Kerry talks to Jim Divitale about using speciality lenses like the Lensbaby Composer in commercial shoots. Jim talks about how to tell clients about the effects, how to prepare for a shoot, and the comparision between the effect of of a Lensbaby versus a Tlt-Shift and 4×5 View camera.

During a wedding shoot one day I noticed that my flash was only firing occasionally. After the initial panic, I quickly figured out that if I held the flash with a little counter-clockwise tension, then the flash worked fine. At the first break, I tried my backup camera and it was doing the same thing. When I got home, I checked it against my daughter’s 20D and it worked fine, and it also seemed that the hot shoe on my cameras was loose compared to hers.Another symptom of this is that the flash will switch from E-TTL mode into TTL mode and the exposure will usually be very overexposed.

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.

I have always been a proponent of keeping my cameras looking brand new. A big piece of keeping your camera new is protecting the screens. This has been an age-old issue that affects all modern, digital cameras from point and shoots to professional SLRs. With typical protectors seeming overprices at $10 to $15 for a piece of plastic film smaller than the palm of your hand, why would you spend quite a bit more than that for the Giottos Camera Screen Protectors? We needed to try these out and see if they were worth the extra cost.

In the beginning there was the original Lensbaby lens, a simple bellows system with push-pull focus and left/right and up/down sweet spot selection. Then came the Lensbaby 3G that allowed you to fine tune the sweet spot after locking it down so that you can easily repeat the same shot and settings.

Now, the Lensbaby Composer promises a lens that is easier to use, better control over focusing, and a selection of different optic inserts to give you a variety of different effects.

I have mentioned David Ziser’s upcoming seminar series several times and I will continue to until it is over as it is going to be the one big not-to-miss seminar this year. David is an expert on lighting and technique and presents these topics in very easy to understand ways so that you can go back and start implementing them immediately.

Kerry and Sam from Lensbaby talk about the Composer and all of the accessories that are available for it including the just announced super wide angle lens. If you are looking at getting a Lensbaby Composer, then check out our Camera Dojo special offer. For more information about Lensbaby lenses and optics, please visit them at Lensbaby.com.

Las Vegas, NV (PMA Booth #U221) – March 3, 2009 – Nik Software announces today that Viveza, its popular digital photographic plug-in filter is now available for Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 and higher. The update is free to current owners of Viveza.

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.

Las Vegas – VANGUARD, one the global leader’ in high-quality photography accessories, today introduced Alta Pro, the world’s most innovative tripod with advanced flexibility and stability, at the Photo Marketing Association conference, PMA 09, in Las Vegas.

Unlike traditional tripods, Alta Pro’s Multi-Angle Central Column (MACC) System allows users to move the central column as needed from zero to
130-degree angles in variable vertical and horizontal positions. This allows more angle possibilities than any tripod on the market but its solid design…