he's tricky like that

Caught this fellow putting on quite a show with his lasso. He certainly made things easy for me by framing himself so nicely with the giant loop of composition.

Thanks so much! I can use all the help I can get!

racy racerson

More excitement from the world of equestrian events! You have to pay attention, because the dirt was flying!

saving the photo

This photo started with the best of intentions. Nice subject matter, pretty good composition, timed it well.... but the original was just sort of flat and lacked impact. So it all started with the general malaise of subtle disappointment.

But then, thanks to the good graces of my favorite software superhero, Photoshop!, I have not only saved the shot, but turned it into something that I am immensely pleased with. What it lost in flat reality, it certainly gained in simple visual impact.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Either about this image or the more basic debate between photographic authenticity and digital manipulation.

horsin' around at the Horseshoe Park

Went to the new Queen Creek Horseshoe Park and Equestrian Center today. Big grand opening event. Place for all nature of horsey stuff. Today they had folks riding fancy, shooting fancy, roping fancy and much, much more. Right behind the main, covered arena, they had a tent set up and some wonderful live music playing. One of the acts was the Katy Creek Band.

This is Nancy from the Katy Creek Band.

You'll be seeing lots of stuff from the today's Horseshoe Park grand opening over the next few days!

finger pointing friday: 1/16/09 edition

I've been scouring cyberspace to find you the best of the best in recent photography tips, tricks, gadgets, software, websites and more. Hope some of these float your boat as they have mine.

• Terrific blogpost from digital photography school with plenty of links to posing tutorials
• Squeeze the Lime offers us a video with tips regarding directing your subjects
• Photojojo cautions us to backup our computers and suggests Backblaze. Read here.
• PhotoWalkPro talks about Pixlr, an online image editing app. It's no Photoshop, but its darned good for free!
• I want to revisit Photojojo's spylens. I just got mine! I can't wait to try it out bigtime tomorrow.
• I also got a pair of these hotshoe and umbrella brackets. Looking forward to giving these a try, too.
• A new lens that might just make you go hhmmmmm......
• Cool lighting mods from Popular Photography
• Interested in gorgeous, gigantic, photojournalism!?!?! Of course you are! Check out The Boston Globe's The Big Picture .
• Shutterbug and Photokina offer up some terrific new storage and frame options

DIY News

Recently read about a service that turns you into a photojournalist! Well, sort of. Demotix.com allow you to offer your original photos of events and they basically act as agent to sell it to established news outlets. If they sell it, you get paid. Interesting. Look at this:



And there already exists some non-paying outlets for your content, such as:

- CNN's iReport at http://www.ireport.com/index.jspa
- MSNBC's http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18616878/
- Associated Content http://www.associatedcontent.com/

I haven't tried any of these, but I just might! If I do, I'll revist the topic and give you my review. If you try them, let me know how they worked out for you.

my country, (copy)right or wrong...

This is entertaining...

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Lawrence Lessig

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

A Future for JPG?

A Future for JPG

Received the following e-mail this morning:

We couldn't ask for a better community. In the week or so since our last email, the outpour of support has exceeded our wildest expectations. Your efforts, such as starting savejpg.com, writing blog posts, commenting on Twitter and Flickr, and generally making your voices heard, have provided exciting new opportunities for us.

We're thrilled to say that because of you, we have multiple credible buyers interested in giving JPG a home. We will be keeping the site up after all, and hope to have a final update in the next week or so on who the acquirer will be. Thank you for making all of this possible.

Laura Brunow Miner

Editor in Chief

Time will tell. In this economy, I am skeptical, however I am always excited when the power of the people, the sheer power of multitudes, results in forward momentum, productivity, and, perhaps in this case, creative salvation.

to each skydive a landing must come...

This post will wrap up the week of skydiving pictures, videos, and oddball links, but I'll be sorry to see them go. I had great luck shooting at Skydive Arizona and there are few more exciting subject matters.

Although there is a very interesting motocross racing course not too far away..... Keep your eyes peeled!

This last one is a tandem jump. This is how Dawn and I jumped almost eleven years ago. We were each strapped to an instructor. This was the only way we could experience freefall without having many jumps or far more extensive training. From 13,000 feet we were able to freefall for about a minute to 5,000 feet. Then the chute, the grinding strain against the harness straps (they left welts on me), and a knee-first landing onto a surprisingly cushy pile of small loose, smooth rocks. Not sure if I'd ever do it again, but it was a hoot the first time.

Skydive AZ now also offers indoor skydiving (on a giant vertical wind tunnel). Wild!

'chutes to jetpacks

I considered digitally removing the parachute in this picture and putting a jetpack on the skydiver's back. The way his body sits in the harness reminded me of old footage of jetpacks, "the future of personal transportation." But I managed to restrain myself.

Take a look at what modern-day jetpacks are able to do.

briefly diverting from the skies

Attention Mac users! (many photographers are Mac users so you see why this makes a wee little bit of sense here).

Just announced: The Mac Wheel (you've got to watch this - and laugh your *ss off!)


Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

jumpsuits, not flightsuits

All week I've been calling them flightsuits. Nope, they're called jumpsuits. And here are some now. You probably can't pick it out in this reduced picture, but the fellow in the blue/green jumpsuit has a Stewie on his helmet!

skydivers and superheroes

Okay, wait a minute, just hear me out. I'm not saying skydivers are superheroes.

All I'm saying is that some of the flightsuits are so colorful and interestingly patterned that they remind me of superhero costumes. Sheesh!

It at first you don't succeed, well, so much for skydiving.

Some more of my skydive photo offerings, but be sure to scroll down for some other fun tidbits today (and, yes, darnit, I'm sticking with this theme ALL week!)




The colors in this guys flightsuit make me think of Buzz Lightyear!

For your mind I offer a history of skydiving and, alternately, some skydiving history.

And for the thrillseeker in you, I offer two rather exciting videos. Extreme skydiving:



and wingsuitin':

the whale and the wind

And wow! Hey! What's this thing coming towards me very fast? Very very fast. So big and flat and round, it needs a big wide sounding word like... ow... ound... round... ground! That's it! That's a good name - ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me?

— Douglas Adams, "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy"

on gossamer wings

First you hear the airplane go by at 13,000 feet or higher. If you watch very carefully, you can see a smattering of black dots escape and trail behind the straining machine. They don't do much else for what seems like a long time. Just a bunch of dots against the clouds like black pepper on mashed potatoes against fine china.

Then one by one, each dot swoops away and transforms like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis and the sky is filled with a visual percussion of flourescent colors. Like a dozen unique rainbows indignant at having to share the atmospheric pallet with their siblings.

Then, before you have fully appreciated the spectacle, the butterfly storms into the landing area like a peregrine falcon on the hunt only to pull up short at the last second, legs stretched to terra firma and the canopy of colorful nylon collapses into just another fluffy pile of fabric and string, spent dreams and smoke.

I had great luck on Saturday. Enough to fill the bloggin' coffers with skydiving pictures all week. So I'm going to string you along a bit.

skydive arizona

Yesterday Dawn and I went explorin'. Down through Coolidge, past Casa Grande, and into Eloy, which some of you might know, is where we willingly jumped out of an airplane almost 11 years ago. So we revisited Skydive Arizona, thinking that it would be good for some colorful pictures. We both got lots of great pictures that I'll be posting over the few days.

But for now, you get the wacky Dawn triplets. They're a fun-lovin' bunch, you bet!

jpg no more

Well it seems that JPG Magazine is no more. At least in three days it is. I received the following e-mail today:

JPG Magazine says goodbye

Today is a particularly sad day for all of us at JPG and 8020 Media.We've spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we've reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but we just weren't able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive
in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, January 5, 2009.

The one thing we've been the most proud of: your amazing talent. We feel honored and humbled to have been able to share jpgmag.com with such a dynamic, warm, and wonderful community of nearly 200,000 photographers. The photography on the website and in the magazine was adored by many, leaving no doubt that this community created work of the highest caliber. The kindness, generosity, and support shared among members made it a community in the truest sense of the word, and one that we have loved being a part of for these past two years.

We wish we could have found a way to leave the site running for the benefit of the amazing folks who have made JPG what it is, and we have spent sleepless nights trying to figure something out, all to no avail. Some things you may want to do before the site closes:

- Download the PDFs of back issues, outtakes, and photo challenge selections. We'll always have the memories! www.jpgmag.com/downloads/archives.html

- Make note of your favorite photographers. You may want to flip through your favorites list and jot down names and URLs of some of the people you'd like to stay in touch with. You may even want to cut and paste your contacts page into a personal record.

- Catch up with your fellow members. Our roots are in this humble flickr forum and we recommend going back to find fellow members, discuss the situation, or participate in another great photo community. www.flickr.com/groups/jpgmag/

- Keep in touch. This has always been much more than just a job to each of us, and we'll miss you guys! We'll be checking the account jpgletters@gmail.com in our free time going forward. We can't promise to reply to every email (since we'll be busy tuning up our resumes) but we'd love to hear from you.

- Stay posted. Although the magazine is ceasing publication, we'll be updating you on what's happening with your subscription early next week.We're soggy-eyed messes, but it is what it is. At that, JPGers, we bid you goodbye, and good luck in 2009 and the future.

Laura Brunow Miner

Editor in Chief

Well, sad as it is, it is just another indicator of where the economy is. And the "non-essentials" like art (note heavy sarcasm) are usually hit first in these situations. So long, JPG Mag.

finger pointing thursday

This finger pointing Thursday is all about technology. Gadgets, websites, and presets. Take a look, hop a link, zip into photoland, and tell us what you think!

• Free Actions and Presets??? Freebies for you and a place for you to share your custom presets with the photographic community.
• Pro-Optic 500mm f/6.3 Mirror Lens - I haven't seen any reviews of this lens, but it sounds like it could very well be the budget conscious answer to a wildlife photographer's dilemma
• Free? flash-based gallery/portfolio site...... WIX. Again, I have yet to try it, but it sounds promising and at free, what have you got to lose?
• 12 speedlite "ring light" contraption....egads! This is a fascinating sunlight killer and very clever for the DIY element but only presented here for the novelty. The actual cost to put together something like this with a dozen speedlites and a dozen triggers would probably be far more than just using some decent AlienBees, but you've gotta see this thing!
• Professor Kobre's lightscoop -- this little gadget claims to take your on-camera flash to a whole new level. Basically just another way to mod (read: bounce) your flash. I have to think you'd still be under-powered in most situations, but for size and price, you might want one in your gearbag.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West

Took another excursion on Sunday to Taliesin West, in Scottsdale. Taliesin West is a campus (or camp) or even a bit of a commune that Frank Lloyd Wright created to teach architectural theory and practice to his proteges.

It still functions as a school of architecture. There are no grades, no tests, and no set period of education, yet it is a fully accredited school of architecture.

Here's the man, himself:


and here are some pix I took of TW on Sunday:

mystery castle

is neither a mystery (well, not really) nor a castle. However it is an interesting story and worth an hour of your time when you are in the vicinity of South Mountain in Phoenix. Although the house itself is supposed to be the main attraction, Mary Lou Gulley, who has lived there for 63 years really pulls it together. Here she is now...

They say that even now she sometimes stumbles upon an unknown treasure in the house left behind by her eccentric father 63 years, or more, before. Like when she spied a mismatched wedge of wood in a ceiling beam. She pried it out to discover some money hidden behind it!

the colors of Christmas...

Had some rain here in the desert on Christmas, but then a nice rainbow...

and in the evening we took in the amazing light display at the Mormon Temple in Mesa on Main just east of Mesa Dr., I believe.

Merry Christmas!

rawhidin'

The wayback machine has a short in it and took us back to Rawhide Wild West Town again on Sunday. So we made the most of it and took in the shoot 'em up show. Here's a picture or two. (The singin' fellow came out before all the shooting started!)

desert fisherman

No small feat to catch a fish in the desert.

erin and chris

Had an engagement shoot with Erin and Chris on Sunday. It was overcast and chilly, exactly what you don't see a lot of here in the desert. But they were troopers and muscled through. Especially Erin as she also has a broken foot! Here are some of my favorites from the day.

Radiopopper.....!

Well, now this is something that will quickly move up to the top of my wish list (well, right below the Canon 5D Mk II and the Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens -- I'm not a crazy person).

Take a look at this video that details some of the fancy features of the new Radiopoppers. Just announced within the last 24 hours! These sound awesome!

D3X Vid

It's the same one I referenced yesterday, but I decided that it is so good I just want to embed it here to save all the bouncing around in cyberspace. Of course, I think its so funny because I'm a Canon guy... Although I must admit, the specs are impressive. But I'd still rather have a 5D Mark II.

So, without further adieu....

thursday with the finger pointing...

Welcome to another exciting episode of Finger Pointing where I point you in the direction of some recent interesting photography related content from the World Wide Pants. I mean, Web.

• Friday or Saturday, Radiopopper is supposed to announce a fancy new version of the popular radiopopper device. Syl Arena has some info here. Also, check out radiopopper's own site.
• Here's a different sort of video editorial on the new Nikon D3X. It's funny, weird, creepy, and really well-produced.
• Here you will find a free Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide - SEO PDF
• The girl from famous depression-era picture by Dorothea Lange

the spice of life

Shot this waterfall today and now it's my computer desktop background. I just can't stand to look at the same background for too long. Variety is the spice of life!

santa baby

Friday and Saturday I had the wonderful job of photographing kids visiting Santa over at Harmon Elementary in Queen Creek. Santa sure is good with kids. And the reindeer were very patient up on the roof for several hours.

Thanks Harmon Elementary, Dad's Club Dave, Chris Lineberry, Santa and Mrs. Claus, and everyone who lent a hand this weekend.

in the santans

Coming home from running errands in Gilbert a few hours ago, I took a detour and ended up along the santans, just south and west of Santan Flats. Some nice views of the mountains and the flora. Enjoy!

Scottsdale

Dawn and I meandered around and about Old Town Scottsdale today. Lots to look at, and, of course, shoot.

Here's just a detail from a statue that I liked.

finger pointing wednesday

Lots of good stuff around the cyberspace of photography recently, and here are some of my favorites...

• Detailed tips on improving a bad contract by the ASMP
• If signed in, Google offers a wiki-esque ability to promote, demote and comment on search results
• Check out the Orbis ring flash adaptor (like Ray flash, but with apparent universal fit)
• Polaroid fan? Well the film is going the way of the dinosaur, but this clever app. for the Mac can give you back your instant pix (look) fix.
• Heard about Yousendit? Makes easy work of transmitting large files, even directly from several programs such as Photoshop and Aperture. FTP-based and FREE!
• The folks at ProPhotoLife put together a nice gift guide of Five photo gifts under $50 . I would add the fancy spy tube that I mentioned in a previous post (although it is $50, and tax, shipping, etc. might drive it over the limit....)
• A nice little diatribe on Why Photographers Should Study Design . I couldn't agree more. And a fun, super light incredibly basic intro might be the childrens book, "A Book About Design" by Mark Gonyea. Check it out!

Chandler (AZ, not Bing)

Dawn and I went exploring a bit yesterday and stumbled upon a very nice park and environmental center in Chandler, AZ. The whole place looked pretty new. There is a nice hill with a manmade waterfall that is very artfully constructed.

more finger pointing

Terrific recent stuff from around cyberspace...

• Article on "clamshell" lighting
• super secret spy lens that I just gotta have!
• Share and Learn Contest for 2 week camera/lens combo rental
• Great deal on a Nikon D200....
  1 generation off, but still a terrific camera
• Adorama's "Sharpen to Show -- Not to Kill"
• LIFE Magazine archive online here...

a studious chap

This dignified gentleman caught my eye in the bookstore last week. He looks very contented in his reading, his sweater, and his overstuffed leather chair. Sounds good to me!

finger pointing friday

Today I point you toward reviews, articles, news, and blog posts that caught my eye recently.

• A review of the Tamron 70-200 f2.8 that is my shortlist choice substitute for the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens that I really want.
• I've been a fan of Prem Mukherjee's (of Arising Images in MI) work for some time now. Now I see that he is speaking at Imaging USA here in Phoenix Jan. 11-13. I'm going to have to try to make his presentation.
• RED has announced two amazing sounding (and amazingly high priced) high-resolution digital motion and still cameras, Scarlet and Epic. If they were affordable, it sounds like they would blow everybody else right out of the water!
• A nice little guide to capturing motion in your pics.
• David Ziser comments on a trend toward shooting and burning.
• Turn your images into custom made fabric, then turn that into something else!
• The megapixel myth and why maybe I should just be happy with my 40D!
• Terrific article introducing using high-speed synch for full daylight shoots. Very valuable to those of us in the Phoenix area!

Hope these make for some interesting reading for you!

down to earth music

I didn't actually hear this fellow play at all. He must have been taking a break when we wandered past in Tempe today. But I trust that he is very talented.

still with the balloons!

Ok, I'm almost done with balloons. I promise! But what is more colorful, fun, and full of whimsy than a bunch of hot-air balloons?!?!

Balloons in Anthem

spin to win

On Halloween, Dawn and I had the honor of participating in the Queen Creek Trunk or Treat for the chillins. It gave the kids a safe place to show off their costumes and go get candy. It also provided a nice way for some locals businesses to say hello to the community.

This lady sells cosmetics and had a wonderfully fun display including the spin-to-win wheel. They were right next to us. A lot of folks got very excited about spinning the wheel.

I love lamp

Lamps. That's right. Lamps. Streetlamps to be specific. Just something I ran across in downtown Tempe. Might have been along the rail line.

I like the look of it. What do you think?

I love lamp. BTW, have you seen Anchorman? Lowbrow to be sure, but I bet you laugh. And "I love lamp" is right up there.