spending the week with our friends, Kent and Sarah Smith, whom I have mentioned several times on this blog so I’ll be reporting from Cabo all week – and yes, I’ll try to get the posts up in a timely manner and hopefully with a little Cabo color tossed in for good measure.

Before we get to today’s news, I have to tell you about my $4500/mo. phone bill – YIKES!!! At least it was almost YIKES.  I’ve heard these horror stories about people using their iPhone while traveling internationally and receiving  horrendous bills after they returned.

I decided to do a little checking before we left and boy, am I glad I did.  Based on my current usage here in the states, my international costs would have been $4,500/mo – or $1,200 for the week we were in Cabo -  unbelievable!!!  I opted for ATT’s international phone and data plan for one week which should protect me from those exorbitant charges.  Anyway, I thought you should know should you be planning any travel out of the country.

OK, time to get on with today’s post – here we go.

My Zumbrella Named One Of Scott Kelby’s Top Holiday Gifts For 2009!

Can you believe it, my specially designed collapsible Zumbrella made Scott Kelby’s Gonzo Gift Guide!  Here is the link to Scott’s story right here.  The cool thing about my Zumbrella is how quickly it works in any shooting situation. 

Want to see what I’m talking about – hit the PLAY button below to revisit my Technique Tuesday episode entitled, “Love Lines – Another Live Wedding Shoot”  to see how efficiently we work with it on the job.

We just got more Zumbrellas in last Wednesday and are shipping them out daily. Here are the links to the Digital Resource Center for the Zumbrella alone, Zumbrella with lighting DVD, and the entire Zumbrella/DVD/Bracket kit. Order right away before we run out of stock again.  The Zumbrella has been a BIG hit among lots of photographers across the country.

Canon 1D Mark IV As A Wedding Camera

I came across this post while on my weekend internet cruise and found it quite intriguing.  It seems that renowned photographer, Jeff Ascough,  got his hands on one of the new Canon cameras and had it long enough to use it to shoot wedding over the weekend.

I am always intrigued by the low noise capabilities of these latest, greatest, anti-noise machines.  Jeff was using the camera at ISO 6400 and 12,800 and was blown away with the results.  You can read the whole story right here.

A Digital Frame That Does Video Too

As you know, I’m a BIG fan of Animoto because of it’s ability to easily incorporate short video clips with still images.  Anyway, we were passing through the Las Vegas airport about 10 days ago and were “killing” some time before we boarding our connecting flight. 

We popped into the Brookstone Store, always a good place to visit, to look over the latest greatest electronic gadgets.  The item that got my attention was a digital frame [link] that they were displaying which was doing the Animoto trick – combining the stills with the video – very cool, I thought.  For $99, I decided to pick one up and give it a try.

I’m thinking this could be a nice add-on product for wedding and family portrait packages. The quality looked good and the image/video transitions were very pleasing, too.  I’ll keep you posted on my further thoughts on this very cool item once we return and I get a chance to “play with it for a while. My “wheels” are turning right now with some pretty good ideas on how we can incorporate the frame into our product mix.

How About Some More Reading Material For Your Spare Time

Over the weekend, I stumbled on Photography BB, a photo e-magazine that seemed to be pretty jammed pack with solid info on many fronts.  The latest issue of Photography BB magazine includes stories on macro photography, Lightroom 3 Beta, a cool Photoshop tutorial, and lots more.  You can check it out right here.  Hey, while you’re at it, you may as well check out the 21 proceeding past issues too;~)

Color Photography Before Color Photography Was Invented

OK, gang, you have to check this out.  I want to point you towards some of the most fascinating photography I have ever seen. It is beautiful color photography from the early 1900’s taken long before Kodachrome film was ever invented!  Many of the images are simply breathtaking and considering the techniques used to obtain the finished result, it makes the imagery that much more remarkable.

Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944), a turn of the century photographer from Russia and photographer to the Czar produced these wonderfully amazing images from B&W glass plate negatives.  Here is the main link to Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii photographs.  Be sure to check out all the links on the page.  It’s a wonderful journey back into time.

Hey gang, that’s it for me.  We are off to catch some fun in the sun today.  I’ll see everybody tomorrow for another episode of Technique Tuesday. I just might have a little surprise in store for you, so be sure to check back,  See ya’ tomorrow.  Adios, David