TRAINING

PhotoBlink - View critiques of submitted photos, online articles, plus much more
PhotoVision 2010 by Marathon Press; twelve hours of training videos for only $39 when you use promo code MARATHON to save $110 by February 26, 2010

SmartShooter.com - Professional resource for high quality photo info and education for film and digital
The Perfect Picture School of Photography

SEMINARS

Beginning Digital Photo Class
The Dunedin Public Library will hold a beginner
class on digital photography Saturday, March 13, from
10–11:30 a.m. Bill Smith is the presenter. You learn
about digital camera differences, their controls, and how
to download and edit pictures using Picasa, a free photo
editing application from Google. The library is located at
223 Douglas Ave., Dunedin. No registration is required.

JPI's Spring Seminar with George Lepp on April 17th in Bradenton
George Lepp is a world class Nature & Wildlife Photographer. George always presents a new & informative program blending photography and digital techniques. Take advantage of our early ticket purchase incentives and save a few $$$. At the Braden River H.S. auditorium, 6545 St Rd 70 E, Bradenton. $79 includes both days. Call 941-752-0550 or stop in at JPI to purchase your ticket.

NAPP Photoshop World conference and expo from March 24-26 in Orlando. $100 off admission price when registered by February 26th. Use code PE10-ADPM to receive an additional $50 discount for SCC members. Photoshop, Lightroom and photography training with on location shoots.

Florida's Birding and FotoFest from April 22-25 in St. Augustine

Club Presentations

Shootout at the Rodeo by Kurt Allebach with contributions by Lisa Cawte-Baker
[This is a 1.24MB file]

Understanding RAW and RAW Workflow by Kurt Allebach; Capture One RAW editor

Histograms & Exposure by Ron Mayberry

Painting with Light by Jack O'Connell & Erik Rosengren

High Dynamic Range Images by Kurt Allebach

Tripods and Quick Releases by Matt Muskovac

Sports Photography by Lou Abilock

Slide-in-Mat design by Nick Muskovac

Reusable Mat design by Jack O'Connell; Order forms: Excel or PDF revised 11/6/07

Panoramics by Matt Muskovac

Published Tips

New travel rules for lithium batteries by USDOT

Photoshop/Proshow Gold Tips and Tricks by Stan Ashbrook

Improve Your Photos 60 Seconds at a Time by idigitalphoto

Creativity and The Rule of Thirds by Jim Altengarten

Image Histograms Part 1 by Sean McHugh

Luminance and Color Histograms by Sean McHugh

Cleaning Camera Sensors by Jeff Greene

Demystifying D-SLR Sensor Cleaning by Bob Dean

Framed and Exposed: Make a Clean Sweep of Your Camera by Ben Long

The Basics of Nature Photography by Cindy Marple

How to Recover Lost Images and Other Files by Zach Honig

How to Photograph Baseball and Softball by Jack Howard

Tips for Photographing Tennis by Jack Howard

How to Create High Dynamic Range Images by Jack Howard

You Can Do It: Old Master low light still life by Emanuela Carratoni

Print Handling, Storage & Framing Guidelines by The Experts at Legion Paper

10 Questions to Ask When Taking a Digital Photo by Digital Photography School

My Favorite Nature Photography Locations by John Cang

The Nature Photographer's Year by David Middelton

How to Take Great Photos of Holiday Lights by NYIP

Tools

ADOBE

Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts compiled by Trevor Morris Photographics

Free web version of Adobe Photoshop

Adobe® Media Gallery (AMG) for Adobe Bridge adds quick, powerful Web gallery creation to Adobe Photoshop® CS3, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and the Adobe Creative Suite®. AMG makes it possible to create HTML or Flash-based galleries from any of the file formats supported by Bridge; adjust the galleries using the built-in preview; and export the results or upload them via FTP.

GENERAL

Depth of Field Calculator

Photodex ProShow Lightroom Plug-in

Nikon D50, D70 & D100 Battery Recall and Replacement

Having a Problem Reading Raw Files from Your New Camera
provided by George Burke

Every camera has a different raw format. As new cameras come out, Adobe keeps updating it's raw converter to accommodate them. However, these updates only work with the LATEST VERSION of Photoshop. So, you have to upgrade in order to be able to use the raw images from your new camera in Photoshop.

There is a free solution. Use Adobe's free DNG converter. DNG is Adobe's universal raw format. It converts your existing camera raw files to ones that can be read by any version of Photoshop. The DNG Converter is a standalone program that will convert an entire folder of camera raw images to DNG type raw images.

You can get it for a PC at:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3941&promoid=DTEHR

The Mac version is available at:
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3940&promoid=DTEHQ

There are several advantages to using dng files, even if you have the latest version of Photoshop or Elements.

DNG files do not have a "sidecar" (.xmp) file. All the changes made in the raw converter and Lightroom are saved in the DNG file. No more problems in sending raw files to someone, not sending the sidecar file (it's invisible), and having the recipient only be able to view the original unedited file.
DNG files are about 20% smaller than raw file formats from camera manufacturers. That saves a lot of hard disk space.
Adobe has put the DNG format in the public domain, so anyone can use it at no cost, and promises to maintain it forever. There is no guarantee that several years from now a camera manufacturer, will still maintain a raw format for your (by then) obsolete camera. (Remember, every camera has a different raw format.)

AN ALTERNATE SOLUTION: Lightroom can import any type of raw image a DNG file.

MICROSOFT

Microsoft Photosynth can be downloaded for free. It looks for overlapping points in the images then arranges them into a browsable 3D model.

PhaseOne...the RAW editor is a MSFT partner and has a new release at
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/phaseone.aspx

MSFT has an add-in for their e-mail client...Outlook...for event photographers. It add templates for scheduling events that allows the photographer to plan the equipment they need, etc. Its at
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/prophotoshoot.aspx

Here is an informational link regarding MSFTs new image file format that looks to compete w/ .JPG
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/hdphoto.aspx

Here is a link for Win XP and Vista users to download and install the codecs for opening various RAW file types like .CR2 files from Canon, etc.
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/codecs.aspx

Here is an add-in for editing xtif data right in Windows Explorer...
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/photoinfo.aspx

Finally, here is a link to a download site where folks can find other software elements...
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/default.aspx

Tips and tricks for Windows XP
Featured tip: Rename many pictures at once
If you import digital photos, you're going to love this tip.
1. Open the folder where you've saved your pictures. Select your first batch of pictures to rename.
2. Right-click the first picture selected and then click Rename.
3. Rename the first picture to whatever you like(for example, Boston Vacation), then click any empty space within the window to deselect the pictures.
Your pictures automatically rename themselves ("Boston Vacation (1)," "Boston Vacation (2)," etc.). This tip also works to rename any collection of files.
Featured tip is courtesy of the book Windows XP Killer Tips by Kleber Stephenson.

Find your photos faster
See how to use tags in Windows Vista to easily find and organize your digital photos.

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP include Color Control Panel Applet, RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer, HTML Slide Show Wizard, Image Resizer, and CD Slide Show Generator

Microsoft RAW Image Thumnailer and Viewer for Windows XP provides the ability to view, organize, and print photos captured in RAW image formats from supported Canon and Nikon digital cameras. The software supports the following image types: Canon EOS RAW images (.crw, .cr2, .tif), Nikon Electronic Format images (.nef), Bitmap images (.bmp), JPEG images (.jpg, .jpe, .jpeg), Windows Metafile images (.wmf), Tagged Image File Format images (.tif, .tiff), Graphics Interchange Format images (.gif), and Portable Network Graphics images (.png)

Windows Vista RAW image codecs for viewing in Windows Explorer:
Canon (you'll need to navigate to the drivers for your particular camera model to check),
Nikon, Olympus, Sony

Tours

Johnson PhotoImaging Safari Club led by James Johnson

Awake the Light by Mollie Isaacs and Mary Lindhjem

Bill Campbell Digital Photography Workshops specializing on the Smokey Mountains

Charles Ellenberger

Digital Nature Photography Workshops and Events by Richard Bernabe

Focus on the Rockies: The Jasper [Canada] Photography Experience

FotoForever Amazon wildlife workshop

M & M Photo Tours featuring Rick Sammon, Michael Yamashita, Matt Brandon, Tyler Stableford, and Mark Moeller

Mountain Trail Photo Nature Photography Workshops, Books, Reviews, Classes, Articles, and Images featuring Joseph Rossbach, Ian Plant, and Richard Bernabe

Natural Exposures Tours by Daniel J. Cox

Nikonians Academy

Soujourns In Nature by Gustav Verderber & Robert Servranckx