NJ Photo Expo 2010 – Speakers announced

John Tworsky

NJ Photo Expo

Visit Bergen County Camera’s NJ Photo Expo Website

It’s the biggest photo expo in New Jersey!
Presented by Canon Camera & Video & Nikon USA

Spend an hour or spend the day. You’ll see and learn about digital photography, video and more, including:

• Be among the first to see the newest and coolest cameras
• Discover secrets to better pictures
• Learn from the experts
• Great video from your DSLR camera
• Listen and learn from world-famous photographers
• Shop early and save for the holidays

Come to the NJ Photo Expo for:

  • FREE seminars and demos
  • Learn how to shoot live models, fashion, close-ups, landscapes, sports, portraits, news and more
  • Gift ideas and expert shopping guidance
  • Representatives from all the major camera companies
  • Hundreds of cameras of all types
  • Collectible photographic art

A great lineup of speakers!

10:15 am Tom Franklin – Presented by North Jersey Media

Tom Franklin, photographer for The Bergen Record, best known for his photo of firefighters raising the American Flag at the World Trade Center site after the 9/11 attacks.

11:25 am Bob Krist – Presented by Nikon

Bob Krist, National Geographic photographer, won the title of “Travel Photographer of the Year” from the Society of American Travel Writers in 1994, 2007, and 2008 convention. In 2000 his work was honored at the Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography in NYC. Each event we’ve hosted with Bob in the past has been a sellout.

12:35 pm – John Isaac – Presented by Olympus

John Isaac, the distinguished former United Nations photographer, has been traveling to his native India for the past 20 years to photograph tigers and other indigenous wildlife. His images have helped raise awareness about the plight of India’s tigers and other endangered species.

1:45pm – Baron Wolman – Presented by Gallery 270

Rolling Stone’s first photographer, and one of the preeminent rock photographers from the 1960s to today.

2:55 pm – Bob Krist – Presented by Nikon

Bob Krist, National Geographic photographer, won the title of “Travel Photographer of the Year” from the Society of American Travel Writers in 1994, 2007, and 2008 convention. In 2000 his work was honored at the Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography in NYC. Each event we’ve hosted with Bob in the past has been a sellout.

4:05 pm – Harry Benson – Presented by Canon

Harry Benson the Beatles first photographer, and the man who documented the assassination of RFK in Los Angeles.5:15 pm – Ron Magill – Presented by Nikon

“A Walk on the Wild Side; The Joys of Wildlife Photography.” Ron Magill is an internationally recognized zoological authority who has appeared on a wide variety of TV programs including “National Geographic Explorer,” the “Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” “NBC Nightly News,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “CBS’ The Early Show,” “Live with Regis,” “Dateline,” and CNN.

It’s going to be a GREAT DAY! We’ll see you there.

Produced by Bergen County Camera
Presented by Canon Cameras & Digital Video, and Nikon Cameras

NJ Photo Expo 2010 – October 3, 2010

John Tworsky

NJ Photo Expo - October 3, 2010 at the Park Ridge Marriott

Visit – Bergen County Camera’s NJ Photo Expo website

NJ PHOTO EXPO SLATED FOR SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3.
Highlighted by demos, seminars, world-class photographers.

The NJ Photo Expo is expected to draw large crowds to the Park Ridge Marriott on Sunday, October 3, 2010 as snapshooters, hobbyists and serious photographers gather to learn, listen and explore the latest and greatest in photography.

Attendance at the NJ Photo Expo is free with advance registration at www.NJPhotoExpo.com. The Expo is open from 10 am – 6 pm.  Seminar registration will be announced shortly to everyone registered for the Expo.

Demonstrations, exhibitions and seminars will give Expo visitors opportunities to:

  • Learn how to shoot live models, portraits, close-ups, landscapes and more.
  • Listen and learn from world-class photographers including Baron Wolman (Rolling Stone’s first staff photographer), Harry Benson (World famous photographer)  and Tom Franklin (whose 9/11 World Trade Center photo for The Record won accolades worldwide). More speakers will be announced shortly.
  • See and try the newest and coolest camera equipment
  • Learn how to shoot video with your camera
  • Shop early for the upcoming holidays, with expert guidance
  • Enjoy collectible photographic art from masters and up-and-coming photographers featured at galleries worldwide.

Launched by Bergen County Camera of Westwood and Englewood in celebration of the store’s 30th anniversary, the NJ Photo Expo is presented by Canon Cameras and Video, and Nikon Cameras.

More than 20 leading photo brands will be represented at the Expo.

Follow the NJ Photo Expo on Twitter

Fireworks Photography tips and examples

John Tworsky

Here are some basic starting points

If you have any questions, stop by the store, email or call. We’re here to help. Please let us know if you get some great shots we’d love to see!
Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions. Have a great 4th of July Holiday weekend from all of us at BCC.

Find a fireworks display on NJ.com’s July 4th events page

Tripod
Electronic release (available for most cameras at BCC)
Manually set your camera ISO to 100 (You do not want Auto ISO)
Lens Choice – Wide Angle Zoom to frame what you’d like to capture
Auto White Balance or Daylight
Set your lens to manual focus then focus to infinity (take a test image and make sure things are sharp)
Set your camera to Manual exposure – Try 5 seconds at f/ 16
Carefully release the shutter if not using a release to capture from one to several bursts
Evaluate your exposure – Shorter exposures (or smaller aperatures ) will darken the image and capture shorter trails, Longer exposures (or larger aperatures ) will lighten the image and capture longer trails.
Evaluate sharpness by zooming in on your image – adjust as needed

If you are using a point a shoot, check your camera’s manual for fireworks mode.

Improving Fireworks photos
Shoot with a tripod – it will give a more natural cascade of light

Why use a tripod?

Handheld image above shows motion from camera shake  in the burst of light.

The image below is steadied by a tripod, 5 seconds, f16 at 100 ISO

 

Other Techniques
Set your camera to B and lock open your shutter – keep the lens covered with a dark hat and remove the hat to capture a burst then recover and repeat to capture several bursts. Just be carefull not to bump your camera.
You can even zoom the lens during exposure for some interesting effects

Experiment and best of all have fun

Gallery images below shot mainly at 5 seconds, f16 at 100 ISO

Don’t be a hard drive crash test dummy

John Tworsky



Our customer’s hard drive crashed. It stored nearly 10 digital years worth of her family images: births, family vacations, birthdays, parties, graduations, and other events. Our customer’s digital images had not been printed out (unlike analog photos) – they had been shared on the computer and occasionally uploaded to a digital frame or to an online photo site. Her backup consisted of an external hard drive (also damaged) and an incomplete collection of floppy disks, CDs and DVDs, plus about 1% of their images saved at an online photo site.

This was just too close for comfort, since my own personal backup situation was similar. During the past 15 years I’ve relied on a hodge podge of backup methods: floppy disks, tape drives, CDs, DVDs, online photo services and other online backup solutions.

I set out to find a reliable, affordable online backup solution for my data. Online photo websites that are free often have fine print in the user agreement that allows website to reduce the resolution of stored images if you don’t make a certain number of paid prints, etc. Although it is extremely easy to upload hundreds of images to these websites, if you ever want your images back you must download them one by one which becomes an impossible task if you have thousands of images, as many of us do. (The BCC digital lab was recently hired for $125 an hour by a customer who lost several hundred images, to download images individually from his online printing website – not an inexpensive proposition).

AT LAST: A SMART, AFFORDABLE SOLUTION

After spending some time researching I chose Mozy.com online backup. I signed up for a yearly account. Just moments after installing the Mozy applet, data started backing up over my cable connection at about 10 gigabytes a day. Well, it’s finally complete – for the first time ever I have a complete off-site backup of all my images . . . nearly 50,000, genealogy files, and documents taking up just over 500 Gb (that’s more than half a terabyte, 500,000 megabytes, or the equivalent of about 800 CDs).

Mozy.com is a fully encrypted online backup service that costs around $55 a year. Less if you get a 2-year membership paid up front. Once signed up you have unlimited storage for the flat annual fee. With Mozy you can back up one computer and any drives that are connected to your computer. Many other online backup solutions will only backup drives inside your computer, not external drives. Once installed the process is very automatic. If you power down or reboot your computer, the backup resumes automatically. Backups over broadband upload 5-10 gigabytes per day. Easy configuration options even allow the backup to proceed only when the computer is idle. My computer is relatively new so I left it set for maximum backup speed for the entire time. Mozy will also automatically add and delete as you move files into or out of your watched folders you designate.

At last, I have my images protected.

Also just added to Mozy 2.0 is the ability to create a local backup to an external drive which gives you the best backup a scenario – a local and remote copy!

To learn more or sign up for your own Mozy account, just click on the Mozy logo below.

Olympus in Mexico – Impressive results from the Olympus E-PL1

John Tworsky

Here are some great shots taken with the Olympus E-PL1 by our friend Peter Ewen from his recent trip to Mexico. We thought the pictures really showcased the ability of this micro 4/3 camera from Olympus. Small, compact and full of features it’s a great camera to travel with. Feel free to leave a comment for Peter if you’d like. BTW, Peter’s day job is Director,  Product Marketing, DSLR for Olympus. Bergen County Camera has a full line of Olympus 4/3 cameras, lenses and accessories.

Epson Stylus Pro 7900 now in our digital lab!

Abby Passman

Epson Stylus Pro 7900

Our new Epson Stylus Pro 7900 has arrived! This 24” wide printer uses Epson’s new Ultrachrome HDR pigment ink technology. With 10 colors including orange and green, this is the widest color gamut ever from an Epson Stylus Pro printer. This printer allows you to get the most out of your digital images, making breathtaking color prints and enlargements!  The black and white prints are also spectacular. With Epson’s three level black ink technology, the 7900 simultaneously prints with black, light black and light light black inks, providing outstanding highlight-to-shadow grayscale accuracy for a smoother tonal range. But don’t take my word for it, come see for yourself! Bring us a print-ready digital image and we’ll make you a free custom 8×10 enlargement*. Just mention this article at the processing counter to receive your free print!

 *One enlargement per customer for in-store pickup.  If original is a print, slide or negative, scanning charges will apply.

Photoshop CS5 – Looks like an awesome upgrade!

John Tworsky

After watching the CS5 anouncement on Monday I have to say that I was quite impressed with what they’ve included in this update. In the past 10 years, more than one update to Photoshop initially left us wondering what’s this update all about and why did I just spend another $159! Every time after a month or two of using the new tools I’ve wound up impressed and was once again a strong supporter of Photoshop. CS5 looks amazing right out of the gate and that’s before I have even had a chance to use the program.  Abby from Bergen County Camera recently visited Photoshop World in Orlando and was among many industry experts and beta testers of Photoshop CS5 who as a group were impressed with CS5. (Abby’s Photoshop World Post)

Adobe Photoshop CS5 box image

Here’s a few things that I think will make this a super upgrade out of the box. These features are really a jump from CS4 and in the words of Adobe – “Eye bleeding cool”

  • Smart radius for edge detection when making a selection
  • Content aware fill – Remove a horse or any object from an image and CS will intuitively rebuild the background from available image information! Wow!
  • When using any kind of a stroke – CS5 will let you vary the width at any point you choose.
  • CS Review – a new add on feature that lets you share your work for comments online with other CS5 users
  • New improved natural and realistic painting tools
  • All new 64-bit Raw processing engine
  • All new merge to HDR Pro – with subtle controls to choose parts of the image and make adjustments within this powerful automatic workflow. You will even be able to automatically fix ghosting as in the case of trees in a breeze moving between your HGR shots. You will also be able to use these new HDR tools on a single image as well.
  • New improved sharpen and de-mosaic filters
  • Better noise reduction – remove luminance noise and add film like grain and more
  • Automation of Lens correction based on file EXIF information. For example you could fix all chromatic abberation with your lens at f2.8 and have every image automatically adjusted on import. The same would be true for vignetting or any other lens correction option in the program. For rare lenses not in the original release, Adobe will rely on online reporting and will post EXIF corrections for these lenses as well.

Photshop CS5 looks amazing and everyone at BCC is looking forward to its mid May arrival. We will stock upgrade versions for both PC and MAC (newer Intel based MAC’s only) If you have any questions or comments email or comment here – Thanks!

 

Photoshop World 2010

Abby Passman

Two weeks ago I went to Photoshop World in Orlando.  With the nice weather we’ve been having lately you would think I’d be outside soaking it up.  But instead, I’ve been glued to my computer trying all the new techniques I learned.  I went down on Tuesday for a pre conference workshop with Richard Harrington on shooting video with a DSLR.  We filmed a Celtic rock band called Seven Nations.   The next three days were filled with Photoshop and Lightroom classes given by great instructors like Scott Kelby, Katrin Eisman and Rick Sammon (to name a few.)  My brain is full! 

Photoshop World - Seven Nations

During the opening keynote we got a sneak peak at CS5, the new version of Photoshop that comes out on April 12th.  Looks like they’ve packed this upgrade with a lot of exciting new features!  The content aware fill is going to save me so much time when retouching photos I might actually get to go enjoy some of this beautiful weather!

Also while I was in Orlando, Adobe released Lightroom 3 Beta 2.  Some exciting new features are the ability to shoot tethered, DSLR video management and noise reduction (that really works!)   I just started using Lightroom recently and now I can’t live without it!  Shooting and processing RAW files is so easy, it has really streamlined my workflow.