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.