Herbie Hancock & Pixma Pro-1: Part Duex

Back in October, I posted some pictures of Herbie Hancock that I took with my Canon 5D Mark II at the party to launch the new Pixma Pro 1 printer. Herbie was awesome - as he was when I first saw him in the early 1970s while attending Berklee College of music in Boston.

At the event, several Canon photographers shot stills for a cool video. Check it out. It's awesome.

Speaking of shooting in low light: don't be afraid to boost the ISO. When you do, use in-camera noise-reduction for best results.

More on noise: If a picture is so boring that you notice the noise, it's a boring picture.

At the time, the printer, with 12 LUCIA pigment inks, was not available. Well, I just got mine and I can say that it is awesome, too.

Of course, you can't see the image equality here on my blog. If you could, however, you'd see images with rich tones and perhaps the best blacks that you have ever seen.

Five monochrome inks (Photo Black, Matte Black, Dark Gray, Gary and Light  Gray) contribute the the awesomeness of the monochrome prints).

© Rick Sammon

Speaking of black and white, I turned my color image of this sand dune in Death Valley into a beautiful black and white image using Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro. Click here for info (and to save a few bucks) on all the the plug-ins I use.

Click here to read more about the Pixma Pro 1 printer.

Explore the light,
Rick

We Teach, You Shoot in Atlanta

I hope you can join me and my good friend Parish Kohanim for our first Learn Lighing and Lightroom class this coming weekend. The class is mostly about lighting, but we'll show you some Lightroom tricks, too. However, please note that you must know how to find your images in Lightroom. We are there to help you enhance your pictures.

Here is our philosophy: We teach. You shoot.

We want you to walk away with some great images created with cool lighting techniques.

Yes, we will teach multiple lighting techniques, but for now, here is a tip:

When you think you need two lights, use one light. When you think you need three lights, use one light. Lots you can do with only one light.

Here is a link to how I created my Girl with a Pearl Earring photograph.

Here's the info-packed and fun-filled Atlanta schedule:

March 9
7 to 9 PM
Presentation at Parish's studio

March 10
9 AM to 5 PM
Focus on Flash Photography & After hours, informal get-together. Shooting with model.

March 11
9 AM to 5 PM
Continue the learning with continuous lighting & Group slide show. Shooting with model.

Photograph © Parish Kohanim

Cost: $499 (includes model fee for both days).

Location: Parish Kohanim Studio, 1130 West Peachtreet Street NW, Atlanta, GA

Max number of photographers: 12 - so you get personal attention. First come, first serve.

Shoot me an email for an application.

Parish's studio will be our main workshop location.

Explore the light,
Rick

Left: © Rick Sammon. Right: © Parish Kohamin

P.S. If you can't make the workshop, check out my lighting gear on my Gear page. Also check out my post on Plug-ins for Portraits.

You Don't Drown By Falling In Water

© Rick Sammon

"You don't drown by falling in water. You drown by staying there." -  Zig Ziglar

In today's high-tech, fast-paced world, it's easy for photographers to feel as through they are drowning - drowning when it comes to keeping up with camera and computer technology, as well as with social media.

Been there, felt that . . . like many of my photographer friends.

But following Zig Ziglar's good advice, we need to get out of the water.

We can do that by learning.

For example, we need to learn about the latest camera gear and accessories. We need to learn how to use the latest versions of Photoshop CS and Lightroom. We need to learn how to use the latest plug-ins and HDR programs.

Of course, we need to keep up with social media tools: not only twitter, facebook and Google+, but with DIGG, Foursquare, Instagram, Pinterest, and so on. The saying used to be "Publish or perish." Today it's "Socialize or Succumb."

We need to see what iPhone and iPad apps are available that can help our photography and photography business.

Keeping up is a lot of work, for sure.

Just as important as all the aforementioned stuff, we need to keep healthy, exercising daily and eating right. That's a must.

Add to that family time and relaxing time, and trying to stay afloat becomes a full-time job in itself.

Summing up my friends, we need to change . . . as the times they are a changin'.

Here's another quote that relates to changing and to the topic of this post:

"When you are through changing, you are through." - Bruce Baron

Finally, here's a quote that inspires me to learn and to keep my head above water:

Learning is Health.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. If you like inspirational quotes, check out my app, Life Lessons We Can Learn From Mother Nature on my apps page. Photo tips are included, too.

Camera Awesome is Awesomely Creative

Camera Awesome image by Rick Sammon

I downloaded a new iPhone app this morning: Camera Awesome by SmugMug. Above is my first Camera Awesome image, created from the original iPhone photo below of the New Croton Dam.

Original dull and boring iPhone photo, with really boring sky, by Rick Sammon

Awesome, indeed.

The free app (with paid options) offers unlimited creative control over photos you take with the iPhone, as well as photos that are in your Photos gallery on your iPhone.

Getting back to "unlimited" creative control, the app has almost 300 presets, filters, texture and frames, but you can tweet them and combine them for endless, and original, effects. Thirty-six of the effects, more than enough to start your photo fun, are free. You can buy other effects in groups of nine for 99 cents.

For the opening image for this post, I used the More Wang effect, one of the many Presents. Other cool effects/options include: Awesomize, Transform, Filters and Texture.

By the way, I chose More Wang because I wanted to add an aged-photo look to my photo of the dam, which was under construction from 1892 to 1906. It's an aged, and aging, dam. I lead a workshop here in fall, which is an awesome photo experience.

While at the dam, I emailed the pictures to myself. Uploading pictures to SmugMug (at full resolution), Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket are other options.

As illustrated in the above screen grabs, adding effects with a tap of the screen or swipe of a slider is fast, easy - and fun.

Camera Awesome image by Rick Sammon, from Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 100-400mm IS lens image.

Among the many cool feature in Camera Awesome is one that lets you apply a favorite effect to several images. For example, if you have several photos of big cats, you may want to apply the same effect to each cat.

No! I did not take the photo of the lion and jaguar with my iPhone. I used my Canon digital SLRs and lenses. Yes! As I mentioned, you can enhance any photo from your Photos gallery on your iPhone with Camera Awesome, too.

Enough reading already! Download the free app and awaken the artist within.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. I have a few of my own apps, for both the iPhone and iPad, too. Check them out here - to get some good tips on taking and making pictures. Read about the iPhone accessories I use and recommend while you are there.

Death Valley Photography Workshop: Dunes Part Duex

© Rick Sammon

Today is the last day of the Death Valley workshop organized by The Digital Photo Workshops.

Following a basic composition technique, compose with an "S" curve in the scene, we all made a beautiful image from atop one of the sand dunes.

I enhanced the image with Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro.

For more on composition, see my latest Kelby Training class: Composition, the strongest way of seeing.

Scroll down for more posts from the workshop.

Explore the light,
Rick