I am a huge fan of my Westcott Spiderlite TD-5 studio lights with their nice soft output, low energy use, and cool operation. While they have always been great for product photography I never really liked using them for portraits because they just didn’t put out enough light. Westcott has released some new high wattage bulbs for the TD-5′s to address the needs of these types of situations.

Canon U.S.A. has revamped its Canon Professional Services (CPS) program. The changes they have made provide the full-time professional photographer, depending on membership level, valuable benefits and services. They have updated the application process and moved it solely on-line to make it easier for full-time professional photographers to become members.

South Burlington, VT — Through-the-shoe communications allow PocketWizard radios, with version 4.250 ControlTL firmware, to significantly boost the performance of the High Speed Sync (HSS) feature of Canon Speedlite flashes. This means more light (which equals greater working distance), faster recycling times and more flashes per battery set when shooting in Canon’s HSS/FP Flash mode.

Firmware Version 1.0.6 incorporates the following improvements and fixes.

1. Supports the AF assist beam feature of the new flash, Speedlite 270 EX, which is scheduled to be released in April 2009.
2. Changes the error indications that are displayed on the camera.
3. Addresses the vertical banding noise phenomenon.

Continue reading for more info.

We are very excited to announce the release of our new preset pack for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom called Dojo Monochrome Tools. This new set is designed to cover most of your B&W and Monochrome needs. With 27 different presets to choose from, you are sure to find one that you really like. Several of them are based on the Black and White filters available on Photoshop CS4.

Just a quick note to everyone letting you know we are running late getting this week’s podcast up. We had a few scheduling issues with potential guests and then I had to go out of town for a few days. We will have a new podcast up in a few days announcing the winners of recent contests. Stay tuned!

Canon’s new EOS Rebel T1i is packed with features, both refined and new. In addition to its admirable performance with an all-new 15.1 Megapixel Canon CMOS sensor, DIGIC 4 Image Processor, a 3.0-inch Clear View LCD with anti-reflective and scratch-resistant coating, and compatibility with the EOS System of lenses and Speedlites, the EOS Rebel T1i adds remarkable Full HD video capture at resolutions up to 1920 x 1080.

On this third (and final) part of my intervew on Aaron Dieppa’s The Big Picture, we discuss the different Dojo Lightroom presets that I developed for photographers and were I see Camera Dojo going over the next year. We also discuss issues that people have with lighting and making lighting look more natural.

In this episode, Kerry and Aaron discuss the current trend of “transparency” and putting yourself “out there” and how this is changing how we communicate with our clients and our peers. This is a very interesting discussion. For more of Aaron’s The Big Picture video blog, go visit http://aarondieppa.com.

For those of you who haven’t heard about Aaron Dieppa, he is an Orange County photographer who came up with an insane idea to try to do a daily video blog for an entire year. To say that he has taken on quite a challenge is an understatement but he has been doing a great job so far. Be sure and check out The Big Picture at http://www.aarondieppa.com for all the back espisodes. This week however, I am thrilled that Aaron asked me to be a guest on the show and we talked for quite a while about Camera Dojo and the industry, so much so that he needed to break it up into three shows.

We kick off PMA 2009 with a little video montage and an interview with Trek-Tech (http://trek-tech.com). PMA is the largest photography trade show in the US and happens once a year. This year the show is in Las Vegas, NV and is quite huge! While you have the big companies like Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc showing their current product lines, you also have tons of smaller companies with innovating products that are looking for distributors or retail stores to carry their products.

ExposureManager (www.exposuremanager.com), a customizable full-service online sales resource for photographers, announces a new Premium Subscription service created to help increase print and merchandise sales for photographers. ExposureManager’s behind-the-scenes marketing support provides a convenient e-commerce solution for busy photographers through every step from order placement to print production and shipping of the final product.