The 2013 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk...

Yup, it was just announced yesterday, that the 2013 Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk will be kicking off in October.

And yours truly will be leading the walk to be held here in Portland Maine. I have led this walk before and it has always been a great deal of fun, you get to make new (photography) friends, take some great shots, and fill your lungs with fresh air.

All good things.

The walk does not take place until October 5th, but your can reserve your seat today.

I really hope to see you there.

Gardens in Focus Photography Competition...

If you enjoy taking pictures of flowers (and who doesn't?), then the Gardens in Focus Photography Competition could be right up your alley.

One of the cool features about the competition is not only do you have the chance to win money, there is the opportunity (only if you want it) to sell prints of your photograph as well.

Here are a few of the details:

Categories:

* Plants in a Botanic Garden (Amateur)
* Plants in a Botanic Garden (Professional)
* Creatures in a Botanic Garden (Amateur)
* Creatures in a Botanic Garden (Professional)
* Out & About in a Botanic Garden (Amateur)
* Out & About in a Botanic Garden (Professional)
* International Botanic Gardens (Open)
* My Secret Garden (Open)

Prizes:

The photographer of the overall winning image will be awarded the first prize of $2,000 in cash and will have their images displayed with the prestigious International Garden Photographer of the Year competition in the UK and published in the IGPOTY book.

Second prize - $1,000 in cash

Third prize - $500 in cash

Category prizes - $150 each category

People’s choice prize - $300 in cash

Plus all winning and grand finalist photographs are featured printed and framed under glass in an exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. Selected framed prints from the exhibition will be available for purchase (subject to the agreement of the photographer).

"Pic of the Month" - monthly prize

You can get the rest of the details here.

The father daughter dance...

Today (Saturday) is traditionally the day people get married, so I thought it would be appropriate to post this video of a touching, unusual father daughter dance.


If you didn't get the video with your subscription (and it's likely you did not), please return to Weekly Photo Tips to view it.

The Nikon D800, possibly the best camera Nikon makes!...

As a follow-up to our last post, here are a few things I wanted to share regarding one of the cameras we talked about, the Nikon D800 (a camera I own and LOVE).

Did you know that the video quality is so good that there are some TV shows that shoot exclusively with the D800? Check it out.

In my interview with Michael Clark, he said that some of the best video files he sees are coming out of the D800.

As many of you know, I shoot weddings with Stacey Kane, and she has become a huge D800 fan, having moved from the Nikon D3 to the D800 for one reason, image quality.

There is a reason those images look so good, according to organizations like DXO Labs, is that the D800 sensor is the best in the world.

Two very thorough, informative (and glowing) reviews you will want to read:

1. The first is the "Nikon D800 Review" from PhotgraphyLife.com - "I am very impressed... the Nikon D800 will become the camera of choice for my photography needs".

2. Is from Ken Rockwell, here is his review of the Nikon D800. "The D800 is the best DSLR ever made by anyone at any price".

Both of these reviews are phenomenally in-depth.

If you are seriously considering a new camera, you can not do better than the Nikon D800 and you can get it for $2700 with free shipping.

Lastly, if you own (or are expecting to own) this camera you can get an in-depth step-by-step tour of the Nikon D800 with John Greengo over at CreativeLive for just $49.

Nikon D4, D800, and D600 comparisons...

I recently read three posts comparing the Nikon D4, D800, and D600 that I want to share with you.

The first, "Nikon D4 vs D800 vs D600 full-frame low-light showdown" is from Pocket Lint and does a very nice job comparing noise between the three cameras.

The Second is from my photography man crush Ken Rockwell and his post is "The Nikon D600, D800 and D4 are the same camera inside!" in it he gives you his side by side comparison of all three (along with links to his in-depth reviews of each) and explains why the D600 is the smartest financial move.

Third, is a lively discussion covering "D800 High ISO" with Shun Cheung at Photo.net, lot's of visual evidence, lots of reader input.

Considering price, the Nikon D4 is $5996 (or $4899 refurbished) , the D800 is $2796, and the D600 is $1996 so (unless you are a sports photographer and need high frames per second rate) the choice is rather obvious.

Cooling down with Flickr...

It has been so darn hot, I mean like Africa hot. Even here in Maine where breaking 90 is not all that common in the summer we have been doing it on a pretty regular basis.

And as they say, it's not the heat, it's the humidity... it has been like walking in water.

I know it has been worse, much worse, in other areas around the country.

So here are a few images from our Flickr group to help cool you off.

Click on any one of them to view larger.

And just in case those didn't help cool you down enough, these may help even more:

If you are not already part of our Flickr group we would love for you to join us, you can get all the details on how to join right here.

Here are several hundred free Photoshop actions...

You can't be too rich, too smart, or have too many Photoshop actions, so here are some that just might fit your editing needs.

1. We had mentioned this one several weeks ago, but it's well worth mentioning again, the free Kubota DASHBOARD 4 Pro for Photoshop that comes with 50 (free) actions.

2. Here are 20+ Useful and Free Photoshop Actions For Photographers from MediaNovak.

3. 50 Free Photoshop actions for amazing photo effects from The D Photo.

4. I love the stuff over at MCP Actions, you can can get these 12 free actions from them.

5. Another great resource is photo tuts+ and you can get instructions on how to create your own actions, how to install actions, and 100 free actions.

6. Creative Blog has another 50 actions.

7. 35 Fresh and Free Photoshop Actions from Vandelay Design, they also have another 50 actions here.

8. 40 Free Photoshop Actions For Vintage Effect from 1st Web Design.

9. Noupe is offering 80+ Time Saving and Free Photoshop Action Sets To Enhance your Photos.

10. 70 Useful and Free Photoshop Actions Packs For Photographers from I can Be Creative.

11.  50 more actions for portrait photographers from Digital Camera World.

12. And lastly, 60+ Useful Photoshop Actions For Photo Enhancements

If my calculator does not fail me, that's that's well over 600 free Photoshop actions.

Enjoy.

Here are hundreds of free Lightroom presets...

This post goes well with our post on Lightroom educational resources from last week, so once you finished all the tutorials you can get to work using some of these free presets.

There's a lot, so lets get at it:

1. From f/stop spot - Free Lightroom Workflow Presets for Portrait Photographers

2. Free Lightroom Presets for Your Portrait Shots

3. Fine art photographer Andrew S. Gibson - Using Lightroom Presets for Portraits

4. Presets Heaven - TOP 5 most downloaded Lightroom Presets

5. Nicole S. Young (one of my favorite people) - Free Lightroom Presets

6.  Matt Kloskowski (another of my favorites) - Lightroom Presets – Wedding Fairytale Glow

7. Matt Kloskowski II - You'll find all of his free presets here

8. You have just one guess at what you'll find at FreePresets.com

9. Tonja Petrella has put together an extensive list of free and almost free presets on Pinterest

10. Free Lightroom Presets for weddings from Dror Eyal

11. Here's a list of presets, tutorials, and more from Digital Photo Buzz

12. Gavin Seim - The Ultimate Free Presets List (pretty darn extensive)

13. A big pack of free Lightroom presets from William

14. Lightroom Presets from onOne Software

15. photo tut+ - 100 Free Lightroom Presets (And How to Make Your Own)

16. 14 free presets from Wonderland Adobe Lightroom Presets

17.  Inside Lightroom - Black & White presets (be sure to click on all the categories under "Lightroom Presets" so see all of the free presets available)

18. Another Pinterest list of Free Lightroom Presets from Genevieve Winters

A bag full of Lightroom 5 resources...

The resources below will provide you with (about) fifty different resources that will help bring you up to speed with whats new and get the most out of Lightroom 5.

1. OnOne Software not only has a learning center, but has free presets as well.

2. The Lightroom Blog has an extensive list of Lightroom resources.

3. Adobe's Lightroom Journal has it's list of resources dedicated to educating Lightroom 5 users.

4. CreativePro has its own list of top 5 resources for the latest version of Lightroom.

5. Photoshop Cafe has a series of videos demonstrating many of the new features.

6. Be sure to add Matt Kloskowski's blog, Lightroom Killer Tips to your favorites.

7. Of course no list would be complete without the Lightroom 5 Learning Center from Scott Kelby.

These will keep you busy for quite some time.

It all started on this day in 2007...

July 2, 2007 was the day of the very first post here on Weekly Photo Tips.

Since then we have penned over 1,300 more blog posts, had a million (yup, a million) visits from folks living in 203 different countries!!!!

And it blows me away that there are over 100,000 links back to this blog... wowzer.

I have received too many kind emails and cards in the mail to count. I even received a beautiful lens on my birthday from Ray Sanford.

Things I never would have dared to dream way back on day one.

These things were made possible only because we have the most outstanding audience in the world.

There was a rather significant announcement originally planned for today (hence the countdown clock being at zero), but we will need to push that off for just a few more days.

For now, the only words that come to mind are THANK YOU.

Clearly inadequate for all you have done for me, but know that those two little words are truly heartfelt.

Review & Demonstration of Adobe Lightroom 5...

Stan Sholik over at Professional Photographer has written a really well done review of Adobe Lightroom 5 new features that you should seriously check out.

Of course I should warn you that if you do you are going to feel the great urge to upgrade yourself.

;)

Here's the link to Stan's review.

If you have a student or teacher in your house you can get the full version of Adobe Lightroom 5 for just $79 over at JourneyED.com.

Should your home have neither you can get the upgrade for $79.95, or the full version for $149.95 over at Adorama.

Laura Shoe has put together an informative  series of videos walking you through many of the different features you will now find Lightroom 5.

You can also check out Terry Whites video of his 5 favorite features in Lightroom 5.

Below is Laura's video review/over view of Lightroom 5, enjoy.


For those who received this post view email, you'll need to return to Weekly Photo Tips to watch the video as they are not pushed thought via email, sorry.