Welcome to June! I hope that your summer is starting off well, I just got back from my two week Europe trip with a fresh batch of photos and some awesome miles under my wheels from biking over the Alps. In seven days of riding, we went from a little town just outside of Munich all the way down to Verona, Italy on the Via Claudia Augusta route. I’ve already posted the first part of my trip report. Check it out and stay tuned for parts two and three!

 

For this trip, in addition to my trusty Fuji X20, but I also packed a Fujifilm XE-1. If you haven’t seen the XE-1, it’s an interchangeable lens mirrorless camera with a 16MP APS-C sized X-Trans sensor. That’s the same one found in the top of the line X-Pro 1 and the new X100S, which is getting such awesome reviews. Image quality is stunning, and with the XF 18-55mm lens (effective 27-84mm), and the wide angle XF 14mm (effective 21mm) lenses that I took along, I had extremely wide versatility with carrying and composing photos. 

 

What I like most about the XE-1 is that it’s so light. It’s way lighter than my D700, and really not much bigger than the X20. In fact, there were many days that I’d ride with it slung around my shoulder with the strap, which kept it right there at the ready when a photo opportunity presented itself. 

 

I wouldn’t use the XE-1 for a dedicated shooting sports and action camera, but for traveling, I think that it’s an excellent choice. In fact, during my trip, I’d often see people out there shooting with their DSLRs, and I’d think to myself- “How liberating is this?!” Of course, I’m the guy who’t taken my DSLR and heavy pro lenses everywhere, so believe me, I know what I’m talking about. I just think for the weight and quality, and considering that it’s got the same size sensor as all the other APS-C sensor DSLRs out there, the XE-1 packs a lot of punch and value. 

 

Right now, Fujifilm is running instant rebates on this camera series. The XE-1 with a XF 18-55mm lens is only $1,199 at both B&H Photo and Amazon. If you’ve got a summer trip coming up and are thinking about upgrading or trying out a new camera system, this might be a good time to make the jump. 

 

 

Nikon and Canon are also running instant rebates right now as well. Summer is always a great time to pick up photography gear! Lots of potential bundles available, including a camera+lens savings of $300 when you get the new Nikon D7100 with the 70-200mm f4G ED VR lens. If you’ve read my other newsletters, then you know how much I love the new 70-200mm for a lightweight pro quality lens. It’s awesome for travel, portraits, sports, pretty much everything, and half the weight of the more expensive, heavier f/2.8 models.

 

At any rate, check out the saving:

Nikon rebates from B&H and Amazon

Canon rebates from B&H and Amazon

 

Finally, Sandisk memory cards are also on sale right now! Grab some extras for summer - you know you'll use them!!

 

 

A couple of months ago, I released my brand new eBook, Behind The Action - Creating Adventure Imagery, Step by Step. It’s sold really well, and so I just wanted to take a minute and extend my sincere thanks to everyone who picked up a copy. It means a great deal to me that you guys support my efforts. I spend a lot of hours and work really hard to share my experience and put information out there to help you guys with your own photography. 

 

Most of it’s free, but I obviously need to bring back some return from the time I devote to my blog and my newsletters, and that’s where the eBooks come in. Again, if you’ve bought any of my books, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your business. If you’ve haven’t checked out any of my books yet, you can find them here. None of them costs more than a cheap lunch, and they’re filled with information that I believe will help inspire and educate you in your own photographic process.

 

 

Summertime brings out the wildlife photographers in full swing. You see them at parks, nature preserves and just about everyplace you find wild animals. They’re a unique breed indeed. Maybe you’re one of them! If you missed this description of wildlife photographers that I posted awhile ago, take a few minutes, sit back and enjoy this humorous post.

 

 

Adobe Lightroom is a very powerful program. If you use it. Then you know what I’m talking about. At this point, I can’t imagine life without Lightroom. Of course, I’ve been using it and learning the ins and outs for a few years now. For new users, however, it can be a little bit daunting to figure out how the collections panel works, how to transfer photos to edit them in Photoshop and then bring them back, how to add metadata in such a way that you’re actually making your life easier and not more difficult.

 

If you’re new to the program, I’d recommend checking out Phil Steele’s Lightroom Made Easy video course. It’s an entirely web based course with 24 parts and over 5 hours of video instruction that you can watch over again as many times as you want. Phil’s course covers the basics and shows you in easy steps how to get started importing, editing, tagging, keywording, make web galleries, print and more.

 

And, this week, Lightroom Made Easy is 15% off - only $39 bucks. Good price, good investment in a good program. Check it out. That said, if you learn better from books then check out my review of what I feel are the 3 best books for learning Adobe Lightroom.

 

 

I get excited whenever David duChemin releases a new eBook. His latest is called Vision is Better 3. Its a 145 page eBook that’s filled with 50 articles, tutorials and photo essays that give some great insight on how to fine tune your photographic vision and skills. 

 

In my mind, everything that David writes is worth reading, so without even looking this one is definitely worth picking up, especially since it’s only five bucks. Consider it your weekend reading material.

 

 

As always, thanks for reading and I hope that you get a great jump on summer photography!! Take care and keep in touch!! Oh, and don’t forget to share this newsletter with your friends!

 

Best regard,

 

Dan