This is my first newsletter in quite a few weeks. I don’t usually go that long between issues, but hey, it’s summertime. And between projects, trips and assignments, sometimes I just can’t keep up with it all. I’m only human.

 

At any rate, let’s jump right in. I know that many of you are brand new readers who were introduced to me through my recent post on Digital Photography School blog, 5 Steps to Building More Powerful Images. If this is your first issue, then I’d like to welcome you and thank you for signing up. I hope that you find my newsletter to be an informative source for you to learn more about photography and become a little bit more inspired. If you ever have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

 

I spent last week in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska with my little yellow Cessna. Wrangell St. Elias National Park is the biggest National Park in the country. At over 13 million acres, it takes up more room on the globe than Switzerland. It’s so big and remote that you actually need to get around by airplane if you want to really explore it. Whether you take an air taxi flight, get dropped off in the backcountry, or fly around in your own airplane, it’s one of the most amazing places on earth to see.

 

Here are few photos of my aerial adventure in the Wrangells. Stay tuned for more because I’ll be posting additional images from the trip in the the next week or so.

 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, I told you that I was hard at work on a brand new eBook. Well, I’m excited to report that it’s getting closer to release. The text is pretty much finished, and yesterday, I started laying up the design. This new book is a collection of photography essays where I share the creative, pro and industry insight that I’ve gained from over sixteen years as a professional photographer. My goal with this book is to give you some rock solid advice that will help you become a better, more well rounded photographer, whether you’re trying to make it a career, or if you just love photography as a hobby.

 

I haven’t really announced this to the world yet, you guys are the first ones to know about this new book. You’ll also be the first ones to know when it gets published. I’m looking at a September release date, so stay tuned!!

 

 

You may have heard, Smugmug recently rebuilt their entire site from the ground up and launched with an awesome new look. Not only is the new site way more visually stunning, it’s totally customizable with a wide variety of brand new, and very easy to use options. Check out my new site design to see an example of what you can do and how it performs. Keep in mind that this is only one of many looks.

 

Even though I have my own Wordpress based website for my main commercial clients, I use Smugmug for selling prints and cards, for shooting and selling portrait work to non-commercial customers, for creating private web galleries, and for creating special promo photo gifts that I send to my favorite clients. You can also use Smugumg as a main website and have it point to any DNS/website domain address. 

 

If you’re looking for a new website option, definitely check out the new Smugmug and see if it’s right for you.

 

 

I also use Dropbox quite a bit in my business. In fact, Dropbox has become my number one way of delivering images to my pro clients. One of the best things about the service is that you can get up to 18GB of storage for free. (Over 100MB is where they start charging monthly fees.) I also use Dropbox as my own personal cloud to transfer and store work files across multiple computers and mobile devices. If you don’t have a Dropbox account, I’d highly recommend setting one up as soon as possible. As soon as you start using it you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

 

 

Issue number 4 of Craft and Vision’s awesome quarterly photography magazine PHOTOGRAPH is now out. I have to hand it to David duChemin and crew, they’ve come up with a really great thing with this magazine. The current issue features a number of great articles and tutorials by David, Chris Orwig, who is the author of two great books, Visual Poetry and People Pictures, Lightroom expert Piet Van den Eynde, outdoor photographer Jay Goodrich and Nicole S. Young, Younes Bounhar, Michael Frye and more.

 

Download your copy of PHOTOGRAPH Issue 4, or subscribe for a year and get four issues for the price of three.

 

 

 

I always try to pass along info about current deals, because… well, we all need gear from time to time, and if we can save a few bucks when upgrading or when purchasing a new camera or lens, then all the better.

 

The current bundled rebate deals from Nikon and Canon let you save hundreds of dollars when you buy a DSLR and lens or flash together. They both go through the end of this month. Click here for the Nikon deals page at B&H Photo, and here for the Canon deals page at B&H Photo. Also, check out the big savings on Nikon and Canon gear at Amazon.

 

 

Each issue, I like to share certain articles of interest that I find around the web. Here are a few link that I found this week.

 

The Path of the Generalist, by Joe McNally. Joe has been a legendary photographer for many years, but rather than specialize in any one genre of photography, he’s shot a wide variety of subject matter for a huge number of publications. In this post, he describes what it’s like NOT to specialize. I can relate, I like to shoot a wide variety of outdoor subjects, not just action and sports. Maybe you can relate as well.

 

Reality Check: Professional Photography is Going Away. From the Blackstar Rising Blog. Great piece. Controversial. Do I agree? Not necessarily. Will you? Probably not, but the author does raise some very good points that are indeed relevant to our industry. Definitely worth a read.

 

10 Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Adobe’s Creative Cloud. With Creative Cloud, Adobe just switched their entire software model to a subscription based model. No longer do you buy a version of Photoshop, own it and run it until you decide to upgrade, maybe even skipping a version or two. Now you have to pay monthly in order to use their software. If you ask just about any pro photographer or industry expert out there, it’s not the best way to do thing, but that’s what Adobe has come up with whether we like it or not.

 

In this article, you can read about 10 viable options for pro quality photo software that you may want to consider if you don’t want to go the Adobe Creative Cloud Route. Just for the record, I haven’t signed up for CC yet, and an still weighing my options.

 

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That’s all for now. As always, be sure and check out my other photography eBooks and my online photography courses through The Compelling Image, where you can get one-on-one personal coaching, mentoring and critiques from me. 

 

I hope that you enjoy the rest of August and find some time to get out there with your camera!! Finally, enjoy the posts below and don’t forget to share this newsletter with your other photographer friends, or flip through the newsletter archive to see what you missed in past issues!

 

Best regards and thanks for reading,

 

Dan