Amy asks, “Are studio photographs of your kids worth it?”

Her answer is a qualified “yes.” It’s obviously a personal choice—and nothing against photographers who do this style of work or folks who use them—but for me, I find that the everyday snaps I make of my family doing what they do are a much more cherished documentary of our lives than any posed studio portrait. Kids running down the hall, out of focus hands and faces grabbing for the lens, asleep in bed, cooking dinner—these are the moments life is made of.

Studio portraits are really, really nice mug shots. They can be beautiful. I even shoot photos like this myself. But nothing beats a large collection of everyday shots of people doing everyday things to tell a real story about a life—regardless of any perceived difference in quality.

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Photo statuettes

StatuetteMpix.com has a neat new product called photo statuettes. These aren’t fully 3-dimensional statues but rather 1/8″ thick cutouts that are then attached to a base so they stand up. You submit any photo and someone at Mpix digitally removes the background to create the statuette. That’s why pricing is “per head” starting at $16. Pretty neat idea. I could see doing this for some of the dance photos I’ve taken.

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Why is it called “unsharp mask” when it sharpens?

A brief history lesson about an image sharpening method called “unsharp mask.” Photoshop and other image manipulation software all have a feature with this name that will sharpen an image. So, why is it called unsharp mask?

The name comes from the original photographic procedure used to increase the apparent sharpness of a photograph on film. First the original negative was copied and turned into a positive (In a negative, black is white and white is black. In a positive, it’s the other way around.). During the copy, the positive was intentionally blurred. This is where “unsharp” comes from. Then the positive and negative were put in contact and exposed to light again. The blurry portion of the positive cancelled out (masked) the blurry portion of the negative.

Despite working with bits instead of film, digital unsharp mask works similarly by comparing the source image to a slightly blurred version and subtracting one from the other.

Source: Wikipedia

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Raw Shooter Premium for a 200 GB workflow

I picked up a copy of Digital Photo Pro magazine this past week and noticed an interesting article about RAW workflow (Shooting By The Million) by Andy Rouse, UK wildlife photographer. He recently returned from a 3-month trip to Antarctica with 200 GB of RAW images (about 25,000 photos). And he uses none other than Raw Shooter Premium (RSP) to process his files. Even if you’re not an RSP fan, the article is worth checking out to see how he deals with working through so many photographs and how his workflow technique can even help someone who has merely a few hundred photos to process from a shoot.

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Motorcycle photographer ahead

That’s what the sign read as I rode my CBR-600 down Santiago Canyon toward Cook’s today. And in a few hundred feet, there he was by the side of the road under the shade of a small canopy armed with a laptop, tripod, and digital camera. An enterprising photography business had setup on the north bound side of the road to take photos of bikers as they headed south. The photographs were then wirelessly transmitted to a truck at Cook’s about 200 feet further on where bikers could view them and buy prints. Pretty clever.

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DIY digital photo frame

Photojojo.com this week points to a great idea for converting an old laptop computer into a digital photo frame (Popular Science). I happen to have a working late 90s vintage laptop sitting around gathering dust that I am going to convert. I’ll be sure to carefully document the entire process so that I can provide a bit more instruction than the Popular Science article did. Look for it in the coming weeks.

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10 more ways to tell if you’re a photographer

Expanding on the original post, here are 10 more ways to tell if you’re a photographer:

  • One of your primary criteria when buying a new cell phone is how good the camera is.
  • You love the smell of fixer in the morning.
  • You’ve made more than 50 shots of a single subject.
  • When you can’t find a model, you make self portraits.
  • You’ve endured a little loneliness for the sake of a photograph.
  • There’s a photo that inspires you to try and make one just as moving.
  • Tourists ask you to take their picture.
  • You were insufferable for the two weeks it took to get your camera back from repair.
  • You seem to find great photo opportunities whenever you leave your camera at home.
  • The garbage needs taking out, the house is a mess, and your car is filthy… but the glass on your favorite lens doesn’t have a speck of dust on it.

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Neat gift idea: photo blocks

Photo blocksThe gang over at Photojojo have some really cool crafts you can make with your photographs. The latest is photo blocks which are easy and inexpensive to make but look great. Oh, and Photodoto and Photojojo aren’t affiliated in any way except possibly that we both belong to the club of websites with silly names.

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Durham Township, Pennsylvania

A Walk Through Durham Township, Pennsylvania, is the photo blog of photographer Kathleen Connally. Honestly, if you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it lately, you’re missing out. Her site is filled with one sublime image after another. If you like to shoot landscapes, animals, or environmental portraits, she’s got a regular dose of inspiration for you.

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Did you know? Cameras are made for right-handed people.

Right-handed people like myself may have never even thought about what it’s like for a left-handed person to use a camera. But look around. When was the last time you saw a camera with the shutter button on the left? Most of the controls are on the right side. Think about what it would be like. Imagine cradling the camera and lens with the other hand. It’s awkward just to think about it. And yet, for left-handed folks, it’s a fact of life.

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