You purchase an item online or join an organization. A few weeks later you get a flier from a company you’ve never received mail from. This happens quite frequently in this day and age. Unless otherwise noted, your contact information is not sacred and will be sold to other parties. Some of the unsolicited information you get is for useful products and some of the mail is just garbage. And then sometimes you get a mailer that just seems too good to be true.

I recently received a pamphlet for a seminar that promised to make me a better photographer, master an application I use almost every day, and teach me how to be a better businessman and marketer. A four-hour information packed seminar for the paltry sum of $59.00. Wow. I signed up for the seminar and on the appointed day, drove over 100 miles to the venue.

The seminar started off with a bang. After going through the preliminary introduction, the presenter started showing me and the rest of the audience, what we came to learn about. But he was covering so much material at such a furious pace; it was hard to take notes. Ah, I thought, that’s what the seminar CD in the goodie bag is for. It will reinforce everything he’s telling me and then some.

The presenter shifted gears and gave a tutorial about one of the applications listed in the program. Then he shifted gears again and gave a tutorial on how much faster it could be done with a 3rd party application that just happened to be sold by one of the sponsors for his seminar. Most of the photographers in the room did not own the application.  After the tutorial the presenter dismissed us for a half hour break, which was desperately needed as the participants were packed like sardines in a hot, stuffy room. Can you say, “overbooked?”

After the break, the presenter got down to brass tacks and showed us his workflow in an application I use to process my images. The only problem was, he wasn’t taking advantage of all the features the application has to offer. In fact, many of the steps he showed were downright counterproductive. In fact, I knew more about the application than he did. I was getting a bit hot under the collar in more ways than one. But the business portion of the seminar was just around the corner.

The business and marketing section of the seminar turned out to be a long infomercial about the wonderful products  the vendors who sponsored the seminar offered. Halfway through this part of the seminar, people started walking out. I wish I had joined them. Instead, I took the presenter at his word that more great stuff was coming. But the rest of the seminar was just more of the same. The long seminar was like one of those infomercials that air when the late night TV shows are over. Call within the next ten minutes…

The next day I loaded the seminar CD, hoping to find some good information. I’m now using it as a coaster for my coffee mug. The next time I get a brochure for a seminar that seems too good to be true, and is decorated with hundreds of sponsor logos, I’ll put it in the trash can where it belongs.

I’m looking for a place to live. The county is widening the road next to my current house. They’ve purchased my house and in a year it will be dust. So long and thanks for all the fish.

House hunting is not for the feint of heart. Yes, there are an awful lot of listings that appear to be incredible bargains. What my realtor and I have found are lots of houses that have been trashed by their past owners, other houses that are just total junk and the odd gem. I put in an offer on a gem yesterday. It was accepted. But it’s something called a Short Sale, which means the bank that’s out all the money becuase the current owner can’t pay the mortgage has the final say over the deal. You’d think the bank would be glad to unload the hot potato to a buyer that can pay. But no; they exercise the arrogance that got the economy into trouble in the first place and leave the potential buyer twiddling his or her thumbs while they play a waiting game. My realtor and I should write a book: Short Sales for Dummies. Tomorrow is the first day of waiting.

No matter what side of the political fence you’re on, it’s good to laugh in these troubled times. Comedienne Tina Fey does a great job of portraying Sarah Palin.

I’m an avid reader, and an author. So it’s only natural that I have a fascination with words. I love the way John Lennon (A.K.A. Dr. Winston O’Boogie) twisted the English language with his short stories. The man was brilliant. I wish he was still here.

Recently I learned about a site where you could create art with your words. The site is called Wordle. With Wordle, you can paste words into a text field, and generate Word Art if you will. You can also enter the link to a site with an RSS field to create unique art using the words from the site. You can modify the font, layout colors, the manner in which the words are arranged and so on. Here are two unique Wordle images, one created with the words from this blog, and the other with words from my podcast, Pixelicious.

The latest technology taunts photographers with more megapixels, anti-dust technology, live-view, and so on. Pentax, Nikon, and Sony have been upping the ante for about a year. Now Canon’s joined the fray with an updated EOS 5D. The new Canon EOS 5D MKll features integrated sensor cleaning, 21-megapixel captures, live-view, a 3-inch monitor, and much more. I own the first iteration of the 5D. Do I want its big brother? You betcha. I’m sure a lot of other photographers who own the EOS 5D feel the same way. So what do you do when you’re on a budget and can’t afford or don’t want to keep your trusty two-year old EOS 5D, or for that matter, any piece of old gear that you’ve replaced? Can you say eBay?

When my trusty Minolta 35mm camera died, I grudgingly made the switch to digital. After researching what was on the market, I decided to purchase a Canon EOS 10D and bought a couple of EF lenses. I was very happy with the camera except for the amount of time it took the camera to power on. Then along came the EOS 20D. When I read the spec sheet and noticed the start up time had been reduced, I wanted one. So I shopped for the best deal I could find and bought one. But I couldn’t afford and didn’t need two digital SLR bodies. I put the 10D up for auction on eBay. A week later, the camera sold for seventy percent of what I paid for it. Not bad considering I’d used the camera for a year.

I grew to love the 20D. It was a great camera, took sharp pictures, and the camera powered up almost instantly. But I shoot landscapes. Therefore I use a wide angle focal lengths a lot. The Focal Length Multiplier for the 20D is 1.6, which means a 20mm wide angle lens acts like a 32mm lens on the 20D. Almost a year after I purchased the 20D, Canon introduced the 5D, which has a full-frame sensor; no focal length multiplier. I wanted one in the worst way, but balked at spending that much money. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted one. Finally I succumbed to my desire, found the best deal from a reputable online camera store and bought one. I put my 20D up for auction the Saturday after my 5D was delivered. Again I recouped almost seventy percent of my investment after using the camera for a year. It was amazing to watch interested bidders battle each other, driving the selling price of the camera higher and higher. eBay’s is the busiest online auction site; a great place to sell photo gear you’re no longer using.

Now I’m in a quandary. I want the new 5D MKll and I also want to keep my trusty 5D as a backup camera when I shoot weddings. It would also be useful to shoot events with two cameras with different lenses mounted. Even though the list price of the 5D MKll is about $700 less than the original 5D, the economy and sky-rocketing gas prices is causing most Americans — including me — to become very frugal. But the new 5D won’t be available until November. That gives me two and a half months to come up with the money. You can bet I’ll be putting the gear I don’t use frequently up for auction on eBay. My goal is to sell enough to pay cash for the new 5D MKll when it’s available. In fact, I’m putting one lens up for auction on Sunday.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could put a slideshow of your most recent images in your blog? Embedding a video in a blog would involve quite a bit of sophisticated HTML. Another disadvantage is bandwidth. If your blog gets a lot of visitors, downoading a large video pile is going to take its toll on your monthly bandwidth allotment. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello,
Welcome to the Doug Sahlin Photography blog. Here you’ll find information about my latest photo shoots and services. You’ll also find links to interesting information about photography and new photography equipment. Stop by often as I plan to update the blog on a regular basis.
Cheers,
Doug