Photo District News (PDN) has released its extensive list of educational seminars during the PDN PhotoPlus International Conference + Expo -- October 23-26, 2013 at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. More than 90 seminars, keynote presentations, and symposiums will be presented by the world’s foremost experts on the trends, technology, and creative techniques in the fields of photography, video, post-production, and business development. In addition, many of this year's seminars and symposiums will celebrate the 30th anniversary of PhotoPlus Expo with topics supporting the show theme, "Honoring the Past, Envisioning the Future."
The S115 is a camera pack that features a legendarily tough Pelican laptop case integrated with a water resistant, front compartment with padded dividers that hold and protect multiple camera bodies, lenses, flashes and other camera equipment. Its built-in laptop case is a watertight, crushproof and impact resistant compartment that can fit an Ultrabook or any 15" notebook up to 1" thickness or any 17" MacBook.
There are two types of fisheye: circular and diagonal. The Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 Aspherical Fisheye Lens is of the diagonal type, delivering a rectangular image with cropped-sensor lenses. The lens I worked with is designed for the Nikon DX (APS-C/cropped) sensor. The APS-C version provides a 180-degree field of view. Other versions are available for other “cropped-sensor” interchangeable-lens cameras, including Micro Four Thirds. My tests were conducted using the Nikon D300.
One of my favorite books as a child was Eric in the Land of the Insects, written by the Dutch author Godfried Bomans. In this humorous fantasy, 9-year-old Eric enters the landscape painting that hangs on his wall and discovers a world of man-sized wasps, bees, butterflies, and other insects that are stunningly similar to the world of humans. Once photography became a part of my life my world was populated with grasshoppers, spiders, snails, flies, dragonflies, and butterflies—Eric’s world.
There’s something about a fixed focal length lens that brings the photographer out in me. It forces me to move in and back from compositions without resorting to a zoom. Yes, there are times when a zoom is most appreciated—especially the fast constant aperture zooms now available—but a prime puts me in a mindset that a zoom has yet to match.
Manfrotto is proud to announce an innovative new mini tripod designed to satisfy the needs of photographers looking for a support that is light, portable and easy to use for every occasion.
Panasonic announced the addition of a new single focal length lens, the LUMIX G 20mm / F1.7 II ASPH (H-H020A) featuring a new metallic profile in the Micro Four Thirds standard. It boasts dramatic compactness and light weight despite its f/1.7 aperture that enables beautiful soft focus in the background, allowing the subject to stand out impressively.
We all know how big a tomato is. If we see a photo of a GIANT tomato sitting all by itself, we have no idea that it’s bigger than its cousins. To convey the perception of size one must position the tomato near another object of known size—say, an egg or a walnut. Same is true about cameras.
All You really need to take a picture is a camera and a lens, but if you decide what you really want to do is make a photograph, a few extra tools come in handy. Any one of the imaging tools in this month’s column will make creating a photograph or making a portrait easier and, in some cases, better than they would be otherwise. For the pro or aspiring professional anything that increases productivity by streamlining workflow while improving the quality of the product delivered to the client translates into making money too, not just photographs.