Quick Hit Monday: WPPI; Power Of Passion; I Have A Famous Daughter; and More!

Good Morning Everybody,

I can’t believe it – sunshine!! Yep, sunshine and moderately warm temperatures finally hit the Mid-West.. It was really good news to hear the weather man report that we have more on the way this week.  Hope the weather is nice in your part of the world.

Hey gang, we’ve got a busy week shaping up so let’s get right to Quick Hit Monday.  Here we go…

Heading To WPPI This Thursday

That’s right, LaDawn and I jump on a jet and head to Las Vegas this coming Thursday.  We’re getting in early for a couple of reasons. One reason is to see Jerry Ghionis and Sandy Puc’s kick off program at the Hampton Inn Tropicana on Saturday [link].  I’ve heard about their new seminar series and wanted to see it first hand – it should be a kick.  If you’re planning to attend, come on up and say HI.

We’ll hang for few days before the WPPI convention kicks off on Sunday.  Look for me at the Westcott booth and the Manfroto booth doing a few lighting demos.  This is always a great show and we’re looking forward to being with the other 15,000 photographers hanging in Vegas next week – see you there!

Animoto Makes My Daughter Elizabeth Famous!

Well, almost famous. I don’t know if you have taken the opportunity to try Animoto yet – I’ve been using it for years – but the new “rendering engine”, now 10x faster, is producing videos that look great!  You will love the higher resolution videos – sumptuous!  All the latest info right here.

Anyway, Animoto got a little press from the big guns at CNET [link] and my daughter Elizabeth is pictured in the feature. Elizabeth has been working with Animoto for several months, you may have met her at the Imaging USA show in San Antonio, TX this past January.  Anyway, very cool for a dad.

Captured By The Light Continues To Get RAVE Reviews

I just received a note about my book “Captured By The Light” from Rob Acocella at DigiMortalPhoto [link]. 

The opening paragraph quickly caught my eye,  “David Ziser's Captured By The Light,which is easily one of the best, most comprehensive books on wedding photography I've ever read”.

Rob is a first time wedding photographer and found the book extremely helpful for his upcoming shoot.  THANKS Rob for the great shout out!  -David

One Touch Color Correction - Tutorials

One of my long standing favorite color correcting plug in has been Pictocolor’s I-Correct Portrait.  One click of the mouse and the color looks great.  Another feature I’ve always loved about the app is the fact that it let’s me also click on a skin tone – once again, one click and my portrait images are really looking good.

I just got their Valentine’s email – always good deals, BTW – and I picked up something I’ve never previously tried – setting up my own custom colors for one click color correction for types of skin, etc.  Very fast, very cool.  Check it out right here.

Fab Westcott Shootout At WPPI

The first time I saw the Westcott shootout was at last years Photoshop World.  Boy, was it over the top with four beautiful models, fabulous sets, and tons of lights ready to go.  I was blown away by the setup.

Well, the good news is that I hear Westcott is planning the same thing for WPPI next week – I can’t wait. Here’s the link to all the details right here. I’ll be hanging around lending a helping hand so why don’t you come on by?  See ya’ there.

One Last Quick Note On Note cards

Lexjet has always been my “go to” vendors for all things inkjet  and we are into our inkjet printing quite heavy around my studio. 

Anyway, they put out a newsletter each month which is filled with terrific ideas on how to get the best out of your inkjet printing.  More and more folks are jumping on the inkjet printing wagon so you really need to check out what’s happening over at Lexjet.

Here is an interesting and informative article [link] on how my buddy, Clay Blackmore, produced some stunning All Occasion greeting in his studio with some of Lexjet’s newest paper products.

It’s a good read.

__________________________________________________________

Hey gang, that’s it for me today. I’m putting the finishing touches on my Guest Blog post “ Wedding Photography – The State Of The Union –Part 2” for Scott Kelby and sending it over this afternoon.

Part 1 was published two weeks ago right here.  Part 2 is even more in-depth with lot’s of solutions to the current upheaval in the field of wedding photography.  Look for it on Wednesday.

Have a wonderful hugs and kisses day and I’ll see you tomorrow for another Technique Tuesday.

Adios Everybody,  David

I've been Flashin' Over The Weekend

Every now and then a nice little piece of software comes down the road that I take a liking to - well, mostly because it's free. That's what happened when I found FlashSlideShowMaker.com. Flash Slideshow Maker is a Flash album creator to make animated photo slide show with a SWF file as the output format. It transforms your digital photo collection to a Macromedia Flash file format (SWF) which you can share your memorial moments with your family or friends on your own homepage, post on your Blog or upload to your own website.


It's pretty cool, easy to use, and free. Although you can upgrade to their full version, the basic version works just fine for starters. I've used it to create short shows for wedding clients, post them to my web site - or for any number of business building uses. It's easy to use, yes, you can add royalty free music, and you get a nice result - check Flash Slide Show Maker sample shows out right here.

Wait, there's more - also check out Flypaper.com. This was a suggestion from one of our contest contributors last Thursday. I have to tell you, this looks like one really cool piece of software. I've spent a little time on their site over the weekend checking tutorials and the demos. It all hasn't sunk in yet, but I think Flypaper has some great possibilities for websites, internal training, and cross pollinating with your vendor buddies. I've downloaded it and will continue to give it a try real soon - so stay tuned. Check Flypaper out right here.

The last of the flash sites is Flipping Book - check it out right here. First off, it creates a great visual effect, like for showing wedding albums on-line. Just check out some of their demos right here. OK, but now on the Geek scale, this looks like about a "10" on the difficulty level for the average person. Anyway, I added it because I thought it looked cool - what can I say.

One For the Road - A DVD Slide Show Creator - Cool!

I know there are a million pieces of software that claim to do what DVDSlideshowGUI does, but this one looks really way cool. We are making slide shows up all the time for our clients, putting them on CDs, DVDs, iPods, etc. so I am always on the lookout for software that makes it easier, faster, and better. I've been all over their website and am pretty intrigued. If you are into this kind of stuff, check out DVDSlideshowGUI right here. I'm going to play with it over the weekend and report back next week - maybe sooner.

Hey, gang, that's about it for today. See everybody tomorrow - have a great one! --David

Slide Shows for the Masses

There are pretty many solutions for on-line slide shows these days. Photonovice.net has compared the pro and cons of 5 of them right here. One of my favs not on the list is Google's own slide show feature in Picasa, which I used last week for the "Walk in the Woods" show. You can check out Picasa right here.

More Cool News with NYC Views

And You Thought 22 Megapixels Was Big

John Nack, one of the all time Photoshop gurus had this really, really interesting piece over at his blog. He posted a link to a - get this - a 13 GIGAPIXEL image of Harlem, New York. You can navigate the image, zoom super close. It is truly amazing - check out the image here. Check out the entire story at John's blog right here.

Smoke Sculpture Photography:

This piece caught my attention because I had seen some similar images by a photographer in Indiana about two years ago, but these images are just outstanding. I stumbled on them over at F1.0's site. They were produced by Mehmet Ozgur. Check out the images here. Amazing!

Lighting For Commercial Applications:

Here is a nice article on commercial lighting published by my friends over at Rangefinder Magazine. It was also written by Linda May, whom I just finished an article with last evening. More on that later. Anyway, this piece gives you some good insights as to how to get it right on your next commercial shoot. Here is the link. It's a down loadable PDF so print it out and give it a read.

Freebie of the Day - Wondershare iPod Slideshow:

Here is the description - Wondershare iPod Slideshow is an innovative and easy-to-use tool to show off your imagination and create your entertaining slideshows on iPod. Tons of dazzling transitions & Ken-burns styled effects, powerful photo/video editing, various photo/video formats to iPod mp4 files converting, and the program’s simplified three-step workflow enables you to make show-n-tell custom movies for enjoying easily on the go! Click here for the link.

Meridian iPod Dock Upscales Video to 1080p:

Hot on the heels of the Freebie of the Day News comes news of Meridian's new iPod dock. It lets you res them up to 1080p for presentation on your big screen TV. Does this have the same "ring" as giant shrimp? Anyway, that's it for today.

See everyone tomorrow, All the Best -- David