I’m sure by now that you are aware of the Thunderbolt standard and how it has a theoretical throughput that is much faster than Firewire 800, USB 2 or 3 and eSATA.  Like many people I excitedly bought one of the newer Macbooks last year when they first featured Thunderbolt ports but sadly Thunderbolt accessories have been relatively thin on the ground.  Some blame high licensing fees imposed by Apple and Intel whilst some blame technical difficulties and incompatibilities with the implementation of the technology.  I’ve had my Macbook Air for nearly a year now and until the Sonnet Echo arrived on my doorstep I hadn’t plugged a single Thunderbolt product into it.

I got some flack on Facebook about a past post on my blog . I received a comment from a reader or two stating they felt that what they saw in the produced images was not real. Meaning, after running through my workflow in Lightroom the images no longer represented reality. I have gotten this kind of feedback many times in the past. I think people are rather shocked at seeing a photo “undressed”. It’s a bit like seeing a high-fashion model on the streets without any makeup, it can be scary.

Entering photography contests can be an enhancement to prestige and CV. It’s always a boost to me to get a print accepted in a show or win a juried exhibit. Working toward professional society awards is another venue, long kept separate, but there’s no reason today’s artistic photographer…

Santa Rosa, Calif. –  Think Tank Photo announces that in May it will release its first four-wheeled rolling camera bag, the Airport 4-Sight™.  The Airport 4-Sight meets international airline carry-on standards. The roller’s weight has been reduced dramatically through innovative design and by a strict focus on the features that photographers find most beneficial.

Mamiya Leaf have today announced the Leaf Credo range of digital camera back designed to work with the 645DF. There are 80MP, 60MP and 40MP variations of the new CCD back. The Credo backs feature 1.15 million dot touch-screens.

The National Association of Broadcasters show has just wrapped up in Las Vegas and I was down there for a few days to check out some of the new gear.  I’ll be covering some products in more detail in the near future but we’ll start off with a wrap up of some of the coolest new HDSLR gear coming to market this spring and summer.

Piloting and camera operating a radio controlled helicopter video/photo platform are new, lucrative niche jobs in an expanding market. With many types of imaging services experiencing lower profits, here’s one that is gaining serious momentum. Aerial filming. Sure, traditional film and even stills from the air was a really cushy job, hard to break into. Real helicopters, real small planes and old school film cameras at insane hourly rates to rent, with serious technical requirements.

The newest buzz in inkjet printing is all about black and white. All inkjet printers will offer black and white printing, however very few will make the effort to deliver real monochrome inkjet.

Would how to pre-select, serve and provide the right products for our clients in this cost-cutter, amateur wanna-be, do-it-yourself world help your business model for now and ten years from now as well? Family portraiture used to be big business all around. We all know how prices have sunk very low, but there are contemporary answers of how to make a profit. Even in a depressed market, Master Photographer Ken Whitmire details how to succeed - during one of the best (and cheapest) week-long workshops I know. I’ve been at this workshop to hear how Ken details every step toward making good money with boutique specialty portrait photography.

With just a few days until NAB 2012 Canon have unveiled two new additions to their Cinema EOS lineup.  You can read all about the C500, their new cinema camera, over on our sister site PVC but here on PPC I want to talk a little bit more about the new EOS-1D C which I think is safe to say is now Canon’s flagship HDSLR.  Combining all the photographic features of the previously announced EOS-1D X, but now adding 4k video recording as well, Canon have produced something unique.

Whether you’re going for just a quick holiday card picture or an extraordinary 4x6 foot wall portrait, you can’t afford to spend huge amounts of time in postproduction. That’s where everybody loses their profit.

I’ve just taken delivery of Canon’s new top of the line strobe, the 600EX RT as well as the new ST-E3 radio transmitter.  This is the first time Canon has offered a radio trigger system so I have run through some of my first out of the box impressions.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today introduced the EOS 60Da Digital SLR Camera, a long-awaited successor to the EOS 20Da that is optimized for astrophotography. This DSLR caters to astronomers and hobbyists who enjoy capturing the beauty of the night sky by offering a modified infrared filter and a low-noise sensor with heightened hydrogen-alpha sensitivity. These modifications allow the camera to capture magnificent photographs of “red hydrogen emission” nebulae and other cosmic phenomena.

My new MAC Pro 8-core was in serious need of additional RAM to run the bigger applications and shove around the pixels from the Canon 5D Mark II. Apple didn’t tell us about this little RAM problem up front, but they were happy after the fact to price additional 8G memory at $400!!!!! You’ve got to be kidding! Big no sale from us.

These portraits, she recounted, were exchanged between bride and groom sometime near the turn of the 20th century. I’ve never seen this framing shown in any photo history book. But I do know that because tintypes were made with very thin plates, they were creatively cut to fit the covers of albums, or inset into lockets, broches or fans. The “cookie” part looks like plastic, but is actually a precursor to plastic called Bakelite, (pronounced Bay Ka Lite) a material just invented about the time these portraits were made.

Canon today announces the latest addition to its worldfamous EOS range with the launch of the new EOS 5D Mark III. The EOS 5D Mark IIIbuilds on the performance of the legendary EOS 5D Mark II, offering improved speed,greater resolution, enhanced processing power and extended creative options for bothstills and Full HD movies – providing unparalleled artistic freedom for the most demanding photographers.

You may have seen elegant editorial photos of Cuba, highlighting colorful past, music, art and poetry. Glamorous show clubs and equally glamorous tropical paradise. But Cuba has been out of bounds for Americans for decades. No legal travel permitted. Fines and potential imprisonment.

Nikon has unveiled the new D800 today which features a 36MP full frame sensor along with all of the video function improvements we saw on the D4.  In an interesting twist, Nikon will also be offering a D800E which is identical except for the omission of the anti-aliasing filter.  This should provide increased sharpness in that variation, but at the expense of possible aliasing on patterned subjects.  With the enormous processing power needed to deal with a 36MP image it comes as no surprise that the D800 is capable of a lower fps burst than it’s predecessor. 4fps in FX mode and 6fps in DX mode.  It’s somewhat puzzling to see that they have also opted to go for two different flash card mediums and notably excluded the XQD format that was introduced in the D4.

The long awaited replacement to the Canon 24-70 f2.8 L workhorse has finally been unveiled alongside two unique new prime lenses.  The new Canon 24-70 f2.8 L II is 10mm shorter than it’s predecessor as well as 150g lighter which will make a lot of people happy until they hear the suggested price of $2300!  Canon also launched two new primes which are the first wide angle primes in the world to feature Image Stabilization.  A 24mm f2.8 IS and a 28mm f2.8 IS.  Both lenses appear to be very compact and will likely offer usable low shutter speeds which previously were only possible with a much larger aperture wide angle lens like a 24mm f1.4, but for half the size and half the cost.

Effective keywording is one of the three most important ways to get your site or post found on the internet - along with title and description. But I’ve always found keywording a disorganized chore. Here’s a way to make the job simpler, quicker and more logical.

Remember how in composition 101 class you had to make an outline of topics, content, facts etc.? We used to do this on index cards, one card for each separate fact or topic. We wrote these in no particular order, just as they came to mind or emerged from research. Then we rearranged the stack of cards to create the logical skeleton of the essay. Done this way it was easy to see if there were any gaps in the content or if further rearrangement were needed.

I’ve found this analog approach works well for proposing, editing and sequencing keywords.

Once you’ve done your research, possibly on Google Adwords, to propose keywords, then you’ll also try to think inside the head of your audience to imagine what they might search on. I always make a big list of potential keywords, even if some seem a bit far out or not fully on target. For something as important as your website, you can never have too many keywords to start the edit process. Don’t forget keywords that speak to business products or services you may not do right now, but are targeted in your business plan.

Here’s my system to edit and organize your search keywords. My example is done on a blank file folder, easily preserved for future reference or for colleague comment.

• Write down each proposed keyword “candidate” on a separate sticky note. I use the smallest size sticky notes and cut them in thirds to save space.
• Arrange the stickies on your desk or a white board to get a good look at the total field.
• Re-arrange them, grouping categories like Photo services, Photoshop, Album design, etc. (or whatever is your business)
• Select the 2-5 most important keywords, then second tier from ones to be discarded.
• Re-arrange again in a logical, customer-friendly sequence.
• Generally choose no more than 25 keywords for your main core list (federal governments site limit). This is hard for us because we do so many things related to video, stills and productions.
• Rearrange as many times as needed, because individual pages or blog posts will need different, specific keywords than those for the site in general
• Keep a dated record of your final edit, and don’t throw away the de-selects, because they will eventually find a use - no need to rethink totally from the ground up

I’ve posted a detailed video about what makes Photo Mechanic a must have program for many journalists and sports photographers before. But many people also like the easy adjustment tools of Adobe Lightroom. This video walks you through how to setup a workflow that incorporates the best of both of these programs.

An great opportunity for an amazing (and legal) culture and people-to-people travel experience awaits a limited group of lucky photogs Everybody knows the mystique of old Habana. Colorful past, music, art and poetry. Incredible 50‘s and 60‘s cars carefully maintained. Beautiful old houses. Glamorous show clubs and equally glamorous tropical paradise. But Cuba has been out of bounds for Americans for decades. No legal travel permitted. Fines and potential imprisonment.