Photography

Most of us shudder thinking about last year’s “Store Wars” and would really like to give close friends and family members a unique, personal gift this season without braving the weather, fighting the crowds, or standing in long lines.

Something that’s affordable.

Something they’ll thank you for - and really mean it!

You probably already have the most important parts of a truly memorable gift right on your computer, camera card, or CD. The photos you’ve been taking at reunions, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and past holidays are the key components…for personalized photo gifts.

Great idea, but who has the time???

Fortunately, now that we have digital photos, truly unique gifts are just a few clicks away. Read more

Verbatim has announced a new website for photo enthusiasts – PhotoStorageGuide.com. The website was created to give consumers information on sharing digital memories as well as tips and photo ideas.

Designed to get creative juices flowing, it's easy to find information on Archiving, Backup and Printing digital photos. Each section includes information on the choices available, step-by-step instructions and links for more information.

PhotoStorageGuide.com also includes a Toolbox section with resources and ideas to help visitors enjoy their photos in a variety of ways such as scanning, editing, scrapbooking, and creating slideshows. A “Just for Kids ” section is also included. Read more

Hosted by Cruise West, winners of the PENTAX Sail Away Sweepstakes will call the 100-guest Pacific Explorer home for 10 days. Visiting destinations that include Manuel Antonio National Park, the San Blas Islands, Caletas Beach, and Golfo Dulce, winners will have guided tours to some of the most noteworthy birding locales along with seminars provided by Audubon-certified experts that include famed Audubon photographer Roy Toft.

PENTAX has great binoculars along with spotting scopes, rifle scopes, and telescopes, even “super close” binoculars that can satisfy the need of any travel and event enjoyment. The binocular is more then ever before an item of necessity. Those of us who use spectacles to see clearly can certainly appreciate the binocular. Birders, or bird watchers as we know them, will not travel without binoculars. Today, www.PentaxSportOptics.com has new lines that deliver the same quality found in their cameras into optical enhancement products. Read more

Need help with last minute gift ideas? Try print projects by the HP activity center and have fun doing it. This seasonal website offers a free way for you to get creative with your gift giving. At www.hp.com/go/activitycenter you can download love coupons or heart themed templates to personalize and print out on your home computer for a simple way to say I love you.

These projects are also a fun way to get the kids thinking creatively. They are a great alternative to store-bought Valentine cut-outs and are the perfect project for your kids to hand out to their friends or just experiment on their own. Read more

You've just returned from vacation with a digital camera stuffed full of photos. And, wow! Some of these look pretty good! But your family is spread all over the country. To show Aunt Molly what the new Busch Stadium looks like, you'll have to send the pictures electronically.

But wait -- don't reach for your e-mail program. Even if you have a high-speed connection that makes downloading big files easy, you can't assume that all of your friends and relatives have equally fast access. Besides, e-mail is a good way to send files, but it isn't a very good way to share them. For example, an e-mail message doesn't have any way for you to arrange the photos; they're displayed haphazardly. And it's hard to include a caption, such as, "Can you believe this baby is so bald?"

Many better options are available, which are just as easy to use -- and they're free!
Several online services let you copy your digital photos to the Internet, and then display the photos to the world … or to only a few of your chosen friends. Instead of dumping megabytes of images into someone's inbox, you send your sister an e-mail message with a link to your "Trip to the Metropolitan Museum" photo album, and she can look at the photos at her leisure. Most of the sites help you send out that e-mail message, too, to make it even simpler. Read more

We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change. Yes sir. How’s that for a bit of homespun philosophy?” – Stella (Thelma Ritter), Rear Window, 1954

Recently an ABC-TV news executive outlined his department’s plan to have a site where ordinary people could submit their spot news videos for possible use on air. His logic was almost impeccable. With all the camphones and cameras that take video in use someone always has to be at the right spot at the right time. Why not let Joe Eyeball shoot the stuff and upload it to the net’s news web site. Most of the content would be garbage but… Read more

Years ago, the famous “Hollywood” style of portrait lighting was widely used. It was employed before Photoshop made retouching easier and more widely available. Everyone wants to look their best, and many photographers did this with careful lighting. Today, even an unflattering, poorly lit portrait can be made to look pretty good with digital retouching. But why not get it right the first time? Well, it’s a little trickier and many of the true masters have left the game. Here is a true master’s take on the lost art of portrait photography.

Ken Cook On The Lost Art Of Portrait Lighting

Part One: The Evolution of Lighting in Portrait Photography from the Perspecitve of a Four Generation Family

W.B. Cook started Cook's Photography in 1879 in Woodland, a northern California city. In 1924, after several moves, he settled at our present location in Salinas, California. At that time Salinas was a small town supported by the agricultural and cattle industry. In 1920, my father, Orval Cook, joined the business and married my mother Catherine (who is still alive at age 95). They struggled through the Great Depression and managed to survive on as little as $1.50 a day. 1932 was the year of my birth and by that time my mother and father spent so much time working that I came close to having my debut in the studio.

In 1946 Orval purchased one of only six of the first electronic flashes sold in California. It was the Kodak Kodatron. Most photographers found it difficult to integrate the lights in the studio with their existing lights. This unit was a full 200 ws, exiting a polished aluminum 20" concave bowl. The speed of the flash was around 200,000th of a second. The flashes today are around 2,000th of a second. I'm pretty sure our eyes blink around 200th of a second. The Kodatron was popular in commercial product studios. Read more