Rear Curtain Sync

Using Nulooq navigator on Windows 7

2010-04-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

If you're a photographer using the Logitech Nulooq navigator, you may have difficulty getting you custom settings to work on a Windows 7 32-bit installation. I still use Adobe Photoshop CS3 on my Windows computer at home. I use the Nulooq to quickly change my brush size in Photoshop. It saves reaching across the entire keyboard with my left hand to use Adobe's default shortcut keys. Note that the Nulooq still works fine on my Mac at work using Adobe Photoshop CS4.

To use your custom settings on a Windows 7 installation, change the Properties for C:\Program Files\Logitech\NuLOOQ navigator\NuLOOQCore.exe and C:\Program Files\Logitech\NuLOOQ navigator\NuLOOQHelper.exe in the security tab for the user so that the user has full control of the system for this application.

You may also want to change settings in the compatibility tab to Run in Windows XP Pro SP3 and change the privilege level to run program as administrator.

I believe you'll need to restart your computer for the settings changes to take hold.

Of the changes I've recommended, I believe the user settings are probably the most important. If you're unable to use your custom settings, change the second set of settings.

What I noticed after a normal installation of the Nulooq is that the jog wheel does work in Photoshop, but the custom tool tuner settings won't take affect. The changes I've recommended made these custom setting for the Nulooq work successfully on my computer.

Glass half full

2009-03-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

Fridays and Mondays are probably my favorite days of the week. Both days are so critical for getting stuff done the rest of the week. While other people take off early on Friday, I'm able to become immersed in photography projects. I actually had a lot of fun today.

I spent a lot of time this evening goofing off on the internet. When I couldn't find anything more to read, I remembered that I had a lot of photos in Arizona and New Mexico from my trip in January. These personal photos were taken with the best effort a 2-3 hour excursion would allow.

While traveling through the plains of northeastern New Mexico with my good friend Chris I said, "How can anyone be depressed about the American economy when we have such a fantastic expanse of land and beauty?"

The American media doesn't have a very optimistic view, but sitting in a New York or Atlanta office just can't be the best vantage point.

Travel advisory

2009-01-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

To my customers... Please note that I will be traveling to Phoenix, AZ, for the national Professional Photographers of America convention from Jan. 9-16.

This convetion brings together thousands of the best portrait and wedding photographers for three days. The trade show is huge and especially important for photographers seeking new vendors and products to offer customers. I'm excited about the trip as I'll be traveling with two other professional photographer friends, Chris Urias and John LaBarge. Chris runs a photography studio Guymon, Okla., and John runs a studio in Manhattan, Kan.

I will not be sending orders to lab until I return at the conclusion of the week. This shouldn't cause any major disruption as the lab is very quick to turn around the orders.

Memorymates instructions

2008-12-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

Memorymates are a 2-for-1 deal. If you order an individual photo as a memorymate, it includes the team photo. Ordering the individual photo just tells me whose photo changes in the bottom photo.

Customers do not need to order the team photo as a memorymate.

Some students did not to have an individual photo taken. In that case, parents should order a team photo since your student chose not to pose for an individual photo. Encourage your student to have an individual photo taken next year so you'll have that option.

If your son or daughter plays on the freshmen, jv or varsity team please indicate that in the instructions. Also, remember to enter your student's name in instructions so I can put that on the memorymate with the two photos.

*Please see the blog post about the length limit on instructions.

Order instructions note

2008-12-15T20:01:00.000-08:00

Please note that the e-commerce order instructions only allow for 85 characters. If your message is longer than that, please email me after your order processes.

Basketball memorymate notes

2008-12-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

If you are ordering a memorymate for high school basketball, please indicate in your instructions whether your son or daughter is on the freshmen, jv or varsity squad. This helps me determine which team photo to use.

Travel plans

2008-12-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

Please note that I will be traveling to cover the NCAA Div II National Championship game in Florence, Ala. for the university.

I intend to take the files with me to Florence so I can prepare orders for the winter sports, which will be taken Wednesday.

The absolute latest customers can order photos for Christmas is Saturday evening. I will be driving all day on Sunday. I'll be unable to send any order placed on the 15th with the lab for Christmas delivery.

Orders which require retouching such as families or senior photos need to be submitted by Dec. 10 in order to make the deadline.

At this time of year both the postal and photo labs are swamped.

Update: When will I receive my order?

2008-12-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

Order before Dec. 10 to receive your photos before Christmas.

I apologize for those of you who read the post from several months ago about when orders are shipped to the lab. I have removed that post as it's no longer accurate.

Weekly lab orders are now semi-weekly and are largely influenced by how many customer orders have accumulated.

Most orders are being fulfilled in two weeks time, which is faster than the previous team photography company according to the people I have consulted. It is still my goal to get customers their photo order shipped back to them no later than two weeks after it was received.

The biggest obstacle to getting orders back from the lab is the Christmas mail flow, which is slowing deliveries. Orders that took 2-3 days are now taking as much as five days.

If you have an order that is time sensitive, please email me after you place your order. I'll try to find ways to help meet your deadlines.

tiny Obama volunteer

2008-10-02T19:10:00.001-07:00

tiny Obama volunteer, originally uploaded by azalea_.

My wife has been volunteering the past few days and took this photo of our daughter at the local campaign office. No matter what your political leanings are, try to get out and vote. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Memorymates instructions

2008-09-06T12:30:00.001-07:00

If you are ordering a memorymate. Only order your child's photo. Do not order a second memorymate of the team photo. In almost every instance, I will know which team photo to use for your athlete.

Parents of high school cheerleaders and volleyball players may chose the varsity, jv, freshmen or the combined team photos for the memorymate. If one isn't selected by noting it, the large combined team will be used.

Middle school volleyball and football players correspond to their team photos, so this is something I will know. Unless I mess it up, the correct team photo will be used when you order you son/daughter's photo as a memorymate.

School starts for the little guy

2008-08-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

(Above) Mateo brushes his teeth in prepartion for the first day of preschool

This week was the first full week of school for Northwest as most of you know. Tuesday was my son Mateo's first day of preschool. This is his first, small step towards independence.

I don't see preschool as dramatic as maybe going to school all day. But any move away from being under-wing is emotional. Like most guys, I managed to keep tears from taking over. I've got confidence in him, but I don't want to take anything for granted.

My goal is to be a good care taker of him. I see him as being like a little brother to care for. I'm always a little worried about the way cars race through Crestview after the high school gets out.

I read several weeks ago that Britney Spears mother killed a 12-year-old boy who was riding his bike when she's was a young adult. Apparently, Britney's mother came around a blind curve and hit him. A story like that tends to make me worry anyone who's not really paying attention.

While on vacation this summer, my brother-in-law's parked rental car was totaled when a driver wasn't paying attention. Imagine if they'd been standing near the car? Imagine if it had been a child playing in the street?
The reason any parent worries is because we see our children as extension of ourselves. And we learn from our kids. They make us better people. I learn from Mateo by the interests my wife cultivates in him. Last weekend we took a trip to St. Joseph because I had a craving for Chipotle. It also gave us a chance to buy Mateo a Thomas the Train.

Now, I don't care for Thomas myself. I like the trains but the faces on them creep me out a little. Actually, Mateo watches "Cars" a lot and I prefer that to Thomas. Perhaps it's a difference in the pace of the programs. Thomas is a little slower and Cars is a little faster.

The train set is a good skill for him to learn mechanical skills. He's played with Legos from time to time as well. His interest in mechanics proved to be a good way to get him tuned into the classroom as well.

Prior to the first week, Horace Mann hosted two open house nights. At open house Mateo became totally fascinated with a marble tower. When I said "bye bye" on Tuesday, he said "mon" as in "come on." Like a little brother, he wanted me to stay and play. I felt bad because I don't get to do that a lot. Remembering how much he liked the marble tower, I asked Mrs. Creason for a marble and got him focused on the tower, below.

Middle School team photos

2008-08-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

Parents purchasing team photos from Maryville Middle School:

The corresponding team photo is implied when you order you son or daughter's photo.

Volleyball parents should notice that the two teams wore different jersey tops. When you order your daughter's photo, I'll know which team they were on by matching the jersey up with the team photo.

For football parents, I will know which team photo to use for your son's memorymate because the photo filenames indicate whether your son is a seventh or eighth grader.

Memorymates are a composite of the team and individual photos on a single 8x10. If you believe you need a memorymate of a larger size, I can do that if you want that. It's not currently offered, but if you ask... I think I could make it work.

Digital memorymates allow me to offer unique graphics from year to year. Printing the two photos on sheet makes them easy to care for and they frame easily. You don't have to worry the photos coming loose like they might in a cardboard memorymate matte. My own memorymates from the early 80s haven't aged so well and they caused my photos to discolor.

Football season within reach

2008-08-24T14:58:00.001-07:00

Friday evening Maryville High School hosted a football jamboree. This was the first jamboree I've attended and it was a good chance to practice for next weekend's season opener at MHS and Northwest. The photo above is probably the best shot I took all evening. And though it's not especially positive for Maryville, it summarizes what we like about football. It's impact. Probably no other photo from the evening captures impact better.

Speaking of impact, this fall is supposed to be assistant coach Brian Lohafer's final season. I've been photographing the Spoofhounds since 2004 and Lohafer's hands-on communication style made him stand out. He is often the tallest guy on the Maryville sideline so that doesn't hurt either. When I first began photographing football at MHS, I mistook Lohafer to be the head coach. The way he interacts with the kids on the sidelines during the game really impressed me. Even the kids who aren't playing have the benefit of his advice. Lohafer always seems to have a sense of humor no matter how the game turns out. And that makes it possible for him to have an impact on the team. I'm hoping we have a great season to wrap up his coaching career. As rough and tumble as the game is, it takes a kind personality to shape things from the sideline. Good luck Hounds. Let's roll!

Orders rolling out

2008-08-24T14:54:00.001-07:00

The first team and individual photo orders shipped last Tuesday evening. The graphical photo buttons were custom designed from scratch. I've taken photos from time to time such as the jersey fabric so I can create products like this. I hope you like them. I'm already thinking ahead to next year for a new design. I think it's important to change the design so that the buttons will have a fresh look each year. Please remember to list your child's name in the comments field when you're wrapping up your order. I can put both their first and last names on the buttons as well as their memorymate composite if you provide that to me.

Those of you who placed orders before 10 p.m. Sunday. August 24, should receive them this week. I anticipate mailing them Tuesday evening.

Slideshows

2008-07-06T22:28:00.001-07:00

I'll keep this brief, but you should notice the new link on my homepage for slideshows. This will become a semi-regularly updated portion of my site as I shoot events. New events will first be on the homepage and then moved to the slideshow page after they are replaced. I think this is the best way to showcase some of these events.

New photo purse arrives

2008-05-31T20:43:00.001-07:00

For some time now I've heard about photo purses and how they are the rage. My friend Mark Greathouse who runs a studio from his home in Lenexa introduced me to a vendor. So I've been thinking about creating one for some time now. Above is a photo of the purse created for Dana Schmidt, who owns Bearcat Boogie Dance Studio. The photo shown is a composite of five images matched and masked together in Adobe Photoshop.

2008-05-31T20:21:00.000-07:00

We went to Carson's in downtown Maryville for dinner. I've been to Carsons for lunch several times and was disappointed, but BEER becons and so we went one more time. The beer was good, and the food was better. I got a breakfast burger, which includes and egg on top of the patty. My wife, Azalea, got the crispy spicy buffalo chicken sandwich. We split each and shared with one another. Both were good. Mainly the burger was properly cooked (not burnt nor raw, thanks). Mateo chose to walk home rather than ride. Here's a funny video near the end of our journey home.

And BTW, I had a Duckwood Amber, I think. It was a sweet beer so I had to order a Bud Light to compliment it. I needed that beer after taste. I'm pretty confident I walked off the effects of at least one of them on the way home.

Has anyone noticed there are a couple homes on Fillmore that are sitting empty? Why? I don't understand how property can just sit empty like that.

Slideshow software debuts

2008-04-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

I just purchased some amazing software that allows me to create Flash-based slideshows. If you're reading my blog, you've likely seen one on my website, but you should consider stopping over at Bearcatboogie.com and viewing the one I made for them using photos I took along with Charles McAdams during the spring recital.

Dancing with light

2008-04-25T22:46:00.000-07:00

Friday: I broke in a new photo assistant Monica Taylor from Mount Ayr, Iowa. Monica is an art student at Northwest and I photographed her just last month for the Northwest Alumni Magazine. She's interested in photography so I wanted to give her a chance to help.

We spent about six and a half hours photographing the dance students at Bearcat Boogie, which is a studio run by Dave and Dana Schmidt with numerous national awards.

Things were going well, but I was getting bored with the lighting so when things slowed down late in the evening I had a chance to light several students with a shoot-through umbrella. I also powered down the lights to minimum power and used my 85mm at f2 for minimal depth of field.

I really liked the results.

Composing better light

2008-04-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

Tues/Wed: I traveled with Mitzi Lutz, the editor of the Northwest Alumni Magazine, to Indianapolis to photograph mid-80s alum Greg Gilpin, who is a choral music composer and professional singer. Gilpin toured with Gospel artist Sandy Patty for more nearly five years and is one of the most prominent composers of choral music for junior and senior high choirs.

I photographed Gilpin in his home with a sweet-looking baby grand piano for the magazine's cover. The room was big enough for the piano and seating, it presented a real challenge to light for an environmental photo.

While Mitzi was conducting a large part of her interview, I experimented with how to light the room.

The right side light was the first light I had to figure out. I wanted to light Gilpin's face, but I didn't want it to have the look of direct flash. I tried to light this part of the room with an umbrella. I needed the light to be small so I could photograph the room without it showing.

I ended up using my Gary Fong photojournalist with the far side masked off with cinefoil to keep the spill off the the far wall. This gave me the edge lighting on his face, which I prefer.

The second light I set up was supposed to provide fill light to provide detail to his backside and help illuminate the room. At first I put a light in the room and aimed it at the wall. However the light's placement wouldn't allow for an environmental shot I had planned to take. After playing with the shutters, I realized that I could put the light on the porch and shoot it through the window. This created the pattern on the wall, which I think is cool.

The photo below shows one of the images taken while he site read a piece of music.

Trapeze background system

2008-04-21T19:54:00.001-07:00

I recorded this video in my studio at work to show how our trapeze background system works. This system allows him to quickly change background fabrics. For me, it was a way to change backgrounds quickly and stay off a ladder.

This short video shows an inexpensive studio background system any photographer can create from hardware supplies bought at a local lumber yard.

A couple design notes:

1. I wouldn't put heavy eye bolt on the tubing if I had to do it again. As profiled, my own won't allow me to slip a seemless onto this tube. Instead, drill a hole in the end of the tube for the d-ring. This allows a photographer to remove the pulley rope temporarily and easily slip on a seemless paper background when needed.

2. The cam cleats cost about $50 to buy from a sail boat supply store in Kansas City. That was the most expensive component for us.

Props to Bill Bateman Photography for showing me his trapeze, which was the first I ever saw. Bill shoots seniors and families.

FEMA leafs a gouged yard

2008-04-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday wasn't too bad a day considering the lack of sleep. I did get up at a responsible hour.

I had plenty of time to plan my day while trying to nod off last night. The first thing I did was take the flat tire off the wheel barrel and headed to Orschlen's to get a new tire.

It cost $30 for a new one. Wow!

Okay so it has bearings, but gollee I'm guessing they made $25 selling it to me. I wish I hadn't been in a hurry. I suppose Parson's Tire could fix the flat for $5, but I was trying to scramble to the dump to drop off leaves before they were supposed to close.

I drove home with the new shiny tire. I put it on the wheel barrel and wheeled four bags of leaves to my crappy '92 Ranger. I tossed them in and high tailed it to the dump. Feeling optimistic I even took Main Street despite the freakin' stop lights and blue hair drivers.

Everything was good and then I got to the dump. Well, they're closed this weekend. Turns out they're open next weekend and don't resume normal hours until May 1. Argh!

I'll have traction for one more week in the back of my truck. Maybe I should consider leaves rather than tube sand next winter, hmmm...

While I was out I got my ears lowered at Gary's Barbershop. Good to have that done for at least six weeks.

When I got home I took the wheel barrel apart and cut the PVC shims so the new tire was properly center. In haste, I had skipped that part earlier.

For the early part of the afternoon I raked about five bags of leaves, carted another three loads to the side yard, filled our second trash can with various sticks and trimmings, and I dug out a tree that was growing near the fence. The mud was pretty sticky.

Whirlwind week

2008-04-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

I got back from HOAPPA on Tuesday evening around 6:30 p.m. Before I could relax at home I had to go to the Performing Arts Center at Northwest at 8 p.m. to cover the Symphonic Band's spring concert.

I grabbed my personal gear to save time and headed over. I took along my new Canon G9. I was able to jam the camera into the cracks of the sound shell and get some nice photos and video footage. The floor backstage at the PAC, shown below, has some really cool paint spatters.

Wednesday I covered the Dierks Bentley concert and Thursday night I covered the Northwest Jazz Ensemble concert. Friday night I finally was free.

A side note; I'm really proud of the students at Northwest for taking control of their entertainment options and imposing a self tax so they can put on at least one good concert every year. That makes it better for everyone.

After three nights of live music I didn't feel too great. I drove home and promptly jumped in bed at around 5:20 p.m.

I woke up around 6:30, but I stayed in bed for easily another 40 minutes just to get my head on straight. I wasn't the happiest camper but I felt a lot better... maybe a little edgy but not dog tired anymore.

Mateo and I watched TV until he fell asleep. I checked my email and headed to bed around 12:30 a.m. Well, that didn't work so well.

I'd guzzled an energy drink with some Ibuprofren so I didn't go down easily. I tried sleeping in the recliner, the couch and finally at 3 a.m. I conked out in Mateo's room. He'd abandoned his bed to sleep with his mom and Matilda around 2 a.m.

Heart of America PPA

2008-04-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

I just returned from the Heart of America Professional Photographer's convention in Council Bluffs. I had a good time and found several sessions especially helpful.

The convention completely wore me out with long days. The first day we were in a session at 7:15 a.m. and then had a party that evening that went on until nearly midnight.

After just a day and a half long days, I was worn down. Resisting the urge to buy something got the better of me. With just 10 minutes left in the trade show, I bought a Canon G9 from Rockbrook Camera. I had to have it. It's a point and shoot digital camera but it can shoot video as well.

Probably the best session I attended was by wedding photographer David Jay. His presentation was inspiring. I hope to use some of his suggestions in the future.

Senior photo poster

2007-12-30T18:15:00.000-08:00

As a Christmas gift for a senior, his mother requested I create a poster capturing the photo sessions. I think it turned out really well and plan to use this idea in the future with other seniors.

Christmas posters

2007-12-30T18:10:00.001-08:00

As winter set in and Christmas came around I had several requests for posters. These are fun to produce because they are such a design challenge. It's a fun process exploring the design possibilities when I get a new poster. I often start with the last design I produced and try to carry several elements into the new poster. One poster helps inspire the next one, but each one is unique because the photos are different.

Location lighting kit profiled on Youtube.com

2007-08-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

I posted two videos showing the remote lighting kit I use at the university. I originally put the kit together because I was traveling to Washington D.C. It had been a while since I had flown with lights and I was hoping to make getting through check in and security easier.

Having used this kit for more than year now, I really would like to add another strobe or two so that I can use even more lights in classrooms.

Part 1
Part 2

The kit consists of
1 Hakuba tripod bag
2 Canon 550EX speedlights
2 Bogen 3373 compact lightstands
2 Bogen umbrella adapters
2 Umbrellas (one silver lined and one white)
2 Pocket Wizard to hotshoe cords
2 Pocket Wizard Multimax, which we use as receivers
1 Pocket Wizard Plus Transmitter
extra batteries

Also, I highly recommend buying a Rosco Gel sampler pack. These only cost $5 from Roberts Imaging in Indianapolis.

Gary Fong Lightsphere in action @Imaging USA

2007-01-20T16:13:00.002-08:00

Tuesday night was the final night of the Imaging USA conference. Things wrapped up with a party sponsored by Kodak. Everyone got at least one Wonka ticket for a brown-bottled beverage. Catering served Mexican food, which wasn't too spicy, but it was good. The chicken meat was good and they also had a cold seafood dish.

The DJ did and excellent job of selecting music and the dance floor filled up really fast after everyone got their fill of food. I posted photos from the dance on Flickr.com.

I took all the photos at the party with a Gary Fong Lightsphere II Photojournalist. The Lightsphere effectively brings the ceiling down to the level of the dance floor because the convention center's 30-40 foot ceilings are just too high to bounce a flash effectively. Still the range of the flash was 30 feet in some wide shots of the dance floor.

This is my third lightsphere. I plan to sell my older one on eBay. I chose the Photojournalist model because I prefer a more specular light, which is higher contrast. I bought mine from Dury's Professional Photographic Supplies.

Gary Fong e-store

Best SCAM Cameras

2007-01-20T15:15:00.000-08:00

While standing in line for dinner Sunday evening, my friend Chris introduced me to another photographer he was visiting with. Chris said she had just bought a new 5D online for $1,500. Well, you might be lucky to buy a Canon 5D for $1,500 used, but you're not going to find one new for that price.

Okay, I give. You found one. Did you get it yet? No, well you probably never well. You see, just because a camera store has the lowest price on Google, doesn't mean you'll get it at that price. It's a scam and it's a well documented scam regardless of product. A company called Best Price Cameras is a sponsored link on Google.com. Just Google "5D" and their name will show up within the top three listings.

Best Price Cameras is also known as infinitiphoto.com and jandkcameras.com.

Their price will be lower than you've ever seen, but there's a catch. They won't ship you the camera for that price. Instead their sales staff will call to confirm your order and offer a strap, battery, lens cap, body cap, whatever at exhorbitant prices. If you decline, then your camera will be put on back order indefinetly.

You can read their reviews at Resellerratings.com where you should always review all vendors before ever purchasing something online.

While all vendors average a collective ranking of 7.06 on resellerratings.com, BestPriceCameras has a lifetime of .16 out of 10 with 189 feedbacks posted.

By the way, I didn't see their booth at Imaging USA. Did you?

Meet the blogger

2006-09-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

Let me start by introducing myself.

My name is Darren Whitley. I am the university photographer for Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Mo. I've worked here since August of 2000. My responsibilities include photography for the university website, publications, alumni association and foundation, athletics, marketing, admissions and public relations. I have a student employee who helps me do my job.

Prior to working at the university I worked for the Southwest Daily Times in Liberal, Kan., as their chief photographer.