New Digital Era

Ask and it will be given; Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened.

Sometimes the connection from a problem (or an opportunity as others call it) to a solution is just a little way ahead, a bit further.  Just like a bridge hidden behind some trees and bushes.  It takes determination and perseverance to search for it, to get to it, to find it. And that’s where we are all lacking.

It’s not an easy task as people makes us believe.  It takes insurmountable amounts of energy to maintain the right approach and attitude; to not falter or weaken; to not give up.  It takes not only yourself, but more.  It takes your friends support  and dependability; it takes your family strength and protection; it even takes the humble smile of that unknown person in the mall or grocery store, and it takes that higher strength that nobody understands and that different people explain in different ways. I will let you define that as whatever you please for your beliefs.  What I am trying to say: it takes more than yourself!

At times we may feel we are lost in the middle of nowhere; a desert, jungle, forest, sea, mountain.  With nowhere to go or turn, and the exit could be just a few steps away.  Just like the bridge in the photo hiding behind trees and bushes.  Sometimes you can hear the cars, the noises, the bikes, the trucks but you cant see the bridge until you move in the right direction.  And sometimes that little step, that move can’t be achieved without the help of people that care, friends, family and that extra energy that exists and aids us all in a different way.

So whatever you do and wherever you are, don’t forget to ask, knock and seek,  to guide yourself to the bridge that will connect you to the other side you are looking for.

RW

Half Me

JpgMag is a famous (online and printed) photography magazine. Each month they have competing themes where regular and professional photographers, upload images and participate to get their images published in the printed version of the JPG Magazine.

It’s very interesting to see all the images posted by all photography enthusiasts and the imagination they use to participate in all the different themes which change every month.  I have uploaded my share of photos and browse the site regularly.

When you upload images, other members get to view and vote on them.  (Sorry, only subscribed members are able to vote on the images.  Subscription is FREE!)  They give you “props”, or they write comments and they even give a “yeah” or “nah” as a way to vote for the winning image of that specific theme.  If your image wins you will be posted in the printed version of the magazine and even earn a little cash!

The site also allows you to send email between members of the site, which all happen to be photography enthusiasts.  You can contact your favorite photographers, see who else has HOT photos and also see who was able to win theme competitions and get their images printed.  It’s a great way to learn, ask questions, get tips and interact with other photographers.

So after a few months I noticed today that one of my photos finally got HOT.  So what is hotness?  Quoted from the JPGmag site:

“When a photo is submitted to a photo challenge or theme, the photos that the community likes best become “Hot.” Hotness is determined automatically by factors including number of votes, comments, views, and favorites. A photo’s hotness is not permanent, but can change based on how the community is responding to other photos in the theme, and we recalculate hotness daily. That’s why even if nothing changes on your individual photo, its hotness could change based on the popularity of other photos within the theme.

On the JPG homepage and the first page of any particular theme, we also show a selection of the hot photos in order to highlight the best photos from the site. The photos that display on these pages are pulled at random from the hot photos that we have selected to display. Hot photos also have a banner that links to more hot photos within the theme, along with tools that make it easier for other people to promote your photo on sites like Digg, Facebook, and StumbleUpon.”

So I will enjoy the hotness of my image for whatever amount of time it remains hot!  And keep shooting and improving my skills to get more hot photos on the site.

What do you think about the photo?

R.

The Modern Executive Woman

I was approached by a very good friend about a photo shoot she wanted, obviously about herself.  She is a previous model and a joy to be around, so I gladly agreed to help her out in any way possible.  It wasn’t meant to be any professional shoot but classy and casual at the same time.  I suggested her place and gave her a heads up to pick several different styles of clothing and moods to work with.  We all agreed on a day and time and scheduled on the calendar.

After that conversation, I had my own ideas of a specific photo I wanted to shoot.  In my mind I called it  “The Executive Woman”.  It’s the classy portrait of the modern working woman in her own comfortable natural environment.  It’s not an office shoot, it’s not a home, less than casual shoot either.  It’s a combination of professionalism and natural attitude in display.  It’s a way to show that a professional executive woman don’t always need to have the neat, clean, highly detailed look of having everything under control; but that she can look as casual as possible and still look as professional and classy as she really is.

With that in mind we met for the shoot.  I had my assistant with me (my wife which is really cool at playing the role), and we took the few rounds of shots. After about 45 minutes of shooting I got my idea out of the next shots I wanted to take.  She got what I had in mind, changed, sit and “voila”.  We were all very very happy with the result.  She told me she would change nothing about the pic, except for my logo which is too big.

I think I got to work on making that logo smaller.

Ricky

Let’s start this off with a little definition of RAW.  The RAW format (or NEF in Nikon literature = Nikon Electronic File) contain all the image data required by the camera sensor.  This image information is saved completely with the file which allows a more extensive use in post-processing.

After a lot of shooting in JPG  and a lot of hearing about RAW images I decided to give it a try.  I was reluctant. My pictures were very good in JPG and I was still able to do a pretty good job with them in Photoshop (or Gimp when the budget won’t allow any other thing).  So I though being economic on Disk Space, plus software was a good idea.  At the same time I could double the amount of images I could shoot and hold in any given SD Card by shooting in JPG even in its larger and finer settings.

Then I switched to RAW.

I was definitely introduced to a new wonderful world of digital imaging mastery and digital photography adjustment options.  Having all the digital image information saved without loosing anything by compression (which is what JPG automatically does) is just too nice to move away from.  Yes its true that files are larger and you can hold less images on your SD card.  But then it’s also true that Storage Units are cheaper by the day.  The benefits of shooting RAW totally outweighs any idea of saving space, which is the one of the only benefits of shooting JPG.

So next time you are preparing to shoot that special portrait, landscape, senior prom, or that simple house party, remember RAW always gives you a lot more options to correct your final photos without loosing any information in post editing.

Think about it, doesn’t it make a lot of sense?!

Ricky aka @biggaboss

Clouds

I have been shooting photographs for a while now and consider they are 3 very important things to keep in mind when taking any kind of photos, anytime.  Even though the automatic settings do a wonderful work (depending on your camera), never underestimate making the correct adjustment for your pictures to show the best vivid colors, brightness and contrast.

WB

The White Balance helps ensure that your pictures have a natural look.  Most cameras nowadays include an Auto WB option where the camera attempts to automatically set the correct option depending on the time of day/type of light you are shooting with.  After shooting for a while I noticed there is a noticeable difference between shooting with AUTO WB and selecting the correct WB option depending on the light that is available.  Choosing the correct light source for while shooting increases the natural look and vivid colors of your final photograph.  So the next time you shoot make sure you have selected the right light source for the type of shots you are taking (Daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, Clouds, Evening, etc).  You will notice the difference the next time.

ISO

ISO stands for International Standardisation Organization and its the rating for the speed of the film, or in digital photography, how sensitive is your sensor. These numbers all follow a specific Standard which allows you to know and be sure that if you are shooting at ISO 200 you will get the exact same results no matter what camera you are using.  Although Auto ISO selects the best option available depending on your surroundings it prevents you from challenging yourself and getting an optimum result depending on your personal preferences.  At the same time sometimes allowing and Auto ISO can create photographs with a lot of noise and not the same dark contrasts you want at a specific time.  Allow yourself some time to master your ISO decisions, but then later, reap the immense benefits this will provide.

EXPOSURE

The exposure is basically determined by the Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO.  And it allows you to have the correct amount of light entering your camera sensor to reproduce and image that is well balanced. Sometimes depending on the effect you want for your photograph slightly underexposing of overexposing does a wonderful job for your final results.  You don’t need to always expose perfectly to get the results you want. Also taking the same shots with correct exposure, underexposed and overexposed allows you to create some nice HDR images.

So when taking your photos always remember what you want the final product to look like and adjust your settings correctly to address that result.  Remember a great photo is the one that you like (or your client likes) and not always what is the best according to your camera settings.

Ricky