As the city of Vancouver leads up to the Olympics during this final week, I find myself getting strangely more excited about the games. Why wasn’t I excited before? To be completely honest, I was only ever interested in watching a few certain events, but there was also this looming awareness of the politics behind the Olympics; especially now that they were in my own backyard. Like most of us, I’ve been doing my own belt-tightening when it comes to frivolous spending. I’ve cut back on entertainment, going out to eat, and even buying photo-gear. However, when it comes to our tax dollars, our government’s standpoint is that the sky is the limit when it comes to spending, and blank cheques are  plenty available in the name of Olympics. Sure, there are going to be *some* lasting benefits to these games, but none of which are going to have any sort of day-to-day impact on most of us.

Sails lit up at Canada Place

Hence, I decided that since the world is coming to Vancouver, I am going to be a part of it and make the most of it. What better way than to take as many photos as possible, and see the things that we normally don’t get to see. The city has never looked so alive and spectacular; there is literally something exciting to be seen in every corner. There are Olympic venues, decorations, free events, torch relays, and so much more going on in the city right now… it’s a photographer’s playground.

Olympic Rings at Sunset

So to all of you who carry a camera, and even those of you who don’t normally. Grab your gear, get out there, and take a moment to just have some fun shooting. Think hard about how you would like to capture the Olympics from your point of view, and tell your story through a lens. There are sights to see, people to meet, and memories to be made. We’re paying for the games to be here, so let’s do what we do best and take some brilliant photos to show the rest of the world who aren’t able to be here to see it for themselves.  It’s true what they say: “The world is what you make of it”; for myself, I’m making it a colourful and photographic one!

VANCOUVER, Canada – Feb 9th, 2010 – Today, PhotographyBB announces the release of the Watercolor Pro Action Package for Photoshop®. Unleash your inner artist and turn your photography into sensational works of art, perfect for framing, making personalized cards, keepsakes, portraits, or simply to share in your online gallery!

Watercolor Pro produces realistic and high quality painted watercolor effects suitable for portraits, wedding photos, beautiful landscape artwork, night shots, architecture and more. The images you produce will turn your already beautiful photos into stunning pieces of artwork, and does it all in one-click! Watercolor Pro Actions will work with Photoshop versions CS, CS2, CS3, and CS4 (English only versions) on both PC and Mac platforms.

PhotographyBB Watercolor Pro Actions include 6 different watercolor paint effects, 7 brush stroke effects, 4 “texture” effects, and 6 start-to-finish preset effects in this pack, including a natural watercolor effect, a “wavey” watercolor effect for a freehand painted look, and a special “cafe-style” art effect. The actions all run in a single click, while the different paint, brush, and texture options allow for limitless variations and combinations of painted styles. Two versions of this action are included: One which produces images suitable for the web and small prints, and one version for full prints and/or enlargements.

The package launches with a 20% discount on this action pack (and all existing action packs) for three days only (Feb 9th – 11th, 2009), by using the COUPON CODE: ATN20 in the shopping cart at: http://www.photographybb.com/actions

Welcome back to the next round in our new year of contests and challenges folks. This particular contest should be an interesting one as we face off the beginners against the experts. Since we believe in life-long learning at PhotographyBB, we want to reward those who seek knowledge, as well as those who are kind enough to mentor and/or provide knowledge.

For some time now, we’ve had great success with our “No Stupid Questions” room in the PhotographyBB Forums. Here, beginners can feel free to post any photography related question they’ve had on their minds, and receive an answer from one of our more experienced members. It’s worked great and we’ve helped many people who may have otherwise been too shy to ask their question… until now…. We have a lovely prize package for one lucky “beginner” as well as one lucky “expert.” So here’s how this is going to work:

Beginners: Ask Your Questions!
We want all of the great folks who are just getting started with photography, digital SLR cameras, and image processing to put on your thinking caps and ask any question you may have burning inside you. There are 3 categories for you to post your questions in, and they MUST follow a specific format (see the brief “Rules” section for details).

The categories are:

• Digital Photography
• Photoshop
• Lightroom / Bridge / ACR

Beginner’s Rules:

1. All questions must be submitted in the CORRECT category in the PhotographyBB Forums. If you are not yet a forum member, registration is extremely fast and free. Any questions submitted into the wrong category will be eliminated.
2. When posting a question, the SUBJECT line of your posting must be related to your question. For example, we will not accept subject lines that read, “I need help!”. An example of an appropriate subject line would be, “What is Manual Mode?” If your question is a long one (which is great) please title the subject line appropriately so the “experts” can have some idea what the posted question will be regarding.
3. Maximum of 5 questions per person.
4. Contest period runs from Feb 5th to March 5th, 2010.

Experts: Share Your Knowledge!
To all of our more experienced members and those of you who enjoy sharing knowledge and helping others, we haven’t forgotten you! We want you to post your answers to the beginners’ questions, and since we want to encourage your participation you may answer as many questions as you can. There are some rules for our expert submissions too, namely:

1. You may answer as many questions as you would like to, however, the most thorough and easy to understand responses will be most likely to win our “experts” prize package.
2. If a response to a question has already been posted, you are still free to add to the reply. Once we feel that the question has been answered appropriately and thoroughly, the thread will be locked.

That’s really all there is to it folks! Once again, we will have 2 prize packages, one for the beginners and one for the experts. The winner of the beginners contest will receive Scott Kelby’s “The Digital Photography Book” volumes 1 through 3. The winner of the experts contest will receive a copy of “VisionMongers” by David duChemin. Both groups will also receive our entire collection of Premium Photoshop Actions. Additionally, more prizes will be revealed as the contest goes on! Let’s all have a great time learning and enjoying digital photography and image processing. Bring on your questions and answers!

Jan 25th, 2010 – VANCOUVER, CANADA – PhotographyBB announced today, the release of the 24th edition of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. For beginner and intermediate photographers interested in learning more about digital photography, the PhotographyBB Online Magazine is a leading resource in the future of free information distribution, offering readers: Digital Photography tips and techniques, DSLR camera function training, and image post processing tutorials in Adobe® Photoshopâ„¢, and RAW processing in Photoshop Lightroomâ„¢.

The January 2010 edition examines the merits of keeping a strong and tidy photo portfolio, be it physical or an online gallery. Additionally, this issue explores composition techniques, and how negative space can strengthen a photo while drawing the viewer deeper into the image. This month also looks at the Lightroom 3 Beta release in-depth, featuring the new Publish Services and Watermarking tools.

Editor in Chief, Dave Seeram had these comments regarding this recent release:

“It’s a new year and that means exciting new features for 2010. This month’s edition kicks off a new series on portraiture lighting, and how to achieve better portrait photos using a single flash unit in combination with ambient lighting. We also have a few Valentine’s goodies, including a Photoshop tutorial and a book suggestion for those who are interested in learning to create dramatic and romantic Hollywood style portraits. Additionally, we dive into the Lightroom 3 beta release for a look at some cool new features that every Lightroom user is sure to make use of. Pre-visualization can be a powerful tool, and one of our newest contributing authors gives us a great look at how we can use pre-visualization in our photography.

In our Photography Around the World feature, we’re off to India for a colorful look at Pushkar’s annual fair. It’s a great thing to see other parts of the world through photography, and inspire our readers to consider visiting new places in their lifetimes.”

By way of download in either PDF or ZIP formats, PhotographyBB continues its trend through the future of free downloadable magazine distribution. In a completely ad-free format, each issue contains informative and educational tutorials for amateur and intermediate level photographers.

In addition to articles which aide photographers in getting the most from their DSLR cameras, the PhotographyBB Online Magazine also features useful and applicable tutorials on how to use post-processing tools such as Photoshop and Lightroom, to build on digital photography post-processing skills.

PhotographyBB Online Magazine is available for free download through the PhotographyBB Website at: http://www.photographyBB.com/magazine

PhotographyBB was founded in Oct, 2006, and is a division of PowerButton Central (2004).
For more information, visit the PhotographyBB website at: http://www.photographybb.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/photographybb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/photographybb

Two weeks ago, I started to share some of my favourite photography related blogs which I enjoy frequenting. I realize everyone’s time is tight these days (as is mine!), so I’m going to be continuing my favourite blogs series by sharing one to two blogs weekly with you. That being said, the next on my favourite blogs list is PhotographyBLOG.

PhotographyBLOG is run by professional photographer Mark Goldstein (a really wonderful gentleman by the way) who also contributes regularly to the popular UK magazine Digital Camera Buyer. PhotographyBLOG is the UK’s leading photography website, offering a sweet daily dose of the latest news in the photography industry, photo contests and competitions, the newest photography gear and firmware updates, related software news, and so much more.

If you would like to keep up to date with the latest photo industry news, I highly suggest adding PhotographyBLOG to your daily reading list, adding their RSS feed to your feed-readers, or subscribing via email updates. You’ll “be in the know” with a quick headline scan, or by expanding the full story for those you wish to read more in depth. PhotographyBLOG also does their own non-biased product reviews which I always find to be insightful when making a decision about buying new gear.

Check out PhotographyBLOG at: http://www.photographyblog.com
or follow them on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/photographyblog

I’d just like a quick show of hands as to who amongst you fine folks either live in Vancouver or plan on visiting Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic Games. I am assuming those of you visiting will be doing so with camera in hand, and those of you who live here will be shooting the festivities in one form or another? Do you have tickets to any events? What are your photographic goals for shooting the games? Personally, I won’t be attending any of the events, but I do plan to take as many photos as possible of all the tourists, celebrations, and venues that this year’s games will bring to the beautiful city of Vancouver. Additionally, if there is enough interest, I’d be happy to arrange a group photowalk in Downtown Vancouver during the Olympics.

In welcoming the world to Vancouver, many free and “street” events have been planned which are sure to show off both the spirit of Vancouver as well as the Olympic Games. One brilliant place to check out will be the Robson Square Outdoor (undercover) ice rink where you can skate below Robson Street while looking up at Vancouver’s Art Gallery or night sky. There’s also the 14 meter tall Olympic Rings in Coal Harbour which will serve as a stunning visual showpiece to mark the Games.

So the question of the day is, will you be in Vancouver for the Olympics, and if so, how will you be capturing your experience of the games?

Hello PhotographyBB’ers! I would like to quickly address something which may not have been clear with the current photo assignment entitled: A Thousand Words, A Single Frame.

It has been brought to my attention that some of the entries into our current Photography Assignment/Challenge (1000 Words, A Single Frame), do not qualify for the assignment, due to the images having been shot outside the assignment time frame. This may not have been 100% clear, although the assignment timeframe window was meant to imply that photo submissions must be shot during that time. So, just to clear things up: ALL entries to the assignment/contest must have been photographed DURING the assignment window (Jan 4th to Jan 31st, 2010). Remember, the purpose of these assignments is to get our members to go out and shoot with the theme in mind, rather than combing through old photos for a suitable entry. Plus we’ve got a really cool prize for the winner this time around, and we want to make sure that everyone qualifies for it.

That all being said, I will happily accept additional entries from those of you who submitted older photos, but please delete your previous entries yourselves (you can delete your post by clicking on the little “x” at the top right of your post within the forum thread. That will be a huge help to the moderation team, and will prevent any possibility of your photo being disqualified from entry. I appreciate everyone’s help in keeping this contest both fun and fair! There’s still plenty of time to enter shots, and thank you to all of you who are (or plan on) participating. Have fun and happy photographing!

Check out some of the fantastic entries so far here.

We’re just about 2 weeks into 2010 now, and we’ve all had plenty of time to consider our new year’s resolution list. I’d like to know what your plans are (photography-wise) for 2010! Since it only seems fair, I’d like to start off by saying that I will be shooting more this year. Last year was an extremely busy work-year, leaving little time to shoot for myself; so this year that is something I’ll be changing. I’ll be bringing my camera gear out a lot more, in search of anything and everything to photograph. I may, however, leave my resolution to process photos more often until next year… Additionally, PhotographyBB will be bringing our magazine, blog, and forum readers much more this year in the forms of educational information, contests, and photo-community events. PhotographyBB Online Magazine will continue strong, and I hope you all continue to enjoy and benefit from the content.

Now it’s your turn… Are you an amateur who’s resolution it is to learn more this year? Shoot more, or expand your photography subject matter? Is there something in particular you plan to do with your photography for 2010? Starting a photography business or side-business? Or are you a professional photographer already, and if so, are you planning on doing anything more or different this year? One of the wonderful things about sharing our resolutions with each other is that we may all find a few suggestions from each other that may help you to learn something new or grow as a photographer this year. What are your plans, thoughts, and resolutions for 2010?

Happy 2010 folks! To kick off the New Year just right, we have a special announcement. Many of you participate in our bi-weekly photography assignments, but this month we are doing something exciting: Our first photography assignment of the year will also come with a special prize for our top photo entry. Best selling author and photographer David duChemin has generously donated a signed copy of his books, Within The Frame and VisionMongers, as a prize for the winner of this challenge.

David duChemin is successful as an author because he teaches us about Vision. He is successful as a photographer because his photographs perfectly demonstrate the age-old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and his photos do just that – they tell a story. Therefore, in keeping with the theme of David’s books, and the secret to his success, our theme for this photo contest is: A Thousand Words, A Single Frame

It will be your job to submit photos which tell a story in a single frame. Think carefully about your main subjects and how they relate to their surroundings. Consider everything we’ve learned thus far in our assignments and the magazine tutorials, and create for us a compelling photograph which really tells a story. As a special treat for our participants, David duChemin has graciously agreed to be the judge to select the winning photo! This contest/assignment is open from now until January 31st, 2010. Participants may submit a total of 2 photos for this contest, and all images must be submitted through our forums in this thread.

Put your thinking caps on, take your time, wait for the perfect moment, and have fun with this assignment. Remember, you may submit up to 2 entries in total before January 31st, 2010.

To submit a photo you must be a registered member of the PhotographyBB Forums. If you are not currently a member, please register here to submit your photos. Registration is completely free, and you’ll become part of the wonderful community of photo-enthusiasts we have in our membership. Entry into this contest grants PhotographyBB the rights to publish your image on our blog and in a future issue of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. The top 3 photos will be published and the photographer of the winning image will receive a signed copy of David duChemin’s Within the Frame and VisionMongers. Have fun, and happy photographing!

Next up in my photo-blog favs series is from a good friend and magazine contributor, Jason Anderson. Canon Blogger has quickly grown into one of the best resources for the new (and existing) photographer. Why do I say that? That’s because Jason has put together a fantastic podcast entitled, “Learning Digital Photography” via Personal Life Media. Before I get into details, there’s something I should mention quickly. Although Jason shoots with Canon and the blog is called Canon Blogger, this site is not exclusive to Canon enthusiasts. In fact, I can’t remember a post that was directed specifically to a Canon shooter, that any other photographer wouldn’t benefit from. In addition, although the podcast is called “Learning Digital Photography,” this site caters to a much broader audience than just beginner photographers.

Jason writes primarily for our column in the PhotographyBB Online Magazine entitled “Photographic Food for Thought,” because it’s just that – photographic considerations and issues concerning photographers on a multitude of levels. Take for instance, file management and backup strategy, how to create more compelling photos, the perils and pitfalls of photo contests, and much more; Jason writes with intelligence on the issues that concern all of us. The podcast is just another excellent way of staying in tune with the photography industry, some great interviews, product reviews, tips, and much more. Listen to it on your iPod/iPhone, in the car, while you work… any way you do it, you’ll find the experience enriching.

Canon Blogger also features several challenges and contests with some great giveaways through their Flickr site too. What better way to participate whether you are a beginner or pro, than to get involved with your peers and join in the fun. Shooting to a theme is one of the best ways a photographer can push their boundaries and actually improve, so I highly recommend checking out some of the contests that Jason runs.

Check out the Learning Digital Photography Podcast and add Canon Blogger to your daily blog visits / RSS feeds and you’ll be guaranteed to grow as a photographer, regardless of what level you are currently at. You can also connect with Jason via the following links:
Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Jason’s Photo Gallery