New Professional Network Launches

For the past year, we've been working on a software application for online communities. The system currently makes it possible for you to create a niche website, blog, and business card. You can create and join groups and talk to others via a messaging system. Your profile is listed in a directory based on your location and other criteria that's specific to the community.

The first version was launched at the beginning of 2009 and is geared towards working professionals that wish to expand their reach and marketing efforts. If you're a self-employed, freelance, or small business professional, you will benefit greatly from this website because it gives you a place to blog about your talents, products, and services. You are allowed to link back to your own website which gives you a boost in search engine rankings and brings people directly to your site. So far, we have accountants, lawyers, business owners, marketers, real estate agents, and photographers using the site.

We'd like to extend an invitation to you to take a look at http://www.prospotlight.com

ProSPOTLIGHT is a great place to gain additional exposure to your talents especially if you are trying to start or build a business. We know as much as anybody that it's expensive to market yourself either online or offline, and therefore a place like ProSPOTLIGHT.com will greatly aide in your efforts because it's currently 100% free to use.

ProSPOTLIGHT is also being used by job-seekers as a homepage to send potential employers to for more information about their talents. A well written spotlight could be the tipping point that convinces an employer that you're the right person for the job. You also have the ability to link out to many of the other sites that you use such as your Facebook account, your Monster resume, your LinkedIn profile, etc.

To give you an example of what can be done, I've created a spotlight for my nature photography at http://www.prospotlight.com/pro/naturephotography - I intend to use this to show off my best nature and wildlife images.

We hope you like the new site, and we welcome any feedback that you might have. Feel free to comment here or send me a message using ProSPOTLIGHT's messaging system.

Thanks,
Brian

PS The directory system is ordered by 'points', which you earn by being active on the site. For example, if you write a blog post, you will earn points. Those with the most points show up first for their country, state/region, city, and occupation. Those at or near the top will receive more traffic, leads, and sales than those at the bottom simply because people choose the first options more often.

Once you sign up, be sure to direct people to your spotlight. Any person that visits one of your pages first and then registers an account will be flagged as your referral. You will earn bonus points for any points your referral earns, which will help you move higher up on the directory pages.

Lighting tips for outdoor photography

The most important thing that you need to know how to control in photography is light. In outdoor photography, the sun controls your exposure; however, when shooting indoors, you control your light source. To learn more about how to use outdoor light to your advantage, check out my Outdoor Photography Lighting Tips article.

The Loch Ness Monster Debate

While a lot of people think that the Loch Ness Monster might be some sort of eel, or perhaps just some debris in the lake, many people believe it is an evolved Plesiosaur. These dinosaurs were carnivorous aquatic reptiles with long necks and the body in the shape of a turtle without a shell. These dinosaurs were first found in England, so it is possible that one or more survived through the ages; however, the plesiosaur's neck wasn't designed to bend upward to the degree that they could left their heads above the water as most Nessie pictures show. Even if they could, gravity would have tipped their body forward which would keep most of their neck in the water. It is possible for their head to reach the surface, but not in the typical "Nessie pose". Nessie has also been thought to be some sort of long necked seal, an eel, an unknown amphibian species, or some sort of invertebrate. It could also be a plesiosaur that has evolved from their fossilized ancestors.

Loch Ness is the largest body of fresh water in Britain. It's 754 feet deep, 22.5 miles long, and 1-1.5 miles wide. It is said that the loch never freezes, which could account for how the dinosaur survived through the ages. Below 100 feet, a thermocline keeps the temperature of the water at 44 degrees Fahrenheit. There is a large cavern system deep in the lake that could be where Nessie lives and avoids detection.

The Loch Ness Monster has been a popular myth since at least 1933, but there have been reported sitings since as early as 565 by Saint Columbia, who wrote that a beast rose from the loch and attacked a man swimming out to retrieve a boat.

Over the past 4 years, people have debated the monster's existence on a picture I took of a statue at Eccles Dinosaur Park near Ogden Utah of a Plesiosaur on my photo gallery at The Lens Flare. On this page, I ask the question, "Could this dinosaur be the ancestor of the Loch Ness Monster?" People have misinterpreted my question as "Is this the real Nessie?" and hundreds of people have commented.

The picture recently reached 100,000 views and is the first image on The Lens Flare to do so largely due to the fact that it often shows up on the first page of Google's image search for phrases like "Loch Ness Monster" and other variations, and the number of visits to this picture per week has dramatically increased since the show "The Water Horse" hit the big screen putting Nessie back in the spotlight. I invite you to take part in the conversation of Nessie on my picture The Loch Ness Monster's Great Great Granddad.

 

Creating composite images from many photographs

Creating composites such as the image of this girl and her deer friends is a fun and exciting thing to be able to do. The image is really a series of different pictures merged together to form something unique and interesting.

I talk more about how to do this with Photoshop, in an article titled, "Image Composites using Photoshop", on my blog at The Lens Flare.

Canon Camera and Lens Reviews

A few months ago, I added a camera review module to The Lens Flare, and people have been adding their comments about various cameras, software, and other important equipment. Canon, one of the most popular camera brands used on TLF, is well represented. There are over 25 different Canon cameras and lenses now listed on the review page including the EOS Digital Rebel, PowerShot G3, 5D, 20D, and several lenses.

When you're ready to purchase your next Canon camera or lens, it'll be a good idea to see what others think about it by visiting the reviews section of The Lens Flare.

Tips to improve your nature photography

For those that are looking to improve their nature photos, I wrote a detailed article of nature photography tips on my blog at The Lens Flare.

I describe how to use natural light, foregrounds, the surroundings, looking at the subject from different angles to create a better photograph, and how to reduce distractions. It should really help the beginner photographer and serves as a good review for those that are more experienced.

Equipment for the wildlife and nature photographer

Nature photography encompasses a lot of things including wildlife, landscapes, and flowers.


Wildlife Nature Photographer:


The telephoto lens is the wildlife photographer's bread and butter. It's important to have a lens with as large an aperture and as long of a focal length as a person can afford. These lenses get expensive very quickly, but a reasonable lens can be purchased for about $500 such as the Nikkor 70mm-300mm VR lens. A faster lens for low light action shots with the same focal length is going to cost $2000 or more, so it's a good starting point for all but professional wildlife photographers. With the lens, you'll still need to be relatively close to get a good shot of a small bird, but it won't be a problem for larger wildlife such as deer, moose, or bison.


A macro lens is also of use to the wildlife photographer that specializes in shooting insects and other small creatures because the macro lens can focus at a very short distance.


Landscape Nature Photographer:


For the landscape photographer, a super wide angle lens with a focal length somewhere between 10mm-28mm is recommended to capture a large area or to frame a huge object such as a waterfall when the photographer is near by. Wide angle photography uses different techniques than when you use a normal or telephoto lens; for example, usually, you'll want to be very close to your main subject, if possible, otherwise, your subject may be too small in the picture for it to be noticed. Waterfalls, rivers, trees, landscapes, and anything normally too large to be fully seen with a normal or telephoto lens are all excellent candidates for the super wide angle.


For Canon and Nikon users, Sigma has a super wide angle lens for about $500 for both Nikon and Canon, which is a 10mm-20mm lens (15mm-30mm 35mm equivalent) built for DX DSLRs. Nikkor's 12-24mm lens is about $1050, and Canon has similar lenses as well.


In addition to having access to wide angle shots, the landscape nature photographer will also benefit from normal focal lengths of 28-70mm when it's desirable to shoot something slightly closer than the super wide angle, and a telephoto lens of 70mm-300mm or more to zoom in on a distant object such as a mountain, waterfall in the distance, or other natural feature. Telephoto lenses compress space, and I've seen where people use this technique on rolling hills or mountains for dramatic effect.


Flower Nature Photographer:


The macro lens is the mainstay for the flower photographer, along with any other equipment that magnifies and shortens the focus range. Bellows, extension tubes, and magnification filters are common to get in close to capture the delicate parts of a small flower. Having a huge aperture is also important keep a narrow depth of field. While you're getting started, a 50mm 1.8f prime lens combined with a 3x magnification filter will produce good results for about $100. For about $300, you can get a 50mm 1.4f, which will narrow the depth of field even further, but it's probably not worth it at first especially since a starter macro lens is $300 as well.


Other Equipment for the Nature Photographer:


In addition to camera equipment, you'll need a good backpack. There are packs available that combine the storage compartment of a traditional backpack with a camera bag for about $200. Since you'll be doing a lot of hiking, it's good to limit how bulky your equipment can be. Also, you should buy a monopod to help stabilize your photos. Monopods can double as a walking stick or can be stored away in your pack. You'll also need food and water while hiking and other safety precautions, which is described in detail in my article titled, what to take on a nature photography hiking excursion.


The nature photographer needs a wide range of focal lengths for maximum flexibility; however, keep in mind that these can get heavy and thus you might need to plan ahead and take only what you'll need.