Archive for category tutorials and resources

Thoughts about Achieving success.. How to achieve your dreams, goals, and aspirations.

Achieving success..

I have been using twitter so much to update my websites and social networking that I have neglected my blogs. There are just some things a tweet cannot cover.

First off, when it comes to thinking about success, there are many thoughts that one should hold in mind.

Having a set of goals that you pursue everyday. Prioritize those goals as well. If you pursue the wrong goal when another should have more priority, you can hinder yourself in the long run.

Surrounding yourself with the right people that mutually help you in your endeavors. This mean being sincerely interested in them as well and developing valuable relationships.

Integrity is also important, if you do not stay steady in your path others will see that quicker than anything. This is not just about honesty, but keeping values, virtues and a good mixed set of skills that you never compromise. If you sacrifice something from your integrity, you divert from your path to success. Temptation can get anyone going along a destructive path and blind them from seeing their true goals and keep a person from seeing true oppurtunity.

I recommend reading books from some authors such as Dale Carnegie, Brian Tracy, Thomas J. Stanley, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Robert T. Kiyosaki and I will talk about others as well in future posts.

Developing a good sense of self esteem is one of the traits that will be most important in your endeavor towards success. Success is not an accident and that means you can achieve if you dedicate yourself to it.

There are many many successful people in the world, but far more that spend most of their time complaining everyday about things that hinder them. All that time they waste complaining, they could be putting to good use being productive and focusing on positive action.

How does one become an artist? They pick up a pencil and start drawing or a paintbrush and start painting, if they need a tool that does not exist, they create it. In any pursuit, you may not be perfect at first and the road to success is paved with lessons and failure. You learn from mistake and what works and what doesn’t and you move on. If you stay focused or dwell on an opposing force, you never make your target, reach your destination or achieve your truest potential.

Far too many people dwell on the temporary or are controlled by their emotions, rather than taking a step back, breathing and seeing things as they really are.

So for the purpose of this post, if you trully want to pursue success in business, art, photography, modeling, networking, helping people, or whatever your goals may be, learn to set goals for yourself. Get yourself healthy, eat the right foods, develop a good sense of self esteem and know what you are capable of.

Just as Eleanor Roosevelt said “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”.

Wishing you all true, positive and creative oppurtunities for success, wealth and happiness. Take care of yourself so you can do kindness for others. Until next time. Keep dreaming big dreams and be bold enough to take steps in creating your own future.

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A quest in photographic equipment repair…

I have a Canon 30D that I am borrowing from a friend. I have had it for far longer than i expected to borrow it. The reason being is that my Canon 20D is broken. I had the shutter replaced once and again the shutter has broken and now the camera has some other problems.

My questions are as follows:

1. Is it worth it to send it to Canon the ( Original Manufacture ) to have it repaired even though it is out of Warranty? or should I take it to a local repair center? The last time i had the shutter repaired it was over $250.

2. What is the best advice on repair or replacement?

3. Because I am serious about my photography, does anyone know of how or where i can go to school on Camera repair? It would be of extreme benefit if i could repair my own equipment and have resources to buy parts.

4. Where are the best places to buy replacement parts? I have had a hard time finding them online and have a feeling that i may just not know the best keywords to use.

The camera is my first area of repair and the next is my flash..

A while back i was at a show. I am an artist, body painter and photographer. Needless to say multitasking at one event and being slightly clumsy while doing several things causes some difficulty.

The neck strap on my camera got hooked on a chair and yanked my camera out of my hands when i was showing a client pictures that i had taken. When this had happened it broke the mounting shoe on my sigma ef-500 dg super flash.

I was told that i can buy a replacement part and just unscrew and replace it myself without having to send it it to have it repaired. Any advice on how to do this and whether or not is wise? Will it involve any soldering?

I greatly appreciate any advice or input. I will be updating my journal with responses that I get from fellow photographers and technical gurus as well as any informative and helpful links that I come across on the way. Wish me luck.

My best advice is to sign up for that extended WARRANTY, you never know when it may come in handy and save you money, especially considering the cost of repairs without said warranty.

Until next time fellow photographers, bloggers and blog fans.

-B

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Some lighting tips for your photography

I have been doing photography now for about 7 years. The first few were more hobby, but as my interest grew so did my need for knowledge and of course equipment.

There are a lot of tools that a photographer uses in his trade. Among the obvious besides the camera are things like: tripods, lenses, reflectors, backdrops, props, film, memory cards and of course LIGHTS.

Lights, I have found, can be very expensive, but… You can take some cost saving, intelligent and crafty ideas and work around the need for expensive lights. Eventually, you may want to invest it that expensive on camera flash, some fancy strobes and other things, but for beginner photographers I can recommend several options.

When I first started, I would shoot outside, where you can get some of the best light for your photography. But for nighttime or indoors, I had to find an affordable way to light my models.

How did I do this? Well, I bought some of those aluminum clamp lights from walmart and some nice bulbs, like the spotlights. Each light has different effects, but be careful as some can really be harsh on your models. Because they are not to expensive, you can afford to experiment and see what works best for you.

Another method that I found not too long ago on youtube is in a tutorial called
Fashion Lighting on a Budget.

This tutorial by Dave Greene was very informative. It has a lot of useful material. Getting a couple of light fixtures and some bulbs that produce light similar to that to what you get during the day from the sun. The best part is that you only spend around $50. You might have to add in a little extra into your budget for some stands to hold the lights but hey you are saving a ton of money already.

If you do a search on google, you can find all sorts of tutorials on lighting techniques people use, but for beginning photographers, these simple setups can help you a great deal when getting started.

I suggested mixing up both and playing with the lights in all sorts of placements to get everything from strong contrasts to smooth overall lighting. On the florescent lights, they do not get overly hot in temperature so you can actually diffuse the light by putting light cloth over them for added effect as well.

Well that is it for the lighting tips today. I hope you have found it helpful.

-Bryan Crump

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The High Pass Filter in Photoshop, an excellent tool for sharpening and popping detail.

by: Bryan Crump

A lot of people ask how to make their images sharper or more vivid. One method is by using the high pass filter in photoshop on a duplicated image layer and using the overlay mode on the effected high pass layer.

It effectively increases the contrast in areas of the photo causing a sharpened crisp look. Here are some links to some tutorials online to help those of you interested:

Adobe Tutorial on High Pass Sharpening

Photoshop Essentials High Pass Tutorial

Here is a link that has a few good visual references in addition to a good tutorial to show you really what the high pass is doing. If you have any confusion, hopefully this link on NYFALLS.com with help you out

High Pass Tutorial on NYFalls.com

I have tutorials on my site and on the web that also cover this in some detail, but I also like to give people several sources of information so they may broaden their perspective and awareness on any given subject. I hope this helps those of you that have been having difficulties or are simply just curious.

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Oklahoma Community Art Links

Here are some artist link resources that I got from the IAO Gallery Website:

Whether you are an artist or a fan of the arts these are some good resources that anyone interested in the arts can benefit from knowing about.

Allied Arts

American Indian Cultural Center & Museum

Arts Council of OKC

Artsplace

ArtWhisker

City Arts Center

Downtown OKC

Dreamer Concepts Studio/Foundation

Fine Arts Institute

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

Gardiner Art Gallery

IAO MySpace Site

Inclusion in Art

JRB Art at the Elms

Living Arts of Tulsa

Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art

Mainsite Contemporary Art

Oklahoma Arts Council

Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau

Oklahoma Film & Music Office

Oklahoma Food Cooperative

The Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame

Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park

Oklahoma Territory Film Council

Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition

Paseo Artists Association

Philbrook Museum of Art

Rhizome.org

Sonarta.com

Tarsplace

The Art Groups of Oklahoma

Tulsa Artists coalition gallery

Turbulence.org

Untitled [ArtSpace]

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