BetterPhotoJim

BetterPhoto.com™ Launches New Deluxe Web Sites

Today we are announcing the availability of our upgraded Deluxe Web Sites. These professional looking web sites are based on sleek new templates and are available starting today for only $209 a year.

"We're excited to offer this option in time for the holidays," said Jim Miotke, President of BetterPhoto.com. "Photographers don't need to know HTML, or spend $3000 per year, to have a professional looking web site. Our template-based sites not only showcase photographs in a beautiful design, but they also get photographers where they need to be: out shooting."

"The features are easy to use, making the process a snap!" said Patricia Robinson Trapp, a current BetterPhoto member. "There are several designs to choose from, and all of them are impressive. Just when you think BetterPhoto couldn’t get any better...guess what? It does!”

The new template-based designs shift focus onto a photographer's work, and takes the trouble of setting up a web site off of their plate. We provide hosting services, domain name registration, and easy pull-down menu-based templates to help photographers display their work in a professional format. "I think the overall look of the templates is simple and yet more stylish and sophisticated," said BetterPhoto member Mimi Katz. "I'm most pleased with the large images in the slideshow and previews."

These are just a few of the positive things that our members are already saying about our professional new web site designs and hosting services for only $209 a year. We are really excited to be able to offer these to all of you and hope that you will take a moment to check them out: New Deluxe Web Site Designs.

Thanksgiving Pictures - Take Some for BetterPhoto™

Hi everyone!

I'm sure you're all looking forward to the wonderful feast you will be having this Thursday. The turkey picture below is the one and only photo in the BetterPhoto galleries that has anything to do with Thanksgiving and it's a great one! I wonder if he is ready for what's in store for him? Hopefully, he'll get a reprieve.

Mr. Thanksgiving © Jeanne Miller All rights reserved

I enjoy the leisurely day of cooking and eating on Thanksgiving Day but... my favorite thing is the opportunity to ponder everything we have to be grateful for. I've always loved this quotation from Henry Ward Beecher "Let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!"

Take some photos of your family on Thanksgiving Day and upload them to your galleries or the contest. We'd love to see them! The BetterPhoto team is so grateful for everything that our members and visitors share with us!

Follow Up on New Courses

Julie, thanks for the great update on our new course with Paul Gero:
Digital Wedding Photography. A wedding photography course has been our top request over the years. We are so pleased to find an instructor to teach this sought after class. Check out Paul's beautiful gallery of wedding images . Welcome aboard Paul!

Another heavily requested course is a Photoshop course strictly using Photoshop Elements. Well, we have great news! Our friendly instructor from down under, Robin Nichols, will be offering: Adobe Photoshop Elements. Robin's new course is for beginners to advanced beginners interested in receiving clear and precise instruction on how to get the best possible results from Adobe Photoshop Elements.

On another note, we would like to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to our BetterPhoto Members! We sincerely hope you enjoy a special day of celebration and thanks with those you love.

Thanksgiving with Friends 1996

Photographing Weddings

Bride & Groom © Paul Gero All rights reserved

My brother got married this summer – in 100 degree heat, but that's another story – and asked my husband to photograph the wedding.

Craig has been a photographer for quite a while – in fact, he was very active in the BetterPhoto™ community a couple of years ago. But the words "wedding photography" struck fear into his heart. He's entirely comfortable getting within 20 feet of a raging wildfire. He's happy as a clam standing next to a firefighter in full turnouts, snapping away at a house fire. But the words "bridesmaids" and "bouquet toss" and "DJ" turned him into a quivering mass of goo.

Bouquet Toss © Paul Gero All rights reserved

It all ended up just fine, but imagine how much happier he would have been, had he taken Paul Gero's Digital Wedding Photography class! Paul creates amazing images, both documentary and portrait, and we're so excited to have him on board for our Winter session (starting January 4). Paul left the world of photojournalism in 2000 (having worked for the Chicago Tribune, Time, People, and the Arizona Republic, among others since 1985) to focus exclusively on wedding photography. He's a great guy with amazing work, and we're so glad to have him and his expertise on board!

BetterPhoto™ Bookstore: Think Holiday Gifts!

I heard that the Book of the Month, Bryan Peterson's, Understanding Digital Photography, is selling like crazy! Did you know that two more fantastic books have been added to the bookstore recently: George Schaub's book, Digital Black and White Printing and Jon Canfield's (co-authored with Tim Grey) Photo Finish are now available.

Long-time BetterPhoto instructor, George Schaub's book covers all kinds of tips and techniques for making beautiful black and white images and it's full of breathtaking black and white photos. George teaches a course on printing in black and white, as well as Using your Digital SLR and An Introduction to Digital Photography: Using your Digital Camera.

Jon Canfield's book, Photo Finish, has a multitude of creative ideas for successfully optimizing and sharing your images via various media. Fairly new to BetterPhoto, Jon teaches Digital Slide Shows and two 4-Week Short Courses, Camera RAW Processing and Color Management.

We hope you'll visit our bookstore and have a great time shopping with your fingertips!

Christmas Photography Backdrops

I realize we still have a week before Thanksgiving is even here, but, I'm sure like a lot of you, I've already started thinking about Christmas. You can't avoid it! Every store I've visited lately has a larger than life "Christmas Countdown" sign telling me how many more days I have until Christmas. It just feels awfully close and with so much to do, I can't help but feel a little panicked.

Which brings me to my topic - Christmas photography backdrops. You might be asking, "where did Christmas photography backdrops come from?" Well with all of this Christmas Countdown stuff, I've been stressing about my Christmas cards and when I will get them out this year, but most importantly, how they will look and what will we use as a backdrop?

So, I turned to BetterPhoto. I started digging around in the handy Q&A section to get ideas and I found such great information there, I thought I would share it with you! Listed here are several links I found to be most helpful in the Q&A section:

Christmas Backdrop
How to Shoot a Christmas Scene
Christmas Portraits
Family Portraits

I hope you find this information as helpful as I did and get inspired this year to maybe try something a little different. I'm still thinking about what we're going to do, but am sure I will be using some of the suggestions listed in the above links. Have a wonderful holiday season.....and don't forget - only 38 days left until Christmas!

Lensbabies!

© Tony Sweet All rights reserved

We have some fun news for you all: BetterPhoto is partnering with Lensbabies! I know I heard a lot about Lensbabies from you all when we were at the BetterPhoto Summit in September, and we're excited to tell you that Lensbabies is now providing some of their fantastic lenses as prizes in our monthly contest!

OK, so what are Lensbabies? They're unique selective focus SLR camera lenses that bring one area of an image into sharp focus, with the sweet spot of focus surrounded by graduated blur. You can move the sharp area anywhere within the photo by bending the lens.

© Tony Sweet All rights reserved

They've won awards from American PHOTO Magazine and Professional Photographer Magazine. They help you take compelling portrait, botanical, travel, landscape, wedding, fine art, product, fashion and other types of photos, and they're available for all digital SLR and 35mm film cameras.

They just launched a macro kit that includes a +4 and a +10 lens that can be mounted onto the front of either the Original Lensbaby or Lensbaby 2.0. The Lensbaby macro kit allows you to focus as close as 2" away and get eye popping details with Lensbaby selective focus effects.

So, we're really excited to have Lensbaby on board as a partner. You can win one of their cool products during our November and December monthly photo contest!

Online Friendships at BetterPhoto™

Hi Everyone!

Part of my job at BetterPhoto.com is responding to the suggestions from our members. Many of you seem to be interested in getting together with other photographers in your area. The BetterPhoto.com Summit was an opportunity for several of you to meet in person and strengthen the bond of friendships started online. It was fun to watch what looked more like reunions, as we gathered in Seattle.

Photo Shoot ｩ Jim Miotke All rights reserved

Dates are set for our next BP Summit that will be in Seattle September 16th and 17th, 2006. In the meantime, if you are interested in getting together sooner (and closer) please respond to karen@betterphoto.com with your name, city and state. I値l collect the data and see where we have groups interested. We will not share any personal information as we look into developing a system to help you coordinate BP Gatherings.

There is a website called www.meetup.com that does just this type of thing. For a fee, you can organize a local group with a shared interest, post meeting locations and maintain contacts with your group members. We may set something like this up at BetterPhoto, but for now, I am looking for suggestions and feedback.

Look forward to hearing from you!

Free Book Talks!

BetterPhoto™ president, Jim Miotke, gave an awesome talk on Top Tips for Digital Photography: Storytelling With Your Digital Camera at Epilogue Books in Seattle on Sunday afternoon. The talk was full of simple yet exciting ideas on how to make better digital photos. Jim’s audience was actively engaged in the talk and his well-produced slide show beautifully illustrated his main points. Afterward there was time for questions. Several individuals bought his new book, The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Photography and others inquired about our courses at BetterPhoto.com.

Chow © Jim Miotke All rights reserved

Fortunately, for those of you living in the Puget Sound Area, there are two more opportunities to meet Jim and have him sign your copy of his book.

Saturday, November 12th
Book Signing - 11:00 a.m.
Glazer's Camera, Main Store
430 8th Avenue N.
Seattle, WA 98109

Friday, December 9th
7:00 p.m.
Port Angeles Library
Raymond Carver Room
2210 South Peabody Street
Port Angeles, WA 98362
Sponsored by Port Book & News

Keep an eye out for additional talks around Seattle after the first of the year! And who knows? Jim may be coming to other areas, and including the area where you live, before long.

Have a fun week!

Holiday Gift Ideas for Photographers

Ornaments III © Blake Heminger All rights reserved

I was over at Cost Plus yesterday, picking up a birthday gift, and was shocked by the immensity of the holiday display they already have up. I shouldn't have been surprised – the Christmas ornaments started sneaking out even before Halloween – but it really brought this fact home to me: there's only a few short weeks left in the holiday gift buying season.

To be honest, gentle reader, it filled me with dread.

Usually, I’m pretty mellow about holiday shopping; amazon.com has been a good friend the last few years. But for some reason, seeing those displays gave me the jitters (and it wasn't just the sugar free Oregon chai coursing through my veins). And then it hit me: I haven't started my shopping. With one thing and another, November has snuck up on me and, as I'm wont to do, the to do lists have come out and I'm wrangling this holiday season into shape.

Are you feeling the stress yet? Looking for something for a photographer in your life this holiday – maybe even you? You're in luck, because Kerry Drager is on top of things this year, and has written an awesome article, Holiday Gift Ideas for the Photographer in Your Life. Check it out – and get your holiday shopping off to a great start this year.