You Got A New Camera - Part One

Congratulations! That’s awesome. Either this is your first serious camera and you are itching to turn it into your best friend, or it’s an upgrade from your trusted pal that will help unlock more creativity and experience. Whatever brought this new joy into your life, there are a few things that you can do to make the new addition more fun and garner more success sooner.

Like many of our favorite gadgets today, modern digital cameras are essentially mini-computers. And like many of these devices, cameras are regularly tweaked and improved upon via firmware updates from the manufacturers. Firmware is a piece of software code embedded into your camera, typically on a motherboard or other electronic component. Like any software, it can be changed, updated or overwritten. And because technology development and innovation is lightning quick in the digital era, our cameras need those updates and changes to keep pace. But camera firmware updates are often […]

Learn how to create interview podcasting

If podcasting is on your list of New Year’s Resolutions for 2020, then we’ve got some good news for you. According to The Canadian Podcast Listener 2019, nearly 11 million Canadians over the age of 18 have listened to a podcast in the past year, and while the amount of podcast content is expanding, it is not being produced at the same rate as it’s being consumed. Podcast listeners are eager for content, and the next great podcast could be yours! So, let’s get back to that podcast you’ve been […]

Vlogger

A key method to making your social content better received is to light it well.  There’s a lot of misinformation floating around so let’s start at the very beginning, and you can follow along as you see fit. What is Light? Light should be a pretty simple concept, but it sure can be confusing with about a zillion products and opinions all over the place.  Good lighting is lighting that you like and that helps to tell your story without distracting from it.  That’s it. We probably remember from school […]

Video Interview

You’ve got a vlog, or you’ve been empowered by your company to do some face to face interviews with interesting people.  You’ve got the right content, you’ve got a script, you’ve got a plan and you know about Lights! Cameras! Action! Yeah, About Those Lights…. When you want your videos to look professional, but without dropping a bomb on lighting, that doesn’t mean that you go without lighting.  So called “natural light” nearly never looks natural or all that flattering.  We know that successful videos make the talent look good.  […]

You probably don’t print as many photos as you used to, and that makes sense. In this digital age of cloud storage, social media, and instant messaging, the process of storing, sorting, sharing, and editing the pictures we take has really never been faster and easier. But remember those days of pulling a heavy photo album off of a shelf, and flipping through the pages of yellowing and sepia-toned photos? Remember staring up at walls lined with framed photographs of smiling faces? Whether the image captured a rare family gathering, […]

There’s magic in long exposures, particularly ones made outdoors that draw in scenes and overlay them with a sense of motion.  Making these images is not hard, so we will start with the necessary pieces of gear and then work through some techniques for success. Needed Gear The most critical piece of gear for long exposure work is a solid tripod.  This sounds simple, but it’s the main source of problems that I encounter with folks who complain about their long exposure work. The problem is one of stability.  Too […]

Snow may be cold, but it’s hard to find another weather element that can create so many amazing photographic backgrounds. From mountain top ski slopes to children building snow forts in the back yard, winter offers some of the most dramatic opportunities to capture family, vacation, and scenic images. Knowing a few simple tips can help you make the best of those winter photo shoots, and fill your albums with beautiful images that will entertain your friends and family for years to come.

It used to be that shooting panoramas required special gear and lots of math and so, many “regular” photographers never bothered to try.  Yet panos seem so easy on your smartphone.  Hmm, what are the steps to shoot great panoramas with your more regular camera? It’s easy so let’s go! What You Will Need Well you are definitely going to need a camera.  A wide angle to medium focal length lens is a good choice to start with but you don’t need a super wide because the width is going […]