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Domes across the skyline of Rome, Italy
If you walk from the Colosseum through the Roman Forum past all of the "old stuff", as my wife calls it, and up to the top of the hill, you are greated with this view overlooking Rome. The dome in the back (middle one in the picture) is the Vatican.  Domes across the skyline of Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Rome, travel photography
Roman Backstreet
 Narrow backstreet in the Piazza della Rotonda area of Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Rome, travel photography
The Pantheon - That great big hole in the sky.
Our tour of Rome continues with a visit to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was destined to be the world's first dedicated astronomical observatory; however, the telescope had yet to be invented so the hole was left empty:  Interior of the Pantheon, Rome, Italy. Do you own one of those small, table-top tripods? Do you wonder if anyone actually uses them? Well, here is one instance, a very rare one for me actually, where I kept one with me during the day and actually used it. The Pantheon is fairly dark. With one hole in the center of roof I guess they didn't feel the need to install electricity and artistic mood lighting. Originally the Pantheon was a pagan temple, or something to that effect, but a few years after the Romans killed Jesus they had a change of heart and setup a chapel inside the now Holy (pun intended) tourist attraction. The area below was roped off, so I setup my tiny table-top tripod on the floor with my large DSLR attached (which it could barely support):  Chapel inside the Pantheon, Rome, Italy. A technique which I use far more often than the table-top tripod is to simply place the camera on the floor and shoot straight up. I always keep a soft, stretchy neck strap on my camera (it's easy on the shoulders and neck) and will often put it underneath one side of the camera in order to shoot up at an angle. This next shot was a 3 second exposure. It's possible I used the table-top tripod on it. I don't really remember, but most likely the camera was placed on the floor.  Pantheon, Rome, Italy. Here are some parting shots:  Light shines through the Oculus of the Pantheon onto the decorative coffers of the dome. Rome, Italy.  Light shining into the Pantheon highlights the hollow decorative coffers that reduced the weight of the dome. Rome, Italy.  Portico and granite columns of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy.  Granite column base of the portico on the Pantheon. Rome, Italy.  Piazza della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Pantheon, Rome, table-top tripods, travel photography
Fall Foliage Photography in Arkansas. Coming soon!
I'm getting excited about the fall foliage outlook for Arkansas. We've had a lot of rain this year, and if we keep falling into fall with as much rain as we've had this week then the landscape photography prospects will be GREAT! In the past few years most of the leaves have been dead and falling off before fall even arrives. In places where there was good color, it would only last at most 2 to 3 days. More rain this year, and hopefully more to come, will keep the leaves on the trees longer and in good shape for a slow transition into peak color. The fall color in the Ozark Mountains and Ouachita Mountains could be really spectacular this year! October is certainly one of the best months in Arkansas. If you're planning to get out with a camera in Arkansas this fall, keep in mind that the trees in the Ozark Mountains in the northern third of the state peak first. The leaves in the central part the state peak 1-2 weeks after that, and then the foliage further South, especially in Ouachita Mountains around Hot Springs, peaks after that. All really great fall landscape photography is all about catching the PEAK. At the right time anyone can take a great picture!  Blazing orange maple tree on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Labels: Arkansas, fall, fall color, fall foliage, photography
Pictures of The Colosseum in Rome, Italy
I'm continuing to edit, caption, and keyword pictures from my last trip through Rome. The good news is I'm half-way done with Rome. The bad news is I still have a backlog of 4,000+ images (not all from Rome) in my digital workflow left to go! Here are some recent selects of the Colosseum:  Via Sacra sign in front of the Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy.  Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy.  Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Some of my favorite Colosseum shots though are still from my first trip to Rome in 2004. Here are a couple shots where I first tried to eliminate all the clutter, traffic, period Roman Soldiers posing for pictures (only when paid of course), trinket salesmen, tour group salesmen, and all the other tourist madhouse "local color" that surrounds the entrance to the Colosseum:  Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy.  Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Labels: Colosseum, Italy, Rome, travel photography
Rome
 Piazza di Sant'Ignazio is Filippo Raguzzini's masterwork of Roman Rococo in Rome, Italy. Labels: Italy, Rome, travel photography
Choo Choo
I took some test shots this past weekend with the Canon PowerShot G9. I'll be using it a lot on an upcoming trip and have yet to really test it out after owning it for several weeks now. It's been a busy summer!  I lot of professionals are using the G9 as their point-in-shoot "fun" camera to just keep on them all the time. This is my second digital compact, and at 12.1MP plus RAW files it packs quite a punch. In the pictures I've taken so far the noise is very noticeable, even at 80 ISO. The shutter delay is very annoying too, but both of these problems are to be expected in small compacts. Still, I find it very frustrating to use digital compacts after being used to Digital SLRs that do exactly what you want precisely when you want them to. This photo of a Railroad Crossing in Northeast Arkansas was shot hand-held at at f/4.0, 1/1250 sec., at ISO 80. I cleaned up the noise slightly in Lightroom 2.0: 
Yellow
Shutters for the Shutterzone:  wall, Rome, ItalyLabels: Italy, Rome, yellow
Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy - Part III
Rosco Cinegel Swatchbook
 Strobist blog readers all know about the use of color correcting gels to convert flash output to tungsten light, florescent light, or any other color. The extreme popularity of the Strobist blog and David Hobby's tip to use gels out of the Rosco sample packs, which can often be had for free and happen to be almost the same size as a flash head, has caused a run on the sample packs. Most camera stores are out of them. Just yesterday I was trying to find some myself in order to replace the gels I've been using. I checked several online stores, even those I prefer not to shop with, and everyone was out of them! Luckily though, I've just got an email from B&H stating they have some back in stock! You can find them here: Rosco Cinegel Swatchbook - 1.75 x 2.75"They sell for $0.01 each! But with a quantity limit of 2 per order unfortunately. Plus, if you are a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) you always get FREE 3-5 business days UPS shipping! NAPP members get a GREAT magazine (I struggle to read all of it each month) plus tons of other great perks. I find the free shipping from B&H nearly, if not entirely, pays for my NAPP membership each year. In full disclosure, I added another item to my B&H order so I can not 100% guarantee you can order two sample packs with free shipping and only pay $0.02, but I believe it is possible. Labels: flash, free, gel, NAPP, Rosco, sample pack, Strobist, swatchbook
Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy - Part II
Continuing from my last blog post here is another photograph of Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy:  Labels: Italy, photography, picture, Rome, stock photography
Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy
The late afternoon light on the Trevi Fountain in Rome only lasted a minute or two when I took this photo. It certainly did not resemble anything like this when my wife and I arrived. Probably 500-800 tourists surrounded the fountain and initially it was not lit by sunlight at all. This is where it pays to just keep shooting and shooting and working angles. I was able to get a lot of shots without the crowd and some with for the wider-angle perspective. What my wife remembers most though is the Italian leather purse she bought at a shop a few feet away! Oh wait, correction, that I BOUGHT her a few feet away. Editorial Correction 8/14/08 2:13PM: Ops! My wife very quickly informed me after reading this blog post that she bought the purse and not me. :-)  Labels: Italy, Rome, travel photography
Stunique.com Updated
Jennifer and I have just relaunched the Stunique website. We've been working long and hard on site improvements, redesign, and adding new products, and Jennifer has done a great job on the new homepage design. Please go check it out! Stunique offers a large selection of printed invitations and stationery, party supplies, and custom designed items for your special event. We also have personalized gifts ranging from wedding gifts to designer doggie wear. Labels: Stunique
Strobist Lighting Seminar Review
 2008 has definitely been "The Year of Strobist" for the photography community. Many of us, and hopefully you too, were regular readers of the Strobist blog before the beginning of 2008, but this year David Hobby's blog has definitely taken off. The blog was mentioned in USA Today a few months back, and if that wasn't enough photography blog after photography blog pointed out the fact that Strobist was in USA Today. Giving him even more traffic! And deservedly so. This year David Hobby launched the Strobist Lighting Seminar set of tutorial DVDs. The first batch of 1,000 (low because David funded it out of his own pocket so I've heard) sold out very quick. I thought my order was in that first batch, but I barely missed it and had to wait a few weeks for the second batch to come in. (My boss here at Terry Smith Images (myself) doesn't like me to waste training-budget money on rush shipping.) The Strobist Lighting Seminar is 8 DVDs for $139.00. I paid $143.80 which included the cheapest, US Postal Service mailing option. Is it worth it? YES These DVDs are worth every single penny. If you are serious about learning more about lighting you really need to buy these DVDs. There is an amazing amount of material here. I've read and watched a lot of photography training material over 10+ years of seriously studying the art and craft and in these DVDs David is sharing a TON of information and "first-hand, real-world secrets" that I have never seen anywhere else. I'm not going to do an extremely in-depth review here. I'm sure other bloggers have done that already. I will summarize the set by saying the first DVD is about Lighting Gear for Beginners, the next four DVDs are recordings of one of this lecture workshops (two for the morning session and two for the afternoon session), and the next three are all live photo shoots. The decision factor is this: You are not going to get better value anywhere for the amount of instruction versus cost as contained in this DVD set. Any class, workshop, and conference given by someone with his level of expertise would cost much, much more. Click here for more info on purchasing the DVDs: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2008/05/now-available-strobist-lighting-dvds.html
Here's a executive portrait I shot "strobist-style" recently using wireless off-camera flash. In this case an SB-600 was in the back to light the copper wall and an SB-800 with a CTO gel was to camera-right shot through a white shoot-through umbrella. Some window daylight was let in as well to warm the scene up a bit more. I was working very quickly, and in hind-sight this definitely could be improved. Some front-fill from just a large white card or reflector to camera-left would have added some needed fill to the face. 
Roman Colosseum Picture
Every now and then (translation: completely randomly) I try to pass along deep, highly-secretive secrets of the photography masters. Here's one now: When photographing historical European sights like the Roman Colosseum, Shutterzone Fruition may be attained by the addition of random tourists wearing red jackets (and other apparel) walking into your camera field of view, turning an otherwise uninteresting shot into something... mildly interesting.
Snow in August
It's been over 100°F every day here in Arkansas quite awhile now. It's time to cool things down with a little snow in August:  Winter snow covering pine trees in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Winter storm at Pinnacle Mountain State Park in Arkansas, part of the Ouachita Mountains region.  Winter snow scene as a snowstorm covers trees and brush in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Arkansas Agricultural Photography
My family is from the North East corner of Arkansas which is part of the agricultural Mississippi Delta, and several times during the summer I photograph crops while visiting them. Textbooks and editorial magazines often need good agriculture shots. I took this photo below at the end of August one year ago. This past week it was licensed worldwide for a textbook.  Agricultural rice crop on farmland in Walnut Ridge on the Mississippi Alluvial Plain region of Arkansas.
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