PhotoWalkPro

Hey everyone, I just received word that my latest book, Nikon D3000 – From Snapshots to Great Shots is available for pre-order.  I expect to have the writing all wrapped up by the end of this month if all goes according to plan (maybe sooner if I get a few more snow days).  I don’t have an official shipping date but I would expect to see it on store shelves by around the beginning of April.  I’m also checking out the possibility of another book after that but I don’t want to announce anything just yet because you all know how things go in the camera market. Just when you decide on one thing, BANG, here comes another camera out of the gate. Read the rest of this entry »

Being out of town for a few days I didn’t really get a chance to do much in the way of news updates so I thought I would bring you a few little nuggets that I heard about lately.  And as you probably know, PMA is just around the corner so some of the camera manufacturers have started releasing new product info to help feed the buzz. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever looked at one of your images that was taken with a wide-open aperture setting and noticed that the focus is off?  Maybe it appears to be behind where you thought you focused?  This may be due to the lens system doing something called back-focusing.  Usually it’s not extreme and only really noticeable when shooting wide-open but if you are doing any sort of macro work, it can be very frustrating.  You can also have the opposite problem where the area of sharp focus is in front of the intended focus point, called front-focus.  The easiest way to check this is to print a focus chart, put your camera on a tripod at a 45° angle, focus on the center point using the auto-focus, with the lens set wide open, take a photo, and then look at your image on your computer at 100%. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s what’s happening at a website near you.

♦ – Yesterday my buddy Scott Kelby announced a new contest that he and sports photographer Mike Olivella are hosting over at Flickr.  It’s called Shoot on the Sidelines with Scott and Mike and it is going to be huge for one lucky sports shooter wannabe.

So here’s the deal, start looking through your photos for your favorite sports shot and post it to their Flickr page.  It can be any sporting-type event you want but you have to post it by Friday, August 21, 2009.  Then, Scott and Mike will select one winner from all the images and the owner of that image will be flown to Florida to shoot a FSU game from the sidelines with Scott and Mike.  We’re talking full press-pass.  The prize includes airfare, hotel, and even a free rental of some very fast glass so you fit in with all the other glass junkies on the sidelines.  This is a true dream assignment and it can all be yours by entering your best shot.  So here’s the bad part, I’m not eligible to enter.  That goes for all you other working pros out there as well.  This is strictly an amateurs-only contest.  I popped over to the Flickr page a little while ago and the images are already beginning to pour in.  There are some great shots in there so make sure you find your best image and be sure to read the discussions while you are there to see what advice Mike has been giving.  Also, make sure you watch Scott’s video for all the info.

♦ – As long as we are talking about contests, you should check out the one going on over at Layers Magazine.  The contest is called How CS4 Saved the Day! As the name implies, you will need to tell your story about how you used Photoshop CS4 to get you out of a real Jam.  The only trick is that you need to do it in 250 words or less.  The prize for the best success story is a copy of Lightroom 2, Adobe 18-1 Card Reader, 8GB USB Drive, and a three-year subscription to Layers magazine.  This contest is open to everyone and you can enter by clicking here. There will be six weekly winners and one grand prize winner who will receive the Adobe® Creative Suite® Design Premium or Web Premium (or equivalent value).

♦ – Even though news of the Nikon D300s was just released a couple of days ago, there are already videos starting to surface that were probably shot with pre-production models.  Check out this very cool compilation of video and still imagery.

♦ – I stopped in over at photographer Dustin Snipes’ blog yesterday to see if he had posted anything new lately.  You might remember Dustin from his great guest blog at Photoshop Insider.  Well, it has been some time since Dustin posted anything but I did find a great post on a shoot he did with baseball player Matt Hobgood.  Not only did Dustin show some great shots, he also had images of his set up for each shot along with the equipment he used.  It was very educational and I hope Dustin gets back on the blogging trail because he always has great stuff to share.  You can check out Dustin’s blog here.

♦ – This isn’t necessarily a photography related item but since we are in the middle of vacation season I thought I would point you to this great article from Flying with Fish.  It’s all about safeguarding your valuables when you go flying and it’s well worth the read.  You can find the article here.

♦ – I thought I would end today’s post with a little inspiration from photographer Paul Marcellini.  Paul does some amazing landscape work but I think my favorite images come from the work Paul did in the Everglades.  You have to admire someone that would stand waist-deep in alligator infested swamp water to capture a beautiful image.  Check out Paul’s Everglade images and all his other collections in his gallery page.

This past Saturday was the deadline for picking all the local winners from the Worldwide Photowalk.  While I did have a difficult time narrowing it down to just one, there was one particular image that I kept going back to time and again.  It was a simple, yet classic black and white image by Les Doerfler.  Les has won a copy of Scott Kelby’s just released The Digital Photography Book, Volume 3 as well as the chance to be judged by Scott with all the other photowalk winners for a chance at one of the big prizes.  Good luck Les, your image will represent our photowalk well.

Here’s a few more items for your Monday -

Nikon issues recall for some D5000 cameras -

It seems that there is a problem with some of the D5000 cameras that have rolled off the assembly line.  Due to a problem with an electrical component, there are some D5000 cameras that are having trouble with their power switches.  The effected cameras won’t turn on when the power switch is activated.  It seems that the problem is mostly effecting early production models, which is why mine is on the list.  I will be sending mine back soon even though I haven’t had any problems with it yet.  If you do own a D5000 and want to see if yours is one of the recalled cameras, head to this Nikon Service page and click on the “Check Serial Number” link.  If your camera is one of the recalled group, Nikon will issue instructions on how to ship the camera back for repair at Nikon’s expense.

D700 Price Alert -

I was checking prices this weekend and I clicked on over to Amazon and found something Amazing.  They were selling the D700 for just $2399 including free shipping.  That’s about $250 less than most every other retailer.  I have no idea how long this deal will last but if you were planning on buying one, you might want to act fast before they change their minds.  You can find the great deal by clicking here.

Cleaning Your Camera -

If you are thinking of cleaning those nast goobers off of your camera sensor but are afraid of messing up your camera then you need to watch Laurie Excell’s new Kelby Training class called “Clean You Digital SLR Camera Sensor”.  Laurie will guide you through the entire process from the cleaning gear that you will need to using both wet and dry methods to safely clean your sensor.  You can find this and other great classes over at KelbyTraining.com.

I completely missed this yesterday but Nikon announced two new camera bodies and enhancements for two of their most popular lenses.

Let’s start with the new camera bodies, which were already being hyped on all of the rumor sites in the past few weeks.  The first camera is the D3000, which will herald the end of the beloved D40/D40x camera line.  The D3000 is a mix of the D60 and D5000 camera technologies and will be the flagship for the entry-level DSLR cameras for Nikon.  The D3000 has the same sensor resolution as the D60 at 10.1MP but incorporates the 11 focus-point AF system found in the D5000.  It has a large 3″ rear LCD but at 230,000 pixels, it doesn’t have near the definition found on the higher level cameras like the D90 and D300.  Also, it does not have any movie mode or LiveView function just like the D60 but it does have the improved 3-D Tracking Auto-Focus feature.  It also has a unique mode called Guide, which is made to help the first-time DSLR owner with simplified camera settings.

The estimated street price for the D3000 is set to around $600 US.  You can read more about it in the Nikon Press Release.

The other camera introduced yesterday was the D300s.  There was much speculation about where Nikon would go with this next prosumer DSLR and instead of getting rid of a very successful camera line, they chose to improve upon its already proven features.

The big news for the D300s is the introduction of 720P HD video recording.  Everyone knew this was coming and some folks were disappointed that Nikon chose to use the D300 instead of the D700 as a competitor to the 5D Mark II.  I would assume that the FX sensor will be the next in the line of DSLR/HD Video cameras to come.  As for the D300s, Nikon did add some features to the video that make it much better than the D5000 and the D90.  For one thing, the audio is now capable of recording in full stereo and you can now add external stereo mics for much improved sound.  Nikon has also added auto-focus to the video recording using contrast detecting AF (while using the tripod focus mode).  Having used two different cameras that record video, I will be very curious to see just how good this focus system is.  I know that the Canon T1i will auto-focus while recording but the noise from the focus motor is picked up by the internal microphone.

Another added feature of the D300s is the incorporation of a second memory card slot.  The D300 used a single CF card slot but the D300s has added an SD slot for extended capacity or back-up.  While I like having two memory card slots, I have to say that I would rather have seen a second CF rather than an SD.  It’s not that I don’t like the SD card in general, I just have a habit of losing those really small cards.

Nikon’s estimated selling price for the D300s is about $1800.  You can read more about the new camera features in the official Nikon Press Release.

The other two products that were introduced yesterday were the improved 70-200 F/2.8 with the new VRII system, which Nikon says will add up to 4 stops of stability along with a new crystal lens coating for even sharper images.

The second lens to get some refinement is the 18-200 DX lens.  This already great lens gets a much needed zoom lock switch to keep the lens from sliding down while the barrel is hanging in the down position.  If you own one of these lenses you know just what a big deal this simple little feature is.  The 18-200 also benefits from the VRII stabilizing system.

You can read more about the other refinements on these two great lenses in the Nikon Press Release.