Matt talks about a few ways the digital photography process if different from shooting film, and why those difference may be keeping you from getting the best possible photos. He offers some great tips on how to “reel yourself in” from the digital world and get back to some of the film methods that work so well.
While I generally think these are great tips and would definitely encourage anyone to try them, I also think some of the things Matt suggests avoiding (taking too many photos, using the LCD too much, etc.) can be great exercises in and of themselves. I guess what I’m saying is: while one can definitely learn a lot by shutting off the LCD and limiting the number of shots, I think one can also learn a lot by taking a million photos, rushing home, and seeing what they got. The thing is, most folks already do that every day, so Matt’s suggestions are a great change of pace for those who have never shot film, or haven’t shot film in a long time. Visit site »
Adam has redesigned his personal site, and it’s gorgeous. Well done! Visit site »
A great a simple idea: show awesome photos from great photojournalists really freaking big. It works great. The only thing I wish it has was a more readily available link to the related story (as far as I can tell, you have to click through and scroll down to the bottom to find the story link). Good stuff. Visit site »
Tom Ford’s latest campaign is decidedly NSFW, but also includes some beautifully provocative photography. Overall, I really like these images. But what the hell is up with that last one? Seriously, that’s not a good photo at all in my judgement. It’s compositionally all over the place, and the lighting is downright awful. The shadows the people are casting are painful to look at. It just feels really, really out of place in an otherwise great collection of photography. Via Rex Visit site »
Seattle’s iconic tower is getting its first deep cleaning since the thing opened in 1962, and KOMO has some pretty awesome pictures of it going down. I wonder how noticeable the different will be? The needle does look dirty — and I’m not talking its phallic shape. Visit site »
Eye-Fi, the already-cool line of WiFi enabled SD cards, just added a new trick to its bag: geocoding. The cards use WiFi triangulation (the same technology used in Apple’s iPhone) to determine your location and embed the data in each photo’s EXIF data. Unfortunately, this is never 100% accurate, like GPS technology would be (which probably is a dealbreaker for me). Still, at $130, this a is clever and affordable solution to quickly geotagging your photos. Visit site »
My good friend Sara Flemming (dotsara on flickr) now has a blog, and she’s kicked it off with a great post about renting camera lenses, something she’s done several times and is quite fond of. Sara is one of the awesomest photographers I know, a solid front-end web developer, a good writer, and an all-around cool chick — so you can be sure this’ll be a blog worth subscribing too (especially if you’re into photography or CSS nerdery). Visit site »
Really nice narrated slideshow of tilt-shift photography used in the context of sports. Good stuff. Via Sean. Visit site »
A wonderful pano of Green Lake (in north Seattle), taken today by Tabb Firchau — who was, apparently, hovering in midair when he snapped the shot. It’s a slightly snowy day in Seattle (about as snowy as it ever gets here, from what I understand), and the ice on Green Lake coupled with the dramatic clouds really makes for a beautiful shot.
I wish I knew more about how it was done.
Update: It seems they have some sort of helicam that does these. Awesome. Here’s the index of them — Seattleites, see also Gas Works, Seattle Center, and Quest Field. Thanks for the help, Sara. :) Visit site »
This really nice post by Mike on getting into dSLR cameras also has a great comment thread with a lot of useful tips. I’ve often thought about taking the dSLR plunge, but I’m not yet convinced I would actually use one, if I bought it. Anyway, if you’re thinking about buying one and don’t know all the basics, red this thread. Visit site »
“From Sunny 16 to Moony 11, 8, and 5.6, these facts, formulas, and photographic rules can get you out of a jam and help you get good shots when nothing else will.” Good stuff. Visit site »
Sweet! Compare, for fun:
Flickr: Seattle JeffCroft.com Seattle
It shouldn’t be a surprise that I really like this idea! Visit site »
Flickr member David Hogan (Cap’n Surly) put together a nice Google map of some of his favorite locations for shooting in Seattle. I’ve already been to many of them, but there are definitely a few new ones to me on here that I need to hit up. Visit site »
I’ve admired Adam’s photography for years, and his collection of 40 iPhone wallpapers lives up to his name, for sure. Visit site »
Not that I think you should go around airbrushing all your photos of people, but if you ever need to, this is a great little tutorial. Visit site »
Video of a session by Kris Krug on taking better photos. Kris has long been one of my favorite photographers on Flickr. I watched the first few minutes of this and it was great — can’t wait to see the rest. Visit site »
I’m no expert on Lomo and Holga photography, but these seems to approximate the effects pretty darn well to me. Fun. Thanks, .sara! Visit site »
Wow, this is one of the most impressive web apps I’ve ever seen. It lets you do iPhoto-like editing of your photos in the browser (works with Flickr and other photo sharing sites, as well as with images from your computer). Fix exposure, red eye, and so forth quickly and easily. If you’re not yet convinced that there is a place for “heavy” browser-based apps, think again. Visit site »
Another HDR tutorial that looks pretty good (I’ve not actually read the whole thing yet). Visit site »