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Moore Consulting Photography

Apple Certified Pro in Aperture

Last week I went to all4DVD in Orange County south of LA for a 2-day training course in Apple’s Aperture. And when the training was over I took the certification test, and passed. So I’m delighted to say I’m now an Apple Certified Pro Level 1 in Aperture.

The course, taught by Aperture Master Trainer Victor Maldonaldo, was pretty intense — it’s been a long time since I spent 2 days solid doing one thing in front of a computer, let alone trying to absorb all the information and instructions coming at me.

I did the training and certification for two reasons. Firstly, to improve my own skills in the application I use all the time for managing and adjusting my own photographs. There are so many valuable tools and tricks in Aperture, that I almost never go back out to Photoshop to work with my images. Even though I’d been using the application for over a year, the training filled out my knowledge and gave me more comfort in all the features.

The second reason is that I’m now able to help other photographers (professional or serious amateurs) with Aperture. Setting up a good workflow, or just learning how to get the most out of the adjustment options can take a long time, and I’d be delighted to offer some advice and guidance.

So if you’re in Santa Fe or Northern New Mexico, give me a shout.

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Reviews

Lens review: Canon 28mm f/1.8 USM

41AJ4YRZ1FL._SL500_AA280_.jpg Once you start appreciating how good prime lenses can be, a zoom will be a useful option but lacking some great simplicity and appeal. So it was I came to buy a new grey market copy of this lens – the Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM – on e-Bay for a good price, when I should have been saving for a mid-range zoom. Tests report some vignetting and chromatic abberation issues, and at around $420 it’s not cheap – but I love it.

Back to the 50mm way of seeing

On my cropped Rebel XT, the classic 50mm prime turns into a useful but tall 80mm portrait lens.

This is particularly noticeable indoors, where you find yourself backing up against a wall to fit in a headshot of two people standing next to each other. The solution: a 28mm prime that equates to nearly a 45mm lens on my camera body.

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Reviews

Lens review: Canon 28-105mm USM II

51Y5EXYJP9L._SL500_AA280_.jpg

Life through a lens

I have a soft spot for this lens – the Canon 28-105mm f/3.5-4 USM (a bargain at $230), even though I no longer own it.

It was given to me by my mother-in-law when she upgraded her film SLR to digital, and it was partly responsible for reviving my interest in photography.

So, for that, I’ll always owe it a lot.

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Links

Canon announces new Rebel XS – entry-level DSLR

My Rebel XT is getting longer and longer in the tooth. First was the XTi, then the XSi and now the XS.

Pop Photo’s hands-on gives us a good overview, and it’s great to see a new entry-level SLR on the cards, rather than the bottom of the range camera being a higher-level one from a couple of years ago.

The live view feature will help people coming from point and shoots, but I’m not sure how much I’d use it – if the camera’s away from my face it’s normally because it’s in a place where live view wouldn’t help me much anyway (above my head, on the ground . . . ).

US pricing’s not released yet, but it’s sure to come in under the XTi’s $685-ish with the 18-55mm IS kit lens.

If you’re already got a DSLR, it’d be a sideways move at best (unless it’s an original Rebel you’ve got), but it looks like a great deal for those starting out.

Definitely the drug-dealer approach – start you out on a relatively affordable package that’ll still repay some effort, and before you know it you’re down the expensive road towards L-lenses. I should know – it happened to me.

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Personal

Vote David!

b-w-contest.jpgI’m happy to announce that I’ve been chosen as a finalist in the Radio Free Santa Fe/O’Keeffe Museum Landscape Photography of New Mexico contest.

To tie in with the “Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities” exhibition running at the O’Keeffe at the moment, the contest (open to professionals and amateurs) is for black and white New Mexico landscape photography.

The ten finalists’ pictures (including mine) are currently on display at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Education Annex.

Democracy in action

The grand prize winner will be decided by the visitors to the Radio Free Santa Fe site – free registration is required to vote.

So head over to check out the finalists (at least 6 of them are from pro photographers), and if you’d like to vote for my entry, that’d be great.

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Links Personal

In the Railyard – new JPG story up

A couple of weekends ago I went wandering around the railyard one Saturday morning. Much fun.

I sorted a few pics out, and now they’re up on JPG. Swing by and take a look:

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Links Tips/Tutorials

Photoshelter plug-in for Aperture

Great news for Photoshelter photographers who use Aperture (like me) – there’s now a Photoshelter plug-in for Aperture.I’ve just installed it and sent my first pics to Photoshelter Collection (although there’s also an option for Photoshelter Personal Archive users), and all went well.This will make life a lot more straightforward for a lot of us. Roll on the rights-managed worldwide poster campaign sale of one of my images!

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Links

The future for local camera stores

Thomas Hawk and Jason Burn have some harsh but fair things to say about local camera stores. Here’s Thomas:

Well, I’m bound to make a few enemies with this one, but I just finished reading Jason Burn’s post on a bad experience he had with his local camera retailer and have to agree that your local camera store is increasingly becoming a bad place to buy camera gear.

I often wonder about what the future holds for the camera stores in here Santa Fe. There are a lot of tourists and a lot of pro photographers in town (and lots more semi-pro and committed amateurs), and more than one camera store.You’d think competition and a local market with some high-end requirements might make the stores responsive and on their games.

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Personal Tips/Tutorials

Room with a view

A river runs through itIt might not sound like much fun, but there’s a bunch of people ignoring the in-flight movie and taking photos out of the window of planes.

On our (delayed) way back from Chicago to Albuquerque a few weeks ago, I realised I had my camera and lenses at my feet, and gave it a go.

Here are a couple of the results, which I have to say I like, but I realised I just scratched the surface of this topic.

Alexis Gerard has a good introduction in JPG magazine, and there’s (of course) more than one Flickr group devoted to the subject.

You’ll no doubt have to do some post-processing to counter the haze and shooting through the greasy window (or take a more abstract approach instead), but you can really get some interesting images.

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Moore Consulting Photography Santa Fe and New Mexico Santa Fe Reporter

Published in Santa Fe Reporter

The Santa Fe Reporter publishes a large glossy Annual Manual around this time of year — giving locals and visitors lots of useful information and insight into Santa Fe.

And this year, they used 2 of my photos in the publication.

They (very cleverly) organized a photo contest asking for shots of real life in Santa Fe, and chose the best ones to illustrate the Manual.

The runners up (like me) get exposure, and the one top winner gets that and a nice prize, too.

And the Reporter get lots of good shots for their publication.

My shot, ‘All in a Row’, was used to illustrate a piece on Santa Fe architecture.

‘Don Diego and his posse’ (above) accompanied a piece on the Fiestas we celebrate here in the Fall.

Result all round, I’d say.

And a tip of the hat to Marci, for persuading me to enter.