Thinkpad Fan Control

Getting ready for Africa, I know that I'm going to be working in hotter climates but I also know that I'm going to be working for longer periods where I may not be able to recharge the laptop battery. So one software download I stumbled across for the IBM Thinkpad is the IBM Thinkpad Fan Controller. It does just that. So, if the computer starts getting hot (and it gives you temperature readings of the CPU, BUS and PCI, then you can ramp up the fan, but if you're low of juice then you can reduce the fan speed to save power. Note however that letting you laptop overheat can have devastating side-effects.

SLR video support rigs

If you're serious about shooting video, a counter-balance may be useful but what people are really getting excited about are support rigs like the ones offered by redrockmicro.

Canon 5D Mark II - extended firmware update for video

You probably heard that Canon recently released a new firmware update for the 5D Mark II that addressed some serious wants and needs of the video community. Unfortunately this update didn’t go far enough for some film makers who have banded together to write their own. The primary purpose of this firmware is to address audio issues that are seen to be one of the weak points of the High-Def video function. Other enhancements include on-screen audio meters, crop marks, manual gain control, and zebra stripes.

It’s important to understand that this is not a Canon firmware update and you are assuming some definite risk when uploading it to your camera so if you are only a casual shooter of video, you might want to let this one pass by and just stick to the official releases from Canon. If, however, you are a serious filmmaker that has adopted the 5D Mark II as your camera of choice then it might well be worth the reward for the amount you will risk.


Visit Magic Lantern to download the firmware update

Magic Lantern firmware introduction from Trammell Hudson on Vimeo.

Behind the Scenes - the light test

Here's a fun site, where photographers' assistants upload their light test shots. Light-test.com.

International Pricing and Shipping

Thanks to Zenfolio, I can now offer international pricing and shipping of my prints. Buy a print online here.

Black Rapid RS4

I recently purchased the Black Rapid RS4. What an excellent bit of kit. I always tended to carry my camera by hanging the strap over one shoulder. And on long hikes it would continually slide off. Not any more. The adjustable sling fits very nicely over the shoulders like a record bag, while the camera is attached to the sling via a sliding link that means you can raise the camera to your face without having to touch the strap, and then drop it again to your hip when done. It's not much easier to carry two camera bodies at the same time. Well worth taking a look.

Vincent Laforet

I met Vincent briefly at a Photo Expo in New York a couple of years ago and I stumbled upon his blog while reading about the new Canon 5D Mark II. It's definitely well worth a read, particularly at the behind the scenes look at some of the equipment.

Adobe Lightroom shortcuts pdf

While surfing around the Lightroom Killer Tips site, I discovered a link to a list of the Lightroom shortuts in a pdf document. Pretty useful really.

Costa Rica

Well, I've just come back from Costa Rica.
It was a great, but challenging, place to photograph. Very harsh light most of the day. Very short golden hours with low lying clouds that often meant the best light was blocked. Furthermore, the humidity in the rainforest was beyond any of that I had experienced before, including in the Amazon. My camera died, my phone died, and my laptop died despite keeping them all out of the rain for the most part. Fortunately they all came back to life once out of the rainforest and back down in the lowland zones.
The region I visited was Guanacaste. I flew to Liberia, rented a 4WD (essential as the roads were generally rocks rather than tarmac) and drove to Arenal, Montezuma, Nosara, Tamarindo and Santa Elena.
It's an easy place to get around. Very helpful if you speak Spanish as there are very few signposts out of the main areas. We got lost regularly and that became half the fun of the journey. Montezuma was the highlight.
Next time I'll go to Reserva Manuel Antonio as many of the other tourists there said that it offered the highest probability of wildlife encounters. Shame it was just out of driving distance from where we planned given the time we had. But that just gives me an excuse to go back!
I hope you enjoy the photos.
http://www.samchadwickphoto.com/expedition-costarica.html
Sam

Sam Chadwick Photography on Facebook

Hello everyone. So last week I finally conceded and created a Facebook profile as well as a page for my photography so that my fans can have a place to keep up-to-date with my work via Facebook as well as via my main website.
Click here to become a Facebook Fan.

Top Shots of 2008

In 2007, I chose 99 favourites for the year. This year, however, I have chosen only 12. Did I take stop taking photos? No (I had over 20,000 to choose from). I think instead that I have made real developments in my photographic skills despite it being a year in which I had to divert much of my focus to other arenas and so I have been much more selective about the images I feel are favourites. Some have been on display in New York and scrutinized by the gallery elite, others have been images that have sold well, but all bring me very fond memories.

Many are available as prints, the proceeds from several go to a charity in Nepal.

Click here for my top shots of 2008.

Best ultra-compact cameras

It's my just my opinion obviously, but there are two clear winners at the moment for the best ultra-compact camera out there.
They are the Canon SD 790 IS and the Panasonic DMC-FX37.

The Canon has excellent image quality, especially at low ISO settings. Meanwhile, I like the Panasonic because it is slightly smaller and it has a greater zoom range (25mm - 135mm v. 35mm-105mm with the Canon) which makes it better for wider-angle portrait shots.

Kathmandu and Langtang - Nepal

Namaste! (Hello)
For most of November I accompanied three friends to deliver medical supplies to a clinic high in the Himalayas. A lack of enough...errr... any physical preparation combined with an overcharged photography backpack meant that I had my work cut out even before setting off on the 3-day climb up to roughly 5,000m (15,000ft).
The Langtang Valley trek is the least-trodden of the established trekking routes in Nepal. The more known routes being Everest Base Camp and the Annapurna circuit. Our reason for visiting: to deliver aid to the Langtang Clinic as well as, for me, to take photographs of the area to turn into posters and postcards.
Living with the mere basics meant you immediately realized the missing home values of flushing toilets, hot water and well-preserved meat. Nevertheless, that didn't stop us from reaching the goal and making many new friends along the way. Hosted by Thiley Lama and the rest of his family, we certainly received more attention than many of the other trekkers on the route. Thank you very much to the Lama family.

Click here for the photography slideshow or click here to jump straight to reading more about the clinic.

Lightroom v2

I got my first taste of Adobe Lightroom 2 today. The new features within the Develop tab look fantastic. Here is a good video tutorial.

Reuters News

Two of my images were selected for this week's summary of world news by Reuters.

Open House New York - Photo Competition

Join the 2008 focus on architecture competition flickr group and submit your favorite photos for our award-winning judges to review in the following categories:

* interiors
* exteriors
* details
* people

* All entrants agree that their name and images can be displayed and used in OHNY marketing and promotion without charge.
* Please limit your submissions to one photo per category.
* Submit your image/s with titles in this format: SITENAME_CATEGORY_creditYOURNAME
* Download full competition rules at http://www.ohny.org/programs/focus.cfm.

Submit your images here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/2008_ohny_focus_competition/

Photokina Show

Photokina 2008 is now over. For the canon lovers, it was a chance to see the new Canon 5D Mark II (coming out in November) as well as the Powershot G10. There's talk that the 5D Mark III will also include video capabilities and many other DSLR manufacturers are saying they will do the same.
For the nikon lovers, the Nikonians had a definite presence!
Also, the Leica S2 was on show. Close to a medium format digital camera, the 3:2 ratio and 37.5 Megapixels makes it about 57% larger than the 35mm format sensors.
However, the talk of the show was the Panasonic G1, with the Micro Four Thirds - the system uses the same sensor size (18 x 13.5 mm) but allows slimmer cameras by removing the mirror box and optical viewfinder.
For a fuller review, visit DPReview.

Valley Land Fund South Texas

Further to an earlier blog, the results came back from the Valley Land Fund competition and Eli Smith and I won a prize! To see our final submissions visit our combined gallery.

Flatiron Building

It has really been a while since I've managed to post some images to the site. Today I went out to take some shots of the Flatiron Building for a friend living in the UK. I've added them to my list of projects.

Adobe releases Lightroom 2

Enhancements include:
* Local adjustment brush
* Enhanced organizational tools
* Volume management
* Extensible architecture
* Multiple monitor support
* Flexible print package functionality
* Streamlined Photoshop CS3 integration
* Enhanced output sharpening
* 64-bit support for Windows® and Mac OS

Click here for a more detailed review
Click here to see the features on Adobe's Lightroom site

Getty and Flickr

I regularly promote iStockphoto and Shutterstock to my advanced amateur friends as a way of funding future photography equipment investments, and now Getty (who recently purchased iStockphoto) is in an alliance with Flickr to commercialize contributors' images (read the article here).

48 Hours in Rainy Vancouver

Well, it didn't actually rain. It was more that it was 'about' to rain the whole time I was there. Note that I should really write that it was 'aboot to rain' in the local accent!
Well, because of the weather, I finally ended up taking shots of wildlife and people at the international jazz festival that happened to be on that weekend. Obviously, just the people were at the festival, not the wildlife.... actually, it may not have been that obvious given some of the characters that were out... oot!
Enjoy the shots here.

On display at Monkdogz Art Gallery, New York, from June 12th

Come and see a selection of my work on display at Monkdogz Urban Art Gallery from June 12th 2008 until July 12th 2008.

5th Floor, 547 west 27th Street (between 10th & 11th Avenues), New York.

The gallery opening event will be from 5.30pm until 9pm on June 12th.


View Larger Map

Expedition: South Texas Shootout!

Last week I was in South Texas for the Valley Land Fund Photography Competition. Accompanied by my good friend Elias Smith, our goal was to create a portfolio of 25 images in the categories of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Insects, and Landscapes.

South Texas was certainly memorable; not only for the heat but also for having a 9-foot indigo snake drop out of a lime tree onto me. I didn't know it was harmless at the time!

Online here is a gallery of my shortlist. Entries to the competition are due in June, so I'll let you know how we did!

Shutterstock Photographer Plugin

Customizing Shutterstock to make it more photographer-friendly is something we all want. So, having read all the forum threads about it, I decided just to do it myself.

Version 1.0 - Direct Edit from Gallery view
This version enables photographers that are logged in to directly edit their image. (So no more copying the number and then having to search for it in past batches!) With the Plugin installed, the magnifying class becomes a link directly to edit the keywords for your image.

Clicking magnifying glass goes directly to:

What you need:

1 - Firefox: Sorry, this only works for Firefox (and has only been tested on Windows)
2 - Greasemonkey Firefox plug-in: download it here
3 - Shutterstock Links Plugin: download it here

This plug-in is free.
If you find this plugin, please consider making a donation.

Photo Safari - Rush Hour

New York Rush Hour

Wednesday 9th April saw the Photo Safari head for the heart of Manhattan to capture the flight of the commuters on their way home.

Photo Safari - Manhattan Skyline

Skyline

A chilly safari to Weehawken gave us a fantastic view over Manhattan. Next time we'll pick somewhere warmer!

One Creative Network - Coming Soon

During the next few months, I will be launching a new community space for creative professionals called One Creative Network. If you are interested please visit the site and add your email to the announcement list.

Fashion Shoot with Ella Manor

On Sunday, I was lucky enough to join Ella Manor on a Fashion Shoot at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. The photos taken will form part of her fashion portfolio currently in 'top secret' development, so I can't show any of the final photos here yet. It was a real pleasure to work with such an artist. To see some of Ella's work, visit her site at http://www.ellamanor.com/.

Lower East Side Photo Safari

Graffiti Postbox

Despite a brief run-in with the police and the chilly air, the safari around the Lower East Side was an interesting cultural experience. View the pictures here.

New Mexico

The Desert of Chaco Culture National Historical Park

Where better to spend President's Day than in sunny New Mexico. Fortunately the weather was fantastic for photography: the winter sun did not rise as high in the sky as it does during the summer making for less harsh light. Driving 1606 miles (route map here), visiting 4 states, almost crashing the car, visiting the home-town of Billy the Kid, travelling Route 66, and experiencing 4 climates made New Mexico an amazing experience. See the gallery online here. And look out for the 3 UFOs in the picture of the alien in Roswell!

Photography Competitions Directory

If you are interested in submitting your pictures for photography competitions, then visit this site for a regularly updated list of the major competitions currently accepting submissions.

Export to iStockPhoto plugin for Adobe Lightroom

Thanks to Javaduke, there is now a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom that lets you export directly to iStockphoto. The plug-in can be downloaded here. If you are not already submitting your photos to iStockphoto, you can open an account here. Just upload your ten best images to see if you reach their quality standards, and then you can submit up to 20 images each week. Find out more about selling your images as stock photography here.

Video Tutorials for Adobe Lightroom

Free online video tutorials to help you get the most from Adobe's new image management software can be found online here.

DP Review now covering lenses

Until recently, my favourite hardware review site only covered camera bodies. As of the end of January 2008, they will also be assessing lenses. There are only a few reviews online so far, but the library will be building over time for sure. For a more comprehensive library of lens reviews, check out Fredmiranda.com

Photo Safari - Greenmarket and Meat Packing District

Meat Packing District - Manhattan

Saturday 26th January.
10.00am - Greenmarket, Union Square. Your assignment: capture the market in a collection of 10 pictures - no more, no less. Colour or Black & White is your choice. There is more information on the market at Wikipedia.
12.15pm - Meat Packing District. Your assignment: You have been asked by a magazine to provide a selection of images of that zone to depict its architecture.
Add links to your photos by submitting a comment.

A stroll in the park

Red-tailed hawk in central Park.

There is nothing better than a winter walk through Central Park. Especially on a day when you are lucky enough to find a red-tailed hawk watching over you. So, here are some tips for photographing in the cold:
1) Keep your camera cold - it sounds stupid, but your camera will probably be happier in the cold for far longer than you can stand it yourself. Keeping the camera cold will reduce the chance of condensation forming in it or the lenses.
2) When moving from the warm to the cold, or vice versa, put all your gear inside a sealed plastic bag. Again, it reduces the chance of condensation forming. You can take it out of the bag when the contents has reached the same temperature as its surroundings.
3) Keep your batteries warm. They will discharge very quickly in the cold, so keep your spares inside your jacket.
4) If you are using a tripod in the snow, keep the legs together. The snow will hold the tripod up. Pushing the legs apart into the snow can buckle them.
5) Use pipe insulation around your tripod legs to stop them from sucking all the heat from your hands.
6) Wear gloves with two layers, so you can take off the main layer without having to completely expose your skin to the air when using the camera.
Happy winter shooting!

Aperture, Shutter Speed and Film Speed - Online Simulator

So, one those things that I thought would be a great idea, but never got around to. Simcam have created three pages that will let you play around online to see the impact changing Aperture, Shutter Speed and Film Speed will have on your pictures.

• Shutter and Aperture
• Film Speed
• Camera Shake

Guatemala & Belize

Photographing the Pacaya Volcano at sunset.

The full gallery for both Guatemala and Belize is now online. Click here to see the images.
Thanks to Bibi of planetbibi.com for the picture above.

Central Park Zoo Photo Safari

Polar Bear Diving

Budding New York photographers can join me on Saturday 12th January in Central Park Zoo from 2pm until 4.30pm. Park entry is $8.00. Look forward to seeing you there.
Post the links to your photos from the safari in the comments section.

Order Prints Online

Visitors can now order prints from the new online store and have them delivered anywhere in the world. Prints are available in 3 different sizes, as greetings cards and postcards, or as a stretched canvas.

If you would like to order an image that is not currently available in the online store, please contact me.

Keep watching the store as new images will be added frequently.

Top Shots from 2007

See my favourite pictures from 2007 including Federer winning the US Open, an encounter with a Snow Leopard, the Brazil Soccer Team in Rio de Janeiro and landscapes from Patagonia, Canada and the USA.

Top Digital Cameras for Christmas

Thinking of buying a digital camera for your loved one this Christmas? Here are my top picks for each camera type.

Ultra-compact (small enough to fit in your pocket)
Canon Powershot SD870IS - 8 Megapixel, 3.8x wide-angle image-stabilized optical zoom
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 - 8.1 Megapixel, 3.6x wide-angle image-stabilized optical zoom

Compact (otherwise known as point-and-shoot, these cameras don't require you to change lenses)
Canon Powershot S5 IS - 8.3 Megapixel, 12x image-stabilized optical zoom

Entry SLR (If you are making a move into the SLR [single lens reflex] and want to benefit from specialist lenses for certain types of shots)
Canon Digital Rebel XTi / Canon 400D - 10.1 Megapixel
Nikon D40X - 10.2 Megapixel

Patagonia

Finally back from a fantastic trip to Patagonia with many photographs. And read Sarah's blog of the trip here.

Brazil in the Beach Soccer World Cup

A few pictures (accompanied by the most played Brazilian pop song right now) from the FIFA Beach Football World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil is seen playing the Solomon Islands, who they beat convincingly (11-2). Look for plenty of overhead kicks!

New look to the website

November 2007 sees a new face to the samchadwickphoto.com website. If you haven't checked out all the new info online, be sure to look at the ever growing list of photographic resources under the Collaboration section.

Federer wins the US Open

Thanks to friends of mine, I managed to get into the final of the Men's US Tennis Open to see Federer storm to victory over Djokovic. See the pictures here, one of which was selected for use by Reuters.

DPChallenge

If you are looking for a weekly photographic challenge, check out DPChallenge. The prize:kudos. The benefits: critique from some fantastic photographers. Try it out and get opinions from others. Or pose your question to a very well attended Forum.

Top Cameras

A neat quick trick to see the latest releases and models of the most popular brands is to use the visitor stats of DPReview.

My blog

Another blog that is still in progress. Well the important message is for you to check out my photographs:
http://www.samchadwickphoto.com.
Enjoy.