March 10, 2010 by
Alan Hess
Photoshop World Orlando 2010 is fast approaching.
For those that are going and are interested in something to do after the conference ends on Friday Night, Brad Moore and I are going to the House of Blues in Orlando to see Ingrid Michaelson and Mat Kearney with Cara Salimando.
The Details for the show are as follows:
FRIDAY 03/26/2010
Doors 7:00 PM
Show 8:00PM
Prices are listed HERE
We are working on a meeting place for people who want to car pool / share a taxi over to the venue. Please let me know if you are interested in joining us by emailing me at: alan@shotlivephoto.com
This is not part of the conference and we are not responsible if the show sells out.
More details to come.
March 7, 2010 by
Alan Hess
On Friday, March 5th, Dave Cross and the Kelby Training crew set up shop at the Los Angeles Convention Center on the Down & Dirty Trick seminar tour. I own all the Down & Dirty Tricks book by Scott Kelby and love them for the simple, direct way they show what is possible with Photoshop. The seminar is based on the books and was truly a great day for learning.
The day was broken into five different sections:
- Layers and Compositing Techniques
- Design with Type
- Photoshop Down and Dirty Tricks
- Photoshop Killer Tips
- Tricks of the Trade
There were a lot of people at the seminar. I heard that the final count was over 1000 and from what I saw that seems to be about accurate. Dave Cross is one of the best, if not the best, Photoshop instructors out there. He manages to to do live demonstrations without a hiccup, even when his Wacom tablet malfunctions. For those there, consider this, Dave wasn’t able to use the pen tool with his tablet for the first part of the day. I can barely function using only the trackpad on my laptop, but he managed to not only function but teach 1000+ of us at the same time.
The best part for me was to not only be reminded about some of the great techniques that I haven’t used in a while but also to catch up with some folk I haven’t seen since PhotoshopWorld in Las Vegas 2009.
I also picked up a copy of David Ziser’s new book and it looks great. I’ll get into that in a later post. If you get a chance to go to one of the Kelby Training seminars, GO! For more information, go HERE.
**UPDATE**
David has written a first hand account of what can go wrong at a presentation. His blog is right HERE. As someone in the audience, I would never have guessed that Dave was hindered in any way by technical problems at all. Yes, he is that good.
February 28, 2010 by
Alan Hess
I know that I haven’t been updating this blog in the manner that I should this last few weeks. Life has been very busy with work on three different books. One is done, one is in the final edits and one is just in the beginning stages but has a very tight deadline.
I have also nearly finished the slides for the Photoshop World classes, with another concert shoot before I am off to Orlando, the slides will probably only be done on the flight out.
I like to keep it current.
But on to the book contest:
My current book, The Exposure Digital Field Guide is sold out on Amazon again so I thought I would give away a signed copy to a follower on Twitter. I am also going to throw in a great album Walk Through The Fire, by a close friend and fantastic musician Mark Karan. All you have to do to win them is follow me on twitter @shotlivephoto and tweet the following:
I want to win your book and @markkaran album. http://bit.ly/9uhMxP for details
I will pick a winner on WEDNESDAY
February 20, 2010 by
Alan Hess
I am in the middle of three different book projects. All three are at different places, 1 is ending and I am looking over final layout files, 1 is in the middle and the while most of the writing is done, there is still work to do on the images and a bunch of editing to go. The third is just starting with the Table of content and Chapter outlines.
After dealing with these all day long, this Blog has not been updated as much as it should be.
I do plan on chaniong that, but for a daily dose of Photo goodness go to http://dpexperience.com/ for articles by top photographers in many different fields, including a series of articles I wrote on concert photography and a series i wrote on shooting at the zoo.
Have a great weekend.
February 15, 2010 by
Alan Hess
I had the great pleasure of being interviewed over at Pursuing Photoshop. The interview is HERE
It was a great experience and I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I did answering the questions.
February 1, 2010 by
Alan Hess
I have written 3 books and worked as a technical editor on a slew of others. I decided to clean up my office to start the new year out with a clean working environment and in doing so I realized that I had multiple copies of some books. I thought I would give them all away to one lucky Twitter follower.
These are all great books but more on that in a moment, first the rules.
1) You must be following me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/shotlivephoto
2) You must retweet the following : Big book giveaway by @shotlivephoto http://alanhessphotography.com/archives/1656
3) The winner will be announced on February 8/2010
4) Thats it.
There are the books that will all go to one lucky winner:
Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter by Rick Sammon
The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 by Scott Kelby
Digital Wedding Photography Secrets by Rick Sammon
Photoshop CS4 Down & Dirty Tricks by Scott Kelby
Exposure Digital Field Guide by Alan Hess
Random Issue of Photoshop User Magazine
Music Bonus :
Walk Through the Fire by Mark Karan
January 27, 2010 by
Alan Hess
It’s here!!
The iPad.
So what?
Ok, so I am a little jaded but I do think that the iPad is a game changer, especially for writers, publishers and photographers.
Lets start with the basics:
- Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
- Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
- Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
- Weight: 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model; 1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model
- 9.7″ LED Dsiplay
- Wi-FI 802.11n
- 3G Versions do up to 7.2Mbps HSPA
- Speaker and Microphone
- iBook
- 2 models in 3 configurations: WiFi and WiFi + 3G
- WiFi Models: 16GB $499, 32GB $599, 64GB $699
- WiFi + 3G Models: 16GB $629, 32GB $729, 64GB $829
Here is what you can do with it:
What the iPad can do:
- Browse the Internet
- E-mail
- See Photos
- Watch movies
- Listen to music
- Watch TV shows
- Contacts
- Calendars
- Bookmarks
- Applications
What the iPad can’t do / doesn’t have:
- No built-in camera
- No video chat
- No Flash support when browsing so no “full” internet
- No multitasking so no note taking while reading
The upside for publishers is that this device looks great and will have an audience that already is very comfortable purchasing content online. The iPod / iPhone user base are comfortable buy what was traditional a physical media (cds) in a purely digital form and should have no problem when it comes to buying magazines and books the same way.
The upside for photographers is the great portable portfolio that the iPad can be. High resolution images that can be shown to prospective clients that can be updated instantly to make sure that the images match the client. Think about it for a minute, you run a studio that does portraits and weddings. You can have a wedding portfolio and a portrait portfolio and never worry about having the right one with you. You can have the top wedding shots and another gallery with the top bride shots and yet another with groom shots and all can be used to show prospective clients your work.
The upside for authors is that the same way independent musicians get a direct audience with the iTunes store, writers should be able to do the same thing with iBooks.
I’ll have more thoughts when the actual device is released or when Apple updates the software.
January 25, 2010 by
Alan Hess
Pro photographer Joe McNally showed up to shoot in San Diego last week and managed to arrive during the worst storm in years. It rained for two straight days and then it rained some more. Sunny San Diego was not living up to it’s reputation or name.
On Saturday night Joe and company ended up shooting in Coronado at one of the all night Diners but there were no people. The shot called for people! There needed to be come “local color” sitting at the counter so Joe and his assistant Drew put out a call for bodies.
It was a treat watching Joe light and shoot in the Diner.
This shot was taken with my iPhone.
January 19, 2010 by
Alan Hess
On Thursday, January 14, I had the privilege of shooting Jackie Greene at the Belly Up Tavern in San Diego. Awful lights but using a Nikon D700 and some good prime lenses I got some really nice shots.
For the full gallery go HERE.
January 18, 2010 by
Alan Hess
If you can spare a little, they really need it. Just click on the banner above.
January 7, 2010 by
Alan Hess
My third concert post just went live over at Digital Photo Experience. This one is all about picking the focus thats right for you and the music. You can check it out HERE.
My first two posts dealing with manual shooting mode and spot metering mode are HERE and HERE.
January 6, 2010 by
Alan Hess
Nikon has posted firmware updates for the D3X, D3, D700 & D300S DSLRs. The latest firmware allows all four cameras to use the new 64GB CompactFlash cards. Other changes are as follows:
Read the rest of this entry »
