Gorillapods

Ever wanted/needed a tripod that could be used just about anywhere, for anything? I just ordered one of these puppies. Click here for more information.

Scott Kelby On Nikon D300

Excerpt:

"Q. Scott. If it won’t get you into too much trouble with sponsors, what do you think is the best digital camera under $2,500, body only? I want to take up photography for the first time. So far, from what I’ve seen, the D300 looks best.

"A. My opinion is, of course, going to be biased because I’m a Nikon shooter, and I bought the D300 (no, Nikon didn’t give me one), so I think that pretty much tells you where I’m at. I think the D300 smokes, especially for the money, and (Nikon will hate me for saying this), I think it’s FAR superior to the Nikon D2Xs which was selling for around $5,000, body only, at the time the D300 came out (in fact, I sold my Nikon D2Xs after having my D300 for about two weeks). So, D300 -- that’s what I’d recommend to a friend (and have in many instances, and have gotten nothing but love in return)."

Original Link

PST: Top 25 Photoshop Pictures of May 2008

View PhotoshopTalent.com's top 25 Photoshop pictures of May 2008 by clicking this link.

Greg Haverstock on Matthes Crest

Greg Haverstock on Matthes Crest by Shawn Reeder. Click the photo above to see larger image. For more information: Rangefinder Magazine, June 2998, "Climbing Ever Higher" (pdf)

Review of Ray Flash Ring Flash

Ray Flash: The Ring Flash Adapter Website.
Scott Kelby On Ring Flash harshness, red eye, cost, and other issues.
Where to buy.
Original post on Dave Cross website.

The Mac OS X Leopard Book

HDR Photography Using Lightroom & Photomatix

Matt Kloskowski demos HDR in Lightroom and Photomatix. Writes Matt:

"Lately I’ve really been into shooting HDR images. I bracket just about everything that I can. Why? Not because I like the fantasy-like effect that’s been popular. Honestly, it’s just not my style but I can definitely appreciate it for certain photos. For me though, it’s more about having real world HDR. It saves me time in Photoshop and I’m amazed that I’ve never explored HDR for my landscape and interior photos until now. I’ll explain how, why, and how I’ve incorporated Lightroom into my HDR workflow as well as what I use to process my HDR images in this week’s video..."

Watch tutorial.
Matt's original post can be found here.
Photomatix Website.

Drying of the West Gallery

The American West was won by water management. What happens when there's no water left to manage? Click here to see all the photos in this National Geographic gallery.

Is Your Camera Gear Out Of Control?

From The Boda Bag Blog Website

The Boda Lens Bag

Wedding Photographer, Jim Garner joins Inside Digital Photo TV's host, Scott Sheppard live from the Boda Lens Bag booth at WPPI 2008 to explain some of the bags and the features. Developed by a range of photographers, find out more information at: http://goboda.com

FocalPoint: Delightful New Photoshop Plugin

FocalPoint gives photographers a way to create realistic depth of field control, plane of focus control and selective focus to any image after it is photographed allowing for more control and precision. The focus bug control in FocalPoint has a tangible, hardware feel much like using a lens. It makes it fast for a photographer to define the "sweet spot" either in a round shape or a plane and then control how much and of what kind of blur they would like to add. This has a huge benefit over hardware tools like auxiliary lenses and filters because it allows the photographer to control the focus after the image is taken, giving them more control and requiring fewer shots in camera.

Visit FocalPoint Website (Includes Video Tutorial)

How Do Airport Scanners Affect Flash Cards & Film?

Concerning Flash Cards:

"None of the security equipment -- neither the machines used for checked baggage nor those used for carry-on baggage -- will affect digital camera images or film that has already been processed -- slides, videos, photo compact discs or picture memory cards." -- Transportation Security Adminstration

"Advice from SanDisk about Flash Memory Cards: You can put full or empty flash cards in your checked or carry-on baggage with little risk of damage from airport scanners. The International Imaging Industry Association (IA3) conducted tests last year with security devices used in U.S. airports and found that no damage to the cards resulted with normal travel frequency. As an added precaution, SanDisk recommends that you take the cards out of ALL checked baggage and cameras, and put them in your carry-on before passing them through security devices." -- EcoPhoto Explorers

"Taking Cards Through Airport X-Ray Machines and Metal Detectors: You can put full or empty flash cards in your checked baggage or in your carry-ons with little risk of damage from airport scanners. The International Imaging Industry Association conducted tests last year with security devices used in U.S. airports and found that no damage to the cards resulted with normal travel frequency. As an added precaution, SanDisk recommends that you take the card out of your camera before passing through security devices." -- Business Wire, June 30, 2005

"I have taken my FZ50 through many airport scanners countless times. In New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the United States. I always leave the battery in the camera and a memory card installed. Handy for taking shots at the airport but watch out for restricted areas. Spare cards are kept in the camera bag. I have never had any problem with corupt files." -- Jeff Shep, Flickr

............

Concerning Film:

"Never place undeveloped film in your checked baggage, our security equipment used for screening checked baggage will damage your undeveloped film. Place your film in your carry-on baggage or request a hand inspection. Please note that our carry-on security equipment might also damage certain film if the film passes through more than five times.

"If your film cannot be cleared by X-ray inspection, or you desire to have it inspected by hand, you may be required to open the box, canister, or wrapper so our Security Officer can inspect it. We recommend leaving your film in the unopened manufacturer’s packaging. Our security equipment used for screening checked baggage will damage your undeveloped film. Carry undeveloped film with you to the security checkpoint.

"None of the security equipment - neither the machines used for checked baggage nor those used for carry-on baggage - will affect digital camera images or film that has already been processed - slides, videos, photo compact discs or picture memory cards.

You should remove all film from your checked baggage and place it in your carry-on baggage... To expedite the security process of a hand inspection, you should consider carrying your film in clear canisters, or taking the film out of solid colored canisters and putting it into clear plastic bags. Consider having your exposed film processed locally before passing through airport security on your return trip..." -- From the Transportation Security Adminstration

Computer Photo Of Nuclear Attack On Washington D.C.

This computer generated image posted on terror forums depict what would happen if a nuclear attack took place in Washington D.C.

Read article about it here.

Great Photographers: Trey Ratcliff

Great Photographers: Trey Ratcliff

Trey Ratcliff's HDR Tutorial

What is HDR?

Excerpt:

HDR is short for High Dynamic Range. It is a software technique of taking either one image or a series of images, combining them, and adjusting the contrast ratios to do things that are virtually impossible with a single aperture and shutter speed. Most of the images in “Your Top 100 Favorites” are HDR, so you can take a look there if you want to see more examples than in this tutorial.

Read Trey's Tutorial

The CF/SD Performance Database

The CF/SD Performance Database Is Back
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
By Rob Galbraith

Excerpt:

The CF/SD Performance Database, our collection of memory card write speed results from Canon and Nikon digital SLR cameras, is relaunching. We've updated the database with test data from the Canon EOS 40D, EOS-1D Mark III and EOS-1Ds Mark III plus the Nikon D300 and D3, introduced sortable results tables and more.

Results from other models will be rolled out in the days ahead, including for the Canon EOS 30D, EOS 5D and EOS-1Ds Mark II, as well as the Nikon D80, D200 and D2Xs. You'll also find card-to-computer transfer results for the latest CompactFlash cards, with more CompactFlash and SD/SDHC results to be posted soon.

Visit database.

Scott Kelby's Photo & Computer Back-up Strategy

Excerpt:

Never erase a memory card until you have two backups

I backup in the field to an Epson P-5000; that way I have one backup on a hard drive, and the original photos still on my memory card, which I put back in my memory card case.

When you import photos onto your laptop (like into Lightroom), make sure you have a backup of your photos on an external drive as well (or two drives in my case, because I don’t store all my photos on my laptop)

Make sure your main photo library is backed up someplace that’s 100% safe and secure, because there is no replacing those original digital negatives (for me, that place is a Drobo).

Don’t forget to have an offsite duplicate backup (in my case, it’s another Drobo, but it can also be just a large external drive sitting in your safe deposit box, or at work, but you have no way of knowing that, should you need that backup, it will work, which is why I have 2nd Drobo).

Complete article.

What To Do If Hard Drive Disaster Strikes!

Hopefully, you religiously back up your critical hard drives, just in case one or more of them fail. Back what do you do if one of them fails and you have no backup and your efforts to resurrect your crashed drive fail? Drivesavers may be the answer:

"DriveSavers handles more dropped, damaged, corrupted and traumatized drives in one day than most data recovery providers do in one month. As a result, our engineers can successfully recover data from all storage devices and all operating systems -- from legacy to state-of-the-art. We are authorized and recommended by leading computer and storage device manufacturers; our recovery work will never void the original warranty.

"Close and long-term relationships with leading hard drive manufacturers help us keep pace with changing data storage technology and inspires the development of proprietary software and hardware so advanced, we consistently rescue data other service providers simply abandon.

"DriveSavers engineers are the best in the industry at physical and logical data recovery and second to none when dealing with firmware failures and micro-component repair. Trained and certified by leading encryption vendors, they can reliably recover lost data from all encrypted hard drives, peripheral devices and software."


Drivesavers Website.

Joe McNally in Dubai

Joe McNally in Dubai. Go here for more information (and to see some of the photos that came from this shoot).

Senior Graduation In Sedona, Arizona

I shot this image yesterday, Wednesday, May 21, 2008, during the senior graduation ceremony at Red Rock High School in Sedona, Arizona. This is a composite of seven different images, all shot hand held, at f4.5, 1/80 sec, ISO 500 using a Nikon 18-200mm lens on my Nikon D300. The images were stitched together using Photoshop CS3's photomerge feature. Click on the photo above to see a larger image.

Lightning Bolts Above Chaiten Volcano

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanos are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them. Picture taken May 2, 2008.

Original Link

From Pangea Day: Mutual Recognition

Here's another film from the Pangea Day Event. I'm including it in my photography blog because human relationships -- how we treat one another -- is, in my opinion, the most important part of any work we do, photography or otherwise.

This short documentary offers a unique and intimate perspective into the thoughts of a Moroccan imam and his wife as they discuss their romance. They describe their thoughts about how to build a deep, trusting, and enduring relationship in this film that shows the specific ways the Islamic faith relates to the universal concepts of love and respect. Directed by Jehane Noujaim.

Watch On Pangea Day Website.

From Pangea Day: Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot

Pale Blue Dot
Words By Carl Sagan

In 1990, Carl Sagan persuaded NASA to use the Voyager 1 spacecraft to take a photograph of the planet Earth from a distance of 4 billion miles. The result was simply arresting: a portrait of our home as a tiny, fragile speck of blue adrift in an unimaginably vast sea of space. In a commencement address for the public release of the photograph, astronomer Sagan offered these profound words:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Watch Complete Movie On Pangea Website.

Annie Leibovitz’s Disney Fantasyland

Link One • Link Two • Link Three • Link Four • Link Five