Come and meet other Flickr members at two events on the East Coast later this month. Swing on by to meet Flickr staff in New York and Philadelphia to talk about gear, take photos, walk with us through the city and chat about the site. Here are our (new) meetup pages, with signup information: New York, February 18th – More info & RSVP Philadelphia, February 19th – More info & RSVP In other news: Starting today, we’re switching to Meetup.com as our main site for global community events. Feel free to start and organize your own, or join in with…
Selected by mhillestad
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Most Topular Stories
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Flickr goes East Coast: Meet us in New York and Philadelphia
Flickr Blog8 Feb 2012 | 4:27 am -
How the Other Half Lives: George Holz' Beyoncé for Spin
Strobist8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmPhoto © George HolzYou know how people on the Strobist Flickr group like to talk about how it is technically possible to shoot blow-away white with just one flash?Yeah, this is not exactly that.Hit the jump for a walk-thru vid for the (ahem, eight-light) shoot, including a key light combo that you're prolly gonna want to rent rather than buy next time you are assigned to shoot Beyoncé. Read more » -
Roadtrip to Marfa – Part 1
A Photo Editor8 Feb 2012 | 7:30 amby Jonathan Blaustein Much later in the day, David and I stopped off at a tiny little rest stop off I-25, just South of Socorro. A brown sign, made for tourists, announced we were on the famed Camino Real, also known as the Jornada del Muerto. The journey of death. Finally, it all made sense. I knew it would be a dangerous day hours earlier. Descending out of Taos and into the canyon, where the highway hugs the Rio Grande for twenty miles or so, I pulled out to pass a line of cars. It’s something I do all the time. As I finally got a clear look down the hill, a horse-trailer was backing… -
What’s Next? Lenses & Cameras
Canon Rumors8 Feb 2012 | 3:58 amLenses I’ve heard that Canon will be introducing a lot of new lenses this year. Quite possibly a record amount of new lenses announced in a single calendar year. For the moment, it’s unknown whether the lens count will include any mirrorless camera lenses, or if we’re talking EF lenses. I will say, Canon may be updating lenses to help resolve a coming huge megapixel camera. We’ve heard previously a lot of short focal length lenses are on the update schedule, and we just saw 2 primes and a zoom announced. Keep watching patents for clues. The EF 24 f/2.8 seemed like an… -
Xume Quick-Release Adapters
Layers Magazine7 Feb 2012 | 7:55 amChange Photo Filters Instantly without Cross-Threading or Frustration From time to time, polarizing, neutral density (ND), or other filters all need to be screwed onto a lens barrel. One common trait of the screw threads on lenses is that they are a pain to work with, making it difficult to avoid cross-threads. Additionally, ND and polarizing filters pose their own positioning problems. All these troubles may be solved by the Xume Quick-Release Adapters and exchange system. Xume’s brilliant idea is based on magnetic lens adapter rings and filter holders. The Xume system requires the user…
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Flickr Blog
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Flickr goes East Coast: Meet us in New York and Philadelphia
8 Feb 2012 | 4:27 amCome and meet other Flickr members at two events on the East Coast later this month. Swing on by to meet Flickr staff in New York and Philadelphia to talk about gear, take photos, walk with us through the city and chat about the site. Here are our (new) meetup pages, with signup information: New York, February 18th – More info & RSVP Philadelphia, February 19th – More info & RSVP In other news: Starting today, we’re switching to Meetup.com as our main site for global community events. Feel free to start and organize your own, or join in with… -
I am…
7 Feb 2012 | 7:12 amiamaustin published the photos from this lovely project in his photostream. -
Reptar is ready for his trip to another dimension
6 Feb 2012 | 11:02 amI for one welcome our new feline overlords. The human that was forced to photographically document this moment in space time was christopher.berry. -
iPortrait
4 Feb 2012 | 1:39 pmTablets make for a great weekend project! Have fun. Photos from Buvone, tismey, Pichead, Jonathan Vazquez, • Andrei •, coreyweekley, and PBodyPhotos.Idea from gregivu. -
The Eastern Hemisphere
3 Feb 2012 | 7:09 amThe Blue Marble 2012 photo that we told you about last week, had an amazing reception with more than 3.2 million views to date. That’s why NASA Goddard Photo and Video decided to create another Blue Marble 2012 view, this time showing the Eastern Hemisphere. “The new image is a composite of six separate orbits taken on January 23, 2012 by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite. Both of these new ‘Blue Marble’ images are images taken by a new instrument flying aboard Suomi NPP, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).” NASA describes…
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Strobist
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How the Other Half Lives: George Holz' Beyoncé for Spin
8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 pmPhoto © George HolzYou know how people on the Strobist Flickr group like to talk about how it is technically possible to shoot blow-away white with just one flash?Yeah, this is not exactly that.Hit the jump for a walk-thru vid for the (ahem, eight-light) shoot, including a key light combo that you're prolly gonna want to rent rather than buy next time you are assigned to shoot Beyoncé. Read more » -
Lighting Inside the Box
6 Feb 2012 | 6:30 amAfter 15 years of long-term planning (and saving) Susan and I finally took the plunge with a full kitchen remodel. We were really pleased with the results, and at some point I had promised the contractor a nice photo of the final product.In a room like this you are basically illuminating the inside of a box by using hidden lights, which turned out to be an interesting exercise. And it's something I would recommend for just about any photographer. Read more » -
Core Knowledge: Working With Remotes
2 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThere are two things you should always remember about radio remotes:One, radio can be fickle. This is true whether you are using your time-honored PocketWizards or a brand new Chinese offering.Two, radio waves -- and success with your remotes -- are all about the physics. So a little knowledge can go a long way toward ensuring good range and reliability. Some basics that every lighting photographer should know, inside. Read more » -
Tyler Stableford: Dispatches From the Underground
30 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amAspen, Colorado-based photographer Tyler Stableford generally shoots action and adventure, most of it aboveground. But this shoot for Timberland PRO would send him a half-mile deep into the earth. That far down, before adding light it is absolutely pitch black. As in, you cannot see your hand in front of your face. And the lights the miners use while extracting coal there aren't much friendlier -- low-level, and a mix of tungsten and fluorescents. So Stableford shot the entire campaign working on the edge of the quality envelope, and lighting with only a few speedlights. Read more » -
Q&A: Dealing with Glare from Dark Wood Backgrounds
26 Jan 2012 | 6:00 amReader Jefferson, from California in the US, asked via Twitter:"How do you deal with glare on dark wood in background for portraits? Is this covered in Lighting 101 or 102?"Actually, it is covered in L102, if a little obliquely. And yes, pretty much any time you light into dark wood as a background you are gonna get some blowback.But rather than look at this as a problem, I prefer to think of it as a feature… Read more »
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A Photo Editor
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Roadtrip to Marfa – Part 1
8 Feb 2012 | 7:30 amby Jonathan Blaustein Much later in the day, David and I stopped off at a tiny little rest stop off I-25, just South of Socorro. A brown sign, made for tourists, announced we were on the famed Camino Real, also known as the Jornada del Muerto. The journey of death. Finally, it all made sense. I knew it would be a dangerous day hours earlier. Descending out of Taos and into the canyon, where the highway hugs the Rio Grande for twenty miles or so, I pulled out to pass a line of cars. It’s something I do all the time. As I finally got a clear look down the hill, a horse-trailer was backing… -
What is it about being a photographer that you wish you could change?
8 Feb 2012 | 6:10 amI wish I could scale back the amount of time I spend in front of a screen. It’s beginning to define what “being a photographer” is like these days. via » 10 minutes with Wesley Mann this is the what. Buying a new website? APhotoFolio.com builds portfolio websites for photographers. Have a look (here). --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company created by A Photo Editor. Have a look (here). -
The Daily Edit – Wednesday 2.8.12
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am(click images to make bigger) Nylon Art Director: Evan Campisi Co Art Director: Chris Segedy Photo Director: Stephen Walker Photo & Bookings Editor: Rhianna Rule Photographer: Marvin Scott Jarrett Note: Content for The Daily Edit is found on the newsstands. Submissions are not accepted --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking to buy a new website? A Photo Folio is a website design company created by A Photo Editor. Have a look (here). -
Still Images In Great Advertising- Shawn Michienzi
7 Feb 2012 | 7:15 amStill Images In Great Advertising, is a column where Suzanne Sease discovers great advertising images and then speaks with the photographers about it. I have known Shawn Michienzi for decades throughout my career as an art buyer. I never had the honor to work with him but came close once. Shawn is a pure advertising photographer-he loves the business and brings a lot to the table when he shots a campaign. I interviewed Shawn with his West Coast rep, Kate Chase (he was sick as a dog and had a hard time finishing his sentences before breaking into a coughing fit). Suzanne: There is a lot of… -
Chances Are, You Suck
7 Feb 2012 | 6:06 amThere’s nothing wrong with not being any good at photography. Everybody started out bad and none of us does all aspects of it well. But it’s a crying shame to want to be good at it, to spend time and money trying to be good at it, and not getting any better. This isn’t like teaching a child to read. Positive reinforcement is your enemy. Your Facebook friends, your Twitter followers… hate you. Instead of taking ten seconds to say. “This doesn’t work. You need to do better”. They readily push that “like” button, because it’s easy and…
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Canon Rumors
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What’s Next? Lenses & Cameras
8 Feb 2012 | 3:58 amLenses I’ve heard that Canon will be introducing a lot of new lenses this year. Quite possibly a record amount of new lenses announced in a single calendar year. For the moment, it’s unknown whether the lens count will include any mirrorless camera lenses, or if we’re talking EF lenses. I will say, Canon may be updating lenses to help resolve a coming huge megapixel camera. We’ve heard previously a lot of short focal length lenses are on the update schedule, and we just saw 2 primes and a zoom announced. Keep watching patents for clues. The EF 24 f/2.8 seemed like an… -
New Lens Preorders at Adorama
8 Feb 2012 | 3:36 amThe New Lenses Adorama is accepting preorders on the new Canon lenses. Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II for $2299 Canon EF 24 f/2.8 IS for $849 Canon EF 28 f/2.8 IS for $799 cr -
Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II Available for Preorder
7 Feb 2012 | 8:48 amFrom B&H B&H Photo has posted the new Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II. It is available for preorder and is expected to ship on April 17, 2012. There is no 2 for 1 deal if you buy a Canon EOS-1D X as well. Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L II at B&H for $2299 cr -
New Canon PowerShot Cameras Available for Preorder
7 Feb 2012 | 8:45 amPreorder Madness The new Canon PowerShot cameras are now available for preorder from B&H. Including the new waterproof & shockproof Canon PowerShot D20. View all the new PowerShots at B&H | Canon PowerShot D20 at B&H cr -
Canon EOS-1D X High Resolution Samples
7 Feb 2012 | 8:39 amFinally! …..again Canon has finally posted full resolution samples from the Canon EOS-1D X. The new flagship in the EOS lineup. View the samples Thanks Evil cr
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Layers Magazine
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Xume Quick-Release Adapters
7 Feb 2012 | 7:55 amChange Photo Filters Instantly without Cross-Threading or Frustration From time to time, polarizing, neutral density (ND), or other filters all need to be screwed onto a lens barrel. One common trait of the screw threads on lenses is that they are a pain to work with, making it difficult to avoid cross-threads. Additionally, ND and polarizing filters pose their own positioning problems. All these troubles may be solved by the Xume Quick-Release Adapters and exchange system. Xume’s brilliant idea is based on magnetic lens adapter rings and filter holders. The Xume system requires the user… -
AutoFit Images in InDesign CS5
6 Feb 2012 | 7:55 amLearn how to use the new autofit options in InDesign CS5 when scaling and sizing frames and picture content. -
Sculpting Signatures in Illustrator
3 Feb 2012 | 1:01 pmCreate a stylized digital signature in Illustrator to drop onto your artwork when you are finished. Use Illustrator’s width tool to add some calligraphy style to your signature. -
Perfect Portrait 1
25 Jan 2012 | 11:14 amBetter Portraits in Less Time Perfect Portrait 1 is a huge timesaver for portrait photographers. It automatically identifies faces and features, and with a press of a button, eyes become whiter and clearer, teeth become whiter, lips have greater definition, wrinkles are softened, and shine and blemishes are reduced. In addition, color casts can be improved, based on the ethnicity of each face in the photo. Age- and gender-specific presets give you a headstart for many common problems. Then, sliders let you adjust every improvement, and manual tools let you paint away stray hairs, blemishes,… -
Helicon Focus Pro X64
23 Jan 2012 | 1:13 pmCreate Sharp Focus Throughout Your Images Ansel Adams was part of a group of San Francisco realistic landscape photographers who called themselves Group f/64. The name came from their desire to achieve maximum depth of field (DOF). However, attaining maximum DOF can be challenging, especially in macro photography. Stopping a lens down to its smallest aperture extends DOF but introduces diffraction. Enter Helicon Focus software. It produces an edge-to-edge focused image by combining partially focused areas from multiple files of a scene. The Helicon Focus interface and process is amazingly…
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Beyond Megapixels
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Pet Photography 101
6 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmFans of our Facebook Page heard the news that there would be no Beyond Megapixels article last Friday because my husband and I were in the process of rescuing a dog from our County animal shelter. While I don’t intend to turn this site into a forum for Public Service Announcements, I would encourage everyone who is considering a new pet to adopt from their local shelter, Humane Society, or animal rescue group. Our little girl Bailey was considered “unadoptable” because she was so frightened of the shelter environment that she didn’t display the usual friendly,… -
Prioritize Photography
31 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pmI work about sixty hours a week (between my “day” job and my freelance work). My schoolwork (yes, back to school I go!) occupies about 10 hours a week. I absolutely INSIST on at least 8 hours of sleep every night, so that’s 56 hours. Throw in another three hours a day for things like, OH, having a conversation with my husband, petting my dog, doing the dishes, and the like, and that’s 21 more hours. There are only 168 hours in a week. I just accounted for 147 of them. (And I just made myself tired!) Life is all about prioritizing the things that are the most important… -
RAW vs. DNG
29 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pmThe debate on whether to import and post-process files as RAW or as DNG (Digital Negative) is almost as heated – and opinionated – as whether to shoot with Canon or Nikon. The long and short of it is, “it depends,” and “it’s up to you.” There is no “right” answer. RAW files are digitally unprocessed image files that come straight from your camera. They have no adjustments or alterations made to them so that when you load them into your post-processing software, you have the utmost of flexibility in altering things like exposure, white… -
Your Weekend Photography Project – Get Low
26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pmI took this shot while balancing precariously with one foot a rock, the other foot on a branch, camera held down at a level lower than my feet. There was no way to look through the viewfinder to compose the shot, of course. So I set the camera on aperture priority (f/2.8), zoomed it all the way out (55mm), held the camera as steady as I could while I pressed the shutter halfway, and let the auto-focus do its thing. Once I could feel that the auto-focus had set (photography by feel! we use all of our senses!) I fully pressed the shutter button. I had no idea what kind of picture I would get,… -
Lock in the Light
25 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pmI was standing at the top of a mountain when I took this picture (click to enlarge). The wind was blowing, my hands were freezing (even in Arizona, it’s cold at an elevation of 7600 feet in January), it was about 4:30 in the afternoon, and I was completely blown away by this LIGHT. This extremely tricky light. I’m standing in the shadow cast by the peak of the mountain. The sky is overcast. Beams of light are hitting the landscape from mid-frame all the way to the horizon. There are reflections on the water (that’s Roosevelt Lake there, by the way). All the time my eyes are…
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The Digital Story
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Corel AfterShot Pro Review
8 Feb 2012 | 12:36 pmI was impressed with Corel's ambition in its 1.0 release of AfterShot Pro. And for the most part, the execution wasn't bad either. I provide a complete rundown of my impressions in the Macworld Magazine review, Corel AfterShot Pro photo manager plays well in the big leagues. Pros Fast decoding of raw files, even on a laptop Excellent raw file support across camera brands Completely non-destructive workflow Easy to use Layers implementation Decode or edit images on the fly without a catalog Perfectly Clear and lens correction tools included Plug-in support for a variety of tools Cons Can't… -
New Olympus OM-D Brings Pro Body to Micro Four Thirds
7 Feb 2012 | 2:30 pmYour investment in micro four thirds gear is about to pay off. And if you haven't made the leap yet, this might tempt you to do so. Olympus announced the OM-D E-M5 body that brings pro capabilities to the compact system camera world. Basic Features Rugged dust proof and splash proof body 5-axis image stabilization that works with all micro 4/3 lenses (including those by Panasonic) Fast autofocusing system (Olympus claims "fastest") 9 frames per second burst mode Redesigned 16.1 MP image sensor High ISO performance: 200 - 25600 Full HD recording using .mov format (MPEG-4AVC/H.264) and AVI… -
Let the Games Begin: Nikon D800 vs Canon [5D Mark III]
7 Feb 2012 | 9:22 amNikon has throw down the gauntlet with the impressive D800 featuring 36 high resolution megapixels. Canon meanwhile, decided that today was a good time to announce 3 high resolution lenses designed for a full frame camera that would require such good glass. Hmmmm.... So basically, Nikon beat Canon to the punch with the D800. Canon wants to let everyone know that an answer is imminent, without actually having to make an announcement. Ah yes. Let the games begin. The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration… -
"Nimble Printing" - Digital Photography Podcast 311
7 Feb 2012 | 8:44 amIf printing were as fun as the other aspects of your photography, you might engage more often. Right? After all, we like sharing prints. It's the creating them that can be frustrating. In this week's podcast I explain a few nimble options for creating prints that just might get your juices flowing. I use mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad, a compact printer, and a few other goodies. Give it a listen and decide if a nimble printing setup might be the ticket to you creating prints to share with friends, family, and even clients. Technical note: My... -
Print Your Own Postcards - Front and Back
5 Feb 2012 | 8:43 pmPostcards present great advantages. In a mailbox full of bland envelopes, postcards radiate like desert flowers. They're easy to send: stick a 32-cent stamp on the back, write an address, and drop them in the mail. Postcards will bring smiles to the faces of good friends, or catch the eye of potential clients. And you may not realize it, but they're easy to make. Yes, you could use outside printing services for this, but why not create your own? Delight friends and family when a beautiful landscape appears amongst the bills and ads in their mailboxes. By downloading the postcard...
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News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Sony full-frame camera coming, 500mm F4 lens finally announced
8 Feb 2012 | 7:05 pmSony has confirmed it will be making a full-frame replacement for its flagship A900 DSLR. No further details were given during a round-table discussion at the CP+ show in Japan, but we find it hard to believe the result will step away from the SLT technology the company has invested so heavily in. The company has also finally announced the A-mount 500mm F4 lens that it has been showing in various states of preparedness since PMA 2007 will be available from late March. -
Ricoh reshuffle sees Pentax take control of cameras
8 Feb 2012 | 5:07 pmRicoh has announced that its Pentax Ricoh Imaging (PRI) business unit will take full control of the design, development and sales of the company's cameras, worldwide. PRI was created when Ricoh bought Pentax and is the business that has been responsible for the design, manufacturing and sales of Pentax cameras. It will now absorb the consumer businesses of Ricoh's Personal Multimedia Product Company, which was responsible for the design, manufacture and sale of Ricoh cameras. The change will take effect from April 1st 2012. -
Sony promises more NEX lenses in updated E-mount lens roadmap
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pmSony has said it will have 15 lenses ready for the NEX system by the end of 2013. It made the annoucement of an expanded E-mount roadmap at the start of the CP+ trade show in Yokohama, Japan. The roadmap includes a variety of zooms and prime lenses, including a high-end standard zoom with Sony's premium 'G' branding. There will also be a pancake prime and a mid-telephoto prime lens some time during 2013. -
Sigma DP series reinvented as DP1M and DP2M with 15MPx3 sensor from SD1
7 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmSigma has totally reinvented its DP series of large sensor compacts with the DP1 Merrill and DP2 Merrill. The DP Merrill models are named after Dick Merrill, inventor of the Foveon sensor and include the most recent version of his technology - the 15x3MP APS-C sensor first seen in Sigma's SD1. Because the Merrill cameras feature full APS-C sensors, they also feature totally redesigned lenses, with the DP1M including a 19mm F2.8 lens to offer a 28mm equivalent field of view and the DP2M having a 30mm F2.8 lens to give a 45mm equivalent field-of-view. -
Sigma SD1 becomes SD1 Merrill and gains (much) keener price tag
7 Feb 2012 | 11:00 pmSigma's new CEO, Kazuto Yamaki has announced the re-branding and re-pricing of the company's flagship camera. The SD1 DSLR will now be know as the SD1 Merrill, in honor of Dick Merrill, inventor of the Foveon sensor technology on which it is based. The price will also be revised, falling to what should be a street price of around $2,299, which Yamaki attributes to work conducted to reduce production costs of the sensor. Despite these changes, his letter promises the performance and characteristics of the sensor have not changed. To avoid disappointing existing SD1 customers, Sigma will offer…
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Mashable!
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Google Chrome Update Brings Faster Browsing
9 Feb 2012 | 1:12 amThe new stable release of Google’s web browser Chrome brings several improvements, most importantly faster browsing and more protection from malicious downloads. From now on, when you start typing in Chrome’s address box (or omnibox, as Google calls it), as soon as Chrome autocompletes the URL you’re likely to visit, it will prerender the page, making your overall browsing experience faster. As far as security goes, Chrome now does checks on executable files you’ve downloaded from the net. It matches the executables against a whitelist – a list of programs known… -
‘Bachelor’ Contestant Courtney Gets Auto-Tuned [VIDEO]
8 Feb 2012 | 9:19 pmFans of The Bachelor are all too familiar with this season’s over-the-top contestant Courtney, who makes snide comments at the camera and likes to take off her bikini top. Now, a video has popped up on YouTube that has turned some of her signature phrases — from “Winning!” to “I do modeling” — into a catchy Auto-Tune clip. The contestants are vying for a rose from winemaker Ben, and Courtney has rubbed many of them the wrong way, and this video shows why. This is not the first time YouTube users have turned pop culture moments into Auto-Tuned videos. -
Facebook Talks About Social Games and Mobile Apps for 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 9:09 pmFacebook revealed its roadmap for social games and mobile apps for the rest of the year at the Inside Social Apps 2012 conference on Wednesday in San Francisco — and it’s good news for app developers. Want to create an app for Facebook’s Open Graph? The mobile space presents a huge opportunity to create cross-platform social games, said Carl Sjogreen, director of product management at Facebook, who spoke to a packed conference center filled with IT insiders about Facebook’s projections for the mobile social gaming and app space for this year. “You sort of had to… -
What Digital Non-Profits Can Learn From Companies Like Google
8 Feb 2012 | 8:46 pmDaniel Atwood works with organizations in the social sector to craft meaningful experiences for customers and constituents, and to find innovative product, campaign and messaging ideas in unexpected places. We live in a world where new digital products are solving problems daily — from managing our finances to remembering the groceries. Often, they’re solving problems we didn’t know we had, like the need to connect several times a day in 140 characters or less. Occasionally, they’re creating new problems (but that’s a topic for another conversation). What… -
Comment and Highlight on Websites with commentto
8 Feb 2012 | 8:30 pmThe Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: commentto Quick Pitch: Comment anywhere. Genius Idea: Commentto is a browser add-on service that allows users to highlight, bookmark, comment, save and share bookmarks and excerpts on websites. Do you ever want to add extra knowledge to a news story or other content on the web? Well, browser add-on commentto lets you comment on anything you want. Commentto allows users to highlight…
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MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page
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Photo of the Back of an iPad 3 Rear Shell, Smart Cover Magnets
8 Feb 2012 | 9:44 pmApparently, iPad 3 enclosures are easy to come by these days. Earlier today, Repair Labs posted a photo of the interior the iPad 3 rear shell. They concluded that there were some minor changes that suggested a larger battery and redesigned logic board. Tonight, Apple.pro posts an image of the back of the same shell, showing it to look quite simliar to the current iPad 2 backing, though the camera appears closer to the edge. There's no markings on the enclosure, however. No "iPad" or serial number markings. The site also claims to have a photo of the Smart Cover magnets, suggesting the iPad 3… -
Foxconn's Servers Hacked, Exposing Vendor Usernames and Passwords
8 Feb 2012 | 8:11 pmOne of Foxconn's servers was reportedly hacked, exposing usernames and passwords for clients and employees. The group that took credit for the hack is called SwaggSec who claims they weren't doing it in response to working conditions or even for information on the iPhone 5, but simply for the enjoyment of it. We encourage media, security experts, and other interested individuals to explore our leaks. Foxconn did have an appropriate firewall, but fortunately to our intent, we were able to bypass it almost flawlessly. Of course with funding ourselves we did have our limitations. But with… -
Apple Determines iTunes Match Royalties By Counting How Many Times A Song is Accessed
8 Feb 2012 | 1:56 pmTuneCore president Jeff Price today wrote a blog post praising Apple's iTunes Match service for creating money "out of thin air" for copyright holders. iTunes Match launched with all the major record labels on board, but some small labels refused to participate over concerns the service was legitimizing music pirates. Price disagrees: A person has a song on her computer hard drive. She clicks on the song and plays it. No one is getting paid. The same person pays iTunes $25 for iMatch. She now clicks on the same song and plays it through her iMatch service. Copyright holders get paid. -
Photo of iPad 3 Rear Shell Suggests Minor Physical Changes, Larger Battery
8 Feb 2012 | 12:52 pm(Click here for larger version) RepairLabs reports that it has received a photo of what is claimed to the inside of the rear shell of the iPad 3, comparing the part to the corresponding version found on the iPad 2. The iPad 3 version demonstrates a few minor changes compared to the iPad 2, with one of the most notable being an apparently narrower logic board that could make room for an expanded battery.A. You can see here that the mounts for the logic board are very different, which means the logic board shape will be different allowing for . . . . B. More battery. The width of where the… -
Siri Support for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Russian Languages Coming Next Month?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:42 amTech in Asia reports on an article [Google translation] from Chinese information technology website DoNews claiming that Apple is preparing to bring support for the Chinese language to Siri on the iPhone 4S next month. According to the report, Apple is also preparing to launch support for Japanese and Russian, but the initial Chinese support will only include Mandarin, with Cantonese and other dialects being left out for the time being.The Chinese tech site DoNews claims to have heard from an Apple engineer who’s working on the Chinese-language version of Siri, the clever voice assistant on…
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@ProBlogger
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How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support
8 Feb 2012 | 6:07 amThis guest post is by Matthew Setter of Malt Blue. How often do you find it happening to you? You discover an issue with your site, or one of your community members emails you to tell you about it, and soon you start to see tweets about it too. Maybe it’s as simple as an error message that detracts from the professional appearance of your site. Perhaps the contact form doesn’t send messages to your contact email address. Or is it that the whole site just displays as a blank page, otherwise known as the white page of death? You’re not a programmer, a software engineer or a seasoned… -
Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger: Part 2
7 Feb 2012 | 12:05 pmThis guest post is by Devesh of WP Kube. A few months ago, I wrote a guest post here called How to Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger. Today, I’ll go into some more detailed advice to help you speed up your site even more. If you’re a blogger, you already know about the importance of blog loading speed, and the role it plays in search engine rank and marketing your blog. But if this is new territory for you, here are three quick reasons why you need to speed up your blog: Google includes website loading speed as an important metric in their ranking algorithm. If you want… -
How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]
7 Feb 2012 | 6:04 amMid-December 2010: on my photography site, we launched a new campaign—our first ever 12 Days of Christmas promotion. The result was my biggest month of earnings ever up to that point. The idea was simple: offer discounts on 12 products over the 12 days leading up to Christmas. I used a mix of my own ebooks and products from other photography sites with affiliate commissions. The result was massive. Not only did we see some great revenue generated, it created some lovely buzz on the site. Due to the success of the 2010 campaign, in mid-December 2011 we launched our second 12 Days of… -
Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral
6 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThis guest post is by Nancy Sathre-Vogel of Family on Bikes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Surely Google Analytics was confusing my site with another, way more popular site. There was no way my visitor numbers could be so high! And yet they were. One of my posts had taken off and was spreading like wildfire. Those viral post phenomena that happen to others were now happening to me. The first day, 17,000 visitors came to my website. The next day we topped out at 56,000. Readers were coming in droves. It was exciting. It was exhilarating. My site, viral! Wow! And then I took a… -
How to Handle Criticism: a Practical Guide
5 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmImage by Stuart RichardsAs bloggers, each of us has to deal with criticism. Blogging is a very public activity—almost all of us has the goal of gaining readers to our blogs—and the more people you reach, the more likely it is that you’ll hear criticisms. “You’re wrong…” “How can you say that? You don’t know what you’re talking about.” “I couldn’t disagree more…” “This is the last time I read this blog!” These are just some of the criticisms bloggers regularly face—I’ve received versions of…
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How to Change the World
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Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 amOver the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are… -
Design a Sam Adams beer
20 Jan 2012 | 8:24 amNow this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored -
How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK
17 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pmThis is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who… -
How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK
12 Jan 2012 | 8:16 amHere is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan. -
How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK
9 Jan 2012 | 8:01 amWelcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…
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Holy Kaw!
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8 historical figures who ate disgusting things
8 Feb 2012 | 11:26 pmBefore you read this article, you may have thought your dog had the grossest eating habits ever. But Fido's penchant for poo is nothing compared to some of these sickos highlighted in Cracked. For example, Victorian scientist William Buckland: He didn't just stop at the meat of animals, either. While on a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, a strange mark was found on the floor. A debate broke out as to what the stain could possibly be, at which point Buckland got on his hands and knees, licked the stain and confidently announced it to be bat piss. But the craziest thing Buckland ever did, at… -
5 explanations of why teenagers act the way the do
8 Feb 2012 | 11:22 pmUnderstanding the teenage mind could be a life's work. For those of you who don't have that kind of time, however, Mental Floss gives five things that could explain the mind of the teenager. For example, parents, have you ever wondered if your teenager is somehow getting dumber? Parents of teens often wonder what happened to the bright child they used to have. How can someone go from getting A’s to getting C’s when they seem to be doing the same amount of work? Once again, changes in the brain are to blame. While the merits of IQ tests are debatable, scientists used to think IQ… -
Surviving the loss of a star employee
8 Feb 2012 | 11:16 pmSome groups have stellar members who carry the team. That's all well and good until that member leaves. Then what? This Smartblog video will help you answer that question: Full story at Smartblog on Leadership. Top news for leaders. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Disneyland circa 1957 [video]
8 Feb 2012 | 11:14 pmThis video was shot in 1957, less than two years after Disneyland had opened. The footage is newly restored and ready to take you to the happiest place on earth as it was in its early days. Full story at Mental Floss. All the top Internet videos in one place. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
People unplugging their TVs during the Super Bowl
8 Feb 2012 | 11:08 pmThere's no faster way to ruin an American's day than to unplug his or her TV during the Super Bowl. Think we're exaggerating? Take a look at these folks go form 0 to 60 in less than a second, all thanks to Jimmy Kimmel's latest Challenge. Full story at Jimmy Kimmel Live. Top sports news. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips
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Why I Don’t Backup My Photos Using Lightroom
7 Feb 2012 | 5:39 amIf you’ve used the Import dialog in Lightroom, you’ve probably noticed an area under File Handing called “Make a Second Copy To:”. This is Lightroom’s way of letting you make a backup of your photos as you import them. That way you can get your import and your backup all done at once. A while back, some one pointed out that when you use this feature, you don’t have much control over how the backup drive stores the photos. Basically, it just stores them in a folder named “Imported on….”. For me this is a big problem because it’s not… -
Lightroom Worth-a-click
3 Feb 2012 | 6:26 amHappy Friday! Here’s a few Lightroom/Photography related things that are worth a quick click if you’re surfing around. • A friend of mine from Paris (who I shot with while I visited last year and was a HUGE help!), Serge Ramelli has a Lightroom app on the iTunes store. Here’s the link if you want to check it out. • It’s not exactly brand new news but I had a new class go up on Kelby Training last month that’s all about Lightroom presets and how I create them. If you’re looking for a peak inside the mind of the preset creator (and some cool ideas for… -
Lightroom Video – Dynamic Watermarks (well… not really, but kinda)
1 Feb 2012 | 8:08 amI always like to do videos that answer questions I get, rather than just doing a video that I “think” everyone wants to know about. Well, this weeks video comes from a question that I’ve gotten in several forms over the last couple years. Recently, some one asked if they could add a watermark to their photos with the current year on them. So basically, Lightroom would have to figure out the year from the metadata (probably not hard) and dynamically add it to the photos when you export them into JPEGS (not so easy). So, there’s really no way to do this, but there is an… -
Your Burning Lightroom 4 Questions Answered From Adobe
30 Jan 2012 | 7:10 amI just saw a post over on Adobe’s Photoshop.com blog where product manager Sharad Mangalick, answered a bunch of Lightroom 4 questions. Everything from catalogs, to video, new features, you name it. Below is one question I pulled directly from the page because I’ve been asked quite a bit too, but there’s lots more in the full article. @luxx11 and @jennawoodward Ask: @Lightroom why can’t I use my LR3 catalogs in LR4? Is there a way to easily transfer my Lr3 catalogue into Lr4? Sharad: Since Lightroom 4 is still in beta form, we restricted the ability to bring in catalogs… -
Lightroom 4 and Windows XP
23 Jan 2012 | 7:52 amI’ve seen quite a few comments about the fact that Lightroom 4 Beta doesn’t work with Windows XP (and you can probably guess that the full version isn’t going to work with it either). Last week Tom Hogarty (Lightroom Product Manager) wrote about the reasons behind that decision on his blog. Here’s a quick snippet but you can go here to read the rest: “As many have noticed, the Lightroom 4 public beta we released last week does not support Windows XP. This decision did not come lightly and was based on a number of factors. With each version of Lightroom, our goal…
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Lifehacker
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From the Tips Box: Chrome History, Amazon Prime on iOS, and Chrome to Phone [From The Tips Box]
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pmMore » -
Microsoft OneNote Comes to Android, Syncs with Microsoft SkyDrive [Onenote]
8 Feb 2012 | 4:30 pmMore » -
Remains of the Day: Windows 8 Consumer Preview Launches Feb. 29th [For What It's Worth]
8 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pm -
How to Set Up Windows 7 Homegroups for Seamless, Instant Sharing Between PCs In Your Home [Emailable Tech Support]
8 Feb 2012 | 3:30 pmMore » -
Amazon Prime Expands Its Video Streaming Library, Adds 2,000 More Titles [In Brief]
8 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pm
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Online Marketing Blog » Blogging
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Online Marketing News: Say NOPA to SOPA, Google+ Strikes Again, Coca Cola “Gets It”, Twitter Gobbles Up Summify
20 Jan 2012 | 4:31 amThe Social Job Seekers The social media job market is hot! This infographic visualizes the 2011 Social Job Seeker Survey that was conducted by Jobvite. It examines who the job seekers are and how they are utilizing social media to find jobs. Some interesting statistics you may not be aware of: 61% of all employed Americans are open to a new job or actively looking for a new one. 4 out of 10 job seekers are “Super Social” and have 150+ contacts on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. 1 in 6 job seekers found their last job through an online social network. This Week in News About Google… -
Social Media & Blogging Listmania with Curated Resources & Lists
16 Jan 2012 | 3:15 amBeing included on a popular list of credible resources like our own BIGLIST of top Marketing Blogs or one of the many other collections of useful resources posted online can feel pretty satisfying, validating the hard work many are putting in to their business blogs. Great lists get socially shared, linked, and emailed, giving those included quite a bit of valuable exposure. By association, the list publisher also gains value in terms of exposure, links, and a connection with list participants. Curation is essential for sorting through the mass of data published online and with the closer… -
4 B2C Examples of How Companies are Using Twitter to Attract & Engage Customers
3 Jan 2012 | 3:36 amIf you are a B2C company, interaction on a social platform like Twitter can increase engagement and even sales if executed properly. Small businesses like Tender boutique in Birmingham, Michigan have promoted special offers on Twitter and sold out in just a few days. Social interaction via platforms like Twitter allow companies to gain a true understanding of their prospect base and serve as a real-time source of market research. Customer engagement is a key benefit of executing a B2C Twitter marketing strategy. A recent survey by Chadwick Martin Bailey found 67% of Twitter users are more… -
Blogging On A Budget: 3 Tips for Bigger Impact
29 Nov 2011 | 5:00 amBlogging is one of the top sources of online content creation for many companies. Blogs are a great vehicle for interacting and engaging with current and prospective clients. Blogs are also an effective way for prospects to associate stories, anecdotes, and personalities with a company or brand. Taking on a blog can be a large undertaking. There are many things that should be considered including cost, availability of resources, strategy creation, time commitment, and measurement. Simply creating content and expecting instant success is not realistic. If you have recently decided that… -
The Dynamic Duo of Business Blog Marketing: Optimize & Socialize
25 Nov 2011 | 3:59 amBlogs are often rated one of the top content marketing tactics for attracting and engaging customers and eMarketer has reported blogs reach over 50% of the internet audience. But many companies fail to combine two of the most important tools for boosting relevant traffic and reach: Optimization for search engines and for social media. Most marketers and bloggers understand the basics of a good business blog and the notion of search engine optimization but often focus more on keywords than the customers that are actually searching. Adding keywords to blog posts is a common SEO tactic but…
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Blogging Tips
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One Simple Process to Take for More SEO Traffic
8 Feb 2012 | 11:51 amSEO can be very difficult if you’re just starting and have little to no experience or authority to start with. Of course, there are tons of tutorials online about SEO and link building, but most of them can be sometimes complicated and long-term that it seems you’re not getting as much results for the efforts you put in. In this article I will be sharing a process I use to increase traffic to my blog from the search engines; using this process alone I have been able to increase SEO traffic to one of the pages on my blog from around 400 to 3,000+ visitors monthly. This technique… -
Building Massive PageRanked Backlinks with BuildMyRank
8 Feb 2012 | 10:37 amWhen it comes to building quality links back to your web sites, it’s important not only to get people linking to your main page, but also your internal links. The internal pages of your blog or web site is where you are going to get all of your longtail keywords ranked, and traffic from the search engines. At the same time you also want to focus on link building for your main page, so what is the best solution? Building PageRanked Links with BuildMyRank Over the past couple of weeks I have been playing around with a content link building service called BuildMyRank. So far it’s… -
Nailing Down Your Niche
7 Feb 2012 | 1:15 pmYou’ve heard it a thousand times; you need a niche. Maybe you’ve tried several with some success but not the success you want. Or maybe you try one and it really doesn’t fit, so you try another, and then another. It seems like it’s a never-ending quest to find what you’re good at and can make money doing. I’ve been there. I’m a writer. I “thought” my niche should be writing. The thing is, I’m not passionate about writing about writing. I love to write, I just don’t want to talk about it all day. I also love Internet Marketing,… -
The Advantages Internet Advertising Brings To The Plate
5 Feb 2012 | 1:59 pmI deal with people now and again that understand they need some kind of Internet advertising to help their company to take off but they’re really not sure what it is and how to go about getting the right kind. First off, the benefits to getting exposure on the Web. Simply put, you get more of it for less. With the right people using a combination of social media, blogs and articles as well as maybe even some videos and other mediums, more people will be able to read about the goods and services that you have for sale for a cheaper price than with print or even television and radio. -
Top 10 WordPress Plugins To Improve a WordPress Blog
5 Feb 2012 | 1:54 pmOne of the best things about WordPress is the ability to customize your blog with plugins. The only issues is that there are thousands of plugins to choose from and just not enough time to go through all of them. Luckily, WordPress plugins are kind of like iPhone and Android apps: no matter what you’re looking to do, there’s an app for that. So you can be sure that whatever type of functionality you’re looking to add to your blog, more than likely there is a plugin for it. There are plugins to help increase traffic, help boost your rankings, help speed up your blog, encourage the…
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Virtual Photography Studio - Resources for photographers
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Man, That’s A Nice Camera
8 Feb 2012 | 10:25 amSometimes clients say the darnedest things. There have been been many times I’ve just sat there staring, wondering if they really know what they just said. When was the last time you were asked, “can I just print my own copies” or “can you Photoshop this out”? If so, you should really appreciate this video…. Shtuff People Say to Photographers www.youtube.com/watch?v=niyTIbiV19A What are your client saying to you in your Photography Business? -
The Photography Sales Funnel Part Three: Long Term Profits Through Referrals
8 Feb 2012 | 9:13 amNow we head into the robust part of the sales funnel. This is where you build up a system that allows you to make big profits. If you haven’t read the first two parts in this series, make sure you catch up by starting with the Photographers Sales Funnel and a look at How To Generate Leads. In part two of this series, I discussed the top of your sales funnel and how it helps you capture attention of people desiring what you provide. Potential customers are called “leads”. Leads ultimately convert into paying customers. Depending on how well you do with both marketing and sales, your… -
The Photography Sales Funnel Part Two: Generating Leads At The Front Of Your Funnel
7 Feb 2012 | 12:54 pmIn part one of this series on the Sales Funnel, I related my story of how a photographer needs to look at the entire sales cycle in order to give it strength and work to grow a successful company over time. The sales funnel is a systematic marketing process where you filter your prospects into customers, then refine them into raving fans that refer you again and again. But before you can build your base of raving fans, you have to attract high quality prospects at the top of the funnel. This is where your marketing can really shine. See You At The Top The top of your sales funnel is the one… -
The Photographers Sales Funnel
6 Feb 2012 | 11:15 amFundamental to the success of your photography business is the concept of the sales funnel. The sales funnel is key in defining the strategies needed to find prospects and turn them into clients over time. It also defines an effective referral program that keeps people coming in at all levels of your business. Basic Sales Funnel Structure When you are building your marketing and sales strategies, your ultimate goal is to bring in paying customers. Yet in order to do so, you have various steps in order to accomplish your goal. The sales funnel begins by capturing the attention of prospects out… -
Photography + Small Business + PIPA and SOPA = Death To An Industry
3 Feb 2012 | 8:33 amA couple of weeks ago, I posted Why SOPA/PIPA Affect All Of Us to help you better understand two bills that were before congress and the impact they could have on us all. I’ve been involved in groups for the past couple of years that have been watching and fighting this “concept” as it makes its way through both state and federal levels again and again. I was happy to see both tabled and not put forward for a vote. But again, they were merely tabled, not stopped. Which means they will surface again. And probably again. So of course I keep following what people are saying and what…
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Performancing
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Why your Internet Marketing Company Should Offer Conversion Analysis
29 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pmIf your internet marketing company is helping to drive traffic to your website, you may still be losing money. But how is that possible? Getting new visitors to your website is only the half the battle; ultimately, they need to become new — and preferably loyal and repeat — customers to benefit your business and help you grow revenue. The process of getting new visitors to become customers is called conversion, and if your internet marketing company isn’t offering conversion analysis as part of your internet marketing strategy, you need to start shopping around for a new marketing… -
Buy Links for SEO or not
22 Jan 2012 | 11:43 pmLinks, and in particular one-way links, have always been thought to be one of the top metrics that search engine web sites look for when ranking websites. Although the spirit of linking to another website is to show a tacit recommendation for that website, there are many ways in which this metric can be exploited. One way is to simply buy links or pay a search engine optimization company to buy links for you. The temptation of saving the time and effort of having to build relationships and court the opinions of webmasters is quite a strong one, yet many people swear off buying links for their… -
InstaBG Delivers Instagram Backgrounds To Your Twitter Account Automagically
31 Dec 2011 | 12:59 pmWhile I take great pride in managing my Twitter account through user interaction, quick responses to questions and sparse sharing of my own personal posts I don’t care much for updating my background so it remains fresh upon user visits. It’s for that reason that I began using and highly recommend the program InstaBG. The InstaBG platform connects users to their Twitter account and the Instagram photo sharing platform in order to create backgrounds based on user preference. The program couldn’t be easier to use, simply click on the “Sign in with Twitter Account”… -
Newest Free Mac Apps for Better Productivity
24 Dec 2011 | 1:29 amWe all have trouble focusing from time to time. With the massive time waster that is the Internet tempting us with endless pages of Lolcats, YouTube videos, social-networking sites and Netflix, it is practically turning us all into creatures with the attention span of a goldfish. When was the last time you actually got through a task without checking Facebook? Or sending a text? I bet you can’t even remember. It is no surprise that an avalanche of free applications has been released by developers for the Mac that helps to combat the lack of productivity that sometimes occurs in our… -
Have You Selected The Right SEO Keywords?
15 Dec 2011 | 10:19 amThe first step in any successful search engine optimization campaign should be to consider your target market. What products and services do you sell? What sets you apart from your competitors? Why should people shop online with you? These questions help you to build up a picture of those who are likely to buy your products or services online. They also give you an immediate insight into the keywords (search terms) that will be used in order to find your website online. This is a great starting point when considering the keywords that you wish to target. Some would argue that keyword analysis…
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WordPress News
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Year of the Meetup
27 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pmWe hereby declare 2012 as the Year of the WordPress Meetup. You’ll want to get in on this action. meet·up \mēt-əp\ noun A meeting, especially a regular meeting of people who share a particular interest and have connected with each other through a social-networking Web site: a meetup for new moms in the neighborhood; a meetup to plan the trip; a meetup for WordPress users.1 So what is a WordPress Meetup? Basically, it’s people in a community getting together — meeting up — who share an interest in WordPress, whether… -
Internet Blackout Day on January 18
17 Jan 2012 | 3:18 pmWordPress.org is officially joining the protest against Senate Bill 968: the Protect IP Act that is coming before the U.S. Senate next week. As I wrote in my post a week ago, if this bill is passed it will jeopardize internet freedom and shift the power of the independent web into the hands of corporations. We must stop it. On January 18, 2012 many sites around the web — from small personal blogs to internet institutions like Mozilla, Wikipedia, reddit, and I Can Has Cheezburger? – will be going dark in protest and to drive their visitors to sites like americancensorship.org to… -
Help Stop SOPA/PIPA
10 Jan 2012 | 11:18 amYou are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it. Normally we stay away from from politics here at the official WordPress project — having users from all over the globe that span the political spectrum is evidence that we are doing our job and democratizing publishing, and we don’t want to alienate any of our users no matter how much some of us may disagree with some of them personally. Today, I’m breaking our no-politics rule, because there’s something going on in U.S. politics right now that we need to make sure you know… -
WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release
3 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pmWordPress 3.3.1 is now available. This maintenance release fixes 15 issues with WordPress 3.3, as well as a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that affected version 3.3. Thanks to Joshua H., Hoang T., Stefan Zimmerman, Chris K., and the Go Daddy security team for responsibly disclosing the bug to our security team. Download 3.3.1 or visit Dashboard → Updates in your site admin. -
WordPress 3.3 “Sonny”
12 Dec 2011 | 2:58 pmThe latest and greatest version of the WordPress software — 3.3, named “Sonny” in honor of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt — is immediately available for download or update inside your WordPress dashboard. WordPress has had over 65 million downloads since version 3.0 was released, and in this third major iteration we’ve added significant polish around the new user experience, navigation, uploading, and imports. Check out this short video that summarizes the things we think you’ll find are the cat’s pajamas: For Users Experienced users will…
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DollarShower.com
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TimThumb and WordPress Blog Performance
6 Feb 2012 | 9:42 amThere is no doubt that Timthumb is an awesome piece of PHP script to help with on-the-fly resizing of images for websites and blogs. Originally written for a WordPress theme, it’s been already exploited by 1000s of magazine style WordPress themes. However, many theme designers are using the timthumb script quite negligently that the blog [...]Continue Reading TimThumb and WordPress Blog Performance -
Bye Bye Facebook
24 Jan 2012 | 8:49 amIt’s been two years since I stopped using Twitter as a medium to actively promote my ideas. At the moment, my twitter usage is restricted to tweeting about any relevant (not all) blog posts alone. And I must say that I never found twitter that interesting and hence didn’t really miss it. My facebook affair [...]Continue Reading Bye Bye Facebook -
Blog Private Ads: Are they any Good for Advertisers?
8 Jan 2012 | 11:49 amOver the past two months I spent $285 on private ad spots alone on various blogs in order to drive my holiday season marketing campaigns. I was primarily using the BuySellAds network to buy banners. Most bloggers know that they can make money from BuySellAds as publishers. But are they any good for your own [...]Continue Reading Blog Private Ads: Are they any Good for Advertisers? -
Holiday Season Online Marketing Tips
30 Dec 2011 | 9:53 amThe US online spending this year’s holiday season (Nov – Dec) was at its peak with Americans spending $35 billion (Nov 1 to Dec 26, 2011). This figure has gone up from $30 billion from last year by 15% and the biggest online sale day this year was the Cyber Monday where $1 billion was [...]Continue Reading Holiday Season Online Marketing Tips -
Top PPC Advertising Networks Comparison
15 Dec 2011 | 8:57 amOver the past two years, I have spent close to $3,500 on PPC Advertising. Of course, that kind of spending resulted in decent returns but the reality is that, only 3 ad networks out of the 8 or 9 that I tried, actually returned anything significant. Based on my experience, here’s a table that contain [...]Continue Reading Top PPC Advertising Networks Comparison
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Photography Served Featured Projects
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Tribute to Vaclav Havel (Prague 23rd Dec.)
8 Feb 2012 | 5:30 pmTrubute to Vaclav Havel -
Color Portrait Portfolio
8 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amFine art photography -
Neverland
8 Feb 2012 | 3:30 ama little out of this world -
A Day's Work
7 Feb 2012 | 8:30 pmEnvironmental portraits of people in their workspaces -
They Were Telling Me a Story
7 Feb 2012 | 1:30 pmThey Were Telling Me a Story - Silent speech portraits. Each model told me an intimate story in silence. I don't know what they told me and I didn't ask. This was the rule of the game.
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The Online Photographer
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Blog Note
8 Feb 2012 | 5:19 pmYour weekly Ctein will appear tomorrow this week. I'd explain why, but that would just delay it longer. Mike, Inscrutable TOPmeister -
New Olympus E-M5 (OM-D): First Look
8 Feb 2012 | 9:42 amThe E-M5 could be the centerpiece of a capable lightweight camera system. By Eamon Hickey Last week, I had a relatively brief chance to handle the new OM-D E-M5, courtesy of the folks at Olympus America. I thought I'd report a few random thoughts and impressions with an eye towards some things not necessarily apparent from the spec sheet. Let me just get a business prediction out of the way first. This looks like a good all-around effort from Olympus, and I'm guessing it'll sell pretty well. Making an advanced photographer's Micro 4/3 body with weather sealing and a… -
Comic Relief
8 Feb 2012 | 8:11 amXKCD adroitly skewers the tendency of photographers to overlook content and see only technique (style, too, sometimes). There oughta be a name for that. Take a look. Mike(Thanks to Charlie and several others) Send this post to a friendPlease help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Featured Comment by Dennis: "Reminds me of that Nikon ad from the… -
Nikon D800, Woo-Hoo!
7 Feb 2012 | 8:39 amIt's here, folks. The long-awaited and much-talked-about (and probably natural-disaster-delayed)...drum roll...Nikon D800. Nikon's replacement for the superb, much-loved, and undyingly popular D700 (a.k.a. the digital F100) is everything that was rumored: full-frame and 36 megapixels. And it's essentially no bigger or heavier than the camera it replaces. Both cameras are positioned as Nikon's "top of the line amateur DSLRs" but the D700 has been widely used by professionals, as a backup and as their main axe. Just as some automotive buffs advocate buying a model… -
Movies and Photography
6 Feb 2012 | 10:49 amA car thief and a Minox "spy camera" feature in the plot ofLouis Malle's famous Ascenseur pour l'échafaud. You can tell a real movie lover because their list of all-time best or favorite movies doesn't contain mostly films from the years of their own teens and early twenties. Those are, certainly, the years of our lives in which movies matter most to most people. My best movie-watching experiences came from those years of my life, but for a different reason. At Dartmouth, in the years when I was a student there or lived nearby, the Dartmouth Film Society showed a…
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Photography Blog - News
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Sony G 500mm f4 SSM
8 Feb 2012 | 4:45 amThe Sony 500mm f/4 G SSM (SAL500F40G) is a professional grade super-telephoto lens for A-mount SLR and SLT cameras. Read more and comment » -
Olympus OM-D Hands-On Photos
8 Feb 2012 | 2:30 amHands-on gallery of photos of the new Olympus OM-D compact system camera. Read more and comment » -
Olympus OM-D Presentation
8 Feb 2012 | 2:15 amA detailed presentation of the new Olympus OM-D compact system camera. Read more and comment » -
M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro & M.Zuiko Digital ED 75mm f/1.8
7 Feb 2012 | 6:01 pmOlympus has announced the development of two new prime lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system. Read more and comment » -
Olympus OM-D
7 Feb 2012 | 6:00 pmThe dust- and splashproof, all-metal Olympus OM-D is a retro styled 16.1-megapixel Micro Four Thirds compact system camera featuring a body-integral 5-axis image stabiliser, 1.44-million-dot EVF and best-in-class auto-focus with 3D subject tracking. Read more and comment »
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Citynoise.org Latest Articles
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Aryz
8 Feb 2012 | 5:49 pmPosted in: Grottaglie, Italy by Peter. A nice piece from ARYZ that I spotted in Grottaglie, Italy as part of the Fame Festival thestreetspot.com/2011/12/grottaglies-fame.html www.aryz.es www.famefestival.it graffiti, art, streetart -
Vehicles Over 8,000 LBS Must Use Exit 7
8 Feb 2012 | 5:19 pmPosted in: New York, NY by Peter. Consolidated Edison Coned, Con Ed, NYC New York City, Manhattan east river, power plant pollution -
Come Up to My Room 2012
7 Feb 2012 | 11:02 pmPosted in: Toronto, ON by Michelle. Three years after I first attended Come up to my room at the Gladstone Hotel, here is what it looked like this time around. -
Outfall No. 001
3 Feb 2012 | 5:47 pmPosted in: New York, NY by Peter. I found CSO #1! More information here... NYS Permitted Discharge Point SPDES Permit No.: NY0005126 Outfall No.: 001 For information about this permitted discharge contact: Consolidated Edison of New York Permittee Contact: Shift Supervisor Permittee Phone: (212) 614-3600 Or: NYSDEC Division of Water Regional Office Address: 47-40 21st Street Long Island City, New York 11101 NYSDEC Division of Water Regional Phone: (718) 482-4933 Manhattan, NYC New York City East River Sewage Pollution -
Street Light
3 Feb 2012 | 2:39 amPosted in: Melbourne, AU by zink. McKillop Street
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Photography Monthly
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Olympus launches OM-D
8 Feb 2012 | 3:18 amOlympus is launching the OM-D, featuring the world's first 1 5-axis image stabilisation (IS) system to eliminate blur in stills and movies. -
Olympus offers free grip with OM-D
8 Feb 2012 | 2:25 amOlympus offers a free grip and battery pack for anyone who pre-orders the OM-D camera. -
Batmobile of outdoor cameras launched by Pentax
7 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmWhat looks like the batmobile of the camera world has been launched by Pentax in the form of two new compacts - the Optio WG2 and Optio WG2-GPS. -
Pentax launches image transfer software
7 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmPentax has announced the launch of its new 'Image Transmitter' software for the transfer and saving of images taken with the PENTAX 645D medium-format digital SLR camera to a personal computer. -
Brian Duffy's lost portraits to be exhibited in London
7 Feb 2012 | 4:00 pmAn exhibition showcasing late sixties music and fashion photographer Brian Duffy's 'Lost Portraits' will take place from 22 March - 13 May 2012 in London.
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Daily Blog Tips
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New Backlink Analysis Tool
8 Feb 2012 | 3:56 amSince Yahoo! closed the Site Explorer service bloggers and webmasters (myself included) were left without any solid alternative. I have been looking for similar tools since then, and an interesting one I found recently is called ahrefs.com. It’s a paid service, but there are many free tools you can use on their website as well. For instance, right on the homepage you can type your domain name and click on “Explore Links” to get an overview of how your website is doing. As you can see from the screenshot above you get a lot of data back. For instance, you can see the total… -
Come Join the Social Media Club
7 Feb 2012 | 4:37 amBack in 2009 I created two clubs, one called “Retweet Club” and the other one called “Facebook Club”, where members would share each other’s content, with the goal of increasing social media traffic to their blogs and websites. The clubs worked as mailing lists (using Google Groups), but eventually the activity died down. The main reason was the following: sharing wasn’t fair. A member could be selfish and only send requests to the club, without ever sharing the content from other members. A couple of weeks ago I started thinking about what could be a… -
How Many Posts Should You Write Each Week?
5 Feb 2012 | 7:01 pmWhen I started blogging, four years ago, many experts advised posting daily – to increase traffic and keep readers hooked. And many popular blogs do post every day (at least on weekdays). Should you post every day, though? Probably not. Why? Because: If you write two posts each week instead of five (or seven), those posts will be much better written. If you only post once or twice a week, you’ll usually find that you get more comments on each post. If you don’t post too frequently, readers may actually read every post, instead of one in five. If you don’t use up all your ideas in the… -
How Much Does A New Customer Cost?
3 Feb 2012 | 8:28 pmFor someone who is about to start up their own business, whether online or not, this is an essential question to ask. When you sell a product or service you need someone to make a purchase so you can make money. The most important principle in business is that there are two different types of people involved in your business; customers and clients. While both of these may appear at first to be the same they are critically different and concentrating on one over the other can be the difference between success and failure. This concept, what I call the $1 Customer, I teach to clients in order… -
10 Ways to Ensure No-One Will Read Your Content
2 Feb 2012 | 8:44 pmSo many bloggers put tons of time and effort into getting more traffic – but perhaps that sounds like trying way too hard. Your ideas are so awesome, your personality so strong, that readers will just come to you. I’m going to give you ten straightforward ways to make sure the whole world knows you’re not going to pander to your readers. (Oh, and if you would like to have a few more readers – try doing the opposite of everything on this list.) 1. Give Your Post the First Title You Come Up With You’re in a hurry, right? So your post will do just fine with the…
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Robert Rodriguez Jr Photography
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February 2012 Free Desktop Wallpaper
5 Feb 2012 | 12:39 pmThe February 2012 Free Desktop Wallpaper is now available for download. I love the soft colors and tones that fog creates in the forest, and whenever I find myself in such conditions, I’m reminded that photography is but a small part of the whole experience. As always, come closer to nature in the Hudson Valley. 1920 x 1200 1920 x 1080 1680 x 1050 1280 x 800 Instructions: First determine your screen size. Your Current Resolution Is: Then click on the link for the correct size. When the image opens in a new browser window, right click on the image and select “Set as… -
The Digital Revolution and the Impact on Photography
31 Jan 2012 | 2:37 amI wanted to highlight a recent documentary I discovered online called “Press Pause Play” which offers a fascinating look at the digital revolution and all of its implications for artists. I found it extremely engaging, as well as thought provoking in so many ways. In an age where everyone has affordable access to the tools to be an artist, especially in photography, how do we separate the good from the great. This is one of the very ideas I have been writing about on this blog since I started, and continue to focus on here and in my workshops. We all have access to the gear… -
My First Visit to Europe at Canson Headquarters
24 Jan 2012 | 7:45 amCanson booth – PhotoPlus Expo 2011 Tomorrow I am heading to southern France as an invited guest of Canson Infinity for their “Customer Appreciation Days” yearly event. Basically they invite their best customers from around the globe to join them in a week long educational conference where they learn about all of their newest products (mostly fine art papers and canvas’) and how best to use them. As an official evangelist, my role is to talk about why I use Canson papers for my own work, my fine art printing workflow, and my landscape photography in general. I’ll… -
Winter View, Hudson Valley
23 Jan 2012 | 8:17 amWinter View, Hudson Valley Canon 1DS Mk III, 19mm, 1/8 sec, f/14, ISO 200 Winter has been rather mild this year with little of no snow fall until now – finally! With 4-6″ on the ground, I headed out for a long and very cold hike yesterday up to this spot overlooking Cold Spring, with West Point Military Academy further south along the Hudson. I managed to capture just this single image after struggling to find an interesting foreground and eliminating trees and branches that would have been distractions in the composition. I used a single 2 stop graduated filter to darken the… -
Youngs Cove, Nova Scotia
18 Jan 2012 | 12:58 pmYoungs Cove, Nova Scotia
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PhotoNaturalist
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Where to Get Precipitation Data
7 Feb 2012 | 7:54 pmWith spring just around the corner here in the southwestern United States, it’s time to start scouting out places for wildflowers. And, one of the best ways to do that is to look at winter precipitation data. Precipitation isn’t the only thing that affects a good wildflower show, but it can usually be a strong indicator of where the good spots will be (especially in areas that receive little rain to begin with, such as the desert). So, where do you find all this great precipitation data? Well, there’s two sources I’m relying on this spring: #1 – National Weather… -
Learn About the Mighty Mississippi River In a New Documentary from Nat Geo WILD
7 Feb 2012 | 7:41 pmPhoto Credit: © NGC / Whitney Beer-Kerr This past weekend, I had an opportunity to watch a new mini-series from National Geographic: Wild Mississippi. I grew up just a few hours away from the Mississippi River, so it was nice to learn more about it. The three part series will premiere on Nat Geo WILD this Sunday, February 12, at 8 PM ET. Here’s a short summary of what you’ll learn in each episode: Deep Freeze (Part I). The first episode shows you the starting point of the Mississippi river (at Lake Itasca in Minnesota), and then shows what life is like in the winter along the… -
3 Ways To Prevent Posterization
31 Jan 2012 | 8:09 pmCreosote (Larrea Tridentata) / Photo by Steve Berardi One of the most annoying problems in digital photography is posterization (as seen in the photo above). It can turn your beautiful sunset photos into a jagged mess. But, luckily there are a few ways to prevent this ugly problem: #1 – Get the best exposure possible The best thing you can do to prevent posterization is to get the best possible exposure. You can do that by paying close attention to your RGB histogram. It’s extremely important to make sure you’re not overexposing ANY of the color channels, because that… -
Amazing Photograph of the Earth
25 Jan 2012 | 7:16 pmToday, NASA released an incredible “blue marble” image of the Earth. It was created by combining a bunch of smaller photos to create one massive 64-megapixel image (8,000×8,000 pixels). You can check out the full resolution image by clicking here. Awesome. Related posts:Evolution of a Nature Photograph How to Photograph Landscapes With the Moon Total Lunar Eclipse This Saturday -
The Perfect Backpack For a Hiking Photographer
16 Jan 2012 | 11:16 amAs nature photographers, we usually have to carry around a lot of gear with us. That gear can get pretty heavy, so it’s helpful to have a camera bag that fits all of your stuff AND is comfortable to wear. Well, a couple years ago I found what I consider the perfect backpack for a hiking photographer: the Lowepro Flipside 400AW. Here’s a summary of what I like about the bag, and a few things I don’t like: The Good Plenty of room for an assortment of lenses (I can fit one camera body, a 300mm lens, a 70-200mm, 17-40mm, and a set of extension tubes) Distributes weight extremely…
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Visual Realia
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99 Years
6 Feb 2012 | 5:33 pmJuly of 1863 saw heavy fighting and death in Pennsylvania's small town of Gettysburg, and the Devil's Den and Little Round Top areas of the Gettysburg National Military Park were attracting visitors 50 years later when my grandparents, Cora and Curvin, had their photograph taken (seated in the back row) along with friends by a professional photographer from York. The photo was taken in July, four months before their wedding. The photograph was always a favorite family treasure for me, and I always intended to get a similar photograph from the same vantage point. Living less than 30 minutes… -
We Took the Easy Way Out
29 Jan 2012 | 6:45 am"This much is clear to me: If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno's response.”-Phil Knight If only life were that simple. Watching the reactions to the most recent sexual abuse scandal, this time focusing on Jerry Sandusky and those individuals and organizations around him, made something abundantly clear. When confronted by our failings, we retreat to easy answers and avoid the reality that we don’t want to face the true issues at hand. Our efforts to emote our reponses collectively and individually look to simple ideas that reflect… -
Taste of Science
13 Jan 2012 | 8:21 pmThere are times when science can taste pretty delicious.One of my best decisions was the purchase of a “yogurt maker.” The term is a bit of a misnomer, as it only aids in one stage of the process. Having this kitchen device (Euro Cuisine Yogurt Maker) makes the process much more consistent, and ultimately encourages one to make homemade yogurt much more often.Yogurt is a great source of B vitamins, riboflavin, calcium and protein, as well as being a dairy product that can be tolerated by some who may have difficulty digesting lactose. The lactose level is lessened as beneficial bacteria… -
The Next VR Photowalk
8 Jan 2012 | 10:43 amThe next VR Photowalk will be in Columbia, PA on Saturday, May 26th @ 10:00 AM. Free event for all ages, and very family friendly. Stay tuned for more information in the weeks to come! Photo above from the VR Photowalks York event. Tags: photowalkphotographyPennsylvaniaColumbiaLancaster County -
Free Print Contest
29 Dec 2011 | 5:48 pmInterested in a free print? While I like sharing and seeing photographs online, nothing beats having an actual printed photograph that can be held and framed. I’ve done a free print contest several summers in a row, but skipped this summer due to transitioning to this new web site. The holiday season seems like a great time to restart it.• Anyone entering a comment on the Visual Realia site between now and the end of the day on Friday, January 6th (2012) will be entered in the contest. An email address needs to be included as you enter the comment, so I am able to track down the winner.
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Digital Camera Reviews & Photography Tips
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Olympus FL-50
8 Feb 2012 | 3:50 pmOlympus FL-50 is a powerful flash (guide number of 164 ft./50m at ISO 100) with a fast recycling time in a compact, durable body. It features Full range of TTL Automatic, Automatic and Manual flash modes; Flash sync at speeds up to 1/4000th second; More even illumination with less corner fall-off. The Olympus FL-50 measures [...] -
Kodak ESP C310
8 Feb 2012 | 12:42 pmKodak ESP C310 is a All-In-One Printer features Print resolution: up to 9600 optimized dpi, Print speeds: 6 ipm in black, 4 ipm in color, 3-in-1 inkjet printer: print, scan and copy, 1.5-inch LCD, Built-in memory card reader, Paper capacity: 100-sheet rear folding tray, and Connectivity: Wireless, USB. The Kodak ESP C310 measures 16.5. x [...] -
Canon Selphy CP780
8 Feb 2012 | 4:15 amCanon Selphy CP780 is a a Compact Photo Printer features PictBridge, Rey-eye Correction, optional bluetooth, and the ability to preview, edit and add creativity to your images on a 2.5” LCD Screen. The Canon Selphy CP780 measures 6.9″ (W) x 3.0″ (H) x 5.2″ (D) and weighs 2.1 lbs. Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 [...] -
Nikon Coolpix P6000
7 Feb 2012 | 9:36 amLast update (07 February’12): - Review & Sample Photos @ LetsGoDigital - Added New Firmware v. 1.2 Nikon P6000 is a 13.5 Megapixels point-and-shoot digital camera which is also the successor of Nikon Coolpix P5000. It features 4x Wide Angle Optical Zoom-NIKKOR ED Glass Lens (35mm equivalent: 28-112mm) with optical Image Stabilization, RAW mode, Built-in [...] -
Tamrac 5550 Adventure 10
7 Feb 2012 | 6:19 amTamrac 5550 Adventure 10 is lightweight camera bag to carries and protects a Pro digital or film SLR with a grip and a lens up to 8.0″ attached, additional lenses, a flash, accessories and a laptop. The bag features the comfortable, foam-padded backpack harness with sternum straps is contoured to distribute the weight of the [...]
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Tao of Photography
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Transcendental Mirrors
8 Feb 2012 | 7:11 pm"Bodies of still water arethemselves like minds;transcendental mirrors, Platonic camerasto catch and hold the phenomenological long enough for the onlooker to grasp its reality,the eternal thing behind it."- David Mason GreeneThe Frail Duration"There is, one knows not what sweet mystery about his sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath; like those fabled undulations of the Ephesian sod over the buried Evangelist St. John. And meet it is, that over these sea-pastures, wide rolling watery prairies and Potters’ Fields of all… -
On Seeing
7 Feb 2012 | 5:11 pm"The child has to learn how to separate out the images which assail the newly-opened retina... a whole series of 'senses' are necessary... A sense of spatial immensity, in its greatness and in its smallness, disarticulating and spacing out, within a sphere of indefinite radius, the orbits of objects which press around us; A sense of depth, pushing back laboriously through the endless chain of events and measureless distances of time which a sort of sluggishness of mind tends continually to condense for us in a thin layer of the past; A sense of number, discovering and grasping… -
Music of the Eyes
6 Feb 2012 | 4:30 pm"What prohibits me from treating my perception as an intellectual act is that an intellectual act would grasp the object either as possible or as necessary. But in perception it is 'real'; it is given as the infinite sum of an indefinite series of perspectival views in each of which the object is given but in none of which is it given exhaustively."- Maurice Merleau-Ponty(1908 - 1961)"Perhaps art is just taking outwhat you don't likeand putting in what you do.There is no such thing as Abstraction. It is extraction, gravitation toward a certain direction... It is… -
Celestial Melodies
5 Feb 2012 | 3:35 pm"...above all, I perceive in me with joy, a new tone, sounded by a violin within my innermost being. Its strings are tensed or relaxed through simple differences of temperature and illumination from without. Yet from deep with our being (an instrument that the conformity of habit has condemned to silence), there appears a song - out of those derivations, out of those vibrations - from which all music arises. The weather, on specific days, leads us perchance from one sound to another. We rediscover the lost melody, which - as we might have guessed - appears with mathematical necessity,… -
Illumination and Purification
4 Feb 2012 | 5:38 pm"The outcome is this...the whole conscious being is open to spiritual experiences of every kind. It turns toward spiritual truth in thought, feeling, perception, and action; it is adjusted to respond rightly... The second thing is the free influx of all kinds of spiritual experience, experience of self, experience of God and of the divine creative power, experience of the cosmic consciousness, a direct contact with cosmic forces and with the hidden movements of universal Nature, a psychic sympathy, union, inner communication and various kinds of reciprocal relationship with other beings and…
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Pixiq
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Photography Links Roundup: 02/03/2012
3 Feb 2012 | 1:57 pmHere's a look at some photography goodness from around the Internet in the last week. Also, I'm testing out different formats for these weekly roundups so feel free to leave comments. Enjoy! Why Wedding Photographers Prices are “Wack” petapixel.com - Earlier today my friend and fellow photographer posted a link to a craigslist ad from a woman in Seattle looking for a wedding photographer. The woman was upset because she thought that $3,000 for ... 3 Minutes with Photographer Sean McCormack digital-photography-school.com - Fashion photography has always had a magical aura… -
Watch: Jolie O'Dell on TWiT
30 Jan 2012 | 7:18 pmCheck out Jolie O'Dell as she talks all things technology, and about her upcoming book Android Photography: A Guide to Mobile Creativity from Pixiq Publishing on Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech. Jolie's book is available for pre-order at Barnes and Noble and at Amazon and will be available wherever books are sold soon. About the photography book: Take great photos with your Android™ smart phone! Despite the popularity of Android™ and its huge app store, there hasn't been much information to be found on making the most of its in-phone camera. Now, this enlightening guide helps… -
Photography Links Roundup: 01/29/2012
29 Jan 2012 | 3:32 amHere's a look at some photography goodness from around the Internet in the last week. The Secrets to Great Silhouettes - lightstalking.com - By Phil Hill on 24 Jan 2012 in Shooting This is a guest post by Phil Hill, a travel photographer from the UK based in Australia. You can see more of Phil’s great work at his travel photography blog... 10 Ways To Improve as a Photographer » JMG-Galleries – Jim M. Goldstein Photography - jmg-galleries.com - Recently I was presented the question, “How does one improve as a photographer? This question… -
Photography Links Roundup: 01/20/2012
20 Jan 2012 | 3:23 amHere's a look at some photography goodness from around the Internet in the last week. Here are 10 tips to improve your portfolio from Lindsay Adler on Scott Kelby's blog. Did you know that you're most creative when you're at your groggiest? It explains why I get little sleep and kinda prefer it that way. Probably not good for my health though... Here's a great interview of Kazuto Yamaki with Sigma on their next focus. NEX and Micro Four Thirds users rejoice! Did you know that ice can make some really interesting macro photography? Pretty cool stuff. Here's a great interview with Cory Rich on… -
Save Money on Photography Deals with Photo Dough
12 Jan 2012 | 5:55 amIf you're familiar with sites like Groupon and Living Social (and who isn't these days?) then you'll likely be interested in a newish site that offers coupons tailored specifically to photographers. It's called Photo Dough and it aims to help photographers save dough on services, software, and gear. The site boasts "daily deals" and I signed up a couple of weeks ago to see what kind of deals I would get. First, you should know that you aren't likely to get daily deals as the site is fairly new and they are probably still working on getting enough clients to offer up some goodies for…
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Lightroom for Digital Photographers
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Changing Eye Color in Lightroom
8 Feb 2012 | 4:12 amIn this tutorial I'll be showing you how to change the color of the eyes of your subjects. In addition to color the eyes I'll also show you how to enhance them as well. -
Fix Color Printing Problems in Lightroom
7 Feb 2012 | 6:02 amI receive lots of comments about concerns that Lightroom users have with it comes to printing their images. Images are too dark or have a color cast to them. Double color managing your prints is usually the source of the problem. -
Making Your Images Standout
25 Jan 2012 | 9:42 amIn a world where there are so many images how do you make your images standout from all others? In this tutorial we'll be looking at a presentation method that can separate you from the pack. -
Lightroom 4 Beta Introduction
11 Jan 2012 | 5:12 amOn January 10th 2012 Adobe released its new public beta of Lightroom version 4. Find out what the most notable changes were made to Lightroom by watching this video. -
Exporting Images With Watermarks and Identity Plate
5 Jan 2012 | 3:44 amIn this tutorial I"ll show you how to export images out of Lightroom with the Watermark and Identity Plate graphics intact on the image.
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X-Equals - image, workflow, technology, business
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X-Equals Presets and Lightroom 4 – What’s Next?
31 Jan 2012 | 7:34 amX-Equals Presets and Lightroom 4 – What’s Next? “The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry, And leave us nothing but grief and pain, For promised joy!” -Robert Burns, “To a Mouse”, November 1785 (Paraphrased) So … what’s up? As you know, we at X-Equals have been providing the best presets available to Lightroom for years, and we have had no major compatibility issues with our product and Adobe upgrades thus far. So when Adobe rolled out their new Lightroom 4 beta (which we will from hereon refer to as LR4b) we started to look at forward compatibility… -
DVD/Download Review – Lightroom Fundamentals and Beyond
29 Dec 2011 | 7:56 amDVD/Download Review – Lightroom Fundamentals and Beyond So, the holiday season has breezed right past, and surely that passing storm dropped off more than a few copies of Lightroom. You may be a new Lightroom user that has stumbled across X-Equals in an effort to further educate yourself in the arcane arts of Lightroom. You might have bought a copy of Lightroom for someone you love, or you may just be one of our regular readers dropping by to see what’s up. Either way, I want to share with you a product I got acquainted with over the holiday, one that may just be what you or someone… -
Gear Review – Optech Pro Strap
9 Nov 2011 | 6:08 amGear Review – Optech Pro Strap Anybody who owns a heavy camera knows the painful feeling in the neck and shoulders after hauling it around for a whole day. The first thing that many beginners struggle with is finding a comfortable way of carrying their camera for hours on end so they can enjoy taking photographs. This is where the Optech Pro strap comes in. Made out of neoprene, the Optech Pro allows the cameras weight to be distributed more comfortably across the shoulder or neck compared with the standard OEM strap. From the Optech website … The PRO STRAP™ is rapidly becoming… -
$19.99 – XeL – Black and White Toolkit
20 Oct 2011 | 8:43 pm$19.99 – XeL – Black and White Toolkit We’re so amped to bring you another innovative addition to the XeL Family! Sample image from XeL: Black and White Cold Storage Films XeL:Black and White is the culmination of a year’s worth or research, analysis, development and testing – representing a major milestone release in support of the innovative X-Equals XeL platform. XeL:Black and White breaks free from the traditional approach to Lightroom presets – utilizing a modular approach that allows users to quickly and efficiently create stunning black and white images… -
Creating Panorama’s with Lightroom
13 Oct 2011 | 2:25 pmCreating Panorama’s with Lightroom A little while ago I did a panoramic stitch of Rotterdam covered in beautiful hazy autumn light. Since I received a lot of positive responses and even a few question on how I did it, I’ll be explaining the process of making a panoramic photo using this photo as an example: {click on the image to enlarge} The basics So … what will you be putting in your camera pack? Any digital camera will work, but I prefer my images – and panoramas – as sharp as possible. So if you have a DSLR, use that. If not, you can go for something smaller…
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lightroom galleries
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New site / More content coming soon.
31 Jan 2012 | 10:11 amWelcome to the new LRG Website, it has been a while since I have been able to get back to working on LRG. I will be adding content and posting new stuff in the upcoming weeks and months. I will also be starting on some new galleries that are compatible with Lightroom 4 so stay tuned. In the meantime, download and enjoy the Lightroom 4 Beta if you have not already http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/ -
Introduction to Lightroom 4 beta
31 Jan 2012 | 9:26 amGreat introduction to Lightroom 4 Beta by Julieanne Kost. -
Midnight Sun | Iceland
13 Jan 2012 | 9:21 amI recently went to Iceland to shoot timelapse and still images. Below is the timelapse video I made. Hope you enjoy. Click here to view the embedded video.
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Lightroom Secrets
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You’ve Got Mail
23 Jan 2012 | 3:00 am“Oh, yes, wait a minute Mister Postman…” It’s been some time since those lyrics came out of speakers everywhere. Yet, mail, in its many forms, is still an important means of communication. Today, of course, we use email. In previous versions of Lightroom there was an email export preset that helped to gather images that we could attach to our emails. We soon discovered that some email clients would accept the output of the export preset and we added them as the Post-processing action and that smoothed the workflow a bit. Lightroom 4 Beta has added an email feature which… -
A Catalog In The Cloud Revisited
22 Jan 2012 | 11:39 amSome time ago I offered a solution to working with a catalog on multiple computers utilizing Dropbox to store the catalog. Take a look at A Catalog In The Cloud in case you missed it. I mentioned that this wasn’t a solution for the multi-photographer studio but it could be useful if your images are housed on an external drive and you like to work from multiple computers. The cloud based catalog has the advantage that all of the changes you make reside there and are accessible to your various computers. If you are using a free Dropbox account (you get 2GB free when you sign up!) you will… -
An Ingenious Approach to Video in Lightroom 4 Beta
16 Jan 2012 | 4:29 amOne of the exciting new features in Lightroom 4 Beta is its enhanced video capabilities! If you’ve had a chance to play with this feature you have already discovered that a few of the adjustments for video are only contained in the Develop module. This presents a problem since video itself is not supported directly in the Develop module. The current solution to this mentioned on the many sites covering Lightroom is to take a still from the video, bring that into the Develop module, and apply the additional adjustments to that still image. Once you are satisfied with the result you can… -
Lightroom 4 Public Beta Is Here!
9 Jan 2012 | 9:01 amHappy Birthday Lightroom! How nice of you to give us a gift on your special day! That’s right, Lightroom 4 Beta is ready for you to play with. You can download your copy at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/. As you discover new things and want to get involved in the conversation then head over to http://forums.adobe.com/community/labs/lightroom4/. The Lightroom team is eager to hear what you have to say, good or bad, so don’t be shy! As a reminder THIS IS BETA SOFTWARE!!!!! So please do not use this against any of your original images. Make separate copies of some… -
Happy Birthday, Lightroom!
9 Jan 2012 | 3:48 amLightroom appeared on the photographic landscape just 6 short years ago. Birthdays are often an occasion to look back and reminisce so here’s a quick walk down memory lane! Lightroom 1 “Shadowland” Lightroom 2 “Silvertone” Lightroom 3 “Strangelove” Happy Birthday, Lightroom! And many more! Copyright © — Gene McCullagh ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Adobe® and Lightroom® are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Lightroom Secrets is independently published and not endorsed or sponsored by Adobe Systems Incorporated. (Digital…
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Lightroom and Photoshop Tutorials, Tips and Training by Laura Shoe
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Getting Places Fast: Three Lightroom Library Quick Tips
6 Feb 2012 | 4:43 pmLightroom can really make your life easier, if you know how to ask it to. Here are a few tips for finding things or getting places quickly: You’re working with a photo or folder in Lightroom, but need to go out and view it in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. Lightroom can get you there – Right-Click (Ctl-Click on a one button mouse) on the photo or folder, and choose Show in Explorer/Finder. Lightroom will launch an Explorer or Finder window, with the photo or folder selected. In Lightroom, you finally found the photo you have been looking for, by scrolling through your catalog… -
Lightroom Quick Tip: Finding and Importing Photos That Aren’t Yet in Lightroom
1 Feb 2012 | 9:18 amIf you have a folder in Lightroom such as your Pictures folder, but you are not sure that all of the photos in that folder and its subfolders have been imported in Lightroom, you can have Lightroom check for you! Right-click on the folder, and choose Synchronize Folder. The dialog below will show you how many new photos it found, if any, and give you the option to import them. I recommend checking Show import dialog before importing, so that you can be sure that you really do want to import them. In the Import dialog, uncheck any photos you don’t want to import, choose Add in… -
My Last Lightroom 4 Beta Webinar — This Weekend!
26 Jan 2012 | 9:41 amWondering what the Lightroom 4 Beta looks like and/or how to use the new features successfully? I still have some spots left in this FREE 90 minute webinar, Saturday January 28 at 10:00 a.m. PST (6:00 PM GMT.) This is my last one on the Beta! Register here: If you can’t attend, you will find a recording of an earlier one here: Lightroom 4 Beta Recorded Webinar. -
Soft Proofing in Lightroom 4 with the Original Next to the Proof
25 Jan 2012 | 11:12 am(Updated 1/30/12) Soft proofing is new in the Develop module of Lightroom 4 (the Beta at this point). It allows you to get a better idea of what your photo will look like in print when printing with profiles, and what it will look like when you export to sRGB or another color space. If your photo has richly saturated colors, for example, when you soft-proof you will see them become muted, since many printers and papers, as well as sRGB, can’t display them so saturated. When you print to paper, your photos will also lose contrast, as paper whites are never as bright as monitor whites. -
Lightroom Video Tip of the Week: Using the Spot Removal Tool to Get Back What You Cropped Out!
19 Jan 2012 | 3:04 pmDo any of these happen to you? You have to crop a photo, perhaps because it isn’t straight or you applied lens corrections, but the crop cuts out something you really need? Something in your photo is right on the edge of the photo, and needs to be moved up a bit? You need to fix two things that are really close to each other, and the spot removal tool won’t let you? If so, you will want to watch my 5 minute video here showing some cool tips for using the Lightroom spot removal tool. They won’t always work, but when they do they are quite handy. These tips apply to all…
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Presets Heaven
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It was only a dream – A preset for LR3 and LR4!
28 Jan 2012 | 3:48 pmToday we have the pleasure to present our first free preset made for Lightroom 4! In fact, this preset is available in three versions. One for Lightroom 3, one for Lightroom 4 and finally a preset for Adobe Camera Raw 6.5 for those without Lightroom :-) This preset is a freebie from one of 14 professional presets that can be purchased from our Propresets.com shop. If you think this one looks good, you should definitely check out the rest of this master kit. It’s called “Modern Nostalgia” and can be found here with different before & after images. Preset in action… -
Check out our new online store and get 20% OFF
1 Dec 2011 | 11:48 pmWe’re pleased to announce we’ve just released our new PRO shop with a cleaner design and easier navigation. In the new shop you’re able to add multiple products before you checkout (as it should be), instead of buying them one by one. Our new Lightroom Presets Online Store can be found here: http://propresets.com We’ve also updated the web store with a new set of great presets called “Film Master Kit” which you can read more about here. Take the opportunity and get 20% OFF during this weekend on ALL Products (The deal Ends on 4th Dec, this Sunday) . Use… -
Faded film look preset for Lightroom
20 Nov 2011 | 2:05 amHi all! Here’s two great presets that Brant Smith submitted to share with the rest of you. He calls them Faded film look and if you have a peek at the preview images below I think you understand why. I like the way they creates a vintage feeling. The applied soft and gentle tones makes these two presets great for its purpose. Will probably be in my fav-list of presets :-) Thanks Brant. ORIGINAL/SOOC Faded film look - S Curve Color Faded film look - S Curve B&W Please remember to visit Brant Smiths own web site :-) 18631 Downloads -
TOP 5 most downloaded Lightroom Presets
10 Oct 2011 | 6:32 amI just checked out the stats for all downloads you guys do here :-) We got some amazing numbers for some of the available presets here. Today we have delivered over 3.256900 downloads!!! Remember that the number doesn’t count each file that are included in the compressed files! In March earlier this year we published a similar top 5 list. Now we’ve picked out the top five most downloaded presets in our history once again. I thought you might be interested in them so here they are , together with the number of downloads for each… PH The Weddings (146295 downloads) This one… -
Let’s celebrate our 10.000 Facebook fans with 50% off!
12 Sep 2011 | 1:43 amUPDATE: The deal is over for this time! Thank you all! I’m very happy to say we’ve just reached 10.000 fans on our Facebook fan page. It’s like standing on a scene having 10.000 people in the audience in front. Pretty cool, so today we will throw a nice deal to that audience, but the deal is only valid for 24 hours! Visit http://pro.presetsheaven.com and get the “4 IN ONE” for $55 instead of $110! The 4 IN ONE kit includes the following Master preset kits: Wedding Master Kit This set of 20 Lightroom presets really boosts your photos and make great impact on…
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Jerry Courvoisier
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Red Dog Photography Newsletter Febuary 2012
6 Feb 2012 | 8:58 amLIGHTROOMworkshops.com discount code for subscribers Red Dog Newsletter #76 is out and it’s free! Go to the “Current Issue” button of www.reddognews.com, and see for yourself… -
Lightroom 4.0 Blurb Bookmaking Module
26 Jan 2012 | 11:18 pmBig News Lightroom / Blurb Bookmaking Module !! With the Public Beta release of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.0 find some significant application improvements, important enhancements and new features that have been added for organizing, processing and presenting your images. Big News Lightroom / Blurb Bookmaking Module !!! Download this Blurb Bookmaking intro Video! -
Blurb’s plug-ins for Lightroom!
16 Oct 2011 | 11:50 pmLightroom guru, Jerry Courvoisier, of Lightroomworkshops.com introduces Blurb’s plug-ins for Lightroom® and explains what they can bring to your bookmaking experience. Learn the key differences between the plug-ins for BookSmart and Bookify and find out which one will work best for your project. http://www.blurb.com/help/video/lightroom_plugin <iframe width=”425″ height=”349″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/eBMqug8QQW8?hl=en&fs=1″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe> -
oh, I’ll fix that in lightroom or photoshop
19 Sep 2011 | 2:57 pmPreventing Editing Overload Yes we all thought that when we were free of film and processing, we had arrived at a no-cost free zone—after the original expense of the digital camera. The computer system that processed our images was going to extend our creativity into new horizons. We started to take pictures of anything and everything. The downside of the “I can have everything” attitude, though, was spending a lot more time in front of a computer screen editing images rather then paying attention to the details in the camera viewfinder and getting it right from the start. … -
Schedule of 2-Day, “Hands On” Lightroom Workshops in March 2012.
2 Sep 2011 | 12:48 pmwww.lightroomworkshops.com Event Name: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Workshops: Start to Finish Workflow for Photographers Location: Multiple Cities USA March 3/4 Albuquerque NM March 10/11 Indianapolis IN March 10/11 Seattle WA March 17/18 New York City March 17/18 Atlanta GA March 17/18 Denver CO March 24/25 Houston TX March 31/Apri1 Hartford CT March 31/April1 Washington DC Description: Workflow Essentials. “Learn by Doing, and Walk away Knowing.” Don’t miss this chance to immerse yourself fully in a 2-Day Lightroom Workshop at a city near you. These unique, hands-on workshops are led by…
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Lightroom Forums
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Newbie - how to attack the giant problem of incorrect dates (my fault, not LR)
9 Feb 2012 | 12:03 amHello all, I'm new to the forums, new to Lightroom, and new to taking photography more seriously. (Backyard birding/photos for my own websites, that sort of thing.) Over the past 7 years I've taken a ton of photos but have made a mess of my file names and never had any serious (and useful) file naming conventions in places. Add in a couple of crashes where I panicked about the photos and a helping of some lazy housekeeping on my part and I've got giant mess of 40,000 photos. There are files names 1a, 1b,1zzz. There are files with the same name and different resolutions. There are sometimes 5… -
Please, make catalog and file that is open in LR3 to be main catalog forever?
8 Feb 2012 | 6:47 pm#1 I have a catalog open and on the screen. Many pics have been moved into this folder. I have it open and a few doubles also. Like to concern myself later with them. #2 Set Lightroom to store future pictures to be on G-1drive/Lightroom. I have it connected and that folder made on the G Drive. Would so much appreciate your time Clee has been so courteous and assisted me get to the point I am. Thank you so much for any ideas! Michael -
New develop engine
8 Feb 2012 | 5:52 pmI just have to insert this thought into the discourse: The new develop module in Lightroom 4 is the best I have ever seen. My work flow always includes Photoshop, and I haven't processed an image without the round trip, developing in Lr, tweaking in Ps, and coming back to Lr to print. Lately I have been almost satisfied in Lr alone. Even my standard sharpening routine seems almost irrelevant. Great work Lightroom team! -
How to work w/ photos on TWO different computers and keep catalog integrity?
8 Feb 2012 | 4:18 pmHi I primarily use LR on our desktop (Mac), but would like to be able to work on photos (deleting photos, developing, etc) on my laptop when I am away from home. I am wondering if someone could give me an easy, steb-by-step way to ensure that the edits, deletions, etc that I make on my laptop make it back to the right place on the desktop? Do I just do a folder sync or is it an entirely different process? Thanks so much, Gabrielle -
.cr2 vs .dng files ... disappearing .dngs ... blargh!
8 Feb 2012 | 12:16 pmI was wondering if anyone can help me w/ a couple of LR issues that I'm having? Issue 1: When I import photos into LR, I thought the raw files were converted to .dng files ... but apparently some of them are retaining their original .cr2 designation which i believe is Canon's raw file ... is that right? Which do you recommend keeping in LR? .dng or .cr2 files? Is there a way to get/have both or should I even bother with that? I'm having so much trouble w/ this in LR. I imported a while ago and all files were converted to .dng (or at least I thought they were), then I just went back a couple…
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through the glass
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bright one
8 Feb 2012 | 9:23 pm -
my beat
7 Feb 2012 | 8:31 am -
nice place
3 Feb 2012 | 3:16 pm -
lakeside
1 Feb 2012 | 7:49 am -
still morning
28 Jan 2012 | 10:32 pm
