May 9, 2011

by Gavin Seim: My family and I have been on the road for about three weeks now as I teach workshops and hunt pictorials. Last fall we spent a month and a half. We love to travel and aside from all my gear, I have a plethora of resources that we rely on to make our travels safer, cheaper and a more enjoyable.

I’ve decided to stat a list of my favorites. Besides the essential Google Maps, I find these to be great tools and use most of them even when I’m not out for a long trip. You’re welcome to add your favs in the comments. I’ll also come back and update this or re-post in in the future as I find new stuff.

If you want to follow my photography travels and see where I’ve been, you can do so on my journal, or get frequent updates on my Facebook page. Lets get started…

Our Shamrock 21ss camped near Bryce Canyon Utah. Spring 2011.

All Stays Camp & RV. For Apple and Android.

This $6 app is worth every penny and more. It’s paid for itself countless times in saving money camping, time traveling, and preventing headaches. It’s a must have for campers.

It lists  pretty much anything a camper or RV’er might want. From truck stops to campgrounds, to wall mar parking lots. It’s not perfect and something it misses things but it’s data base is huge and no matter where you are it will usually give you options.

This is my favorite, but All Stays has various other apps that you may find useful. iExit for example shows what’s coming up and the next exit. Check out their website for their offerings.

 

GeoTag Photos Pro. For Apple and Android.

This is a cheap way to get location info into your photos. Make sure you camera and phone time is the same. Turn on this app and start recording. When you get home upload the data and login to there website to A. Use their web app to merge dates into your RAW or JPEG files. or B. Download a GPX file and use it with a LR plugin like JF Geoencoding Support.

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April 1, 2011

Click To Listen>> Photography Podcast. PPS #76
Review in iTunesVote on Podcast AlleyDirect Podcast Feed

Today’s Panel... Gavin SeimDenns ZerwasKerry GarrsonBarry Howel

On this roundtable we go LIVE with listeners in the chatroom and calling in. There were a few glitches but for a first live show it came off well. Lots of business talk in this one so if you don’t want to hear about things like Facebook marketing, use the time indexes below to skip segments.

 

This is a live show. Uh no, not the PPS live show. I just thought this would make the post a bit cooler 😉 Gav

NOTE: Due to a double link the feed iTunes was pulling the previous episode for the first hour or so. If this happened to you, delete the redundant episode. Then right click Pro Photo Show in your podcast list and choose “Show All Podcast Episodes”. #76 will show up again and should be the updated file when you re-download.

Podcast #76 forum discussion:

Notable Time Indexes:

  • 00:00 Introductions and DZ’s Awesome intro.
  • 03:14 News and random bits.
  • 23:40. Future gear and vintage gear.
  • 33:00 Aperture presets announced and workshops info.
  • 36:30 Kerry likes the Wacom Intuos 4.
  • 42:18 Lightroom 4 Predictions.
  • 53:17 Talking about marketing and Facebook use.
  • 1:20:50. SquareUp and taking credit cards.
  • 1:32:38 Picks and gadgets.
  • 1:46:34 The after show.

 

Links to things we mentioned.

Gavin’s new Lightflow Aperture Presets are now available.

TinEye image search is a good tool… http://bit.ly/ebdfTl

Gavin’s Workshops coming this April.

Lightroom Power. April 18th Oakland
Lights & Shadows. April 16-17 Oakland CA, April 25-26 Pismo Beach CA.

64 and 128GB SD cards from Lexar.

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March 1, 2011

Click To Listen>> Photography Podcast. PPS #75
Review in iTunesVote on Podcast AlleyDirect Podcast Feed

Today’s Panel... Gavin SeimDenns ZerwasEric GuggenheimMark Teskey.

On this roundtable we discuss a lot of tips and mistakes to avoid from various genres of photography. We also get into some news, industry and business talk and more.

Podcast #75 forum discussion:

Notable Time Indexes:

  • 00:00 Introductions, micro 4/3 stuff and other news.
  • 21:25 Workshops announcements.
  • 26:17 Techniques for different situations. Architecture.
  • 35:09 Techniques for different situations. Outdoors.
  • 53:15  Techniques for different situations. Weddings.
  • 1:00:50. More tips on photography. Avoiding mistakes.
  • 1:20:40 Marketing. Things on our mind about the industry.
  • 1:37:15 Announcing Pro Photo Show LIVE.
  • 1:42:14. After show. Random things.

Links to things we mentioned.

Info on live show. Post coming soon with details. I’ll add a link.

Lights & Shadows. HDR and tone workshop. Coming to CA in April.

LR Power, Lightroom workshop. Coming to CA in April.

The new Fuji X100 rangefinder style.

It goes head to head with the Leica X1.

Some other interesting models.

Ricoh GXR,

Sigma DP2.

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December 23, 2010

by Gavin Seim (updated 07/11): HDR simply means High Dynamic Range. But lets face it. A lot of this HDR looks a lot like clippings from a spoof horror movie. It’s the Flickr HDR. I think this happens because many don’t really grasp what HDR is all about and how to use it well. This includes many HDR software developers. They fall for the fad instead of thinking of it as a serious photographic tool. It’s can be so powerful if used with balance.

Tufa Sunrise. Single bracket HDR pano. More details here.

Back in the day there was film. Then came digital. Then came HDR. First we merged light and dark images in special ways to get a wider range of light. HDR merging was not perfect and was often overdone, but it could produce beautiful results. Often results that looked edgy and bold. Young guys like me thought we were so cool. Capturing detail that was never seen before.

Then I started looking closer. Studying what the film forefathers had been making for years. Looking at the dynamic range and detail. I realized that HDR was really not so new. Film photography had high dynamic range also and I saw images that astounded me. Images, that had I not been told they were on traditional film, I would have assumed were digital HDR. It helped me realize something.

HDR is not a trend of over-processed, super amped, ultra edgy photos. I think many architectural photographers got this memo, but most others didn’t. I’ve talked about balance in HDR processing for some time, but what I’ve come to further realize and started teaching in Lights & Shadows Workshop is that HDR is about controlling tone. It’s about understand and managing light. Digital in itself does not yet have the dynamic range that film did, so we compensate. Just as a film photographer might have used filters, various film types and chemical process to get dynamic range in their images, we use digital manipulation. HDR photography is little more than the new film.

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December 8, 2010

Click To Listen>> Photography Podcast. PPS #73
Review in iTunesVote on Podcast AlleyDirect Podcast Feed

Today’s Panel... Gavin SeimDenns ZerwasBarry HowellScott & Adina HayneKevin Swan

This year on the Christmas episode we talk A LOT about the industry business and pricing ideas, what we see for 2011 and even some great tools and gadgets to pick up for Christmas. Note that this is a long show. If it’s a bit much break halfway using the time index below and listen to it as two episodes.

Podcast #73 forum discussion:

Notable Time Indexes:

  • 00:00 Introductions and news.
  • 18:50 2010 Christmas Contest.
  • 21:10 Business Talking about the industry.
  • 31:00 Facebook and other musings.
  • 45:00 Pricing thoughts and more business.
  • 1:23:10  2010 in review and looking to 2011.
  • 1:37:22 The 2010 gadget and gift guide.
  • 2:09:30 The After Show.

Links to things we mentioned.

The 2010 Christmas Contest

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