Pixcetera: Best Photos of the Year

Here's an amazingly diverse collection of outstanding photos from around the world: Pixcetera: Best Photos of the Year

Desktop Photos From Stephen W. Oachs

This photo, which was taken by Stephen W. Oachs (featured below), can be used as a desktop photo. Just click on it to bring up a larger size. Better, go here, and select any of the images you like, let them load in your browser window, and then drag your favorite image to your desktop...

Nikon D90 Vs. Nikon D300

Source: QQQQcon YouTube Website
Additional Information: Ken Rockwell On D90

Preikestolen Norge

Click photo to view larger image.
Original Imagine

Great Photographers: Stephen W. Oachs

Stephen W. Oachs Website
Stephen W. Oachs Blog

Lightroom 2.2 Now Available

Lightroom 2.2 is now available on Adobe.com. (Mac, Win) The release includes new camera support for the following models:

- Canon EOS 5D Mark II
- Canon PowerShot G10
- Panasonic DMC-G1
- Panasonic DMC-FX150
- Panasonic DMC-FZ28
- Panasonic DMC-LX3
- Leica D-LUX 4

We've also fixed a few bugs that were introduced with the Lightroom 2.0 release...

Click here for more information.

Rapid R-Strap Camera Strap

www.blackrapid.com

Gadgets & Gear: The Best Of The Best

If you're like me, you are probably very interested in knowing what kind of cameras, lenses, packs, lights, computers, and other gear your fellow photographers use, especially those who are at the top of their game. Here is a quick list of some of the folks I keep a close eye on:

Scott Kelby's Gear
About Scott Kelby (Includes A List Of Scott's "Favorite Stuff")
Terry White's "Favorite Things"
Moose Peterson's Camera Bag
Joe McNally's Camera Bag

Creative Business Cards

Making a good impression on clients is a critical component to being successful. And one way to make an impression, is to come up with a creative business card. While none of these cards are designed by or for photographers, they might help some of us "think outside the box"...





Click here to see 36 more examples of creative business cards.

Eddy Winner: Nikon D300

Eddy Winner: Nikon D300 Digital Camera
By Christopher Breen
Macworld.com

Excerpt:

"This 12.3-megapixel camera stands out for many reasons. To begin with, its 14-bit sensor and image-processing engine provide excellent image quality. It’s also a champ when it comes to low-light shooting, allowing you to use settings as high as 3,200 ISO and still get excellent results. When you first pick up the camera, you notice its solid build, and all of its important controls -- ISO, white balance, exposure, shooting modes, and focus settings -- are easy to access with the touch of a button, switch, or dial.

"In case you need more than those controls, the menus are packed with a nearly endless complement of options. Switch the camera on, and you’ll be dazzled by the D300’s bright and crisp three-inch LCD display, which not only provides detailed information about your images and camera but also can also be used as a viewfinder (in Live View mode). For shooters ready to move up from entry-level DSLRs, the D300 is a great next step."

Hulu

Eddy Winner: Hulu
By Dan Moren
Macworld.com

Excerpt:

"Hulu, a joint venture between Fox and NBC, picks up where conventional television left off, allowing you to view a huge variety of new and classic television shows and films on the Web, for the price of viewing a few brief advertisements. It even offers high-definition 480p video resolution, which -- while it may not be Blu-ray quality -- is a lot better than the videos on less-legitimate sites. The service is reliable, easy-to-use, and -- most importantly -- 100 percent legal. In this, the networks have finally taken a page from Steve Jobs’s iTunes playbook: you may not be able to crush piracy, but you can certainly compete with it."

Hulu

Google Earth API

Download Google Earth API

Music Video Made Of 45,000 Photographs

Director Stitches 45,000 Photographs Into a Music Video
By Priya Ganapati
Wired
December 05, 2008

Excerpt:

"Cesar Kuriyama, a New York animator and lighting technical director, has directed a visually arresting music video using an interesting technique. Eschewing a video camera, he took 45,000 photographs with a Nikon D200 DSLR... camera and stitched them together to create the illusion of video. The music video was created for the band Fat City Reprise and premiered at their homecoming concert in Philadelphia.

"Kuriyama says he directed the talent in the video to move as best they could in slow-motion while he had his director of photography Tommy Agriodimas shoot JPG bursts with the Nikon D200... The whole video cost just about $3000 to make, says Kuriyama, "plus the endless personal hours."

"Much of the editing for the video, says Kuriyama, was done on his MacBook Pro in Final Cut Pro. He managed the photographs in iPhoto and did the effects in Eyeon Fusion.

"Kuriyama's efforts is an interesting way to circumvent the challenge that photographers face when it comes to creating high quality videos at low cost. Compact digital cameras, which have had video-recording capabilities for years, offer disappointing image quality. High-end video and movie cameras are bulky and can be very expensive. But the $2700 21-megapixel Canon 5D Mark II capable of 1080p HD video and the $1300 12-megapixel Nikon D90, which can record 720p HD video could change the game. The two cameras deliver very high quality video and still images and could help photographers move to a single camera for their needs."

Fat City Reprise - Long Gone
By Cesar Kuriyama

20 Stunning Rock Formations

Excerpt:

"For this story -- "Stunning Rock Formations" -- we highlight 20 geologic sites across the globe. From Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick to the famous chalk arches of Etretat in Normandy, France, these wonders represent some of the world's most famous geology -- igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic or otherwise."

To read the story mentioned above, all with the "20 Stunning Rock Formations" the story discusses, go here.

Calumet OneShot Promotion

Excerpt:

"Every day of every week, we're offering one astounding special that runs for 24 hours only. Each offer is selected from our supply of top quality equipment and is set at a rare price that you might never see again. And that's why we call it OneShot. Each day's OneShot runs from midnight to midnight or until the item sells out (whichever comes first), and then it's over. If you miss purchasing a OneShot special, you've missed it. But there will be many more offers in the future. So click early, click often, and catch your OneShot."

Calumet OneShot Promotion Page.

Thanks to Mel Russell.

Photoshop: Cover Model: Before & After

Click on the image for larger view. Original link.

My New Website & A Couple Of Tips

Like most photographers, I shoot all kinds of things: individuals, couples, families, weddings, portraits, landscapes, to name a few. Since my interests are all over the map, I decided to create a portal site -- sunfellowphotography.com -- that linked to some of my main interests.

Now I have a couple tips for you:

1. Until recently, my primary website has been my wedding website. Since this website is a flash-based website, it is barely noticed by the search engines. To address this issue I created an html page that contained a long list of the various wedding professionals I work with, and recommend, in my home town of Sedona. Whenever a person types in "Sedona Wedding Photographer" (or something similar), my links page typically shows up in the top 10 hits, which keeps both me and my business prominently featured. As a community-building gesture, this links page also helps draw attention (and clients) to the friends and co-workers I have listed. And this, in turn, encourages them to reciprocate by adding links on their website back to mine.

2. Another idea is to create an html page consisting of favorable comments you have received from your clients and -- here's the important part -- if you have worked with other professionals in your area, list them on this page, too. For example, if you are in the wedding industry, you might list the wedding planners and officiants who worked with you on a given wedding. The search engines love pages like this and, again, will rank you higher by virtue of many topic-appropriate names and links being included on the same page.

Nikon TV Ad

TV Ad Featuring Ashton Kutcher and the Nikon D60 (and D300).

Nikon D3X Brochure

Nikon has posted a 28-page brochure (pdf) on the D3X, the company's new 24.39 million pixel camera.

Nikon D3X Specs

Seb Rogers, a professional cycling photographer, has included some bite-sized information about the new Nikon D3X on his blog. Excerpt:

The rumours surrounding Nikon's launch of its much-anticipated high-res follow-up to the D3 have reached the usual intensity on the web in the past few days, as we approach the 1st December launch date. Well, the wait is over: it's here. My copy of Nikon Pro magazine dropped on the doormat this morning with an unexpected surprise on page 6 -- full details of the new flagship dSLR, days ahead of the official launch. Here's the deal:

- same body design, AF, metering and main functions as D3
- 24.5mp FX sensor
- 5:4 and DX crops
- 5fps at full resolution; DX crop shoots 10mp images at up to 7fps
- ISO 100-1600, extendable down to 50 and up to 6400
- 16 bit EXPEED processor

More information.

Twine

Twine Overview from Twine Official on Vimeo. Click here for more information.

Animoto Adds New Features

You can now insert text into your Animoto videos. Check it out.

Memorial Photography

Excerpt:

"Memorial photography was the common practice of taking a person’s portrait after they passed away. Since our culture now fears death more than we mourn it, these photos are seen today as macabre. But it was actually a beautiful tradition that helped families keep a small memento of the loved ones they had lost."

See photos, read complete article here.

Related Links:

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation

Life Before Death (Walter Schels and Beate Lakotta)

New Firmware For Nikon D300

Nikon has today announced a firmware update for the D300, taking it to v1.10. The update improves focus performance in dynamic-area AF mode contrast-detect mode in live view but also looks at a whole range of other issues.

Download Firmware Update For Mac

Download Firmware Update For Windows

Gorgeous Fall Photo

Portland Japanese Garden, Portland, Oregon. Download various sizes of this photo here. Photographer's home page.

Kelby Training: CS4 Online Training Classes

Kelby Training has posted a bunch of new Photoshop CS4 tutorials. If you're new to Kelby Training you can test drive the online training library and see the first 3 lessons of each class for free.

New MacBook Disassembled

Take a look a what a new MacBook looks like -- on the inside.

First Look: MacBook & MacBook Pro

Excerpt from MacWorld:

"The new MacBook and MacBook Pro are here. No, not just 'here' in the sense of 'publicly acknowledged by Apple and being shipped to arrive in Apple Stores tomorrow.' Here in the sense of, in my office right now. So in advance of our full reviews and lab tests of these products, let me give you a quick tour of the products..."

Read Article
Visit Apple's Website

Nikon D80 Firmware Update

From Nikon's website:

"This firmware resolves an issue which, in rare cases, causes the battery indicator to blink whilst shooting regardless of the level of charge in the battery."

Click here to download Nikon D80 firmware update for Macintosh.
Click here to download Nikon D80 firmware update for Windows.

Behind-The-Scenes: Laforet's Canon 5D Movie

How did Vincent Laforet shoot his short film, "Reverie", using Canon's new 5D Mark II camera? You can find an interesting "behind-the-scenes" video posted here.

Vincent Laforet Takes Canon 5D For A Spin

If you've been wondering what Canon's new 5D Mark II is capable of -- especially the high definition 1080p video the camera can shoot -- Vincent Laforet has created a video called "Reverie" that takes the camera for a spin. Of special note is how high the ISO is set on these images (1600 and higher!) and the mouth-watering, feature film-look depth-of-field effects Laforet is getting from the lenses he is using. Canon's 5D outguns Nikon's D90, which also has the ability to shoot high definition video (albeit only 720p, not 1080p). But the 5D costs $1700.00 more -- $2700.00, versus $1000.00.

Click here to view a short movie.

Click here to see some sample images.

Click here to visit Vincent Laforet's blog.

Canon's 5D Mark II Home Page.

Nikon's D90 Home Page.

FrederickVan Interviews Matt Kloskowski

FrederickVan Writes:

At the recent Photoshop World Expo in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity to sit down with Matt Kloskowski from the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP).

Along with Scott Kelby, Matt produces a weekly online video containing great Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom tips and tricks. Matt is also a highly sought-after educator, and has authored several books on the topic of photography — his latest being “Layers: The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature“.

In this interview, Matt and I sit down to chat about his photography, Lightroom, and more. Matt shares some tips on how to manage photos in Lightroom, features he’d like to see in future versions, and what his favorite new feature in Lightroom 2 is.

Original Link

Adobe TV

Click here to watch many "free" Adobe tutorials, including several that describe new features found in Photoshop CS4.

Photoshop CS4: Content Aware Scale

An amazing new feature in Photoshop CS4. Original Link

How To Copy DVDs

There are several different pieces of software you can use to copy your DVDs. They number literally in the dozens, and most of them are commercial software offerings that will set you back anywhere from $20 to $100 and up. This wiki describes the process and contains links to the best software programs (for both Mac and PC) for the job.

Inteview With John Nack From Adobe

Interesting interview with John Nack from Adobe discussing Photoshop CS4, and Photoshop development in general.

Inteview with John Nack from Adobe

Adobe CS4 Learning Center

Adobe is preparing to ship Photoshop CS4. I just purchased my upgrade and the receipt indicates that October 14th is the estimated ship date. In the meantime, the folks at NAPP have put together some mouth-watering tutorials that illustrate some of the new features in CS4. Here are the links:

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Learning Center
More Photoshop CS4 Video Tutorials
Adobe Photoshop CS4

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Excerpt from Rob Galbraith's website:

"Canon has announced the EOS 5D Mark II, an update of the oldest camera in its digital SLR lineup and one that the company promises will deliver the best image quality and lowest noise of any EOS model to date. Headlining the 5D Mark II is a 21.03 million image pixel full-frame CMOS sensor that is derived from the sensor in the EOS-1Ds Mark III, but with several improvements meant to improve shadow rendering and noise levels at all ISO settings.

"The refined sensor is also at the heart of Canon's first foray into digital SLR video: the 5D Mark II can record clips at 1920 x 1080 pixel (1080p) resolution, with sound (captured via either a built-in mono mic or through an external mic connected to the camera's stereo mic jack).

"The remainder of the 5D Mark II is largely an amalgam of the original 5D, including its viewfinder, AF system and various mechanical components (all with slight refinements), and the recently-introduced EOS 50D, with which the new camera shares a similar control layout, 3.0 inch (diagonal), 920,000 dot rear LCD and DIGIC 4 processor.

"The EOS 5D Mark II is slated to ship towards the end of November 2008 at an expected street price of US$2699 in the U.S. Here's a look at what could be a powerhouse new digital SLR for those who need lots of pixels and HD video in one body."

Canon 5D Mark II Home Page

Lightroom 2.1 'Release Candidate'

Lightroom 2.1
From Adobe Labs

"Welcome to the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.1 release candidate on Adobe Labs. The 'release candidate' label indicates that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers. The Lightroom team would like the community to help verify the quality of this update through normal usage as this will ensure that the application is tested on a diversity of hardware and software configurations not available internally at Adobe. If you do experience an issue with this release candidate please report it to the Lightroom User to User forum..."

Lightroom 2.1 Release Candidate for Macintosh and Windows.

Update: Animoto Mojo

While we are on the subject of using programs like cooliris to dazzle family, friends, and clients, I wanted to remind all of you about Animoto, a slick "web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos... [in] a widescreen format... [that] have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer." They are out of beta now (after one full year of development). A few quick stats pulled from their blog:

- 4 million videos have been made on the Animoto platform

- More than 250,000 users in 200-some countries have registered on Animoto.com

- Animoto vids have been watched over 50 million times on Animoto.com, blogs, social networks, video sharing sites and web sites around the world!

Finally, here's an excerpt about Animoto from a blog I wrote in January:

Now here's an online service to get excited about. It's called Animoto and it creates MTV-style movies out of your photographs, music, and video clips. Writes EMorton, G4TV:

"It's like tossing a bunch of steel, glass and leather into a box, shaking it up and then opening the box to find a brand new Ferrari."

I agree. It's beautiful, well-designed, and exceptionally user-friendly. And your finished video can be posted all over the Net -- on YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, iGoogle, Blogger, and gobs of other websites that support embedded videos...

50+ Photoshop Body Enhancement Tips

The folks at DesignReviver just posted a series of great Photoshop tutorials. Take a look: 50+ Excellent Body Enhancement Photoshop Tutorials.

View SmugMug on cooliris

Turns out that SmugMug, which is one of the online photo services I use to showcase and sell my photography, is natively programmed so it can use cooliris to display images in stunning 3D format. To see what I am talking about, do this:

1. Install the cooliris plugin in your browser (they currently support Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari).

2. Go to one of my wedding galleries on SmugMug.

3. Now look in the upper right hand corner of your browser window. You'll notice that the cooliris icon is lit up in color. That means the website you are visiting has been programmed so cooliris can display it. Click on the icon and cooliris will show you how dazzling your work can look in a 3D environment.

I wish I could claim that I did the fancy programming that enabled my SmugMug galleries to be able to be displayed in cooliris. But I didn't. In fact, I only discovered this marriage made in heaven when the cooliris folks dropped me a note thanking me for mentioning their cool program and mentioning how good my wedding photos looked in it!

Two more things:

1. If you want to create a stand alone gallery of select images that can be displayed by cooliris, the cooliris folks have created PicLens Publisher to automate the process for you. Go here to find out more.

2. For a quick overview of how cooliris works, go here.

cooliris

Looking for a way to dazzle your clients, create fantastic websites, or browse the web in a 3D environment. Check out cooliris. Thanks to my brother, Wes, for letting me know about this beauty!

Award-Winning Short Film Shot With Still Camera

Award-winning short film shot with still camera. Over 2000 photographs were stitched together to form movement.

Between You and Me
Written, Shot, Directed, Edited by Patryk Rebisz

"Rio" (With The Vanguard Band)

Here's a fun, creative video that suggests, again, the happy marriage of photography and video.

"Rio" (With The Vanguard Band)
Shot & Directed by Patryk Rebisz
Edited By Erinnisse Heuer

Nikon D90 16-Page Brochure

Nikon D90 16-Page Brochure (pdf)

Wow!!! Video On Nikon's D90

Before I began working as a professional photographer, I worked as a professional videographer. Nikon's new D90 has me drooling. Why? Nikon describes its "wow" features like this:

"A new idea for D-SLRs, the D90 offers a movie function, allowing you to shoot movies in three different motion JPEG formats: 320 x 216 pixels, 640 x 424 pixels and 1,280 x 720 pixels. Now you can capture life’s moving moments with added drama by using many of Nikon’s NIKKOR lenses, including the AF DX Fisheye 10.5mm f/2.8G ED and the Micro-NIKKOR lenses. The shallow depth of field can give your movies a more creative and emotional impact. An additional benefit is the D90 image sensor, which is much larger than a typical camcorder for higher image quality and exceptional high ISO performance during low-light shooting."

While these features sound glorious, the D80 has some serious weaknesses:

• Autofocus is not available when recording movies.

• Matrix metering is used regardless of the metering method selected.

• There is apparently no input for external microphones, meaning the sound captured by the D90 will be very limited, at best. It also records in mono, not stereo.

• The camera reportedly only allows 5 minutes of shooting time in the 1,280 x 720 pixel mode because the sensor has to cool down (it is supposed to get 20 minutes when shooting at lower resolutions).

Bottomline: When it comes to video, this camera may have enormous appeal to people who want to use it for short, creative shooting -- and who want to have a camera in their bag that can shoot quick videos. I can imagine using it to capture unexpected moments, especially in low light situations where most video cameras are largely useless without lights, and perhaps making short video clips for posting on the Net.

Nikon has posted a few sample videos that were shot on this camera. Click here to see what the D90 can do.

Nikon's New D90

Nikon's D90 Web Page

DPReview On D90

Ken Rockwell On D90

GigaPan Systems Imager Beta

GigaPan robotic imager system enables ultra-high resolution panoramic digital photographs. The system includes software for stitching together multiple images, and for uploading gigapans to Gigapan Web servers which enables viewing by internet visitors.

Purchase A GigaPan Imager

See Samples of Gigapan Images

Monsoon Clouds Over Cathedral Rock

Every summer, Sedona experiences several weeks of monsoon weather. Typically, the days begin with blue skies and hot temperatures. Late afternoon, dark clouds begin to form, and there will be rolling rain storms -- sometimes producing torrential downpours and flash floods. The storms typically last for 30 minutes to an hour. Then the skies clear up and the cycle repeats the next day. This year (and last) the rains have been arriving around 6PM. In earlier years, the rains usually touched down around 3PM. Early or late, the rains are very welcome in Sedona. The local vegetation, animals, aquifers, even Sedona's famous red rocks come alive when the rains come. I shot this photo yesterday, from the rooftop of my house at about 7PM local time.

Visit my Sedona SmugMug gallery to see more images of Sedona.

Noah Takes A Photo Of Himself Every Day For 6 Years

Great Photographers: Chase Jarvis

Chase Jarvis Website
Chase Jarvis Blog
Chase Jarvis On YouTube