Mathew leaves comments on the blog, shares his work with our Flickr group, and send out links and likes for us all over social media.
And not once has he emailed us to "take credit" for everything he does to help make Weekly Photo Tips what it is, I just happened to find out when I ran a traffic report and saw just how many visitors were coming to see us because of his efforts.
To say thank you, we are giving Mathew a one year "plus" membership to 500px.com.
So Mathew, get in touch with me so we can get you your prize... and seriously man, thank you.
And today's post will be even less organized than usually, just some thoughts and ideas with one theme, veterans and Veterans Day.
First, This is the first Veterans Day that does not have a single living veteran from World War I.
Second, we can actually blame the delay on announcing our latest contest winners on Veterans Day. On Friday I had been invited to lunch by James, a third grader who lives next door, it was the first ever "invite a veteran to lunch" day at his school and he invited me to attend.
I was under the understanding that it was a 30 minute lunch, it turned out to be MUCH more. First we had lunch, then went back to the classroom of the person who invited us (participating in some fun activities), and then ended the day with an assembly that honored us with poems, essays written by the students, then topped it off with a few patriotic songs.
So my Friday plans were pretty much tossed out the window, it I couldn't have been happier.
Third, my time in the military was important to me, though I wouldn't do it again for a million dollars, I wouldn't trade those memories for anything. I have written about that time on more than one occasion, you can find some of those posts, here, here, here, and the most important on (to me) here.
Fourth, there are soooooo many restaurants offering free appetizers and meals for active, retired, and discharged military personnel, you can get the complete list over at "The Military Wallet".
Fifth, a big thanks to all you fine people who took a minute to send me a Veterans Day email, it was extremely thoughtful, and so greatly appreciated.
Lastly, though I had put this together for Memorial Day a few years back, I want to include it here today because as far as I am concerned, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, who have "gone on ahead", cannot be honored enough.
The first men featured are "The Lanni Brothers", they are my uncles who were first generation Americans and could not have been prouder to serve their counry.
If you are having trouble viewing this, or would like to view it larger, simply follow this link.
Yup, our latest contest was supposed to end yesterday (11/9) but it has been extended just a few days and the winners will be announced on Tuesday (11/13).
So it's not too late to check out the contest details (including the very cool prizes), then upload your images to our Flickr group.
We have been talking about Facebook Timeline Covers for a couple weeks and have promised you some resources and a video tutorial, so here it (they) are.
Second, resources that will walk you through making a Timeline Cover online:
There are a few options, but the big kahuna, the top dog when it comes to an online resource for making your own Timeline Cover it's the Timeline Slicer App.
Fourth, these are resources that don't quite fit in the first three:
If you are interested in creating a Timeline Cover from scratch, head over to Blog Technics, there you will find every dimensional aspect and size requirements known to man for Timeline Covers, they even have a "bare bones" template for you to download.
I wanted to share some images from one of our latest engagement/save the date photo shoots.
The odd thing (for me) about this shoot is not that Kara is my next door neighbor, it's that I've known her since she was (about) 5 years old and it's hard for me to grasp that she is now a grown woman, has graduated from collage, and is about to join the institution of married people.
You may recognize the shooting style of these first two images, it is similar (in style) to the images from our post "Shooting into the Sun".
Shading the sun from my lens:
Letting the sun hit the lens:
It's a technique so easy to do, can give you a dramatically different look, and I find that clients really like it.
Here is a mistake I had actually made plans to avoid before the shoot took place, but I made the mistake anyway, though it was a "save the date" shoot I knew there would be images they'd want to keep/share without all the date stuff included.
As soon as I took this shot I thought to myself "crap, they are going to like this shot" and sure enough, shortly after seeing their gallery I got a text wanting to know if I could take out the date out of the shot.
So I did, and though it's not the greatest Photoshop work I have ever done, people who haven't seen the image with the date in it picked up on the fact that I "Photoshopped" it.
Learn from my mistake, take the shot, then add date specific touches and take the shot a second time.
How does it go, "get it right in camera"?
:)
These are my two favorite images from the shoot.
Click on any of these images to view larger.
And yes, some of them may look familiar to you, a few of them were in our post last week about creating "Custom Facebook Timeline Covers".
Be sure to come back tomorrow for a video tutorial that will walk you through making your own custom Facebook covers.
Kevin Kubota has come out with his new Action DASHBOARD 4 for Photoshop and he is giving it away for free! It comes with 50 free Kubota Imaging Photoshop actions, adding other action packs is optional but not necessary or a requirement to keep Action DASHBOARD 4 for free forever.
Canon has announced some new gear today, it is not yet shipping but is available for pre-ordering. Click on any of the links below to visit the product page.
You will get an instant $200 rebate on the Canon EOS Rebel T4i Digital SLR Kit that comes with a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens and a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens - the final price for this body and 2 lens kit is $999.
