Posted on TWiP.

Fall is slowly fading away. The days are short, wet & cold, and the sky is one shade of monotonous grey. I don’t know about you, but I feel like completely hibernating.

Here are 5 photography projects to keep you inspired during the cold, soggy, rainy days:

1. Put your rubber boots on and grab some dewy macros.

50mm. f/1.4, 1/320, ISO 200.

Now is the perfect time to get raindrop covered plant life shots for your portfolio. The light is nice and soft on cloudy days, so you’ll get even light on your subject. Don’t be afraid of getting up close and trying multiple angles. Keep shooting until you find the best angle that makes those raindrops sparkle.

You’ll want to shoot with your Aperture wide open, so you can keep your ISO low and get loads of delicious bokeh. Bring your tripod along just in case you need some steadying. And wear some rubber boots, because you’ll probably be crouching in a huge puddle o’ mud the entire time!

2. Wait for that perfect moody winter sunset.

18mm, f/5.6, 1/15, ISO 400.

Even on cloudy days the sun can make a brief apperance. And when it does, it’s usually spectacular. If you see the sun start to peak through the clouds during magic hour (1 hour before sunset), bundle up and head out to great landscape location. Winter skies are rich with colour. Add some thick clouds and you’ve got a great shot. There is nothing more magical than sun rays beaming through a dark and moody sky.

3. Get creative with strobes.

Get that flash off your camera and grab some gels and get creative. Set up a little studio in a corner of your place and shoot some stills with character. Check out Strobist for the 411 on off-camera flashes and cheap DIY projects to keep you inspired and busy on a gloomy day.

4. Set-up some stills on your window sills.

50mm, f/1.8, 1/80, ISO 400.

If you don’t have flashes or triggers, no fear! Make use of the lovely diffused light coming through your living room windows and snap a still shot of your tea time snacks, little toys, your little sister, sea monkeys, or whatever strikes your fancy. You probably want to set up a bounce or white board opposite the window to get some light on the subject.

5. Find hidden gems in your old photos.

50mm, f/2, 1/125, ISO 200.

Get a big cuppa tea and look though your old photos. As you go, mark or star the photos you think have promise. After you’ve gone through once, go back and pull your top ranked photos into a photo editor (LR, PS, Aperture) and really work on them. A little cropping, sharpening, saturating, some layers and masks and voila! Great shot. You never know what amazing shots are hiding in your archives.

If all else fails, just hunker down in your bed with a stack of DVDs and call it a day.

Online Report for The Vancouver Province.

Mostly Lisa’s behind-the-scenes video diary of Madonna’s first appearance in Vancouver at BC Place for her “Sticky & Sweet” tour.

*Video Warning: Excessive aerobicizing and self-inflicted embarrassment. Do not try this in public*

Happy Halloween! Guess what my costume is? It’s tricky, but I know you can do it!

On the eve of Madonna’s very first appearance in Vancouver, I sit here, wrapped up in a snuggly blanket, wondering how Madge is braving the wet and nippy West Coast weather without pants.

If there’s any ever-present, consistent force in the spectacular, often jaw-dropping 25-year career of the Queen of Pop, it’s the lack of pants.

For Madonna, laced under-things and nude fishnets trump all pants. I’d be genuinely shocked if there was a 3 to 1 ratio of leotards to pants in Madonna’s wardrobe. And hey, who can blame her, the woman could give Olympic gymnastic gold medalist, Nastia Liukin, a run for her money in Spandex’s “World’s Tightest Limbs Competition”.

If you’ve got it flaunt it. And that’s just what she’s done. For better or worse, Madonna has stayed in the harsh glow that is super stardom for over a quarter-century. And she’s done it without ever shaving her head, entering rehab, or attacking anyone with an umbrella. And that’s saying something since she’s lived in Soggy Ol’ Britain for 8 years.

I’ll skip the recent details of her personal life because as you know from my previous Perez Hilton bashing article, I’m not a fan of celebrity gossip. But in this case, I’ll allow one cheesy phrase and say that no ‘pants’ will ever get in the way of Madonna’s superstardom.

I am on pins-and-needles to see what kind of hip-thrusts and alternative disco/pilates moves Madonna pulls out at her sold out show at BC Place Stadium tomorrow night. To be sure, they will be both “Sticky & Sweet”!

Photo by Scott Stulberg.

Guest Post for TWIP.

Even if you are not familiar with the term light painting, you’ve probably already experimented with it. Have you ever swirled your camera around the twinkling lights on your Christmas tree to create spirals, or shapes; or the initials of your name, or captured the twisting, turning trail of sweet glow sticks or a Poi spinner at some crazy full moon party in Thailand? Then you, my friend, are a light painter!

Light painting is a photographic technique where you physically ‘paint’ light into your camera frame during a long exposure, either by manipulating a light source like a flashlight, flash or by moving the camera around a light source.

During our star shoot at the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop, Scott Stulberg pointed out a beautiful Mormon barn and suggested that we light paint it.

Light paint a barn? Oh yes! The idea seemed crazy because all my previous experimentation with light painting had been on such a small scale, and the only light we had was a headlamp, but Scott was determined.

We set up in front of the barn and starting testing different settings. Because it was impossible to grab focus, I ran up close to the house and shon the headlamp on a window. Once Scott got his focus set, we got to the painting.

By cupping the headlamp with one hand, we were able to direct the light on the house and trees, carefully avoiding the foreground. It was a lot like actual painting. Starting with the roof of the house, you gracefully paint the shingles, then the sides, then the front, giving a little extra light to the windows and doors.

The trees were tricky. It took so much time to paint the house correctly that we always ran out of time to do the trees fully. We’d start at the bottoms of the trees and paint upwards, trying to hit the top and then swoop downwards. We tried for a while, but we just weren’t getting the light composition we wanted. The shot was just a little flat.

Canon 5D 16-35mm f/2.8 lens: 25s exposure, f/3.2, ISO 1250.

Martin suggested that we light up the barn using a short blast from a car’s headlights. So we moved a car about 200m away from the barn, angling the lights at the barn and the adjacent trees. Timing was a bit tricky, as the headlights could only be on for less than a second or they would blow out the shot like the photo below.

This is the view from the car. You can see the group setting up for the shot. I was the gal in charge of turning the lights off and on so I didn’t get a chance to grab this shot. But here’s Scotty’s shot. He had a little extra light from a passing car. That is why the foreground is lit. Pretty cool effect, don’t you think?

Photo by Scott Stulberg. Settings with 14mm: 20s Exposure, f/2.8, ISO 800.

After taking this shot we ran into Dave Black (a legendary light painter) and his team, who were about to start an epic 30 minute light painting project. See the results and how he did it on his website. They are truly remarkable.

Light painting is a really dynamic photographic technique that you can really get creative with. You don’t need boat loads of money to experiment, just a flashlight and some coloured gels will do to start with. Gels are quite expensive if you buy them off the roll. But if you are up for a little DIY, you can get a nifty lil book of sampler gels and filters from LEE Filters.

I bought this little pack for $2.99 at a local photography store. It had a great selection of gels big enough to fit on my flashes (Canon EX430 & EX580). If you can’t find them, try contacting LEE, they will usually send out the sampler pack for free. If you are in the UK, check out Flashgels.co.uk

If you want some inspiration and to see how far you can push light painting, check out this amazing collection of light paint art in Smashing Magazine, Strobist’s guides and tutorials to light painting with strobes, and the light painted group on flickr.

Share your light painting experiences & shots in the comments!

Published in The Vancouver Province.

I really wished I hadn’t sat in the front row at David Copperfield’s “An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion” at the Vancouver Centre of Performing Arts. If I’d just been sitting a few rows back I wouldn’t have seen the wires that controlled the singing and dancing tie, or the slightly concave bottom of the magical “shrinking table”, or the girl that appeared & disappeared in the “reserved” seat next to me wearing three different outfits, or Mr. Copperfield’s caked on make-up and spray-on hair. Ouch. That was a low-blow.

Maybe I’m just too cynical or I’ve seen “The Prestige” one too many times to be impressed with a duck being tossed on stage from behind the curtain. In Copperfield’s defense, his show was very entertaining, and face-paced enough to keep me off my iPhone for an hour and a half. There were great moments too. He is an incredibly skillful showman, and irritatingly charismatic, even when he made a sexy Eastern European girl shove her hand down his pants to make sure there was nothing in his pocket; not once, but twice. Charming.

I feel a bit naive for expecting to be completely wowed. But I just couldn’t get past the worn, cheap-looking props, the massive amounts of noxious smoke blown into my face, the planted audience members who could hardly manage a smirk at his rehearsed one-liners, and the cheesy-kitchyness of it all. I was far from amazed and bedazzled by the appearance of an old car on tall pillars in the middle of the stage. Because from my angle, I could see that it was a shell of fake car and that DC was fake driving it and the illusion was marred.

How he does a lot of his illusions still remains a mystery to me… mostly. Ok fine. The duck told me. And all it took was an Oh Henry’s bar.

But don’t take my word for it, check out the hair for yourself. The World’s Greatest Illusionist is conjuring up 5 more shows at the Centre for Performing Arts in Vancouver Oct. 25 & 26th.

Even professional photographers don’t get the perfect shot straight out of the gate. The difference between professionals and amateurs, is that pros don’t give up until they’ve got that perfect shot. They make get frustrated, but they try and try and try again, even in the freezing cold dawn with their feet in mud in the wilds of Wyoming.

I found it very insightful to watch Scott Stulberg fail his first two attempts of taking the panoramic, but by using different zoom and exposure settings and a certain level of patience, he was able to get a perfect shot. Here is Scott’s panoramic of Oxbow Bend at the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop (taken minutes after the video was taken):

Photo by Scott Stulberg.

A review of Scott’s tips for taking a panoramic:

1. Use a solid & level tripod
2. Check to make sure your entire shot is level and all your subject is in your frame
3. Shoot on Manual so that all your settings stay constant
4. Use a cable release
5. Overlap each shot by 20%
6. Stitch photos in post

I think the moral of the story is that you should never give up on a shot, especially a complicated shot like a panoramic. Try a different angle, focal point, aperture, exposure and see if you can make the shot work! Hope this inspires you to go out and take some panoramic shots yourself.

What are your experiences shooting panoramic shots?

Dead twitter bird by Pasquale.

Remember when Twitter was elitist and cool and way geeky? When tweets actually contained thoughts or links to sweet content? When the twitter was, like, our geeky secret club of social 2.0 misfits?

Twitter is about connecting, about sharing, about helping each other through our daily geeky struggles with toasted HDs, exploding MBPs, 404s and other jedi mind tricks.

That’s all gone now because therealbritney is on Twitter. Yeah, even Britney Spears can’t get her own name on twitter. Anyway, I won’t start that rant about how some jerk took @mostlylisa on Twitter!

Stop the madness and just say NO! No Britney we will not follow you, or @ you, or retweet any of your lame blogs or blog entries. I’m glad your management team has finally discovered the power of social media, but Twitter is our world and you and your nekkid videos can take a hike off my feed.

Now say after me:

I promise to not follow Britney Spears on Twitter

Good! Now I wanna see your solemn vow in my comments!

NB. I will, however, continue to listen to your music while cleaning and doing laundry and perhaps dancing in front of a mirror with a Swiffer Sweeper.

Hizzah and many w00ts to Nik Fletcher and his spectacular summertime shot. Along with winning the first Mostly Lisa Photography Contest, he has won a super fun prize!

Special mentions go to Rob & Lauren and Scott Bradley who gave Nik a run for his money with their awesome shots.

I am always interested to know the story behind a great photo, so I asked Nik to share the story of “The Anonymous Surfer”:

‘The Anonymous Surfer’ was taken on the last night of my stay in San Diego in September. The previous evening, I’d witnessed a gorgeous sunset – one that had disappeared by the time I had run back to the hotel, grabbed my camera bag, and made it back to Pacific Beach.

So for the time it came to the last evening in town, I took the camera bag with me to dinner, and waited. Because of the lens I primarily shoot with (10-20mm) I dropped down onto the beach, and quite by chance this surfer was about to pass me by. With the sunset in the background, and after a week of my own attempts to body-board, it seemed like a fitting photo to end the holiday.

Technical Details: Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 HSM EX lens, 10mm focal length, 1/40 sec @ f/4. The shot was deliberately underexposed on the camera, only modification in Aperture being to ensure the horizon was perfectly level.

Thanks Nik! And a hi-5 to all the people who entered the contest. It’s never easy to have your photos judged, but I think it’s really important to share your photos with others and see what other people are creating. It’s also a great feeling to receive comments and encouragement from other enthusiastic photographers.

And with that I present the next Mostly Lisa Photography Contest: Portraits!

Submissions:
Add your best portrait (as in ONE image) to the Mostly Lisa Photo Competition Group on Flickr

The portrait can be of anything with a face, i.e. person, animal, teddy bear, etc.

Deadline:
Thursday November 10th.

Now show me some awesome portraits!

My first time shooting the stars was a memorable event. I’ve always been facinated by stars. My childhood room was plastered with constellation, galaxy and astronomy posters. I even had the main constellations replicated in glow-n-the-dark stars on the slanted ceiling above my bed. I was seriously into stars. So much so, that I only alloted a small 6×6″ piece of wall for Matt Damon.

On the last day of the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop, I was elated when Scott Stulberg suggested that we decided to stay long into the night to capture some astronomical pictures. We did have to forgo dinner and general warmth, but it was well worth it.

The group was lead by Scott Stulberg & Martin Gisbourne, an experienced astrophotographer who guided us through the sky and found a perfect spot right below the Milky Way for us to set up our gear.

It’s really important to set up your tripod and camera and find your frame and focus point before it gets dark, because when it’s dark, you can’t see a whole lot through your view finder. I learnt my lesson by finding the edge of a huge tree in a lot of my star pictures after the fact. I think the tree decided to move in my frame just to spite me. Jerk.

Also, if you don’t have a headlamp flashlight, get one. They are essential for early morning or night shoots. Trust me, mounting a camera on a tripod or changing a CF card in the dark is not a good idea. Also, the iPhone flashlight app does not give sufficient light for finding anything really. Tried. Tested. And true. And dress warm, like a Michelin man amount, as it gets a wee bit chilly waiting for those 30s exposures.

As soon as the sky was dark, the group started shooting. It was really tough to get the stars in focus and the photos weren’t coming out the way we wanted. Scott Stulberg and I ended up breaking from the group to do some crazy light painting of the Mormon barns which I”ll talk about in another post. When we came back we ran into legendary Nikon photographer, Dave Black, and his pals shooting some spectacular shots of the stars in a completely different position in the sky. We asked them how they were getting such clear shots. He said that the trick is to set your focus to manual, on infiinite focus, positioning the cursor right in the middle of the ∞. Then we had the magic formula:

Aperture at f/2.8,
Shutter speed at 25-30s,
Manual focus set to infinite focus,
ISO cranked to 3200 to 6400 (for those of us with Nikon D3s).

The only problem was, Scotty’s camera was outta juice and he forgot his spare battery (tsk, tsk) and my lil Xti couldn’t hack it, so Richard generously loaned us his Canon 1D Mark III to get this magical shot.

Most of us were shooting with wide-angle lenses, as wide as a 14mm fisheye, to get in as much sky as possible. But if you’ve got zoom, use it, especially if the moon is out and aboot.

I hope this has given you the inspiration to go out and take your own star shots. If you get any good ones be sure to link them in the comments!

Mostly Lisa & MacBook Air 4 ever… mostly

No matter how fancy or thin or sleek or polished the newly released MacBooks and MBPs look, I promise to stand by you, my lovely MacBook Air. Those flashy new guys may be faster, more powerful, or just plain better, but we have a special “connection” you and I. We’ve been through the good and the bad, haven’t we? And that’s not something I’d just throw away for some cheap thrills. And they would be cheaper. Word on the interwebs is a lot cheaper, as in under $1000. But even that wouldn’t sway me because I am committed to YOU. Ok?? I’m glad we had this talk.

Uh. What now?? You want me to stop looking at leaked photos on engadget or all reading all the hype on apple insider. I’m not.. I.. I.. just followed a link from twitter. You know what? You need to start trusting me here. You can’t just start monitoring everything I do from now on and holding my internet history against me! You know I clear the cache after 3 days anyway.

What? You’ve changed my preferences? Deleted all my passwords from my keychain? And you’ve stopped synchronizing with my iPhone? And you are not currently not accepting any bluetooth devices. Well that’s just great. *hmph*

Look, your beef is with me. Don’t take it out on the peripheries. And if you want to throw all that attitude at me, then why don’t I bring up the fact that I will never ever be truly satisfied with your ONE USB hub? And since we are being totally honest here, your hub is kinda flimsy and *cough* a little bit small. What’s that? You’re sorry for being so inflammatory and rude. Ok ok. I accept your apology.

But remember, jealousy will get you no where. There will always be others splashing their bits n’ bizznizz all over the net, and I may be tempted. Yeah, I’ll admit it, I’ll look, but there’s no crime in that. It’s completely natural to check out another Apple laptops stats, but I promise I will not stroke anyone else’s keys or snuggle up in bed with anyone but you…. mostly.

Let’s remember the good times, like when I got you. Look how happy I am!

Are you gonna stand by your old laptop, or trade it in for a newer, younger, prettier model?

Are you gonna buy a new MB or MBP?

With out further ado, (as I think I’ve ado’d for a bit too long on this one), here are my top 8 picks of the very first Mostly Lisa Photography Contest. There were so many amazing photographs, but I had to pick the photos that best represented the theme “Summertime”. And here they are:

The Anonymous Surfer by Nik Fletcher.

Sunset Photos at Sunset Bar and Grille in Duck NC by Christopher Blunck.

“Fireworks over Downtown San Diego” by Buto Hairs.

“Splash” by Nathan Makan.

Summer Ride by Rob and Lauren

“admirando… / admiring…” by Adalberto Pita.

“Carnivale” by Scott Bradley.

“Summer friends” by Ivan Gomez.

Who do you think should be crowned the first Mostly Lisa photography champion and win this super sweet prize :o?

Vote for your favourite in the comments below!

Video by Redpilot Media.

Learning how to correctly using diffusers and reflectors will make a huge difference in your portrait photography. But don’t just take my word for it… Watch and learn from this footage I captured of Scott Bourne and Scott Stulberg demonstrating how to use diffusion and reflection to get nice, soft light on ANPW contest winner, Cathy Chung at the Mormon Row Barns in the Grand Tetons.

Travel & stock photographer, Scott Stulberg never leaves home without his 32″ Photoflex diffuser and soft/gold reflector ($40). And if you’ve seen Scott’s photos you’ll know that he is a master at lighting his subjects.

Reflector/diffuser combos are light, portable, and fit nicely in most photobags, especially the Lowepro CompuTrekker backpack. If you have a smaller bag you can always get a smaller bounce! They come in loads of different sizes and are pretty affordable… mostly.

Like all things associated with photography, reflectors can get pricey and I understand that you might not have the bucks to buy a decent bounce. So if you are on a shoestring budget, head to your nearest craft or Staples and buy a few white board for $2 each. Then, put your subject in the shade so you don’t need to diffuse the sun. Done. cool.

I have a bunch of whiteboards lying around my apartment that I can quickly grab for indoor macros or for quick shoots on the fly. I still use them on shoots and find them really handy and quite durable.

Using a whiteboard as a bounce is cool and cheap.

Now go take pictures and be merry!

Published in The Province.

At some point during the last 10 years of this computer age, spelling and grammatical accuracy got tossed, phrases got shortened to two-finger tappables like “CU l8r”, and a whole new lexicon of ever-expanding nerd words like “w00t”, “l337″, “n00b” moved from underground Internet forums to mainstream media and your e-mail inbox.

More and more we see the Internet shaping the way we communicate with each other. The language of the Internet is fast-paced, constantly changing, and rich with cynicism and rebellion. After all, the age group developing and propagating this new iSpeak is Internet savvy teenagers belonging to Gen Z or the “Google Generation.” These kids grew up on the web, texting their friends in kindergarten, pirating mp3s for their iPods before puberty and coding complex websites during high-school geography class.

Gen Z is not afraid of breaking rules or experimenting with language. Just look at the plethora of fabulous spellings for the frequently used teen phrase “this sucks” in Internet slang, or LeetSpeak. There is “teh suxs” for everyday usage, “suxx0rz” for really bad suckage, or “suxxaga” when things just can’t suck any worse.

At first it may seem like there is no rhyme nor reason to these derivations, but like any linguistic code, it has a pattern. Once you know the pattern, it oesn’t-day, uck-say. What? No one remembers Pig Latin? Even if you are a complete n00b (“newbie”) on the Internet you will have run into your fair share of LOLs and emoticons, like this smiley, winking guy, ; ).

Whether you know the exact translation as “laugh out loud” or not, the meaning of LOL is universal. No matter where you are in the world, LOL means “I’m laughing”, while :( means “I’m sad.” This guy “:P” will get you out of a lot of trouble if you have the tendency to make snarky remarks that easily offend people — but I wouldn’t know anything about that.

The days of ruthlessly guarded spelling and grammar rules of our parents’ generation are slowly slipping away. With that being said, I am a bit of a stickler for grammar, and I’ll admit to a 50-per-cent increase in pulse rate when I see a beautifully crafted sentence like this one written on my Facebook wall: “i love your photo’s, their really good.” That was actually written by a high-school English teacher, so go figure. I’ve just had to let my Nancy Know-It-All tendencies slide a little and embrace the positives in this linguistic evolution.

So, for better or worse, the Internet is dramatically changing the landscape of human communication.

I see the evolution of language on the web as progress, rather than a slap in the face of steadfast English grammar rules. After all, we are a global community now. It’s time we start to think laterally in terms of language and communication. Plus, I never wuz a gr8 spellr anyway.

What do you think? Is our growing Internet language helping or hindering global communication?

And now for something completely different…

Blog World hi-jinks with my bff Amanda Coolong (TechZulu), Pete Cashmore (Mashable), Snaps (the Kangaroo), USB HubMan/kid, a Zannel squooshie schwag yoyo & a lone pigeon.

Powered by my sweet Mostly Lisa Viddler Tees, 2 hours of sleep, 3 chocolate chip cookies, a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, Yahoo mints, some nuclear green coloured caffeinated drink and Las Vegas.

I’ll be the first to admit it. This video is pretty weird, but it oddly enough captures the essence of a Blogging/Tech/2.0 conference very well. That essence smelling something like a mixture of day-old deodorant, guacamole, gasoline, melting plastic, glue, warm cookies, and dusty carpet. *sigh* I guess you just had to be there.

At least this time I didn’t dive bomb a geek with a USendit airplane or lose a whole bunch of dough with Rosie O’Donnell.

Thanks to rocknrollgeek for filming, the MindTouch girl that gave Snaps a special button, and Pete $more for just lookin’ fly.

PS. I think Amanda really needs to work on her interviewing skills if she’s ever going to be considered, like a serious reporter or whatever.

The ANPW contest winners, Pros, and I were up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning at 5am, hoping to catch a beautiful dawn in Grand Teton Ntl. Park. The actual workshop *learning Aperture* was to begin later, but at first light, the students split up into two groups to take some pictures.

I trucked it to Oxbow Bend with Pros: Scott Stulberg & Steve Simon; and contest winners, Richard and Bryan. Everyone came prepared for the cold, except Steve, who was a bit whiny and runny nosed, kinda like a baby who’s had their lollipop ripped outta their tiny little hands by a mean photographer trying to capture pure misery and tears. I guess Steve is like me, you know, “they mostly come out at night… mostly” aka morning is for sleeping, afternoons are for eating breakfast.

Scott was determined to get a great shot, so we headed down this step muddy hill to the bank of Snake River. And then we set up our tripods, then everyone laughed at mind and pushed me in the mud… well they didn’t exactly push me in the mud, but I bet they wanted too,. Jerks. *huff* Then we pointed our lenses at the iconic view and waited. And waited.

No interesting light seemed to be happening on Mt. Moran, but suddenly a slight miss of fog started floating just above the water line behind us. No one else was worried about the immediate appearance of Death Eaters, but I methodically started chanting the Patronus Charm in my head and heart. As the fog began to roll, As the fog began to roll, Scott jumped and “yahooed”, changing his camera direction to started shooting the rolling fog and silhouetted trees against the wispy, pink sky.

It was a great lesson in always looking for shots, even when you are waiting for a sunrise to happen, look around, there maybe a great shot just waiting to be found like, a silhouetted bird in the distance, or a line of photographers tripods all in a row, or even interesting shots of reflected trees in the water.

Everyone was carefully switching lenses near the water, and Scotty reminded us to always keep one hand on your tripod near water. He has tragically lost two cameras in the water, so let him be the lesson for all of us.

Scott Bourne lead Catherine and Rob to Schwabacher Landing, but immediately left when no clouds were present because without clouds, landscape shots fall a bit flat. So, they headed up the road past the landing at Teton Overlook and grabbed some amazing panoramic shots of the Southern Tetons. Rob disappeared from the group with Martin aka the “Aperture Guru” for a while and ran into a crazy one horned elk.

After breakfast, the workshop got in full gear at the beautiful Jackson Arts center where Martin blew our minds with the dynamic power of Aperture. We imported our images, learned how to compare and select our favorites, and generally found out that Aperture can do most of the things we used to do in Photoshop, but it’s waaaay less complicated. I’ll do a dedicated post on Aperture in the next few days so you guys can see how cool it is.

What photo management & editing application do you use?

Yesterday I arrived in the small Mountain Resort town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I couldn’t help “oohing” and “ahhing” at the spectacular view of the mountains, winding rivers, and the gorgeous colours of the changing leaves as the plane descended over the Grand Tetons. 

Scott Bourne was worried that we might miss the the fall colours, but he couldn’t have picked a better week for the Aperture Nature Photography Workshop. The weather is perfect, the colours are spectacular and the wildlife is abundant — in fact just after arriving we saw a huge herd of Bison saunter across the road, munch on some grass, and then cross back over to the same spot they came from. Scott amused us by vocalizing the inner dialogue of a massive, sleepy looking guy. I believe his name was “Wilber”.

Since my arrival,  Scott and I have headed out on a sunset scouting mission at Oxbow Bend and a dawn shoot at Schwabacher landing. I’m not gonna lie. Dawn is freezing and early. Today it was around 25°F (-4°C) and I was way underdressed. Even with three layers I was c-c-c-cold. Scott loaned me a jacket and gave me these little heat packs that I put in my gloves which helped a lot. 

After the sun came up, we scouted the Mormon Row barns that are surrounded by tall grass and slender birch trees and framed by the Tetons. Brilliant.

I have to admit, I have never shot any nature this iconic, and it is a bit daunting trying to take a great and unique shot of something that has been photographed a million times. As a beginning nature photographer, my main goal is just to soak up as much knowledge from the pros as possible and try to do these impressive landscapes justice.

Tomorrow the entire group is heading out at dawn to catch the morning bliss. 5:00am start for me :(

*Interesting note: Only one other person, other than myself, who is shooting Canon. Has Canon really dropped the ball? I’m really interested in what you guys are using.

What camera are you shooting with: Nikon or Canon? And why?

Article written & published special to the Province.

The fact that mainstream media have made celebrity gossip blogger, Perez Hilton, synonymous with blogging, is one of the greatest tragedies of the web. If you haven’t been introduced to Perez’s particular brand of snarky, childish, eye-gauging celebutrashing, then you are in the minority. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, 1.7 million viewers are happily clicking on PerezHilton.com everyday to get their daily dose of “he got fat, she got fake boobs, they’re engaged, now married, now divorced, and both in rehab” news.

And guess what?

Your shallow addiction to Britney Spear’s cellulite is making Perez rich — and the most famous blogger on the Internet.

In the last few months I’ve seen Perez spring up on the cover and the glossy pages of Rolling Stone, Wired, Time, and People. With the support of mainstream media, Perez’s Internet fame is mutating into TV shows, appearances on popular talk shows like The View, and spawning a whole Internet cesspool of copycat bloggers hoping to cash in on Perez’s success.

The latest celeb blog making a splash on the web is Ashton Kutcher’s South Park-esque, BlahGirls.com. From the man who brought us such quality programming as Punk’d and Beauty and the Geek, we have yet another Perez-cloned site aimed at teenage girls. This is what really gets my knickers in a twist: I understand the potential monetary gain and amusement derived from celeb gossip blogging, but seriously — do teenage girls need to hear any more about Britney flashing her cooch?

The mainstream popularization of trashy, trite, and slovenly written blogs like PerezHilton.com is giving bloggers a bad name.

For many people who aren’t exploring the intense array of intelligent and thought-provoking blogs on the web, Perez might be the only blog they read. And that is one of the great tragedies of the web.
Maybe I am biased. I’m a blogger. Most of my friends are bloggers. I’ve even got my Internet n00b (unskilled user) mother turned on to the idea of keeping an online journal of her recent foray into digital photography. I think that sharing experience, knowledge, and information through first-hand journaling through blogs is an enriching experience for both the author and reader.

Blogs provide a platform for the writer and the reader to strike up an instantaneous discourse through comments which happen in real time.

It’s personal, immediate, and socks you right in the gut if you aren’t careful. It’s freedom of expression at it’s finest. And true, there is a lot of blogging debris on the web, but if more reputable journalists like Matt Taibbi and Anderson Cooper toss their credibility and craft onto the web, hopefully the mainstream will take note and push the crap aside, even if it is crap made from the finest champagne and fair-trade, organic celery sticks.

Opinions & comments? You know where to put ‘em.

Since this was published in the Province this morning, I’ve already received a stack of unimpressed and angry Perez fans. Bring it I say! Plus, in a few hours I’ll be on a plane to Vegas. Should take the sting off.

Oh and if you live in Vancouver, pick up a copy of The Province, my first article may be worth something some day :p

Twitter redesigned some stuff. Moved tabs to the side and opened up the design. Personally I like it. The best new ‘tweek’ is the ability to reply to a Direct Message just by clicking a small mail icon on the right-hand side of the message you’d like to reply to.

Also, you can spice up your tweets or express the complexity of your emotions with TwitterKeys by the guys at The Next Web, i.e. ❉ ❥ ♘. It’s nothing complicated, just a pop up browser bookmarket of a symbol library where you copy and paste little unicode symbols anywhere, like on Twitter, Facebook or right here, on your blog: ☃.

Or just like, double click & copy n paste these puppies below:

What’s your favourite TwitterKeys symbol?