Nikon USA has released the key notes on the new Nikon D5000 digital flagship camera. Targeted towards serious amateurs & new professionals, the Nikon D5000 features a 12.3 mega-pixels CMOS sensor along with a 2.7 inch vari-angle LCD monitor.

The Nikon D5000 imbibes the Nikon patented EXPEED processing technology & the camera includes a movie mode to appeal the camera to amateurs as well as professionals.

The Nikon D5000 is now available on Amazon. There are Nikon D5000 kits available with paired lens & discounts:

• Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Lens and 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD
• Nikon D5000 12.3 MP DX Digital SLR Camera with 2.7-inch Vari-angle LCD (Body Only)

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Nikon D5000 has the D-Movie mode to capture video clips at 720p HD movies with sound. This lets you expand your creativity with combination of images & movie clips.

Being a new camera, these following field guides are helpful:

• Nikon D5000 Digital Field Guide
• David Busch’s Nikon D5000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography

Wedding photography is a very specialized type of commercial photography that involves artistry, studio photography techniques as well as on-the-fly shooting.

Various wedding photographers use niche skills like artistry, journalistic or studio shot approaches to create & sustain their business. The competition is very high & since most wedding photographers cater to the local markets, the reach is also limited.

There are sites & directories specially for wedding photographers. It is a niche skill that often requires a permanent setup like a well endowed studio. Moreover, since most of the photographers cater to the local or regional markets, word-of-mouth is the most important brand or reputation builder.

WeddingPhotographySites is a popular list of professional wedding photographers worldwide. This is an online portal where professionals could set their own rates, list their own services & mention thier niches. While some may look to more artistic type of photographs, some look towards trendy & contemporary wedding pictures.

The online portal for wedding photographers provide potential customers a list of all the professional wedding photographers in their area. As a member, you have to remember that word-of-mouth is an essential part behind choosing a photographer. The online portal lets you put references & customer appreciations in “Additional Description”.

The portal works well for international regions as well, including US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, UK, Mexico & the Carribean. So if your wedding photography business is willing to travel, or have offices across the globe, a listing like this one would increase your business further.

One of my best friend & a great photographer, Debanjan is having his solo exhibition at Melange.

His photographs will be showcased at the Photographer’s Gallery in Kolkata from the 27th of December through the 31st.

Debanjan has been a prolific photographer. And besides his job at an IT MNC, he finds time to take to the streets with his cameras.

He is a traditional photographer. In the sense that he still works with his film SLRs. He has a good eye for both monochrome & color images.

This solo exhibition is a milestone – that it is possible to have a full time job that takes up 15 hours of your time everyday, every week of the year, and yet excel in an art where your heart lies.

In his own words:

try to look at the beautiful world in both Colour as well as Black & White.. I try to see beatuy, struggle, simplicity and peace in all that I try to capture through my camera.. it’s an ongoing journey and am thoroughly enjoying it

On behalf of Debanjan, I am extending this invitation to all my readers. You could also follow his activities on flickr where he posts very regularly.

Nikon Store @ RitzCamera.com has announced the sale of Nikon D3X from the end of December 2008 or early January 2009 in the US.

And when you buy it from them, you also save on No Sales Tax and Free Shipping. The key features of D3X flagship model includes 24.5 megapixel FX format CMOS sensor with high signal-to-noise ratio, wide dynamic range and 12-channel readout, Multi-CAM3500FX 51-point AF system.

That apart, the camera has Individually selectable or configurable in 9-point, 21-point and 51-point coverage settings, 920,000-dot 3-inch VGA LCD monitor with wide, 170-degree viewing angle & Live View with Autofocus enables composition of images using the LCD monitor. Two modes are supported: Handheld or Tripod.

The EXPEED image processing engine enable it to shoot at up to 5 fps (7 fps in DX Crop mode).

The advanced Scene Recognition System delivers superior exposures and is supported by Nikon’s widely acclaimed 51-point AF system.

he high definition 3-inch LCD monitor supports two Live View modes plus an HDMI video output.

Protected by a tough, environmentally-sealed magnesium alloy body.

According to the Nikon UK Press, the new top-of-the-range premium D-SLR-the D3X is

Designed to produce files suitable to meet the demands of tomorrow’s commercial and stock requirements, the camera produces 50MB 14-bit NEF (Raw) files. Using Capture NX2 software, NEF files can be processed into medium format terrain; 140MB (16-bit TIFF-RGB). Fine details are reproduced with incredible clarity, whilst shadows and highlights contain tonal gradation with minimal clipping for pictures with a unique look and feel.

There is a detailed review of the Nikon D3X on DPReview as well. I am yet to see any feedback from Ken Rockwell on the D3X.

There are accompanying Rebate offers @ Ritzcamera.com especially on Digital Memory Center

The Nikon D3X is available on Sale in the US. Many of the reputed Nikon US dealers are taking in pre-orders for the Nikon D3X.

The camera could be available any time after Christmas, though no one is still certain of a final date.

The Nikon D3X body will be available online in US for US $ 7,999. Online purchaces will save money since there is no sales tax & the shipping is also free of cost.

You can pre-order the Nikon D3X body for US$ 7,999 online from Ritz cameras , Wolf Camera or the Camera World.

A forum makes a great complementary aspect of a website. Especially if you are providing users with any sort of product, service or help.

Forums-Free.com is a free forum hosting service that suits the needs of all photographers, especially those of you who sell or engage in any sort of community activity.

If you don’t know how to create a forum, or want to create a free forum without complications, don’t despair! With 1GB of space for files, photos, music, etc & Unlimited access to an unlimited number of messages and users, Forums-Free.com is a great choice.

Forums are a great way to engage a community of photographers who could seek mutual help & advice. Unlike running a group email, photographers could discuss issues & tips in a very close personal manner without the hassles of a long chain of group emails.

There are 9 languages in the main site and 39 languages in the forum’s system. With 40+ attractive themes to choose from & a wide range of customizations to go along with it, Forums-Free could be shaped up to match your website’s content too.

From time to time we look into the various options available to photographers & photo business owners to go for quality & cost effective photo services.

Photofun.com is one source for sharing photos online, and low prices for online digital photo printing services. Whether you chose photo prints or create photo gifts from your pictures, Photo Fun provides you with the necessary tools to get a quality output.

Photofun owns all the technology and production facilities used to manage and manufacture all of the photo-services and products supported on our website.

This helps them offer the quality products at the lowest possible cost. In fact, they are one of the few online photo printing services that offer photo prints at 5 cents. To offer the best cost benefits to the customers, they handle all shipments through USPS & charge only what USPS charges for shipping.

Photofun stores all customer digital photographs free on a secure online server. So customer can access their digital photographs & on-going photo projects from anywhere in the world by means of Internet and mobile Internet.

With a focus on high tech photographic systems, PhotoFun has developed a M2Photo technology which makes it possible with certain “smart phones” to take a mobile photograph and upload the images directly on their servers via their M2Photo technology.

Customer can also create and order photo products through a mobile Internet connection to the customer’s personal digital files.

PhotoFun offers a wide range of photo products & services. Print photos, holiday photo cards, personal business cards, photo albums, photo books, photo calendars, photo canvas, photo cards, photo gifts and photo posters all done in-house with the same high quality & diligence.

Sometimes street portraits could appear very dull & monotonous. Though portraying daily life is the essence of street images, props are often required to spicy things up a bit.

I shall talk about props in a bit. In this picture, two devotees of Hindu Goddess Kali are spending a quiet moment on a joint. They spent an hour, intermittently smoking & sharing niceties & talking of various philosophical aspects of life!

The device they use is called a “Chhileem” in the local language & very similar to a local cigar. Rudimentary in construction, this tiny device could deliver a serious shock to anyone not used to the raw smoke of tobacco.

They were a little hesitant for me to take their pictures. Their concern came from being ill-advertised to the younger generation. Although smoking from these “Chhileems” and similar cigars are restricted to finding the special type of tobacco, they are widely spread amongst the devotees’ population along the Ganges.

While doing a few studio shots in Connecticut, the model, an old gentleman had given me a great deal of information on props for studio shots using Cigars

He had mentioned some famous Smoke Shops that feature some of the finest Cohiba cigars, Macanudo cigars and all other major cigar brands. These are some of the finest & available online at http://www.famous-smoke.com/. So anytime I have a studio photo shoot with a cigar smoking model, I know where to order some!

The image above is shot on a Nikon D200 with on camera speedlight set on -2 ev & using a wide angle lens.

]]> http://nonphotographer.mediacubs.com/2008/09/13/candid-street-portraits-from-kolkata-using-props-to-spice-up-portraits/feed/ 0 Ranjay Mitra _dsc5648_a http://nonphotographer.mediacubs.com/2008/09/12/poster-prints-general-printing-services-for-small-photo-business/ http://nonphotographer.mediacubs.com/2008/09/12/poster-prints-general-printing-services-for-small-photo-business/#comments Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:41:35 +0000 Ranjay Mitra http://nonphotographer.wordpress.com/?p=281 ]]>

Whether you are running a small photography business or an individual photographer selling prints, a photo business will require print making of various types.

To begin with there are printing needs for your photo business – business cards, customer gifts, seasonal promotions & banners & posters. That apart, a printed photo, is the ultimate product of any photo business.

Maintaining a printing facility for all these activities is not judicious for single photographers running their photo business. It is often a good business decision to partner with a professional printing organization whose main line of business is serving small business.

PsPrint offers a complete range of solution for small business houses. From business cards to sophisticated catalogs & brochures, to poster printing for final delivery to the customer, all done under one roof.

There are a few things you should consider before investing in a in-house printing system:

• professional printing systems that could print large poster sizes are very costly
• inks required for professional quality poster prints are costly
• maintenance of the printing equipments are expensive
• prints may not be suitable for a wide product range – from business cards to professional large prints
• printing systems are upgraded very frequently & older systems do not have technical support

So for most of the photographers who sell prints for business, having to work with a company that specializes in small business printing needs like PsPrint makes a lot of business sense.

Upload your Baby’s Picture for the Great American Photo Contest for a chance to WIN $2,500. Register, Upload, and Vote. Its that easy.

Click here to Upload your photo and win!!!.

The program rules are quite simple & does not require any purchases. Here are the highlights of the rules to participate in this baby Photo Contest:

• The winning photograph will be the one that receives the most votes in a calendar month. There must be at least 2500 entries in a calendar month for the prize to be paid.
• The Great American Photo Contest is open only to legal residents of the United States and the District of Columbia, living in the United States and the District of Columbia, who are at least 18 years of age.
• Residents of New York, Florida and Rhode Island are prohibited from entering the Promotion.
• This Promotion is void in Puerto Rico.
• Offer void where otherwise prohibited by law. Winners are responsible for taxes on all prizes.
• No purchase necessary to play or win. Purchase will not enhance the odds of the entry winning.

If you want to participate & Got a cute baby, click here to participate for a chance Win $ 2500.

The contest guarantees 1 winner every month. From time to time, Great American Photo Contest™ may offer a Promotion whereby contestants can qualify to receive a free Ten Dollar ($10.00) gift card.