“New cam. Who dis?” Reconditioned Z6 II. Happy to take paid assignments.
photo
Almost Done
This time of the year – early November through mid-December – is always very busy for me. I’ve got two major clients running major projects that I have to juggle. I do a two-disk DVD project for one client, shooting the video and then editing and duplicating it. I got the first disk completed this evening. Next up is the other disk, then putting on labels and casing them. I also do several photo projects for the same client this time of year. For 2016 we added even more pix – holiday photo prints for underprivileged students in a karate program.
Another client took some work off my hands and is now having their staff do it, but I still have to upgrade the shopping cart on their web site.
And I need to do the final re-writes on my next book, Profiling Your Target Market. I had hoped to publish it in November – looks like the publication date will be late December. At least I’ll get it done in 2016.
Motivational Pix – Tracy 01
"The price of success must be paid in full, in advance." – Brian Tracy
Motivational Pix – Demosthenes
"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises." – Demosthenes
Motivational Pix – UPDATE
We've now completed 23 inspirational quotes "mini posters" which will be posted every Monday (except Labor Day, September 1st) at 10 AM Eastern time. We hope you find them both visually interesting and mentally stimulating. Please feel free to share them, even print them out as pictures and tack them on your wall for inspiration.
We're working on even more of them, and may release the whole pack in one ZIP file at some point. We encourage you to post any comments you may have. Thanks for keeping up with them, and with Agile'.
JPEG Mini – Put Your Pix On a Diet
When I shoot stills either for my clients of for myself, I shoot in RAW format. That way, I can manipulate the base image and have it look any way I want it.
But once I finalize the picture(s), I usually output them in JPG format. Most of the printers I deal with require that format, and if the pics are for web display, the best format is either JPG or PNG. And though JPGs are a lot smaller than RAW images, if you shoot and store enough of them, they can take up a significant amount of space.
Which is where JPEG Mini comes in. It basically strips away all non-essential information from the file, and just leaves the image behind. How good is it? How about routinely reducing your pictures to one quarter of their size? Or maybe even smaller!
I'm not getting anything out of this. I just think the program is an excellent product, and if you shoot a lot of pix, you'll probably wind up seeing the benefits of using it.
There are two (really, 3) versions of the software. There's the personal version, which handles smaller files as a stand-alone program. A free version of this software does up to 20 pix in one day. If you pay for it, it's only $20. The professional version of the software crunches pix up to 8 times faster (which can be a help if you've got hundreds – maybe even thousands – of pix to squash), and works in stand-alone mode and also works as a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom 5 and above. That version is just under $150. JPEG Mini is available in both Windows and Mac flavors.
Celebratory Pic
The very last pic from the very end of the evening. This was taken at CNY Karate’s 50th Anniversary banquet on October 6th, 2013. This is one of the musicians, Nikoro-san (his nickname) and I. We became good friends over the previous week. Bonded over a shared (over)use of technology!
Amateur Portrait
What happens when you turn your new camera over to a curious high school student? Sometimes, you get some really good photos. And sometimes the subject of the photo could be better.
I recently accompanied a client to Niagara Falls to shoot stills and video for them. His 15 year old son was curious about my camera, so I turned it over to him for a while. As you might think, some of his photos turned out poorly. And some turned out okay. A couple (out of maybe 50 or so shots) turned out pretty good – surprising for someone who’d never used a DSLR before.
One of the “okay” ones was yours truly, taken near the building on the American side that leads down to the Maid of the Mist boat tour.
Speaking of the tour. . . I had a number of people look at me like I was crazy for taking my DSLR on the boat and into the heavy spray from the falls. The didn’t believe me when I said my Pentax K30 was weather sealed. I’ve been using Pentax cameras for 30 years, and I’m happier with them now than ever before. I highly recommend their DSLRs.
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
I’m not 110% “full-on marketing” all the time. Most of the time, yes. But not all the time. Recently my wife and I flew across the country to vacation in beautiful downtown San Diego. We spent several days enjoying the sites. The Friday we were there, we drove about 40 minutes north to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, an 1800 acre breeding facility and natural habitat. Between the Zoo itself and the Safari Park, I took a bunch of pics.
These are just a few that I came back with. Click the image to see a larger version. Enjoy!
