Still in Love with Polaroid

Every time I check in to NatGeo's Photo of the Day, I see an amazing photos of different cultures, architecture, and landscapes captured in the most beautiful way. See a new photo every day April 29, 2013 Blenny fish, Red Sea, Egypt Photograph by  Dmitry Marchenko , My Shot Small blenny fish hiding in a coral hole, Red Sea,  Egypt . April 25, 2013 Mesa Arch, Canyonlands Photograph by  Chris Carvalho , My Shot Mesa Arch in Utah's  Canyonlands National Park  is one of the finest places for a photographer to start the day. This 4x5 negative was exposed with an old lens, a 121mm Schneider Super Angulon. It was a favorite of Ansel Adams. While an excellent optic for its time, it only had single-layer coating and was subject to more flare than modern lenses. In this instance, it created a starburst pattern with rainbow streaks that add greatly to the character of the image. April 16, 2013 Trees in Snow Photograph by  John Lucic , ...

Do you reminisce about flipping through old family photo albums? I still love making printed photo products and showing them off to friends, family, and potential clients. Instagram is this generation's digital photo album, yearbook, and photoblog. Why not make something to show off your life, travels, or experiences over the past year? Below are some companies that will help create beautiful physical pieces with your images. Printstagram This adorable site offers products using photos from your Instagram account including calendars, prints, and posters.   Calendars  $40 for a 365 tear-sheet calendar MiniBook $12 for 100 little images Stickygram This site allows you to choose 9 Instagram photos to turn into refrigerator magnets! Sheet of 9 magnets is $14.99 ImageSnap This company based out of California can print your photos, both from Instagram or from another camera, on ceramic tiles. I just ordered one and it came with...

Every designer/editor/photographer/artist has had the experience where a client is looking over the proposed or finished work and they make what they think are innocent comments, "small changes," if you will. We do our best not to slap our own foreheads or the client in the face. Irish designers  Mark Shanley and Paddy Treacy created a series called " Sharp Suits :" several graphically aesthetic posters with these inane client comments.  Commence groans and head-slapping: These are only a few...See them all  here ! via boredpanda.com

Computer and research giant IBM created the world's smallest stop-motion movie entitled, "A Boy and His Atom." The short is made with actual carbon monoxide atoms! Magnified 100 million times, you can see how they individually positioned the atoms for each shot. The used a scanning electron microscope to record each still and animated then into the most adorable, microscopic video!  Check it out below: See how they did it:

Yesterday was day 3 of the  Joey L.  CreativeLIVE workshop in Seattle. Read my recap of today's topics below! Day 3 Recap: Today's workshop focused on retouching, post-production, file storage, and shooting (more models). Joey talked about how he does a lot of the lighting in-camera so there isn't too much to do in post, but he still sends his work out to a retoucher. He used to do it himself (being a self-proclaimed control-freak) but there became too much work, so he outsources. Generally, he uses Capture 1 for on-set and post-production image processing, but he will use Photomechanic for multi-day shoots, since Photomechanic is easier to manage that amount of images. He also swears by Capture 1's skin tone output, saying it has the truest color and sharpness. Here are some snippets from Joey's commentary while going through an image edit (see screenshots below): Hardware of choice: iMac or Cintiq  tablet with a stylus  Always adjust the exposure, wh...

Today was day 2 of the  Joey L.  CreativeLIVE workshop in Seattle. Read my recap of today's topics and sign up to watch it today and tomorrow FOR FREE! S treaming live from 12pm-7pm, 4/30 and 5/1.  http://www.creativelive.com/courses/commercial-portraiture-joeyl Day 2 Recap: Joey and his team set up two lighting situations with models to demonstrate his shooting style "on location." He used a Canon 5D Mark III, outfitted with a 50mm portrait lens and the Lee universal lens hood , and tethered to a laptop with Capture 1. The first setup used one light (Elinchrom Rotalux octabank) and a white v-wall to bounce the light. He got several beautifully-lit seated and standing poses with this model. Capture 1 crashed twice, but Joey said that happens often, so they just reboot the camera and the computer and start again. One issue may have been the extension tether cord...Who knows? He prefers to use Capture 1 versus tethering to Lightroom or Aperture because he claim...

Yesterday was the first of a three-day online live-streaming course presented by CreativeLIVE and photographer Joey L. Sign up to watch it today and tomorrow FOR FREE!  http://www.creativelive.com/courses/commercial-portraiture-joeyl Here's what I got out of Day 1: Joey L., 23, is a commercial portrait photographer who has been shooting since he was 12. He has worked with clients the likes of National Geographic channel and History channel, many different print and digital productions, and celebrities. The course he is teaching this week is on portfolio structure, start-up photography advice, and techniques of "cinematic portraits" in any location. I've heard most of the "beginner" advice before, but here's some selects of his adviceStructure your portfolio in a nice flow:  Images should logically follow one another. Don't jump from dark to light, action to dramatic portrait, etc. Use color, tone, mood, and subject matter to string together...