Flapping Your Wings

If you feel like you're just flapping your wings, stop long enough to figure out what you want to accomplish, make an action plan & then follow it. That will help to ensure a sucessful 2010.

Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve.

Catch you next year!

Ducks In A Row

Each year, as New Year's Day approaches, we often reflect on what has happened during the past year and look to the new year with anticipation and hope. We want to do better, be more successful in our businesses, be a better person, etc. But what is going to make that happen? What is going to help us reach our goals? What is going to make us do better than we did during the past year? We all have things we want to accomplish in life but often, due to unforeseen circumstances, lack of planning or just plain procrastination, we don't get them done. The years go by and we wonder where they went and feel regret that we don't have more to show for them.

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer says, "The more you see yourself as what you'd like to become, and act as if what you want is already there, the more you'll activate those dormant forces that will collaborate to transform your dreams into reality."

So, in this new year, set your goals, plan your action steps and see yourself accomplishing those goals that have been so elusive in past years. I'll be right there working with you trying to do the same. Take a look at the picture above and ask yourself if you're ready to start the new year. Have you set your goals? Have you planned your course of action? Do you know where you're going? Or to put is simply, "Do you have all your ducks (or geese) in a row?" :)

I wish all of you a happy and prosperous 2010. Leave me a message from time to time and let me know how you're doing. Perhaps we can inspire one another so we can all reach those elusive goals.

Slow Down

Just slow down and enjoy it all. By Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

When we rush too much, we miss the simple beauties of life. Slow down, pick up your camera and play with it to see what you can create. These picture were taken at Fossil Rim during the Rick Sammon workshop. Rick wanted us to see what kind of creative pictures we could make by "playing" with our cameras. Both of these pictures of a poinsetta plant were made by turning the camera clockwise while holding the shutter button down. The top picture was taken at f/3.5 with a shutter speed of 1/15 of a second & the bottom picture was f/5.6 at 1/10 of a second.

Motion is a powerful source. Moving your camera while the shutter is open produces images that are experimental. No matter how much you tried, you could probably not produce two identical images while moving your camera, even at the same aperature & shutter speed. Trying different things with your camera provides a new prospective to your photography & teaches you about how your camera opeates at various settings. So, if the weather's too cold to go outside, & you're bored sitting around the house, grab your camera, find an interesting subject, and start shooting. You never know what you'll come up with. It might even be a prize winner. Best of all, if you slow down and take a close look at your surroundings, you'll see the beauty that exists and add joy to your life.

Cooperation & Love

Cooperation and love - together - make everything go smoothly in this world. By Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Photo tip: I cropped this photo a little to draw emphasis to the affection being displayed by these lemurs. I also used the screen blending mode to lighten the eye some to bring out the catch-light in the lemur's eye. These adjustments only took a couple of minutes, but added life to the photo.

Reflections

Reflections are pretty in pictures, but they are also useful in "real" life. Use this holiday time to reflect on all the things you have to be thankful for, like your friends, your family, a warm house, enough food on the table, etc. Many people don't have these simple things that we so often take for granted. Let's appreciate the things we have and try to help those who don't have them.

Happy Holidays to all of you. I wish you a happy and prosperous 2010.

Pseudo HDR Processing

As photographers, I'd say that we've all encountered situations where, due to shooting at the wrong time of the day, atmospheric conditions, etc., we end up with a wonderful picture except for a blown-out sky. One way to control this is by shooting for HDR. The typical shooting process is to take one picture at the camera's setting, one at -2 and one at +2 & then blend the pictures using an HDR program such as Photomatix. However, maybe you couldn't take three identical shots because you were shooting a moving subject, or perhaps you just didn't use it. What do you do then? Well, you can use a technique called "pseudo HDR" processing. That's what I used for these two pictures. The top picture is the original and the bottom one is the pseudo HDR photo. The program took the completely blown-out sky and replaced it with one that looks like it might have been taken at sunrise or sunset. All you do is open Photomatix and move your RAW picture into the program. Photomatix immediately starts processing. When it's done, you can use the Tone Mapping feature to fine tune your photo. The intensity of the picture increases as you move the sliders to the right. Watch the changes that take place as you move the sliders until you get the effect you want. This process isn't as good as if you'd actually shot for HDR, but if you couldn't, or if you need to fix an old picture, it makes a decent substitute. There are other ways, of course, to do the same thing, but this is probably the easiest and quickest method. So download a free trial of Photomatix and see what you can come up with. Most of all, have fun!

Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." ~ Albert Einstein

This simple quote helps explain how many of our important inventions came to be. If the inventors had not had the imagination to first dream about electricity, the automobile or the computer, they would not have used their knowledge to create these things that we depend on so much today. Before invention comes imagination. Without imagination, knowledge is like an empty vessel. It's only when the imagination is released that the knowledge can begin to create.