Links

This page provides links to sites that our members have found useful for them. If you have others you want added here, contact us at the email address provided below. Thanks goes out to all our members who shared these opportunities with us.

Photos Contests are listed on the Contests page.

Camera Rentals

Interested in trying out equipment to try before purchasing? This idea was brought up by Claire, one of our members. I looked up some options in the metro area. West photo (http://www.westphoto.com/), (AVS/AV Solutions (http://www.avs-inc.com/rental.html), and Lights on (http://www.lightson.com/) are all businesses that rent out photo equipment from cameras to lenses and more. They are all in the metro area. I've been to West Photo and know that it is a regular stop for professional photographers in the metro area.

Software

SmugMug.com - Free unlimited storage and uploads of photos. Website offers other features as well. Has various security options to protect your files. Was recommended by some of our members.

Helicon Focus - Sanford recommended this program for any of you doing Macro photography. Helicon Focus is a program that creates one completely focused image from several partially focused images by combining the focused areas. The program is designed for macrophotography, microphotography and hyperfocal landscape photography to cope with the shallow depth-of-field problem.

Photomatix - Claire recommended this software program which is used for generating HDR (high dynamic range) photos. It helps you merge differently exposed photos into one image with increased dynamic range faster and more effectively than even possible in Adobe Photoshop.

Neat Image - This is a noise reduction program that operates as a standalone program (Windows only) or a plugin for Photoshop (Windows or Mac) or Aperture (Mac Only). The price ranges from free demo to $30-75 for the full versions.

swfIR - This software is used to convert your photos to flash objects which can include frames around them. It makes it harder for viewers to take your images. The only way left for them might just be print screen. They have options for an elastic header image (resizes with text resizing), rotated image within content, rounded corners within content and multiple images (on a page). There are step by step instructions on the website. The program is free but donations are welcome on their site. Although I haven't tried this yet, it looks very promising and I do intend to try it. Note: This option is probably best left to the geeks out there who understand a little about javascript.

WordPress - This is a free self-hosted blogging tool that has grown to be widely used and supported. There is even a WordPress for Dummies book available. You can view full information about the software on their website. One of our new members, Arne M, uses this software for his blog.

Clubs and Events

F Stop Swap is a used camera equipment and collectable photographic images, held two times a year (April and October) in the greater Minneapolis area. At the F-Stop Swap you can find anything from Alpa to Zeiss -- collectibles to professional equipment -- large format to digital. If your looking for collectable images you can find daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, stereoviews and more. So, if you looking to buy, sell or trade almost anything in the way of photo equipment, movie, or special brands of gear, come check out our next show. For Table space visit F-StopSwap.com or call 612-866-5811.

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Clickin' Moms! One of our new members talked about this website at the 4/15/09 meeting. Thought we would include this here as well. We are not recommending it, only providing it as a resource if you choose. They are a community of women who have a passion for photography. Some are amateur photographers who just want to take better pictures of our family, some are hobbyists, and some are seasoned pros.

Places to Go

Minnesota Zoo Events Calendar 2009

The University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum offers photography classes. Here is a link to their 2010 photography classes and events.

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Minnesota State Parks Calendar by date - Events for the next 90 days of Minnesota State Park events sorted by date and then by park.

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Lake Maria State Park has events that may be of interest for you. Here is a link to a calendar of events for the next three months. See the Events page for others items that will be coming up there. Thanks to Sanford Smith for providing these to us.

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The Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge offers wildlife viewing via hiking trails and a wildlife drive within close proximity of the Monticello/Big Lake area. Their website offers information and driving directions to find it.

Educational Links

Interested in learning more about how to win photo contests? The National Wildlife Federation has an annual photo contest and is offering advice on Secrets for Winning a Nature Photo Contest. You can also enter their annual photo contest. They also have a series of Nature & Wildlife Photo Tips.

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A few of our members receive the free Tim Grey eNewsletter on a daily basis. It is full of good advice related to the "digital darkroom". In other words, it has advice related to photoshop, lightroom, and photography in general. Included here is a link to Tim Grey's site where you can sign up and learn more about receiving this free daily eNewsletter. You can also receive a paid version which offers other benefits. This web page describes benefits of both.

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I got this link from a Lexjet newsletter. It recommended the American Society of Media Photographers website for an article on doing backups. Here is the link to the Backup Overview article on dpBestflow.org. It looks like a very thorough and not too techy explanation of why you need backups and strategies for doing them. It is also geared towards professional photographers.

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Here's a new site recommended from Liza T. She says she has learned allot from phototips.biz. They have a lot of tutorials there on photography. She says you can also become a fan on facebook to also access information. From what I saw, you can also join their iTunes podcast to get tutorials via iTunes. Check it out.

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About.com offers a great deal of interesting training on all sorts of topics.

For instance, I was wondering how those PowerPoint presentations are done where they first show a black & white image and it dissolves into brilliant color. I did a Google search and found an article explaining how this is done. This is the link to their information on it. To learn more about formatting your photos for these powerpoint slide shows, go to this link at About.com. If you want to see a demo of this during a camera club meeting, I would be happy to do so. Just need to bring the computer equipment in to view it. Unfortunately, I cannot display it on a website properly. I tried.

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Learn Photoshop and other courses - A lot of members are wondering how they can learn Adobe Photoshop better. Here's a link to and educational site that I have used and love, Lynda.com. They not only teach Photoshop but many other applications and operating systems. I highly recommend it, and no, I don't get any benefit from recommending it. You need high speed internet though to use it. Lynda.com has unlimited online training for $25 per month. You can learn as much as you want for that $25 and cancel whenever you want to. It is easy to use and does all of its lessons using quicktime. This allows you to pause the lesson and try it out and then restart the lesson. Anyway, it works great.

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In our November 2009 meeting we mentioned Scott Kelby and how he, and their whole organization (NAPP and Kelby Training), provides excellent training. Here is a link to Kelby Training and all the books that they have to offer. You can also look for books by Scott Kelby on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Tutorials - Another site that offers great tutorials on how to do things in Adobe Photoshop and some other Adobe programs is NAPP, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. This organization is devoted to everything Photoshop. It costs $99 per year but with that you get unlimited access to their site, invitations to an annual training session in Minneapolis, 8 issues per year of Photoshop User magazine that is filled with tips and techniques on using Photoshop, and discounts at online stores such as B&H Photo and to books by Scott Kelby and other nationally recognized Photoshop experts.. I've been a member for years (J.Davids) and it is one of the main ways I have been learning Photoshop. Check out their site to learn more.

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PhotoSecrets.com is a very good resource for tips on photography, links of websites to explore, location guides, and books. The attached Adobe PDF file contains most of the Photo Tips (356 kb in size) from this website. It even has tips on shooting fireworks photos.