AppZapper for Mac Users

I came across this little jewel last night, downloaded it, took it for a spin, and was so impressed I bought it and started "zapping" (getting rid of) lots of old, unused programs and their corresponding (and often very difficult to find) files. Extremely easy to use and did exactly what it promised without mucking anything up. It's also beautifully designed and inexpensive: $12.95. All Mac users should have this: AppZapper for Mac Users.

The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3

Product Description:

"Scott Kelby, author of The Digital Photography Book, volume 1 (the world’s best-selling digital photography book of all time), is back with a follow-up to his volume 2 smash best seller, with an entirely new book that picks up right where he left off. It’s even more of that 'Ah ha -- so that’s how they do it,' straight-to-the-point, skip-the-techno-jargon stuff you can really use today to make your shots even better.

"This book truly has a brilliant premise, and here’s how Scott describes it: 'If you and I were out on a shoot and you asked me, ‘Hey Scott, I want the light for this portrait to look really soft and flattering. How far back should I put this softbox?’ I wouldn’t give you a lecture about lighting ratios, or flash modifiers. In real life, I’d just turn to you and say, ‘Move it in as close to your subject as you possibly can, without it actually showing up in the shot.’ Well, that’s what this book is all about: you and I out shooting where I answer questions, give you advice, and share the secrets I’ve learned, just like I would with a friend -- without all the technical explanations and techie photo speak.'

"Each page covers a single concept on how to make your photography better. Every time you turn the page, you’ll learn another pro setting, tool, or trick to transform your work from snapshots into gallery prints. If you’re tired of taking shots that look 'okay,' and if you’re tired of looking in photography magazines and thinking, 'Why don’t my shots look like that?' then this is the book for you.

"This isn’t a book of theory -- full of confusing jargon and detailed concepts. This is a book on which button to push, which setting to use, and when to use it. With nearly 200 more of the most closely guarded photographic 'tricks of the trade,' this book gets you shooting dramatically better-looking, sharper, more colorful, more professional-looking photos every time."

The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3

The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2

Terry White's Best of 2009 Top 10 Gadgets

EXCERPT:

"Happy New Year! It's that time once again to take a quick look at my favorite gadgets of last year. The gadgets I've chosen were the ones that I used the most and that had the most positive impact on my day-to-day life. These gadgets were either introduced in 2009 or had significant updates in 2009. These are the gadgets that I would recommend to a friend without hesitation. So let's get to it…"

Check out Terry White's Best of 2009: Top 10 Gadget Picks

Scott Kelby's “Best of 2009” Picks

EXCERPT:

"It’s important to note right up front that I didn’t say 'Best photography gear' or 'Best Photoshop stuff' (though both of those are represented). Instead, this is just my favorite 'bestest' stuff from 2009, (including things like songs, movies, travel stuff, food, etc.) presented in no particular order. Hope it starts off your New Year right! (By the way; make sure you read my disclaimers at the end of the list)."

Check out Scott Kelby's “Best of 2009” Picks.

My First Animoto Slide Show

Speaking of Animoto (read the post that follows this one), here's a slide show I created when I first heard about Animoto. This video was created in January of 2008 when Animoto was charging $3.00 per video, or $30.00 a year for unlimited videos. Now they're charging $249.00 a year, which is a pretty darn steep increase! My first post about Animoto can be found here.

5 Essential Sites for Professional Photographers

Jeana Lee Tahnk of Mashable has compiled a list of "5 Essential Sites for Professional Photographers". Her original post is located here. The five sites she recommends are:

1. LiveBooks - Custom-designed or pre-designed web sites
2. ShootQ - Web-based studio management for photographers
3. Animoto - Turn photographs into dynamic video presentations
4. LicenseStream - Keep tabs on all licensed content
5. LabPrints - Links to professional labs around the country

Behind-The-Scenes With The Lightroom Team

Julie Kmoch, Lightroom senior development manager, shares secrets of the Lightroom development process, her favorite Lightroom time-saving tip and some of her wildflower photos.

Lightroom 3 Learning Center

Most of you have probably heard that Adobe has released a beta version of Lightroom 3. They have also made this beta available to the general public, for free, until April 30, 2010, which is when the beta expires. There are a bunch of mouth-watering features, including new algorithms that allow for more accurate and sophisticated editing of images. You can download the new beta here. For some great video tutorials, check out NAPP's Lightroom 3 Learning Center and Adobe's own video tutorials.

Ashley & Mike's Wedding

I've posted a few photos from Ashley & Mike's Wedding. They were married at Red Rock Crossing in Sedona, Arizona. Susan Perry of Weddings in Sedona was the minister.

Merry Christmas!

50 Beautiful Free Icon Sets For Your Next Design

Click here to see 50 Beautiful Free Icon Sets For Your Next Design.

Mr. Hitler Not Happy About The Canon 7D...

Popular Science: The Year's Most Amazing Scientific Images

View all 61 images here.

Orangutan Photographer A Hit Facebook

PHOTOS TAKEN BY AN ORANGUTAN PROVE A FACEBOOK SENSATION
Daily Mail
December 3, 2009

Original Link

A 33-year-old photographer has become an online sensation with pictures of her daily life at a Vienna zoo enthralling thousands of fans.

But Nonja is no ordinary snapper -- she is an orangutan.

Her pictures have won over more than 8,500 fans on Facebook since the zoo launched an online photo album of her work on Tuesday.

She is proving so popular that hundreds more fans are becoming her online 'friends' each hour.

However, the blurry images of Nonja's climbing rope and food and her companion's shaggy red-brown fur have won lots of admiring comments from fans, the photographer herself appears not so interested.

Using a specially-adapted Samsung ST 1000 digital camera, Nonja is rewarded with a raisin that drops out of the equipment each time she takes a snap.

The Vienna Tiergarten zoo set up the project to help keep Nonja and her three hairy ape friends entertained in their enclosure.

'Of course the apes don't care about the pictures, they are just an accidental side product,' zoo spokesman Gerhard Kasbauer said.

'They just know that when they press the button, a raisin pops out.'

The popularity of Nonja's online album means she is now on her way to becoming a fully-fledged orangutan icon.

Her photos can be seen on her Facebook page here.

Photos: 2009 World Animal Day

Here are a few great photos that the Boston Globe collected from the 2009 World Animal Day. To see more photos, go here. To find out more about World Animal Day, go here.

25 Places To Become A Photoshop Expert

The folks at Design River have created a page with links to 25 of the Net's best websites to become a Photoshop expert. Click here to see the Photoshop gurus they recommend.

2010 "Ancient Sedona" Calendars Now Available

I've been photographing Sedona's ancient ruins and rock art for years, itching to turn these inspiring sights into products that other people could enjoy. Thanks to Lulu, an online publishing company that allows you to print (and sell) a wide variety of products on demand, I finally took the plunge and created a couple calendars. You can check out my first creations here. And find out more by visiting my Ancient Sedona website. These 2010 calendars make unique (and inspiring) gifts for the upcoming holiday season.

Los Angeles Sheriffs Unlawfully Detain Photographers' Rights Advocate

3,000 Images Combine For Stunning Milky Way Portrait

3,000 IMAGES COMBINE FOR STUNNING MILKY WAY PORTRAIT
Space.com
October 30, 2009

Original Link

A new panoramic image of the full night sky -- with the Milky Way as its centerpiece -- has been made by piecing together 3,000 individual photographs. The panorama's creator, Axel Mellinger of Central Michigan University, spent 22 months and traveled over 26,000 miles to take digital photographs at dark sky locations in South Africa, Texas and Michigan. "This panorama image shows stars 1,000 times fainter than the human eye can see, as well as hundreds of galaxies, star clusters and nebulae," Mellinger said.

To combine these images, a simple cutting and pasting job would not suffice. Each photograph is a two-dimensional projection of the celestial sphere. As such, each one contains distortions, in much the same way that flat maps of the round Earth are distorted. In order for the images to fit together seamlessly, those distortions had to be accounted for. To do that, Mellinger used a mathematical model -- and hundreds of hours in front of a computer... Mellinger used data from the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes. The data allowed him to distinguish star light from unwanted background light. He could then edit out the varying background light in each photograph and fit them together so that they wouldn't look patchy... The result is an image of our home galaxy that no star-gazer could ever see from a single spot on earth. Mellinger plans to make the giant 648 megapixel image available to planetariums around the world.

Read complete article here.

45 Dual-Screen Wallpapers

From Six Revisions:

If you have two monitors in your work environment -- a common set up amongst design and development professionals -- you can use a desktop background made for users who have multiple screens. If you would like to find out about tools that give you the ability to use multiple monitors and computers, you may be interested in reading about five free tools for multi-monitor computer set-ups.

Click here to see all 45 dual-screen wallpapers.

Large Photo From Recent Sedona Hike

Here's one more photo from the recent hike I took with my youngest daughter, Rayel, long-time family friend, Douglas, and two friends of Rayel's, Myles from New Zealand and Matt from Zimbabwe. You'll need to click on this photo to see a larger image which, in turn, will let you see where the hikers are (and how big the rocks are). Before you click on the image, can you guess where the hikers are? There are some impressive Native American ruins immediately in front of the hikers, just around the corner to the left...

Photos From Recent Sedona Hike

Here are a few photos from a recent hike I took with my youngest daughter, Rayel, long-time family friend, Douglas, and two friends of Rayel's, Myles from New Zealand and Matt from Zimbabwe.

Are New Image Sensors About To Revolutionize Digital Cameras?

Cheap Naked Chips Snap A Perfect Picture
By Paul Marks
New Scientist
October 7, 2009

EXCERPT:

How can image sensors -- the most complicated and expensive part of a digital camera -- be made cheaper and less complex? Easy: take the lid off a memory chip and use that instead.

As simple as it sounds, that pretty much sums up a device being developed by a team led by Edoardo Charbon, an engineer at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute (EPFL) in Lausanne. In a paper presented at an imaging conference in Kyoto, Japan, this week, the team say that their so-called "gigavision" sensor will pave the way for cellphones and other inexpensive gadgets that take richer, more pleasing pictures than today's devices. Crucially, Charbon says the device performs better in both very bright light and dim light -- conditions which regular digital cameras struggle to cope with.

Read complete article.

Sedona Celtic Harvest Festival - 2009

Here's a short video from Sedona's first annual Celtic Harvest Festival. The Festival took place Saturday, September 19, 2009 in Sedona, Arizona at the Hilton Sedona Resort & Spa and Tequa Festival Marketplace. To watch another video and find out more about the event, go here. To see photos from the Festival, go here. To visit the Festival's website, go here. The theme song for the video below, "Feel So Near", is sang by Steve Colby and John Good of Oceans Apart.