Julieanne Kost. Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist, Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe Lightroom tutorials.

Great website and resource for Lightroom


Julieanne Kost. Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist, Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe Lightroom tutorials.

Dear Craigslist, WANTED alien space craft storage, must be private, low profile, down wind, and a friendly indistinguishable neighborhood. Nice to have: dual power supplies and a hot tub.

Dear Craigslist, WANTED alien space craft storage, must be private, low profile, down wind, and a friendly indistinguishable neighborhood. Nice to have: dual power supplies and a hot tub., a photo by Creative Outlet Images Photography on Flickr.

My Favorite Audience Questions

Question #1  Which lens..

bigdogmn73 writes:    I've got a Canon 50d and I'm most likely going to get either a 7d or wait for the Mark II replacement. If I stick with the 7D and I'm looking for a good portrait lens would you go 50mm 1.2, 85mm 1.2 or 35mm 1.4? I have the 50mm 1.8, but based on your comments I almost think the 85 is the way to go, but I'm thinking it's way too long on a crap sensor camera. So would you go 50mm 1.2 or 35mm 1.4? Or would you go 24-70 2.8? Also are you going to do a video on the compare of the 50 vs the 85?

Creative Outlet Images Response:   Good question, one of the better ones lately. The crop factor on all your cameras that you are looking at except the 5d replacement have a 1.6 crop factor. I think the 85 is going to be way to long, but if you shot outdoors mainly or have a long inside space to use it might work out. I really like my 50mm but it can be tricky to use with moving subjects. I think I would recommend looking at the 24-70mm in your case. If you plan to do a lot of night shoots then consider the 50.

Wine, wine, wine

Wine, wine, wine, a photo by Creative Outlet Images Photography on Flickr.

One of my all time favorite white wines. Its consistently good and not too expensive.

La Crema Chardonnary

Do you use your Cell phone as an alarm clock?

Like many people I'm using my cell phone for a lot of things. Its just so convient, you usually always have it around. It does a lot of stuff... Really productive things like watching my YouTube subscriptions and seeing whether charliejamemes video avatar pic is actually in the video... It never is.. Anyway, I use my cell as an alarm clock. I'm nervous about cell phone radiation next to my head while i sleep though with all the reports coming out that wireless could likely cause cancer.

So here is the tip if you use your cell phone as an alarm. Turn the airplane mode on. The alarm will still ring but it won't take calls or get on 3G or your wireless network.
If you have to receive calls while using it as an alarm, place it across the room away from you. Never can be to careful.

Why this photographer is not jumping on the SSD bandwagon..yet

Solid State Drives (SSDs) or more simply larger flash storage devices seem to be en vogue now.  Apple is using them in their Macbook Pro's and lots of tech articles are written about them, etc.  SSDs are known to speed up your system boot, they are quiet, and are known for overall speediness.  They seem to be a good technology, but.. 2 reasons put me off the drives so far:   This first is that the drives are grossly expense for their size.  My second reason is the size.

It appears that Intel has a 600 gb version for all of $1200.  Yikes, no thanks for now.  I could barely put my Lightroom photo tree on the drive and I'm certain that in 3-4 years it would be $100 or less for the same size.  As much as I hear technically positive things for SSDs I have to hold back due to that price.

Photography Gear for Vacation - Tips and Tricks

My photo carry system for vacation photography.

Wacom Intous 4 Model PTK-640 - Frozen

I recently had a problem with my new Intous 4 device in which is was clearly powered by the USB, but the stylus and pad failed to do anything with trying to write on it.  After unplugging the USB several times to no success I went to Start | All Programs | Wacom Tablet | Tablet Preference File Utility | Remove All User Preferences.  For some reason this reboot the tablet and all the LEDs and controls lit up immediately on the device.  It begin working again after this.

My system:  Windows 7 Professional
Wacom Driver = 6.1.5-3

Wee

Parasailing, a photo by Creative Outlet Images Photography on Flickr.

A shot Maui on the Kaanapali side. Lots of ocean activity here.

Durability of DSLRs & Traveling with Kids and Your Gear

I'm here in Maui Hawaii this week I've had some terrifying days with my gear. Of course personal and family safety is always first but I've experienced some things this week that will charge then way I pack and protect my gear.

When I'm traveling light I tend to travel with my Kelty backpack, which I've done a video on if you follow my YouTube channel. This backpack holds a lot of gear and is very durable and collapsable which is why I like it. However it doesn't protect the gear very well, due to it not having internal compartments for photo gear.

Here is what happened to my gear this week. I took my 5d and a couple of lenses to the pool with my family. I always take a little risk that people will steal my gear when at the pool / beach. At some point if you want to enjoy the environment you have to move away from it. I usually try not to go to far and setup in an open place where I can see my stuff. In this process I decided to cover my backpack with a beach towel. My concealment process worked a little to well, as my 4 year old decide to run towards me and then climb on top of the "towel mound" I had created. What's a dad to do at that point? My 4 year old didn't necessarily know what I had hid. I quickly moved her off of of my creation while mentally reenacting, in slow motion, the stomping of my 5d, 85mm 1.2, sunglasses, memory cards, and whatever else I had in the bag. It was very painful to watch. Luckily nothing was damaged.

The second bad experience was at dinner where my one year old started to squirm and scream way to much. It was my turn to hold her so I put my 5d with 50mm 1.2l lens behind me on a deep chair. Unexpectedly my camera and wiggled it's way off the side of the chair and came crashing down on the cement. Everyone at the restaurant was looking at me as my expensive electronics came crashing down. Now with the kids screaming at dinner and me damaging my toys my stress level has gone critical at this point. Again amazingly nothing was damaged other than just a small paint chip on the LENS Protector. Another reason to buy a lens protector!

So my lessons learned as a dad traveling with my expensive photo gear...
1. Lens protectors on all lenses.
2. Bring extra padding or wrapping for gear such as the grey "L" lens bags.
3. Think twice about where you place you gear.
4. I'm considering looking into rubberized padding for my 5d.

I never had any of these issues until I had kids. Your mind is just elsewhere and rightly so, accidents happen, stuff breaks...plan for it.

What are your vacation gear nightmares?

Twitter = creativeoutleth

Reading Magazines on the iPad

I did this video as I really love reading magazines on the Apple iPad. I think its an under marketed feature of the device. Images and text show up amazing well and they are simple to page through.


Advantages: 1) Ease of use 2) organization (don't have a pile of magazines in your house 3)archive your magazines longer 3) awesome visuals 4) If you a print subscriber many magazine vendors give you the ipad edition for free.

Disadvantages: 1) Its difficult to find magazines in the Apple Store 2) Not all magazines have the same navigation 3) Some magazine can become to gimmicky 4) individual magazines can be expensive.

Big Sky

Couldn't resist this photo at the end of long photoshoot, a photo by Creative Outlet Images Photography on Flickr.

I did this at the end of a long photoshoot with JessieK. I'm glad I took this one. There haven't been many days like this in California lately.

http://creativeoutletimages.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/CreativeOutletHobbie