A few interesting links about Photography, Technology, Social Media, and Gadgets that I’ve come across recently. Some are smart, some are funny, and some are just plain dumb, but they are all interesting for one reason or another. Have a look and let me know what you think:

• Free Collage Templates for Lightroom 3 Beta « Halina Veratsennik | San-Francisco Bay Area Photographer
  Lightroom 3 Beta has some great new capabilities. Multi image collages is one of my favorites!
• Can You Do These 7 Things on Your Camera Without Looking? | Light Stalking
  These are all pretty basic adjustments and if you can't make them on your camera without looking then you should practice some more.
• Camera Raw 6.1 Release Candidate posted.
• Pimping A Compete Strobist Studio
• Sharp/Soft Overlay with a Twist
• Using Dry Ice For Adding Drama To Your Pictures | DIYPhotography.net
  Here's a really cool tip to make boring images more dramatic, and fun!

A few interesting links about Photography, Technology, Social Media, and Gadgets that I’ve come across recently. Some are smart, some are funny, and some are just plain dumb, but they are all interesting for one reason or another. Have a look and let me know what you think:

• Preview of Lens Correction Solution for Camera Raw 6 and Lightroom 3 – Lightroom Journal
  One of the loudest cries from photographers about the earlier releases of Lightroom was that it didn't include any form of lens distortion correction. This could be done using a plugin, such as PTLens, or by round tripping to Photoshop, but it will now be included in Lightroom 3. Let the rejoicing begin!
• Lens Profile Creator is a free utility that enables the easy creation of lens profiles for use in the Adobe Photoshop® family of products
  So now that lens distortion CAN be corrected in Lightroom, we need lens profiles to tell the software HOW to do so. For many lenses those profiles will be readily available, but for others there may be delays before they are available. Fortunately Adobe has produced another tool to allow you to create your own profiles.
• How to Properly Hold Your Camera « Photofocus
  There are some good tips here for how to hold your camera. Most of us that have been shooting for awhile take most of these things for granted, but even the most experienced may find a nugget or two in this list.
• 7 More Tips for Extremely Wide Angles
  Some really great tips on how to get better images when using really wide angle lenses.
• The Online Photographer: Quick Review: Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit
  A short review of the Camera Connection Kit available for use with the Apple iPad.
• 5D MK2 vs 1D MK4 High ISO & LR3 new noise Process compare.
  A couple of example images showing the ability of Lightroom 3 to remove noise from really high ISO images.
• Ten Things Still Photographers Need to Know About Video « Journeys of a Hybrid
  Shooting video on a DSLR is hard. Really hard. Here are a few things to help you start learning.
• AJC Software Products, Directory compare, file synchronize, file diff
  AJC Directory Synchronizer is a great way to backup all your photos and other important files. Schedule backups to a spare HDD, across your home network, or even to an FTP site.
• What Should You Use to Sign Photo Prints and Books With?
  Some great suggestions on what to use to sign your printed images when you're selling them or giving them away.

The newest eBook release from David Duchemin (called Vision is Better) is simply stellar. This is a compilation of 50 articles from his website that have been rewritten and attached to some beautiful images that illustrate the point. If you’ve never read David’s writing before, now is the time to start. If you have read his stuff before, this is a fantastic opportunity to go back and read (or reread) some of the best and most poignant articles that he has presented in the past.

David’s motto “Gear is Good, Vision is Better” is very easy to understand and to agree with, but it’s much harder to implement. For me it’s one of those things that I have to pound into my brain over and over again. Going through these articles reminded me how brilliant and how important this thought is, and I urge you to read this book.

The really great news is that the book is very inexpensive at only $5. It gets better though because there is a 20% discount available if you buy the new book between now and midnight on May 4th. If you use the promotional code VISION4 when you checkout then you can have “Vision is Better” for only $4, OR use the code VISION20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more books from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST MAY 4, 2010.

A few interesting links about Photography, Technology, Social Media, and Gadgets that I’ve come across recently. Some are smart, some are funny, and some are just plain dumb, but they are all interesting for one reason or another. Have a look and let me know what you think:

• Photographing Children – Photographing their Art
  Making images of the art your children create is a a great way to preserves it long after it has gone, AND takes away from the guilt on inevitably trashing it while they’re not looking.
• 70 Of The Best Photoshop Actions For Enhancing Photos | Creative Nerds
  I use Photoshop less and less as Lightroom gets better, but I do occasionally go there for special effects. Actions are a really great way to make that process fast, and some of these actions are excellent!
• Eye Contact in Photography
  An interesting article about how an image changes depending on whether their is eye contact with the subject or not.
• Lens Rentals Canada
  Renting cameras and lenses in Canada used to be ridiculously expensive, largely due to the cost of shipping. With the arrival of Lens Rentals Canada on the scene that all changes. Return shipping is included in the rental prices, which is already much more affordable than the big camera stores offering.
• zarias.com :: The blog of editorial photographer Zack Arias » Zack Arias :: Sucksessful Commercial Photographer
  Want a sneak peak into the life of a sucKsessfuLL commercial photographer?
• BBC Wildlife Magazine
  Free PDF "Masterclass" articles from BBC Wildlife Magazine. These are good reads and beautifully prepared.
• 5 pro tips for shooting birds in flight | Pixel Photography
  5 pro tips for shooting birds in flight
• Canon 5D Mark II Completely Disassembled
  If you’ve always wanted to see what a Canon 5D Mark II looks like opened up, you’re in luck.
• The Flash Blog » Apple Slaps Developers In The Face
  A direct response to Apple from an Adobe employee regarding the recent tactics Apple has used to keep Adobe products off the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. "Go screw yourself Apple."
• Frommer’s Now F’ing Both Freelancers AND Photo Enthusiasts! « Photo Traveler
  The ongoing trials and tribulations of the stock photographer, and some bonus content about giving away the farm by entering rights-grabbing photo contests.
• LearnMyShot – learn how to photograph anything
  Watch Photography Tutorials, Free Photography Lessons, and Live Instructional Videos
• Adobe Photoshop CS5 Learning Center | Learn Adobe Photoshop CS4, Lightroom and Digital Photography | NAPP
  Scott Kelby and the “Photoshop Guys" from Photoshop User TV host a series of video resources dedicated to showing the new features in CS5.
• gskinner.com: gBlog: Return of the Blue Lego
  Apple is continuing to sidestep the irritation iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch who are frustrated that the devices don't support Flash websites. This article is an attempt to return the focus back to where it belongs.
• Cameras – Canon Canada Inc.
  WOW!! Canon Canada has finally updated their website. It now looks like a modern website instead of the Geocities style site they've used for years!
• Chase Jarvis Blog: Introducing creativeLIVE.com: Worldwide FREE Creative Education [updated]
  A brand new free photography education resource pulled together by Chase Jarvis, showcasing some fantastic photographers as instructors!
• Digital is Better than Film: 5 Situations
  Although he has become increasingly fanatical about shooting film instead of digital, Brian Auer does see a need to shoot digital on occasion.
• Mark IV (discount offer!) & 7D User’s Guides Info, Charlotte Harbor Schedule, & BAA Bulletin #322 « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
  Users Guides are now available from Canon Explorer of Light Arthur Morris (Birds As Art) for the Canon 1D Mark IV and the Canon 7D
• 4 Lights | A Step By Step Guide | Jake Garn Photography
  A step by step walk through showing how a photographer built up the lighting to create an image.

I recently realized that I had forgotten to change the copyright notice on some of my websites. I had changed it on all of my still and video cameras and in the metadata fields for Breeze Downloader Pro and Adobe Lightroom; I had even changed it on some of my websites. But somehow I missed a couple.

Instead of just fixing it now for the sites that I missed in January, I wrote some Javascript code to do it automatically based on the year. You can see the resulting text in the Copyright Notice for this site at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Here’s what the code looks like. Note that it automatically updates the year and it links to your email address from your name (in a method very unfriendly to spam harvesters). If you want to use it simply copy and paste into a widget or into your wordpress header or footer and it will start displaying.

NOTE – You must to update the 3 “var” fields to ensure that the code uses your own Name and Email address.

If you want to use this code in a post or a page then it will be much more difficult to make it work. You will have to refer to the WordPress Codex for information on how to use Javascript in a post or a page.