The cat is out of the bag

Wow, it's been a long couple of weeks. To understand, we need to travel back in time 13 days...

Friday night, July 18. Our co-ed softball team lost... again!!!  Afterwards, we hit the Dairy Queen and got our ritualistic post game ice cream treat. Robert and I started talking and about 60 minutes later, we had come up with this crazy idea - "Let's start an online resource site for photographers!".

A little more planning went into it and with Robert's excellent design skills and my coding skills we knocked out a couple of websites, signed up some advertising, starting working on real live content and have sent out proposals for workshops AND lectures.

To say this is a labor of love is an understatement. Regardless, this truly is something that Robert and I both feel passionately about - helping people learn how to take better pictures.

So, the roller coaster ride begins. Considering the new site hasn't been technically released yet, the number of visitors and mailing list subscribers we've gotten already is simply amazing.

What you can expect from PhotoHelp 101 is regular updates consisting of news, quick tips, photoshop tips, reviews and in-depth discussions on taking better pictures. We plan on offering workshops and lectures in the Tampa area for a reasonable rate. We will also be authoring eBooks and videos that can be downloaded from the site. Some of these will be free, we might charge a couple of bucks for some. We'll see. Basically, save a tree and help a photographer - not a bad idea!

There is still a lot of work to get done before the 'official' release on Monday so I'm gonna cut this short. However, feel free to stop by and take a look at the sites and let me know what you think! (and it's ok if you say "are you out of your friggin' mind?!?") :)

PhotoHelp 101

Fundaments of Composition

Keys

My wife needed a picture of some keys for some marketing campaign she was doing for a local real estate agent so I busted out the strobes and took some shots for her.

The setup was pretty simple. I had a flash on each side of the keys and I had a piece of copier paper folded up over the top. Each flash was set to 1/8th power and zoomed in to 85mm. The camera specs were ISO 200, Shutter 1/30s, Aperture f/22. The impetus for shooting it this was was found on strobist.

(Click on photo to see full sized image on Flickr)

Eaten alive!

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It's been a few weeks since I have gotten out so I decided to get up early this morning and head up to a couple of favorite spots and get some shots this morning.

First stop was the intercoastal in Dunedin. I wanted to specifically try to get some HDR images. I managed to get one decent one but my impatience in post-processing probably hurts me when it comes to HDR images... too many buttons!

I jumped in my car and headed up to Honeymoon Island to see what kind of activity was up there. At the gate, I overheard one of the park rangers talk about how bad the mosquitos were. Normally a couple of 'skeeters don't bother me but at one point as I was walking the nature trail, I looked down and saw about 40 mosquitos ON EACH LEG! I decided that was ridiculous and packed it up and headed over to one of the beaches at the park to try my luck at birds in flight. I managed to snag a couple of shots.

Not the best morning of shooting but I got better images than I have ever gotten sitting on my couch. :)

(Click on photo for full sized image on Flickr)

The beag

Friends of the Island Parks

Listening intently to get some "must have" tips

Honeymoon Island is home to a wonderful group of nature lovers called the Friends of the Island Parks. This organization is a CSO (Citizen Support Organization) that sponsors events and raises funds in a quest to support the goals of our parks. This evening my good friend Robert LaFollette had an opportunity to give a presentation on wildlife photography at the Rotary Centennial Nature Center located on Honeymoon Island.

Robert and I really weren't sure what to expect heading into this presentation but the people came out in numbers! Rumor has it this was the second largest crowd at the Rotary Centennial Nature Center as over fifty-five people showed up to hear Robert give his top ten tips for capturing great wildlife photos. The people in attendance definitely got some great tips on how a pro does it.

After the lecture, several of those in attendance came by to show their appreciation for the first rate lecture. Robert signed copies of his book as we answered questions from those in attendance. All in all, a great way to spend the evening - helping out our new friends at the nature center and getting to talk photography with a group of fellow shutterbugs!

Talking to one of the many in attendance

People gathering before the meeting

The monthly Board Meeting proceeded the lecture

A packed house of over fifty five people in attendance!

Robert explaining some fundamentals

An amazing lens

I purchased the Nikon Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G VR lens about six weeks ago but haven't had too much of an opportunity to try it out - so this afternoon, I opted for the air conditioned confines of my home instead of the sweltering Florida heat and took some shots of my old Nikon D80 before I sent it off for repairs.

Initial impressions are that this is a fantastic lens. Weighing in at around 1.6 lbs this lens just feels good on the camera. The ED glass does a great job of reducing chromatic aberation and the depth of field is amazingly shallow - too shallow to try to use effectively without a tripod. However, the bokeh you get is worth the effort of setting up the tripod.

The images produce with this lens are stunning. I had previously been using an extension tube for macro work and while I still think there's a place in my bag for the tube, any serious macro work will be done with this exceptional lens.

(Click on photo to see full size image on Flickr)