Robert Rodriguez Jr. Photography

This is a short post to point you to an amazing photographer specializing in the Hudson Valley area of New York, which is where I live. His name is Robert Rodriguez Jr.

Robert's images are truly terrific. He also has a great web site and blog that I encourage you to visit. Not only can you see and buy his photography there, but his site and blog are filled with a lot of personal information, stories about the photos and Robert's journey as a photographer, information on his workshops, etc.

Check out this truly great local photographer and enjoy his work!

Canon 7D kicks serious ass!

I've been using my new Canon 7D for a few weeks now. I've given most of the features a good workout and I can surely say that this camera kicks some serious ass.

Having worked my way through several Canon DSLR's over the years, I've always felt that there were things that Canon could have done better. The 7D is finally the one high quality camera that I've always been waiting for to fit all of my needs in one device. Well worth the money!

I've customized the camera for my shooting style and found that it frees me from fumbling with settings and buttons to get to the features I want. It allows me to shoot and have fun, get optimal images straight out of the camera, and not have to spend time screwing around with its many settings and options.

More specifically, the auto focus system is excellent. I mentioned the AF improvements in my previous post, but now that I've given them a good workout in all kinds of static and dynamic situations, I can see the genius of this system. Great!

Check out this quick video on the 7D's versatile auto focus system.

This post is about supplemental material available on the web to help people learn more about the 7D, what it can do, and how to get under the covers to make it work for you. These web sites go beyond the material in the official 7D Manual and present it in a more user-friendly way.

Here goes...

Canon Digital Learning Center - Shooter's Insight: EOS 7D, featuring David Stoecklein
All of the 'Episodes' on this site are worth watching, but also spend some time going through the 'Product Tour' in the navigation. Nicely presented information that shows what a powerhouse the 7D is.

Canon Digital Learning Center - EOS Digital - 7D
The Canon Tips, Product Info, and Tutorial sections are the tabs to pay attention to here. There are many videos about the 7D and its functions, and also helpful articles like "Harnessing the Power of the EOS 7D’s Video System". Unfortunately, and strangely, this information is also mixed in with generic photographic articles like "How to Take Pictures of Holiday Lights", but it's worth going through the list to find the info about the 7D and its features.

I hope you find this additional 7D information useful. I'll update this post as I find new things.

And he gets his Canon 7D

I've been waiting a long time for digital SLR (DSLR) cameras in the class of the Canon 7D and Nikon D300s to come down to the $1,500 price point while still having all of the features that I find most important for my photography.

It took many years, but that time is here! This week I purchased the Canon 7D after a lot of angst over shelling out that much money for a new camera body. I'm glad that I did! I've been shooting with my Canon 30D since 2006 and it was time for a technical upgrade to start taking advantage of the great new features available in the high end DSLR's these days.

I plan to offer my initial impressions of the Canon 7D in this article. This is not meant to be a technical or holistic review of the 7D. If you want that type of review then you should also visit these great sites to see them (one of which is a review in video) because they're better equipped to do that type of review than I am:

1) Canon CPS Europe information on 7D

2) DPreview.com review of 7D

3) RobGalbraith.com review of 7D

4) Imaging-Resource.com review of 7D

5) Steve's Digicams review of 7D

6) Gizmodo.com review of 7D

7) DigitalRevTV on YouTube - Video review of 7D

History:

Canon and Nikon have competed head-to-head in the film SLR camera market for quite a long time. When things turned digital, however, Canon led the DSLR race from 2000-2007 with their state-of-the-art technology and image quality.

Nikon, tired of being second in this race, flattened Canon beginning around 2007 with the surprising release of the D3, D700, and D300 in a short space of time. These three cameras showed that Nikon was seriously back to have their share of the top end market again, and it was good news because it drove Canon harder and everyone benefited from the resulting great new technologies in 2009/2010 (as well as price drops). As of March 2010, Canon and Nikon are both pretty even again with regard to their technology and having competitive cameras at all levels.

Initial impression:

The 7D is a monster of a camera (I mean that in a good way!). As with most DSLR's it can be set in point-and-shoot mode for when you have to hand it over to someone other than yourself for a quick photo without explaining things. Or, it can be operated in full manual mode with a ton of custom options and capabilities. And anything and everything in between!

I can't stress enough how much this camera can be customized by the user. Everything from the metering, to the auto-focus, to the movie options, to the menu system, and even the buttons on the camera itself can be set up to suit your needs. Dare I say that if you buy a 7D and can't find a way to make it work effectively for you then you'll probably never be happy with any camera from any manufacturer. The 7D is that good.

As the other reviews mention, this camera is a tank. Sturdy, solid in the hand, and no "plasticky" feel. It's definitely a class above the Canon xxD line below it.

The important stuff:

The new metering, flash metering/management, and auto-focus systems are terrific. The exposures of my test photos are more consistent from shot to shot than with my older 30D. The flash exposures are much more consistent and achieve a significantly better balance of flash with the available light for a given shot. Canon seems to have done very well on these subsystems after taking a beating from Nikon in these areas in the recent past. Canon needed to come up with better systems, and they did.

The auto-focus system is so flexible and customizable that it's almost overwhelming at first. Canon has thrown the "auto-focus kitchen sink" into this camera, and now the user has many options to make the system work effectively for them for any given circumstance.

In my test shots the auto-focus was perfect and fast. The new 19-point format (all cross type) has clearly paid off. I will put it through its paces with some sports and other action shots in the coming weeks and will edit this article if I find differently then, but I doubt that I will. It seems like Canon nailed its new premium focus system.

The other in-camera image enhancement features (Auto Lighting Optimizer, Peripheral Illumination Correction, etc) all work as advertised. Nice and clean with good results when you need them. These features will hopefully save you time touching up photos on your computer.

And the video:

The video options on the 7D are great to have for casual video. I should state up front what my goals are for video in a DSLR. My main goal was not to have to haul around a DSLR and a video camera everywhere I go because I don't shoot a tremendous amount of video. A clip here and a clip there of important events is really all that I need. Of course I want them to be in full high definition. The 7D can handle these needs fine. No issues. When I need more than that then I'll carry my video camera.

However, it should be clearly stated that people should not expect any DSLR with video (i.e., Canon 7D, Nikon D300s, etc) to substitute holistically for a dedicated video camera, because it won't. If you have heavy duty video needs, you'll still need a video camera.

The quality of the video is not the issue here. In fact, the quality of the video from the 7D is terrific.

The current Achilles heel of DSLR's with video is the auto-focus speed, and it probably always will be until a new method is designed to address auto-focus for video in a DSLR. Using a DSLR auto-focusing system designed for still photography to also try to handle auto-focus for video is going to be slow and basically almost unusable for practical purposes just because of the physics of the components involved.

Am I complaining? No. I knew this was the case before I bought the 7D and I still wanted video for the reasons mentioned above. The 7D (and I would imagine the Nikon D300s and other DSLR's with video as well) fill the need fine. However, to consider video (and auto-focus for video) a true usable option on a DSLR, the manufacturers will have to design their way out of this Achilles heel. It will be interesting to see what they come up with...

Image quality:

And finally....the most important thing....image quality! I can state up front that I'm not a pixel-peeper who examines photos on a computer monitor for hours at 100% size looking for flaws. I look at "real world" image quality. If you want pixel level information about the 7D, the folks who write the reviews at the links above are very capable of providing sophisticated technical reviews of this camera.

That being said, the photos that I'm getting out of the 7D are very nice. Great tones, great colors, great sharpness, you name it. The pictures I'm getting have eliminated my fears that a ton of noise would result from Canon cramming 18 megapixels onto an APS-C sensor. Would they have been better off from a noise perspective leaving things in the range of 15 megapixels? Of course. But even with that being said, the noise on this camera is not an issue for my needs. If you're worried about it, try one out before you buy it to ensure you like the image quality.

If you do try before you buy, I would recommend shooting at all ISO speeds in a controlled environment. Shoot first with the noise reduction system completely off (it has multiple strength settings), and then turn it on to see how it helps the situation. That way you can see what the camera does natively versus with noise reduction turned on.

Some tips:

1) Everyone is not kidding when they say you need a more recent and high powered computer to handle 1080p high definition video. My Dell Dimension 4600 from 2003 with Pentium 4 and 2-gig of RAM can't keep up with the video from the 7D. It plays back with skips and long pauses. For now, I'll just have to hook the camera directly to my Samsung high def TV via HDMI when I want to watch the video. Which leads me to my second point...

2) After buying the 7D, I discovered that it uses a mini-HDMI jack instead of a regular size HDMI jack. This means that you either need to buy a special 'HDMI to mini-HDMI' cable, or a regular HDMI cable and a $5 connector for one side to reduce that side to mini-HDMI. I'm going with the latter route because I already bought the regular HDMI cable.

3) You're going to need bigger memory cards if you're planning to be active with video! Full 1080p video gobbles space on the cards, so I would suggest picking up a few high speed CF cards in the range of at least 4 or 8-gig. Many people are even opting for 16-gig cards these days. Prices are falling rapidly so buying high capacity cards is not as big of a deal as it used to be. But be warned....2-gig cards are not going to cut it if you shoot video.

Summary:

In summary, I'm very happy with the 7D. It completely blows away my older Canon 30D in absolutely every respect. Other than the issue mentioned above about auto-focus during video (which everyone already knows about and I'm sure Canon and Nikon are working on for future cameras), I have very little (if anything) negative to say about the 7D.

Is it perfect? No. There are a few things "missing", but the things that I think are missing would cost more money and then the camera would be driven out of the price class that I needed/wanted it to be in. If I had a wish list, I would have liked to have seen:

1) Dual memory cards slots with the ability to send video to one card and pictures to the other.

2) On-board GPS capability to tag photos.

3) A built-in stereo mic would be nice. The holes for the mono mic on the left side of the camera are so tiny that it makes me wonder why they couldn't squeeze in an additional mic on the right side of the body to make built-in stereo sound recording possible. Even though the quality wouldn't be fantastic, it would still be in stereo and this (in my opinion) would make the built-in audio for the video much more useful without having to attach an external stereo mic.

4) A built-in auto-focus assist light!!!!! I don't know why Canon stopped putting them on their DSLR's years ago, but the concept of using the pop-up flash for focus assist in dark situations is completely ridiculous. Come on.....what could that stupid little light possibly cost?!

But....these things would make the camera cost $1,700 and then I wouldn't have bought it, so I'll take what I can get! :-)

As I said above, it's a monster of a camera that takes terrific photos and offers you many options to do things the way you desire to achieve better technical results in your photography. If you decide to purchase a 7D, enjoy! It's a hell of a good camera for the money.

National Geographic

Being a photographer, I'm always interested in good photography web sites that tell about the world, its people, places, experiences, travel, etc, in a compelling way...along with great photography!

Well, as we all know, this is the very mission of National Geographic. To open our eyes to the world. The magazine has been around since the 1800's, as this great DVD box set will show you. However, when they first launched their web site years ago it certainly didn't do justice to the legacy of the magazine. It was disorganized, hard to work your way through, etc.

Recently I came across the newest iteration of the National Geographic web site, and I was blown away by how much it has been improved.

If you have any interest in our world, its people, places, things, technologies, music, etc, pay a visit to this site. Not to mention that there is fantastic photography all over it! I got lost in the site for hours the other night and walked away from the computer feeling better for it.

National Geographic is not about the "news". I can get that from CNN, MSNBC, or any other news site. National Geographic is about "the world".

Check it out...I'm sure you'll find something compelling that will interest you and have you walking away from your computer wondering more about the world around you.

Watch the Olympics (with your kids!)

If you haven't yet noticed, the Olympics are on! Many people who don't ordinarily watch sports still watch the Olympics. It's hard not to get caught up in the pageantry, nationalism, competitiveness, and uniqueness of it. Come on....Who doesn't swell with a little bit of pride every time their country knocks out a medal?

In addition to checking out all of the unique sports yourself, I encourage you to encourage your kids to watch as well. In two weeks they will get exposure to all kinds of new sports that aren't typically on TV and they'll get a kick out of it. All kids like the snowboarding, girls like the style and grace of the figure skating, boys like the action of skiing, hockey, and ski jumping, etc.

Whatever sport they find interesting, let the Olympics be their gateway to experiencing the world coming together for sport and national pride. Let them stay up late to watch the amazing closing ceremonies. Enjoy the games together!

Flash done right

Today's DSLR's are better than ever at managing flash exposures. Whether the flash is your primary source of light or being used as a fill light source, things are getting easier and better all the time because of the increasingly sophisticated flash exposure algorithms used in each new generation of cameras.

However, even with these advances, taking flash photography to the next level and truly achieving expert results can be difficult. I say this with the goal in mind of achieving a "perfectly" balanced combination of flash and existing light in a flash photograph (with "perfectly" being a somewhat subjective term).

Sometimes I’ll take a flash picture and apply some of my knowledge about managing the way flash works and come away with an awesome picture that leaves me feeling pretty good. Then the very next shot will be less than optimal because I was in a rush or forgot something or let the camera make a bad decision for me. Such is the demon of electronic flash...

I’ve been on a mission lately to learn some additional techniques to get more consistent and effective flash photos. Practice, practice, practice. Clearly, the photographer needs to take over (and always will need to take over) to achieve the best results by controlling what the camera is doing with flash and how it's doing it, instead of leaving it to its automated modes.

I’ve found three fantastic aids in my effort to handle flash more effectively:

1) Neil van Niekerk's "Tangents" web site at: http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/

2) Neil van Niekerk's book called "On-Camera Flash" available at book stores and Amazon.

3) The "Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras" web site

Neil's web site is a treasure trove of flash and exposure articles and expert guidance to achieve better results very quickly. Neil takes a straight forward and practical approach and fills his articles with useful examples to drive his lessons home. As an example, here's a link to his "Top 20 List of Flash Photography Tips".

Neil's book was worth every penny. It takes the best concepts from his web site and expands on them with new writings and plenty of examples. He often uses multiple examples to drive home the same point and this is an effective technique because one of them is sure to resonate with the reader and stick in their head. Note that this book is written in the context of wedding and portrait photography because that's Neil's profession, but the principles apply to any type of flash work.

The Canon EOS flash site is a slightly older resource but will definitely help all owners of Canon EOS cameras to understand what the hell their flash is doing when you seem to be getting confusing results. Reading that web site gave me many "Ah ha....." moments. The various Canon flash modes are doing different things at different times, and these pages clearly explain when and why.

In the near future, I will post some additional thoughts about #1 and #2 above that really stuck with me and immediately AND consistently improved my results. Stay tuned...

Marketing Travel Photography

I was browsing around photo.net this morning because I hurt my back yesterday and I figured I would spend some "down time" while I get better catching up on some of my photography reading.

I stumbled across two interesting and well-written articles about breaking into the Travel Photography business, although the principles of the articles can definitely be applied to many (if not most) other types of photography.

Definitely worth a read if you're a photographer and are interested in finding new ways to market yourself and your images. In this age when everyone has a camera hanging around their neck and more people than ever are trying to sell their pictures through an increasing number of avenues, you need an edge.

Part 1: Marketing Travel Photography
Part 2: Marketing Travel Photography: Four Essential Steps

Snow tubing!

We've been getting some good snow up this way the past two weeks that's created some great winter fun! You're never too old to slide down a hill and have some good laughs...

First, we went up to the Hunter Mountain snow tubing park (this link has a good picture of what they look like). If you've never gone snow tubing, it's a blast! You get pulled by a rope-tow to the top of a large hill where there are "lanes" for you to select from. Pick a lane, jump on your tube, and away you go! You pick up some serious speed on the way down, so much so that they aim you up a hill at the end of the lane to slow you down. Here's a short video that I took while I was actually going down the hill (I passed Nicole on the way down in the next lane over from me).



We got some more snow last night, so we broke out our own snow tubes for another round of slipping and sliding in the back yard today. Great fun! Below is a small video of the action, including Janice almost taking out both kids!

If On A Winter's Night

Many people dislike winter. Snow, ice, cold, wind, bare trees, etc. They spend every day of winter wishing it was over instead of enjoying the season for what it can bring.

I'm just the opposite. I like winter. After the fun and long days of summer and the changes of autumn, winter is my time to settle in for a few months and reset myself. Slow the pace down a bit. Take care of things around the house, pursue my indoor hobbies, read some books, make some nice long fires, and watch snowstorms out the window with a good glass of wine (which, coincidentally, is exactly what I'm doing right now).

Yesterday, it was about 15 degrees in New York and the wind was absolutely howling. Some of the strongest winds that I've ever seen up where I live. Trees were swaying about 8-10 feet in each direction with the sustained winds. I went for a hike in the woods (and froze my ass off!), but it was cool to get to the top of the mountain near my house and experience these winds that sounded like a freight train coming up the hill. Impressive!

My thoughts about winter were reinforced when I first heard about Sting's new album called "If On A Winter's Night". I bought the CD and read the liner notes, and Sting was basically saying the same thing about winter as I was. I'm sure many people share the same sentiments.

His new album is not a Christmas album, it's a winter album. Yes, there are some holiday type songs on there, but more than anything the album creates a mood of winter and starkness. It's an interesting listen and it fits the season of winter perfectly.

Sting speaks about the new CD in this interview. Check it out...

Happy Holidays!

I hope this blog entry brings you some Christmas cheer!

I took this simple photo last year after I decorated the front of our house with Christmas lights. When I was standing back to check out how it looked, this one red light seemed to jump out at me for some reason.

For a moment, I was totally lost in thoughts of Christmas past. As I stood there in the snow, I remembered fond memories of when I was little watching my Dad out the window hanging up our lights (just as I was doing now for my family decades later). I remembered playing with my toy trains and race car tracks at Christmas time, decorating our tree as we listened to Christmas music, the sweet smell of gingerbread cookies baking, the smell of the Christmas tree, our visits to New York City to see the holiday lights, the sound of presents tearing open on Christmas morning, playing in the snow with our new sleds, and so much more!

Memories generated from looking at just one little light...

It reminded me of the joy in my kids' eyes when we had all of our Christmas lights lying on the floor in our house as we were getting ready to hang them up, and I plugged them in. The room was suddenly flooded with colorful light and my kids smiled from ear to ear! I remember my Dad doing the exact same thing when I was little....and I remember be equally as happy to see all of the colors.

The message of this post is: "Enjoy the simple things at holiday time"! Everyone gets so caught up in shopping, rushing around to find a sale, planning parties, worrying about finding the right gift, etc. I think it's wise to slow things down a bit and simply relax and observe the season. Light a fire, grab a glass of wine, and sit on the couch doing nothing except listening to a Christmas record. Don't do anything else...just sit, listen, and enjoy.

For some extra fun, try spying on your kids and listening to their conversations about Christmas when they don't know you're listening. They wonder how Santa gets down the chimney with the big bag of toys. They wonder how he makes it all the way around the world to every family in just one night. Great stuff....

Enjoy the holidays!

Harold Davis

One of the great things about pursuing a hobby on the Internet is the capability to get great exposure to what you like quickly. In my pursuit of photography, I've easily found several hundred great web sites and I follow several dozen of them on a regular basis.

One of those sites is photo.net, and there's a set of articles on there now by Harold Davis about "Becoming a More Creative Photographer". He has written many photography technique books over the years, and this great series of articles on photo.net is something that I encourage people to read if you're looking to improve your photography or if you're already a seasoned shooter but just need a jump start out of a rut.

The good thing about these articles is that each one of them has assignments at various points within that "lesson" that serve to drive home the points that Davis is making. They're simple, fun, and make you think. You might be surprised by the results of the exercises when you do them. Well worth a read!

Ian Plant - Dreamscapes

I read a great article in Outdoor Photographer today called "Dreamscapes" about the photographer Ian Plant.

There are two quotes in the article that really resonated with me about what he's trying to achieve with his photography:

1) "I strive to create images that move beyond the literal, transforming subjects into something unexpected for the viewer by rendering the familiar in an unfamiliar way".

2) "Artists should impose their vision on the scene, not the other way around. I’m always looking for ways to create an image, rather than just record one".

Great thoughts! Particularly the one about "creating" instead of just "recording". This is precisely what I was getting at in my post on this site called Active Photography.

This guy has a great portfolio. Check out his web site.

PhotoPlus Expo - New York City

Today, I attended the PhotoPlus Expo photography conference in New York City for the first time. I've had free passes for this event for many of the years it's been in New York, but something always came up the week of the show that prevented me from attending. This year, I made the time and went.

You can click the link above to read all about the show, but suffice to say that all of the major camera manufacturers were there as well as a large selection of photographic industry supporting businesses (i.e., manufacturers of flash units, papers, books, accessories, tripods, camera cases, lighting equipment, wedding albums, printing services, photography schools, photo services, etc).

It was great to see all of the current photography wares under one roof at the Javits Convention Center. It was also good to see a major presence from companies like Sony, which is trying to make a major push into the DSLR industry. Competition is a good thing!

I left with four distinct impressions:

1) The newest mid-range DSLR's (i.e., Canon 7D, Nikon D300s) are fantastic and far superior to their siblings from just 2-3 years ago. The features and performance of the new Canon 7D makes my Canon 30D seem like 20-year old technology, when in reality it's only three years old. The new pro level Canon and Nikons are also certainly very impressive machines.

2) Inkjet printers have become so sophisticated that their output is almost unbelievable. You have to see if for yourself to believe it. I'm planning to buy the new Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II printer, and the prints that this machine was printing out were nothing short of stunning in quality. No printer artifacts whatsoever like the earlier photo printers. Just clean, smooth, sharp prints on any paper size from small 4x6" prints to massive posters printed on paper rolls. Incredible!

3) The Gary Fong Lightsphere Collapsible Flash Diffuser is one of the greatest (and cheapest) flash accessories that I've seen in a long time. When attached to an accessory flash it produces a nice, even, soft flash effect without the harsh shadows associated with shooting bare straight-on flash. Great tool for softening up the harsh light from your flash unit.

4) The internet has made it possible for a photographer to run a full blown photography business with comparative ease versus five years ago. You can buy or find a service for anything to do with the photographic industry online. Print houses, photo album and book printers, media companies, marketing assistance, specialty photography web site hosting, software to do almost anything, etc. Everything is just a few clicks away. A truly fantastic use for the internet, and a great benefit for photographers!

Click the image below to see a few pictures from this year's show...

PhotoPlus Expo - New York City

Transit

I've been reading an interesting book lately called "Transit" by the photographer Uwe Ommer.

This is not just another photography book. It's part photography book, part scrapbook, part cultural sampler, and part epic journey. It's also giant in size, not only physically, but in page number as well (720!).

The genesis of "Transit" was another book by Ommer called "1,000 Families" in which he traveled around the world for years to photograph portraits of 1,000 families showing life and values in different countries.

The "1,000 Families" book was the expected outcome of that major effort, but it seems that "Transit" was the unexpected outcome. You know how some DVD packages come with the movie and then an extra DVD about the making of the movie? Well, "Transit" is about the making of "1,000 Families".

I find this book interesting because of it's massive scope of travel, the storytelling approach of the the narratives, and the funny anecdotes that can only come from a modern day around-the-world adventure into sometimes not-so-modern-day places. And that's what this trip was....an adventure!

But more than anything else, it clearly shows the importance of the family unit in every corner of the world. Every family and culture is different (which this book clearly points out), but in the end everyone just wants to be happy, to enjoy life, to give something back, and to be with their family in their environment. It's a compelling story...

If you're interested in travel, family, culture, photography (or all of these things), I would suggest checking out this book.

I'll end my part of this post by putting up the description of "Transit" from Amazon's web site:

"Around the world in 1424 days: the epic voyage behind the making of the book 1000 Families. Part travel journal, part scrapbook, "Transit" is a unique book that traces the four-year, 250,000-km journey of photographer Uwe Ommer during the making of TASCHEN’s 1000 Families. Called a "family album of planet earth," 1000 Families is a vast collection of portraits taken by Ommer in over 130 countries in all corners of the world. Naturally, a voyage of such epic proportions bears its fair share of anecdotes, adventures, mishaps, and souvenirs, and Transit traces the experience via stories and images. From closed borders and broken bridges to late rainy seasons, curious customs officers, thieves, coups d’état, raging fevers, and a far from "unbreakable" Land Rover, Ommer found truth in the maxim "just about everything that can go wrong, will."

This amusing and original compilation paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to travel to the most remote corners of the globe for four years, meeting countless people and observing the great cultural and social similarities and differences that mark the human race".

Canon 7D

Canon Professional Network has posted a lengthy overview of the new Canon 7D on their web site.

In my opinion, this is the first truly innovative camera to come from Canon in quite a while. The 20D, 30D, 40D, and 50D DSLR's were just minor steps up from each other. The 7D is a major revision and unleashes a fury of new and truly creatively useful technology.

The one thing I disagree with is the continuation of Canon and Nikon's race to cram increasing numbers of megapixels on APS-C sensors. I keep wondering when the megapixel marketing race will end and Canon and Nikon will figure out that most photographers would probably prefer to have 12-14 really clean megapixels at high ISO with no noise over a 19 megapixel APS-C sensor with noise and tons of noise control. I personally don't give a darn about having 19 megapixels. Just give me a clean shooting camera...

Life blogs

Sometimes life or work (or both!) beat the ever-living crap out of you. You're totally worn down, you lose perspective, and the smallest things become a big deal. You're off balance.

Those are the times to reset, pursue one of your hobbies, take a breather....and/or check out one of the better blogs about living a simpler life and focusing on what really matters.

That's all the introduction I need to give to these three great blogs. Check them out and you'll get the drift real fast. Good reading!

Zen Habits

Zen Family Habits

Serene Journey

Autumn arrives!

Autumn.

A distinct chill is in the air in the northeastern U.S. as autumn comes sliding in...

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder. You need a jacket in the morning and an extra blanket at night. Our baseboard water heat turned on for the first time the other day and you can "smell the warmth" of it. The kids say "I smell heat". They're right...it has a certain comforting smell the first time it comes on for the season. Makes me want to take a nap on the couch!

I always like how autumn sneaks up on you. Everyone is always rushing to do their last fun activities of the summer, then the kids go back to school, then a few weeks pass and you suddenly realize that the leaves are changing color! Fall is here!

I remember the morning I took the picture above. It was about 6:30am and the grass was heavily frosted from overnight. I had just cut it the day before so it was all clear of leaves except for this one red leaf that fell right in the middle. I thought the contrast against the frosted grass would look nice. I was right! :-)

Take some time to enjoy this season. Take a long meandering drive through some mountains to see the scenery. Watch how the sun cuts through the trees in the afternoon to make them explode with color. Go to a local farm to pick a pumpkin, have some apple cider and a donut. Make a fire and just relax and watch it burn with a glass of merlot. Listen to the wind as it blows the leaves from the trees. And take some pictures!

Autumn is a season for the senses. The first taste of the holidays will soon be in the air. Enjoy it!

Adobe TV

Adobe has updated and improved their Adobe TV section of their web site, which offers good video tutorials on many topics related to photography. Check it out.

The use of video has really changed this area of online support and education. It's often much more effective to watch someone do something than to read about it. A picture (or video) is worth a thousand words!

Photo books

Here is a good article from Shutterbug.com called "Self-Publish Your Photo Book" that summarizes the most recent state of the art web sites for publishing your own photo books. The prices have come down considerably, and now most serious photographers have good self-publishing options within their grasp.

One book printer left out of this article is Photo Book Press, so I figured I would include them here.

ACDSee Pro 3 - No!

I've been using ACDSee Pro for quite a few years to manage my photos because it's fast, easy to use, and helpful. However, even as I've remained a fan of this software for years, I've also always thought in the back of my head that it just wasn't as good as it could be in the areas of functionality, organization, features, workflow, etc.

I stuck with ACDSee Pro through various upgrades primarily because Adobe Bridge CS4 is such a dog on my older machine. It's so slow that I just can't use it on a regular basis for photo management. I return to Bridge periodically only because it has implemented keywording in a great way. So I keyword each new month of photos that I take, and then don't return to Bridge again until the next month.

So....Out comes the new version of ACDSee, which is Pro 3. This version of the software seemed to correct almost every complaint I ever had about it, but after using it for a few days I discovered that the 'Process' mode workflow is so deeply flawed that it's almost unbelievable. Seeing how this mode functions (even when editing simple JPEGs) , I would have to say that people need to take a careful look at this software before deciding if its workflow scheme would suit your needs. It's a great photo browser, but in my opinion, the editing capabilities have been ruined due to the workflow it forces you into.

The new interface is constructed around modes named Manage, View, Process, and Publish. These modes structure you into an organized workflow when you want to manage and edit images. Much the same way Lightroom does...

But more importantly than the new structure of the application is the vast suite of editing tools that it now contains that are all-encompassing, easy to use, more efficiently organized, etc.

The problem with all of this is the Process mode. This is the area of the software that you enter when you're ready to edit a photo. Process mode is broken into two halves; Develop and Edit. Each of these two subsections has a logically grouped set of editing capabilities within it. So far, so good. The major problem is that if you make some edits in the Develop mode, and then move to Edit mode to continue with the next set of tools, you can't go back to Develop mode again to tweak what you originally did there without losing everything you did in Edit mode. This is so unbelievably silly that I triple-checked to ensure I was seeing this right. This is indeed the way it works. Terrible!

The other problem with Pro 3 is its implementation of keywording. You can keyword photos, but the interface to do it is cumbersome and outdated. It's a sadly overlooked part of this software and has been since the first version. All ACDSee has to do is implement templated keywording like Bridge has and this would be a huge improvement. It's a shame that they still can't get this aspect of their software right.

Maybe I can overlook the outdated implementation of keywording, but the Process mode is so fundamentally wrong (especially for JPEGs) that it immediately turned me off to this software.

Try the free demo version of Pro 3 to see what you think.