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Bluedog News
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The New Year has been off to a big start photographically! Bluedog's tour to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year was a blast and now we are getting set for the March Weekend Retreat on Tamborine Mountain and Bluesfest in Byron. Still a couple of places left in each of these as we write this issue. Email us for more information about either and for more info on Bluesfest visit www.bluesfest.com.au A big congratulations goes to one of our favourite pups this month with our tutor Barry Cheeseman taking out 2nd prize in the prestigious 5th Annual Black and White Spider Awards in America Merit of Excellence - Portrait in the Professional Photographer's section with his image “Anguish” (see below). We are very excited for Barry to be sharing his award winning techniques with us in the upcoming Studio Lighting workshop on 23 March; workshops in Portraiture on the 27th and Wedding on the 28th of March at Tamborine as well as Portraiture in Toowoomba on the 21st. If you would like to learn Barry’s secrets to success register now to avoid disappointment. We have had some changes to the line-up in the kennel over the last few months, with Nick leaving to pursue other ventures and Suellen packing up and crossing the ditch… Tassie that is, not the other ditch! Suellen will be returning to do Bluesfest with the crew. We'll miss having both around - thanks for everything and we wish you all the best. This week marks our start in Toowoomba. Cathy our head tutor is looking forward to welcoming everyone over the next few weeks as we crank into gear. Mums and Bubs will kick off again this month with a new face and a new structure. Mel Noonan will be taking over many of these sessions and each month we will be concentrating on a new technique to push your photographic limits and get those brains ticking. Some of the areas we will be tackling are: DOF, on camera flash and fill light, aperture and shutter speed. If there are any techniques you would like to see added or any favourite venues we can discover drop us an email and we will try to fit them into the schedule. The Bluedog Facebook Group Weekly Challenge is back on and the entries have been amazing. Well done all who have entered its so good to see you picking up your cameras and having a go. Again we thank Gerard at Photo Planet for his kind support in donating the weekly prize. Thanks to Garry for allowing us to use one of his images of Star Trails for the lead image in this issue. Garry's next Star Trail Workshop is the 17th April. And a special thanks to Judith for sending in these fabulous photography quotes: Never be fully satisfied with what you’ve done. Never stop photographing. It is very likely that your best photograph has not yet been captured. Don't forget if there is something special or a date you would like a workshop on, please contact us as we are happy to attempt to do this for you. Keep those fingers clicking and enjoying your photography! |
| Thanks again for sending through your images - we do enjoy seeing them and wish we could feature more! Well done!! | ||
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 By Marylou during the Hong Kong Tour. |
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 Vicki DeGiusti has been out capturing fairies. |
 Michael took out a prize in a Courier Mail comp with this image of Brisbane at night. |
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Please remember, we keep setting dates as allows with the professional commitments of the tutors so check our web site calendar page for continuing updates. |
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Photo Tip: Correcting Skin Blemishes in PhotoshopIn this issue we thought we would step away from our camera and into our digital darkroom aka photoshop to bring you a tip for correcting bad skin. We find this process particularly handy when photographing young babies who are susceptible to milk spots and other skin conditions that their parents would probably prefer not to draw attention to when displaying their treasured newborn portraits! It is however not only reserved for babies portraits, some situations that come to mind that it could come in handy for: tired/aging skin, teenagers and we have even used it to remove some unwanted noise in an image just to name a few. Ok enough chat – here it is:
Here is a before and after shot of an 8 day old baby with lots of scratches and spots on his body.
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I Winning sky photos: the David Malin Awards I Rock and Roll: an exhibition of Music Photography by Stephen BoothSince the mid 1990s, Stephen has been a fixture at literally hundreds of live shows, capturing the excitement and energy through his lens. All up, he's taken more than 30,000 images and, throughout March 2010, his favourite 50 will be on display at Brisbane Powerhouse as part of a unique exhibition simply called "Rock and Roll" I Torres Strait Island Railway (Pamle) I Bipotaim: Stories from the Torres Strait I The 2009 Nikon-Walkley Press Photo Exhibition I MY BLACK HEART I Until 11th April GRACEFUL DECAY I Zed Nelson: Love Me A collection of images documenting how far people will go for the quest for physical perfection. Negotiating the boundaries of art and documentary photography, this series reflects a world we have created where enormous social, psychological and economic rewards and penalties are attached to the way we look. Zed Nelson’s subjects are school girls; body builders; Iranian’s queuing for nose jobs; New Yorkers having foot surgery to fit into Jimmy Choo shoes; and South American women undergoing surgery to bring themselves eerily close to Barbie dolls. Venues & Dates: Gallery 1 and 2, The Australian Centre for Photography (ACP), Sydney
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World's most expensive Einstein photograph? This iconic photograph of the scientist sticking his tongue out was sold by a New Hampshire auction company for $74,330, making it the most expensive Einstein photograph to be ever sold at an auction! The photograph was taken by Arthur Sasse in 1951 while the scientist was celebrating his birthday. Arthur was convincing Einstein to pose for a photo but the scientist stuck his tongue out instead.
What's been written about recently: Photographers Versus Graphic Designers Stair Trail Photography - Some of the Problems Some of our Faves from 2009 To view the Bluedog Blog visit: Being eco-friendly is the way we need to go. As photographers there is much we can do to. One thing we can’t get away from is using batteries. We use them in everything from our cameras, accessories, to our computer mouse's. How can we, as photographers, reduce our carbon footprint with our battery use? Try these couple of tips:
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I Lowepro Nova 170AW camera bag. Fits: 1 DSLR with lens attached, 1-2 additional lenses, 2 memory cards, 1 flash unit DSLR and 1 additional lens, has loads of pockets and sections for, filters etc. Comes with shoulder strap as well as carry handle. Brand new, never used. Paid $79 Sell $50 ono Mel 0403077272 mel-shane@optusnet.com.au I x1 Tamron lens for Nikon
AF 18-250mm
f/3.5 - 6.3
UV filter attached I Canon Twin Light Flash: new on EBay around for $1,150.00 sell for $750used about 5-6 times at the most. Excellent condition etc. Canon 100mm Macro Lens: new on EBay for around: $729 for $500. Used less than the above. Excellent lens, condition etc. Canon 85mm f1.2 Portrait lens: New on EBay for around: $2,299 for $1,500. Used less than the above. This is the best portrait lens you could ever buy. Fantastic lens ...can use for other things besides portraits. Contact Phillipa on phillfoto1@bigpond.com I x1 One Canon EOS Canon EOS50D Body with Canon 18-200mm Lens and Canon BGE2N Battery Grip;
UV Filter 72mm;
Scan disk Extreme III 4GB card, 2yr extended warranty. I x1 Canon EOS 300D body with Canon EFS18-55 Lens I Near new Nikon D60 with a Nikkor 18-200 lens. Camera was bought on 31 January last year but has only been used a handful of times. In excellent condition with all original accessories, boxes and packaging. Comes with a 4GB platinum SDHC card and a UV filter. All receipts are available. Camera is perfect for someone starting out with a digital SLR as it is light weight (for an SLR!) and compact. Reason for selling: I no longer have the time to take it out and use it, and I hope someone can purchase it and really enjoy photography!! |
To go hand in hand with this month’s photo tips on bad skin correction in Photoshop we thought we would review one of our favourite editing accessories! Yes behind the viewfinder we all have lens and body envy (some more than others!), but when it comes to our digital darkroom and the ability to fine tune those images with accuracy – there is one item that we believe is envied most- that is the Wacom tablet. To put it simply, the Wacom tablet is a flat thick plastic board that plugs into your computer via a usb cable and sits on top of your desk in line with your monitor screen. It comes in a variety of sizes (from a 4 x 6” to a 12 x 19” active area), different sensitivities and a variety of models just like our cameras. Today we will look at the Intuos4. This is a powerful editing device, and as you can imagine when you are trying to execute a process such as blurring, trying to paint over a baby’s eyes, mouth and nostrils using a mouse is about as accurate as painting with a brick! The Wacom tablet comes with a pen that has a pressure sensitive tip that is activated with as little as 1 gram of pressure on one end, eraser on the other and a customisable side switch which allows you to set your most commonly used functions whether that be a double click to enter or anything else you desire. The pen also comes with a variety of nibs so that whether you like the feel of a paintbrush, hard pencil or something in between, the feel of your preferred writing instrument will be simulated. The tablet has a palm rest for comfort and is able to be used both left and right handed thanks to its clever ability to be turned around and used in the opposite direction. To use your tablet, you simply tap it with the pen to wake it up and then while looking at the image on your screen to determine where your pen is sitting in relation to the area you are editing, you draw over the tablet surface with whatever Photoshop tool you have picked. Don’t get us wrong however, even though this now falls under the banner of one of our favourite editing gadgets, it did take a little bit of practice to perfect its use and catapult it to the revered position it holds today! The general rule of thumb is the closer to the size of your screen the easier it will be to master as you are looking at your screen and working with the same size of editing device. Not having used a smaller one we can’t comment first hand, but all the evidence points to a smaller tablet being harder to conquer as you are looking at a large screen and having to use smaller hand strokes than feels natural to edit your image. These powerful devices are up there with any other equipment pertaining to photography when it comes to the cost factor with an 8 x 13” around the $800 mark, but we feel it is a worthy investment in enhancing the editing latitude and abilities you will gain that simply can’t be achieved with a mouse. For more information on these tablets you can go to the Wacom website www.wacom.com.au
Exciting news from Nikon Australia as they announce the release of 7 new additions to their impressive COOLPIX range of digital compact cameras. Delivering quality stills and video footage, all 7 cameras are equipped with Nikon’s world-class Nikon lenses and EXPEED processor, along with an outstanding range of new functions. They should be on the shelves by early March.
AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR The AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR is released as a new category of NIKKOR lenses. It is equipped with vibration reduction (VR II) offering camera shake compensation equivalent to a shutter speed increase of approximately four stops and a Silent Wave Motor (SWM), and supports the maximum aperture of f/4 through the full range of focal lengths. The lens also utilizes exclusive Nikon technologies such as the application of Nano Crystal Coat and construction that includes ED and aspherical lens elements. The extremely effective vibration reduction and coverage for wide angles of view make this lens perfect for sports, press and landscape photography. Available from late February.
AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED The latest fixed focal-length lens compatible with the FX format, the AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED is an wide-angle lens with a maximum aperture of f/1.4. It offers superior optical performance through exclusive Nikon technologies such as the application of Nano Crystal Coat and construction that includes ED and aspherical lens elements. When the lens is used with an FX-format digital-SLR camera, images that make the most of the fast aperture with large and pleasing blur characteristics can be captured for photos with dynamic perspective. Available from March.
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aSteve Bloom53A modern day photographer, Steve Bloom is one many of us here at Bluedog admire. His work is inspiring, evoking emotion and demonstrate the real world through the eyes of a man born to send a message. Born in South Africa, it is said his interest in photography was inspired by pictures in Life Magazine though he originally trained as a gravure printer. His book Living Africa, of which the images below are contained in, covers wildlife, remote tribes, and city people across several African countries. It is an epic of work. His ability to capture people doing what they do is a rare and epic moment captured in time.
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