The BetterPhoto Girls Blog

Tori’s Bookmarks: Pandora Radio – Your Personal DJ

I love discovering new music to add to my iTunes library and one of the best ways I’ve found to do this is to create my own stations using Pandora. It’s fast, free, and easy to set up! The best thing about Pandora is that you can search for your favorite artists and/or songs and Pandora will automatically create stations for you with songs from artists (some you know, some you don’t) with similar styles. For instance, I really like Natalie Merchants songs so I created a station based on her song, “Carnival” and Pandora added tons of songs by Natalie and other artists based on this style. All I have to do is click play, turn up the volume and Pandora takes care of my play list.

That in itself is just downright cool. But, get this, you can also tell Pandora which songs you especially like and even those that you don’t particularly care for. When you give Pandora a “thumbs down” on a song it never plays it again. If you hear a song that you want to buy, you can link directly to Amazon or iTunes and add the song to your shopping cart. If you don’t want to buy the song right away you can just save the name and artist in a list that Pandora maintains for you.

You might have noticed that BetterPhoto is all about sharing so another feature of Pandora that I think is just awesome is that you can share your stations with your friends! Try it out at www.pandora.com. You don’t even have to create an account to enjoy it but I recommend you do so that you can listen on any computer, have your stations saved, and share them with your friends.

Photography Star at Fall Fair

This BetterPhoto Girl hit the road last weekend for my annual family gathering at my parents home on Mayne Island, B.C.

Through The Forest of Moss © Justin H. Taylor All rights reserved

Mayne is one of the beautiful Canadian Gulf Islands off the coast of British Columbia. Each year, my family gets together to celebrate summer birthdays and enjoy the century old traditional Fall Fair. One of the highlights of the fair is a photography contest, and one of the stars of the show is Justin Taylor.

Justin is an incredibly talented young artist and his award winning photography and drawings are far beyond the talents of most adults. A couple years ago, when I mentioned BetterPhoto to Justin, I found out that not only did he already know about BP, he was a finalist in our highly competitive monthly photo contest!

BetterPhoto member Justin Taylor © Karen Orr All rights reserved

Justin is inspiring photographers of all ages to challenge themselves in both the island contest, and ours here at BetterPhoto. His first prize winner, Through The Forest of Moss, from the Fall Fair on Mayne is just a taste of what is yet to come from this gifted guy. Check out his BetterPholio to see more of his great work!

Keep shooting Justin and I'll see you on the beach!

Karen

Events: Oct. 6-17 -- Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Have you ever tried describing to someone an amazing sunset, or a harvest moon, or a child’s smile that just makes your heart melt? You know that, no matter how incredible the sight is to you, words simply are not enough. That’s how I feel when I try to describe the Balloon Fiesta to someone who has never attended. You get up at 4:00 AM on Saturday, yes the day you usually try to sleep in, to get your sleepy kids bundled up in warm clothes and deal with traffic that puts Los Angeles to shame only to be herded to a giant field where 30,000 other people are already waiting in long lines for hot chocolate and fresh cinnamon rolls.

I know that doesn’t sound like much fun but you have to trust me on this. When the sun rises over the Sandia Mountains somewhere around 6:40 AM, and your hands have found warmth by clutching the cup of hot chocolate close, and your family or friends are huddled together in a shivering bundle of hoodies and ear-muffs, you’ll know what I mean. You’ll know that there is no place else you would rather be.

Folks travel to this annual event from as far away as Africa, Japan, Russia, and other faraway places. And they do this every year. If you go — when you go — listen for the countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7... and look around you. Look at the children’s faces and how excited they are as they anticipate the “Balloon Glow” where every hot-air balloon on the field lights up at the same time. Oh, there is so much more I wish I could tell you about it. I haven’t even gotten to the special shapes, the delicious breakfast burritos, the art, and everything else. Well, you will just have to see for yourself.

The most photographed event in the world is coming up soon - October 6-17, 2007. Take your camera, tripod, and extra media cards. See the schedule, events, and guest guide (including travel information) here: www.balloonfiesta.com. Come mid-October I will be looking for your balloon photos on the BetterPhoto site!

Tori’s Bookmarks: Tafiti – Change the Way You Search

You know those statistics that tell us how many hours a year or years of our lives we spend stopped at red lights or tying our shoes or looking around the house for misplaced keys? I wondered recently how many hours I spend searching for things online. It must be a lot because my home page is set to Google. Actually, maybe I don’t want to know because the answer could be quite shocking.

Enter Tafiti. Tafiti is an amazing search page that allows you to search the web, books, blogs, news, and images. After you enter your search query you can drag and drop search results to the “shelf” on the left side of the page. You can name the search items on your shelf and return to explore them later. Even if you close the browser window and come back the stuff on your shelf is still there.

After I used Tafiti for a few search queries I was hopeful that I wouldn’t have to spend ten years out of my life searching for stuff online. Now, I just need to figure out what to do with all the free time.

See the FAQ’s here: www.tafiti.com/faq.html or give it a try at: www.tafiti.com.

Online Photography Course Review

Popular Photography (PopPhoto.com) has posted several in depth blog articles about the BetterPhoto online photography class they are taking with one of our instructors, Jim Zuckerman.

It's quite interesting to read a comprehensive photo course review from the student's point of view. Kathleen Davis (Assistant Editor and novice shooter) is learning a lot and having a great time in the class. She even shares some of Jim's critiques of her homework assignments. I feel like I'm learning as well, right along with her, as I look at her photos and read the critiques.

Click on the links below to read Kathleen's blog series called "Four Weeks to Become a Better Photographer":

• How the BetterPhoto Course Works
  
• BetterPhoto.com - Lesson 1
  
• BetterPhoto.com - Lesson 2
  

What is a Histogram?

As I've said before, I love my little Leica point and shoot camera. One of the cool things about it is that it shows the histogram on the LCD screen. When I push the shutter button halfway down to set the focus, several details, including the histogram, pop up on the screen. In the past, I've felt that I would not be interested in viewing this information. But I'm beginning to see a pattern when an image is overexposed or underexposed and how the histogram is correlating to this image. Jim Miotke explains the histogram as "a graphic representation of how each pixel in your picture is colored".

Here's one of Jim's images with a histogram overlaying the image.

Here's a short article on BetterPhoto.com that gives a brief description of what a histogram is:
Histograms: Not as Obvious Nor as Boring as You Might Think!

I had to pay attention to the histogram for some photos I was taking of the kids outside, in the later afternoon when the sun was bright and stong to one side. I let too much light get into the scene so my images were coming out completely overexposed. I saw the spike in the histogram and was able to reposition myself so that I didn't get too much light on Alex's face.

My New BetterPholio Deluxe Site

I recently set up my own photographer website, designed and hosted by our very own BetterPhoto.com. All this time I've been so busy with the other tasks of my job, I've never set aside enough time to set up my own site. Shameful, yes, I know.

My Deluxe Site was so easy to set up, the design choices are professional and elegant, and it really makes my images look good. After my domain name was registered, it only took me about 15 minutes to get it set up.

www.BetterPhotoDenise.com

Next week we will be announcing the newest version of the Deluxe BetterPholios, with some fantastic improved features. If anyone has been thinking about a getting their own Deluxe Web site or renewing their site, this will be a two-day only event. Check out the home page for this special sale next week, when we launch the new version! www.BetterPhoto.com

Movie Review: The Girl in the Cafe

Want to see a good movie? If you haven't seen it yet, rent The Girl in the Cafe. It is sweet, poignant, touching, quiet. No car chases or exploding buildings, yet it makes a big impact. It's got one of those messages that sneaks up on you unexpectedly. I really enjoyed the acting of the two main actors, Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald. It's a movie that inspires us to believe that even one person can make a difference to change something really important, that simply trying is worth the effort. This is a thoughtful movie, very well worth the watch.

My Fantastic New Camera, the Leica D-Lux 3

So, I took my new Leica digital point and shoot camera out of the box, charged up the battery, and left the next morning for a mini-break to Victoria, BC. Did I consult the owner's manual? No. Should I have? Actually, no. I had no problem figuring out how to use it, and I was happy with the resulting images.

Ok, the price for this digital camera is steep, so other than a very fast shutter delay and it looking cool, what else do I like about it, you may ask? I love the 3 aspect ratios it has to choose from - it's fun to be able to take a panoramic. It can go manual focus. It's the only point and shoot I know of that will also shoot in RAW. It can easily be put in macro mode. The dials and buttons make sense to me. It has a nice big viewing screen. Love it!

Here is a photo that I took at the Butchart Gardens:

Yoga and the Meaning of Life

I take yoga twice a week. I'm not great at it, but I enjoy it. Most of the time just try not to fall flat on my face. Usually I leave the class feeling stretched out, relaxed, and energized. Sometimes I even feel inspired.

Last Wednesday, the yoga instructor said something that has stuck with me. After standing in one of those seemingly simple poses, she said we should have "soft eyes, and a sharp mind". This week I've thought a lot about what that meant. I love the idea of having soft, friendly, open eyes when I look at and talk to people or my kids, yet staying sharp, quick, accurate, intelligent with how I work out problems or deal with tasks.

Isn't it wonderful when we ideas come to us like this, and we can use them in our daily lives!