health: Here are 3 new articles from Aaron Hockley

الثلاثاء، 3 أبريل 2012

Here are 3 new articles from Aaron Hockley

7 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Using Instagram
Top Camera & Photo Bestsellers: April 2012
City Ridges

7 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Using Instagram

Posted: 03 Apr 2012 10:04 AM PDT

Instagram Icon I see that Instagram is now available for Android. As someone who was a late-comer to the Instagram thing (but who has now used it for almost a year), here’s what I wish I knew when I started:

Don’t Think of Instagram as Photo Hosting. Instagram ends up storing your photos, yes, but it’s not somewhere for a permanent archive, or to keep things you want to embed elsewhere. Instead, you should…
Think of Instagram as a Photo-Centric Social Network. Connect with interesting people. Comment on their photos. Like their photos. Share the love.
Follow creative people. If you follow interesting people who are making interesting images, you’ll find that Instagram is great. If you follow people who only post boring photos, you’re going to find that you don’t get much fun from Instagram. It’s much like any other social network.
Ignore the haters. Some will tell you that you’re doing photography wrong. You’re not.
Keep a permanent copy of your Instagram photos elsewhere. Maybe you want to upload them to your computer. Maybe you want to use an app on your photo to post them somewhere else online (I’m now keeping a copy of things in a SmugMug gallery). Maybe you want to use ifttt to automatically save a copy of your Instagram photos to Dropbox.
Find a local Instagram meetup and go meet some other local photography enthusiasts. Here in Portland, there’s a gathering about once each month. Do a search for Instagram meetup and your city in Google to find your local group. You will meet cool people and perhaps go on photowalks to create neat photos.
Use the News / Following feature to see what your connections are doing. If you’re following someone because you think they are a good photographer, odds are that they have good taste and can connect you to other people you might want to follow.

Are you an instagram user? What else do you wish folks knew?

Top Camera & Photo Bestsellers: April 2012

Posted: 03 Apr 2012 08:30 AM PDT

As we move into April, it’s time for my monthly look at the bestselling camera & photography items as calculated by Amazon.com.

Nikon’s D800 blasts to the top of the bestseller list based upon preorders, but the other items on this month’s list are about the same as last month. We’re seeing changes and innovating with the higher-end camera bodies, but not many new compacts at the moment. We again see a couple of the GoPro video units among the top sellers.

Nikon D800 FX-Format Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) – making its bestseller list debut at the number one spot, Nikon’s new mid-level, full-frame camera offers a crazy 36 megapixels, a rugged build, and other attributes which have made it hard to acquire (as of this writing, the camera is out of stock from most vendors). The D700 was popular with professionals and the D800 is following in its footsteps.
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V Exmor R CMOS Digital Still Camera – this midrange compact camera offers a lot of interesting features at a sub-$300 price point. In addition to creating still images, the HX9V records 1080p video, has a built-in GPS, and offers an interesting sweep panorama mode for creating big photos.
Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS Digital Camera – Consistently a top seller for several months, this camera is part of Canon’s ELPH series of compact digital cameras. Aimed at the mid- to lower range of point-and-shoot customers, this is a solid unit in the $170 price range (having dropped in price a bit since last month).
GoPro HD HERO2: Outdoor Edition – Again just below the ELPH on the bestseller list, the GoPro units have become quite popular in the last few months. The cameras not only offer an easy way to record interesting video, but it will do so in a durable, waterproof way. GoPro is sending me to Alaska in mid-April to check out some things they’re doing – I look forward to trying one of these units.
Nikon D5100 CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens – the D5100 is one step up from Nikon’s entry-level DSLR, offering a nice feature set in a package that comes with a lens for under $700.
Canon PowerShot S100 Digital Camera – Canon offers two high-end compact cameras; the S100 is the smaller of the bunch. A better-than-typical image sensor in this unit allows for excellent images even in low-light situations, and the samll size means that the camera fits easily into a jeans (or jacket) pocket. I have a previous model in this series, it’s a solid camera that allows for quality photos.
GoPro HD HERO2: Motorsports Edition – the same camera unit as the other GoPro unit above, except the Motorsports package means that it comes with a different mounting arrangement (in this case, an arm).
Canon SX40 HS Digital Camera with 35x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom – I wish I knew the name for this form factor for a camera. It’s not a DSLR, but it starts to approach the DSLR size factor. My wife once had a similar unit and it performed very well. The big advantage to this type of a camera is the extreme zoom capability of the lens.
Nikon D3100 Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Nikkor Zoom Lens – Nikon’s entry level DSLR, the D3100 is a good camera. The only downside in my mind is that the body doesn’t have an autofocus motor. As long as you use Nikon’s AF-S lenses that include an autofocus motor, you’re fine, but some older/cheaper lenses don’t and that will limit you to manual focus.
Canon EOS Rebel T3 Digital SLR with 18-55mm IS II Lens – Canon’s Digital Rebel series has long been a mainstay in the entry-level DSLR market, and this package of the T3 combined with the 18-55 kit lens is a great deal at less than $500. While it’s an entry level camera, it supports a wide range of controls that make it ideal for someone learning photography – they can start out in the more automatic modes and then move into more manual controls as they learn to better control their imagery. Highly recommended for someone wanting to jump to their first DSLR.

If you use the links above and end up purchasing through Amazon, a small commission will be returned to me that helps fund the operation of this site. Thanks for your support!