The sealed camera units are interchangeable with the body (just like a standard camera lens) and currently come in multiple focal lengths and zoom ranges.  It’s definitely an interesting approach that Ricoh took when designing this system because one of the major distinguishing factors is that each camera unit, in addition to housing its own specialized lens, also houses a specialized imaging sensor.

Ricoh GXR Modular Camera System with lens

For example, the two prime units (a 28mm, F2.5 and 50mm, F2.5 Macro) each have a 12.3MP, 23.6 x 15.7mm CMOS sensor while the 24-72mm zoom uses a 10MP, 1/1.7″ CCD sensor and the 28-300mm zoom has a 10MP, 1/2.3″ CMOS sensor.  This approach seems like a good idea in that Ricoh can ensure their optics are mated with the most appropriate sensor for optimal image quality and performance.  It also makes for a smaller and lighter camera system so it could be ideal for something like street photography.  The potential downside I see is the higher price per camera unit since they contain both the optics and the sensor.

Check out the Ricoh GXR review and the samples and let us know what you think.  Go to Ricoh’s website for much more information.  If you have one or have used one, what are your impressions?

Courtenay

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Right about now, I’d rather be sitting at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville.  

Ready & Waiting in Margaritaville. Pentax *ist DS (F 6.3, 1/160s @ 18mm - ISO 200)

I’ve only been to the Orlando, Florida location but just about any one would do.  I was thinking along the lines of Waikiki, Cancun or one of the Caribbean locations.  That could be nice. 

So, how about you?  Where would you rather be??  Do you have a favorite relaxation or travel spot that’s better than where you are now?  Or maybe there’s someplace else that you’d love to visit and photograph.  Either way, let us know by sharing it in the comments.  Link a photo too, if you’ve got it!

Courtenay

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

I’m starting to get back into the swing of blogging and working on both the site and my photos so I decided it’s about time to host my first ever giveaway.  Now, it’s not going to be a huge, major award kind of thing but I think you’ll like it anyway.  Here’s the deal…

Two lucky people are going to win one of two (2) gift cards to either RitzCamera.com ($20.00) or CafePress.com ($10.00) and it couldn’t be easier to enter.  All you need to do is join the C.E.G. Photography mailing list to get website updates by entering your name and e-mail address in any of the sign-up forms on the site.  If you already get e-mail updates then you are already entered.

Want a second, bonus, entry? Then head over to the C.E.G. Photography Facebook page and “Like” it.  By doing that and signing up for e-mail updates your name will be entered into the drawing for a maximum of two entries.

The entry period will last about two weeks and will end on April 17.  I’ll then compile all of the e-mail subscribers and the names of all of the people who like the Facebook page and put them into a spreadsheet.  A random number generator will select two numbers and those two people will win. Simple.

The first name selected will win the RitzCamera.com gift card and the second will win the CafePress.com gift card.  You will be notified either by e-mail or through a Facebook message if you win.  Both prizes are electronic gift cards so you will receive them via e-mail either from me or directly from the respective business.

A few little disclaimers:

1. Neither prize is being furnished by the businesses. I am purchasing and gifting them on my own.
2. There is a maximum of two (2) entries per person and the only way to gain those entries is by the methods described above.
3. Unfortunately, immediate family members are not eligible to win.  However, if we don’t live at the same residence or didn’t share a room growing up you are certainly eligible.

I think that should be about it but I’ll update this post if need be.

As always, thanks for reading and good luck!!

Courtenay

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

The photo was taken atop Gregory Bald in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  It was nearly a 12 mile hike in total and the change in elevation to get to the top was over 3,000 feet.  The highest elevation is almost 5,000 feet and, as you can see from the photo, it offers a very nice view and a great spot to relax and rest your feet.

Gregory Bald Wallpaper

You can download the wallpaper by browsing to the Desktop Wallpapers page and clicking on the thumbnail.  The full image will open and you can right-click to save it to your hard drive.

I hope you like it and I hope you enjoy all of the future wallpapers to come.

Courtenay

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Reason #1: Price

It’s no surprise that the first argument against purchasing a DSLR is the same as my first argument for purchasing a DSLR.  When buying any new pice of technology, most people’s first qualifier is going to be the price.  Is it really worth it?  Can I get something equal or better for cheaper?  These are the questions you’ll ask.  Even though many are fairly reasonably priced, the fact is that DSLRs are still much more expensive than most of their smaller counterparts.  Unfortunately, it just gets more expensive when you add in your additional lenses, filters, bags, tripods, etc..  So, if you’re on a budget or just don’t feel it’s worth the investment, you may not want to go with a DSLR.

Reason #2: DSLRs can be too overwhelming

For some people, simpler is simply better.  If you’re one of these people and you get overstimulated when presented with multiple buttons, knobs and options a DSLR may not be for you.  Granted, camera manufacturers are making more beginner-friendly DSLRs and just about every camera has multiple automatic modes but they still have a lot of buttons and options hidden in the menus.  Oh yeah, and there’s still the lenses.  So, if you want the utmost simplicity you may just want to look to a sleek compact with a big LCD and only a few buttons and go start shooting.

Bug Eyed Macro. Pentax Optio A30 (F 2.8, 1/320 @ 38mm - ISO 64)

Reason #3: Fixed lens cameras are pretty advanced too

Camera manufacturers have recognized that many consumers don’t want a seemingly overcomplicated DSLR and lenses to deal with but they do still want the creativity and features that come with a DSLR package.  Because of this a lot of advanced compact cameras now come with many of the same cool things that DSLRs do.  Over the years more and more fixed lens cameras have become equipped with things like image stabilized lenses, wider angle and longer zoom lenses, high ISO shooting modes, focus tracking and even the ability to shoot RAW format photos.  You really don’t have to spend like a pro to have the shooting creativity of a pro.  Plus, if you do like the look of a DSLR but want the ease of a point and shoot most major manufacturers sell DSLR-like cameras with a bigger form factor and longer zoom lenses. The Nikon Coolpix P500 and Pentax X90 are examples of this type of camera.  Many years ago my first step up from a compact camera was actually a DSLR-like camera, the Fuji Finepix S602 Zoom.

Finally, last but not least,

Reason #4: You just don’t need a DLSR

If you only take your camera out every once in a while or only shoot pics of the kids, nieces or nephews when you all get together you probably don’t need a DSLR.  Like I said before, there are many, many excellent cameras that have extremely advanced features matching some DSLRs but at much cheaper prices.  Here’s an idea, save yourself a bit of money on the camera and put it toward a weekend trip to give your new toy a trial run!

Regardless of whether you choose a DSLR or a fixed lens compact, subcompact or DSLR-like camera you’re bound to enjoy your purchase.  The most important thing, after all, is to make photos that make memories and you can do that with any camera.

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Reason #1: Price

Most of the major camera manufacturers that produce DSLRs have at least one camera kit (camera body and one or more lenses) that can be bought on the street for less than about $600. When you compare that with the prices of many new compact and subcompact cameras you’ll see that for just $200-$300 more you get much, much more in terms of versatility, expandability and, often, quality. If you’re planning to spend a few hundred bucks on a new camera, it’s well worth holding off a bit longer to save a few hundred more to buy a DSLR.

Reason #2: Interchangable lenses

Ultra wide angles. Super sharp primes. Long reaching telephotos. Incredibly versatile ultra zooms…. Don’t want to be limited by the built-in optics in a fixed lens camera? A DSLR is what you want. You can have a lens for any situation! On a budget? You can pick up excellent used lenses on eBay or from your local camera shop. I got my sharpest Pentax 50mm prime lens on eBay for about $40 shipped! A true steal for such high quality glass.

Morganser, Acadia National Park. Pentax *istDS (F 11, 1/1000 @ 200mm - ISO 1600)

Reason #3: Faster speed and better image quality

If you want a camera with the speed to make sure you don’t miss those important shots, a DSLR is the sure bet. Not only will the hardware and software in DSLRs and their lenses give you much faster auto focus performance but you will also gain the ability to continuously shoot a high number of frames per second just by holding down the shutter release. This will help ensure that you don’t miss any fast action sports shots…or shots of speedy little kids.

Image quality and detail is another area where the DSLR is a winner. Because of their larger sensor and pixel size DSLRs are able to produce images with a higher dynamic range and less noise, both resulting in clearer, more detailed photographs. Very useful if you want to share or print your photos at larger sizes.

and finally

Reason #4: Confidence

For aspiring photographers, using a DSLR and a nice lens can give a huge confidence boost. That boost of confidence can make you more likely to get out and shoot more photos and different types of photos than you would if you just had a point and shoot camera. And, as I mentioned in my previous post, 5 ways to improve your photography, today!, getting out to shoot more and leaving your comfort zone will help you on your way to becoming an all around better photographer.

So, there you have 4 reasons why you might want to buy a DSLR instead of a compact or other fixed lens camera, even if it means postponing your purchase and saving a bit more money.

These reasons may be compelling for some but not everyone needs nor do they want a DSLR. To see some reasons why you may not want to buy a DSLR be sure to read my companion article, 4 reasons to buy a fixed lens camera instead of a DSLR., coming tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and don’t let the darkroom door hit you on the way out!

Courtenay

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

When photographers talk about bracketing their shots they are referring to the practice of taking multiple photos of the same frame, in sequence, but at different exposures or focus points.  There are different reasons why one may bracket a shot but, historically, the main reason is to ensure that you walk away with at least one good, properly exposed shot.

Before automatic exposure and custom shooting modes to assist photographers, bracketing was a manual process.   Take a shot, adjust exposure, shoot again, etc…  Now most, if not all, DSLRs and some advanced compacts will have an automatic bracketing feature to allow the camera to shoot multiple exposures with the single press of a button. First, the “proper” exposure is taken when you press the shutter release then your camera will automatically shoot one or more under exposed (darker) and over exposed (brighter) shots immediately after. Bracketing for exposure can be very useful in tricky light situations where you’re not quite sure if your shot will come out too bright or too dark.  When in doubt, bracket.  It’s better to have a few extra photos that you don’t use than to only have one poorly exposed shot.

Smoky Mt Stream HDR (-4EV, -2EV, 0EV, +2EV, +4EV)

If your camera shoots RAW images you’ve got it a little easier because you can manipulate the exposure using some image editors that are very RAW friendly.  As an example, Adobe Photoshop products use their excellent Adobe Camera RAW plugin to let you adjust and fine tune a lot of the image properties including exposure.

Focus bracketing is something that is very common for macro photography because of the extremely shallow depth of field and focus areas that you work with.  Here is a very good video on LearnMyShot.com that explains a method for taking focus bracketed photos and combining them in Photoshop to create a very detailed and fully focused product shot of a piece of jewelry.

The following image by Muhammad Mahdi Karim is a great example of how multiple focus bracketed images were combined to create a single extremely sharp macro photograph of a tachinid fly. The final image on the right was actually created using six differently focused photos of the fly.

Photo by Muhammad Mahdi Karim http://www.micro2macro.net/

While it is most common for macro photography you could also use focus bracketing for other non-macro photography situations.

Photo by Kim Seng - http://captainkimo.com

One final reason why you may want to consider bracketing photos is for creating High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI or HDR photographs).  HDR photography takes multiple exposure bracketed images and combines them to a final composite image containing all of the brightest and darkest parts of the source photographs.

When fully edited and optimized, HDR photographs are very cool to look at because of all that extra detail that’s included in the photo. The human eye is capable of perceiving much more light and detail information than can be normally captured by a camera’s sensor. So, when multiple exposures are combined with each other the result is an image that appears closer to what your eyes would have originally seen.

Photo by Kim Seng - http://captainkimo.com

If you are interested in creating your own HDR photos a very good site to check out is CaptainKimo.com.  Its owner, Kim Seng (a.k.a. Captain Kimo) is a professional photographer and has a number of tutorials, videos and even an ebook (Secrets to Mastering HDR Photography) to help you on your way.  Be sure to check out the article on his top ten HDR software choices to help you find the one that works best for you.

I hope this gave you some good information and possibly some inspiration to try out a new technique or two.  If you found anything here useful or want to share your own photos, experiences or advice leave a comment below.

Until next time, keep reading and keep shooting.

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

First, let me apologize and say that this post ended up being very different from the way it began as a first draft. I had originally wanted to expand on some features of various popular image editors but quickly found that the post would end up being way too long and that I would easily lose readers interest with all the text.

So, while I will have full write-ups and reviews for some of those editors published in the near future, I decided that this article will be a somewhat anticlimactic placeholder where I will link to those reviews as they are posted.  Sorry again for the buildup to part 4 but keep looking here and I’ll make it up to you with the image editor reviews.

Courtenay

Reviewed Image Editors

What to do with all those digital photos?

1. Image/Folder Naming
2. Image/Folder Organization
3. File Storage
4. Image Editing

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Gryffindor Snowman and Hogwarts Castle. *istDS (F 3.5, 1/2s @ 18mm - ISO 800)

Here’s a favorite photo from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park.  It was pretty cool to see the castle and explore the rest of Hogsmeade with all of the witches, wizards and muggles.  

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

First, I believe that good file storage and backup solutions are one and the same and go hand in hand so throughout this post I’ll be talking about them as one idea. The first thing I want to mention is very important for a small, but present, segment of the digital camera owning population. Some digital camera owners have a tendency to use the SD card (or other media type) inserted in their camera as the primary means of storage. They may have one or more years worth of photos on their card(s) and may even end up deleting selected older photos to make room for new ones. Typically, these individuals are very casual shooters who may take their cameras to family events or shoot photos of their kids and occasionally bring the memory card to a kiosk to order prints. If this describes you and your method of “storing” digital photos STOP DOING IT RIGHT NOW!…but please keep reading.

Using your memory cards as your primary means of storage is bad for several reasons but one very important one is that memory cards can, and do, fail. Having had a few of my own SD cards fail in the past I know that it can be very frustrating to lose some of the photos you may have really liked. With the cost of storage solutions being so low there really is no reason for you to not use one or more additional forms of file storage and backup for your digital photos. Here are several options to make sure you don’t risk losing your valued digital photos.

The first thing you should do after taking your camera for an outing is to get those photos copied to your hard drive. Everyone who owns a computer should at least have an internal hard drive and that is probably the first place you want to copy your photos to. For ideas on how to arrange your digital photos on your hard drive (or on any other backup storage device) check out part one of this post series, Image/Folder Naming. Having your photographs on your hard drive will allow you to edit them, share them or do anything else you might want with them but for long term filing and backup you will need to use other methods.

The easiest and most affordable way to back up your photos is going to be via CD or DVD optical media. This is an option that should be available to just about everyone as your desktop or laptop most likely has a CD-R or DVD±R capable drive installed. You can pick up a 50-100 pack of blank DVD±R media just about anywhere for $15 – $35, depending on brand. With a capacity of 4.7GB each you can archive up to 470GB worth of photos with one 100 disc pack. Being an optical media with no moving parts, once you’ve burned your discs you can store them in a cool, dry location away from direct light and be fairly confident that you won’t lose your data. DVD±Rs are rated to have an estimated shelf life of anywhere from 25 – 250 years so they are pretty stable. However, you should certainly make copies (new backups) every 2-3 years, just in case. I use DVD media to back up my photo library by burning one month’s worth of photos per disc then keeping them in a Case Logic CD/DVD binder. Its affordable, reliable and portable if you should want or need to transport your photos.

Another way to back up your photos, which I also use, is with an external hard drive. In my case, I have a 1TB external hard drive that I primarily use to keep all of my digital photos accessible in one place. I first copy photos to my laptop’s internal hard drive where they get sorted and renamed. Then I will copy them to the external drive and finally to DVD±R once I’ve accumulated a month’s worth of photos. I’ll eventually delete them from the laptop hard drive but they always remain on the external drive so I can view or edit them. An external hard drive is a great way to keep a large library of photos readily available but I wouldn’t use it as my only archiving solution because of the potential to fail or crash.  Yes, I have had an external drive fail on me several years ago and while I only lost a couple days worth of shots that I hadn’t backed up one of those was a very good photography day and I still kick myself for losing them. The external hard drive solution is a pretty inexpensive one too. Depending on brand, you should be able to get a 500GB – 1TB external drive for $100 or less. External hard drives can certainly be portable but keep in mind that unless you get a solid state (flash memory) hard drive, which can be much more expensive, the recording media is going to be a standard magnetic platter with read and write heads (moving parts) that can be damaged if jarred or dropped. If you’re curious about the parts of a hard drive check out this article on Webopedia.

Once you’ve got a handle on how to archive your photos using hard drives and/or optical media you should seriously consider multiple copies and off site storage as well. The reason for multiple copies is pretty easy to grasp. Since we know hard drives can fail and DVDs can become scratched or warped it is a good idea to maybe make a couple copies of that backup DVD, just in case. Off site storage is another easy concept and the benefits are obvious. Let’s say you have a very good archiving system at home and have two sets of DVD backups in addition to your internal and external hard drives. Should something catastrophic happen like a fire, flood or burglary you could still lose all of your precious photos. That’s where off site storage comes in. By keeping copies of your photos in another location you minimize the likelihood of completely losing everything.

There are multiple ways to go about implementing an off site storage strategy. In the simplest form you could just make additional backup copies of your DVDs or have multiple hard drives and ask a friend or family member to keep them in their home, possibly in a safe. You could also go a step farther and rent a safe deposit box at a bank and use their heightened security to protect your property.

Another good option is to use one of the many online, or remote, backup services. You may already recognize some of them by name: Carbonite, DropBox, Mozy, SugarSync and BackBlaze to name a few. Some of the current remote backup services offer a limited amount of free storage for your files but the better, more flexible services typically have a fee associated with them. If you’re curious, Wikipedia has a list of current services here. Using a remote backup service is actually pretty easy. There will usually be a small application that you download to your PC or laptop which lets you configure your backup settings and schedules. You can choose which drives and folders to back up, how frequently you want the backups to be sent and, depending on the service, there may be other security related options as well. The process of restoring your files can be different depending on the service but the most common methods will allow you to download archives of multiple files, single files or purchase pre-burned DVDs of your files directly from the service provider. I still have not started to use one of these services but [[ I did compare several of them a couple months ago and was leaning toward using BackBlaze or Carbonite.]] Once I decide I’ll be sure to do a review of how the service works for me.

I hope you found the information in this article useful. If you have any additional storage ideas to share or have questions, feel free to leave a comment below. Stay tuned for the fourth and final part of this post series, Image Editing, coming later this week.

As always, thanks for reading.

Courtenay

What to do with all those digital photos?

1. Image/Folder Naming
2. Image/Folder Organization
3. File Storage
4. Image Editing

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Over the years I’ve tried out lots of different pieces of software for cataloging and organizing my digital photos. I’ve used free software as well as paid software ranging from the very basic all the way up to Adobe Lightroom. Most of them are very good and have nice features but the one I have been using for the past several years and have really loved is FastStone Image Viewer.  FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software for Windows made by FastStone Soft that is currently on version 4.3 and gets updated regularly. In its most basic usage FastStone Image Viewer is just that, an image browser that lets you navigate through your folder structure and view many different formats of digital images, including camera raw files. However, FastStone Image Viewer is much more than that. In addition to its image viewing capabilities it is also a very powerful image converter and image editor.

FastStone Image Viewer - Full Screen Top

For browsing my photo library I find it very useful for a number of reasons. First and foremost it is very fast when I just want to look at my photos and see what I have or find a particular image or images. It uses a very efficient thumbnail database so as you browse folders for the first time the program saves the thumbnails and image data so the next time you open the folder the thumbnails load lightning fast. You can adjust the size of your thumbnails with sizes ranging from 60 by 45 pixels up to 200 by 150 pixels.

FastStone Image Viewer - Full Screen Left

When viewing your images you have the option of viewing them in windowed mode however your images are best viewed, in my opinion, in the wonderful full screen mode. In full screen mode FastStone Image Viewer truly uses the entire screen and has the awesome feature of hiding very useful menus along the top, bottom, left and right sides of your screen. These menus become visible when you move your mouse to each side of the screen. The top of the screen hides a thumbnail browser and folder tree so you can explore the rest of your photos while keeping the current one in the full screen viewer.

FastStone Image Viewer - Full Screen Bottom

The left and bottom menus contain many standard image editing options and effects (rotation, resizing, color and detail enhancements, etc.) as well as options for e-mailing images, performing screen captures and a couple other cool features. There is an option to list multiple external image editors so if you have Photoshop or Gimp installed and like browsing with FastStone but want to edit with something more powerful just add the program in the settings and press “E” when viewing a photo.  Your selected photo or photos will open in your favorite image editor ready to be manipulated.

FastStone Image Viewer - Full Screen Right

Hidden on the right side of the screen is the File and Attributes dialogue which is very useful for photographers as it contains your EXIF shooting data, file size attributes, a histogram and a JPEG comment tab if you want to add your own comments to your photo with location or shooting information or if your file already has notes embedded. Of course, in addition to the fly-out menus when in full screen mode, you can still access all of the menus with a right click on your photo.

One feature of the browser that I really like is the ability to tag images. When you’re looking through photos it takes just one click or press of a key and you can tag an image and have it ready for batch operations. Very useful when you have a lot of images and don’t want to bother with continuously pressing and holding the control key to select more than one file.

FastStone Image Viewer - Compare

Another favorite feature which is extremely useful is the ability to compare to 4 images on screen at a time.  Let’s say you have up to 4 similar photos that you want to inspect more closely, you can select them and compare the fine details all at once to select your best image. This comparison, by the way, is also done in full screen.

FastStone Image Viewer - Slideshow Builder

There are several other cool and useful features of FastStone Image Viewer worth noting. One is the nifty Slide Show Builder which lets you design a self-contained slide show using images, transitions and even music and then export it to an executable file ready to be shared. The Contact Sheet Builder is surprisingly robust for a free program and lets you save your contact sheets in the standard image formats and in PDF format. With the Multi-Page File Builder you can select multiple photos then create a multi-page TIFF, PDF or even create animated GIFs. Finally, the Image Strip Builder allows you to be a little creative with your photo presentation and build horizontal or vertical strips of photos like the one I’ve created below.

FastStone Image Viewer - Image Strip

All of these features, and many more which I did not touch on, combine to make FastStone Image Viewer a great all around photo browser and manager for beginning photographers or anyone who doesn’t want or need to invest in a more complicated piece of software. And, again, it’s FREE! Will it be the solution for your needs? I don’t know, but you can easily download it from FastStone’s website and give it a try.

There are certainly many alternative programs for you to choose from if you don’t like FastStone’s software or if your use Mac OS instead of Windows. Here are a few other programs for you to check out to make sure you find what’s best for you:

• Google’s Picasa 3 (Price: FREE) – Available for Windows, Mac, Linux (currently in beta) and online with Web Albums.
• ACDSee Photo Manager and ACDSee Pro Photo Manager (Price: ACDSee – $69.99; ACDSee Pro – $99.99 & $169.99 [Mac]).
• Corel PaintShop Photo Express 2010 (Price: $39.99) – Available for Windows.
• Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3/X3 Ultimate (Price: $59.99 SALE) – Available for Windows.
• FotoTime FotoAlbum 6 (Price: FREE; Pro version – adds image editing and other features – $39.99) – Available for Windows.
• Adobe Bridge (Price: Varies with price of individual Adobe Creative products) – Available for Windows and Mac.
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 (Price: $299) – Available for Windows and Mac.
• Apple iPhoto (Price: Part of iLife ‘11 – $49 or FREE with a new Mac) – Available for Mac.
• Apple Aperture 3 (Price: $79.99) – Available for Mac.

Thanks again for reading and be sure to check out the rest of this series using the links below.

What to do with all those digital photos?

1. Image/Folder Naming
2. Image/Folder Organization
3. File Storage
4. Image Editing

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Mansfield Flood, Feb. 2011

I was downtown in the afternoon, well after most of the water had subsided, and got some photos with my HTC Incredible.  Here are a few of those shots.

Here’s a couple links to The Mansfield News Journal with a slideshow and video of the flood and the damage that was done.

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

When I first got started in digital photography I discovered the website Digital Photography Review and found it to be an indispensable resource for keeping up with new cameras and the world of digital photography in general.  The forums alone are worth all of its members weight in gold.  One of the first things I learned while browsing the site was the importance of having a good file naming and organization structure that works and is logical for you.

The naming conventions that I currently use were actually adopted from a screenshot in an article on the DPReview site from many years ago and it has served me well since.  Here is an example of my folder structure and naming style:

My File-Folder Structure

Digital Photo Library

• 2010
  • 20101225-Christmas
• 2011
  • 20110214-Valentine’s Dinner
    • 20110214-Valentine’s Dinner0001.jpg
    • Edited
      • 20110214-Valentine’s Dinner0001.psd
      • 20110214-Valentine’s Dinner0001.png

As you can see I use “Digital Photo Library” as my top level folder and have individual sub-folders for each year.  From there I give each day of photos its own folder and name it with the 8 digit year, month and date followed by a hyphen and a descriptive title based on the subject matter.  Any given day may actually have multiple folders depending on where I go or what I shoot that day.  The image files then follow the same folder naming convention but add a 4 digit number at the end to maintain the original shooting order.  If I should edit any images for the web or for print I create an additional folder named “Edited” and save any processed image files in there.

To batch rename my files I use FastStone Image Viewer, a free photo browser, editor and converter which I will be discussing in parts 2 and 4 of this series of posts.   I have slightly changed one aspect of the individual file names at some point in the past though.  I used to want to keep track of the original file name of my photos so used names like this: 20110214-Valentine’s Dinner0001 (IMGP0821).jpg.  After shooting so many photos, however, I decided I didn’t really care what the original file name was so dropped it from my renamed photos.

Everyone should have a naming and organizational structure that makes sense to them so if what I use doesn’t look or feel right or seem logical to you, that’s ok.  Maybe you want to add monthly sub-folders or even put your edited or in-progress photos into a totally different top level folder.  It’s up to you.  Depending on make and model, at the most basic level of organization your camera may create new folders for each day of photos and may or may not give them names that make sense.  If they do, by all means, start off with that.  Just copy your folders from your memory card to your hard drive but make sure you at least keep your naming consistent.  It’ll make things much easier in the future.

Great Blue Heron, Columbus, OH. F 6.7, 1/800s @ 300mm - ISO 200

I hope you enjoyed and maybe took something from part 1 of my “What to do with all those digital photos?” series.  To make sure you don’t miss the rest of this post series, or any other posts, be sure to sign up for e-mail updates in the yellow box below.  As usual, if you have any comments or questions go ahead and leave them below and I’ll respond.

Here’s a few more resources for naming ideas if you don’t like mine or want to see how others do it:

• Name Your Digital Photo Files (DigicamGuides.com)
• File naming and tagging your digital photos (Kodak.com)
• Digital Photo Naming Conventions, the why & suggestions (ACDSee.com)
• Naming Strategy for Digital Photos (ImpulseAdventure.com)
• Organize your digital pictures (Microsoft.com)

Take care and happy shooting!

What to do with all those digital photos?

1. Image/Folder Naming
2. Image/Folder Organization
3. File Storage
4. Image Editing

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Starting tomorrow and over the next two weeks I’ll be sharing my methods for file naming, organization, storage and editing in a four part article series entitled “What to do with all those digital photos?”.  The articles will be primarily aimed toward beginning and amateur digital photographers who may not already have a set routine and workflow.  In addition to my own methods and tools I’ll present alternatives for you to explore to help you figure out what may work best for you.  All of the articles will linked from this post and to each other to make them easy to find and read.

Enjoy the articles and please leave a comment if you find any of the information useful.

What to do with all those digital photos?

1. Image/Folder Naming
2. Image/Folder Organization
3. File Storage
4. Image Editing

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Blue Skies and Power Lines. Shot with HTC Incredible @ 5mm - ISO 121

Its good to know that spring is quickly approaching though because I am definitely ready to see more green and more color to go with the blue sky.

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

Rose and Baby's Breath. F 5.6, 1/40s @ 55mm - ISO 800

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

• Waterproof up to 33 feet
• Shockproof for drops up to 5 feet
• Dustproof
• Coldproof to below freezing temperatures (down to 14 degrees F)
• Crushproof to withstand weights of up to 220 pounds!

On the performance side of things the cameras are equally impressive and sport the following highlights:

• 14 megapixel image sensor (4288×3216 pixels)
• 720p HD video at 30 fps
• 5x internal optical zoom lens (28-140mm equivalent)
• Pixel Track and Digital Shake Reduction
• AF assist lamp
• 2.7” LCD screen (wide 16:9 format)
• HDMI out for viewing images and video on HD televisions or monitors
• Wide ISO range (80-1600 auto adjusting, 80-6400 manually)

As the name suggests, the WG-1 GPS also includes GPS functionality to allow positional data to be recorded with your images for later use with various geo-tagging software and web applications. Both cameras also have a Digital Microscope mode which uses a macro shooting and 5 led lights on the front face of the camera to illuminate and photograph a subject as close as 1cm. To complete the rugged functionality of the cameras each one comes with a heavy duty fabric strap and carabiner to attach to your other adventure gear.

For active individuals and adrenaline junkies the Pentax Optio WG-1 and WG-1 GPS could be a tremendous hit. My wife has one of Pentax’s earlier generation weatherproof cameras, the Optio W20, and over the years it has gone underwater in Maine, hiking through rain in the mountains of Virginia and Tennessee and into multiple swimming pools throughout the country. It has served us well over the years but is probably ready to be replaced and the WG-1 sounds like it would be a fine upgrade.

The Optio WG-1 and WG-1 GPS are available for pre-order through Pentax’s Web Store for $349.95 and $399.95, respectively but can probably be bought for less when they hit the streets in April 2011. They look to be great cameras and will be well worth checking out if you are in the market for something more durable than the average digital compact.

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

1. Re-read (or read) your camera manual.

Chances are there are many of us who, upon buying and opening a new camera, read or skim through the owner’s manual once then put it away never to be seen again. And there’s at least a few of you who never read the manual at all. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but since digital cameras can be packed with settings there’s a chance that you may be missing out on some useful features that haven’t been touched.

If you find that you spend most or all of your time in automatic modes or never venture into the configuration screens its possible that you may be missing out on some creative options. Maybe you have a point and shoot camera that also has a Manual mode which you’ve never used. Dig out that manual and give it a read because once you know how to put the camera in Manual mode and set your own aperture and shutter speeds there is a whole new world of creative photography available to you.

With a DSLR, the importance of reading the manual is kicked up a notch. In addition to the various shooting modes (multiple automatic/scene modes, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program, Bulb, Manual, etc.) and settings menus, most DSLRs also have many custom functions that let you set even more options. And guess what? They’re all explained in your manual!

2. Take a camera wherever you go.

Because you never know when something interesting, unusual, exciting or newsworthy is going to happen I recommend that you start carrying a camera with you at all times. Now, it doesn’t have to be your big DSLR it can certainly be something smaller. Personally, I used to take my Pentax A30 with me from time to time.  But now, thanks to the wonders of smartphone technology, I always have my HTC Incredible and its nice autofocus lens and 8-megapixel sensor with me.  So wherever I go I can take photographs or HD video.

Having a camera with you wherever you go will actually serve multiple purposes.  First, if something unexpected should happen you will be able to take that spur of the moment photograph that could turn out to be a spectacular or rare shot.  And hey, if you’re trying to get your name out there, all you need is one killer photo to get noticed and start attracting attention.

The second thing that can come from having a camera with you at all times is that you will probably be more likely to take more photographs.  In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell makes many references to the “10,000-hour rule”.  He says that the key to success in any field or at any skill is largely based on practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.  For a photographer, carrying a camera with you at all times and spending the time to take more photos will only help you get better.

3. Challenge yourself.

Expand your repertoire by giving yourself photographic assignments or homework. I imagine most people don’t wake up on the weekend and think to themselves “This is a great day to go photograph some shadows” or “I think I’ll go out in the snow and take a series of photos emphasizing high contrast this fine winter morning”. I would be willing to bet, though, that photographers who do give themselves assignments like that have developed a better, more consistent eye for pleasing photographs.

Snowy Day Cardinals

To start, your assignments don’t have to be overwhelming or difficult. Start off with something broad like trees or windows or something easy like that. Make yourself photograph nothing but trees, windows or whatever in different settings, from different angles or in different lighting. As time goes on, make your challenges more specific.

These assignments will force you to look for new and different ways to photograph subjects that you may already be used to shooting and they could open your eyes to subjects that you wouldn’t have thought of before. To help get you started here are a few websites that run their own challenges for users to participate in:

• DPChallenge – A Digital Photography Contest
• Photo Friday – The Weekly Photo Challenge
• Digital Photography School

4. Leave your comfort zone.

All of us have some things we’re pretty good at and other things that we could work on. Our tendency is to focus on those things that we do well and leave the other skills on the back burner.  To really improve your photographic skills you should try leaving your comfort zone every once in a while.

Let’s say you take very good landscape or nature photos where your subject (like a mountain or tree) isn’t going anywhere fast. You could choose to leave that comfort zone by offering to take photos at a niece, nephew or neighbor’s sporting event. Not only will you gain more exposure for yourself and hopefully have some nice photos to present to your “client” but you may also pick up a new skill from the action photography that can translate to another area.

If you live and breathe long telephoto photography and aren’t much of a portrait person why not take only a standard or wide angle lens to your next family gathering, office party or other social event? You’ll be forced to get up close and personal with your subjects and, who knows, it may give you the excuse for some face time with that cute girl (or guy) that you’ve had your eye on…probably not at the family gathering though.

5. Never stop learning.

Never assume that you know all there is to know about photography because you’re not even close.  Also, never assume that you can’t learn something new from someone else because you always can.  Simply put, if you stop learning you stop developing.

Your local or school library  probably has many books on photography that you’ve never read.  Each one of those books is a potential treasure chest of knowledge and ideas.  Honestly, even if you have read a particular book you will probably still be able to take some useful information from it the next time around.  And lets not forget about the wonderful photographs that fill those books.  Each one can be a great source of inspiration for your own photography.

Since most of us are spending so much time online now the first place you may want to look to continue your photographic education is to the web.  There are hundreds of good websites to help teach different aspects of photography. The beauty of using web resources is that you have photographers from all skill levels to draw from.  You can go hang out in a beginner’s forum and share tips to get you started then click over to National Geographic’s website and read how-to articles written by leading professionals.  The sky is certainly the limit when it comes to learning about photography on the web.

To get you started, here’s a few places to check out:

• Digital Photography School
• Photo.net
• Nikon USA: Learn and Explore
• National Geographic Photography
• Digital Photography Shots (DPShots)

So, there you have it. A short list of five things you can start doing today to improve your photography. Keep in mind that these are just MY thoughts on the subject and since there are as many different ideas on improving photographic skill as there are cameras in the world you’re bound to agree with some ideas and disagree with others.

If you like any of the suggestions I’ve talked about today or if you have some of your own, feel free to leave a comment and share your own ways to help us take better photos.

Thanks again for reading now go out and shoot!

Illinois Beach, Chicago, IL

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.

The day after the water incident I turned on the camera to test it out in the hotel and it didn’t do much of anything.  It powered on but as soon as it did the menu came up and continuously cycled through options and wouldn’t stop until I pressed the shutter release.  When I did press the shutter release, however, nothing would happen.  So, I assumed the worst and packed it away to deal with later.

After I wrote my previous post I decided to unpack the camera and try it out again. I’m glad I did because it seems that all is not completely lost.  The electrics are definitely fudged up because not all of the buttons work properly on the back of the body.  Almost all of them work so I can still navigate menus and settings but it takes a while longer because the down direction button no longer works.  Luckily, the mode selection dial still works and the camera recognizes each mode as I go through them.  The main negative point for me is that auto focus appears to be fried.     That definitely sucks but a couple of my lenses are manual focus anyway so I can certainly work around that hurdle.

All things considered, the DS still works well enough to take photos with so I’m pretty happy.  That being said, I still think I have an excuse to start looking at new cameras but definitely don’t need to make it an urgent priority just yet.  As for Curious George, he and The Man with The Yellow Hat did help us with an OH-IO so I guess he’s still alright with me.

OH-IO! The Man with The Yellow Hat actually sang "Ohio" (1953) while we were posing!

© 2011, C.E.G. Photography. All rights reserved.