I just used Lulu.com to create a calendar from some photos I did in Thailand when I was there in 2003 with my lovely wife. Go check it out!
This was a lot of fun to do, as it had me looking at the pictures quite seriously, remembering places and people and in general putting myself back into a country that is half a world away. What an incredibly beautiful country it is in many ways!
Here are some samples of the pictures:
Thank you to Camera Samurai fan Steve Garfield, who sent me a link to this video by all-around tech guru Robert Scoble. I have to admit that I did not follow all the technical discussion in the video but certainly found it interesting. At the end is a jaw-droppping moment that blew my mind a little.
It was so powerful, in fact, that I exclaimed not too quietly, “Wow!” My coworkers all think I am a nut anyway, but this pretty much added to the reputation. If this doesn’t make you want to run in circles and howl at the moon, I suspect you don’t get excited about things like this.
What this technology means to the world of photography is that focus may end up being a relative concept and that adaptive technologies such as this can save more pictures from the rubbish bin. To me, that is exciting.
Watch it!
Technorati Tags: Camera Samurai, Steve Garfield, Robert Scoble, technical, technology, photography, focus, adaptive technologies
I wrote before about slating in the field and in the studio. Sometimes doing such things is a little harder than it appears, especially if you arrive somewhere and know you will never be able to quickly write down the name in a notepad for future reference. Let’s face it – some of these foreign names are difficult to remember to spell, even when sounded out phonetically.
Who would have guessed there were two N’s in this name? I had gone there to visit a friend who told me he was staying at what sounded like “Wat Yanalangsee” but I was able to decipher this well enough to locate the temple. You get used to certain accents when you immerse yourself in them, I suppose.
This linguistic challenge, coupled with the crowd of monks greeting me, made it necessary to quickly snap this slate image instead of triple-checking the spelling in my slate notebook. After that, I could focus on getting the shots I wanted, knowing that I could later reference the photo for any information I needed.
Have you fallen in love with your new DSLR camera and now you want to go pro? Join the club! The good news is that you are in good company. Many of us have gone down this road as well and have found it to be quite a rewarding, interesting process of lifelong learning (so far, anyway) and an enjoyable way to make a few bucks or more. I think you should pursue those dreams and make them realities.
To that end, let me relate a story. A few days ago I was driving from one job to another when I got a call from a colleague who is a videographer. She was working with a newly minted photographer whose camera was giving her problems.
I spoke with the photographer, who described the problem she was having and I quickly diagnosed it. “It sounds like your exposure compensation is out of whack,” I suggested. There was silence on the other end.
“Do you know what exposure compensation is?” I asked. More silence. I tried to be helpful. “It’s the mechanism that lets you adjust the exposure in small increments, like one-third of a stop at a time. Normally you might hold down a button and turn the thumbwheel to adjust it.”
I quickly learned that this photography neophyte really did not know much about how the camera worked. That’s fine with me for two reasons. First, her job is to create a great picture for her client. If she can do that without knowing all the intricacies of her camera, that’s fine. Good for her. Second, if she fails to deliver on this contract, that’s one more bit of competition gone. This may sound heartless but it’s true.
So what’s the moral of the story? Know how to use your tools. In addition, bring your owner’s manual with you to every shoot. It’s a great resource and indispensable for those times you need it. If you don’t need it, it won’t take up much room in your kit bag.
Another moral of the story is to act gracious when someone, especially a competitor, tries to help you out of a jam. For my good faith effort of trying to help this person, I got a “goodbye.” I know she was under pressure but a quick thank-you call later on or perhaps an offer to network and help each other out would be nice. It’s the polite thing to do and may lead to more business. I’m just saying.
Those of you out there who need help, please ask each other, ask me or ask somebody. But if someone tries to help you, be gracious about it. And if someone asks for your help, please give assistance liberally. You never know who could become your greatest ally and who could become your greatest competitor. Even more important, you never know where your next friend might come from or what that little bit of assistance you offer could develop into.
Technorati Tags: DSLR, camera, photographer, exposure compensation, competitor