Bogen Imaging is hosting an online webinar titled A Budget Safari - Wildlife Photography at Your Local Zoo and Houston happens to have a very nice zoo to test out your newly learned techniques.

- Best practices for shooting through fences, wires, and glass partitions
- Selecting the best gear for a day trip
- Best times to visit and developing a unique perspective

The webinar is FREE and will be held on June 19th.  Head over to Bogen Imaging to register.

   Our friends at Houstonist are gearing up for another photo show and need your photos.  If you remember Houstonist put on a spectacular show in the fall of 2007.  The theme for the show this time around is Hidden.

It's a juried exhibition of photographs showing the hidden side of Houston. What does that mean to you? Maybe it's a corner of the city that only you know. One of those glimpses of nature that makes us forget, even for a second, that we live amid a tangle of asphalt and glass. It could be a festival that people don't really know about, or perhaps one of those things that's hidden in plain sight — something wonderful that we usually speed past on the freeway or an architectural detail most people never notice. Big or small, literal or figurative, these are the things that make Houston a great city, and we want to see your take on them.

I received the following announcement from the Texas Photographic Collectors Association about an upcoming swap meet.  Thank you to Al for passing this on to me.  I get lots of emails asking me about upcoming swap meets.  Here you go!

The Texas Photographic Collectors Association will be holding a swap meet on
Saturday June 13, 2009.  The swap meet will be held in the meeting hall of The First Unitarian
Universalist Church, 5200 Fannin, Houston, Texas.  Hours will be 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

Open to the public - free admission!

All interested parties are invited to bring photographica and camera-related
items to buy and sell.  Tables will be available for one-day rental: $30 each. First come - first
served. There will be 12 rectangular tables (6 and 8 feet long), as well as
a few 6 foot round tables. Table fees must be paid before 10:00 AM the day
of the swap meet. There is a maximum of 2 tables per individual. Two or more
sellers may share a table.  Contact Al Iverson at 281/420-7613 to reserve tables.

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves about our photography, why we do it and how to stay on track.  Here are some words of wisdom taken from a post on a Flickr portrait group.

Never apologize for your own sense of beauty. Nobody can tell you what you should love. Do what you do brazenly and unapologetically. You cannot build your sense of aesthetics on a concensus.

Learn to say “I’m a photographer” out loud with a straight face. If you can’t say it and believe it, you can’t expect anyone else to, either.

Never compare your journey with someone else’s. It’s a marathon with no finish line. Someone else may start out faster than you, may seem to progress more quickly than you, but every runner has his own pace. Your journey is your journey, not a competition. You will never “arrive”. No one ever does.

Read more at the edZstudios blog here:  

I know many people are Amazing Race fans.  Part of the fun of Amazing Race is picturing yourself in the contestant's place, racing from location to location with just your wits and ingenuity, outwitting your competitors.  

I will be performing a sweep of the blogroll this weekend.  If you haven't posted something in more than six months get posting or your site will be removed.  Also please remember that your blog must be a photoblog primarily made of photos, not a photography blog which is primarily articles about photography.  If you have any questions feel free to email me.

The weather is beautiful so get out there with your cameras!

Have you had a hole in your life where the Tuesday Challenge meme used to be?  Well never fear for in steps Two 4 Tuesday.  Each week they will post two topics which are opposites.  You can enter one photo that covers both, one photo that covers either one or the other topic or two photos covering each topic.  This week is their first theme, Big and Small.  Head over there and check them out.

Houston Photobloggers loves the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  It is one of the most photography friendly museums in the city and the subjects are always fascinating.  Wikipedia also loves our museum and all museums around the country and to prove it there is a photography event this month called Wikipedia Loves Art.

The goal: to create free content that can be used to illustrate educational articles across an almost unimaginable range of topics in everyone’s favorite online encyclopedia.  If your photos are chosen for use on Wikipedia, you’ll get full credit in the caption - even better, you can win great prizes!!

You can visit the museum anytime in February to get your photos for the contest.  The prize at the Houston Museum of Natural Science is a family membership and tickets to the upcoming Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit.  But HMNS is offering something even better than that, if you can image.  This Sunday you can go into the museum after hours to take your pictures! Just think, free run of the museum without all those pesky people!  For photographers signed up on the Wikipedia Loves Art registration page, the museum will be open from 6 to 9 p.m.  Did I mention free?

The Houston Zoo is offering an opportunity for photographers to have access to the zoo one hour before regular opening time.  On February 21st, the zoo is hosting Photography Day at the Zoo.  

Continental breakfast will be provided. Ticket holders will have access to the Zoo’s public grounds and exhibits starting at 8:00AM. Attendees will be invited to roam the Zoo grounds at their leisure, taking photos of all that the Zoo has to offer. 

Professional photographer Paul Swen will be on hand to talk about animal photography and will have a question and answer session at 9:30 a.m.  The event costs $20 for non-members and $12 for members. You can find out more information, see some of Swen's photos and purchase tickets here:

Using Focal Points in Photography
Digital Photography School

Photography Shows Build A Career
Wanted: Photographers with $800 Photos
Photopreneur

Calling the Shots at Weddings - Tips for Amateur Photographers
Epic Edits Weblog

It's not too late to sign up and attend PhotoCamp Houston.  What is PhotoCamp Houston?

PhotoCamp Houston is an UNconference where you are not only the audience, but you can also give a presentation on topics you and others care about with fervor!  ..... We hope that PhotoCamp Houston will bring together every level of photog, from the most professional expert to the most remedial point and shoot hobbyist.

The event takes place on Saturday January 24th at the Houston Technology Center.  The camp begins at 10:00 a.m.  You can find out more information and let people know you are coming at the website:

1.) The Big Picture - The Inauguration of President Barack Obama

Houston It's Worth It, the marketers who asked people in the city to show them why Houston was worth it and turned it into a wonderful photo book, are asking for submissions for their latest book on Hurricane Ike. Of course with a HIWI twist.

We want to highlight the camaraderie and support brought about 
in the storm’s aftermath – refrigerator cookouts/recipes, extension cord jungles, 
and neighborhood cleanups. Tell us your stories or poems, dig up a “day ten 
without power” journal entry, find that song you penned by candlelight and of 
course, send us your photographs (even those taken on your iPhone or Black- 
Berry); if you made a hurricane song playlist, go ahead and send that too.