Category: General Blog Post

A Collection of Free Resources

On By Mark DoddIn Free Stuff, General Blog PostLeave a comment

During this time of the COVID-19 crisis, various companies and organizations are offering a lot of Resources for free. Here is a list that I’m aware of so far. If you have another resource, please Contact Me so I can ad it to this Page.

Offers via 5DayDeal

They have a long list and have categorized them in resources for Photography Creators, Video Creators, and Business Owners. A lot are now free, but some still require purchase, but at a heavily discounted price.

Get out the list at 5 Day Deal Resources

Nikon School Online

All Nikon School Online Classes streaming free for the month of April.

Nikon School Online

PPA (Professional Photographers of America)

PPA has created a special page with resources for photographer including access to their photography education courses for free.

See the special page to access their resources PPA in it Together

Yoast SEO

For those of you who have their own website, Yoast SEO is currently give free access to their All-around SEO training.

Yoast SEO Course

Trey Ratcliff – Stuck in Customs

Trey is making his course Beginning Photography with Trey Ratcliff free, see link below

Beginning Photography with Trey Ratcliff

Henry Hudson

One of the Photographers that is associated with On1 is holding Live virtual office hours where you can ask him questions about specific photography topics. Each scheduled meeting has a different topic. So check out his office hours link for the topic of the next meeting and sign up.

Henry Hudson Office Hours

Creative Live

Select classes are available for free. This site is a great resource an I have purchased several of their classes for myself, but for now enjoy the free access to select course. Be sure to scroll down to the “Watch a Free Lesson” section.

Creative Live Website

Fuji Film Free Weekly Photo Lessons

Sign up for your weekly lesson at Fuji Film Weekly Photo Lessons

Canon Photography Tips and Tutorials

Canon Photography Tips and Tutorials

PHLEARN

Free Tutorials – Photoshop & Lightroom

Phlear Free Tutorials

Advancing Your Photography

Youtube channel with a lot of tips from Professional Photographers

PPA YouTube Channel

Scott Kelby of KelbyOne

Free webinars are usually just for his members but are now available for everyone. See his youtube page

Here is the page to go to KelbyOne Youtube Free Webinars

And as I said before, if you have other resources, please let me know via my Contact page

On1 Photo Raw Trial

On1 2020 Roadmap

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

On1 Software has recently given a little more information on its 2020 roadmap that they refer to as the On1 Ecosystem and how they plan on taking on the photography world.

First Up – Mobile

Well no surprise here that they are making a jump back into the mobile arena. They previously had a mobile app, but I and they realize that it was lacking many features needed to be a real competitor to other mobile photography apps.

Their new app coming this year will vastly improve upon their previous app. With the mobile phone photographer in mind they are working on adding all the features that you are a custom to on your standard camera into their mobile app.

Such as exposure, shutter speed, iso, and balance, autofocus or manual focus. Even select with lens you are using if you have one of the latest phones with multiple lenses. And RAW editing so you can edit on your phone just like you do in On1 Photo Raw, like exposure, shadows, highlights, color, noise reduction, etc. And this is what is in their app now, but wait, there’s more. They are working features like the focus overlays and adding effects like BW and vignette.

So if they can pull all this off, I think this will be the best mobile app on the market. And yes it will be for both iPhone and Android phones.

Mobile Camera “Sneak Peek” from On1

Next Up, On1 Sync

We all know we don’t just live on our phone or on our computer, be it a desktop or laptop, but we want to be able to edit everywhere. This is where On1 Sync will come into play. With this it won’t matter where you photo lives, it will make it available to On1 on each platform be it computer or mobile. It won’t require a separate storage cloud such as iCloud, your photos are stored on any computer and will be editable on computer and mobile device.

A whole new product On1 Video

Although On1 Video is looks like it might be out for Windows first, they are committed to making both Windows and Mac Version.

Features include tools for trimming, enhancing, adding audio tracks, grading and sharing video clips using tools, adjustment sliders, and techniques typically found in a photo editing workflow.

And they are working on designing it that if you already use On1 and are familiar with it’s interface, the On1 Video will be laid out in a similar fashion, making it much easy to use.

And last but not least, On1 Photo Raw updates

Of course they are not going to forget their flagship product, On1 Photo Raw, and are working on several updates for it during the year.

With the first update to include an all-new algorithm for highlight recovery. It now maintains the hue in the highlights rather than just desaturating them. And this update will be free for existing users of On1 Photo Raw 2020.

If you are not yet an On1 customer or want to upgrade to On1 Photo Raw from a previous version, be sure to try it out first. Click the link below to get your Free Trial

Download Free Trials of their current product line HERE

On1 Plus

If you are looking for training from some great photographers, On1 Plus is a great educational Service.

On1 Plus

It’s been awhile

On By Mark DoddIn American Kiwi Photo, General Blog PostLeave a comment

I know it has been awhile since I’ve done a post here. Until today, I didn’t realize that I missed the entire month of Feb.

But it has been for good a reason. I’ve been busy setting up my new portal page for my Art Show business, American Kiwi Photo.

In preparation for the 2020 Art Show Season I though it best to finally get around to setting up my “Portal” page to all things American Kiwi Photo.

So Welcome to the new portal for

American Kiwi Photo

American Kiwi Photo

Here you can find more about my photography, where I will be this art show season, see my current portfolio, and access the various ways you can get your very own photography print by me, Mark Dodd via American Kiwi Photo.

Please check it out and let me know what you think.

First Snow of 2020

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest winter fan as I like Spring and Fall much better, but if it has to be cold outside I’d prefer snow.

It snowed a little for us in the beginning of January and since it was a full moon or close to it I decided to try taking some long exposure night shots. Below is one of those shots. I’m amazed at how bright things look just with the moon light. If it wasn’t for the stars and the house light in the distance, it could almost pass as a daytime shot.

First Snow of Winter

Enjoy

If you have ideas on this image or other thoughts of what other subject to get photographs of during the winter, please drop me a comment below or feel free to contact me.

The home by the stream

On By Mark DoddIn Carroll County, Fall, General Blog PostLeave a comment

Last Art Show of the season

It’s that time of year again, that it is the end of my Art Show Season this weekend. If you are in the Carroll County, Md area, but sure to stop by the Carroll Farmers Market in Westminster at the Ag Center this Saturday from 8 am to 2 pm.

Since it is the last show of the year, it is also a customer appreciation day, and I will be giving up to 25% of my prints. So if there was something that you liked during the year, but didn’t get it, this weekend will be your best deal of the year.

The home by the stream

Abandoned A-Frame home and broken footbridge

Not totally sure that no one lives in this home anymore, but I’ve always loved the look of it by the stream. Even though the footbridge is no longer usable, I think it still ads character to the scene

Luminar 4 Released

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

Skylum is shipping Luminar 4, Their next major release in the Luminar Photo Editor for both Mac and Windows

Get Luminar 4 with Special Bonus pack options

Use Luminar Coupon Code

MARKDODD

and Save an Additional $10

With the latest release comes several new enhancements that will make editing your photo faster and easier by using the builtin AI tools

Portrait and Skin Enhancer

AI Sky Replacement

AI Structure

Learn More

You can download a 7 day free trial of Luminar 4. The quickest way to get the download is to click the Learn More link above, then on the page, you are sent to, click the Luminar menu at the top of the page and select the Download Trial link

FujiFilm Printlife

2019 Fujifilm Printlife Photo Exhibition

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog Post, Harford County, MarylandLeave a comment

Fujifilm recently had the 2019 Fujifilm Printlife Photo Exhibition & Sweepstakes contest of which I entered one of my prints.

I was honored to receive the following email from them.

Hi Mark, 

On behalf of the entire Fujifilm Printlife team, we would like to thank you for submitting into the 2019 Fujifilm Printlife Photo Exhibition & Sweepstakes. 

We are pleased to announce that you have a submission that has been sent to be printed and put on display at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal!*

You will be a part of this year’s incredible exhibit, showcasing 13,640 photos!*

We hope that you will join us October 16th through the 20th in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall to see all of the amazing photos on display this year. 

 Check out the dates and times here:

Event Details

We are looking forward to seeing and meeting you at the event!

Thank You,

The Fujifilm Printlife Team

So if you are in the New York area from October 16th through the 20th and have a chance to stop by the Grand Central Terminal. Keep a look out for my image being displayed as part of this exhibit.

Here is my image to keep an eye out for. Note: in the exhibit, this image was cropped to fit the square format, the below image is the full image as taken

Blue Barns
Blue Barns
Jesus in the Dome

Maryland Photography Alliance (MPA) Gallery Show

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

I belong to my local camera club, the Carroll County Camera Club, which is part of the Maryland Photography Alliance (MPA), an organization of the made up of many of the local camera clubs in here in Maryland. It’s a great club and we participate in several photography contests during the year. Be sure to see if there is a local camera club in your area. They are a great place for getting together with other photographers that have the same passion as you.

The Maryland Photography Alliance (MPA) recently held it’s 3rd annual photography contest. Although I didn’t win the prize level in any of the 3 categories that I entered, I was invited to exhibit one of my entrees as one of the top images of the competition.

The image that I was invited to display in this gallery is titled

Jesus in the Dome

Jesus in the Dome
The Statue of Jesus in the Billings Building of Johns Hopkins Hospital

So be sure to visit the Activity Center at Bohrer Park in Gaithersburg from November 1 2019, through January 20, 2020, to see my work and the works of other members of MPA camera clubs. There wa some great images entered this year and I plan to go and check them all out.

This was taken with my Nikon D80, at ISO 200, 18mm focal length, 0.8 sec at F8.0. It is cropped a little as I had to lay my camera blindly on the floor and set it to take my 3 bracket exposures on a timer so everything wasn’t exactly lined up. It was edited in Aurora HDR 2018 and may have been touched up with Luminar.

So what have I been up to

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

I know I’ve been kinda absent from doing posts like I use to do, but I’ve been a little busier that I thought with a project I’ve been putting off for some time. What is that project you say.

Finally getting around to doing cleanup and merging all my photos into one location. I didn’t think it was going to be as big a job as it has been and I”m still not really finished. To my surprise I have many copies of files all over the place on different computers, spare hard rives, flash memory, etc.

I didn’t know how I was going to deal with all the duplicate images. Even though programs like lightroom have a duplicate photo not to import option I found that even though the image looked the same in some cases, the metadata was different and that is what lightroom seems to rely on as part of its determining if a photo is a duplicate. Another problem was that after using several different applications over time each had created a preview version which is a low resolution version of and image and I had to make sure I was only importing the full resolution image instead of just the preview.

One program that I found that was some help was Duplicate Photo Fixer Pro. It did an excellent job on helping me find duplicates of my non raw images. (jpeg, png, tiff, etc). So if you have a folder full of images that you thing contain duplicates I can recommend this program. Just note that it does not work with RAW files.

Here is the interface with some of my images where is found a duplicate and I choose the Auto Mark Option. Note the one’s in RED are the images marked and will be deleted.

After using this program I freed up almost a TB of space when you total up all the duplicate images that I removed.

Like I said earlier, I’ve been using various programs over time and what prompted me to start the cleanup is the fact that Apple’s Aperture software, which was my first real editor, will no longer work with the next release of the Mac OS (Catalina) so I needed to make sure I could access all my Aperture images in other programs before that happened.

I’m almost done and I hope to get back to editing more images, taking great fall images, and finding and showing you more interesting photography software and tools in the near future.

But as the Fall season is upon us and in some locations, the tree leaves are already at their peak, make sure to get out there as soon as you can before the season is over and get those great fall photos. It’s one of my favorite times of the year to photo.

ON1 announces future software roadmap

On By Mark DoddIn General Blog PostLeave a comment

ON1 Software 2020 vision

This week ON1 Software has announced their new vision for photography for 2020.

Adding to their existing product line of ON1 Photo and the ON1 Plus subscription with a series of new applications to complete your photography workflow.

Coming in 2020 is a new release of ON1 Photo, ON1 PhotoRaw 2020 along with the new applications of On1 Photo Mobile 2020, ON1 Sync, and ON1 Video 2020.

With the new apps being added to their existing product line you now have a complete set off applications for your workflow.

A brief description of each new app

  • ON1 Photo Raw 2020
    • New AI-powered features AI Match and AI Auto, four filters in Effects (Weather, Sun Flare, Color Balance, Channel Mixer)
    • Custom Camera Profiles with X-Rite, SmugMug integration
    • Improved noise reduction
    • A map view – Something that I have been waiting for
    • A Print Module
    • and significant speed and performance enhancements.
  • ON1 Photo Mobile 2020
    • Capture raw photos on your smartphone using the pro-level controls you are familiar with on your interchangeable-lens camera.
    • Works with the On1 Sync optional service add-on
  • ON1 Sync
    • optional service add-on
    • You will be able to view and edit photos on all your devices without requiring you to store them in the cloud or a closed system.
    • The new service will also sync albums, presets, and more between all your devices.
  • ON1 Video 2020
    • video editing app explicitly designed for the photographer.
    • Features include tools for trimming, enhancing, adding audio tracks, grading and sharing video clips using tools, adjustment sliders, and techniques typically found in a photo editing workflow. Additional features will include the ability to create professional time-lapse videos, slideshows, high-quality still-frame captures, and seamless integration with ON1 Photo RAW.

Find out more about ON1’s vision of photography editing software of the future

ON1 is running a special where you can upgrade or purchase the current release of ON1 Photo Raw 2019 and you will receive the next release ON1 Photo Raw 2020 when released. Just a reminder, if you are an ON1 Plus subscription customer, you receive the next release as part of the subscription.

If you do need to upgrade or purchase don’t forget to use my ON1 Coupon Code of MDODD20 to save more.

#on1photo #on1software #roadmap #on1photoraw2020