Bobdphoto's Weblog

Alternative to the Typical Camera Bag

bobdphoto — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:44:06 +0000

Here is a cool new way to carry your camera gear. It is the Tenba Messenger. The Messenger can hold a DSLR, a few lenses, a 15 inch laptop and a whole bunch of other things. Check out the videos on their website. A pretty neat alternative to the typical camera bag.

Photo Techniques

bobdphoto — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:10:08 +0000

I stumbled across this blog from reading David Ziser’s blog, Digital Pro Talk. Jim Talkington is a professional photographer out of Cincinnati, OH. Plenty of cool videos and teaching can be found here. A must blog for the newbie or professional. Check it out here.

McNally Sighting in Mass 9/08

bobdphoto — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:28:39 +0000

One of my favorite blogs to read regularly is world famous photographer Joe McNally’s blog. Not only is Joe a superb photographer & teacher, he writes one heck of a blog. His style of writing and humor make anyone want to come back for more. Oh yeah, he takes some pretty good photos too. Anyway, I am reading his post from the 21st of August, which was posted by his assistant Brad Moore, and Brad writes that Joe will be coming to Massachusetts in September. Now i am hoping it is somewhere close and not somewhere two hours away. Not that Joe is not worth the drive I just hate driving any long distances, period. Come to find out he will be in Waltham MA, a nice easy 15 minute drive. The rest is history. I logged into the web site, registered & now I am counting down the days to the 8th where I get to see the master of speedlights perform his magic. And i didn’t even have to use a vacation day.

Here is the link to register.

I Survived Scott Kelby’s Photowalk

bobdphoto — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:55:37 +0000

On Saturday August 23 over 8,000 photographers across the globe, ventured out to participate in the inaugural Scott Kelby Photowalk. Here in Boston one could have not asked for a better day. The weather was near perfect. The bright sun made for some harsh shadows but that did not stop the 50 shooters who trekked through Boston’s historical North End seeking out the best shot. Two plus hours made for some great photography and some serious back pain. Of the 200 plus photos I took, here are some of my favs.

Zakim Bridge

The Local Barber Shop

More photos can be viewed at the Flickr site

I can see the light or can I

bobdphoto — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:47:51 +0000

As a fairly new shooter I have been trying to enhance my portrait skills simply by doing what else, shooting. Currently my newbie setup is a Nikon SB800 flash, a Photoflex shoot through umbrella and a couple reflectors. Not bad a setup for a beginner and I think the current configuration does a pretty decent job. But what about if I want to step it up on notch. Soft boxes? Umbrellas? Strobe lighting? Continuous? Tungsten? Flourescent? I usually browse through the B&H catalog 3 times a week highlighting my next upgrade. The problem is I can’t make up my mind in what my purchase should be. One day its the strobe kit the next day its the continuous kit? What are the advantages and disadvantages. I have been leaning towards continuous lighting for the simple fact its WYSIWYG. I have been eye balling the Scott Kelby Studio kit sold at B&H Photo. It’s 2 Westcott TD5 Spider lights with 1 24×32 and 1 36×48 soft box. It also comes with a black and white collapsible muslin background. It uses flourescent bulbs so there is no heat thrown by the bulbs. A good thing when your make shift studio is such tight quarters. I think the price is competitive compared to the other kits. And if it has Scott Kelby’s name on it, I am sold. I suppose the question remains, where on earth am I going to put this stuff?

Wonderful World of Photography

bobdphoto — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:52:24 +0000

I have been a shooter (Nikon) since December of 2007. A newbie who has been bitten by the digital photography bug. I am not sure I can handle another expensive hobby. Golf is expensive enough. I will blame my company for handing out a generous bonuses this past year. I proceeded to take that bonus right to the local camera store to buy my first pro-sumer DSLR, a Nikon D80. By no means top of the line DSLR but a pretty decent camera for a beginner. So before I even started taking my first pictures, I went to the library and checked out just about every book on digital cameras. I read, then read some more, and some more. I did the very best I could to cram as much info in my tiny skull as I could. I always remember a saying one of my good friends told me, “knowledge is power,” I will never forget that line. I wanted to get as much knowledge as I could from these books so I could take the best possible pictures I was capable of taking.

I didn’t realize how addicted I would get to photography. I was sucked in so quickly. I suppose I just wanted to take good pictures so badly that I would do anything to take a good picture. I don’t think I read that much when I was in high school.

As a graphic designer I had always been an advocate of online training. I attended as many seminars, workshops, conferences as I could. The folks who run NAPP & Kelby Training offer an incredible learning progam to creative enthusiasts via an online subscription service. Scott Kelby who is the President of NAPP and who has authored many design books has written two of the most fascinating digital photography books on the market today. Not filled wih a lot of mumbo jumbo but written precisely for, what to do, this is how you do it, this is how you get this shot. Just these two books alone have made me a better photographer than I was weeks ago. Not only the books but the online videos with legends such as Joe McNally, David Ziser & Moose Peterson, to name just a few. I wouldn’t have learned the great deal I have since December if it was not for the folks at Kelby Training. They make the art of learning photography easy and fun. My hats off to such a wonderful crew. I thought golf was addicting.