Supercharge Your Vision
I picked up Ian Plant’s latest release, Supercharge Your Vision – 9 Creative Missions for Visionary Photographers, a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to sit down and write about it.
One of the positives of traveling on business is being able to catch up on your reading when your sitting on an airplane and I was really looking forward to digging into Ian’s latest.
As the title implies, Supercharge Your Vision, Ian Plant challenges the photographer with 9 well defined missions which are meant to have you try new techniques and and learn to see not just look at the scene in front of you. What I really like about these missions is that you don’t have to travel half way across the globe to do them. You can take up the challenge and achieve these missions (and along the journey improve your photography) just by stepping out your front door.
Each mission is accompanied by at least 10 to 12 scenerios on how to achieve that specific mission….what to look for….how to best capture your image….tips on lighting and composition all accompanied by images that reflect the image complete with shooting data.
This book will help you focus your creative energy and enhance your skills. You don’t need to buy any new gear. You don’t need to travel to exotic locals. You just need to open your mind and your eyes and your artistic vision will come to life.
Supercharge Your Vision is currently on sale for $9.95. Click here to purchase your copy.
Black Friday Mania
With Thanksgiving coming up in the U.S. this weekend and Black Friday mania grabbing hold both here in Canada and the U.S. I’ve come across some great photo deals that I wanted to share with all of you.
Updated with a new deal from Dreamscapes. See below.
All Presets, Tutorials and eBooks will be marked down 35% regular price starting Wednesday November 26th to Monday December 1st. Trey Ratcliff is the one who started it all and his HDR Tutorial has just been revamped with 100% new content. In the first hour, you’ll know all the basics, and beyond that, you’ll learn an amazing collection of new tricks, workflow, and post-processing techniques that will give your photos a great and unique look. Excellent for any skill level, from beginner to advanced. In addition to this and other tutorials the Stuck in Customs store is a great resource for books as low as $4.97, textures and Lightroom presets. Check it out here.
Everything in the store is 20% OFF starting today through the end of November. If you haven’t read Ian’s Chasing the Light, this is the perfect time to pick up a copy of this amazing book.
If you’ve been following this blog then you know that I use Topaz Labs plug-ins in my workflow. From November 28th through December 1st, the good folks at Topaz Labs is offering the entire Topaz Photography Collection (all 15 products) for $249.99. Use the coupon code BLACKFRIDAY2014 at checkout. And don’t forget you can use the coupon code elphoto to get 15% of any individual product.
Last and certainly not least from now until Dec 23rd take 20% all products in my gallery by using the coupon code Holiday2014. If you’re thinking of a unique gift why not give the gift of art.
Two New eBooks from Ian Plant & the Team at Dreamscapes
Being away for the last week and half has thrown me behind on some of the post I wanted to work on. Before I left I had download 2 new ebooks released by the team at Dreamscapes. I was planning on reading them and writing a review while I was away but I only got as far and doing the reading.
The first ebook is another in their new mini-guide series, Wildlife Photography by Ian Plant.
I love these mini guides. They’re the perfect length with just enough enough information to digest in one sitting. They’re also wonderful to have with you in the field and quickly be able to refer back to the information you’re looking for. This Wildlife Photography guide is no different. Photographing wildlife has its own challenges and while it’s vital to get it technically perfect there are other things to consider such as does your image tell a story. Ian’s mini guide touches on how tell that story by using light, providing context, positioning yourself and much more.
The 2nd release this month is Post Processing – A Guide for Nature Photographers by expert bird photographer Glenn Bartley.
If you’re a bird photographer you’re gong to love this new ebook if you’re not you’ll still get plenty out of this book because it deals with post processing of images and not the capture. If you feel bogged down with your workflow then this guide will help you get up and running in no time.
Glenn Bartley shares techniques t improve and simplify your image processing and photo management. Bartley covers the gamut here from the basics of file management, monitor calibrations, RAW processing, selective adjustment and and advanced techniques to name a few.
The book interspersed with video tutorials, expert tips and timesaving tips that will help you get the most out of Photoshop and BreezeBrowser but these techniques are transferable to any imaging software you use. I myself use primarily Lightroom and found the instructions and tips useful for LR as well.
In addition to the ebook itself you can download time-saving Photoshop actions and sample images to experiment with.
The Wildlife Photography Mini-Guide is available for $4.9 or purchase all 4 guides for $16.95. Post Process- A Guide for Nature Photographers is available for $24.95. Both books can be found at the Dreamscapes store here.
Photography Mini-Guides by Ian Plant
Aside from spending the weekend getting ready for Passover (and that constituted spending lot of time in the kitchen) I was able to kick back a little bit and catch up on some reading. Last week I download 3 new photography books to my iPad and I finally found some time to read them.
Ian Plant has just released 3 new mini-guides….
The Mini Guide to Photographing Slot Canyons
The Mini Guide to Photographing Sand Dunes
The Mini Guide to Coastal Photographing
These bite sized guides are the perfect companions when you’re planning your shoots or to have with you when you’re out on a shoot. Ian Plant’s has kept these simple and to the point with the information you need to know to get the shot. Each guide is 20 pages, they are concise and Ian has included all the tips that you need to get stunning photographers in these locations. From timing and composition, shooting angles and location specific tips, these guides are indispensable.
Each guide is priced at $4.95 but you can purchase all 3 for $12.95. In addition Dreamscapes is having a Spring sale until the end of April. Simply use the discount code SPRING and you can save 15% of all purchases in the Dreamscapes eStore. You can click here to go to the Dreamscape store.
A Most Unusual Gin
Walking through Soho one day I almost missed this mural. Can you imagine? I was talking and not paying attention but luckily, as I was about to cross the street a car was coming through the intersection which made me stop. When I looked across the street this is what I saw.
Click on the image to enlarge (it really does look better) or to Purchase a Print.
I also wanted to let you know of new ebook by Ian Plant and it’s absolutely free to download. Costa Rica – Wonders of the Osa is a 40 page ebook showcase the beautiful forest wildlife of the Osa Peninsula. Click here to download this free ebook.
The Dreamscape team has also recently released The Complete Lightroom Workflow tutorial. This series of 18 video tutorials is over 3 hours long by Dreamscapes blogger Kurt Budiger will show you how to use Adobe Lightroom 5 to unlock your photos’ hidden potential. Kurt takes the mystery out of this powerful program. He leads you
through his personal workflow, taking you every step of the way—from importing media through organizing and editing images, applying common adjustments, synching your settings across images, and exporting to Adobe Photoshop. And as an added bonus, he provides you three case studies from his own images, explaining the aesthetic decisions he made in processing each image. The normal retail price of the videos is $29.95, but use discount code Darkroom1 to get $3 off! Click here to purchase or download a free sample.
The Visual Flow Companion
The first book that I ever read by Ian Plant was Visual Flow: Mastering the Art of Composition. That was the start of a beautiful friendship between myself and Mr. Plant…in print anyway 🙂 That monster 287 page ebook has become my go to reference book when I’m conceptualizing what images I want to shoot and how. You can read the review of Visual Flow here.
You’ll understand my excitement then when I found out that Ian Plant has just released The Visual Flow Companion as a compliment and update to the first book. Overflowing with new images, new ideas and insights and new image analyses I was ready to dig in.
Each image in this 51 page volume is brilliant and Ian goes through a thorough analysis of the compositional values of each and the techniques he employed. In addition to his own images Ian goes through the same in-depth compositional analysis of images of fellow Dreamscapes bloggers, George Stocking, Kurt Budlinger, and Richard Bernabe.
As with the first book this companion piece, albeit not as hefty in page count, is packed with indispensable information and insight for photographers at any level.
The Visual Flow Companion retails for $7.95 which is a great deal in itself but for the month of December you can get 15% OFF just use the discount code DECEMBER at check-out! For more information, please visit the Dreamscapes Store.
