Good Morning Everybody,
We landed safe and sound in Tampa yesterday, rented our car and headed to Oldsmar, FL, home of Kelby Training world headquarters. We check in today at 9:00 a.m. and will be shooting till 9:00 p.m. tonight. Yep, it's going to be a long, hot day but it should be fun and I'm really looking forward to the filming process.
Also, today you can catch me "LIVE" on the GRID with Matt Kloskowski at 12 noon EDT. I'm not sure what the plan is or what topics we're discussing but I guess I'll find out by noon;~)
Hey gang, I've got lots of very interesting stories and links for you to check out today so let's get right to it. Here we go....
Catch Me On The Radio
Over the past few weeks I’ve done a few interviews; one with Rick Sammon at Digital Photo Experience [link]; and the other with Bruce Clarke, a talented wedding photographer from Edmonton, Canada and one the folks that helps bring you This Week In Photography – TWiP for short. Here is the interview link right here.
Good, Bad and Fun News In The Photo Gear Department
Cameras Coming Soon?
I've been talking with a lot of the camera dealers lately and all are expressing concern about getting gear to sell. The Tsunami/earthquake disaster in Japan back in March has really cut production of cameras and lenses. In my discussions with Canon, it's not a problem to make the cameras. It's a BIG problem to get the parts from the down-line suppliers to construct the cameras.
Already for many manufacturers many items are close to out of stock - like the radio control for the Canon 7D. The pipeline needs to be refilled - but when will that happen? Good news - rumors have it that Canon’s Supply Chain will Back to Normal by end of June. Here is the link for the entire story right here. Unfortunately, I understand Nikon may be following with shipping of products even later into the summer months.
One-Third of the SanDisk Memory Cards on Earth are Counterfeit
This one was a shocker for me. 33% fake cards in the marketplace is a BIG number and most of them are purchased on eBay where the number of counterfeit CF cards soars to 70%!- uhmmmmm. Here is the story right here.
Ahhhhh! Don't You Love Digital
Back in the day, the film days, that is, we too had a way to see the images instantly. Back in the film days instantly meant in about a minute. Yes, you guessed it - with Polaroid backs for our medium format cameras.
What about the 35mm shooters - oh, they had a solution too and Nikon provided the gear to make it happen. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the instant 35mm camera of the past [link]. Like I’ve said so often, digital photographers don't know how easy they have it these days ;~)
A Few Photography Techniques For You Today
Light Painting Taken To The Extreme
I've always been a fan of light painting but this article takes Light Painting to a brand new level. You can read the entire story right here. Don’t miss the video too – way cool!
Your Complete Guide For Photographing Star Trails
Back when my age could be calculated with single digits my hobby was astronomy. That’s why I enjoy this post so much.
11 Ways To Build A Better Photo
This is a great article that cuts to the chase with good ideas to help one improve their photograph – enjoy the read right here.
Photo school in a box: 250 photography tutorials
OK, here you go – more photograph lessons than you could ever hope to get through in a day right here. Thanks to Pixiq.com for providing this resourceful list.
Hot Items In The Gadget Department
Like most of you, I stay pretty busy and don't have all the time I would like to just web surf all the sites in my RSS reader. This weekend I took a little trip over to a few of my favorite sites and stumbled on a few cool projects at DIYPhotography.com. I enjoyed several of the posts I’ve missed lately. Here are some of my favorites. I plan to give a few of them a try myself - they look like pretty much fun. Always fun to try something new!
Camera Remote Control - Cool!
I love this idea and it looks super simple to do – count me in. Here is the link right here.
Texture Projector For Your Next Portrait Session
Ok, I’ve been looking at something like this for quite a while. I think it could be kind of cool for your high school senior portrait. Here is the link right here.
More On Photography
1 - Stolen Camera Finder – I actually think this is a pretty good idea. Here is the link.
2 - If you haven't already, check out this new project web site right here. It’s called The American Wedding Project and their goal is to photograph a wedding in every state and 10 major cities in less than 80 weeks!
One Hot IPad/iPhone Camera App
Fellow blogging buddy, Dave Warner, at Lensflare35 just did an interview with the PhotoForge2 folks that was released today (same as their new version of the app) - a FANTASTIC piece of app software Dave says. Catch the interview and get more info on the app right here.
Card Reader For iPad & iPad2 That Works
A while back I reported that Apple in all their wonderfulness neutered just about every card reader we could use in transferring our images into the iPad by reducing the power output from 100ma to 10ma at the connector. Most card readers needed more than that to power them up so they just stopped working after one upgraded to iOS 4.x.
I just got a note from Phillip Guyton, one of our DPR who picked up a card reader I mentioned a few months ago that looked like it might solve the problem. Well, it does. Here’s the excerpt from Phillip’s note. “Just wanted to let you know that I purchased one of the cd card readers from MicGadget and I'm happy to report it works like a champ on both the iPad 1 and iPad 2!”
Thanks Philip – here is the link for all the info on the working card reader right here
Photoshop, Lightroom, and Freebies
Lots On Photoshop Today
This section of Quick Hit Monday is becoming quite fun for me to put together for you. I'll tell you, my finds are finds that are helpful to me and things we do at my studio. Most of the articles are Portrait/Wedding specific. I hope you enjoy them.
1 - 15 Photoshop Cheat Sheets That Will Make Your Task Easier [link]
2 - In Depth BW Conversions [link]
3 - Selecting Hair in Photoshop [link]
A Touch Of Lightroom Too
1 - 100 Ways Lightroom Kicks the Bridge (and Camera Raw’s) A$@! [link]
2 - 10 Quick and Easy Lightroom Tricks Every User Should Know [link]
3 - 5 Lightroom Keyboard Shortcuts [link] In this episode of the Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast Terry White will show you 5 Keyboard Shortcuts for Lightroom that will speed up your day to day workflow!
And Finally, Photoshop Freebies
1 - FREE Adobe Patterns [link]
2 - Tuesday Total Textures 71 [link]
3 - 260+ Free Beautiful Paper Texture Collection For Elegant Designs [link]
4 - Alt Codes You Can Use [link]
Need to type a Copyright symbol but can never remember the Alt code – well, here is the definitive listing of all those special codes right here.
Strange But True Department
Apple causes ‘religious’ reaction in brains of fans, say neuroscientists. [link] I knew it was true all the time ;~) Please no nasty grams, but I did find this be an interesting story.
Learning and Training
Lightroom Training
In the month of June, fellow blogger, podcaster, and photographer Gavin Seim has a series of 90 minute Lightroom Webinar Workshops on various skills levels. All the details on them are right here.
Marketing and Design Workshop At Marathon Press
LaDawn and I attended a Marathon Workshop a few years ago. Valuable help and definitely worth it. Check it out right here.
Norfolk, NE • JUNE 13-14, 2011 • learn more »\
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Hey gang, that’s it for me today. We’re running late and shooting starts in about an hour at Kelby Training. Hope to see everyone right here again tomorrow – same time, same station.
See ya’ then, –David