Discount codes from Trey Ratcliff

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We just got back from Portland, Maine. What a great place to visit. I highly recommend it if your ever up that way. The above picture was taken just as we left a restaurant. As you can see it's right on the water. The picture is of the ferry pier. It's a 3 image HDR shot at +2 0 -2 and processed with Photomatix and Color Efex Pro 3. Of course there's some photoshop in it also.

I told you a few weeks ago that Trey has come out with a DVD course. Well today I received word that I can offer a discount code for both editions. The codes are good for 10% off the Basic Edition and 20% off the Premium Edition. Just go to this website and enter the code for the edition you want.

I have the premium edition and it's more than worth the investment if you're really into HDR and Trey's style of shooting and processing. Take a look. You wont be sorry.

Basic Edition - 55BASICDVD

Premium Edition - 66PREMIUMDVD

Jay Maisel and me

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Well, that's a small exaggeration. A few months ago I wrote a blog about a course I took on Kelby Training, "A Day With Jay Maisel". Scott Kelby and Jay did a photo walk on the streets of New York. It's great. This past Friday my wife and I where going to spend the day in the city. The plan was to take the train into New York, the subway uptown and spend some time at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I always have a camera with me and I knew I would have opportunities to take some picture. New York is a shooting gallery. Maybe a bad choice of words but you know what I mean. As Jay says, "If you miss the first 100 shots there are 1,000 more coming your way in a few minutes."

I thought that before going I would take the time to watch the course again. It's amazing how much information Jay imparts. Every word is a gem. Even Kelby is wide eyed.

This is a must see for anyone who walks around with a camera. His 3 word mantra "light, color, gesture". Words to think about when taking pictures.

Just back from Keuka Lake, New York

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It's been a very good summer. Lots of travel. This trip was to one of the finger lakes in Upstate New York. Our good friends live there for the summer. We hiked, drank and laughed ourselves silly. Roger and I did a lot of shooting. Great fun. I took the above picture after dinner as the sun was just setting. If you look at it larger, just under the tree limb, you can see Mars. I hope you like it.

I see while I was away that NIK announced a shipping date for HDR Efex Pro. I did take one of their free webinar, hosted by Rick Sammon. I think it has real possibilities but I'll reserve comment until I try the demo version. I hear that Photomatix has a 4.0 version in bata testing. I'll have to look into that also.

"Starburst" photography exhibit

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Starburst: Color Photography in America 1970-1980 has opened at the Princeton University Museum of Art. I guess I should tell you that I live in Princeton. Our photography club had a private tour of the exhibit a few days ago.

It is magnificent. In a review of the exhibit appearing in the New York Times I read the following, " Black and white are the colors of photography". So said Robert Frank. Another quote from Ansel Adams declared "If you can't make it good, make it red."

In the 1970's, color photography became the new frontier. The likes of Barbara Kasten, John Divola, Joel Sternfeld are among the 18 photographers offering their wonderful images.

Is HDR our new frontier? I think it is. Of course there are those who would argue this. I also think there is room for all disciplines. I love black and white, I love color and I love HDR. There are well known photographers who are even taking HDR to a much higher level. Vincent Versace calls his concept "images harvesting". He expands not only exposure but color, focus and even time. A much larger idea then just hdr.

Things are moving very fast. It's important to keep up.

NIK Radio - it's a must

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First a word about the attached pictures. The picture above was taken a few weeks ago while out in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That's right, Santa Fe. The first Sat. we were there we went to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. A great place to shoot.

Here are 2 others. The vendors all dressed in their traditional cloths and the craft quality was spectacular. I did buy my wife a beautiful bracelet from Laos that I could not resist. She loved it. There was a craft person from Bhutan, a country we visited a few years ago. In the "Small World" category, his good friend was our guide.

Now on to NIK radio. If your into NIK software, and you should be, this is a must listen every week. Yes there is a lot of information about their products but the interviews are packed with tons of information. Last weeks interview with Vincent Versace has some great philosophical insights into photography and photo processing. I invite you to listen and enjoy.

I couldn't resist. Here's a picture from Bhutan.

Trey Ratcliff to release 6 hour HDR instructional DVD

I just received an email from Trey telling me that his 6 hour HDR instructional DVD is finished and will be announced to the public tomorrow. You can find the information here on Thursday and it will be available for sale on Friday.

From what I understand there will be 2 versions, a Basic package and a Premium package. I have been looking forward to this for a while. It's going to be interesting to see his workflow and any tricks he uses to get those great lighting details and textures. I'll let you know what I think after I get mine.

My top 3 HDR Spotting images

I think you know that I upload photographs to HDR Spotting. I checked the stats this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see the number of views for 3 of my pictures. If you're into HDR, this is a great site to see what other photographers are doing. Both the good and the bad. Over time I have communicated with some of them and we have shared processing ideas. It's a great way to learn and improve your skills. Take a look here. If you're interested in posting images, you'll need a code. I have 3 to give out . Contact me and I'll send one along.

Back from Long Island and The Cape plus a Lens Flare tip.

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We're back. The art sale in East Hampton was fun. The 2 pictures that I was sure would sell did not, but 2 others did. I'm happy about that. My friend Steve sold all 5 of his. They were wonderful images. You can see his work here.

I must admit that I didn't do much shooting in either place. It just didn't work out. I'm a little disappointed with that. I did get a few good pictures that I'll post later this week.

Getting a good lens flare "in camera".
Matt Kloskowski showed this tip on a recent episode of "D town". His turned out a lot better than mine but I know what went wrong so I thought I would share it. When shooting into the sun and you want a sun flare, close you lens down to f16 or smaller. I shot mine at f22 and it's a bit much. Next time I'll shoot a range of f stops to get the right effect. Matt did say that every lens is a little different and you need to experiment. I remembered that today. I'll remember it next time.

We're going on the road again

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We're hitting the road again. This time it's out to East Hampton, New York. Each year there is a "Cloths Line" art show to benefit the local cultural theater. I have 5 pieces to exhibit. I'll let you know if any sell. It's all for a good cause. Then we're going on to Cape Cod to see some friends. The Cape is always fun with lots of opportunities to take pictures. The main image of this blog was shot out there last year.

Above are 2 additional pictures from New Mexico. The sunsets out there are just wonderful. The second image is of the Miracle Staircase in Santa Fe. You can read more about it here. I have others that I'll post later.

In some other news, Kelby training keeps churning out their classes. You can find them here. Believe me when I say that it's a great value.

Have a wonderful week and I'll post again when I get back.

NIK free daily webinars are great

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By now you know that everyone of my pictures is touched by at least one, if not more, of the pieces of software produced by NIK. Their line of products include Viveza 2, Color Efex Pro 3.0, Silver Efex Pro, Dfine 2.0 and Sharpener pro 3.0. The company offers 3 free daily webinars 6 days a week. I sat in on 2 of them last week and learned some wonderful tips. If your a user of any of their plug-ins or are thinking of buying them, I strongly suggest at least a visit to their site or take one of the webinars.