Amazing Deal on a Nikon D3100 Refurbished kit with two lenses, Lowest Price Going!

Nikon D3100 14.2 Megapixel Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm NIKKOR DX Lens & 55-200mm NIKKOR DX Lens 

 

 

Refurbished by Nikon U.S.A - $339.00

 

 

Two Weeks of Nikon Deals

Two Weeks of Nikon Deals at Adorama!

November 30 thru December 13, 2014

Black Friday Deals start TODAY!

Black Friday Starts NOW!

Shop online now or in store later today at these stores:

Walmart

Sam's Club

Staples

Amazon.com

Sigma Photo

Amazon Kindle Deals

Plus a new Sony professional full frame camera at an amazing low intro price

More photographic product deals here at Adorama

And more deals at B&H Photo

Sky at a Glance Oct 3 -11

From Sky & Telescope,  

Sky at a Glance for October 3rd - 11th

Night Sky This Week

From Sky & Telescope,  

This Week's Sky at a Glance

Amazing Canon T5 Rebate Deal

Canon EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Camera 

with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II Lens 

Special Promotional Bundle  
Price: $349 after mail-in rebate!

Kit includes:
Canon EOS Rebel T5 Digital SLR Camera Kit with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II Lens
Canon PIXMA PRO-100 Professional Photo Inkjet Printer
Canon SG-201 Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss, 13x19", 50 Sheets
Price in cart is $699 - $350 Rebate = $349

Mail-in Rebate instructions: http://www.adorama.com/pdfs/rebates/Canon_MIR_claim_form_%2027SEP14.pdf

Free Shipping. Expires 9/27

Other Deals:

Sunpak Air-Bak Zoom Pack - Air-Filled Small Backpack, Black$24.99 (Regular $39.99)
Free Shipping. Expires 09/30

Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home Shoulder Bag for Compact Digital SLR Camera, Navy /Rust$39 (Regular $68)
Free Shipping. Expires 09/30

Crumpler 4 Million Dollar Home Shoulder Bag for Compact Digital SLR Camera, - Navy/Rust$35 (Regular $70)
Free Shipping. Expires 09/30

Nikon D750 is in stock. 
All effective pre-orders as of now will ship with the free overnight shipping today.
Any orders placed after 1 pm Eastern time today will ship on Monday with free overnight shipping.

A Little Self Portrait Fun

I wanted to replace my photo avatar used on several different websites with something a little more special than the basic selfie.

Why I am not a Wedding Photographer

Short answer: because I don't shoot weddings. 

Many people love photography. As an art form, as a hobby, as a learning experience, and as a way to make money. A person can be a great photographer and never make a dime off of it. A person can also make a decent living in photography and not reach their full artistic potential.

Photokina 2014

A nice round up of Photokina 2014 by Digital Camera World. Click links in article for even more info.

Be a part of the Night Sky Network survey

Be a part of the Night Sky Network survey!

What is it about?

Direct link to survey

Survey stays live until September 30th, 2014.

More new cameras from Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and a great Pentax Deal

 
Canon 7D Mark II

EF and EF-S Lenses

More Canon

Samsung NX-1

Panasonic Cameras

Olympus Stuff

Cool Sony Things

Pentax K-3 Deal

New Sigma 150-600mm lens available for pre-order:

Nikon Mt

Canon Mt 

Sigma Mt

And a waterproof Ricoh camera in two colors 

affiliate links

Nikon D750

Nikon D750 FX Camera

Some very exciting news for Full Frame  DSLR fans, Nikon introduces the D750. Click on links below for info and pre-ordering pricing.

Fuji Fotokina Fun

Some nice announcements from our friend Fuji at this Fotokina. (link goes to B&H Photo's newsletter)

Here is a link for purchasing from Adorama

Pentax K-S1

Pentax K-S1 early write up from PetaPixel.

Looks like a very full featured camera. 

I will be interested in a full test.

New Hasselblad H5D-200c

New Hasselblad H5D-200c

Technical Info

Pentax 645D Price Drop

Shutterbug Magazine posts about a HUGE price drop on the Pentax 645D 40MP medium format digital camera.

Super Moon Sunday

Once again, a great opportunity for photographing The Moon (Earth's natural satellite) is upon us.

 They call it a Super Moon, but all it really means is the Moon is at perigee while it is full. The technical name is the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. Perigee is when it's very slightly elliptical orbit is closest to Earth. When this happens at the same time it is full, it makes a brighter Moon. It actually happens on the average several times a year. This month, the full Moon is very close in time to perigee, so it will be near the brightest and biggest it can be.

So, tomorrow night, August 10th, use my new sky map and go see the Moon. Hint, near 10:00pm, it will be high enough up in the ESE sky to see it clearly. If you scout out ahead of time, you might a good foreground subject for right as it crosses the horizon a bit earlier.

If you stay up to the early morning hours, say 3:00-4:00am, you might see some good meteors from this year's Perseid meteor shower. Hints for viewing a meteor shower.

See my earlier post for exposure guidelines.

Enjoy this astronomical Sunday night through Monday morning!

Sky Map

Sky map by AstroViewer^®

Get the HTML code for this sky map

Bookmark this page for looking up your sky events.

Samples of Available Services

First up are some finished ads for a couple of commercial properties Steve's Fine Finish did the photography for.

Please note: Steve's Fine Finish does not do the finished ads, only the principle photography. The ads are property of the owners and the ad provider.

Ad #1

Ad #2

Have you seen the Homeland flyer on Guiding Stars Nutritional Information? Pick one up. That's full of product shots Steve's Fine Finish  did right here in a local store.

Steve's Fine Finish Photography also does portraits. Traditional, environmental, and group.

Realty and commercial property photography available also.

Whatever your photographic needs are, Steve's Fine Finish Photography has a solution for you!

New Canon Powershot Cameras

From Adorama! (affiliate link)

Featured:

Canon PowerShot SX520 HS Digital Camera, 16MP, 42x Optical Zoom (24mm to 1008mm), 1080p HD Video, Zoom Framing Assist, Optical Image Stabilizer Price: $399.99 + free US shipping

Canon PowerShot SX400 IS Digital Camera, 16MP, 30x Optical Zoom, 720 HD Video, Optical Image Stabilizer - Red
Price: $249.99 + free US shipping

Canon PowerShot SX400 IS Digital Camera, 16MP, 30x Optical Zoom, 720 HD Video, Optical Image Stabilizer - Black
Price: $249.99 + free US shipping

Using DXO - A Review

I just downloaded the free version of Sony's DXO film emulation software. I haven't played with all the controls, but I wanted to show what the program does.

Basically, back in our film shooting days, we knew that certain brands (and certain films within those brands) had a color balance and saturation unique to themselves. 

Kodachrome gave us "nice bright colors, dreams of Summers" because it had a slightly warm color balance, deep saturation, and ultra tight grain. Fujichrome and Ektachrome tended cooler and varied in saturation among the different sub brands. 

I always looked at the film box to remember what color balance the film favored. I used Kodachrome for Autumn scenes and anything requiring perfect grain, Ektachrome for Winter, strobe, and night, Fujichrome for Spring views. Worked well for me.

The color negative films were often color corrected in printing, but they had some distinct characteristics as well. Contrast seemed to be the biggest difference.

B&W was adjustable in so many ways. Different chemicals,  printing choices, even time and temp of the chems. Still, they had differences, too, especially in grain and contrast.

Then, cross processing adds its own unique looks, adjustable to a great degree. Develop E-6 chromes in C-41, or color neg film in slide film chemicals. Lots of interesting looks.

So, now you can do all that again. Open up your finished JPEG, choose what film preset to use, and let DXO do its stuff. I used minimal compression and got some large, sharp files. I left everything else at DXO factory presets. Adjustments, besides film type, include intensity of the film type, contrast, saturation, exposure, and film grain.

I was pleased overall. This program (and others like it, including Lightroom and Photoshop plug ins) have some good uses and results.

I chose one image of mine to illustrate below. There are more film presets in the program, these are just some highlights.

Original image file, shot in Nikon RAW, processed to finish with Adobe Photoshop and ACDSee:

 

Original

Fuji Superia Reala 100

Fuji Velvia 50

Kodachrome 25

Kodak Elite Color 200

Ilford XP2

Kodak T-Max 100

Polaroid 672 pack film

Kodak Cross Process

Free DXO download

GEt a free version of DXO film emulation software. 

Link good til August 15th, 2014

Includes a code for getting the latest version at a deep discount.

The software is essentially designed to give your digital photos the "look" of some well-known film stocks.

Improve Photography article

Improve Photography is a great site for any photographer, at any skill level, to improve their craft.

Steve's Fine Finish is now a contributor to the site. See my review of inexpensive studio strobes. 

More articles from me will be coming soon. While on the website, check thru all the other articles. I'm sure you will find a subject that helps you improve your photography.

NEW CALENDARS!

All new calendars are available!

Click on THIS LINK for previews and orders.

Sigma Lens Sale Coupons

From Adorama! Save on 150-500, 10-20, and 85/1.4. Also a deal on memory cards.

And here is the memory card sale.

BEAR CAM!

Last year, we linked you to the Live View Bear Cam at Brooks Falls, Alaska.

This year, we can also add a Live View from Lower River.

Bookmark this and check back all Summer long. Sometimes there are loads of bears, sometimes just one or two. Anytime you look, it's awesome!

"Check back on off hours for highlights."

Make Money with your Camera, Part III

I've posted a couple of times with some ideas and guidelines for making money with your camera. 

I'm now going to review a site I've been using that has been good for my business:

ThumbTack

How does ThumbTack work?

It's free to sign up, whether looking for work or looking to hire. People post asking for bids for jobs in your area. You can set up your account with what you consider your local area. Also, choose what types of jobs you want to bid on.

You then purchase credits to use when bidding.  Credits are reasonably priced and most jobs only require 2 to 4 credits to bid.

Since people are definitely looking to hire someone for a specific job, there isn't much time wasted for you or them. Set up a good profile page and be very specific in your details of the bid. Just like you would for an in-person bid.

What I like about this is it opens up for people for other areas to ask for bids in my local area. For instance, a national service for grant writing needed photos of a business in my area. They posted for my area, I responded, got a nice fee for an easy afternoon's work. Another example, a realty firm in the state bordering mine has a property they represent in my area. (The client owns properties in several states.) They needed a realty photographer to update their files. Instead of sending one of their regulars for an out of state job, they posted, I responded, another nice invoice for me.

A huge plus for me is the time and expense involved in bidding. Consider, if I were to drive to a location, inspect it, and submit a bid, I have already invested my time, gas, postage, etc... Buying credits to bid online is actually far less expensive when you add that all up.

It can be for different types of photography. I've seen requests for portraits, newborn, events, weddings, and modeling. Also, commercial photography including products and properties.

Hope this encourages you to keep trying.

Positive feedback is nice

Positive feedback is nice, isn't it? I recently just had two different clients tell me my work for them was "perfect" and "even better than asked for." I'll be using their glowing recommendations to show prospective new clients.

And it brings up a good point. We need to give commendation to others. Especially when they have done a superior job for us.

Like my slide scanning from Scan Cafe. I was expecting a good job, what I got was close to perfect. I love being able to use my older images in the new digital world without worrying about scanning with my own equipment. Not only is Scan Cafe's equipment of high grade, their technicians cleaned, adjusted, enhanced the images to close to the original quality as shot. Awesome!

Have you used a service that turned out well for you? Let them know. Even in the giant corporate world, individual workers or teams can be praised.

Has a model you hired (even if work-for-prints), been a joy to direct? Let them know. 

Let others know, too.

 A little positive note for my photography thoughts this week.

Moon and Mars

On the night of July 5th, the Moon (Earth's natural satellite) will either occult or come very close to Mars for certain Western Hemisphere viewers.

Here is a map (via Sky & Telescope) :

If you get to see it, try photographing it. As bright as these two objects are, even a partly cloudy night will still make for some nice photos.

Artist's Network Courses

Watch instructional videos of art subjects.

Great Deal on a Pentax K-50 Outfit

The Pentax K-50 is a very nice mid level DSLR. 16MP APS-C, in body image stabilization, weather proof, can use many legacy K-mount lenes...

Now til the end of this month, Adorama is offering a kit of this camera for an astonishingly low price. The camera, 18-55 lens, 50-200 lens, AF-200FG flash, gadget bag, 16GB card, and a nice piece of software for around what the camera and kit lens alone used to go for.

$596.95 with free shipping and 4% back in Adorama Rewards.

Prices below are after applying coupon code PENTAXJUNE at checkout.

Get it in BLACK, RED, or WHITE

A few other variations of the kit can be found here.

Read an in depth review from dpreview.com