Gear Geek Week

This week, it seems like a ton of new photography products were announced.  This is why I have been many a "twitter blackout" lately (see yesterday's post for definition).

Canon released the new EOS-1D Mark IV camera.  Check it out here.  I read a pretty cool pre-review (I guess that's what you would call it) here.

Lensbaby released two new lenses which look pretty cool.  One is a fisheye and the other is a soft focus lens.

The one that is a big buzz, Adobe released the Beta version of Lightroom 3, which you can download here.  There are a ton of "First Looks" at the new release like this one, or this one, or this one.  I watched a very informative video put on at Kelby Training by Matt Kloskowski on some of the new features.  If you're a NAPP member, you can watch the video here.  If not, why?  Please use my link on the side to join!  If you do, you will get great discounts on a ton of stuff (not just photo gear).  You get a great magazine, tons of online photoshop info, and most importantly, if you use my link, I get a free month added to my membership!

Anyway, enough shameless plugs, back on topic... There is a ton of gear out there now that can help you do all sorts of things with photography. There is one thing that you need to remember, the gear doesn't make the photo, the photographer does.  Check out David duChemin's blog and download his e-books.  Read TEN (10 Ways To Improve Your Craft. None of Them Involve Buying Gear.) and TEN MORE (10 More Ways To Improve Your Craft. None of Them Involve Buying Gear.).  Both are great and have a lot of tips that can help you see things differently. Have a look at Scott Bourne's site, in particular, this blog post, and this one.  These two guys have a lot of good insight on photography and it's worth the clicks to check them out.  Heck, follow them on twitter, I do!

No, nobody is paying me to mention any of the above links (that's what the ads are for, support the sponsors!)  The blogs are things I find interesting or informative and I want to pass on to both of my blog readers.  So if either of you are interested in photography, check 'em out.  You too can become a twitterholic and spend ours reading tons of blogs!

That's all for today.  I have to be at work at 4:00 a.m. in the morning (I hate when people say that!  a.m. is morning, there's no need to say it twice!) but I get out at 12:30!  Plenty of time left to go shooting.