The Creative's Corner

If you’re like me, and anxiously waiting for your copy of Lightroom 5 to arrive, you can hit the bricks running.

Check out these videos by Julieanne Kost, the Goddess of Adobe, as she shows you all the new features in Lightroom 5 http://tv.adobe.com/show/whats-new-in-lightroom-5/

I want my copy of Lightroom 5 NOW!

Have Fun,
Jeff

I’ve made several posts here about being cautious when entering photography contest. Most are just “rights grabs” where you give up far too many rights to your photographs.

But there are good contests out there too, but you still need to be careful. The other day I found a good contest from Natures Best Photography. I checked it out and the entry fee was reasonable, they weren’t doing a rights grab and the prizes and exposure were great.

I put together my selection of photographs and went to the online form. I filled out everything, and went to pay with my credit card. I’ve trained myself over the years to always look at the address bar before using my credit card on a site to make sure the page is secure. What I’m looking for is that the page address begins with a https, not a http. The “s” means the page is secure and encrypted. If the page is intercepted by someone, they won’t be able to see my credit card information.

Unfortunately, when I looked at the address, it was only an http. Did I want to enter the contest so much that I was willing to risk having my credit card information stolen? Absolutely not.

Last year, one of my credit card numbers was stolen three separate times. Twice because the credit card company was hacked, the other time, who knows. The  card company quickly found out my card was compromised, contacted me, deactivated the account and sent me a new card. Two of the three times this happened there were no problems, and I had a new card in a week. The last time there was some glitch in the system, and I couldn’t log into my account online for ten days. That was a real pain in the pa-toot.

With a heavy sigh I closed the page and didn’t enter the contest.

Keep an eye out for ALL the details when entering a photography contest so you don’t have a headache down the road.

Have Fun,
Jeff

Good news, I finally updated the gallery software on my stock site http://www.stockphotosarizona.com/

I’m using the same plugin that I have on my Fine Art site http://www.JeffColburn.com/ so that the photographs show as thumbnails that you can click on to see larger images and click another button to see a slide show of all the images on that page.

I also reprocessed over 400 images with Lightroom to give you the best images possible.

There’s also a new gallery, Arizona Renaissance Festival, with photographs that I’ve taken over the past several years at this great event.

With this new gallery software it makes it a lot easier for me to add photographs, so you will see more images added more often.

Head on over and check it out at http://www.stockphotosarizona.com/

Have Fun,
Jeff

Here’s Twig the Fairy from the Arizona Renaissance Festival gallery.

In my last post I told you that I purchased the Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 Di VC USD (I paid $1,299) and 70-200mm f2.8 Di VC USD (I paid $1,499)  lenses. I was all excited until I tested them. I shot a test pattern with the camera on a tripod, firing it with a wired remote and the Vibration Compensation turned off.

The 24-70mm was pretty sharp at 24mm and 70mm at various f stops. The 70-200mm had soft focus at 70mm and 200mm from f 2.8 through f 8. This didn’t bothered me as zoom lenses are often a little soft at their maximum or minimum focal length.

The real problem is that both lenses would randomly take a photograph that was WAY out of focus. By that I mean instead of looking like this

it looked like this.

This happened on both lenses about 10% of the time. And my camera won’t take pictures that are out of focus, so the lens wasn’t communicating properly with the camera.

I don’t want to spend the time or effort to check the focus for every photograph I take, and it’s really hard to tell an elk or condor to get back into position for a second shot.

If this had happened with only one lens, I would guess it was a bad lens, but both lenses? And I have found reviews of these same lenses where this problem was mentioned.

I’m returning the lenses and I’ll have to pony up the money for Canon lenses.

I wanted to pass this along to you if you’re thinking of buying Tamron lenses.

Before you buy any lens, check out several review sites. I’ve found http://www.the-digital-picture.com/ to be very useful.

Have Fun,
Jeff

My new lenses finally arrived. I was looking at the Canon L lenses, but they were just too expensive. I feel that Canon is pricing itself out of the market. I went with Tamron lenses (24-70mm and 70-200mm f2.8 Di VC USD), and saved about $1,200. But they still cost a lot, and my piggy bank is crying like a baby.

When I first started in professional photography some 30 years ago, you could buy two professional Nikon camera bodies, two Nikkor zoom lenses, two motor drives (they were sold separately), a tripod, filters and all the other accessories for under $2,000. And the camera bodies would last at least 20 years.

Today, the same thing would cost about $20,000 and the camera bodies only last 3-5 years. And you still need to buy a computer and a few thousand dollars’ worth of software. Photography has become a rich man’s career. A photographer just starting out could easily take 2-3 years to pay off their equipment.

But I digress, here are my new toys.

Have Fun,
Jeff

I’m not crazy about Adobe moving all their software to The Cloud, but I’m sure it’s the wave of the future. Here’s a good FAQ about Adobe’s Cloud http://adobe.ly/15rvzIg It did answer some of my concerns.

Have Fun,
Jeff

I just added a new Fine Art photograph to my Changing Colors page http://www.jeffcolburn.com/gallery/changing-colors. It shows an Oak leaf in Williams, Arizona. This leaf was high up in a tree, and shot at 1/400 of a second at f 6.3. I used my 55mm-250mm lens at 250mm. This photograph is also available as a greeting card at http://www.jeffcolburn.com/cards.html.

Have Fun,
Jeff

Good news, my greeting cards are now available for purchase. I’m offering 24 cards, 4 sets of 6 cards each, that you can choose from. Head on over and have a look http://www.JeffColburn.com/cards.html

Have Fun,
Jeff

I’m almost done with my latest project, greeting cards with my photographs on them. I will have four sets: Leaves changing color, the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Miscellaneous photographs from around Arizona. The cards will come in sets of 6, and include envelopes and free shipping. I’ll let you know when they are ready for viewing.

Have Fun,
Jeff

I just put up the computer wallpaper for April. It’s Sunset Crater Volcano, which last erupted about 900 years ago. In the background you can see a bridge, which is part of the trail you can take through the area. A few minutes drive away is also a trail through a lava flow. It’s an amazing area to visit. Head on over and get your copy at http://www.jeffcolburn.com/wallpaper.html

Have Fun,
Jeff