My next photo workshop is at a working cattle ranch near Big Timber, Montana July 22-28.

Details at http://www.BigTimberPhotoAdventures.com/

Today on the Design Milk blog I came across this amazingly beautiful system for designing lighting installations. As an artist and designer, I find this truly inspiring!

The Bocci web site is here

Ilford Galerie Gold Fibre Silk is one of my favorite fine art photo papers of all time. Now Ilford is offering a 20% rebate on this and other Galerie papers through Dec 31. Details are here

Importing photos is one of the most crucial steps for working with your photos in Lightroom. And for too many photographers it’s also one of the most confusing and frustrating aspects of using Lightroom. Whether you are new to Lightroom or are a more advanced user, mastering your Import workflows is essential.

I’ve put together a two-part miniseries that describes the most important points of the Import process and how Lightroom helps you manage your files through the catalog. Click the links below to read the articles, published on Photofocus:

Part 1 – About Lightroom Catalogs

Part 2 – Importing and Organizing Your Photos

There’s lots more about Importing photos (and all other Lightroom topics) in my Lightroom 3 book.

For the past several years I’ve used Adobe’s DNG file format to store the raw image data captured by my digital cameras. I convert my Canon CR2 raw files to DNG early in my workflow and don’t keep the original raw captures. I’ve had great success with a DNG workflow and since DNG files contains the original raw image data, I’ve seen no need to retain the native files.

In every class and workshop I teach, the subject of DNG inevitably comes up. There’s a lot of confusion and uncertainty about DNG. So when researching subject matter for my next book, I thought I’d polish up my knowledge of this essential image file format.

In doing so, I reached out to one of today’s leading imaging software developers, Eric Chan, Senior Computer Scientist at Adobe. Following is a [very minimally edited] transcript of our email conversation. Read more…

Focus blending refers to the practice of bracketing images with different points of focus and then blending them to achieve super-depth-of-field. A few weeks ago I wrote an article for Photofocus introducing the concept. It’s had great response so I thought I would also post the link here on my blog. You can read the article here.

This holiday season, B&H Photo is offering special sale pricing on a range of photo, video and computer gear. I buy from B&H all the time and they have never let me down! Click here to shop.

The Adobe online store is currently offering great deals on purchases of Lightroom, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (and more!) through November 29. Visit the Adobe web site for details and to purchase.

While exploring Warsaw last spring, I came upon this lovely old woman knitting on the sidewalk. She has the most amazing face! (click for larger image)

Buy a brand new calendar for 2012 featuring beautiful photography from around the world!

Choose from three themes: Italy, Desert Southwest and World of Water. All photography by professional photographer Nat Coalson.

Calendars are professionally printed and shipped by CafePress. Available now for only $34.99 plus shipping (and tax if applicable)

Click here for full product details and to place your order.

My next Lightroom class is Level 2: Intermediate, in Denver on Saturday, October 15. Details at www.LightroomClasses.com

For photographers, working with a properly calibrated and profiled display is by far the most important factor in maintaining accurate color. You need to be able to trust what you see on the screen!

For many years I’ve been using and recommending the line of color management products from X-Rite. (And frankly, you don’t need to look at any other brands for color management …)

X-Rite has been announcing many new and updated products over the past several months. Of particular interest to photographers are the brand new ColorMunki Display and i1Display Pro, both of which are getting rave reviews.

More exciting is the fact that X-Rite is offering rebates when you trade in your old profiling solution. Details on the trade-in program are here.

I’m trading in my trusty old i1Display 2 for the i1Display Pro. If you’re a photographer, I strongly recommend you consider the excellent new monitor profiling solutions from X-Rite as well.

When you’re ready to buy, you can use these links to purchase at B&H:

i1Display Pro

ColorMunki Display

B&H Photo is offering some great deals on a variety of SanDisk memory cards for digital cameras. For details and online ordering click here.

I’m pleased to announce that my photography will be featured in a solo exhibition at the Denver Photo Art Gallery in the Arts District on Santa Fe. The show runs July 1 to August 25.

The exhibition is titled An Intimate Look at Nature and includes 15 photographs selected from my close-up nature collections, presented as large prints with contemporary finishes.

My artist statement for the show: “Nature is all around us, but much of its beauty goes unnoticed. Subtle textures, patterns, colors and shapes beg for a closer look. These photographs invite you to contemplate the simple yet sophisticated beauty of the natural world, and will impart peace and tranquility to your surroundings.”

The signature image for the show, titled Flow III (above right), is presented as a 40×40-inch fine art print on canvas. The image depicts the shallow water of a mountain stream, flowing over brightly colored pebbles. As a large print, this photo has great impact and fine detail.

Please join us for the opening reception Friday night, July 1. Additional openings are scheduled First Fridays and Third Fridays through July and August. All work is available for purchase during the receptions and regular business hours, or by appointment other times.

I’m excited and honored for the opportunity to show my photographic art in one of Denver’s premier galleries for photography.

Denver Photo Art Gallery
833 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, CO 80204
303.744.7979

For more info about the exhibition and gallery please visit www.DenverPhotoArt.com

Click to enlarge

This photo was submitted by Dan Gerth.

I have to say up front that I really like this photograph. And the title really brings it all together.

What I like: clean, simple composition with strong graphics and a very well established center of interest. Really nice color harmony, with warm and cool tones interacting in a very dynamic way. The juxtaposition of the kids’ lemonade stand against the “big brother” of the higher-end store is very appealing. This photo has a great story, and loads of character.

What doesn’t work for me: although the shadows are deep and dark and should be, they are actually quite plugged up, with some posterization around their boundaries. In these transition areas, color noise is very evident. I’d like to see some smoother transitions here. Also, there appears to be some chromatic aberration visible in the lines of the shingles on the front of the building.

This is a wonderfully expressive image, made under difficult shooting conditions. With a little technical refinement this can be an excellent image.

Thanks, Dan, for submitting your photo… really nicely done!