I’m back from after a few weeks of blogger reflection. I wanted to make sure that the blog was working well for you and for me. I’ve found the blog zen and am ready to jump back in. I’ll be posting daily on news, image of the week, reviews, how-tos and more.

The biggest news since now that I’m back – for those that use Lightroom at least – is the release of version 2! I’ve purchased it and have some initial thoughts on what I like and what could still use some improvement. I’ll post those thoughts later today or tomorrow.

Thanks!

Brian

You may have noticed that my posts have dropped off a bit recently. Honestly, I’m taking a step back to brainstorm how I can continue to add value through the blog. I’ve really enjoyed the last six months of posts and want to make sure that things don’t become stale – for me, or for you.

In the meantime, I’m still posting weekly images and will finish up my series on Studio Strobes for Beginners. See the picture below, taken with my 2 studio strobes, some white paper and a $12 item from Home Depot. Stay tuned for more!

This week’s image is another shot from my brother, an expert landscape shooter. As you can see, he’s also able to get some interesting wildlife.

Click each image for a larger view.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know that I love reading other resources – blogs, books, newsletters. You name a free resource and I probably consume it. While I read a lot of blogs through my feed reader, I still receive a fair number of newsletters via e-mail.

Of all the newsletters I receive, only 1 photography one currently ranks highly enough for me to save each and every one. Photojojo is one of those e-mails that I really look forward to receiving. They are brief, well written and genuinely interesting and/or useful. Nothing is held back – they’ve sent everything from top father’s day gifts to putting your photos on M&Ms to tips on taking better pictures for eBay.

If you don’t currently subscribe to their twice-a-week newsletter, you should. Go and join today. (Oh, and they also sell some pretty interesting gear on their site – check that out while there).

Happy 4th of July all! (For those outside the U.S. reading this, July 4th is the day we celebrate our independence from British rule).

I’m particularly grateful for the blessings I’ve received as part of living in this country – have a safe and fun weekend!

If you plan on going to see some fireworks, why not also take some pictures? If you’ve never taken any before, check out Scott Kelby’s brief how-to here. The one thing he didn’t mention that I found useful was to set my lens to Manual focus instead of automatic. If you open your shutter before the firework actually explodes, it won’t have anything to focus on. If you switch to manual focus and focus out to infinity, though, you should be good to go.

Click the image below for a gallery of my shots from a fireworks show I went to last night.

All shots are directly from the camera – I didn’t have the time to combine multiple fireworks into one collaged shot. I’ll try and do that in the near future and post it.

This week’s photo is courtesy of my Elinchrom D-Lite strobe set. If you’re interested in learning more about those or studio lighting, check out the studio strobes for beginner series here, here or here.

Click on the image for a larger view. Its specs are: Canon 40D, 24-70 2.8L lens at 70mm, 100 ISO, f14, 1/200 sec.

I’ll be posting more specifics on the photo (diagram, setup shot, etc.) in a series installment.