Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Covering the X Games: The good, the bad and the ugly

Tony Donaldson | 08/04- 04:14 PM

I shot the X Games for the 12th time. It’s good to have an idea of what to expect, but there are always surprises.

This year was X Games 15. I’ve been fortunate enough to cover a dozen of them, starting with the second year. I was recounting this with Chris Stiepock, Vice President & General Manager of the X Games. I’ve known Chris all that time, since it was called the Extreme Games and had “sports” like bungee jumping and sky surfing. The latter was people skydiving with special snowboard-type apparatus that allowed for some crazy aerobatic maneuvers.

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Thursday, July 09, 2009

New Nikon Rumor Causes a Stir

Tony Donaldson | 07/09- 11:16 AM

Wired.com has posted the supposedly leaked Nikon 2009/2010 product roadmap, with some really exciting rumors.

These are all rumors, though they do seem credible and/or possible. They come from Czecch forum Grafika On-Line, supposedly from the UK from an anonymous source at a company that provides Nikon UK with IT services.

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Behind the Scenes: Clementine Ford Shoot

Tony Donaldson | 07/02- 04:21 PM

A peek into a recent photoshoot with Actress Clementine Ford.

I recently photographed actress Clementine Ford (“The L Word”, “The Young and the Restless”, also Cybill Shepherd’s daughter) for Curve magazine. I love working for Curve, they interview interesting people and give me the opportunity to create whatever images I feel like. I never see the interview first. And usually I don’t talk to the personality before the shoot, as it’s all done with their “people”.

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Thursday, July 02, 2009

Photo Editors, Art Directors, and balls.

Tony Donaldson | 07/02- 04:02 PM

You know, a little feedback can go a long way in a relationship.

I’ve worked with a lot of photo editors and art directors over the years. Some I’ve been with for ages, others use me a few times and then I never hear from them. No feedback, good or bad, to help me understand why? You’ve probably had the same thing, too. Constructive criticism or simple explanations, like perhaps they felt they couldn’t afford you, help both sides understand and perhaps retain a good relationship.

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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Wiebetech RTX 400-QR

Tony Donaldson | 06/30- 05:08 PM

Easy to use and versatile big storage.

If you’re like me, you have a lot of external hard drives on your desk. Some are there to back up others. And it’s a messy tangle of wires and cables, between the power cords and their various transformer parts (often wall-warts that have to use a Power Squid or similar because they’re too big for UPS power strips). Sure, they’re cheap. And you keep buying more and bigger drives. Some of us replace the drives inside the cases with larger drives as we need to, saving a precious buck or two. But it gets confusing. Which file is where, and just how many duplicates do we have of what, where?

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Monday, June 01, 2009

I almost lost my head. Literally!

Tony Donaldson | 06/01- 05:02 PM

The video shows how I ducked just in time!

I’ve been hit a few times while shooting extreme sports. Some have knocked me on my butt, some have ruined cameras. I used to joke that my middle name is “Impact Damage” (term from Nikon repair) and the truth is that I’ve broken more cameras than most photographers will ever own. This particular story is no exception.

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Monday, June 01, 2009

Wedging my head between a rock and a hard place

Tony Donaldson | 06/01- 01:31 PM

That hard place was another rock!

Getting the shot you want isn’t always easy. I’m working on a few war stories to illustrate that, including this one. I wanted to create an unusual image for a client highlighting their product. I had one of their sponsored, professional riders at my disposal. But not just any rider, this guy is the world champion downhill mountain bike racer.

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Monday, March 23, 2009

Podcasts

Tony Donaldson | 03/23- 03:15 PM

Here are a few of my favorite photo podcasts out of all of the good and bad out there.

I drive a lot. A LOT. Often on my way to shoots, meetings, the airport. I keep a TON of good podcasts on my iPod, many are photo-related. Some have video or embedded images, some are just great interviews. These are all available on iTunes, free of charge. Many can also be downloaded from other sites, but my preference is iTunes. It automatically downloads the new episodes when available, and syncs them with my iPod.

Here are some great podcasts to keep you inspired and always learning:

Adobe ® Photoshop® Lightroom™ - Not just information about Lightroom, but interviews with some of the greats. Gregory Heisler, Pete Turner, Jeff Schewe, Steve McCurry, Jay Maisel, tons more.

The Candid Frame: A Photography Podcast - Ibarionex Perello interviews often lesser-known and fascinating photographers, as well as some well-known ones.

Creative Lube - Leslie Burns-Dell’aqua’s podcast on creativity and marketing.

Dekepod - Deke McClelland’s podcast on all things digital imaging. Deke is ALWAYS entertaining, ALWAYS informative. Great tips with video.

Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor - Chris Marquardt’s podcast on all things photography. It’s heavily skewed toward beginners, but he’s a fantastic teacher and very entertaining, often interviewing interesting experts (ok, I’ve been interviewed twice, so I had to say that!) and giving tips that even seasoned shooters can learn from. This was one of the first podcasts, and Chris and his guests have introduced me to other podcasts along the way.

History of Photography podcasts - Jeff Curto, a professor of Photography at the College of Dupage, records his class each week and the podcasts include the images he’s discussing from pre-Niepce to present day and the relevence of all of it. It’s like getting a free semester of his class. I’ve repeated it a couple of times, he sometimes adds something new.

Jeff Curto’s Camera Position - Again, Jeff Curto, this time talking about the why of photography through his own eyes and experiences.

Lightsource Studio Photography Podcast - mostly amateur stuff, but they do talk to industry heavy-hitters from manufacturers like Phil Bradon from MAC/Pocketwizard to working shooters like Michael Grecco.

Photoshop User TV - News and tips of all things Photoshop, in a video format.

The Russell Brown Show - If you like tips from Russell Brown like I do, free videos to watch any time is a good thing.

I do also subscribe to a variety of others on a large variety of topics, but these are the core photography podcasts that keep me juiced and creative. If you know of other good ones, send them along!

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