A little love comes back ... (rNeil)
posted Fri February 5th 2010 @ 6:53 PM

All the mentors here love doing weddings, and as in all of our professional photography, taking care of our clients. We don't want to just be a neutral presence at the big event, but to have a positive effect on the people we come in contact with so that THEY have a better time at the wedding. And of course, we want the couple and their families and friends to enjoy choosing many photographs that will help them remember this wonderful day. Read More »

Cleaning the sensor on your camera (MiriamHaugen)
posted Tue February 2nd 2010 @ 2:34 PM

I am getting ready to clean the sensor on my camera. You can pay a professional to do it for you or you can do what I did: I purchased the special swabs and cleaning solution from my local camera store and carefully following the directions in my owners manual, I will clean the sensor myself. It won't take me more than 2 minutes to do. Read More »

A little pointed humor re: Meta-Hell (rNeil)
posted Mon February 1st 2010 @ 12:41 PM

I've been researching, working on, and writing about Digital Asset Management and joking about our being on the road to Digital Nirvana here at MyPhotoMentor. Over at TheDAMBook.com I found a reference to a well-written essay on the perils and pitfalls of Meta-Uptopia, listing a number of reasons why we're NEVER going to get 'THERE' from here. With sections headed "People are lazy" and such like ... both humorous and informative! Read More »

EASY photo tags and ratings in Windows! (rNeil)
posted Fri January 29th 2010 @ 2:18 PM

Even if you don't have a software photo-editor, you can do this! "Tags" (or keywords) are notes about an image, from who is in it to where it was taken, and they are MUCH better stored in the picture's image-file than stored in your brain! And "star ratings" tell of the quality or importance of an image. Here's an easy way in Windows Vista or "7"! Read More »

Musings for a New Year (CherieRenae)
posted Thu January 28th 2010 @ 11:58 AM

In an email to an artist friend who was feeling fearful about the future, I said: Read More »

Long Exposures (CherieRenae)
posted Mon January 25th 2010 @ 11:56 AM

Don’t be afraid to try long exposures.  Earlier this month, I stood in the dark on a beach by the Pacific ocean, looking back at a coastal town. With the camera firmly secured upon a tripod, I set my aperture at f3.5 and my shutter speed at 1.3 seconds.  Read More »

What's Your Angle? (CherieRenae)
posted Mon January 25th 2010 @ 11:47 AM

How do we get out-of-the-ordinary images? Even as a professional photographer, it’s easy to fall into ruts.  The trick is to continue to look for the fresh angle.  As Bing Crosby told Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas, “Everybody’s got an angle, kid.” Read More »

Bloody hard work! (rNeil)
posted Sat January 23rd 2010 @ 11:42 PM

This writing business! I've been focused on a multi-section class on the entire process of creating and sustaining our digital photo collections, from uploading the images to our computers, setting up a structure of folders for our image files, choosing/using software for different tasks, and properly backing-up and Archiving all our images and data safely and (relatively) easily. It's a load! Read More »

Camera 101 - hands on for local students (CherieRenae)
posted Thu January 21st 2010 @ 8:09 PM

As many of you know, this month I started graduate studies.  I am in an MFA in Creative Writing program, and I just returned from a 10-day residency at Seaside.  The fire in my belly for writing has been rekindled with a vengeance.  

Interestingly, during this residency, I also realized that I NEED to do portrait photography.  I didn’t realize just how passionate I was about capturing a person’s heart & soul through photographic art, but after a week away at grad school, I was pining to photograph someone.  Thankfully, a couple of fellow students kindly offered to be models.  Their images are included in this article – a shout-out to my new friends for rescuing me from the photographic doldrums! Read More »

Create a Custom Greeting Card in Photoshop! (MiriamHaugen)
posted Mon January 18th 2010 @ 9:33 AM

Want to use Photoshop to create your own greeting cards? Here’s how! Scroll to the bottom of the article to see the video. Read More »