Good for you, good for Jen

Save money on our software and proceeds will help a photographer. Hey friends. If you've been with me a while, you probably know about my friend Jen Thompson who is bravely fighting ovarian cancer. She is a single mom, wonderful photographer, and has passionately shared her experience with the world in order to help inspire others to keep positive in the face of overwhelmingly dire circumstances. Her condition has recently taken a turn for the worse, and she needs more specialized treatment. It is very costly and we want to help her. Will you help too?

If you need some of our software, please consider making a purchase before this Sunday. You'll save 10% and we'll donate 50% of the proceeds directly to Jen. If you don't need any more software, please stop for a moment and put yourself in her shoes, then hop on over to this page where you can donate whatever you can directly.

I realize, as I'm sure you do, that there are many, many people in the world that need help. I wish I could help them all, I really do. All we can do is take little steps along the way to help wherever we can and it adds up very quickly.

This is a private event and only available directly to our friends, so please visit our Facebook page to grab the code and help a photographer, and friend, in need. I thank you!!

Lighting Workshop for the Adobe Tech Exchange

Thank you to all of you who attended my presentation today at the Adobe Tech Exchange, and thanks Rick & Lynette for your kindness and hospitality! To download the notes from the presentation, please click here, and remember you'll need the password that I gave you at the presentation to open the file! Enjoy the light!

Lightroom 4 workflow tips on new PhotoPro episode this Thurs

[Framed] Network launches its new season of awesome, free, educational and inspirational shows this week and Thursday will be the premier of my segment, called PhotoPro. Some of you might be familiar with my series of episodes last season, called Post Pro. Now we've stepped it up and each week I'll be covering a wide variety of topics, from new features in Lightroom 4, to workflow, to Photoshop, to time management, to creativity & sales techniques. Tune in to PhotoPro each Thursday on the [Framed] Network and every other day of the week too for great programs from people like Jeremy Cowart, Joel Grimes, Tanja Lippert, Ryan Muirhead, Tia Reagan, and of course the lovely and talented Melissa Niu.

Check out PhotoPro!

Trick for 2 speedlights in Photoflex Octodome

I did a video for PocketWizard recently to show the new Plus III transceivers in use. In that video, I used one of my favorite setups, a Photoflex small Octodome with the speedlight adapter. However, I modified my speedring to allow mounting of 2 speedlights for more power and faster recycling times. Basically I took a second speedlight bracket and mounted it opposite the first one on the speedring. This keeps both heads close together in the center of the softbox opening.

To do this, I needed to drill a small hole in the ring for the locating pin on the bracket. The threaded hole was already there. It took about 10 minutes to rig and now I have a very powerful, versatile setup for using my speedlight powered Octodome anywhere! I hooked up one Plus III unit to each speedlight and put each on a separate zone so I could turn either, or both, on independantly as needed remotely from the Plus III on my camera.

Here are the parts I used:

(1) - Photoflex small Octodome

(2) - Photoflex shoe mount connector

(1) - Photoflex basic speedring

(3) - PocketWizard Plus III transceivers

The Lighting Notebook iApp just updated

See the latest update at: http://klnb.co/w3eajB to our Lighting Notebook iApp for iPad and iPhone. We moved all our videos to a faster, more robust server for a better streaming video experience. You can download the app for free and preview it before buying the full version via an optional in-app purchase. Have fun! Make light!

Lighting and Workflow Bootcamp snapshot.

Here are a few images from the lighting part of our Digital Photography Bootcamp workshop this past week. I had an incredible group of enthusiastic photographers and we also had awesome guest instructors like Craig Strong from Lensbaby and Benjamin Edwards, author of the latest Nikon Speedlight Field Guide. My friend, Jen Burgess Thompson also shared a very touching and inspirational evening with us. It was a week of laughing, learning, and crying.

These images are a sampling from the many different lighting scenarios we worked on during the first half of the week. We worked on simple and affordable studio lighting, natural lighting, mixing flash and natural light, and we also worked on a live job to create promo images for the luxury lodge where we were staying - Five Pine Lodge. Details on the lighting are in the captions below each image. During the second half of the week, we went step-by-step through our Lightroom 4 workflow system - ensuring the beautiful images were quickly and efficiently brought from camera to presentation.

I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to our supporters who generously provided tryout gear, props, and gifts for our workshop attendees! They went home with things like a full LiteTrek lighting system and wireless transceivers from B&H, custom backdrops and prints from WHCC, Bags from Tamrac, great books like Photography Web Marketing Guide, by Wendy Roe and Worth Every Penny, by Sarah Petty & Erin Verbeck. SmugMug was our image host of choice and of course we love Animoto for quickly sharing pro-looking slide shows, brought to life with tunes from Triple Scoop Music. (you can save 10% by entering KubotaRocks10 during checkout!) Our final presentations are made with Asukabook albums and coffee table books - designed, of course, by Redboot Design.

We used lighting gear from Photoflex, and the new, affordable PocketWizard Plus III wireless transceivers. We gave them a thorough testing, and they worked flawlessly without a single mis-fire! They were very easy to setup and use. When we needed to modify our speedlights, the Rogue Grid 3-in-1 system was a favorite accessory for dramatic lighting.

I love teaching Bootcamp. It's the one chance I get to really get hands-on with my students and cover lighting and workflow in depth. We always leave time for essential business and marketing discussions to make sure we are not only great lighting and workflow masters - but also making money as photographers ;-)

A REALLY special wedding on the front page of MSBC.com

I recently photographed a wedding that I didn't talk about much. I wanted to keep it private, to respect the family. The bride, Bethany, however, decided to share her love story - in a very big way. I admire her for having the courage and honesty to do so. It's an amazing story that should inspire others and reinvigorate your belief in love. It's also the perfect close to big chapter in my own life.

Those who know me know that I officially "retired" from photographing weddings last year. I have done it for 20 years and loved it, but I was ready to grow in other ways. I left the door slightly open, however, to do charity and very special events. This was one of those special events.

We got a call from our friends at the restaurant where this event was to be held - just days before the wedding. The bride had to move their wedding date way up because the groom had terminal cancer and they couldn't wait until their originally scheduled date. Their original photographer couldn't make the new date and they needed a good photographer - quickly. We agreed immediately without any discussion of fees. Frankly, we didn't plan to charge them anything - although the bride graciously insisted on paying us anyway.

The wedding was beautifully arranged, in a lovely romantic setting. Everything was wonderful - although it was honestly the most emotional and difficult event I've ever had to photograph. The love in the air was very different from the "typical" love at most weddings. It was rich, honest, and powerful. There was not a hint of pretense. It was an unusual kind of love – mixed with sadness, thankfulness, loss, and hope.

Bethany kept her beautiful composure as best she could, and Ryan managed a warm smile and deep hug for every person in the room. He was only able to stay until just after the ceremony, then had to leave. Bethany took him to the hotel to rest, then returned to the reception alone to be with her friends and family. I overheard them sharing fond stories of how they met, places they've travelled, and people they'd loved.

Ryan passed just over a month after their wedding. I am honored to have been able to document this poignant event in their lives and I am deeply thankful to Bethany, her family, and Ryan's family for their graciousness and trust in Clare and I. 

Read their amazing story and see some images here.

The fresh face of Skip's Summer School for Photographers

        Bourne and Sal Cincotta

We rarely have sales on Photoshop Actions at Kubota Image Tools, but...

My team and I were talking around our lunch table the other day and we were giggling about how much we all love sales. Some of our team even confessed that they rarely buy things unless they are on sale. Then it occurred to us that we rarely have sales on our products at Kubota Image Tools. Maybe we should give people what they want and try a sale!

Letter to Apple: Give cold people quick access to phone and camera

I love my Apple gadgets and generally feel Apple is way ahead of the curve in design, ergonomics, and sex appeal. Sometimes I want to smack them on the head though. Like the time they took over a year to include the most basic computer function of all time, copy/paste, in to their cutting edge "smart" phone software. Don't get me started. 

So I would venture to guess that more than a few of Apple's iPhone customers live in a place where you might wear gloves for part of the year - like anywhere but California and Hawaii. Have you ever been on a ski lift when a call comes in but you're afraid to answer it because you have to take off your gloves and risk dropping one, or both, extremely valuable items? Yes, I'm talking about making "smart" phones smart enough to be answered, or to take a photo, with gloves on.

Of course, there are those special gloves that have capacitive touch screen compatible fingertips on them – I have a pair. Inevitably, though, they take a few swipes and getting your finger set just right in the glove tip to make it work. I can't wear them snowboarding or scuba diving though, and that's where I also want to access my phone/camera. Wait, I said scuba diving. That's another gadget, the iPhone scuba case.

What I'd like to see is simple. Apple, could you pretty please add an option to double or triple-click one of the volume buttons or the power button to activate the camera? Then, since we can already fire the camera with a single click of the volume button, it would be really fast and easy to start the camera and take a photo. You could do it with gloves on, or your elbow.

While your at it, Apple, please allow a double-click of the home button (when a call is coming in) to answer the phone. Problem solved. Some people actually wear gloves and want to use their phone and camera. Some people have their fingertips shaved to hide fingerprints or have bionic carbon composite hands that don't work with touch screens, like me. Just kidding, I have normal hands, that take normal gloves.

OK, I'm done. I'll just hold my breath for iPhone 7.