I just stumbled across a photography website with some very cool examples of using motion blur in photographs. What I really liked about these shots, besides the stunning imagery, was the shutter speeds for each picture are listed. For me, for anyone trying to perfect such techniques, this is priceless.

Check it out at – http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/blur-movement/

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What does a RSS reader (or a news reader or feed aggregator) have to do with photography you may ask? Well, if you’re one of those camera techies who loves to stay ahead of the game, than setting up a desktop or online RSS reader may be your answer. And it’s a lot simpler than you think.

If you’re looking for the most recent digital camera reviews, lens reviews, or want to see and hear what’s going on with Canon, Nikon or any of the other camera manufacturers, setting up a RSS reader is a pretty cool way of doing this without cluttering your email inbox with countless email newsletters and crap that you probably won’t read anyways. A RSS reader allows you to pick and choose what websites, authors, blogs, you receive photography updates from and gives you the freedom to read whenever you want.

First you may be asking, what is a RSS reader (or news reader, aggregator, feed aggregator)? I’m not a technical guy necessarily, so here is what Wikipedia has to say:

In computing, a feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader, news reader or simply as an aggregator, is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and blogs in a single location for easy viewing.

Basically a RSS reader is a piece of software (or in most cases, a web application) that collects syndicated content from all over the web into one easy location so you can sit back, sip your coffee and not move an inch…ever.

How do you set up a RSS reader?

There are probably thousands of RSS readers out there, but in this case I’m just going to pick on the Google Reader. Why? Because after a couple quick searches, a small amount of trial and error, it was the easiest and most intuitive RSS reader I came across. In a couple easy steps you’ll have your own photography RSS reader:

1. Sign up for a Google Reader account at http://www.google.com/reader
2. Pay close attention here…this gets mighty confusing: after you’ve logged into your reader, you’ll notice some options on the left. Ignore all of them except for the one that reads Add Subscription
3. Click on the ‘Add Subscription’ link and type in whatever topic you’re interested in, which in this case is ‘photography’. Up pops a huge list of photography websites, blogs, camera review sites, etc. that offer a feed you can subscribe to.
4. Click the Subscribe  button underneath the description of the site you want to stay in touch with and guess what, you are now officially part of the future of targeted communications.

Yes it really is this simple. There are other, more advanced features you can use within the Google Reader as well. For example, you can manage your subscriptions by placing them into folders. I’ll save the step-by-step explanation, but basically click on the Manage Subscriptions link hidden at the bottom of the left hand panel and a new page will appear where you can sort, add, remove, create new, etc.

After that it’s up to you to subscribe to the content you’re most interested in. For me, I keep my list fairly short because well, I have other things to do besides sitting at my computer and reading all day. A couple feeds I’ve added include: dpreview.com, Luminous Landscape and others.

Of course, if you’re going to add any photography website to your RSS reader, make sure to add the most inspiring adventure photography website on the web! I’ll even make it simple for you. Just type in this address into the subscriptions field on your reader – http://mackieimages.typepad.com/photography/atom.xml.

Or, CLICK HERE to be taken to addthis.com where you can add my feed to one of many different RSS readers.

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It’s hard to think about winter considering all the recent news about the California wildfires and temperatures in the 50s and 60s throughout most of the country. Here in the northwest though we’ve had our fair share of early snow in the Cascade volcanoes. Heck, lots of folks have already been skiing  on Mt Rainier for the past month!

So as the snow begins to accumulate I can’t help but think about all the epic backcountry ski days we hope to have. And for me personally, backcountry ski tours are not only about sharing untracked powder turns with a group of friends but also fantastic opportunities to work on winter photography.  So last week I posted a question on dpreview.com and asked for tips and advice for winter photography. I received quite a few responses but I’ll summarize some of the best photo tips here:

• Meter off the snow (see note below for us Rebel XT 350 owners who don’t have spot metering.) Put the camera in manual exposure, and add 1 1/3
  stops to the suggested exposure. Continue shooting using this exposure
  until the light changes, or until your histogram indicates under/over
  exposure.
• Learn to use the zone system for accurate exposure determination — or bracket, bracket, bracket
• If you are shooting in cold winter temps avoid having your camera go
  from very cold to warm quickly or you’ll get internal condensation. You
  can put it in a ziplock baggie before coming in or just wrap it in your
  coat or put in a camera bag.
• Tips for Canon 350D owners and the lack of spot metering: "partial metering" really is a "fat spot" so you can use that and just
  point the camera somewhere where the snow fills the center 9% of the
  frame (doesn’t have to be all that big) and bingo!

Couple other things to consider: bring extra batteries if you’re out in the cold for a while. I’ve seen batteries in my 350D go from a full charge to completely dead very quickly…while barely even using the camera!

Winter is an amazing time to take photographs although admittedly it can be difficult to motivate  and head out into below freezing winter weather. But I guarantee, with proper outdoor gear and clothing, you will find winter photography is truly a unique experience that offers spectacular light, amazing solitude and whole new landscapes to photograph.

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