Digital Photography Blogs

WIN AN APPLE® iPOD or NINTENDO Wii!!!!….maybe…

JimmyD — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:40:42 +0000

The gang over at Lightchasers photography blog have an amusing article about a “photo contest” being run by CalTex (Chevron to us Yanks).

The contest pretty much tells you what photographs they want and you’re not even guaranteed to win the prizes (”a chance to win…) even if you win the “contest”…

Executions, riots, and a pint of Guinness

JimmyD — Mon, 12 May 2008 09:26:13 +0000

Our continuing-exploits now found us in Dublin, Ireland. Home to Kilmainham Gaol (Prison) which held many of the leaders of the Easter Uprising of 1916 and also home to Guinness beer. This was going to be an interesting place…

Happy Mother’s Day!

JimmyD — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:19:33 +0000

Wishing all of you Mom’s (and recent Mom’s … Amy) a Happy Mother’s Day!

Vacation in Tahiti, luggage in Taiwan…

JimmyD — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:15:42 +0000

All the time we hear about luggage being given a vacation at a different destination then the person who packed it.

From PopGadget comes this info about a custom luggage-tag that includes a web-based database that has all your info on file should your luggage be lost. Your data is stored in Immobilise, a database used by all the baggage-handling organizations across the globe. Assuming your hardcase of 3-Nikon D3 bodies, assorted lenses, and Kino-flo lights is retrieved (and has not gone on permanent-vacation to someone else’s house), they can find you and get your luggage back to where it belongs.

The price looks reasonable, so check it all out here!

“Smile when you say that Partner!”

JimmyD — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:01:41 +0000

Remember back in the day (way back) before “ballistic nylon” was all the rage when cameras (still cameras and Cine-cameras) came in nice, rich brown leather cases? You could smell the leather every time your Dad un-snapped the case to take the camera out. Some cases made you also remove a “tripod screw” to be able to fully remove the camera from the case.

Remember , back in the day, when your Dad would strap a six-gun to his hip, cinching up the silver buckle on his rich-brown leather holster and loading up more .38 cal to protect the homestead from rustlers and hostile natives?

What? You don’t remember that?

Well, that ain’t no nevermind, because now you can both of those objects rolled into one!……….

I got your 20-Megapixels right here pal…..

JimmyD — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:31:29 +0000

20-Megapixel image? Bah, kid-stuff. How about a camera that can capture and recreate a scene in 3d on your computer?

How about being able to walk around and visualize some place that you were at a week (or a year) ago?

Let’s talk… but what’s said here stays here, capice?

Pretty Light

Stephanie Simpson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:57:29 +0000

The light was beautiful in my living room this afternoon. There was a nice, bright, diffused light through the window sheers and Chloe was so mellow lounging on the couch.

I love this shot through the curtains. It’s mischievous and sweet at the same time. It was a lucky shot that her eye is sharply in focus because she was squirming with giggles. Then she kerflopped and looked totally wise.

the Last Race

JimmyD — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:46:47 +0000

This year’s Long Beach Grand Prix was to be the last race for the Champ-cars. After years of debate and conflict, all of the “Indy” type open-wheel racers will be joined into one group (Hey! I have an idea, let’s call it USAC!) and this will start at the next race.

With half the field of Indy-cars in Japan (a race that was won by Danica Patrick), the champ-car racers were given the streets of Long Beach.

I figured even with a half-field of Rookies, Long Beach was a place to get photos and exercise the “Auto-ISO” function of my D-200 Nikon!…..

Photo Wars- the Empire Strikes Back

JimmyD — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:39:55 +0000

From Chris Garrett over at DSLRBlog comes an interesting piece about a couple of photographers who were hassled by Store Security for taking pictures. Of course we don’t have all the info that led up to the confrontation, nor any info that might have come to light after the incident, but it’s interesting to see the shots and the video (yes, they had a video going ) on Flickr.

Check out Chris’ article by clicking here and see what you think.

Best Friends

Stephanie Simpson — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:34:05 +0000

Before I became a mom, I had no idea how deeply my daughter’s friendships would move me. Watching her play and talk with her best friend in the world, Sophia, makes my heart burst out of my chest. And it only gets better as they grow older. We took a field trip over the weekend to the Kidspace Museum in Pasadena with Chris and Amy of Shooting the Kids, and we had the best time.

Kidspace is a great place to shoot because the kids are occupied, there are flowers everywhere, tunnels, waterfalls, and all kinds of nooks and crannies for photo ops.

Magnifying glasses are awesome props for funny pictures. I think I’ll pick up a couple for my kid photo prop bag.

Having a best friend to talk to, and laugh with, and hold hands with and spin is the best thing ever. If I could put that feeling in a bottle, I would in a second, but until that bottle is invented, I’m so glad I can capture it all with my camera.

Cheap shots revisited

JimmyD — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:00:05 +0000

In case you missed some of them, or need to recall a cheap and easy way of doing some things-photographic, we bring you back our “Cheap Shots” , cheap and easy ways to save some time, save some buck$, and accomplish what you need to get done.

So, with no further ado, here’s the links to our Cheap Shot articles….

Lens creep-what it is and one way to stop it

JimmyD — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:11:22 +0000

Barrie was nice enough to send us an inquiry about a comment we’d made regarding using rubber-bands to stop lens creep.

In order to illustrate (photographically) what I had mentioned as well as explain what lens-creep is for those who might not know what it is or have yet to experience it, I decided to write up an explanation here.

PicLens is Amazing

Stephanie Simpson — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:37:13 +0000

At the recommendation of Jimmy over at Slightly Out of Focus, I decided to give PicLens a try. PicLens is a free, downloadable picture viewing tool. It installs like a plug-in, and then a little arrow icon appears on pictures of the websites you are viewing. Press the icon, and WHAMMO, you get a supercool simple view of all of the pictures there. I tried it on Flickr, I zoooooomed through all of the pictures on my site and everyone else’s without having to click the next page button. It works on Google Image searches and all kinds of other things. Lickity split, you can look at zillions of pictures.

PicLens rocks and Flickr does video!

JimmyD — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:09:08 +0000

Always looking for a new and/or faster way to view photos on-line, I recently downloaded PicLens.

PicLens is a plug-in for internet-browsers, currently available for Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer on the Mac or PC.

From the PicLens site comes this: ” PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing images on the web. “

How to Take a Portrait of Your Dog

Stephanie Simpson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:58:56 +0000

Taking family portraits is an important part of our photographic journey. And so is making portraits of our 4-legged family members. We sometimes forget to take the time to honor our canine friends with a portrait or two, but it’s really easy to take an awesome, professional-looking picture of our pets. Here are 6 steps to taking great pictures of your dog. Our model for the day is the beautiful and sweet Lucy dog.

Canon users, check this out…

JimmyD — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:51:36 +0000

Wired Magazine has a cool article about some open-source (non-destructive) firmware that, once installed will bring a lot more features to your Canon point & shoot (like 1/60,000 shutter speed), click here and check it out (at your own risk of course)!

When to spend, when to not.

JimmyD — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:44:32 +0000

Do you really need that expensive photo-gear? If you have a $200-lens on a $15.00 tripod, chances are they’ll get along very well. If you have a $4,000 lens (say a 400mm 3.2f tele) on that same $15.00 tripod, chances are you’re throwing away some very good money.

The cost of your equipment is commensurate with the cost of your equipment (say what?)…

A Little Play-Doh Fun

Amy — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:58:39 +0000

Sophia looooooves Play-Doh. And lucky for her I just happen to have this set of 100+ cookie cutters that she gets to pull out every time the Play-Doh comes out. I’m a little anal though and usually she only gets to play with one color at a time. Except that one time when she had a bunch out and, while I ran to the bathroom for only a minute, she decided to see what would happen if she mixed them all together. OCD mommy twitched from that day forward. Only one color at a time now. But she’s cool with that.

Twins On Board

Stephanie Simpson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:43:59 +0000

I had a maternity shoot yesterday, and the couple I shot are so nice and have created the most beautiful nursery I’ve ever seen. They’re expecting twins and I’m so excited for them. Here are some of the highlight shots.

The light was beautiful in their backyard and nursery, so there were many great locations for pictures. It’s all about pretty light.

Photo op- the Living Desert

JimmyD — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:19:32 +0000

Last weekend we made a photo-trek with Lance (Bad dog), Maria, Wendy & Mike to the Living desert in Palm Desert, California.

We had a great time and there were plenty of available photo opportunities every where you looked.

Even though the attraction doesn’t open until 9:00 am, we were able to keep the “high-noon” sun at bay by shooting close and tight.

The park is home to around 500 native species and is surrounded by desert so you never know who or what will drop by for a visit , like the gazzilions of lizards we saw as well as a few mountain goats on the periphery.