Gobos! Gobos! Gobos! What Are They? How Can They Add Visual Interest? How Can You Make Some Cheaply?

Gobos are a great way to add some visual interest to a photograph. Whether you are trying to spice up the background, enhance the visual contours and curves of your subject, or just trying to break up space, gobos are a great way to achieve that.

However, once one discovers the usefulness of gobos for their own photography, the shopping-monster inevitably raises its' ugly head. But fear not! Let's make some of our own and use existing equipment we might have laying around, to fulfill our gobo needs!
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Upgrading Tivo hard drive upgrades on a MacBook pro with VMware's Mac OS X virtualization product: Fusion

So, you've got a Tivo that needs upgrading, but you recently switched completely to all Apple computers. What are you to do? There are certainly a few applications out there for upgrading a Tivo's hard drive, but they only do a few of the functions of the bootable Linux-based tools. Most would suggest borrowing a friend's PC for a while, or booting your Apple computer into Linux for a while, so you can do the Tivo upgrade. But... what if that isn't an option? What if you HAVE to get work, chatting, or web surfing done?

The answer: VMware's Fusion. It's VMware's virtualization software for your Intel-based Mac, whether you are using a Mac Pro, iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, or even a MacBook Air. :)
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Photographing Scenes At Small Apertures

When I first started shooting, and quite often at the mall, I will encounter one of those large backlit displays with the flowing waterfalls. You know the ones, the waterfall is all feathery and the light behind it makes it look like the water is flowing. I really don't like those displays... :)

But what I DO like, is the photography. Those beautiful and ethereal photographs of moving water, turned mist or made dreamy, through the use of long exposures.

This is something that anyone can do, provided they have a tripod, a camera that can be set for slightly longer exposures, and a lens or lens and filter, that can be stepped down, to reduce the light coming in through the lens to the camera. Did I mention a tripod would be helpful? ;)
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Halloween, A Time For Night Time Photography!

October 31st, is just around the corner. Costume stores are popping up all over the place and people are considering what to wear for their special night out, to their office parties, and for their special someones! The streets will be lined with decorations and the lights will be amazing.

For a photographer, this is a kaleidescope of color and creativity!
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Breaking The Monotony of "Schedule, Pose, Shoot" , Let's Host A Murder Mystery Photoshoot!

Picture this... instead of having a photoshoot in a near clean-room studio environment, you host a murder mystery party. Your models, your thesbians(actors), and you all gather at a photogenic locale and host your murder mystery party. You, of course, play the photojournalist for the local paper and want to document the events, as they unfold. Where your guests, models, actors, and makeup/fashion artists have a great time roleplaying, you end up with some high energy and truly unplanned photographs.

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The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing asin: 0195072391

Armed and Dangerous: A Writer's Guide to Weapons (Howdunit Series) author: Michael Newton asin: 089879370X

Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons (Howdunit Series) author: Serita Deborah Stevens,Anne Klarner asin: 0898793718

Cause of Death : A Writer's Guide to Death, Murder and Forensic Medicine (Howdunit Series) author: Keith D. Wilson asin: 0898795249

The Crime Writer's Reference Guide: 1001 Tips On Writing the Perfect Murder author: Martin Roth asin: 0941188493

Modus Operandi: A Writer's Guide to How Criminals Work (Howdunit) author: Mauro V. Corvasce,Joseph R. Paglino asin: 1582971374

Copyrighting Your Work = Additional Safeguards For Your Work & Intellectual Property

Look, they are your photographs. You shot them, and from the moment you hit the shutter release, barring any work-for-hire and contract clauses giving away your work, the photograph capture in your camera belongs to you. People need to pay you money to make use of your work. By default, photographs and other artwork, belong to the one who created them. There is a defactor copyright in place, so long as you can prove you were the one who created the work(negatives/RAW files), you can prove your ownership. » Read More »»

Patents, Copyrights & Trademarks for Dummies author: Henri Charmasson asin: 0764525514

Patent, Copyright & Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference author: Rich Stim asin: 1413306462

Ah, Time For The Holidays... Don't Forget Extra Film! ( memory cards! )

Hmm... Cinco De Mayo just rolled by and Mother's Day is rolling around. Then, there's Armed Forces Day, followed by Memorial Day. June brings us Flag Day and Father's Day. School lets out, so children will just be everywhere. And don't forget the 4th of July... the point is... there's alot of picture taking to be done. By the guy with camera in the family, the shutterbug, the semi-pro, and the professionals who are actually out there to earn a living on this highly enjoyable activity, called photography.

In the past, there would be the rush to the local drugstore or super market to buy two or three of those 4packs of 24 or 36 shot film. Want to make sure you have enough film, so that should someone stop by, you would have the film needed to capture the moment. How convenient! Just pop the film in and off you go. Undeveloped film could sit safely in that little black and grey container until after the festivities.

However, for those of us who own digital cameras... we have "reusable" film, our memory cards. The benefit of these cards is that you can reuse them for what is essentially the life of the camera. However, reusing them means that you need to copy or process the images before you can use the card again. That means precious minutes... or hours, downloading pictures to your computer. What if you run out of space on your  computer?? *GASP*

The point is, you can have spare batteries at the ready, why not have memory chips at the ready? Whether you're using XD cards, SD, SDHC, miniSD, microSD, transflash, Memory Sticks, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Pro Duo, Compact Flash, or Micro Drives... you're going to need extra... or maybe its time to get a bigger card. » Read More »»

SanDisk SDMSPH-1024-A10 1GB Ultra II MemoryStickPro (Retail Package) asin: B0001CNMFW

Sandisk ULTRA II High Performance 8.0 GB CF Card (SDCFH-8192-901, Retail Package) asin: B00065ANY2

SanDisk SDSDH-2048-901 2 GB Ultra II Secure Digital Memory Card (Retail Package) asin: B00065ANYC

SanDisk ULTRA II HIGH PERFORMANCE 4GB (SDCFH-4096-901, Retail Package) asin: B00065ANYW

SanDisk 2 GB Ultra II Memory Stick PRO Duo asin: B00083XXZS

SanDisk 2 GB Ultra II SD Plus USB Card (SDSDPH-2048-901, Retail Package) asin: B000EWI8IK

Sandisk SDSDQU1024A 1 GB Ultra II MicroSD Memory Card asin: B000F1N0KQ

Secure Digital, 2GB Mini Ultra II asin: B000F1OWMQ

SanDisk Ultra II SDHC 4GB w/MicroMate USB 2.0 Bundle ( SDSDRH-4096-901 ) asin: B000J5LA9Q

ADATA 8GB Secure Digital SDHC Memory Card 8 GB asin: B000MMPQ28

I Love Books, But They Sure Are Heavy!

Look, I love books. I have owned, read, and passed on literally thousands of books in the short time I've lived. They are the ultimate means of storing information in an easy to pickup, read, and put down format. No power requirements, other than light, and no clumsy interface. Open, flip, flip, close. Simple. The only downside is that they are kinda heavy and bulky. They are hard to make backup copies of, in case you drop one into the lake while reading from it and trying to configure your camera. They also have a nasty tendancy to age, much like we do.

When I go on a photography trip, or any kind of trip, I always bring the following with me: » Read More »»

DSLR Canon Digital Rebel XT / EOS 350D eBook asin: 188238329X

A Short Course in Canon EOS 5D Photography book/ebook author: Dennis Paul Curtin asin: 1928873626

A Short Course in Nikon D200 Photography book/ebook author: Dennis P. Curtin asin: 1928873707

A Short Course in Nikon D80 Photography book/ebook author: Dennis Curtin asin: 192887374X