Photoshop CS6 Beta is HERE!
Yeap, you can download and use beta Photoshop CS6, now! So go, it’s great! Check out Russell’s video on Top 6 CS6 Features video!
B&H Blog – Light is Our Inspiration
I’m incredibly fortunate that B&H continues to afford me a HUGE space to present some thoughts on photography! This month is Light is our Inspiration. This is the third in what is in my mind a series on the building blocks of great images, I hope you enjoy! And in their continuing and growing effort to educate photographers even more, B&H just published a piece I was a part of, From Start to Finish: How to Get More Accurate Color From Your Images that you might want to read as well. Enjoy!
Yes, I Have a D4!
“Are we there yet?” I think the pilots on my flights from Orlando were ready to shoot me but my D4 had been sitting in my office for 4 days, I wanted to get home. I can’t thank enough Gabe at B&H and NPS who got this gorgeous body into my hands. After getting through the 3feet of new snow at 1:30 this morning, I was able to open the box and take in that special smell of a new camera body. I was up early this morning dialing in settings and thinking about how I was going to start testing. We leave o:dark thirty tomorrow for PSW so it’s a challenge, not going out now shooting rather then getting work done. Not the testing, that’s a snap!
There are a number of new features and updates in the D4, the most important for me to first master is the updated AF system. The lever I relied on on the back of the D3 is now gone. We have more settings in the menu system driving the AF system, all to be tested and mastered. What I did was to download the D4 Instruction Book PDF to my iPad and then flying back yesterday, I read the whole thing and marked the pages of updated, new or interesting features I want to test. I’ll start getting those 2000+ email questions answered and post more as I learn more. To answer a common question, the accessories I’ve ordered for the D4 is a DK-19, Nikon EN-EL18 and RRS plates (though D3 plates fit really nicely) Stay tuned, it will be fun!
The Blessing of the Click
One of the incredible blessings of photography is where it takes you, it’s often to a place you never dreamt of going to. Right now I’m down in Kissimmee, FL getting ready for our Air2Air Workshop at a facility a year ago wasn’t even on my radar screen. A year later and I’ve just finished an amazing dinner with folks I consider the best of friends and it’s all because of a click!
The Precons for the NAPP Safari come out of my imagination. I have the fun of finding the location and thinking about the possible photography then the true brain, Kathy, Scott Kelby’s personal assistant has to make my crazy ideas work. So far we’re batting a 1000 so I have only praise for Ms. Kathy. I start planning a Precon about 1 year before the actual date which was the case for the Spring 2010 Photoshop World NAPP Safari in Orlando. We had it all set to happen at the Fantasy of Flight. It was all good to go up until a few weeks prior to the event. Then Fantasy of Flight had a double booking occur, so very common but when you’re good, participants never know there was a wrinkle in the plans. Well, Kathy called me and said, “Houston, we have a problem.”
We needed photography for folks for two hours and since we were doing an “aviation” theme with models, of course I wanted to continue with the theme. I was swamped with life stuff at the time so I told Kathy of this place I had heard nothing but good about pretty close by to where Photoshop World was being held in Orlando. So logistically it would work. I had never work with these folks but I was raised on the simply philosophy, “The least they can say is no.” I told Kathy to use my name in the hopes they might have heard of me. So Kathy called the folks at Stallion 51.
Recently hired at Stallion 51 unknown to us was the amazing KT. Stallion 51 had never done anything like this, the owner Lee wasn’t even sure what he was having being put in front of him, 60 photographers coming to photograph his P-51D Mustangs with models in tow! That’s an awful a lot to ask of anyone to grasp onto, especially a pilot. But KT was able to explain with the little Kathy was able to present, that this would be good “exposure” for Stallion 51. As one who has been asked to risk a bunch on the mere reward of “exposure,” I don’t blame anyone for saying no to such propositions. To Lee’s and KT’s credit, they said yes and we had a location for our two hour aviation shoot.
With the brilliance of McNally’s lighting, the slap stick acting of Russell Brown and the stars of the shoot, the planes of Stallion 51, we had an incredible great time and made some great images. I heard from a majority of the attendees afterwards who admitted that the idea of shooting “planes” for the day was their last idea of a good time. But afterwards, well two of these folks ditched Photoshop World to shoot and a giant nearby airshow, Sun n’ Fun! And during this whole time, I talked and would become dear friends with KT and the Stallion 51 family.
Advance the calendar forward year and here I am at Stallion 51 again. During that year I’ve come back many a time to Stallion 51, sometimes just to be social and some of the times servicing them as a client, taking care of photographic needs. And all of this because of a click, a moment with a camera and the sharing of an image coming from that moment. And that is one of the most amazing things that ever comes from photography.
Yes, we enjoy those clicks that remind of us of those moment in time that a special. That’s what photography really is all about, not that D4 being delivered at my home tomorrow that I won’t be able to see until Tuesday when I get home. Excuse me, I digressed a moment there. But better than that moment we record for every is the lives we touch and touch ours by that moment. The wise photograph latches onto that and not the miss chosen f/stop or missed split second of gesture. The wise photographer realizes that it’s the lives their photography touches and then reach back to touch ours is truly why we should be and are photographers.
There is no way a year ago when I just threw out an idea of a location did I know the people involved, from participants to clients, would a year later become part of my life! No matter how we describe the power of click, this has to be its greatest power, a life altering movement that might start faster than a heartbeat, as fast as 1/125. So next time you put that camera to your eye and you question the quality of that photograph you are creating, next time question the even bigger picture. Just what will be the blessing of that click?!
Intuos 5 Rocks!
Pages are in the process of being updated. In the meantime you can watch our videos on our YouTube Channel as well as all Videos are available on iTunes as Podcasts!
The Intuos 5 reached my office and it was love at first…stroke! Already handed down the Intuos 4s and fully adopted the 5s, they simply speed up the workflow and even better yet, they speed up everything. Watch the video, you’ll understand how.
B&H – It’s There For You
You might have noticed the B&H banner on the site, the links on the bottom of the posting and were wondering where the 800# / Moose line into B&H might be? Well, we’re putting the finishing touches on the special 800#. In the meantime, using the B&H links on the site will save you some pennies on your orders and while not huge savings, every penny does help. Keep watching, we’re working to bring you more for less so you can shoot to your heart’s content!