Saturday Morning Cartoons

Here is my favorite "What the Duck" comic from this week. Rock on Aaron! "What the Duck" is an online comic strip created by Aaron Johnson. I just love how Aaron's wry sense of humor reflects the current state of the photography industry. But what really freaks me out sometimes when I read his strip is how much they reflect whatever situation I'm currently experiencing too...whether it's working with clients or desperately trying to stay on top of technology like Facebook or Twitter or a host of other things that all add up to being a professional photographer.

The genius of his strip is the way viewers can interact with Aaron and his comic character. Folks are welcome to link, post, copy/paste, or save the strips to their own sites, blogs, forums, newsletters, etc. Aaron also allows viewers to suggest titles for his individual strips, and post photos of their own plushy and stuffed W.T. Duck working or hanging out.

Spooky Halloween Photograpy Tips

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. "Trick-or-treaters, jack-o'-lanterns, costume parties, and decorated haunted houses will surely be a part of your Halloween weekend" according to Ritz Pix's photography instructor Digi Pixels. This cool episode should help you get some unforgettable photos:

Costumes are the centerpiece of any Halloween celebration. They come in many varieties, from last minute masks to elaborately planned group themes. Wearing a costume on Halloween is expected almost anywhere you go, but my number one piece of advice for photographing costumes is to take the pictures early! The makeup is still fresh, the masks are on, and the kids' sugar rushes have not yet hit their peak. Take several photos: group shots, individual shots, posed shots, and candids. Use backgrounds to enhance your photo, like a spooky tree or a decorated yard. Also, compose your photo to be appropriate for the costumes in the picture. For example, a beautiful princess will look better on a grand staircase than at a haunted cemetery. Encourage your subjects to act the part of the costume...you'll be surprised at how quickly both kids and adults will get into it!


Nothing says "Halloween" like a picture of a jack-o'-lantern, but many people never seem to get a good shot of their favorite carved pumpkin. Usually, the problem is your flash. Most cameras will pop the flash automatically, especially if it's dark. However, the tone of the flash is cold compared to the warm glow from the jack-o'-lantern, so the photo doesn't turn out like you want it to. To fix this, turn off your flash, raise your ISO to 400 or 800, and slow down the shutter speed. Also, try using a tripod or table to avoid a blurry photo.

- The autumn leaves and colors make a great background for Halloween photos. Weather permitting, be sure to capture the autumn colors in your photos.

- Play around with night mode on your camera. It will pop a flash but allow for ambient light to show in the background, which can create a wonderful (and sometimes spooky) color shift.

-Try shooting from different angles rather than straight on. A unique angle can turn an ordinary photo into a fantastic one!

- Try a few different techniques a day or two in advance, so when Halloween arrives, you'll know how to get the perfect shot!

- Convert your Halloween photos to black and white or sepia to add suspense or enhance their overall "spookiness."

Get Connected: Finally a Denver SMUG!

Yeah! Just got an email today letting me know that a Denver SmugMug User Group (SMUG) has finally been organized!

The First Denver SMUG meeting is:
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009 | 7:00-9:30PM
Blake Street Tavern (map)
2401 Blake Street (@ 24th)
Denver, CO

SMUGs are FREE and open to everyone who loves photography.
No RSVP is needed, but SPACE is LIMITED, so get there early for the best seats.




New SMUG leaders Chris & Katie Humphreys and Sara Frances & Karl Arndt welcome Smugmug's chief marketing guru Jeff Jochum. Jeff will reprise his Igniting Fusion presentation at this month's meeting. Featuring incredible videos videos by Bob Davis, Robert Evans, JVS, Chris MacAskill, The Bebbs and The Bui Brothers, as well as the NEWEST video from Vincent Laforet's SmugMug project in Hawaii - Igniting Fusion was a big hit at this year's Collision Conference, hosted by the LA Film School, a few weeks ago. If you are wondering "WTH is Fusion (and why should I care)?" - this is the meeting for you.

Learn how it's done (good, bad and ugly) and how to GET STARTED in this next generation market opportunity. Old Skool is still cool, but the success of the Canon 5D MkII (and excitement around the new 7D), coupled with the exploding consumer demand for vid-media (thanks to Animoto.com and the Apple iPhones and iPods) is driving Fusion photography as the next BIG step up in the world of digital photography. Become a Fusion leader (or find one) at this month's SMUG.

So what the heck is a SMUG? It's a place where you can learn, teach and meet up with other photographers who share your passion. Attendees will get the naked truth straight from the source and preview stuff in the pipeline like new features, bug fixes, and promotions. (Can anyone say PACKAGES and COUPONS!!!!! Hint, hint!) Now you can finally put a face to all those strange usernames on the Dgrin Forum. I'm thenimirra!

Guest speakers will light up the room with their wisdom for shooting great images and making money with photography. Attendees also get to share our opinions about features and potential business deals. It's a bulletproof way to know the SmugMug Gods are actually getting our message, the way we want to be heard, unfiltered and face-to-face. Plus, SMUGs are a great way to connect with other photographers and add a few weapons to your creative arsenal.

After the initial launch meetings, local volunteers will take over as SMUG Leaders. They will organize and announce monthly SMUGs times, locations and topics.

Want to find a SMUG in your area? Check this link.

Want to start a SMUG in your community? Contact Jeff so he can help you get one going.

Or, if you would like to start a SMUG in your community, talk to Jeff, SmugMug's chief marketing dude, about getting one going. Here is his information:

Jeff Jochum: smugs@smugmug.com 310.773.0770 Twitter: MugToMug

Hope to see you there.

Get the Goods: Baby steps with Lightroom

I am so glad I finally got the chance to take a Lightroom class! Illuminate Workshops instructor Peter Bryson was a blast and I can't believe how much I learned in just a few hours.



Right now, I'm using Lightroom 2.5 to help me import photos from cards and catalog them. I'm also learning how to create collections, and how to use the star system and the X for "don't want" and the P for "pick" to help me quickly choose between the keepers and the duds. Once I've gotten those chosen, I export them as JPEGS into Photoshop and then the editing process begins. The ease of metadata and keywording is great too since I'm terrible about taking the time to do that.

Right now, I'm still stuck largely in the Library module, as I've only tinkered with the Develop and Print modules. But there are so many instruction videos and free presets available online, it won't take me long before I'm just as crazy about presets as I am about Photoshop actions. I love the fact that Lightroom records every change you make in it's nondestructive format. Once you've reached 20 or so changes in a layer while in Photoshop, everything you were doing before gets erased, so it's harder to go back several steps if you've made a mistake or change your mind.

I've already created some cool presets for printing templates, and Bryson gifted class members with some coveted WOW presets for post processing. I even downloaded the beta version of the new Lightroom 3.0, and I'm having fun playing with it, too. Can't wait to be able to import images that already have watermarks on them instead of using actions in Photoshop to create them.

I doubt I would ever fully give up editing in Photoshop. I love doing it. But if Lightroom can help me stay more organized and make it easier to backup photos, then I'm a believer. I can't wait to take the followup in-depth Lightroom workshop in December.

Get the Goods: Attending a free lighting webinar

I'm excited about "attending" a free tricky lighting webinar with guest speaker John Bentham. It's one of a continued series hosted by the Digital Photo Academy and Panasonic LivingInHD.com. There's still space, so if you want to check it out too then go to this link to register right now. It starts at 8 p.m. EST

LivinginHD.com brings you advice and tips from Digital Photo Academy professional photographers across the country that will help you take better pictures. Learn about color, lighting, motion, landscapes, portraits, pets, digital manipulation, camera settings and more!

I've taken several classes with the DPA; in fact, it's how I met Russ Burden. He was my DPA Denver-based instructor!

© Allen Birnbach

Here's the literature from the webinar:

Have you ever encountered the frutrations of observing a picture perfect setting without the knowledge or tools to recreate it in your photograph? You are not alone and learning to deal with that is a right of passage for every photographer worth his or her salt. The challenging situations and examples of capturing accurate lighting conditions are unending and Webinar Narrator, John Benthem, will draw from the vast experience offered by the 60 Digital Photo Academy Instructors. He will show the captivating images, from around the world and offer insights on how the photographer achieved the effect and provide technique on how you might use the strategies in your own photos as well.

© Vasna Wilson

Hope to "see" you there tonight! If you were unable to view any of the past webinars, check the DPA site out under "Instructor Tips" on the home page to view the archived webinars which are labeled as such in the drop down menu.

Instructor's Tip: Selective Focus

Photo by Russ Burden

I hope you enjoy this week's "Instructor's Tip" by one of my favorite instructors, award winning nature photographer Russ Burden. To learn more about how Russ captured the above image, join him on one of his photo tours. Visit Russ Burden Photography to get more information.

REMINDER: There will be no Instructor's Tip next Monday as Russ will be in Bryce and Zion National Parks leading his photo tour. If you really want to learn a ton about composition, depth of field, how to read the light, and so much more about the art of making great images, I strongly urge you to sign up for one of his photo tours. With over 30 years of teaching experience and his passion for photography, I ensure you'll come home a much better photographer in addition to bringing home lifetime memories.

Selective Focus
Lens manufacturers continuously pour large chunks of research and development money into creating faster and sharper lenses. Zoom lenses are now the standard where at one time, if you wanted a sharp image, they were considered amateurish at best. The sharp zooms of today combined with precise autofocus technology allow tack sharp images to be made fairly easily. Ironically, the out of focus areas in a photograph are equally as important as sharp ones if the picture is to be successful. Herein lies the concept of selective focus.

Selective focus images have very little depth of field. The technique is often used in situations where the background would be distracting if it was sharp. Some of the ways to render an out of focus background are to use wide open apertures, long lenses, get the main subject away from the background, move closer to the subject, and change your image making angle. The purpose is to render a sharp subject or section of a subject immersed in a wash of background color. It allows the subject to pop off the page so the viewer zeros in on the area that’s sharp.

Take a class with Russ or a fellow Digital Photo Academy instructor in your area, check out the Digital Photo Academy. I took Russ' intermediate and advanced courses last year, and he continues to be a strong source of knowledge and encouragement as I progress in my photography.

Get Inspired: Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest Winner

When I saw the above image, I knew I just had to show it on my blog as a source of inspiration to both you and me. It's always a good idea to study another photographer's work so that you can use similar ideas, techniques, editing or compositional elements to craft your own images. Congratulations Bernardo Medina. What an imazing, storytelling image...the kind I strive to capture.

ST. LOUIS, MO--(Marketwire - October 22, 2009) - From among 12,500 entries, Bernardo Medina's incredible photo was selected as the Grand Prize Winner in the 2009 "Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest" (NYSE: ENR) with National Geographic. Medina will now receive the "ultimate" grand prize: a trip of a lifetime for two to the Galápagos Islands and seeing his photo grace the pages of National Geographic magazine in an ad for Energizer® Ultimate Lithium batteries.

Last spring, Medina, an architect by trade, submitted his photo -- Peddling Bicycle in Wind -- in the Inspiration/Keep Going® category. In August, his photo was named a Category Finalist by Jim Richardson, a National Geographic photographer and the judge for the "Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest." Then America was asked to go online to nationalgeographic.com/lithium to vote for a favorite in each of the six categories: animals/wildlife, nature, travel, people and cultures, weather and inspiration/Keep Going®. After four weeks of voting, Medina's photo advanced to become a Category Winner. Richardson went back and reviewed all of the Category Winners, and in the end, he selected Medina's photo as the "ultimate" best and named the Houston photographer the Grand Prize Winner.

"Each and every finalist in the 'Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest' would have been a worthy winner, but one photo so captured the essence of its category that I ultimately chose it as the Grand Prize Winner," said Richardson. "I have no idea what sort of storm this rider faced, but the photographer drew on every creative tool available to produce an image that truly captured the heart of the theme: Inspiration/Keep Going®. Congratulations to one and all!"

Energizer, the company known for innovative solutions to power people's lives, partnered with the world-famous magazine National Geographic for the second annual "Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest" to highlight Energizer® Ultimate Lithium batteries, which last up to 8x times longer* in digital cameras.

Medina will now begin planning his once-in-a-lifetime adventure to the Galápagos Islands, and his photo will be featured in the December issue of National Geographic magazine in an ad for Energizer® Ultimate Lithium batteries. Medina will also receive a prize pack of a 2.0 USB scanner, an assortment of Energizer® Ultimate Lithium batteries, two National Geographic books: Organize Your Digital Life and National Geographic: The Photographs, and a framed and signed 16x20 print from Richardson's photography gallery.

For more information on the "Energizer Ultimate Photo Contest" and to see Medina's photo and the other five Category Winners, go to www.nationalgeographic.com/lithium.