I always hear about summer reading lists, rarely a winter reading list, or spring or fall reading lists...  But if you're reading this blog, then you are more than likely interested in photography.  So you'll probably be interested in some good books to read on the topic.

Try out David Shonauer's (of American Photo Magazine - a great read which I subscribe to) Summer Reading ideas.  He's set to read his favorite book on photography - Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art.  Sounds like a good book - one I'm going to check the local library for tonight.

But before David reveals that book, he mentions a few others that may also be of interest.  Hopefully there are a few there to keep you busy during the warm months.  Got suggestions?  I'd love to hear your favorites on the topic of Photography. 

I currently tend to lean towards a great collection of images on a certain topic, or by a certain photographer.  But the occasional history, or educational book is always a refreshing change as well.  So let's hear your suggestions.

Over a month ago I began rounding-up links for great tips on photographing fireworks.  But I felt it was too soon and would get lost in the mix, had I posted it then.  So with the Independence Day Celebration just 6 days away, I think it's a good time.  (Thanks to whomever put a Digg article up on the same topic as a reminder to me!)

The New York Institute of Photography has 3 great pieces on the topic, so I'd start there.  They do a good job of covering all the different points, so you could probably end with them.
- Photographing Fireworks
- Photographing Fireworks with Digital Cameras
- Photographing Fireworks in the Back Yard

Here are a few responses from a mailing list, on how a couple individuals have found goo results.

A nice collection of basics to shooting.  Lots of good info, but not a long read. 

Inexact Recommendations for an Inexact Shooting Situation

And if you just want a quick & dirty rundown, Kodak has you covered.

All of these links more or less cover the same points, but there tend to be little bits here and there that made each valuable (in my opinion).  So skim through them, or just choose one.  You should get a good handle on things for your next Fireworks show photographs.

I've personally only attempted the backyard sort of shots, but hope to get some good big firework shots this coming holiday weekend.  Please feel free to post any other tips you may have.  And also, please share your fireworks shots in our QJ Photography Flickr Pool!

In a move that I'm not terribly excited about, Microsoft has bought iView, the makers of the extremely excellent photo and media management software, Media Pro (3).  While the application is available for both OSX and Windows, it was conceived on the Apple platform.  As a Mac user, I'm skeptical about the future support for my preferred platform - despite the assurances that it won't be going away:
"The product that was born on the Mac will remain on the Mac as well as on the Windows operating system. All iView products will continue to be sold on the iView website and through our partners and channel. Bottom line: You all can continue to use and buy iView products knowing that they will be fully supported as Microsoft evolves the products in the future on both the Windows and Mac platforms."

Hmmm, Well I'll try to be optimistic and hope it'll only become a stronger and better product under Microsoft's tenure.  But their track record - at least with Vista - isn't instilling much confidence.

Sound off, let's hear your thoughts about the iView/Microsoft deal.

Adobe/Macromedia have been hard at work on Lightroom for a few months now.  If you're hearing about this app for the first time, Lightroom is a RAW photo processing and organization tool for photographers.  As of now, it's only available for the Apple crowd (a direct challenge to Apple's Aperture?) but a Windows version is planned at some point in the future.

I used the initial release (Beta 1) for a week or so, but deleted it shortly after.  It was taxing the processor on my 1.5ghz G4 PowerBook something fierce, and I didn't feel the need to continue with it.  The interface and tools were all nicely thought out, and the app (other than the cpu-intensive issue - seemed pretty nice.  Given that it's up to Beta 3 now, it may be time for me to give it another spin.

The Beta 3 release notes offer wider RAW format support, Before and After views, Edit History, Keyword import/export, and more.  Lightroom has been a Universal (PPC and Intel friendly) application since Beta 2.

If you're a Lightroom fan, please share your experiences with us.  I'd love to hear what you like, or don't like about it.  If you've got any comparisons to Adobe's Camera Raw, I'd be interested to hear those too.

Alright, maybe it won't get you to the 'top', but cropping can help you get a lot more out of your photos.  Yet another great website for digital photography education, Digital Photography School offers some excellent tips on cropping your mediocre shots to turn them into extraordinary shots.

Many times as we take photographs, we see something that we really like.  Then we download (or develop) the images to see what the result was.  Often (for me at least) the element I was shooting is there, but the full frame that I captured isn't doing the subject justice.  Digital Photography School's lesson will show you some great tips for situations such as these. 
- Zoom a crop in, and remove distractions from the frame
- Experiment with different cropping formats
- Change the photo altogether by cropping out what may have been the initial subject.

There are also some things to keep in mind when you get crop-happy:
- Always use a backup copy so you don't lose the original shot
- Cropping in different formats will obviously make printing standard sizes out of the question
- Play around and see what sort of crop will work best, the possibilities are nearly endless.

It's best to always try for the perfect shot from your camera, but when those intentions don't work out, bust out the crop option and see what happens.  Less is more, ya know?

Ok, so I think I've mentioned before that I'm all about creativity in photography.  There are so many of the same shots - sunsets, macro shots of leaves, beaches, etc, etc - (and I'm as guilty as the next guy or girl) that it's always refreshing to see something new and thoughtfully put together.  It's sort of like the 'think before you speak' lesson parents always try to impart on their kids - but in this case, it's 'think before you shoot'. 

Anyhow, Carlos Villela posted 3 hilariously creative photos entitled, "College Fight".  It's a throwback to the days of the Street Fighter video games.  The catch is that they used a chalkboard to re-enact the fighting.  Real people, drawn-out violence.  You just have to go take a look to get the idea.  I love it.

In a never ending search for great resources on Digital Photography, I recently came across this one: The Digital Picture.  Now I'm a Canon guy, and it slants that way, so it suits my 'lifestyle'.  If you're from the Nikon camp, you might like to check out Nikonians. 

There's a great section with detailed reviews on just about every lens you could imagine (for a Canon SLR body).  Their reviews and ratings track very closely with preferences and suggestions that pro photographer friends of mine have made.  So I'll assume they're pretty spot-on here.

You can also find some nice tips for shooting, and understanding what your camera is actually doing.  All in all it's a very nice collection of information about Digital Photography.  Whether you're Canon or not, it's worth a peek and a read.

I've always believed that a smart person is someone who recognizes what they don't know.  That said, I must be a genius with all the stuff I don't know...  But I digress.

Khoi Vinh (of the blog, Subtraction) recently wrote about his experience with his Nikon D70.  He's had it for a year, and hasn't gotten from it what he'd hoped.  So he looked around and found a class that would help him improve a bit.  He ended up choosing a NYU course offering, Digital Photography Shooting Workshop.  Probably a good choice, as it's led by Joseph O. Holmes of Joe's NYC PhotoBlog.  I've personally followed the Joe's NYC PhotoBlog for a while, and it always leaves me yearning to head back to New York.  He clearly knows what he's doing.

So Khoi recaps his first week of the class (it's about a month long) for us.  They spent a Saturday afternoon wandering The City, listening to instruction and what not from Joe, finding shots, and I'd imagine, having a great time of it.  The follow-up class was Wednesday, where they each had to select 5 shots from their photo safari.  The 5 shots had to be completely unaltered, and would then be shared with the class. 

Khoi goes on to explain his thoughts on what he chose as his 5, and what he's hoping to take away from the class.  I'm really into the thought process that goes into a shot.  When it's more than just pointing and shooting at something that looks cool, but a composition, it really shows through in the result.  I'm sure Khoi's going to get there, if he hasn't already. 

I'll have to look into a similar class here in Denver.  It's no NYC, but that's not the point I suppose.

In case you haven't heard, QJ Photography has a Flickr group! We're gaining members slowly, so why don't you join and tell all your friends? For now, get your shots into The group pool and you may be picked as the Shot of the Week. Lots of glory and prestige come along with this honor of course...

With relatively few shots in the pool thus far, I'm inclined not to pick runners-up shots (as they could always make it in following weeks), but I'm inclined to this week, as for me, it was so close. First, the runner-up shot.

Little Church, by Kruggg6:

The stark contrast was nice and makes for an interesting shot with lots of lines and angles. A slight crop (mainly on the right) would have done it for me, to make things completely symmetrical, but it's still a neat photo. In fact, read in the comments - one flickr user played in photoshop, and lightened the image, to find there was A LOT more detail hiding there. Love the hidden stuff!

Ok, the Shot of the Week! A 30 Second Blink, by Kashmir Szekeres:

You've seen this shot before, right? Sort of. How often have you seen this shot in daylight? Exactly. Kasimir leaves a comment describing his technique for this 30 second day time capture:

"A welding glass, this makes the picture all green but when correcting the RAW file's white-balance the colours come back pretty good."

I'm always looking for some new and interesting technique, and this one definitely fits the bill. Love the creativity Kasimir! Thanks for sharing the shot, the idea, and the how-to. Thanks to everyone who's been submitting photos to the pool. It's fun to see the variation in submissions. Keep them coming!

So apparently there are consequences for those who take photos that look too good.  Yahoo & Target have teamed up to provide online uploads of digital photos and print them out for customers - with the option of in store pick up vs snail mail.  (This is actually the service that flickr uses for allowing members to print their images out.)  There are numerous services such as this one, available all over the internet. 

Well Target - along with most others, I'd assume - decided to hold one woman's photos and not sell them to her.  The reason?  She didn't have a copyright release for them.  Why didn't she have a copyright release?  They were her pictures!!!   She was even in one of the shots.  But no matter.

I can understand corporations attempting to protect themselves from legal action by true copyright holders, but this seems a bit extreme.  Digital cameras, in the hands of many an aspiring photog have been yielding amazing results in recent years.  Apparently as we get better and better, we may have to resort to printing our own at home, and being bitten by ridiculous ink costs, instead of the economical and simple process of using a professional printing shop.