Fuji Instax Mini 25

Return of Film?

Digital is dead hoorah for the return of film! No wait. Sorry.  Only kidding.  Digital photography isn’t going anywhere I’m afraid but for those of you who still crave a little nostalgia, how about the convenience of the old polaroid?  There is still a huge following for instant cameras and you can’t beat the thrill of watching the image appear right before your very eyes, something that us old film users miss from the darkroom days…Anyways, I digress.

Fuji is now the leader when it comes to Instant cameras and it’s latest offering is the cool Instax Mini 25 which takes credit card sized pictures.  The one pictured below is a cool white color, matching perfectly with your MacBook or if you’re very trendy, you can go for the Hello Kitty version for a little extra.

Fun Fun Fun!

The camera is designed for fun usage and even has a little mirror in front to let you take the obligatory self portrait, or one of you and your favorite cuddly toy.

The Instax 25 is super easy to use with 2 chunky shutter buttons for easy picture taking either vertically or horizontally and it weighs hardly anything at all (less than 2 lbs.)  It also has a Landscape setting which means you can take shots that are further away and comes with a detachable close up lens to allow you to shoot close up (of course!)

The camera uses 2 CR Lithium batteries (included) and Instax mini film which is widely available.

Vivid Pics

The pictures are really bright and vibrant and are a really fun way of capturing a party or a special event.  Last week at my sister’s wedding, her friends snapped a poloroid of each couple as they entered the church and then at the reception put them in the guestbook so everyone could write their well wishes alongside their picture.  It’s a wonderful momento of their big day!

Hello Kitty!

You can check out the Fuji Instax Mini here on Amazon and if you want to be the cool Auntie at Christmas this year, get your mits on the exclusive Hello Kitty version while they’re still in stock!

Happy Snapping!

PS Amazon currently has the Fuji Instax Mini 25 as $30 off the RRP (August 2010)

Just had to let you guys know about this awesome offer from Picaboo. From now (Aug 1) til Aug 31st they’re offering all new customers a free photobook worth $39!  That really is a great deal as Picaboo truly makes quality photobooks.  It’s a great way to try out their services and get all those summer snaps put together in one place.  If you are new to creating photo books online, the process couldn’t be simpler and the Picaboo website is super easy to use.  The key is to have a particular theme or event in mind and do a little bit of organization before you start uploading your pics.

So get cracking and sign up today. I’m working on a book from my sister’s wedding so I’ll be signing up too!

Happy snappng!

This week I learned about a fun new photographic competition sponsored by O3 World.  Check out the details in the guest post below and get those camera phones out! – Ingrid

Guest post by Keith Scandone, O3 World.com

While some would consider it a travesty to consider the mobile phone as a means to create art, we celebrate it. Masterpieces Made Simple is new gallery series that is a showcase of creativity provided by everyday people by way of their smart phones. One of the best things about this series is that it is just as easy for the photography beginner to participate, as it is for the expert.

Masterpieces Made Simple is sponsored and hosted by O3 World, a Web Design and Development company in Philadelphia, and the concept was created by one of O3 World’s employees, Hilary Sedgwick, and Kenny Kim.

The site launched June 14th, and in less than a month, has received roughly 800 submissions. The submissions have come from all over the country, including NY, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, North Carolina and Florida, and from all over the world including Egypt, Singapore, Iran, China and India.

This event, which is being held Friday, July 23rd from 6 – 9, is the first in a 4 part series. Each event going forward with a theme associated with it and will be rolled out quarterly.

To check out the photos or make your own submission, check out www.themmsgallery.com

Making a submission couldn’t be any easier. Here’s what you do:

1. Take a sweet picture with your mobile device. Take a new one, or submit an old favorite… the choice is yours.

2. Email your image to submit@themmsgallery.com.

3. Include the following information:

* TITLE: Enter the Title of your image in the Subject Line of your email. THE REST OF THE INFORMATION LISTED BELOW SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL.

* ARTIST: That’s You! Include your name so when people admire your work they know that you created that masterpiece.

* LOCATION: Where were you when you became inspired? (City, State and if it applies, venue).

* DEVICE: Let us know what kind of mobile device you used to capture your image. An iPhone, Blackberry, Droid; any device is acceptable as long as it is a mobile phone that takes photos.

* You may choose to leave any or all of these fields blank. If you do choose to do this we will display the fields as “Unknown”.

4. Once all the information is in place, you’re ready to go. Hit that send button!

5. Once the image is approved by us it will be display on the The MMS Gallery homepage ready for public view and commenting!

Submissions are only being accepted until Monday July 12th, so pick up that phone and snap some photos!

Me and DD enjoying being back home

Hello from rainy Ireland! Yes I’m back in my homeland for a mixture of fun, weddings and workshops (and did I mention fun?!)  I’m having a blast over here, while still working away diligently and FINALLY I’m almost ready to launch my “Getting to Grips with your DSLR” Online course.  For all of you have already asked about it, I promise you will be the first to know the exact opening date.  AND there will be an extra special treat for you since you’ve all been so patient with me!   I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself

Now I have another wee favour to ask all of you – What specific things would you like to know about using your camera/photography?  Be as general or a specific as you like but please leave a comment below and let me know.  I’m really striving to make this blog a place that is jammed pack with interesting a relevant information for YOU so now’s your chance to let me know how I can help you!

Once this rain stops I’m off out to get some nice landscape shots of the views around my mum and dad’s house.  Funny how I never appreciated them growing up… They’ll make a nice addition to the office wall back home.  I’ll share as soon as I can!

Happy Snapping

PS – Don’t forget to post your photography woes below

This week I’m eventually getting around to enlarging and framing my daughter’s first year pictures.  Well, I was going to get some of them framed but the cost of getting large format frames has been putting me off.  So for a lot of pictures I’ve opted instead for getting canvas prints from photos from the past year of her life.  The funny thing is this is actually working out really inexpensive!

Canvas Photo Printing

Many people don’t realize that you can get canvas prints from photos that you already have on your hard drive.  Thanks to wonderful digital printing technology , these personalized piece of art can be yours with a few clicks of the mouse. For my prints I’ve opted to use Canvas People . I’m always cautious about getting prints made online – I guess it comes from my background in printing and extremely high standards!  Canvas People are actually giving away a free Canvas print this month so it’s a great way to try out their quality with no risk.

Advantages of Canvas Prints

Go Big!

One of the best things about canvas prints from photos is that you can go really big with your picture without having to worry about  having to buy and hang a big expensive frame.  Canvases are so lightweight that can be hung on virtually any wall.

Pieces of Art

The canvas wraps around the frame, (sometimes known as a gallery wrap) and gives a wonderful professional finish. They have a look of an oil painting and also have a special protective coating to protect from dust and dirt.

Unique and personalized

Canvas prints make wonderful unique and personalized gifts for those hard to buy for people in your life.

Tips for Canvas Photo Printing

• I think that canvas photo printing works best for extreme close up shots of kids (think big blue eyes popping off the canvas) and landscape or travel photos.  These types of pictures really lend themselves to this format.
• Make sure your colors are vibrant and rich.  In my experience, Canvas prints tend to make colors look a little less vibrant, so it’s important that your pictures not washed out to begin with.
• Make sure you upload a high resolution shot.  Going big means you’ll need lots of pixels so make sure your saving your image in the highest quality
• Crop carefully – as the canvas will wrap around the frame, make sure that you allow for this when uploading your image.  The software that Canvas People use gives you a great visual on where your image will go around the edges.
• When your enlarging pictures for display on your wall remember that you probably need to get them enlarged bigger than you think you need to.  This is especially true for Canvas Prints because you wont have the added size of a mat and a frame molding in your finished product.
• Make groups or themes of prints that go together.  Putting together a triptych (3 pics of the same subject) or several picts of the same theme is a great way of displaying your pictures and canvas prints are an idea way to showcase this kind of work.
• Consider using Black and White/ Sepia for a different feel for your Canvas Prints.  Use a software program such as Photoshop Elements to achieve this look.

I hope I’ve inspired you to try out some Canvas Prints from photos that you have sitting on your hard drive.  Why not check out Canvas People for yourself and get a free canvas print of your own to get you started!

Happy Snapping!

Crumpler Digital SLR Camera Bag

So I’ve got the diaperbag, I’ve got the laptop, I’ve got my purse and I’ve got my Digital SLR camera bag.  How on earth am I going to get all of this plus my 18 month old on a transatlantic flight to Ireland this summer?  Well, careful packing will get me so far but the ever changing regulations on baggage allowance are so tight I’ve decided that I’m treating myself to a new digital SLR camera bag from Crumpler.

I’m going all out and going to splurge on the 8 Million Dollar Home bag which has room for a full size Digital SLR, big zoom lens, my laptop and loads more extra space.  I love the Crumpler range of camera bags mainly because they don’t look like a camera bag!  They have a whole variety of shapes and sizes so there’s bound to be one in there to fit your requirements not to mention style.

As the name suggests, the 8 million dollar home does not come cheap but when you’ve spent serious money on your gear it’s worth spending a little extra on a good quality bag to haul it around in.

Plus these bags are really comfortable to wear and if you’ve ever used a bag that’s not confortable you’ll know what a pain it is – Frustrating and can sometimes put you off taking your camera with you.  Not Good!

Digital SLR Camera bag

The same can also be said if your DSLR camera bag is difficult to access, to close or just doesn’t have enough room from everything.  These bags have heaps of space and lots of dividers inside so you can customize the interior to suit your needs.  The outside is made of a water resistant Nylon which will be great in the lovely Irish weather!

It looks like I will meet the handluggage requirements on my flight after all as my new Crumpler digital SLR Camera bag even has room for a few diapers and a sippy cup!

Happy Snapping

PS You can find the complete range of Crumpler Cags here .  They have every size, shape and almost every color!

So you’ve figured out how to use your camera.  You know how to make your pictures pretty using Photoshop.  Now what do you do with all your photos? Share them of course!  And where best to share your pictures then in your living room using one of the latest Digital Frames?  I’ve recently discovered a wonderful resource for buying digital frames -  www.digitalframehq.com It really has a wonderful selection of frames at every price point from all the big manufacturers such as Sony, Kodak and Hewlett Packard.

The website is so easy to use  – you can choose your frame based on size, brand or price.  You can check out a really great image of the product your interested in too.

And one of my favorite things about Digital Frame HQ is their Learning Center which is a section of their website devoted to explaining all about their products and how best to use them.  You can find out how to get your images onto your frame,  wireless frames and how to set up your frame.  Pretty cool stuff!

So don’t forget to check Digital Frame HQ here and do your pictures justice and frame those bad boys in a digital frame!

Happy snapping

DSLR Cleaning

I just had an email from a student of mine who has started to notice some blurs and spots on her images.  She’s cleaned her camera lens and her filters – where can this dirt be?

Well the fact of the matter is that there are tiny specs of dust inside her camera on the actual camera sensor.  A DSLR’s sensor or CCD is an electromagnetic device and because of this, dust particulars are easily attracted to it.  It’s a bit like the way dust attracts itself to your TV screen like a magnet – same concept.

Does my DSLR need Cleaning?

If you want to see if your camera has sensor dust try the following:

Set your camera’s aperture to f22 in the Aperture Priority mode.

Then take a few shots of a plain white piece of paper or if you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements take a picture of a blank white canvas on your computer screen.

The result will look something like this:

DSLR Cleaning Sensor Dust

Ugh! Black spots! that’s one dirty sensor!

The can be removed in Photoshop but it really is a pain to do lots of shots like this.

What you need is a little sensor cleaning!

DSLR Cleaning Tips

The problem is that cleaning this sensor can be a tricky job one and having been in the business, I never recommend doing it yourself.   In my opinion, unless you are very confident and know precisely what it is you are attempting, leave this job to the professionals.  Find your local camera service centre and ask for a service quotation which should include sensor cleaning.  Then shop around till you find the best deal.

The best thing you can do is try to avoid this problem in the first place.

• Keep your camera body attached to a lens at all time.  There is no need to separate the lens from the body unless your are changing lenses.
• When you are changing lenses do it as swiftly as possible and try not to do it in very dusty/sandy windy environments
• Store your camera in a specific camera kit bag link
• Vacuum out the inside of the bag on a regular basis
• If you do have to get your camera senor cleaned try and go to a local service centre where possible so that you can have a faster turn around time than mailing off your camera body back to the manufacturer.

If you are interested in cleaning your sensor yourself this is a really great website which goes through the procedure step by step.

Be warned though this is not my recommendation and if you mess up your sensor – bye bye warranty and sometimes byebye camera….

Best idea – keep it clean people!

Happy snapping

Image thanks to  petar_c http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceklic_petar/1208075186/