Free Subscriptions

Based on all of the recent purchases (upgrades) I have made for the company, I'm always interested in something that is free! MCP Actions's post today listed three magazines that offer free subscriptions (click here to read full post). I already receive Rangefinder but readily signed up for the other two she listed. Links can be found to these in the left sidebar.

• Rangefinder Magazine
• Professional Photographer
• After Capture

Belle Annoucements

A local photog friend was kind enough to connect me with the owner of belle announcements, a local custom card designer. She has a lot of great designs to choose from if you are in the market for custom Christmas cards, party invitations, stationary, etc. Plus, you just might recognize some of the people used as displays ... photos that I've taken!

Check out my byline on the Artists page (click here).

It's Official - caseycooperphotography!

Last week, I officially became a business :: Casey Cooper Photography. I've had enough photo shoots lately that I'm starting to create marketing pieces, including business cards. After much feedback, I've uploaded the final cut below. Let me know what you think! I'll be ordering these tomorrow night. Many thanks to my talented sister (ah design) for coming up with the logo design and concept!

My Vermont Photo Made MCP's Blog Post Today

My photo that I submitted to MCP Action's blog for "autumn theme" photos made it to the blog post today. Go over and check it out! I forgot to put my logo on it though, darn it!

CLICK HERE

RAW Digital Workflow for Weddings and Portraits with Canon's DPP

Two photography tutorials in 1 week. Wow, but I did learn some interesting things tonight. From PhotographySchoolhouse.com, I participated in the "RAW Digital Workflow for Weddings and Portraits with Canon's DPP" free webinar. I learned a shortcut method for copying and pasting recipes (group of settings applied to RAW images) that should save me a lot of time in my workflow (rt-click, copy recipe to clipboard, close file, highlight all thumbnails to which you wish to apply the recipe, rt-click, paste recipe, and VOILA). I also learned about it's efficient and useful renaming tool (Tools, Start Rename Tool).

Canon's free RAW editor isn't as good as Lightroom, but it sure is better than nothing. Lossless recovery of not-so-great photos is such a great thing!

External Flash Tutorial

Click here to read a great external flash article.

Color Management for Digital Portrait and Wedding Photographers

I just attended a free webinar by Photography Schoolhouse entitled, "Color Management for Digital Portrait and Wedding Photographers". It was a great discussio on ICC profiles, color spaces, and device calibration. If you're not a member of Photography Schoolhouse, this is a great forum to join just for the informative, and free, webinars that they offer. Click here to see their current offerings.

What did I walk away with?

• It's highly recommended to perform monthly monitor calibrations using a monitor calibrator
• Kerry Allan has used both the Spyder and the EyeOne and had some difficult with both. He recommends purchasing one in the $250 price range for good quality.
• Kerry Allan uses the Samsung 226 CW Syncmaster (22" monitor at 1680x1050 res that sells for around $300) and has been very pleased with the color range it provides. He does note that CRT monitors still can't be beat when it comes to color accuracy and range.
• Always install the device drivers with your monitor and printer. They contain the ICC profiles for these devices which are needed to accuracy represent that you think you are seeing on the screen.
• Kerry Allan recommends DryCreekPhoto.com for downloading various ICC profiles and for tutorials on Color Space Management.
• Make sure you properly set up your Color Settings in Photoshop (for PS7, select Edit >> Color Settings) to save in the color space that your intended printer requires (most print houses will provide recommendations for what color space to use).
• You can assign a printer profile in Photoshop to ensure that the correct ICC profile is used (for PS7, select Image >> Mode >> Assign Profile).

Maternity Shoot

I had a really busy schedule last week. Three photo shoots in three days! No wonder my arm was sore after shooting with my 70-200 three straight days in a row. But, it takes some awesome pictures.

Here's a few images from the maternity shoot. She's due sometime in the next two weeks. She was a great sport through the entire shoot - even laying down on the cold concrete in my garage for the high-key shots!

It's Official...

We officially found out that we're having a girl! So excited! I've already been scouring the web for newborn photos for inspiration in March. Now to start working on a birth announcement...

A Love of Letters

A friend and I were talking about a photography project that included creating your name out of letters that you find in the surrounding environment. I thought we were being original until I came across an article in Better Homes and Gardens about a company called Create Sticks and Stones that sells this very thing (for $130). To do this fun "I Spy" project yourself, you can visit their alpha gallery to get some ideas and how to start looking for the letters in your name around you.

This is going to be one of my challenges while I'm at the beach. I'll post the results sometime next week of what I'm able to captures.