Interesting things for photographers

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!

Today’s Friday Five is brought to you by your credit card company… Kidding. Here are few photography products I think are cool:

• Lon over at FlashZebra.com has some pretty cool products. I just recently received an umbrella adaptor from him and it’s well built! I can’t believe he’s only selling it for $14. Check out some of the other stuff he carries also.
• VisibleDust has come out with a new sensor cleaning brush with a built in light so you can see what the heck you’re doing. I’ve had one of their products (sans light) for a while and they work great!
• I found Fstopgear.com a little while ago when I was searching for a ski touring photo backpack. They seem to know exactly what an active photgrapher needs.
• Calibrate, calibrate, calibrate! As photographers we all know how important calibration is. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could buy just one product to calibrate your monitor and your printer? Wait! You can! Check out the Colormunki photo.
• Anyone who has never used a graphics tablet to work on their images, should give it a try. Now you can buy an affordable Cintiq LCD graphics tablet for under a $1000… Wow!

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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This weeks Friday Five.

• The Man - Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002). I had the honor and pleasure of meeting the man in the late 80’s. Truly an inspiration. Check out the website and especially the video clips.
• The Workshops - David Tejada is now offering lighting workshops. This guy knows his stuff and I wish him luck with the workshops.
• The Book - Or should I say your book. Have you ever thought about writing your own photography book? If you have, check out www.photographybooknow.com for a chance to win $25k.
• The Review - Bert Stephani has posted a review of the Strobist’s Lighting DVD on his site.
• The Search - Idée Inc. has come up with with a new way to search images. This has huge potential!!!

I have another love other than photography. Cooking.

This is my latest toy… I’m going to call it Hector

OK, lets get right to it!

• AUPN (Aperture Users Professional Network) is starting a series called “Aperture 101″ the first installment is called “The Interface“
• Nikon’s Capture NX2 is out and it has a 60 day trial period!
• “ICEBERG! Dead ahead!” popphoto.com has an article on  James Balog’s iceberg shoot.
• The 39th Annual Nikon Photo Contest International.
• Flickr portfolio of *Cinnamon.

By now, you know that I switched from Canon to a Nikon D300 and my reasoning behind the switch.

Here is a quick rundown of my first impression of the D300.

• The camera feels very solid and well built.
• It fits nicely in my hand. A very natural feel to the grip.
• Excellent view finder, nice and bright. Even with my glasses on I can see everything in view finder.
• LCD display in fantastic. It’s actually useful to check sharpness with.
• The colors are very accurate. This could be a combination of the D300 and using Aperture 2 as my RAW converter. What ever it is the results are superb.
• 6 fps. Holy Cow! It almost scared me the first time I tried it. Afterwards I had the biggest grin on my face. I can’t wait to get the vertical grip and shoot 8 fps.
• The manual is huge! 400+ pages. Be prepared to do some readin’.
• Button and dial layout good. Except for the front sub-command dial. I keep switching the camera off by accident. Maybe I just need to get use to the dials location. I’ll keep you informed.
• The menu system and layout is definitely different than Canon’s. Not that it’s and better or worse, just takes some getting use to.

I hope to shoot something worthy of posting here in the next few weeks. In the mean time I’ll be reading the manual and playing with the settings.

Any comments or advice regarding the D300 or this post?

Sorry for being tardy. It was a busy day.

• Creative Techs has a post on making your own pinhole camera
• Digital Photography School ’s has a post on branding your photography business
• David Hobby at Strobist has just released his lighting DVD
• Burns Auto Parts - how not to win customers
• Shoot the Blog’s piece on a photographers education

Did that get your attention?

With Nikon now sporting a full frame camera (D3). Do you think Canon is going to sit on it’s butt and do nothing? No way! IT’S ON!!!!! This is a good thing for photographers. Competition between the two will bring better and better cameras to the market. And cheaper and cheaper full frame cameras. That’s right! Affordable full cameras are on their way. Yippie!

The 1.5X and 1.6X crop factor cameras will still be around, but they will be the low end, entry level cameras. And the associated lenses will be considered to be the same. Low end, entry level. That expensive “made for digital” lens you just bought will still take great photos in a few years, but it’ll be worth next to nothing. What low end, entry level photographer will want to pay a lot of money for a lens that they can’t take with them when they decide to upgrade to a full frame digital camera? Not many.

So what should you do? Sell all your “made for digital” lenses now! Start buying lenses that can be used on full frame cameras. You know that once the full frame cameras are in your price range you’re going to get one. So, why buy lenses that you can’t use in the future.

What are your thoughts on digital lenses and the future of digital SLR’s?