Hack a Canon

http://lifehacker.com/387380/turn-your-point+and+shoot-into-a-super+camera

Well, I don't know if I'd call it a Super Camera, but this hack is pretty cool if you want to push your Canon point and shoot into a better camera. The Canon Hacker's Development Kit, aka CHDK, is a firmware enhancement you put on your camera's memory card and it does magic.

What does this do to it? You can get RAW files for better images, you can add Motion Detection for security or shooting lightening, etc. You can play games on your Canon P&S. Some of the tricks are really cool, like way higher shutter speeds such as 1/12,500 or faster - which is faster than my dSLR Canon 5D, or really really slow like 65 seconds - yes over a minute.

If you like to shoot videos and - like me - are disappointed with your P&S's short video capture time, this hack will be something you'll have to do.

There's quite a few scripts being developed for this hack to add even more new features. Someone even developed a game to play on your P&S.

NOTE: I have not tried this myself, so don't know how good or stable the hack is, but would love to hear from someone who's done it.

Lots of people coming by

Yesterday, BestPhotoLessons.com had 139 people come to the site and viewed 350 pages.

I just compared the yearly stats and every year visitors just about doubles. We've almost had as many visitors so far this as we had last year.

It's really gratifying to see so many people using the site. Thanks to everyone who visits.

And if you would like to suggest more things you'd like to see here, by all means leave a comment or email us.

Wisdom by Andrew Zuckerman

Gorgeous photos and essential wisdom from those who've experienced life and have made a difference, photographed and produced by New York photographer Andrew Zuckerman.

We should all take these lessons to heart - and for the photographers, be inspired both by the photography and scope of this book, which includes a DVD with the interviews.


The Trailer:








Also see the web site for the book if you want to learn more and see the "making of" - great for us photographers. www.wisdombook.org

Getting the perspective

Pretty much every camera now has at least one zoom lens. But how do you make better use of the various lengths of the lens (or lenses if you have more than one lens)?

Try this, pick a subject preferably a person or person sized object. Set your lens to the longest it goes and move yourself until the subject pretty much fills the lens. Now, zoom out just a bit and move until the subject fills about the same amount of frame. Zoom out some more, and move again. Keep doing this until you've gone through the whole length of the zoom on your camera.

Now review the pictures and check out how each image looks.