Mini Galleries for iPhone Photograhers & Clients

Photos to go! If you  have an iPhone or if many of your clients do, you can create a lightweight mini gallery for your photos espcially formatted for the iPhone.

I was testing this out and you can see my mini iPhone Gallery here (mobile format).  If you have an iPhone or Blackberry point your mobile browser http://www.nature-photography-central.info/iPhone.

More about how this works tomorrow!

---

My New Baby

Finally it's happened.  It took a while.

Take a look and be  the first to see...

READ MORE...

---

NEW DX Prime Lens a Must!

Last week Nikon introduced a new prime lens for digital photographers who shoot the DX fomat (most of us).

This is the fastest (f1.8) lens in the DX line up.  35mm, f1.8 for about $200US. I've been using the 50mm 1.8 prime that my friend Patty Boge (Winnpeg's Wedding Photographer) gave me back in the fall. But I really think I am going to give this lens a try. The 50mm is more like 75 on the D300 -good for portraits.  But I'd like to ahve a "normal view" lens like I did on the ols 35 mm camera, and from the reviews so far this is it!

And for the price I doubt it will be a bad move.  Here's the scoop from Nikon.  If you have one of these babies already let me know how you like it!

---

Aw, so Romantic

Well, well, well. Valentines Day again.  You know I'm not really a fan - all this contrived romance seems so forced and phony.  More random acts of affection I say!!!

But I did hear of a very sweet story this weekend about a couple who split up when they were very young, only to find each other again some 30 years later and began their relationship all over again. Now that's romantic! Talk about your cosmic connection.

It's too bad that we aren't born with more brains and common sense - we all seem to make faulty decisions when we're young - we just don't have the experience or emotional capacity to really understand things.  But for these 2 people, fast forward to the future and they now do have all that wordly character to make it work for them this time around. But whatever happened, you can be sure it was more than chocolates, a cheesy card, and champagne that was responsible! (But I daresay that old photos were a part of the magic. ha ha). Remember the famous Simon & Garfunkle tune?

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you.

That says it all.

Cast your vote for  MORE RANDOM ACTS OF AFFECTION. Less obligation.

Keywords: valentines_day

---

The Power of a Photograph

Back in October a horrible, shameful and unimaginable event happened. 

A man died in the Emergency waiting room of our city's biggest hospital. I suppose that is not too shocking of itself, but this poor man spent over 34 hours there before he died in silence, and alone. That is over a day and a half waiting for help; and this city is NOT New York or Toronto.  Our ERs are not that busy.  And worse still, he was not found for many hours after that. And he didn't have to die.  If he had been attended to as is customary for a caring hospital ER he would have lived. You think he would have deserved SOME attention, becasue despsite everything else, he was confined to a wheelchair, after having both legs amputated years earlier.

But the Hospital medial staff, it seems ignored him.  Even after the maintenance staff tried to get them to help after the man began to vomit.

This has been an ongoing story for months. We have all taked about  "the poor guy who died at HSC."  We all know who you mean.  But till today he was "just a poor guy", sure he had a name, Brian Sinclair.  Most of us will not remember that a few years from now. But as of today, we will will remember HIM - his picture was published today in the Winnipeg Free Press.

And what a photo it is. It made me cry.  It's not just a "mugshot", or an old blurry family snapshot.  Or a news photo of the poor homeless man with no legs. Nope. A human being actually took the time to stop Brian Sinclair one day last year as he wheeled down the sidewalk, and asked to take his picture.  Maurice Bruneau captured an amazing portait that is now burned into the souls of each person who sees it.  Now we can all FEEL a bit of the soul of Brian Sinclair.  He's no longer just a story, he is a real person, and through this photograph we can glimpse into the person that he was.

He is not just a down and out bum, a homless man, with lots of troubles.  Take a look at his face.  He has dignity and pride and spirit. 

And that, my friends, is the power of a photograph.

See the photograph here

And if it moves you the way it moved me please consider making a donation to an organization or charity in your community that helps the homeless, the addicted and the socially marginalized.

Read about Brian's life here.

Read the entire sordid saga about his death here.

...and never underestimate the power of one small photograph.

---

The Rain in Spain???

RAIN. In Winnipeg. In February!  Astounding.

You asked for info on the upcoming 360 degree panorama workshops at the Winnipeg South Camera Club.  Here it is.

Intro Session, April 8, 2009.
Field Shoot, April 18, 2009
Post Production, May 20th, 2009

Contact David for the details - I think you may have to be a member to participate, but it would be worth your investment to join anyway for all the other great stuff they do. If you are not in Winnipeg or surrounding area, or jsut can't make it, let me know if you would be interested in a DVD version of this course.

I will also be doing a 2 hour overview on "The Making of a Small World" for the PPOC Manitoba's Professional Development night on March 2nd, 7 to 9 pm.

This is "A Small World."  I'll be going through all the steps I did to make this - from setting up the shot, equipment, a quick and cheap way to do it, and the PRO way to do it.

 

Well, I have to get back to work (somehow) but I keep slip slidin' away....

later.

---

What Else is New?

Everything old is new again - and I don't mean me (even thought I'm having a milestone birthday in a few weeks - ha!).  I mean wait for the next big thing in photography - old is the new new.  Mine arrives next week right off eBay...Can you guess?!

Trusting that all is well with you.   Do write soon.

---

Wasting Away Again in Panoramaville

In preparation for an intensive 3 Part Panorama Workshop I'll be leading this spring (ha! spring - is there such a thing??), I've been working on refining some stitching and editing techniques for basic 360 degree panos.  I ended up spending most of the weekend on this, and funny thing, that old Jimmy Buffett tune kept rolling through my brain (I think I'll use that for the title of the workshop!).

Anyway, I dug out the CD, flipped it into my CD player and I was good to go.  I had forgotten what a great bunch of music is on that CD.  Sigh...Jimmy....

OK, I'm not a fully fledged Parrot-head, but I am stuck in Panoramaville.

Here's the result of one trial.

Also, if you enjoy extreme photography, check this out.  Google Earth in 3D, has gigapixel images of the masterpieces from the Prado Museum in Spain. We'll be using the same software in the Panorama Workshop!

You can see these images by opening Google Earth, turning on 3D buildings, flying to the Prado Museum in Spain, and look for the Mastepieces link.

This in itself is an experience!

later!

Keywords: panorama_tutorials,panorama_workshops

---