July 2, 2011
3:57 pm
by: admin

DNG thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer – It’s about time!!

This had long been a mystery for me: no thumbnail previews for DNG files when browsing picture folders using Windows Explorer in Vista or Windows 7. I’ve actually erased great photos by mistake navigating and sorting through files “blindly” without previews. Perhaps Adobe was holding back to keep pushing their Bridge tool which many photographers still regard it as an unnecessary step in their workflows.

Adobe has now released a beta version of their DNG codec for both 32 and 64 bit Windows platforms, allowing users to preview DNG files while browsing with Windows Explorer, a significant improvement in my workflow and overall digital asset management. Only catch is the previews do NOT reflect the edits done in Lightroom, which doesn’t really bother me as I use previews mostly to get a quick idea of which photo shoot a given photo belongs to.

Enjoy!

DNG Codec: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Codec

 

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September 6, 2010
2:29 pm
by: admin

Chase Jarvis’ workflow video

Wanted to share this very interesting and enlightening video showing Chase’s full shooting workflow.

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August 17, 2010
12:40 am
by: admin

New Lightroom and Aperture keyword sets for wildlife and nature photographers!

For the last months I’ve been finishing a project that I think will resonate with many of you explorers. As I photographed nature’s wildlife and landscapes for years I always faced the challenge of tagging my images with consistent, accurate and rich meta-data for my own offline cataloging needs but more importantly to improve their search relevance online. I’m happy to introduce a set of keyword sets for Aperture and Lightroom based on a massive scientific government database, covering different areas of the animal and plant kingdoms. I also created keyword sets for the entire US National Park System and Canadian equivalent; great helper sets to add location information to your images. You can read more about these unique keyword sets here.

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April 19, 2010
1:33 am
by: admin

Stunning Arizona

Close to the Grand Canyon

Flagstaff – AZ, not a particularly interesting town to visit in itself but its geographical location is ideal to visit and photograph amazing areas of Northern Arizona. I took my family there in February and with temperatures between 40′s-60′s we couldn’t have enjoyed better vacation time. I was particularly in awe with the incredible diversity, richness, and beauty of the landscape and wildlife; from cinder cone volcanoes (Sunset Crater), to the Grand Canyon, going through amazing Native American ruins (Wupatki) and a 4,000 feet wide meteor crater, the colors, shapes and stories were just enchanting. I must have taken over 1,500 pictures in 10 days, here’s just a few that attempt to capture some of those special moments. Hope you enjoy!

Photos: click here

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April 17, 2010
1:11 am
by: admin

iPad blues

So after all the fanfare I decided to go check out the iPad at the local Best Buy store. I had read a LOT about it and as a believer in convergence and not adding another device that needs recharging, sync’ing and carrying around, I still thought perhaps as a photographer this could be a great specialized device for showing portfolios, proofs to customers, and video slide-shows with background music.

My first impression of the device was pretty positive, great screen, awesome form factor, the blown up iPhone/iTouch interface is simple and intuitive. Then I went straight to my portfolio site and although it had no flash components, a simple fade-in fade-out transition slide-show was VERY sluggish, it seemed it could not keep up with the transitions. Bummer. So I decided to hop onto my SmugMug Pro account to view recent pictures of a wedding I shot…. and bam, I hit the “sorry cannot play any flash” error in Safari. So neither the regular picture slide-show nor the mp4 video slide-show I had created for the couple could be shown as both needed flash to run. In a screeching halt my test drive was over . Needless to say, compared to the iPhone, the lack of flash support on this device is an even bigger blow to its potential market share as it tries to find niche markets where flash still has a heavy presence.

I don’t have high hopes for flash support on the iPhone and iPad, it’s really a shame they couldn’t reach a deal with Adobe, hopefully this opens the door for healthy competition like the Joojoo and similar devices but this hot new breed of devices seems to be going through some rough beginnings on the critics side. This is all good though, I’m sure version 2.0 of these machines will have rounded their edges and polished their software for more solid products.

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April 17, 2009
12:06 pm
by: admin

6 key tips to better photos

 

tips;notes;advice;recommendation

 

When talking to people who are either getting into photography or want to improve their skills at it,  I often find myself giving the following 6 tips:

 

Continue reading →

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February 21, 2009
2:51 pm
by: admin

Gear is just gear, go use it!

So you paid a good amount of $ for your camera gear and feel very enthusiastic about taking your photography to the next level. Like everything we cherish and want to protect from damage or abuse we tend to stay on the “safe” side when it comes to using it in places where we might feel could be “risky”. Although this is a perfectly normal behaviour at some point it will likely limit your options and creativity.

A few months ago I invited a friend of mine for a 2-hour swamp walk in the Everglades National Park, where water levels were up to my thighs (and I’m not short!). His first questions were “can we really bring our cameras? What if we slip and fall in the water with them?”. Very valid questions and although I couldn’t promise any safety for his gear I just told him that going there and NOT taking the camera was worse than the perceived risk of damaging his equipment. I ended up going by myself and although I did drop a few items in the water (lens cap, a map, some batteries) my equipment stayed dry in my photo backpack.

Continue reading →

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January 18, 2009
7:13 pm
by: admin

Slow shutter speeds for dramatic effects

shark-valley-2512-edit

Picture 1: Ibis at dawn

 

With today’s ultra-low noise dSLR cameras, every one is tempted to use high-ISO values to maintain decent shutter speeds in lower light conditions. Although this might be perfectly fine as people can now take shots that were not possible a few years ago, the art of “dragging the shutter” (using slow shutter speeds) should not be forgotten as it can produce very artistic and dramatic results, unique to this particular technique. Continue reading →

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January 5, 2009
12:53 pm
by: admin

2 great point-and-shoot cameras

Looking to upgrade your point and shoot camera? Consider these 2 top choices:

 

canong10

Canon G10

Continue reading →

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January 4, 2009
11:29 am
by: admin

Backing up your photos

backupSo you’re starting to amass a hefty collection of photos and wonder what’s the “best” and “simplest” way to back them up. This is actually a loaded question as the answer really depends on how much risk you’re willing to take in your photographic workflow.

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