Inspiring Photographers
So at midnight, on August 15th, I flipped the switch and now Seshu Photography is live. Go check it out, explore the site and let me know there or here what you think. Many more images and galleries will be added in the days and weeks to come.
I am very excited about how this new web site will take me into a new direction and in some ways be my tryst with destiny.
Please help me spread the word about Seshu Photography, to all your friends and family.
Batch processing images in Photoshop will save you gobs of your time. Trust me on this.
2point8: “A wide-open view on the practice of street photography by Michael David Murphy.”
ScreenCastsOnline video tutorials that are rich in content
Tim Solley has 9 Ways To Make Your Portrait Subjects Look Thinner and 10 Tips For Better Portraits
I now read the International Herald Tribune online [yeah late to the game, so please don't flame me for it]
If you are using TypePad [and why wouldn't you?] for your blogging habit, you may want to check out TypePad Hacks a terrific array of services [yo, nothing is free] to customize your TypePad site.
Speaking of blogging, want to have your blog visitors rate your blog? I know there are a zillion services that will offer this option, but I am leaning towards Authorati, a service founded by Murali Narasimhan [ok, so to contradict myself, this is a free service]
ProBlogger has a newly designed site that I am digging quite a bit. Darren's erudite posts make him top dog in this market.
Human Planetary Impact In Pictures [this might make you sick as it should]
Puja Parakh, a digital media enthusiast and photographer based in Seattle
Utata, Tribal Photography [no, not what you think so more the reason for you to check it out] “Our goal is to become a semi-civil online tribe devoted to creating and promoting good art.”
Youth In Focus, a Seattle-based organization that “empower urban teens, through photography, to experience their world in new ways and make positive changes in their lives.”
Still Journal “is a weekly digest of accumulated links, tutorials, news, tricks, ideas and creativity on the culture and art of modern photography.”
The Shah brothers, Anup and Manoj, both exceptional photographers based in East Africa have a new website that you must check out. I absolutely love their work. Now to buy a print from them … ahhhh
Chai anyone? Bangladeshi photographer Ihtisham Kabir sent in a link to his series of portraits of tea plantation workers in Chaklapunji. Kabir's presentation is simple and clean and it should load very quickly in your browsers. The second frame in the series with a lotus flower erupting out of the child's head is my favorite for some reason.
Photodoto compares 8 lens rental stores
Flickr has a great new way to batch upload images into its service [Via Download Squad]
photobetty has many great portfolios of some of the best photojournalists in the world. As the name suggests, the site is a meeting point for women photographers but men interested in submitting work can do so if the content is “centered on female issues.”
EVE Photographers, “is, first of all, the result of a common aspiration: to mobilize each of its member’s photographic approach and interpretation of the world in order to provide an original and powerful series of work.”
Too busy to read books? What a shame. But the web comes to your rescue with Daily Lit where you can get 5-minute morsels from a variety of books. When you are done with your daily dose you can ask to have the next installment sent to you. Pretty cool and yes, this might just prompt me to buy an iPod.
Ok, this is geeky, but since we all blog (we do don't we?) this may be useful to you. I stumbled upon Texty via TechCrunch. Texty is an online service that produces code you can embed into your blog. So what, you say. Well, sometimes you want to get your HTML just right and inserting text and images can be tricky. This is where Texty comes in. It simplifies things. Give it a whirl. I am going to bookmark and use it.
Picture The Cure and PhotoCamp are two products of Canada that I hope can trickle down to the US and beyond.
Rob Galbraith reports that the 90-year old Nikon has overtaken Canon in sales. Ooopty dooo … I am still waiting to see a full-frame Nikon dSLR. Let's hear some news of that Nikon!
Bookmark Nikc La's Web Designer Wall which is a site full of trends, tutorials and talented people
Type The Sky
Ten Tips For Taking Great Pictures Of People
World In Focus, photo contest deadline is August 21, 2007. Get to it!
A Moment In Time [be smart and bookmark this link cuz these photogs from Canada know a thing or two about capturing great beauty, especially of couples. Their images of details is drool-worthy!]
Strive for layers, says Strobist
25 Ways To Distinguish Yourself, by Rajesh Setty
Aaron Johnson of What the Duck fame has published “What the Duck, Rule of Nerds,” a collection of all the comic strips from the first year.
Did you know that I have a profile on Facebook? If you do as well, let's link up [some rights reserved, of course].
Ira Glass on Storytelling Part 1 [thanks to Neil Cowley for the links]
Ira Glass on Storytelling Part 2
Ira Glass on Storytelling Part 3
Ira Glass on Storytelling Part 4
I recently uploaded a few new clips onto the Raghasmusic.com site. Full disclosure: Dr. Krishna Raghavendra is my father-in-law and an obvious genius at the veena, his chosen instrument.
He will be releasing two CDs very shortly; Meditation and Nee Da Ma Da. Check them out!
Going “green” is tough. We receive junk mail, use diapers that have a half-life of maybe a 20 years (speculating here), drive our cars half a block to pick up a gallon of milk that is in a plastic container we just toss back into the garbage.
Yuck!
Well, with another kid on the way, I have been thinking of doing a whole lot more recycling. But there is something else that I spend a great deal of time doing – staring at a screen and especially Google.com. According to Justine Ungaro, a fellow photographer, “If Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.”
So, check out Blackle. No jokes here. This is still the same old Google search engine doing its thang in the background. Pretty cool.
Blackle is finally the new black.
UPDATE: Apparently there is also another website called Ninja (all black and “deadly accurate” – get it) that does the same thing as Blackle. [Thanks to Tim Sanders for this tip in his latest blog post]
RapOuts is the social messaging platform for marketers. It is still in beta but you can request an activation code to get your message out. Rahim, one of the co-founders of RapOuts has given the Help Vinay campaign quite a boost in publicity by using the RapOuts mediaplayer
“MakingRoom is a magazine about the process, intention and results of image-making.”
Wes Anderson's move The Darjeeling Limited looks like it might be a good laugh
Learn to Sketchcast
Got $1200 burning in your pocket for a Photo Vu?
Sing with me, “it's a small world after all”
Google now has a search engine you can customize and track websites you visit often
John in Japan has some 48 photography tips for you
If you use Lightroom to edit and prepare your images, you may be interested in Lightroom Galleries
I hope all of you have Strobist bookmarked. It's a terrific website to learn flash photography (and on the cheap, too). I stumbled upon another site, Sublime Light, that has quite a few useful posts as well. Check it out.
DarkerVision has posted a very good review of two web sites, Deviant Art and ImageFind, that photographers and artists can use to sell their work
We can all use more Photoshop shortcuts, so here are 18 more
Rocky Nook has a great lineup of affordable photography how-to books
formatpixel is a Flash-based online tool that allows you to design and create documents; like QuarkXpress or InDesign
While I am a photographer, I don't forget that I am also in business. If the last few links have been dollar-centric, don't hold that against me. I think you can be an artist and be a businessman or woman. So here are a few more links that you may want to check out:
This is an indispensable tool when photographing children or some very goofy adults
Some very good Lightroom Tutorials
Digital Wedding Forum now has a free forum for those planning to launch a wedding & photography business. [I belong to the Pro forum where I pay $99/year]
I was asked to photograph my cousin Vinay and his wife Rashmi for a post-card campaign Team Vinay is about to launch. If you haven't been following along, Vinay is battling AML, a form of Leukemia. Even after several chemotherapy sessions, he needs a bone marrow match. Please visit HelpVinay.org to read about where you can register and potentially save lives; Vinay's and others like him.
Vinay could very easily be your brother, your husband, your father. As a South Asian it is infinitely more challenging to find a match, but it doesn't have to be that way if only more South Asians like you (yes you reading this blog post) will commit to registering yourselves in the national marrow donor database. I have called you all, and some of you have readily done so, to step up and register. It's quick and painless. So, please DO IT NOW.
Here are the images I shot of Vinay and Rashmi over the weekend. Which one would you pick for the post-card campaign? Make your choice and then leave a comment that others will appreciate. Thank you.
Worried someone is swiping your images from your website? Well, logic dictates that if your images are online and someone wants to “borrow” them, they can and probably will.
To an extent I don't have a problem with that. What? Stop the insanity, you say. I did say “to an extent” didn't I?
So here is the caveat: you can borrow my images and even use them on your site as long as my name or brand is prominently displayed on the image and never cropped or erased. If you want to spread some Seshu Spice, I am all for it.
The flip side of this is of course taking it off my site and calling them your own, promoting any product or defaming or libeling anyone present in the image. Tsk, tsk … as I read in one other visual artist's site, “It's tacky and illegal.” And, yeah, I will come after you like a ruffled bull elephant.
So, if you don't see a credit on the image, please don't take, swipe, steal, use, hijack, usurp any of my or anyone else's images. Just because it is available doesn't make it ethical for you to download them. Ask, if you are interested in the images. A short note to the artist will open doors faster than pissing her or him off.
Photographer David Riecks has this page showing a slew of image security options for people like you and me. Some can be easily implemented and some others require a monthly cash outflow. In the end, you have to decide whether to risk it or protect your investment, or in my case make it a win-win situation as long as the guidelines are adhered to by the user/borrower.
So, what do you do with your images? Do you register them with the copyright office? Or do you just don't care? Comment.