I love great tools. I REALLY love when those great tools are free. The list below details some of the free tools I use on a regular basis. You’ll notice that many are web-based, which make them accessible from anywhere.

• Do lots with Google Tools: Google has several free tools that I use on a daily basis. I use Google Documents to track my favorite training resources and a budget I share with someone else for managing a non-profit organization. I use Google Reader to read my blogs. I use Google Analytics to track traffic to my blog and other web sites. Google. Google. Google. I should probably be worried about the whole big brother thing and having one area track so much of what I do. But, their tools are so great and so free that I just don’t seem to care.
• Send Large Files: Trying to send a file and having e-mail limitations? I’ve used www.transferbigfiles.com and Adobe’s Share service to send large files to folks and really like each option. Both allow you to send files to recipients, include passwords, etc. (Share does a lot more than just send files – it allows you to permanently store and collaborate on documents). Each site lets you transfer up to 1 GB at a time.
• Blog with Wordpress: I use Wordpress for my blog. You can download it for free (or host an account on their free servers). There are lots of neat plugins, themes and more. If you want to become a blogger, you should check it out.
• Manage Wallpaper on Multiple Monitors with Display Fusion: Display Fusion allows you to span a single wallpaper across multiple monitors on Windows. Check out my previous review of it here.
• Protect Your Data with Freebyte Backup: There are a ton of options available for backing up your data. I found something for free that runs on Windows Vista (I buy the cheaper external hard drives that don’t come with backup software). My criteria were that it worked and that it copied files directly. I didn’t want anything that would store it in a proprietary format and require installing the program to retrieve my files later. Freebyte Backup is very simple and easy to use. You can choose directories to backup and a destination location. Best of all? It’s free.
• Collect Data at Survey Monkey: Need to ask 1 or more people a question? Give SurveyMonkey a try. It allows you to create surveys up to 10 questions and send them out to up to 100 people for free (surveys with more questions or responses require a subscription). The site is REALLY easy to use and the features are pretty flexible.
• Photos at Flickr: Share your photos on Flickr. The site allows other to favorite, provide comments and more.
• Professional Contacts at LinkedIn: The MySpace for professional contacts, LinkedIn allows you to stay in touch with other professionals. You can post your own resume-like information. In a world where 80% of jobs come through networks, this is a very important tool. Check out my profile on LinkedIn here.
  

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Sure, we’d all like to be better without putting much effort into it. And, in most cases in life, that is certainly the case. There is a tip, though, that if followed diligently (it can be hard to do) will make you a better photographer. It is…

Only show your best photos! It’s that simple. But, it’s a practice that many amateurs don’t follow. Oftentimes, when starting out, someone wants to show off ALL their photos. All the shots from their recent vacation, all the shots of the new baby (I know how the urgings for that go), all the shots from their son’s football game. What’s the problem with that? Simply put, most of those photos aren’t very good.

Even the pros take lots of okay or even aweful photos. But, you say, that can’t be the case. You only see their great photos. That’s because that is all they are willing to show you.

When you are willing to only show the very best, you are able to automatically elevate your work to the very best it can be – and as an extension the people that see your work will think you are a better photographer. When you show just ’so-so’ pictures, just because you took them, you are allowing youself to be a so-so photographer.

Now, this can be challenging. After all, you took the photos, so you NEED to share them. Resist the urge. Prior to sharing any photos, you should do an initial sort, then sort them again, then again, leaving only the cream of the crop. Scott Kelby brings up this point in his Digital Photography Book, Volume 2 and has a great line. He say “Just ask yourself what you would rather see–80 pretty good shots, or 10 outstanding shots.”

What’s My Percentage?

As an example, since our most recent daughter, Isabelle was born about a week and a half ago, my wife and I have taken around 300 photos of her. How many have I shared with others? 2 on my blog and about 8 total. That includes family and friends – I want to look as professional as I can with them as well. So, in this case, I’m only sharing about 2.3% of my work.

So, there it is. Elevate your work without changing anything about how you take your pictures. Just make sure you are only showing the very best.

What’s Your Percentage?

With that in mind, what is your %? How many photos are excellent vs. the number you take?

Well, we’re half way through the week today! Several of the kids are spending time with the grandparents, so I have an unprecedented few minutes and give a second post of the day! I wanted to share a few of the interesting posts/things I’ve run across recently.

• Jeff at PhotoWalkPro put together a nice article on Hyperfocul Distance (basically, where you should focus the camera in a landscape photo). The post covers all the details and then gives you some nice shortcuts. If you ever photograph landscapes, it’s worth a look. You can read more about it here.
• Jason at CanonBlogger, as always, has a few good posts to take a look at. You can check out his blog here or take a look at the required shutter speeds to freeze action here.
• If you haven’t checked out Moose Peterson’s site recently, you’re missing some great Bison shots. Wildlife is starting to come out in force and Moose isn’t missing a beat.
• Do you use a Mac? Do you backup your files? If so, check out a few recent posts from John Nack here and here. He recently went through the unfortunate disaster of hard drive failure (been there, done that). The new Time Machine feature and Time Capsule, though, saved his bacon.
• I’ve read no fewer than 10 posts on the recent Orphan Works Act recently. If, for some reason, haven’t heard of it, you can check out some details here, here and here, just for starters. Basically, it sets forth how what should happen when the owner of a copyrighted work can’t be found.
  

This week’s favorite Flickr photo is courtesy of my own images on Flickr. I don’t think it’s one of the best shots I’ve ever taken, but I really like it for one reason.

I marked its location with a GPS and geotagged the photo (see a more in-depth post on mapping geotagged photos here). If you click on the photo, or click here, you’ll see the photo placed on the map at the exact location I took it. Or, if you click here, you can see my photo, with other geotagged photos taken in the same area. For travel or landscape photographers, this is a very cool feature!

I’m in a bit short on time today, so I don’t have time for a more in-depth post. Just two thoughts to leave you with (I think all the other thoughts are asleep).

1. The folks over at FlashFlavor recently posted on giving their camera the middle finger and it really made me think about my finger placement. Sometimes, when you need to adjust camera settings quickly, the small things can help a lot. Check out the post here.
2. If you haven’t purchased either of Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography books (there is a volume 1 and a volume 2) go out and purchase them. They’re advertised as being primarily for beginners, but even pros can benefit from a least a few tips (if you think you’ve learned it all, you’re wrong). The book is just full of them. I was reviewing it for information on a post I’m planning for tomorrow and was reminded just how great it was. Oh, and did I mention they were cheap? Seriously, go buy them.

I was looking out my front window as I turned on my porch light at dusk last night and saw a red fox across the street. Normally, that isn’t all that unusual (we have a large rabbit population in the area, and an occasional fox trotting down the street is common). I noticed, however, that it was playing with another fox – and a third jumped in! I ran and got my camera, popped on my 70-200 (this is the longest lens I have – I wish I had one just a bit longer) and snuck outside. Once outside I noticed that I wasn’t the only one with a spring baby. There were 5 fox pups playing in the yard across the street!

At this point, you might be asking yourself why I put Moose in the title. I live in the Denver metro area – seeing an actual Moose in town isn’t likely. But, as I was sneaking outside, a recent class at Photoshop World taught by Moose Peterson came to mind. The focus of the class was how to get close to wildlife – which seemed very applicable at the moment!

I pulled out my notes from Moose’s class and provided a summary below. I used most, if not all, last night. Thanks for the tips Moose!

Moose’s Tips for Getting Close to Wildlife

• Invest the Time: This was the number 1 tip. Be ready to invest some time. Getting close to animals is easy, if you are willing to take a nice slow approach, stopping when necessary so that you don’t frigthen them. You might also need to find out where they are and just wait. Sometimes, you’ll have to wait – and wait – and wait.
• Go Where They Are: This may sound simple, but it can be very important. Find ou the places the animals you want to shoot are at. In many cases, that includes going to where their food is at. At times, this can be easier than expected. Moose pulled up a great example of shooting some pelicans at a local pier because they were used to getting fed in a particular place. No swamp hiking was required in that case.
• Don’t Get Low: For many animals, getting low makes you look more like a predator. So, a lot of the time, standing works just fine.
• Respect: Always make sure you respect the creatures you are shooting – make sure you provided the lowest possible impact on them and their enviornment.
• 60 Feet or Less: Most shots can happen at 60 feet or less. At first I was a little skeptical of this one, but last night the Foxes let me get within about 40 feet before they started getting nervous. If you follow the other rules, this one can be very true.
• Be Ready to Get Skunked: Moose is one of the country’s best wildlife photographers and he readily admits that he goes out and comes back with nothing regularly (around 50% of the time). So, don’t get discouraged if you don’t get the shot you want. Just keep trying!