Blue Pixel

I always tell people to try different settings on their cameras. Those menus are chock-full of interesting options, and if you don't explore them, you'll never know if they might help. And as my friend Bill Durrence likes to tell people, "there's no button on that camera that will make it explode."
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The Apple iPad had a huge amount of hype and criticism before it ever launched. And quite honestly, I was on the fence about it. In the end, though, I went to my local Best Buy Saturday morning and bought one.
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Whether you're already an HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging fan or not, Unified Color Technologies has announced a contest you should look into. After all, there's $30,000 in prizes involved!
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I recently returned from leading a photo trip to Costa Rica for American and Popular Photography's Mentor Series (http://www.mentorseries.com). As we were wrapping up the trip, driving back into San Jose, I was trying to answer questions on the bus and there was a good one I didn't have time to answer. I can rectify that now.
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I got my first 35mm SLR camera when I was fourteen. Forty years later I'm still learning, and that's one of the things I love about photography.
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When I got started in photography, I was lucky enough to find a local photographer willing to take the time to teach me the basics and more. One of the most valuable things I learned from Kent was to try to figure out solutions on my own. He always said, "you just have to outsmart it." That's the best photography lesson I ever got.
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They say that people facing death find religion very quickly. After a couple of system near-deaths in the last few weeks, I've become a believer in system backups.
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I'm just back from teaching a photo class in Los Angeles. Living in Kansas City, where we do have winter (witness the bits of snow still remaining from December 24!), I managed to take an extra day in LA to go out and shoot pictures. The photography was fun, but the best part was doing it with friends.
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Last week I had a chance to use the new Nikon D3S. This camera can shoot at over 100,000 ISO (!!!). Just a few years ago I was saying that all I needed was a camera that gave me good quality 1600 and decent 3200. Now we've gone way beyond that.
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I'll admit I've never been a big fan of New Year's Resolutions. It seems that either you're going to get something done or not, regardless of the time of year. However, it makes a good topic for a blog post :) With that said, here are a few resolutions that would be good for any photographer to make.
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