The Good

Plasma TV’s have come down so much in price over the last few years, if you haven’t made the switch over to widescreen or HD yet, now is the time.  The Samsung 51″ PN51D450 Plasma TV is not a full 1080p set, but you might be fooled into thinking it was.  The actual resolution is 1360 x 768, so you’re really only losing 300 or so pixels in height as compared to the 1080 model (which costs about $150-200 more).  I decided that instead of a 42″ for around $450-500 this 51″ was way more television for the money, at the price I paid.  I couldn’t be happier with this plasma TV.  It seems just as crisp and sharp, with vivid colors as the 42″ model.  There doesn’t seem to be any loss of quality do to the increased size. Even DVD’s playing via the component cable hookup on my old 480p dvd player look amazing.  Once I pick up a blu-ray player or PS3 that will upconvert them to 1080, they should look even better.  The digital tuner in this TV, and in all Samsung televisions is incredibly strong.  I don’t even subscribe to cable or satellite tv, because in my area I can pick up all of the major networks with a simple set top antenna.  Hook an antenna into the back of a Samsung, and you’ll get 720 and 1080 broadcasts all day.  1080 broadcasts look better than 720, of course.  They are being downsized or downsampled to fit the 1360 x 768 resolution.  Just like when you take a large photo, and downsize it in Photoshop, it gets sharpened.  That’s why I can live without the 1080 resolution – you’ll have to see it to understand what I mean.  Don’t think that you need the 1080 model for the best quality with this one, trust me on that.  Save your money, unless you absolutely have to have 1080.  Sports look amazing on this set, with an over the air HD broadcast, whether it comes in through the network broadcast as 720 or 1080.

The Not So Good

The inputs/outputs are lacking a little bit.  You have two sets of component in with audio, and two hdmi ports.  There is also a usb side port, which is nice for showing photos or listening to music.  They have removed the VGA port which is a little bit disappointing.  The audio out is only available as optical, which is also kind of a pain.  I’ve simply run my audio out from my individual accessories, the dvd player and audio out from my computer, into my home stereo system.  If your stereo system or home theater system has optical inputs then you should be all set.  For the price I paid, I really can’t complain.  I ended up buying this set for the same regular price of most 42″ sets.

Conclusion

Despite the lack of inputs and outputs, this is a really solid set at a very affordable price.  I’m amazed by the increase in quality and in size having gone from a 32″ picture tube set, to this one.  Having a friend that owns a large TV repair business, he recommended for flat panel TV sets Panasonic and Samsung, LG in third place, and then don’t even consider anything else.  Obviously this is just an opinion, but coming from a guy who knows televisions inside an out, it’s one I know I can trust.    You can’t go wrong with the Samsung 51″ PN51D450 Plasma TV.

Additional Specs & Info

• Slimmer bezel and more picture with Plasma +1
• ENERGY STAR Compliant
• 600Hz Subfield HD Motion Performance
• View Photos and Listen to Music from a USB

#1.  Camera Lens Mugs Cups and Thermoses $15-25

Whether you’re Canon or Nikon, there are all sorts of mugs and thermoses made out of retired or dummy lens shells!  How cool are these?  Very.  And at $15-25 at focalprice (with free shipping) you can’t go wrong.  With stainless steel lining they won’t be drinking out of plastic or anything else that is toxic either. You can usually find them in the 24-70mm and 70-200 focal ranges.

#2. I Shoot People T-Shirt – $17.95

Do you get it?  Hardy harr harr.  It’s still hilarious.  And yes, I actually do own one of these   I’m just mad that my size Medium shrunk in the dryer (should’ve gotten L or XL).

It’s funny – there’s another way you can easily make a setup like this, on the cheap.  I used to use our ironing board as a laptop table, and it fit just across my legs on my recumbent cycle.  Those are the types of exercise bikes where you are seated in a chair, and the pedals are just in front of you.  I had picked the exercise bike up for $100 second hand on craigslist, so I’d have something that would work for when I didn’t feel like going to the gym (I feel that way a lot).  It looks ridiculous, but don’t knock it until you try it!

1. Gun Target Alarm Clock

It’s cool because you have to shoot the target in order to turn it off.  Will you be able to do this from across the room, half asleep?  I don’t know.  It might not get you out of bed that easily, if you’re within shooting range.

2. Clocky Alarm Clock On Wheels

Okay, so you wake up – and there’s an alarm clock going off really loud, and rolling around the room.  This alarm clock might get me up really quickly if I had a bunch of priceless antique glass artwork all around the room or something.  Other than that, it would probably just freak your dog or cat out.  Still pretty cool.

3. Emerson Radio Hot Wheels HW800 Snore Slammer Alarm Clock Radio

This Hot Wheels alarm clock doesn’t roll around like the one above, but it sure does look pretty sweet.  There are dial controls on the wheels.

4. iHome iD85 App-Enhanced Dual Alarm Clock Radio for your iPad / iPhone / iPod with AM/FM Presets

Here is a much more advanced alarm clock with a bunch of features, sound settings, and much more – a perfect pair to your iphone/ipad/ipod.  I really like the clean and simple design of it.

5. Surveillance Video Camera/Camcorder Clock – 4GB MicroSD Memory Card Included

For the spy in you, this alarm clock can be placed anywhere inconspicuously, and record video with audio to a microSD card.  Talk about a cool looking nanny cam slash spy / surveillance camera!

6. Flying Helicopter Digital Alarm Clock

This flying alarm clock looks like a little bit of a hazard, depending on where it lands – but still very cool!

7. Black Projection Alarm Clock with LED Display

Simple, clean, modern design.  There are multiple alarms and alarm sound options, and the red letter ceiling projection is a really sweet feature. This one’s very cheap, only around $11.

8. Electronic Wind Chime Alarm Clock

…because who WOULDN’T want to be woken up by the peaceful and serene sounds of wind chimes?  I might sleep through this one, depending on the volume level of the chimes.  Hopefully it’s amplified.

9. Electronic Asian Man Hitting a Gong Alarm Clock

This one is hilarious.  Who wouldn’t want to be woken up by tiny a little Asian man hitting banging on a gong?

10.  Infinity Instruments Ltd. Retro Spot Light Alarm Clock

Really cool design and love the retro feel of this one.

Sweet dreams, and happy Monday!

My dilemma came about when I realized that my budget mono-pod was only good for nothing other than horizontal landscape oriented portraits and photos.  If there’s one thing that drives me nuts, is gear that restricts you creatively.  You can tilt fairly easily with a monopod, by simply leaning to the left or to the right; forward, or backward to pan up or down.  To shoot verticals, however, I soon realized that I was going to need some sort of ball head, L bracket, or swivel head that I could attach to the top of the monopod, and then mount my DSLR to it.  My final decision was the Manfrotto 234 monopod tilt head.  I spotted it on Amazon for just under $20.  Combined total, my Targus monopod and Manfroto head’s total cost was just $30.  I was very impressed with the build quality of the Manfrotto head.  Don’t you think $30 is worth it, if it’s going to help you capture sharper images?  It’s a basic monopod with plastic clips instead of screw type fittings, but it’s doing exactly what it’s meant to do: prevent camera shake from slower shutter speeds.  I decided I didn’t need a ball head.  Tilting and panning are simple when you’re working with just a one legged monopod.  Because L plates that I found were really overpriced, and didn’t have a nice wingnut screw like the tilt head offered.  If you like quick release plates, you can even add in one of those to further convenience.  The cool thing about the Manfrotto 234 is that it has both thread sizes on both the base and the camera side mount.  This is a great feature in case you ever buy a different tripod or monopod that you want to use it with.

Now, time to get a little technical.  As a general rule of thumb, you take 1 over the focal length of the lens you’re shooting with, and that’s the minimum shutter speed you want to be shooting handheld.  Anything slower than that is no-man’s land.  You don’t want to get home to pull your images from the card and realize they’re all suffering from camera shake or motion blur.  For example, if I’m shooting my 70-200 f4L non IS lens, handheld, at 200mm (the long telephoto end) I don’t want to be shooting any slower than 1/200th.  I would even feel safer at 1/400th.  You wouldn’t want to shoot a 50mm lens handheld any slower than 1/50th of a second.  I’m not so sure 17mm is so safe to shoot around 1/20th without it being an IS lens, but you get the basic idea.  These are just general rules of thumb, which obviously can change depending on the photographer.  Some people have very steady hands.  I’m getting better than I used to be, but I know there is much room for improvement.  You can vary your stance, try and control your breathing, or even brace yourself against a nearby wall or object in order to steady yourself even further.  You can also get a little bit more gimme room if you’re shooting an IS image stabilized lens, considering your subject isn’t moving.  Otherwise IS is useless.  Stabilization from tripods or monopods isn’t going to freeze your subject either, but they will be a huge help in combating camera shake.

Working in the creative field, we are hooked on our technology.  We need it, we use it, we breathe it.  Digital media runs in our blood, so it’s important that we’re always connected.  We like to show people things on our phones, and be able to work on the go without lugging a laptop or finding a wifi hotspot.  Regarding prepaid phone plans, in general – they’re known to usually be crap, right?  Smartphones and data plans are almost always going to cost about $70-100 per month, right?  Wrong.  Not anymore – now you can get the new LG Optimus V smartphone with Android 2.2 Froyo on it, on a major network (Sprint), for just $25 a month.  No contract, and no hassles.  Did I mention the $25/month include unlimited text messaging, MMS, and internet data?  It’s pretty wild.  This phone is going to be a game changer, for many that are paying more and getting less with their current network providers.

There’s Always a Plan

I’ve been shopping for a new smartphone for a while now.  Comparing a regular cell phone to a smartphone with Android or iOS is like comparing a base model sedan to a top of the line luxury model.  It’s just so much more powerful, and does a lot more.  All cell phones make calls, but with Android or iOS you get free GPS navigation via google voice (you might as well toss the Tom Tom), internet access with finger gesture zooming, email access, instant messaging, social media networks and multiplayer gaming in your pocket, and 100,000+ more apps to turn your phone into whatever you want it to be. Seeing that I work from home, and am seated at a computer most working hours of the day, I’m always online.  I pay for internet access already.  Why do I need to also pay for it on my cell phone? I’ve got little need to have to spend an addition $30-35 per month just to have a data plan, the majority of the time.  The combined total would easily come to $70-100 after you add texting (another thing I’ve refused to pay extra for over the years).  Call me cheap; I just don’t like to waste money in areas I don’t need to.  You can read more on my blog about other ways I’ve learned to save money.  Most of the cell phones today require a data plan, except for a few that are out now, like the Kin twoM (which has enabled wifi, at least).  I’ve been using the last “no-data-plan-required” smartphone on the Verizon network for the last several years; the Samsung i760.  It’s just so un-finger friendly, and nothing like the ease and user-friendliness Android or Apple iOS.  There’s another happy Android believer right here! I am loving this phone’s OS. This Virgin Mobile (running on the Sprint network) beats the crap out of my old windows mobile wifi smartphone (samsung i760) on Verizon for $45-50 a month with just 450 voice minutes. I can live with 300 minutes, besides… after that it’s only 10 cents a minute, if you happen to go over a little bit. Looking at my past 6 months, I barely even hit 300 minutes every month.  Do you need to talk more?  Even Virgin Mobile’s $40 plan for 1200 mins is a great deal.

LG Optimus V vs. Motorola Droid X

My wife has the DroidX on Verizon, and comparing the LG Optimus V to hers is pretty unfair, considering the specs.  Still, there isn’t much besides her phone’s ginormous screen size and slightly faster processor that leaves me with much envy.  The amount of monthly savings on the cell phone plan is of way more value in comparison. The specs on the processor of the Optimus V look bad, seeing that it’s only 600mhz – but this thing really flies.  The menus are fast and responsive; I’d even dare to say just as fast as the Droid X’s.  The phone also has an addition GPU processor (200mhz) and some other modem processor (400 mhz). All of that combined makes for a pretty fast and smooth experience. You can set your account to regularly bill you monthly, and even port over your old phone number from your other provider.  I was a little sketchy about switching from such a steady, reliable network to the Sprint network.  Honestly, I am getting even more bars now in my home area than I even did with Verizon.  Things have improved a lot with Sprint over the last few years, evidently.  It might even be safe to say they’re a notch above AT&T when it comes to phone reception.

Optimus V Battery Life

My only gripe about the LG Optimus V was the initial weak battery life, but you can iron out those issues just using Juice Defender and Advanced Task Killer (both free apps).  Anyone that is familiar with the Android operating system will admit that the battery life is not the best.  There is so much going on in the background, and leaving 3G or data enable will definitely use more battery.  That’s the point of a smartphone, though.  Without the data it’s pretty pointless.  Turning on live wallpapers (the moving ones) will also use a bit more battery juice.  All I care is that I can use my phone for a whole day without it dying, depending how much or how little I use it. I’m fine with popping it on the charger nightly. Lately, with normal use, my phone is lasting 2-3 days on a charge, using the apps I’ve mentioned. I’m sure it will get even better once I stop playing with the phone so much.  If you’re on the fence about this phone; just stop thinking about it. Just get it.  I found mine at Best Buy, which no longer has a restocking fee, and they have a 30 day return policy on cell phones.  Target and Radio Shack didn’t even have this model in stock, because it’s flying off the shelves.  Best Buy told me they just got 7 in the day before I stopped in.  They were down to 1 left, after I picked mine up.

In the future I will post more about the LG Optimus V including some cool wallpapers and some of my favorite Android apps, so stay tuned.  Also if you’re shopping around for accessories for the Optimus V, I found great deals on a silicone case, car charger, and LG Optimus V screen protector for really great prices online.

Do you have this phone?  Is there anything you love or hate about it?  Please feel free to chime in and leave your comments below.

09-07-11 UPDATE: It appears that Virgin Mobile has now raised plan prices since a 2-3 weeks ago, up to $35 per month for the 300 minute plan.  If you’ve already been on board with the $25 / month no contract plan, don’t fret.  You’re grandfathered in.  Does anyone know what happens if you upgrade to a better phone, though? I noticed the amazing looking Motorola Triumph out now.  If we were to eventually upgrade, I wonder if our plan would stay the same?  That new phone is $300 – and being totally happy with my Optimus V, I can wait until I read more reviews, and when the price drops lower on the newer, larger screen Virgin Mobile android phones.

Like saving money?  Learn how to save money in more ways than one with this great guide called Saving Money Power Tips.

If you’re like me, and you’re the type that’s particular about the mouse you’re using, then check out the Logitech G9x.  I spend a lot of time each day on a computer, so the pointing device I use makes a huge difference in my faily workflow.  I enjoy my Wacom tablet as well, but I only whip it out when I’m doing some major photo retouching or if my wrist starts to bother me.  The G9x mouse was designed with gamers in mind.  Even still, graphic designers, photographers, video producers, and anyone else spending a lot of hours on the computer will love this mouse for their daily design and editing tasks.  Whether on a Mac or a PC you will love it.  It’s the updated version of the ever popular Logitech G9.

Initial Thoughts

The shape of the mouse is a little bit funky looking.  My fear was that the mouse was going to be pretty uncomfortable, but seeing that I had found such a great rebate deal for the G9x on NewEgg, I couldn’t pass up giving it a shot.  It has a shorter body length, actually allowing your palm to rest on the mouse pad.  It turns out that I actually enjoy this a lot.  The mouse is very ergonomic and feels comfortable in my hand, and I never felt that the shape or design is a pain.  It didn’t even take much getting used to.

Why This Thing Rocks

Wired laser is the best technology you can get in a mouse right now.  It is the most accurate, and literally spanks optical technology.  Laser doesn’t shine red, as a lot of people think (that’s optical).  Laser mouses do not glow any specific colors; just an invisible light. I wouldn’t try to stare into the hole in the bottom of the mouse while it is on, but you get the idea.  A chorded mouse is usually a pain in the butt compared to the freedom of movement with a wireless mouse.  Why do I say that?  Well, the plastic or rubbery coated chord sometimes catches on the surface of your desk, or on the edge of other items like your monitor base, etc.  The fact that the entire mouse cord is covered in a cloth coated fabric sheathing is something that I thought was absolute genius about the Logitech G9x.  It sounds minor, but you don’t even understand how much of a better feel it gives the mouse when you’re whipping it around in a video game or going wild with tools in Photoshop.  Still, wireless has its own issues.  Like whenever my wife started up our Eureka vacuum cleaner, my old Logitech MX1000 wireless laser mouse would wig out and jump all over the screen.  Then there’s the whole recharge issue, which is way more trouble than it is worth, in my honest opinion.

If you find yourself whipping the scroll wheel a lot in Microsoft Excel, or whenever you’re doing general internet surfing, then you will love the hyperscroll feature.  A bunch of other Logitech mouses have this, as well.  The metal wheel on the G9x feels solid.  When you hit the button on the bottom of the mouse, you will be able to remove the little bumps from the wheel, activating hyper scroll.  Think of it as a fully automatic machine gun spray, instead of a 3 shot burst mode… only for scrolling down rows of screen space, if that makes any sense.  On the fly DPI switching comes in handy if you’re in a game, or if you’re editing something that needs the extra sensitivity.  You can either slow down or speed up the movement of the cursor by increasing or decreasing the DPI.

The grips are even interchangeable!  They pop off really easily with a little switch on the palm end of the mouse.  When they are on they feel just as firm and solid as any other mouse body.  There is one grip that keeps your thumb more off of the mousepad area, and one grip that is a little bit smaller feeling, only with a grippier finish.  I prefer the larger grip, but once in a while I like to change it up and pop on the alternative.  With either grip, you still get the convenient thumb buttons which make instant forward/back web browser navigation a piece of cake.  The forward back button take a little getting used to, but once you are hooked there is no going back.

Ever wish you could make your mouse heavier or lighter?  The G9x has a little tray that pops out, allowing you to customize the weight and feel of it with little metal weights.  Right now I prefer to have a heavier mouse, with all four 4 gram weights filling the tray.  You can also weight it more toward the front or rear; whichever you prefer for your gaming experience.

Conclusion

The Logitech G9x is honestly the best mouse I’ve ever owned, and probably one of the nicest I’ve ever used.  It’s going to have to be my favorite computer mouse of all time.  If you’re tired of the lag of your wireless mouse, and absolutely sick of swapping out dead batteries or cradling it to charge (and trust me, those rechargeable cradle mice always seem to die right when you’re in the middle of something important) then stop wasting any more of your precious time and consider buying this mouse.  My brother-in-law uses this same mouse on his 27″ Apple iMac and loves it, so don’t think that this mouse is only Windows compatible.  You don’t even need to install the Setpoint software that it comes bundled with.  There are also three color options (blue red and green) to change the LED colors to, without installing any of the included utilities.  Overall, this is the best mouse I’ve ever used for both gaming and work, and hope to continue using it for years to come.  I’ve always had a lot of faith and great success with all of my Logitech products. The included 3 year warranty from Logitech shows how much quality goes into them.  I’m pretty sure I’ll be using this mouse at least for 5 years or more, as I did with my last Logitech laser mouse.

A few days ago I had the privilege to catch an advance pre-screening sneak preview of Seth Rogan’s new superhero movie The Green Hornet. For a quick review, the movie was amazing. I liked it just as much as I love the Ironman series.  First word that comes to mind is “hilariousness”. There was some purposeful corniness at some parts (if that makes any sense), crazy action sequences, lots of Inspector gadgetry, and even Cameron Diaz aging gracefully, actually starting to look like she isn’t 23 anymore. You’ve got to see it when it hits your local theaters on January 14th, 2011.  Here’s the official Green Hornet trailer from youtube.

Seeing the trailer alone, you might think it’s the same typical plot of the Batman series movies, or Ironman.  Rich parents die, leaving a spoiled rich kid all this money and a gadget slinging sidekick that happens to be one of the members of the estate “help”.  Even so, this movie was slightly more quirky and funnier than even Ironman.  Even the main villain Chudnovsky (played by Christoph Waltz) seemed a little sensitive for a bad guy.  I got a kick out of the fact that I have an Israeli style photo prop gas mask that is the same as the one he uses in the movie – the only difference is the canister on his is painted blood red, after he decides to change his name to “Bloodnovsky”, seeking to increase the scariness of his super villain image. Does this look familiar?

The movie has something for everyone: comedy, cars, even a double barrel desert eagle.  This is definitely the kind of action movie you will want to see on the big screen, in IMAX 3D if you can.

This isn’t a movie review blog, but Kato’s sketch book in the movie reminded me of the fact that we all need to remember to draw out or write down our ideas.  Kato, (played by Jay Chou) had page upon page of sketched in his notebook, as is briefly seen in the movie.  He even had sketches of Bruce Lee on one of the pages of his sketchbook. Obviously that was a cameo of sorts, seeing that Bruce Lee played the part of “Kato” in the original Green Hornet TV series.  Seeing that Kato was a creative genius, he could whip up just about anything his mind could think up.  Everything from gadgets for the Black Beauty (funny, we used to call my dad’s old Buick that) to a custom cappuccino machine.  My point is, he had a sketchbook full of his concepts and ideas, and didn’t just go straight to creation.  I find that especially with logo design, you can get very lost in the process of designing if you start from your head and just go straight to the computer.  It helps to sketch your ideas out first, and then take it to the computer once you have narrowed a few of your best ideas down.

Even keeping a notepad and pencil on your night stand for a quick scribble in the dark, in the middle of the night, is better than losing your thoughts.  I’ve had some nights where my brain was working full steam just before I fell asleep, coming up with all sorts of ideas for new images I wanted to create.  I failed to write them down, being so tired and wanted to get to sleep.  As you might expect, those ideas were just about 90% gone by the time I woke up the next morning. Don’t forget to doodle what pops in your noodle when you get that sudden creative inspiration!

We recently got our hands on a fresh copy of a new ebook by photographer Evan Sharboneau. Evan has a really informative blog with some amazing tutorials at PhotoExtremist.com.  Not knowing what to expect, I ended up being really delighted with the way the book was organized.  It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner, an advanced, amateur, or a seasoned professional.  This book was written and organized in a way so that all that read it will take something home with them.  I was pretty overwhelmed with the amount of techniques and lighting variables in this ebook.  There are so many real examples, all clickable that link to the web for even further review.  This book even has clickable links to step by step tutorials for many of the techniques illustrated.

Sometimes you don’t know what to expect with ebooks, and may be a little skeptical, like I am. Online only ebooks sometimes catch a bad rap because there are a lot of them, and most can be really poorly put together.  Everyone and their cousin is taking their best blog posts, and shoving them together in a pdf, calling it an ebook.  This is definitely not your average run of the mill information.  As photographers, we can sometimes get a little stale or get stuck in our own comfort zone.  This ebook teaches some great tricks and techniques that will get your creative juices flowing.  The hundreds of images and visual eye candy will inspire you to attempt some of these on your own.

Trick Photography and Special Effects covers the following topics very thoroughly:

-photography basics for beginners: cameras, lenses, tripods, aperture, iso, shutter speeds, white balance, etc.

-360 degree panoramas

-HDR and infrared photography

-painting and drawing with light

-fundamental trick lighting tools and techniques

-long exposure photography: skies, water, people, star trails

-advanced lens filters

-lightning photography

-the Droste effect

-shaped bokeh

-double exposures

-multiplicity

-tons of Photoshop tutorials, projects and ideas

That’s only scratching the surface.  To view the entire table of contents and to get an actual preview of some of the e book’s many pages, click here

I really enjoyed this e-book and would highly recommend it – all 190 pages. It’s worth it’s weight in gold, even if you are able to implement just a few of the techniques into your skill set.  The quality and content of this book is better than most printed books I’ve thumbed through at the bookstore or library.  It took me over a few hours just to quickly skim through it, but I plan on going back and reading it more in depth when I need to get inspired with some new photography and Photoshop techniques.  This book is chock full of them, that’s for sure.  Check it out yourself – I’m sure you won’t regret it.

For a limited time, thru the last day of 2011, you can enter here to win a free copy of this ebook and video course!

The problem with most camera backpacks is they either give away to the world that it’s a camera backpack, either due to the logo on the outside like TAMRAC or LOWEPRO or even CANON (hmm, I wonder what that dude’s got in that bag? Maybe 5 grand worth of camera gear – let’s go mug him) or the FUGLINESS factor.

I recognized the name Dakine because I have a winter snowboarding hat made by them that I bought at Eastern Mountain Sports.  I was interested in the Dakine Camera Block due to the fact that you can shove it in any other bag, as long as it is the right dimensions.  That way it’s kind of like getting a custom setup for your DSLR, glass, and photo gear.  I’ve seen it online as low as $30 USD. What’s the main thing we need in a camera bag, anyway?  Isn’t it the stupid little velcro-rigged, padded dividers that keep our lenses and camera bodies separately safely and securely?  That, and obviously comfort, durability, and water resistance while outdoors.

There is also the Dakine Mission, which is a lot nicer looking than most bags. This bag is sold along with the Dakine Camera Block as an optional accessory.  It comes in a variety of cool colors and textures, from plaid to other print designs.  I haven’t picked one up just yet, but it’s next on my list.  If anyone has any experience with the Dakine Mission or Dakine Camera Block, feel free to add your comments below.  Another Dakine bag available is the Sequence, which looks to be a little bit deeper (which is always useful if you shoot with a 1D series or gripped body, like myself).  The Sequence has a weatherproof rain cover that pops out in case you get caught in a storm.

I found the answer already, after I recorded the screencast, of course. It’s so easy – just go to: Edit->Preferences->General and then uncheck “Enable Flick Panning”

Amazingly, a lot of graphic design jobs you might find won’t always have you on a mac.  Make sure you know how to use both – otherwise you’re going to have to educate yourself pretty quick once you land that first design gig straight out of college.  That means knowing what the heck you’re doing in Windows XP and the all new Windows 7, as well as knowing OSX.  Thankfully the Adobe programs are pretty much identical whether you’re on a mac or a pc, with the exception of the alt/option key on your keyboard (it’s not rocket science).

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- the AF is superior to the 5d2, more focus points, better servo mode than the 5d mkii

- it has pop-up flash (comes in handy once in a great while for fill or to trigger strobes) will mount EF-S lenses (I only own one, the rest in my kit are EF mount because I have been planning on going full frame for a while now).

- it has wireless flash controls built in, if you own other Canon speedlights (I don’t have any yet – only Alien Bees B800′s)

- dual digic 4 processors (5d2 only has one)

- shoots video same as the 5d2

- very low noise up to iso 800, where the 5d2 then takes over

- a few more bells and whistles that the 5d2 doesn’t have like on-screen leveling

All of that is fine and dandy, but when it comes down to pixel peeping, I’ve been seeing a lot of softness from the 7D in the samples online.  Not just studio stuff – real world conditions.

This review scares me a little. http://darwinwiggett.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-canon-7d/
I think we have to wait until Adobe updates ACR and Lightroom more the handle the Raw conversion a bit better, in order to come to the proper conclusions. Right now the 7D is looking softer than everything, at 100% native resolution. Sure, you can sharpen, but if there’s a little ISO 200 or 400 noise that low noise camera suddenly turns into worse noise than ISO 1600.

The 7D also out-resolves the glass you mount to it, much more than a 5d2.  That means softer images, seeing that the glass can’t provide enough.  There is a great explanation of what that means in this thread http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=73591 by my friend David Rehner.

In the end, either camera bodies are a world of a difference over my old 20D or 40D.  I’m going to wait and see more reviews at least until Spring of 2010 before I start whipping out my credit card. I’m waiting until I am absolutely 100% sure about this.  I think I just might have to rent one of each for a week to do my own tests.  I’m in the same boat as many other photographers, with the 20D, 30D, or 40D.  No doubt the 7D is better in more than one way, but if I can make my daily photo editing a few steps easier by spending the extra grand on the 5d2 I think it might be worth it.  Downsizing is fine, unless you want to utilize the maximum resolution that you possibly can, in order to make the most money from your images.  If I’m going to drop even $1700 on a camera, it had better produce good enough sharpness and clarity at 100% at the fullest resolution.  If not, I might as well spend the extra cash on the full frame.

Which stock photography agencies are the best for selling your images or even buying royalty free stock photos? Maybe you wonder if you can make any money selling your images online.  I wondered the same thing, back when I was a full time graphic designer.  I was purchasing hundreds of stock photos for use in my designs. Then I thought, “Hey – why can’t I sell my own photos?”. Professional stock photo collections can cost anywhere from $200-$500 per disc, with single traditional royalty free images costing anywhere from $80-$200 themselves. It’s thrilling to find places online where you can purchase high-resolution, professional quality images at a fraction of that price. In the past 5 or 6 years there has been a boom in the microstock photography and royalty free stock footage business. Many times I also talk with fellow artists that have their work only on one to three different agencies, and they ask, “Where else can I sell my photos where there are actually sales, and it is actually worth my time to submit?”.  Sometimes artists that are exclusive with istockphoto or any of the other larger agencies decide they don’t want to put all of their eggs in the same basket any more.  Of course it is more work to submit images to more places, but you need to figure out which balance is best suited for your own needs, according to how much time you have to invest each week, as well.

Which stock photo agencies are worthwhile?

Trying to see which site sells more images than the next is tricky.  There are a lot of elements involved, and it seems like sales figures fluctuate from month to month amongst the micro sites.  Factors like portfolio size, photo types, site search engines, and even categorization all play a part.  All I can do is give you my best sites – the ones that I personally think are worth my time to upload to. Below are the links to my top-selling sites – sign up, and try them out. Then you can make your own conclusions.    Here are my personal recommendations:

The All-Stars

Shutterstock

iStockPhoto

BigStockPhoto

Dreamstime

Fotolia

123 Royalty Free

CanStockPhoto

Slower Earners

Featurepics

Crestock

PantherMedia

MostPhotos

YAYmicro

ScanStockPhoto

Zazzle

Newer Promising Agencies:

GraphicLeftovers

Stockfresh

Veer Marketplace

DepositPhotos

The3DStudio

Pond5 Stock Footage

The above links are also excellent places to buy stock images.  I also sell images from my own portfolio and other select artists here at ArenaCreative.com at budget prices.  At present, we have thousands of images to choose from, ranging everywhere from graphics, to vector art, to lifestyle photography.

Everyone creates different types of art, and some of it is very marketable.  Some has high commercial value, while a lot does not.  It might look great, and you might want to make a print of it for your grandmother, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to make enough money to make a living.  How do you know how well you’ll do?  You have to try it for yourself.  Then make your own conclusions. This is definitely not a get rich quick scheme.  You will “get back” out of stock photography, what you “put into it”.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog at the upper right of this page. I’ve consulted so many for free on how to get started over the years, only to find that I have less and less time for it.  Especially when the majority of people I’ve spent hours helping, never ended up going through with regularly submitting images Like I said, stock is definitely not for everyone.  Lots of people give it a shot and then realize how much work is involved.  My time is  valuable, as is yours, but if you are interested in one-on-one consulting regarding your microstock efforts, feel free to contact me for further info.  I highly recommend the Expanded Microstock Photographer’s guide – a really affordable ebook by Rasmus Rasmussen, a 10 year veteran in the world of microstock photography.

Windows Media Player works better in a lot of ways, while lacking a few of the unnecessary iTunes features.  One area is with album cover artwork.  It seems to find it easier.  Also, when you delete a song, it actually gives you the option of sending it to the recycle bin (deleting it altogether).  The problem?  It’s a huge pain in the behind to delete the current playing song.  Usually you have to click now playing under now playing mode, then right click it to go to “find in library”.  THEN you can hit the delete key and delete it.  Guess what?  That’s waaaay too much work.  I knew there had to be a way to easily delete the current song that is playing.  I thought, “There’s got to be a plugin for this.  I can’t be the first person to want or need this feature.”  Sure enough, I found it.

A very wise man named Ahmet Sacan created an incredibly helpful plugin for Windows Media Player called MediaPlayer Controller. He had lots of songs on his computer, and didn’t really want to go through the songs to filter out the majority that he didn’t like. It’s annoying to bring the MediaPlayer to front, select the song, and delete it every time a song that you don’t like is playing. So, Ahmet wrote the MediaPlayerController program that would delete the currentlyplaying song, with minimal distraction to what I’m working on. Other features include play/pause, next/previous song, volume up/down, and fast forward operations, which are useful especially if you don’t have media shortcut keys on your keyboard.

There reall is nothing like listening to music of all sorts while you’re designing, creating, editing, or anything else.  You’re stuck at a desk, stuck working, you might as well make your workday more enjoyable

PicNiche Contributor Toolbar

Today I discovered something that is going to greatly improve my workflow.  This toolbar for firefox has a slew of features, the greatest of which (I feel) are the workflow functionalities.  When you submit images to certain stock agencies, you always have to go through and check off boxes or click certain buttons before pushing through the submission.  I always referred to this part of the job as “pushing” as many other microstockers do.  Well, pushing just got a whole lot easier for Fotolia, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime.  More features are sure to come, as the toolbar gets developed further as time goes on.  Thanks so much to Rob Davies (follow him on twitter: @bobbigmac) for all of his hard work on this excellent tool.

You can also enter in your username for FT, SS, IS, DT, BS, SX, and 123 so that it will instantly alert you of any new sales, as well as your current total earnings.  It reads all of this stuff from cookies, once you’ve logged into each specific website.

The bar does way more things than I even have time to mention.  Read the full instructions here:  http://www.picniche.com/toolbar/help.aspx

TIP: to hide the toolbar for more screen space, simply middle click on the P icon that shows up at the lower right hand corner of your screen.

Aren’t you sick and tired of sticking your usb thumb drive in your computer to transfer files over to another machine?  Or are you sick of having to email attachments all of the time, or host files on sites like rapidshare, imageshack, or yousendit?  Then Dropbox is for you.

I wouldn’t host your entire stock photography portfolio on this service, or anything else that is private…but for quick transfers back and forth this seems pretty secure.

A fellow microstocker told me about this service, and I’m thankful for that – thanks Andres!  This is a really cool free service. 

Click here to sign up and give it a spin.

First of all, you can’t get the i760 anymore in stores – BUT you CAN get it through customer service. There were 2300 left when I ordered mine about a week ago. Call them – it’s $220 minus $70 rebate right now. That combined with my new every two and I got a smartphone for $50 bucks. A phone that used to be like $300-400. I’m doing a happy dance!

I am LOVING the i760. All I do is mod the crap out of it, as much as I can in my free time. I’m still waiting for my 2gb MicroSD to get here in the mail, then I can go even more crazy .  There is tons of freeware and shareware games ive found online including kevtris, greedy penguins, rats and spears, etc. I learned a lot on forums and watching youtube vids. I am loving this phone more and more with each and every new customization Hopefully I don’t screw it up.  I’m thinking of getting spb backup just to be safe.

Here is one of mine from my last NYC business themed stock photo shoot:

There is a brand named Fancier (makes styles similar to lowepro and such) and I got it for like $25 shipped off of ebay. This one -

You might be able to find it cheaper than this
guy is selling it though. The bag is on the smaller side, yet I have 3 lenses in it (18-55, 50mm, and 70-300 w hood reversed) plus enough room for a flash. The 20D with the battery grips fits tight, but with plenty of room. It doesn’t flip around, but it’s pretty comfortable since it’s on the smaller side + has two straps.

There’s also a little loop on the left strap perfect for hanging your tripod from your chest. Tons of pockets and crap. Another zipper pouch on your right chest strap for a space battery, or small cell phone.

I looked forever for a bag, this one works for me. I also have a smaller sling type I got at walmart for about $25, but that ones kind of stupid looking. No space for anything more than my 18-55 attached +
50mm. I also have to remove the battery grip to use that one. Anyone need a bag like this? It’s still good for travel I guess, when you want
to travel lighter.