Weekly digital photography podcasts, photo tips, reader submitted pictures, equipment reviews and more.

As part of my work being the Digital Media Evangelist for O'Reilly, I'm always on the lookout for new ways to communicate. We've recently been discussing Twitter, and its potential usefulness in community building. I had initially resisted adding another technology "tool" to my list of networks. I seem to stay busy enough maintaining this blog, writing for O'Reilly, keeping an eye on our Flickr Public Group, answering email, and staying available on IM. But at the same time, I didn't want to be close-minded about a potentially effective networking tool just because I was busy. So I just... read more

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Posted by dstory on June 10, 2008 | Comments (8)

Even though I'm buying an iPhone this year instead of a computer (let's face it, at $600 it costs just as much as a Dell), I'm not going to use it as a business expense. "Why?" you may ask. Because the honest truth is that I'm getting one because I want it, and every other reason is secondary. That being said, I will post any photo-related tricks I figure out and toss a few pictures on our Flickr Public Group page. iPhones go on sale at 6pm Friday, June 29. I will get mine as soon as possible. My... read more

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Posted by dstory on June 26, 2007 | Comments (7)

The next version of Mac OS X, Leopard, that's coming this October sports a handful of features for photographers. One of my favorites, and most highly touted is Time Machine. As Apple puts it, "More than a mere backup, Time Machine makes an up-to-date copy of everything on your Mac — digital photos, music, movies, TV shows, and documents — so you can go back in time to recover anything." Since most of us don't use automated backup, having this feature baked right into the operating system is going to save lots of data for many, many people. And... read more

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Posted by dstory on June 11, 2007 | Comments (3)

Photographers who use Macs will see a glimpse of the remainder of 2007 and beyond today at the Steve Jobs keynote at Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference. Fundamental changes to the operating system, updated applications, and surprise announcements all might be in the mix. I'll be at the keynote in person, and will report anything of interest to our camera community. In the meantime... stay tuned Technorati Tags: The Digital Story... read more

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Posted by dstory on June 11, 2007 | Comments (0)

You've got a HD monitor mounted on the wall with Apple TV feeding it your pictures and movies. After you've gone through your library a few times, now what? Hey, fire up YouTube and watch the circus around us that we fondly call real life. According to a recent Apple press release, YouTube is coming to Apple TV. That's great in terms of variety of content, but do I really want to see those low resolution videos in unforgiving HD? Then again, it probably beats the heck out of late night television. Technorati Tags: The Digital Story... read more

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Posted by dstory on May 30, 2007 | Comments (0)

Macworld SF this year is going to be heaven for those interested in digital photography and podcasting. Over the next week, I'll be posting interesting tidbits from the upcoming events so you'll be prepared to follow the action starting Jan. 8. One of my most anticipated events that week is the Mac Podcaster Meetup starting at 6pm on Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007 at the Apple Store (One Stockton Street, San Francisco, CA 94108). We have quite a lineup including Leo Laporte, Adam Christianson, Ken Ray, Scott Bourne, and many, many, more (including yours truly). We're going to be discussing... read more

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Posted by dstory on December 30, 2006 | Comments (0)

Many consumers know about Sony's recall of laptop batteries that it manufactured for its computers, as well as those for Apple and Dell. But the Japanese electronics giant has also posted another CCD Service Advisory. According to Imaging Resource, the problem is caused by "internal wiring in the CCD sensor comes loose at high temperatures and humidities, and causes the camera to stop recording images, or to record distorted images. During the last round of service advisories we heard that the problem may have related to moisture penetrating into epoxy chip packaging. Interestingly, the Japanese PC Watch website states... read more

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Posted by dstory on November 24, 2006 | Comments (2)

I just got together with the rest of the iLifeZone crew in San Francisco to record a special WWDC Wrap Up episode. If you haven't listed to the iLifeZone previously, it's a regular podcast that I do with host Scott Bourne and Chris Breen. We cover all things Macintosh, with me usually focusing on QuickTime and iPhoto. In this current show, however, we analyze the announcements from Apple's World Wide Developers Confernce that include the new Intel-based Mac Pro desktop computer, Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) and the Apple Design Awards. You can subscribe to the iLifeZone via iTunes... read more

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Posted by dstory on August 12, 2006 | Comments (1)

Seems like I always need to capture something off my screen. Mac OS X has built-in tools to take these pictures, but they're rather primitive. On my new MacBook Pro, I've been using SnapNDrag. It's free, runs on both PowerPCs and Intel Macs, and is a joy to use. The problem with the built-in screen capture on the Mac -- SHIFT-CMD-3 for full screen and SHIFT-CMD-4 for selected area -- is that you don't have any real controls for after you make the capture. You can open the image in Preview and change the format, but it's a little... read more

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Posted by dstory on June 28, 2006 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)

I've officially entered the iLifeZone. It's a new audio show produced by Pixel Corps, hosted by Scott Bourne, and joined by Chris Breen. The three of us are getting together three times a month at the Pixel Corps studio in San Francisco to talk about all things Macintosh. The first show, which is available in iTunes Music Store, covers streaming full length movies via Front Row, iPhoto and GarageBand tips, and the latest in Mac news. We're quite the trio of individuals, and when you put us together in the same studio, I think the chemistry is great. You... read more

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Posted by dstory on June 20, 2006 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Photo Marketing Association Show (PMA) is underway in Orlando, Florida. I'm landing in Orlando Sunday evening and will begin reporting on Monday. I'm going to try something new this year. I've set up a SplashBlog. Mine will be called Dex's Mobile Blog. It will have an RSS feed too. I'll be taking photos with Casio and a Contax compact cameras. I'll then take the memory cards and put them in a Palm LifeDrive that has WiFi connectivity. The SplashBlog software will enable me to upload the photos and captions directly to Dex's Mobile Blog. Sounds fun. Let's see... read more

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Posted by dstory on February 25, 2006 | Comments (0)

Apple announced that Aperture customers will not have to pay an upgrade fee for the Universal Binary version that will most likely be released in March. This is good news on a couple fronts. First, we avoid the $49 charge that many other Apple users will have to pay for UB upgrades. But beyond that, it's rumored that there will be other improvements beyond MacIntel compatibility. Mac G4 and G5 users should be able to download the new version, when it's available, via Software Update. I'm unclear right now about how MacIntel users will get the update and load... read more

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Posted by dstory on January 27, 2006 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

With last Thursday's announcement that Konica Minolta will be withdrawing from the camera and photo business, I was wondering if their recent partnership with Sony will carry on the Maxxum/Dynax lens mount. In a separate release last Thursday, Konica Minolta stated: "...on March 31 2006, Sony will receive certain assets from Konica Minolta PI that are necessary for the development, design, production and so forth of digital SLR cameras compatible with Konica Minolta PI's Maxxum/Dynax lens mount system. Sony will accelerate development of new digital SLR cameras based on and compatible with the Maxxum/Dynax lens mount system with a... read more

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Posted by dstory on January 24, 2006 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (9)

Adobe's Camera Raw 3.3 plug-in and DNG Converter is available for download. This latest version supports 17 additional cameras (and a total of 113 camera models). New cameras supported include Canon EOS 5D, Canon EOS 1D Mark II N, Canon EOS 20Da, Fujifilm Finepix E900, Fujifilm Finepix S5200/5600, Fujifilm Finepix S9000/9500, Kodak EasyShare P850, Kodak EasyShare P880, Mamiya ZD, Nikon D200, Olympus E-500, Olympus SP-310, Olympus SP-350, Olympus SP-500UZ, Pentax *ist DL, Pentax *ist DS2, and Sony DSC-R1. The Adobe Camera Raw 3.3 plug-in requires Photoshop CS2, Photoshop Elements 3.0 or Photoshop Elements 4.0 I've just tested the new... read more

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Posted by dstory on January 22, 2006 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (2)

Most likely we'll have a new version of iPhoto in the iLife 06 suite that Steve Jobs will probably announce during his Tuesday morning keynote address at Macworld SF. The question is, what will the new iPhoto have? Since Apple has made a big splash in the pro photo market with Aperture, we might see some of those features included in the next version of iPhoto. No matter what happens, just like the release of the public beta of Adobe's Lightroom, photographers are bound to win. After tomorrow's keynote, Mac users will have not one (Aperture), not two (Lightroom),... read more

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Posted by dstory on January 10, 2006 | Comments (0)

I thought I'd pull my head out of my Aperture for a few minutes to share a few things that will be happening at Macworld SF next week. There's going to be some truly exciting photography news. Apple and its (partners/competitors... depending on what day of the week it is) are going to be firing some heavy artillery. The upshot for those of us who love photography: good times! Be sure to check The Digital Story on Monday for the latest news. Speaking of Monday, I'll be leading my Inside Aperture Power Tools workshop. Scott Bourne from ApertureTricks.com will... read more

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Posted by dstory on January 6, 2006 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

You can download Jerry Seinfeld and a host of other great personalities on FLiXPO... One of the questions readers have been asking here at The Digital Story is if we're going to offer more video content. Indeed we will, but you can download lots of terrific stuff right now at FLiXPO, a brand new service offering comedy, indie video, movie trailers, and funny ads. Simply browse FLiXPO's various "Channels," preview the clip you're interested in, then choose either the "iPod" or "PSP" link. I downloaded a Jerry Seinfeld standup routine. After a brief wait, the video appeared in its... read more

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Posted by dstory on November 30, 2005 | Comments (6)

The $19 iPod AV cable opens a new world of viewing content... I've just finished testing the iPod AV cable that enables me to connect the current 5th Gen iPod (video model) to a TV or other display via standard RCA jacks. I've reported my findings in this O'Reilly post, iPod video Plugged into Your TV: Is It Good Enough?. The experience is surprisingly good -- so much so that I'm already aching for more video content on iTMS. Between you and me, I think we have another revolution beginning...... read more

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Posted by dstory on November 3, 2005 | Comments (0)

What perfect timing for my debut post, as I've just downloaded and installed the developer preview (v 0.4.9) of Flock, a new open source web browser based on the Mozilla code base that's been receiving quite some buzz. My impressions of this very cool browser are still developing. I appreciated Axel Hecht's (of Mozilla Europe) more practical take on Flock. There's a lot to be said about Flock, but to keep things relevant to The Digital Story and you photographers out there, I thought I'd focus on their Flickr toolbar that comes bundled with the application.

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Posted by markl on October 31, 2005 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Apple with its new product, "Aperture" has been a big star at PhotoPlus Expo in NYC. Photo courtesy of Scott Sheppard - Inside Mac Media, Inc. I've heard from many sources that Apple's presence on the PhotoPlus Expo trade show floor added the extra boost of energy that the event needed. Apple chose this venue to unveil Aperture, its new pro workflow solution that's particular appealing to Raw shooters. I'll cover more on this software in the coming weeks.... read more

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Posted by dstory on October 21, 2005 | Comments (4)

Rob Schoeben, VP of Applications Marketing, introduces Aperture at the Apple press event in NYC. Photo courtesy of Scott Sheppard - Inside Mac Media, Inc. In a nutshell, Aperture is designed to make your Raw workflow as painless as managing Jpegs. The engineering team has spent almost two years researching how photographers like to work and what's most important to them in post production. The design team took what they learned, combined it with the power of Tiger, and created Aperture. This isn't iPhoto. It will cost you $499. For pros, it's justifiable because at $100 an hour in... read more

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Posted by dstory on October 19, 2005 | Comments (0)

This week Apple is making another big announcement in conjunction with PhotoPlus Expo. I think we're going to see some serious photography tools coming our way. For more musings on this, see my O'Reilly weblog, Ladies and Gentlemen, It's Photography Time.... read more

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Posted by dstory on October 18, 2005 | Comments (0)