The Digital Photo Guy

Card Skimmers Hit New Highs (Lows) in Sophistication

Another off-topic article but the following stories (links) amazed me. My wife and I were fooled two years ago by a credit card skimmer at a Walmart in Idaho. At the time, we berated ourselves for not being more observant. Would you have noticed something was wrong with the card readers below?

The second photo looks like a bulky, obvious device but the third photo shows how it blends in when installed. Can you spot it? (Clicking the thumbnails will take you to Mikko Hypponen’s Twitter page, use your Back key to return here.)

        Click to read more

Student Photos from Anza-Borrego

Here are the first 3 student photos from the Spring Desert Wildflower workshop in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The first day covered wildflowers as elements in landscape photography. Notice how we shot from a low angle to make the flowers appear more numerous and dense than they really were. Click to read more

Using Plug-Ins to Get the Most Out of Your Photos

In today’s Video Monday Morning Tip, I show how to use Elements Plus curves to add “pop” to a boring photo and take it over the top with Topaz Adjust 4. Not everyone will like this but the point is to show how you can combine tools to create an effect that isn’t like something that anyone else can achieve.

The original photo is on the left below while the one on the right was “tweaked”.
  

As usual, the Video Monday Morning Tip is in the Archive Section which requires free registration. You can subscribe using the form in the column to the right.

2010 Anza-Borrego Wildflower Workshop Results

As always, one should never attempt to outguess Mother Nature. It appeared all the components were lined up for a spectacular wildflower season but it was just good, not great. A cold snap delayed and staggered the blooms so all the varieties weren’t in bloom at the same time. Additionally, the invasive Saharan Mustard has practically overrun many areas. Some photographers are predicting that we will never again see the vast carpets of native flora for which the Anza-Borrego is known. That means we may never again see scenes like below. How sad.

Yes Virginia, There Really Are Burrowing Owls

After 3 fruitless years of searching, I finally found and photographed burrowing owls in the wild. In fact, within one hour, I saw 4 of the cute critters and managed to get a photo with two in one frame.

The originals of two are shown below. If you can’t efficiently and effectively create the above photos in a few minutes with Photoshop Elements, you’re not getting full value out of PSE. Notice how I removed twigs in front of the owls for a better photo. The third was just cropped and had curves adjusted.

Desert Spring Wildflowers

The temperatures started warming up in the desert on Friday, 3/12 so we should be in peak bloom this coming Saturday and Sunday. There’s still space in the workshop. Remember, past students receive a 10% discount on all classes.

Here are some photos from last week. We used wide angle lenses to make small flower patches appear huge as well as telephoto lenses to “stack” the scene so everything seems closer together. The students were most amazed at the world as seen through a macro lens and learning to control depth of field in macros.

For a great place to stay, I recommend a cute trailer at Leapin’ Lizard RV Ranch in Ocotillo Wells, just 15 miles from Borrego Springs. I discovered it this past week and am totally amazed at what Deborah and Siegfried Kunkler have built there. They even erected two 40′ WiFi antennas so the whole park has free WiFi. Best of all, the trailers are as little as $60/night.

Topaz Labs FREE Webinar, April 7

Eric Yang of Topaz Labs will present a FREE webinar on Wednesday, April 7 at noon Central Daylight Savings Time (CDT). That’s 1PM EDT, 11AM MDT and 10AM PDT. To register, click here. If there’s still room, you’ll receive an e-mail confirmation in a few days.

If you belong to a camera club or other group, you’re welcome to project the webinar on a screen for the whole group to view.

FREE Topaz Labs Webinar

Eric Yang, Marketing Manager for Topaz Labs will present a free webinar on April 7 at Noon CDT (Central Daylight Time). Eric will demonstrate how to use several Topaz plug-ins and answer questions. There will also be some cool give-aways so be sure to register ASAP. There’s limited seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Click HERE to reserve your spot. You can have as people as you want on one computer so invite your whole camera club, neighborhood or synagogue and project the webinar for all to see.

Using One Tool To Clone Over an Object

When first learning photo editing, students often learn one tool at a time and tend to use that tool for everything. Sometimes, that’s not a bad approach. For example, some use the Marquee Tool to select everything but quickly discover that perfect rectangles and ovals rarely exist in real life.

Today’s Video MMT hopes to speed up your “Ah-ha!” moment by demonstrating how the Marquee Tool can be used to remove an object from a complex background. The first photo below is the original, the second is a close up of the area we want to fix and the last is the final result. View the video in the Archived MMT area (free registration required).

Russian Traffic

I’ve noticed a huge surge in traffic from Russian IP addresses. I don’t believe my charm and skills are that appreciated by Russians so I can only conclude that there’s a big push to hack and scam US sites. I’m going to block all Russian and Chinese traffic but, before I do that, if there are Russian or Chinese readers who actually visit my site for benign purposes, please let me know.