Happy New Year!
"An unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates
2009 was a tough year in many ways; yet a satisfying
year in other ways. I spent most of the year
bootstrapping a startup (wearephotogrpahers.com) and in
the process learned a lot about social media - becoming
an expert! - and about myself. Only through the
hardwork have I realized that you need to love what you
are doing in order to make it worthwhile.
Truly, you cannot go through life just going through
the motions. Examine your life and then live it. 2009
has set for me an outstanding springboard for 2010.
Happy New Years to all and make it a great
one!
Looking for Gifts for Your Favorite Photographer?
Great Book on Black and White Photography
Looking for a great book on black and white photography? I recommend that you read Advanced Digital Black & White Photography by John Beardsworth. It is a comprehensive look at how to make great Black & White photographs and the tricks to accomplish it in Adobe Photoshop. Buy the book...you won’t be sorry.
Scenes of Summer Photo Contest
Sorry for not writing in a while. We have been going crazy launching our new Web site at www.wearephotographers.com. Moreover, we have start our first photo contest, Scenes of Summer.
Please check it out:
Drupal, Drupal, and more Drupal
I haven’t been blogging here much lately, because I am designing our new Web site for our startup, WeArePhotographers.com. Since it is a big web community site, we are using a CMS system and have chosen Drupal. I am amazed by the flexibility and complexity of the tool, but firmly believe it will be the answer for future Web development. Tools, like Dreamweaver, will be having a hard time.
As for personal blogs like this one, I think Rapidweaver will still be sufficient. This was a nice break from the complexity of Drupal, but back to the big design!
Sushi Maru - San Jose Japantown
The next time you are in San Jose drop by Japantown and have some great kaiten-zushi (回転寿司).
So what is it? It is a sushi restaurant where little plates of fresh sushi are placed on a conveyer belt and pass by each patron at the sushi counter. You then simply grab the food that you want and, at the end, you pay based on the number of plates you consume. Based on the decoration of the plate, the price is different to reflect the different types of sushi. Of course, you can still order directly from the sushi chef, if you don’t see something you want.
Sushi Maru in San Jose has some
excellent sushi and is worth the visit. It is
located at:
262 Jackson St
San Jose, CA 95112
(408) 998-8170
I can recommend that you try an assortment of sushi and
then ask the chef for the daily recommendations.
However, you should watch out, because it is very easy
to run up the bill as you pull one tasty morsel after
another off the belt.
Volunteer as a Photographer
Want to improve your photographs? Is the secret to get better equipment? Absolutely not...better photography comes from taking photographs. But where do you find interesting subjects to photograph? Volunteer to be a photographer for a non-profit and document their event. I recently did just that for this year’s Bike to Work Day in Silicon Valley.
It is a win-win for everyone involved. You get to practice your photography skills in a low-risk environment and the organization gets better photos than they normally would get with a simple point-and-shoot.
Tiffen Dfx - Filter Options Galore
I recently purchased Tiffen Dfx V2 Standalone Edition for my Macbook Pro. It comes with over 1,000 filters and special effects for post-processing your photos. While many effects can be recreated in Adobe Photoshop, the ease-of-use to try different effects makes this program a winner at only $99.95 for the standalone edition. It is the equivalent of buying 2-3 actual filters to put on your camera.
There is too many different filters to describe here, but the filters are categorized by filter function: Film Lab, Gels, HFX Diffusion, HFX Grads/Tints, Image, Lens, Light, Photographic and Special Effects.
So what can this software do? Let’s look at these before and after pictures. I took a quick grab shot of a raven at the top of the tree. It is not an exciting photo, but some interesting composition with the location of the bird and the branches of the tree.
Before
After
I used
several filters to create the after image. First, I used the “day for
night” filter to make the image look like it was taken
at dusk. Then, I added a layer and used a Gel filter to
darken the blues in the photograph. Another layer with
a grain filter gave it the feel of a film shot and
finally, a vignette filter caused the blur and
darkening at the edges.
The software allows you to compare different filters
easily and to select and mask where necessary. Also,
you can change the opacity of each layer. It is a very
flexible program that unfortunately does have a Windows
legacy and can be seen in some of the menu structure.
Nevertheless, definitely worth testing on its 15 day
trial; though I warn you that you might likely end up
buying at the end.
Gorillapod: "A" for Convenience
I recently picked up a Gorillapod SLR-ZOOM from Joby. It is a very easy-to-use tripod that attaches to any standard SLR cameras, video cameras, or even your own tripod head. The Gorillapod SLR-ZOOM can support up to six pounds, while still maintaining its compact size. It costs about $50 dollars.
The cool thing about the Gorillapod is that you can
wrap the legs around just about anything. So if you are
on a photowalk, just attach it to a fence and get in
that picture. Also, you can add accessories to the it
such as a tripod head or a flash attachment.
I have paired this with a Manfrotto 484RC2 Mini-ball
Head (Retail - $60) and now have a very portable
tripod. It is also great for shots around the house.
Highly recommended.
