We’ve been talking about moving your camera settings away from the program mode, photo composites, a touch of white balance, and philosophical discussions about snapshots versus portraits. Whew! Are you ready for a break? OK, but only a short one, and we need to stay on target. How about surfing some internet sites? Mark and I would be very happy for you to look at the top menu, here on our page, and go to our galleries. We are regularly adding images and ready for your comments there or here on the blog site. Thank you.
Here are some of my favorite websites for information, inspiration, and innovation. (Don’t you love alliteration? Please, do not insult my intelligence by insinuating that alliteration is insipid and infantile. OK, I’m done…) I will only list a small portion of my favorites and will try to provide a variety of photography topics, since my current list exceeds 60 sites and changes quickly. I probably visit a dozen or so on my list every day.
Mark and I are members of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (their main site is in our Blogroll). The main characters in the NAPP are Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, and Dave Cross. Their sites cover a wide range of photo and post-processing topics, and their dry sense of humor appeals to us. Their main sites are: Scott, “Photoshop Insider,” http://www.scottkelby.com/; Matt, “Adobe Photoshop Killer Tips,” http://www.photoshopkillertips.com/; and Dave, http://davecross.blogspot.com/.
Another great site for post-processing is Deke McClelland, http://www.deke.com/. Deke is a “self-appointed expert on all things graphics and imaging.” Another guy with a strange sense of humor, his tutorials are great. Like the NAPP boys, Deke has written many best-selling books – many of which I own and have read and re-read. He is associated with Lynda.com, another great source for educational material.
Several of my daily visits are at sites that represent some absolute specialists in key areas of photography. Joe McNally (http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/) is known for his incredible abilities with flash and other lighting. He is hilarious in a seminar, so, if you ever get a chance to hear him speak, go do it. David Ziser (http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/) is a highly-respected wedding and portrait photographer. He also writes about photography business issues. Moose Peterson (http://www.moosenewsblog.com/) is an outstanding wild-life photographer and a strong contributor to conservation causes. Mark and I have paid to attend seminars with all the folks I’ve mentioned in the above paragraphs. They are all great sources of photography/post-processing education. All the information they provide on their sites is free of charge.
For a newer generation of photography blogs, you might try: Chase Jarvis (http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/), Zack Arias (http://www.zarias.com/), David duChemin (http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/), and Ree Drummond (http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/). These folks come at the issues a little differently than most. I’ll leave it at that and let you go read them for yourself.
For just drifting through collections of other photographers’ work, I prefer photo.net (http://photo.net/ ) and Pbase.com (http://www.pbase.com/). Both have some really high quality contributors. You should look at other photographers work to see what is possible; get different approaches to the same problem; and for personal enjoyment. Feel free to add any of your favorites in the comments section. Remember, we’re supposed to be having fun.
These plums have nothing to do with this blog, but you have to have at least one picture in a photoblog, right?