http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fIE560ibjA

Getty Images is teaming up with Time, Inc. to relaunch Life.com. Life Magazine has been a photography icon for years. Combining the strength of the Life brand with some of the amazing images from Getty Images will produce a storehouse of millions of incredible images that will be available for free. That’s right free as in no charge .

The bulk of the content will be available at launch, with an additional ~3,000 images made available from Getty Images every day.

Apparently you will be able to share, print, and possibly even buy select images. That makes sense why Getty would choose to play in the Life.com sandbox…

Check out life.com and sign up for their free weekly newsletter.

Ritz has about 800 photo stores scattered over 40 different states, including Ritz Camera, Kits Cameras, Wolf Camera, The Camera Shops and Inkley’s. It also operates 130 Boater’s World stores (good luck figuring out the connection between Boating and Camera equipment).

I used to go to Inkley’s when I was growing up and window shop at the latest camera gear. That was back in the day of the Canon A1, and AE1. I wanted the auto-drive for my Canon A1 so bad it hurt, but I was just a kid and never could afford it.

I have bought a lot of equipment at Inkley’s over the years, so I am not to blame in this latest victim of the economic downturn.

Ritz Camera has about 6,400 employees nationwide and recorded sales of just under $1 billion last year.

As part of the Bankruptcy filing, Ritz Camera listed Nikon and Canon as two of their top 30 creditors with outstanding balances of ~$40 million, with an additional $8 million owed to Fuji Photo Film USA.

The company experienced a significant decline in it’s profitable photofinishing business due to the shift from film to digital cameras, lower than expected holiday sales in 2008, and a sharp decline in boating sales due to increased gas prices and other economic factors.

Read the complete article at Business Week

I wonder if they will seek bailout money from the government like the other failed/failing businesses these days (don’t get me started about this mess – It makes me grumpy).

Tonight is a sad night for me. Larry Miller, the owner of the Utah Jazz passed away yesterday and tonight they had a brief memorial for him at the beginning of the Utah Jazz Game.

Larry Miller was a good man. I actually had the chance to take a class from him while getting my MBA. He taught a course on Entrepreneurship. For 2 months, Larry Miller came and taught the class principles of being an entrepreneur.

He told his story from his humble beginnings of working as a stock boy in an auto parts store. He was ambitious, and soon moved up to managing the parts dept, and on from there.

Today, the Larry H. Miller organization has a ton of different businesses. From the ownership of the Utah Jazz, to the Salt Lake Bees, Jordan Commons (theater & restaurant complex), Larry H. Miller Motorsports Park, over 40 Auto Dealerships throughout the Intermountain West, and more.

The thing that I liked the most about Larry was his generosity. He was very philanthropic. He supported the community in many ways, including millions of dollars donated to building a training center for law enforcement and corrections officers, as well as a significant investment towards a campus for the Salt Lake Community College and much more.

His quote that represented his viewpoint on giving was “Go about doing good until there is too much good in the world”

What an inspiration! What a loss to the community! We will miss him!

My thoughts and prayers go out to Gail Miller, his wife, and the entire Miller family!

Oh – and as a final tribute to Larry, the Jazz won their game.  After the game, Kyle Korver came over from the bench and gave Gail Miller a hug and wished her well.  I thought it was a class act all the way!

Besides cheering for my son and his teammates and yelling at the referees, I have a dilemma.  What do I shoot — Video or stills.

I don’t have an outlet for my images.  I have submitted to the local newspaper, but they actually sell their images, so they only accept images from their staff photographers.  So I am shooting for my families memories.  The question is which is more appealing — video or still shots?

For the last couple of years, I have shot mostly stills.  However, this year, I am shooting mostly video.  It is a very different medium for me.  There are different things to worry about.  Panning, zooming, trying not to jerk the camera around when a sudden change of action happens, do I follow the ball or follow my son?  These are all skills that I am working to master.

How about everyone else.  Video or stills?

Let me know what you think.

Once upon a time, there was a thing called film.  Photographers had to use it in order to create pictures.  You could buy print film, slide film, fast film, slow film, film with vibrant colors perfect for nature images, film color balanced for portraits, even black and white film.  You had to be careful when you went through the airport with fast ISO film that the XRay machines did not harm your film, etc.

I grew up with film.  My high school photography class taught me how to develop it and print it in the darkroom.  One of my first jobs was working in a darkroom.  I would smell the developing chemicals for hours after I left work.

There is an entire generation that have never seen a film canister and never will.

Digital  is the choice of the new generation.  There are digital cameras built into cell phones, into binoculars, and even into pens – Just like the old James Bond movies.  The quality of these cameras built into other devices is poor, but give it time.  I can imagine a day when you will be able to purchase a pair of sunglasses with a built in 10 Megapixel camera that will automatically download the images to your computer when you get in range.

The distribution mechanism is changing as well.  There used to be family pictures blown up and mounted on the wall of the family room.  Now they are one of 1,000 pictures that are displayed on the wireless digital frame mounted on the wall.

Photos are uploaded to Facebook, flickr, even on to your digital phone.  When the proud father is showing off his children, he doesn’t pull out his wallet anymore…he reaches for his cell phone or PDA.

The newest trend that will hit the market with a bang will be HD video.  Canon’s newest (and most expensive) camera has an HD video camera built in.  You can shoot HD quality video using Canon Glass which is an amazing feature!

Internet video sharing sites, i.e. YouTube and Google Video will continue to grow as new video becomes easier to make, edit, and publish.

Memory cards are getting bigger and faster.  A 1G CF card used to cost $250.  Now you can buy one for $20.

The photography world is changing and I like it.  Just get in, hold on, and enjoy the ride!

There is something about owning the latest camera, flash, studio flashes and reflectors, battery packs, faster memory cards, flash brackets, and faster lenses that will make you a better photographer.

The truth is that newer, fancier, faster, sleeker, and sexy photography equipment will make you a better photographer. The technology today is getting better and better. Lenses focus faster, cameras can do more with less light, memory cards hold more and more pictures – faster, flashes are getting smarter and can light a subject wirelessly and still communicate with the camera to provide just enough light.

However, newer, fancier, faster, sleeker, and sexy photography equipment costs money – lots of it! The latest professional camera bodies from Nikon and Canon cost over $5,000 just for the body. You can spend $2,000 for a lens and still need a wide angle and a telephoto lens for your bag – and a new bag to hold it all in.

I told my wife that I wanted a new camera and she just gave me the look. All you husbands know exactly what I am talking about. She told me that I already had fancy equipment and I didn’t need another expensive camera. She is right – the equipment in my camera bag cost more than the last car that I bought – and depreciates just as fast.

I tried to tell her that the latest camera equipment didn’t have as many problems with noise – especially at high ISO’s. I tried to tell her that I could take better pictures of our kids playing basketball in those horribly lit high school gyms. I don’t think that I am going to talk her into it – at least until she gets the home improvements that we have been planning for.

OK – Do I need new equipment or do I want new equipment? I shoot a lot of high school basketball of my son playing. Faster lenses would enable me to shoot in those cold dark high school gyms and get a shutter speed higher than 1/60 at ISO 1600 or higher. In a fast a furious game with lots of action, 1/60 is not fast enough to get shots that are not blurry. In addition, the new Nikon bodies (D300, D700, D3) would reduce the amount of noise in those basketball shots at high ISOs. So new equipment would help me to take better basketball pictures.

In addition, I shoot a lot of stock photography. The new D700 or D3 would enable me to upload larger files enabling me to have XXL files available for download – thus increasing my photography income. So I could actually make a case that I need new equipment. But not everything that I want. I will write about stock photography in a future post.

So here it is – My new years resolution – I am going to make enough money this year (with my photography) to upgrade my equipment. I challenge each of you that read this to do the same – earn enough income with your photography to pay for the new sleek and sexy equipment

Who’s with me?
Happy new year!
Dave

You pull it out of the box, put in the batteries and memory card and start to point it at everyone around you who immediately start to duck for cover.  They hold their hands in front of their faces, make threatening and/or obscene gestures towards you all in an attempt to get out of having their picture taken.

It doesn’t matter if it is a simple point and shoot camera or an expensive professional digital SLR.   You probably don’t know how to use all the features and functions available.  The owners manual and quick start guides get thrown away with the packaging and all of a sudden you are on your own.

Then comes the questions for the beginner.

1. I thought I could set this camera on a timer so I can be in the picture.  How do you do that again?
2. What quality setting should I set the camera on to blow up a picture to 8×10?
3. How do I get the images off the memory card?
4. What do I set the camera on to take an action photo?
5. What is white balance again?

Or even the questions that a professional photographer might have, like:

1. How do I set the camera to trip the flash at the end of a long exposure?
2. How do I set a remote flash to be the master, but continue using TTL exposures?

Do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes going through the owners manual before putting on the shelf.  Even if it is just familiarizing yourself with what is in the manual, it would be 30 minutes of time well spent.

Another option to learn how to use your digital camera would be to take a class.  Many photography stores offer a basic photography class that teaches elementary exposure, covers the basics of your camera, and talks about how to get images off of the memory card in a format that they can print for you.  They will even sell you many accessories and the intermediate and advanced classes .

Most camera vendors also offer videos that talk about the features of their cameras.  Nikon has a line of “Nikon School” DVD’s that have a movie about how to use their cameras.

Finally, Magic Lantern offers many 3rd party books on specific cameras if your owners manual didn’t provide you the information that you need to learn how to use your camera.

The cameras today are amazing.  What you can get for $100 would rival what you might pay thousands for a few decades ago.  Many of the newer cameras even have the ability to do some elementary image touch up right in the camera.

However, the most expensive professional cameras can be relegated to a simple point and shoot if you don’t know how to use it – although you will impress those around you by pulling out that expensive piece of equipment.

Whether you are a freelance photojournalist working for a local newspaper, a stock photographer looking for the money shot, or simply shooting pictures of your kids if you don’t have your camera, you won’t get the shot.

In my classes that I teach on basic photography skills, my first point is always to have your camera with you.

I have missed so many incredible shots that were only there for a few minutes. My latest miss was just a few weeks ago. There was an incredible sunset and I wanted to get the reflection off of an office building for my stock portfolio. Of course I didn’t have my camera with me. I was only a few blocks from my home so I thought I would run home and get my camera and sneak back and catch my shot.

I learned that the real color of a sunset is only available for a few minutes. By the time I made it home, got my camera, and got back out to the car, the color of the sunset was gone. I had missed the money shot because I didn’t have my gear with me.

I bought my wife a point and shoot digital camera for that reason. She has a digital SLR, but she doesn’t like to carry it around unless she is planning on shooting a specific event. She carries a Nikon Coolpix camera in her purse for the cute spontaneous pictures of my kids.

It works well for her – now I just need to get one to carry with me.

The phone on your camera will do in a pinch, but not for any real quality and you certainly won’t be able to enlarge the picture to any real size – maybe someday as camera phones will get better.

I LOVE to take pictures. I am actively working on becoming a better photographer.  I buy books, attend seminars, and shoot – a lot!

I leaf through magazines and see some amazing images. I look carefully at the images to determine how the photographer has used lighting to focus on the subject of the image.

At work, I have a reputation of being a photographer. Because of that, I get a ton of questions. Members of my family call me to ask me a “quick question about photography”. It doesn’t bother me at all. I am flattered that they think I know more than them.

I am a part time semi-professional photographer. I would like to be full time.  I want to know everything there is to know about photography, how to get better at shooting, how to better control light, how to identify the best new equipment, and how to find revenue opportunities with photography.

I don’t pretend to know everything, in fact, the more I learn, the more I feel like I don’t know anything. What I do know is that I am willing to share. Share my ideas, share my experience, and share my knowledge about photography.

I would love to create a community around photography, tips to become a better photographer, courses, classes, videos, and books about improving photography skills, and about the business of photography — making more photo income.

Please let me know if you have ideas that you would like to share.

thanks
Dave