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I’m doing something completely different with this weeks Friday Five. I know it’s Saturday, but let me explain. Yesterday was such a beautiful day (maybe the last one for a little while) I decided to go for a hike instead of sitting in front of a computer looking for cool and relevant links. Actually, the hike was my friend Andrea’s idea and with winter just around the corner I thought I better take advantage of the weather.

The hike details:

• Total Distance – 20km (just over 12 miles) from where we parked to the lake and then back to the car.
• Elevation gain – 800 meters (approx. 2625 feet)

Here are five images from yesterdays hike:

Not too sure what this little guy was, but he sure was cute.

During lunch we were paid a little visit by some very hungry Whiskey Jacks. One of them pulled a hunk of cheese from another groups sandwich and flew off with it.

Volcanic rock on the shore of the the lake.

Andrea taking in the view.

And this is why we live here.

Tell me where you live and why you live there.

It’s so good to be back in the swing of things and posting again. There is so much news that I missed, if I posted it all here today it would probably be the Friday 50, or 500. I’ll be touching on some of the important things in other posts. Let’s get started with this weeks Friday Five.

• Mark J. Rebilas is a good great photographer that puts his gear in harms way. He straps his camera to some crazy places. I wonder if has crash replacement insurance on his gear?
• James Nachtwey was awarded the TED Prize in 2007, he was given $100,000 and a wish to change the world. This is the result.
• Social Networking sites are all the rage, but you need to be aware of the down side.
• It seems prices are falling everywhere (stocks, housing, and even gas), and so are hard drive prices. WD’s ShareSpace has a great solution for your ever expanding image library.
• Finally, from the “More balls than brains” department. Red Bull Rampage is back! If you’re a mountain bikers, you probably have a huge grin on your face right now. It’s on this weekend and you can get all the info here.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had this stupid grin on my face since Tuesday. Why? Because Canon and Nikon introduced some fabulous cameras and lenses on Tuesday and Wednesday. Great cameras at great price points.

On Tuesday Canon announced the 50D. 15.1 megapixels and 6.3 frames per second. Also announced, was EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens. YAY Canon! If this camera was announced a few months ago I might not have switched to Nikon. The best part is Canon is now giving Nikon a run for it’s money and we all know this kind of competition is great for the consumers.

Wednesday Nikon trumped Canons announcement with the D90. High Definition video in a Digital SLR… Insanity! I am excited about the idea of shooting video with a dSLR, but with this being the first camera to offer the feature I’d like to wait and see how well this works. Nikon also announced the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR zoom lens.

There are tons of other sites with more info. I’m just going to list a few (non-manufacturers) sites.

Canon

• DPReview – 50D, 18-200 lens, 50D and 18-200 lens preview, Selphy printers
• Imaging Resource

Nikon

• DPReview – D90, 18-105 lens
• This was almost overlooked when Nikon announced the D90 and 18-105 lens, but it’s a cool little GPS add on for the latest Nikon cameras. Moose Paterson has the info.
• Vince Laforet has an interesting take on the problems that might arise when using the D90. Never really thought of that.
• Chase Jarvis (a.k.a. Mr. Uber Cool Photographer) and his crew have been shooting with D90’s for a while.

There are probably many links I’ve missed. If you have a link to another article, post, or discussion regarding the 50D, the D90 or the lenses and accessories mentioned. Please post the link and/or your comments below.

Cheers

After last weeks photo shoot that was quickly followed by a busy week, I’m finally able to get to my blog. Let’s get started with weeks Friday Five!

• Wonderfulmachine.com – it’s a cool name and what they do is even cooler. They bring photographers and clients together. Check em out!
• Can it be true! A new camera from Canon! D’uh! It seems Canon’s China website accidentally leaked the specs of the 50D and Photography Bay caught it!
• The Olympics bring out the best performances in the athletes and the photographers shooting them. German magazine Stern has posted some truly stunning, funny, painful and dare I say risque images from the games.
• Grant Gunderson shot the cover of the current issue of the September issue of Skiing Magazine. This is one truly amazing shot.
• There is cool, and there is uber cool. Chase Jarvis falls into the uber cool category. Eating, drinking, music, video and photography. Songs For Eating And Drinking is the project… Did I mention uber cool?

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I’m in the middle of a photo shoot today and I’ll try to get around to the Friday Five as soon as I can!

You may have been wondering where I’ve been. I’ve been sitting at home patiently waiting for a new modem to arrive. The old one blowed up good, so I couldn’t get online. Things are all better now

“And in this corner… weighing in at over 2 billion images (some of which are actually very good)… iiiiiiiitttt’ssss FlickGetty!!!!!!”

If you haven’t heard the news yet. You must have had a very good and long nap. Getty images and Flickr have joined forces. What? It seems Flickr will allow Getty to sift through the billions of images on it’s site and let Getty contact the photographers to work out a licensing agreement… (insert needle scratching vinyl record noise here)… Haven’t stock agencies been contacting the good Flickr photographers already?

The following links (there are more than five) will give you a decent understanding of what’s going on. Some of the posts are very one side and real gold in the comments. Please read on and post any thoughts and experiences you might have further down the road.

• Strobists post
• Photoshelters post
• A Photo Editors post
• TechCrunch’s post
• PDN’s post
• Photo Business Forums post
• Thoughts of a Bohemian’s post

Nikon Fires Shots Across Canon’s Bow! Nikon Spanks Canon! Nikon TKO’s Canon! Those were some of the titles I thought up for this post.

As most of you know, July 1st (Canada Day), was a very special day. Why? Nikon announced a couple of new perspective control lenses, a new flash. And what was the other things? Oh yah! A new camera! I’m not going to get into the technical details. Most of that is posted online already. So let’s get started.

• PC-E Micro NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED and PC-E Micro NIKKOR 85mm f/2.8D lenses – Most of you might not think these lenses to be a big deal. But, if you shoot architecture or products, these are lenses you want.
• Nikon Speedlight SB-900 – Of course, I ordered an SB-800 last Friday and on Tuesday they the SB-900. Just my luck! Seriously, the SB-900 will be a perfect companion to the 800 and once I learn Nikon’s CLS (Creative Lighting System) this will be a powerful set up. Joe McNally has a review of the SB-900 and  Strobist has a write up also.
• Nikon D700 – All the features of the D300 and then some, plus it’s full frame… The Perfect Camera?!?! This is mind blowing! This mid-range Nikon camera kicks the top of the line Canon cameras butts in some ways. It’s one camera that should do everything very well. DPReview has a hands on preview.
• Switching to Nikon – In a previous post I wrote about the reason I decided to switch to Nikon from Canon. Well it looks like I’m not the only one. Scott Bourne over at TWIP (This Week In Photography) is doing the same. Welcome to the club Scott, cookies and milk will be served shortly

This post wasn’t meant to bash Canon, or Canon users. It just shows the competition is heating up between Canon and Nikon and we will all benefit from it. Canon, it’s your turn to blow us away with your latest and greatest offerings… I can’t wait!

I’m doing something a little bit different with this weeks “Friday Five”. A few days ago I got an e-mail from Photoshelter that just blew me away. It was an introduction to their “School of Stock” section. I have dabbled in stock photography in the past with no real success. I’m used to clients telling me what they want shot and going out and shooting it. After reading a few of the articles I have a much better idea what stock buyers are looking for and where to concentrate my shooting efforts if I want to have a better chance of success.

If you are considering shooting any type of stock photography, you must read the articles there. Even if you just learn one thing, it will be worth it.

Here is my list of, more than five, articles from “The School of Stock”

• The Production Values article is listed as “required reading” and I agree. They even go as far as to show poor examples along with good examples of what they mean.
• If you are completely new to stock photography, the “What is Stock Photography” article is a great place to get a basic understanding.
• The “Lighting: Lifestyle” article is worth a read for basic lighting techniques and tips.
• “Lighting: Silo” is worth a read for shooting with flash on a white background.
• Figuring out what type of shots are needed and when is covered in “Editorial Calendar/Cyclical Needs“.
• Lifestyle: Overview gives you a general idea about lifestyle photography and what is needed.
• Model and property releases are covered very well, and there are even examples showing when you need a release and when you don’t.
• And finally, “keywording & Captioning” are covered in detail to help get your images to appear in appropriate searches.

There is so much information on the School of Stock section you really need to spend some time reading through it all to truly understand how much of a resource it is. The best part is, it looks like there are many sections and areas that will be added in the future. Whatever you do, don’t forget to bookmark that page, or better yet subscribe to the RSS feed.

Sometimes, people need inspiration.

Today, I was reading in the Strobist Flickr group what inspires some of the photographers there. I found the answers fascinating. Everything from other photographers, to music, to movies, to art , to books and even family. That got me thinking, “What inspires me?” The answer… Anything that move me. I know, that’s pretty vague, but let me try to explain. I don’t usually go looking for inspiration, I let it find me. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t let it freak me out if I don’t get inspired. It’s like insomnia, the more you think about not sleeping the more likely you’re not going to fall asleep.

But when inspiration does hit me. It hits me like a ton of bricks. Again, it could come from anything that moves me. And sometimes from things I would never expect. I currently have a list of at least a couple of dozen shot ideas that came to me from different sources of inspiration. The secret to being inspired is to write it down so you don’t forget. You might not always be able to get the shot right away. Or it requires extensive planning. Write down everything, in as much detail as possible, so when you do get around to shooting, that feeling you had when you first got inspired comes back to you.

Here is a source of inspiration that I came across today. It got my creative juices flowing and now I have a couple more shot ideas to add to my list.

Tell me what inspires you.

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