Digital ProTalk Blog

Upon watching this week's episode of Photoshop User TV, I found out that renown wedding photographer and instructor David Ziser has a new blog called Digital ProTalk. David is an amazing photographer and, after sitting in on his Marketing 101 class at Photoshop World in Boston this past spring, I can attest to his great skill as an educator as well.

I am always in search of interesting blogs to add to my list of "Must Reads" and the equally interesting bloggers behind them to profile for my P&P Blogger Profile series. So, noticing that David is now part of the photoblogger community I sent him an invitation to fill out a profile. (You will be able to read his profile soon!)

To my surprise, about an hour or two after I sent the email, the phone at my desk rang and it was David on the other end. I have been repeatedly amazed by the approachability and genuine friendliness of the many photographers and Photoshop experts that I have encountered through the blog and in person at Photoshop World. And David was no exception.

On his blog, David posts photos from his latest shoots, tips on how to take better photos, and techniques to make the most out of Photoshop and Lightroom to help guide you in the right direction as you develop your photographic skills.

Stop by his blog to check out some fantastic photography and excellent tips. Welcome to the blogroll, David!

*Just a note: I will be working out of town in Chautauqua, NY Wednesday and Thursday this week. I'll try to have something to post when I return on Thursday but it won't be up until later in the evening. Until then, check out the Photoshop & Photography Blogroll member blogs and be sure to meet me back here Friday for this week's Geographic Composition. -Jason

Photoshop User TV...Again!

Another special thanks to Friends-of-the-Blog Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski for mentioning this blog for a second time on the show making reference to my recent profile of John Nack. Thanks Guys!

For those of you who may be linking here via Photoshop User TV and have never been here before, in addition to my normal weekday posts, every Monday I write a roundup of what members of my Photoshop & Photography Blogroll are posting (view the list on the right). Also, each Friday a number of my fellow bloggers and I post images on a common weekly theme in our Geographic Composition project. In addition, I have a number of P&P Blogger Profiles that I have accumulated over the past year which you can find by clicking here.

Thanks again for the mention! And thanks to all of you for stopping by!

A Few More From Last Week

(Sorry for the delay in posting and for the error messages you may have seen. Apparently Blogger was experiencing some server issues which kept me from posting and you from viewing. Appologies for any inconvenience.)

Here are three more shots from our outing last week. Two of them were thoughts I had for the "On The Go" theme for last week's Geographic Composition but because I wasn't using our on-car camera rig (used primarily for video) they were a tad blurrier than I would've liked - though a little bit of blur adds a little something, given the theme. The other is a shot I took while laying down in a corn field just before taking the shots for this composite.

Two Months and Counting

The P&P Weekly will be posted tomorrow instead of in its usual Monday slot due to a busy weekend.

Kim was a bridesmaid in her friend's wedding on Saturday so I got to meet a number of people that will be coming to ours. We saw some things that we might consider including in our plans, other things that wouldn't be "us," and had an all-in-all good time.

With the wedding this weekend, we both have been growing more excited about our own which is now exactly two months from today. As the groom got up to speak, he said how he wasn't at all nervous and I can honestly say that I'm not either. I can't wait!

As I wait for DHL to deliver the new laptop - it's out for delivery! - I will leave you with a shot I took on Friday of the tractor from the summer camp I went to as a kid and volunteered and worked at in college. (We're working on a video for them and I was down there last week gathering footage.)

Until then...

Royal Motel #2

Here's another look at the sign for the Royal Motel that I used for my entry into last week's Geographic Composition. I think I like this one a little better because I have the ground in the shot, which allows me to add the graduated lens blur to add depth and I took a little more time on the mask of the sign so it's a little cleaner, selection-wise. I also removed part of an "apartment for rent" sign that was sitting on the lawn near the sign - which is why I initially went with the other shot.

Antique Sign

Here's another shot from last weekend. This is an antique Arby's sign along my street. There seems to be an effort in North Syracuse to keep some of the old fashioned signs to give the area a certain amount of character.

(Sorry for the late posting, we spent most of the day taping at a local steel mill and just got back.)

New Home

While out looking for shots for this week's edition of Geographic Composition I came across this sign marking entry into North Syracuse, NY - my new hometown. I had lived in this city as a child and had always known the street I currently live on to be called either Route 11, Main Street, or Plank Road. I had never questioned why it was called "Plank Road" nor had I ever taken the time to look closely enough at the sign to know - and I'm usually the type of person to notice such things.

Anyway, a little piece of American history.

Coming Soon!

The new laptop is being built.

Since I do some work from home and we also use the same computer onsite for event work, the company just purchased a new laptop that will also be for my personal use.

It is a Dell Vostro 1500:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7100, 1.8GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 2M L2 Cache
• 15.4 inch Wide Screen SXGA+ display with TrueLife LCD
• 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 DIMM
• 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
• 120G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

It will be running Windows Vista Business and Office 2007 as well as PS and GoLive CS2 and LR 1.1 once we load it all up when it arrives. (CS3 isn't quite in the budget yet.)

Hardware Difficulties

Sorry everyone. The laptop I use at home decided to start the decline towards death last night right when I was going to start preparing a post for today. So I was a little preoccupied trying to figure things out - we're actually going to end up getting a new one - and didn't have time to come up with anything interesting for today.

However, be that as it may, tomorrow is the premier post of a new weekly photo project! So please come back tomorrow to see what my partners and I have come up with!

I'm Well Connected

Sorry for the delay in posting today. At work we're at the front end of duplicating nearly 4,000 CDs and DVDs for various projects this month, which kept me more than occupied during the first half of the day. I left around lunchtime to come home and wait for the rep from the cable company (sometime between 12 and 5!) to stop by to hook up my cable and high-speed. So now, I'm all set!

Happy 4th of July!

Graduation 2007

As I mentioned on Monday, this past Saturday my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Marjorie, graduated from high school and I was tasked with the job of photographing the ceremony and grabbing all the family shots.

Now, I'm no event photographer, but I think there are certainly a few keepers in there. If you click here you can see a gallery - created in Lightroom - of my best shots from the day (23 of about 100). Just a note, I noticed that I've had to hit refresh once the page came up in order for the images to actually load.

In these shots you will mostly see Marjorie but you will also find Kim (with and without the family dog, Buddy), their youngest sister Sarah, and their parents Ken and Terry.

One thing I noticed was that whenever I moved up to get some shots, everyone with a point-and-shoot or video camera started moving towards me. Maybe it was my Nikon D200 with a 56-200mm lens or the fact that I was using a monopod instead of hand-holding it. Granted, most amateurs don't always know what a good angle to shoot from would be so they follow the person who seems to know what he/she is doing thinking that they will get the same shot. The difference isn't just the camera or the monopod but knowing how to compose a shot.

I get this a lot during events I do with work. I'm on the primary video camera for live events and I setup where I will get a good shot of the podium, good angles on the whole stage, and the ability to get as unobstructed shots as possible of everything else. It's not always the best spot for stills. But, without fail, whenever anyone wants a shot they will gather around my position to snap a few. I can't blame them, but I do smile to myself every time.

NOTE: All of the shots in the gallery were initially processed in Lightroom. Some sharpening was added to the faces in Photoshop (before Lightroom 1.1 was released) and, for a couple of the family shots, I replaced the faces of those who were blinking or looking away with those from other shots. That is why I take multiple shots of the same setup/pose.

Off-Topic

I apologize for this being a little off-topic but, if you want to be technical about it, this is a photo so...

Kim and I have been deep into planning for our upcoming wedding (October 13th!) and each time a detail is figured out or another element is taken care of we find ourselves filled with more excitement.

Kim got her dress a couple of weeks ago, I was measured for my tux the other day, we're in the process of registering (through a cool site called http://www.idofoundation.org/ which partners with stores to donate a percentage of the proceeds to a charity of our choice - we're leaning towards Doctors Without Borders), we met with my friend Meredith who will be officiating, and we've just ordered our wedding rings (above). We wanted something unique and different and that would fit well with her engagement ring.

There's still a lot of little (and not so little) details to work out but I feel pretty good about where we are with everything. As much as I am excited about "The Day" I am even more overjoyed by the fact that I'll be married to such a wonderful woman.

Post #400 - Oswego County #2

In honor of my 400th post, here is my favorite from last weekend's shoot.

• Nikon D200
• 1/90 sec @ f/5.6
• 48mm
• ISO 400

*UPDATE: A special thanks on this occasion to everyone who has made Soup Questions a regular stop and for all of you who have so graciously been a part of my ongoing profile series and who have offered kind words of support and links and well wishes, especially over the past few months. And I hope all of the first-timers will continue to come back.

According to my site stats, yesterday saw 248 unique visitors - a 1-day record for this site (Thanks for the link Scott!) - and I've gotten a comparable bump so far today (Thanks, David!).

I've got more profiles on their way for tomorrow and next week so be sure to stop by and check them out. And, as always, on Tuesday (because of the Memorial Day break) will be my next installment of the P&P Weekly catching up with what our blogroll members have been posting. So please visit their sites as well and enjoy the wealth of talent that is out there in the Photoshop and photography world.

Thanks!
Jason

Oswego County #1

I finally had the motivation, and decent weather, to head out over the weekend and take a few shots. It was a nice overcast day which allowed for some really soft light and I was lucky enough to find a few spots that had a rough, aged look. It felt so good to be out there shooting, and then back processing, again. It seems like it's been so long since I've taken the opportunity. I hope to grant myself that pleasure again soon!

• Nikon D200
• 1/320 sec @ f/9.0
• 26mm
• ISO 400
• Mostly processed in Photoshop CS2

Remembering the Journey

I went through some of my shots from last May's Alaska vacation and came across this forgotten shot. Right when I got back we entered one of our busier seasons at work and a number of my photos from the trip were neglected and went untouched. So I thought it was time.

This shot was taken just south of Anchorage on my way down to Seward during my first full day in AK. Cropped into a "fake" pano and processed entirely in Photoshop Lightroom.

New Look!

It's been awhile since I've updated the look of my website and blog so I thought I would. I have the design created and have integrated it into the blog but I'll be working on the website tonight. You should see the changes made by tomorrow at the latest.

UPDATE: The updated website is now online!

I'm Back!

It's been a whirlwind week here at Soup Questions HQ. On the Photoshop & Photography side, I just got back from Photoshop World in Boston where I learned a lot, I laughed a lot, and I got to meet a few of the blogroll members including Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, John Nack and a number of other Photoshop users from around the world - I bowled a few games with a guy from Belgium at the After Hours Party at Jillian's.

I'm still getting used to my new camera - the weight of the vertical grip made it difficult to get steady handheld shots - and I'm definitely not a fan of taking shots in a more rushed setting, since PS World is so hectic, so I'm not thrilled with how the people shots turned out. I'll be posting them in the coming days as well as a few shots more typical of my style. I will also be posting a tip or tutorial from each of the sessions I attended throughout the week. And the P&P Weekly will be posted tomorrow now that I've had a chance to recover a bit.On a more personal note, as I returned from Boston on Friday night, Kim surprised me by showing up at my apartment to welcome me home. We stayed up late talking and in the wee hours of Saturday morning I just couldn't wait any longer. I pulled out my grandmother's wedding ring, placed it on her finger, and the rest, as they say, is history! We haven't set a date yet but we're just so happy!

Russell Brown, Photoshop History, and Fun

Lately I've been eating up as many tutorials as I can about Photoshop CS3 and once again found myself over in the Tips & Techniques section of The Russell Brown Show watching a number of videos by Adobe's Senior Creative Director. While watching and listening to him work you just can't not be excited about Photoshop. It's just not possible.

Also, over at PhotoshopNews.com, Jeff Schewe offers an interesting visual history of Photoshop splash screens from pre-v1.0 thru CS2.

And finally, on a more personal note, after a number of changes in scheduling, destination, and overall logistics, Kim and I are beginning to plan a vacation to London and Paris for late summer. Late last fall I was thinking about a solo trip to Switzerland, then my best friend from college and I were discussing Greece but now she can't go - and the prices went way up - so Kim and I decided that Paris would be perfect. She hasn't done a whole lot of traveling, none abroad, and with her love of art and working toward her masters in Art Ed. Paris just seemed like the natural destination. We're also going to spend a day or two wandering around London and maybe catch a show.

Other than the obvious spots to see, does anyone have any suggestions for our trip? Little cafes with great food? Lesser-known places to visit? We'd love to hear them!

It Has Arrived!

As I eluded to in Monday's P&P Weekly my new toy/tool has arrived! Late last week after I got back from my trip to Fallingwater, I finished my taxes, sold my D50 to the business, and placed my order for a Nikon D200 and a MB-D200 vertical grip/multi-battery pack - with an extra battery, a couple of memory cards and a card reader - from B&H.

I haven't had much chance to get out and shoot with it yet but hopefully when the weather is nicer this weekend I'll be able to.

*****
On a totally unrelated note, I just got done watching Monday's episode of The Daily Show on my DVR and to my surprise one of my former professors, Stephen Prothero, was the guest promoting his book Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - And Doesn't.