Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Pro Review: Datacolor SpyderCube (Professional Photographer Magazine Web Exclusives)
Monday, February 08, 2010
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
A Photographic Legend Passes
"Irving Penn, a grand master of American fashion photography whose "less is more" aesthetic combined with a startling sensuality defined a visual style that he applied to designer dresses or fleshy nudes, famous artists or tribal chiefs, cigarette butts or cosmetics jars, many of them now-famous photographs owned by leading art museums, has died. He was 92." For more from the Los Angeles Times article click here.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
CCD Inventors Win The Nobel PrizeI In Physics!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Nigel Parry Followup
Friday, September 25, 2009
Epson Kicks It Up A Couple of Notches!
Canon Announces The 7D
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Eight Exceptional People Remembered - A Repost
"Two staff members of the National Geographic Society, along with three Washington, D.C., teachers and three students they were traveling with, were among the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Tuesday, officials of the Society announced on Wednesday.
Ann Judge, director of the Society's travel office, and Joe Ferguson, director of the Geography Education Outreach Program, were accompanying the three teacher-student pairs on an educational trip to California.
They were all killed along with the other passengers of American Airlines Flight 77 after it was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon at about 9:45 Tuesday morning.
Teacher James Debeuneure and student Rodney Dickens were representing Ketcham Elementary School; teacher Sarah Clark and student Asia Cottom were from Backus Middle School; and teacher Hilda Taylor and student Bernard Brown were from Leckie Elementary School. All the students were 11-year-old sixth graders.
They had been selected to participate in a program at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California, as part of a Society-funded marine research project known as Sustainable Seas Expeditions."
"Through our educational outreach program, Ann and Joe were going to make geography and the environment come alive for these committed, talented teachers and their star students by putting them into the field with scientists and researchers," said John Fahey Jr., the Society's president and CEO.
"The D.C. School District has lost six extraordinary people, and we at the Society have lost two treasured colleagues," he added.
"Two staff members of the National Geographic Society, along with three Washington, D.C., teachers and three students they were traveling with, were among the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Tuesday, officials of the Society announced on Wednesday.
Ann Judge, director of the Society's travel office, and Joe Ferguson, director of the Geography Education Outreach Program, were accompanying the three teacher-student pairs on an educational trip to California.
They were all killed along with the other passengers of American Airlines Flight 77 after it was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon at about 9:45 Tuesday morning.
Teacher James Debeuneure and student Rodney Dickens were representing Ketcham Elementary School; teacher Sarah Clark and student Asia Cottom were from Backus Middle School; and teacher Hilda Taylor and student Bernard Brown were from Leckie Elementary School. All the students were 11-year-old sixth graders.
They had been selected to participate in a program at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California, as part of a Society-funded marine research project known as Sustainable Seas Expeditions."
"Through our educational outreach program, Ann and Joe were going to make geography and the environment come alive for these committed, talented teachers and their star students by putting them into the field with scientists and researchers," said John Fahey Jr., the Society's president and CEO.
"The D.C. School District has lost six extraordinary people, and we at the Society have lost two treasured colleagues," he added.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Panasonic Kicks It Up A Notch!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Check Out Nigel Parry!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Check Out Oleg Dou!
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Happy Birthday America!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Give Us Those Nice Bright Colors...
It's amazing color palette and longevity make it, at least in my mind, the greatest "color" film of all time. Farewell old friend, we will miss you.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Honoring Fallen Warriors
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. " John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"I hate war as only a soldier who lived it can, only as one who has seen it's brutality, it's futility, it's stupidity." Dwight David Eisenhower
Friday, February 13, 2009
DigitalRev Tests The Canon 5D Mark II - Check It Out!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Imaging USA Comes To Town!
Bay Photo - Booth 1146
Epson - Booth 1115
Nik Software - Booth 1540
Lensbaby - Booth 332
As always Visualville receives no compensation of any kind from any of these companies we just think their products rock! For more info on the big show click here.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Portraits of Tombstone Photoshop Seminar!
The Friends of Arizona Highways has a great workshop coming up "Portraits of Tombstone" February 16th - 19th offers you a chance to work closely with two great instructors. Photographer, and former Arizona Highways Picture Editor, J. Peter Mortimer will help you find wonderful light to capture "period personalities" during prearranged and spontaneous portrait sessions.
You'll also have the opportunity to work in a casual classroom setting alongside one of the best print makers and Photoshop teachers in the Southwest, Steve Burger. I've known both of these talented men for many years and they get my highest recommendation.
A chance to capture great images in one of the West's most romantic destinations and leave with a great print! Photo workshops don't get any better than that! For more info or to sign up click here.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Looking For An After Christmas Deal On A Pocket Camera?
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Nikon Kicks It Up With The D3X And The Beat Goes On!
- 24.5 megapixels!
- 14 bit full rez files captured at up to 5 frames per second!
- Dual CF card slots!
- Virtually noiseless capture at 1600 ISO!
For more in depth info check out Imaginginfo.com by clicking here.
Texas Goes After 2 Online Camera Retailers!
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has charged two well known online camera retailers in an alleged "Bait & Switch" scheme. Broadway Photo and Starlight Camera & Video of Brooklyn, NY could face civil penalties of up to 20,000 per occurrence. To learn more click here.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Toshiba Kicks It Up A Notch!
All of the new SDHC memory cards comply with the SD memory standard Ver. 2.00, and the two new SDHC cards announced today support class 6 ultra fast read/write speed --- a maximum write speed of 20MB per second, delivering high performance for continuous shooting of still images and recording video images. The new microSDHC can be used with an adapter that allows it to be used in SDHC slots.
No word yet on pricing. For more info click here.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Leica Kicks It Up A Couple of Notches!
The S2's sensor is actually very large. Larger, in fact, than a standard 35mm frame, at 30 x 45 mm. That's 56% bigger. The S2 is essentially a medium format camera shoe-horned into a 35mm DSLR-sized body, and Leica is promoting this idea in its press releases.
The body contains a standard focal plane shutter, but the new lenses also have leaf shutters. allowing for very high flash sync speeds.
The CCD sensor is made by Kodak and the Maestro processing chip produces a very low amount of noise at very high ISOs. The body is acctually smaller than, a Nikon D3.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sony Kicks It Up A Notch!
The Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 will be available in November and should cost just under $3000. For more info click here.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Eight Exceptional People Remembered - A Repost
"Two staff members of the National Geographic Society, along with three Washington, D.C., teachers and three students they were traveling with, were among the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Tuesday, officials of the Society announced on Wednesday.
Ann Judge, director of the Society's travel office, and Joe Ferguson, director of the Geography Education Outreach Program, were accompanying the three teacher-student pairs on an educational trip to California.
They were all killed along with the other passengers of American Airlines Flight 77 after it was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon at about 9:45 Tuesday morning.
Teacher James Debeuneure and student Rodney Dickens were representing Ketcham Elementary School; teacher Sarah Clark and student Asia Cottom were from Backus Middle School; and teacher Hilda Taylor and student Bernard Brown were from Leckie Elementary School. All the students were 11-year-old sixth graders.
They had been selected to participate in a program at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California, as part of a Society-funded marine research project known as Sustainable Seas Expeditions."
"Through our educational outreach program, Ann and Joe were going to make geography and the environment come alive for these committed, talented teachers and their star students by putting them into the field with scientists and researchers," said John Fahey Jr., the Society's president and CEO.
"The D.C. School District has lost six extraordinary people, and we at the Society have lost two treasured colleagues," he added.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Adobe Releases Lightroom 2.0
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated street price is USD$299 for new users with an upgrade price of USD$99 for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
An Interview With PhotographerJay Sauceda
Monday, July 14, 2008
Nik Silver Efex Pro Kicks It Up A Notch!
"Nik Software today announced the new Silver Efex Pro photographic plug-in for use with Adobe Photoshop and Apple Aperture, the most advanced, complete, and straightforward black-and-white solution. Silver Efex Pro uses a range of advanced imaging algorithms that protect against unwanted artifacts, a comprehensive collection of 18 emulated black-and-white film types, and a state-of-the-art grain engine that truly mimics the silver halide process and creates the highest quality black-and-white images possible from scanned or digital color photographs.
With Nik Software's patented U Point technology, Silver Efex Pro provides easy-to-use tools for direct on-image control of tonality, contrast, and structure. Precisely controlling specific areas of a photo can be achieved easily using just a few mouse clicks without the need to create complicated selections and layer masks. Silver Efex Pro combined with U Point technology offers users unprecedented control over selective tonal and contrast adjustment in black-and-white images.
"For many photographers, black-and-white is their preferred outlet for creative expression. Previously available tools often required acceptance of a one-size-fits-all solution or complex conversion techniques and endless fine tuning," said Michael J. Slater president and CEO of Nik Software. "Silver Efex Pro is truly a comprehensive and easy to use software product that is specifically designed to address the challenges that photographers face when converting images to black-and-white."
Working seamlessly within Photoshop and Aperture, Silver Efex Pro begins by presenting photographers with a basic "neutral" conversion of their color image to black-and-white. One-click adjustments can be made from a choice of over 20 preset styles from nostalgic processes like the ambrotype and tintype to classic artistic renderings, trendy high contrast, soft focus or grainy images that emulate the most popular film types and shooting styles.
This initial set of creative options can be used as is or as a starting point for photographers who wish to create and even share their own customized black-and-white styles. In addition, color filters, variable toning controls (includes sepia, selenium, split-toning and user-defined colors for maximum flexibility), vignettes, and more only add to the number of advanced stylistic effects photographers will enjoy with Silver Efex Pro. Additional sliders for global brightness, contrast, and structure, as well as Smart Filter compatibility within Photoshop and multi-image support in Aperture provide the ultimate level of control. With U Point powered Control Points photographers have the flexibility to specifically fine tune tonality, contrast, and structure and create stunning black-and-white images.
Pricing and Availability, & Promotion with Gekko-brand Fine Art Papers--Silver Efex Pro is available now for electronic delivery directly from Nik Software. Boxed versions will be available from Nik Software and through specialty camera retailers in August 2008. A complete list of resellers may be found at http://www.niksoftware.com/resellers.
Through September 15th, 2008, every copy of Silver Efex Pro sold in North America will include a free sample pack of the Gekko Fine Art Collection of papers from Pictorico. Designed especially for black-and-white prints and for use with inkjet printers, the sample pack has a retail value of $15.99 and includes two sheets each of 4 paper types: Gekko Green (Glossy) winner of the 2008 DIMA Award for best black-and-white print from a color inkjet printer; Gekko Blue (Luster); Gekko Red (Cotton); and Gekko Black (Matte)."
The suggested retail price of Silver Efex Pro is $199.95. Silver Efex Pro installs as a plug-in for either Adobe Photoshop or Apple Aperture 2.1 and is available for Windows and Macintosh operating systems, including Vista and Leopard. For more information about Silver Efex Pro, including video tutorials showing the software running within Photoshop and Aperture and a free 15-day fully functional trial version, visit http://www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro./
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Another Great Week At West Coast School!
Special thanks go out to the WCS Sponsors! Without their generous support the school would not be possible. Thank you Bay Photo Lab, (for sponsoring my class and others), along with FujiFilm, H&H Color Lab, MAC Group, Calumet and Nik Software.
Others deserving special thanks include the incredibly hard working staff and the students who give up a week of their life not to mention some cash in order to improve themselves and our profession.
It's never too early to sign up and next years instructor list is loaded with heavy hitters including Tim Meyer, Suzette Allen & Ken Sklute. For more info click here.
Thanks for another great WCS experience, you guys are the best!