David Nightingale from Chromasia Training is offering a great deal on his photography and post-production tutorials. Until midnight Sunday 10th November you can sign up for a lifetime membership for just £29 (approx USD$47), which is the normal price per year.
Check out the tutorials (including a free sample tutorial), and you can sign up here.

Chromasia also is offering a big discount on his video training titled "The Art of Black and White Photography", bringing the price down to just USD$9. The normal price is USD$99, so that's a savings of about 90% on the usual price, and is also available until midnight Sunday 10th November. Use this link to get the discount.



Phottix released their Mitros TTL flash for Canon earlier this year, followed by the Nikon version, to very good reviews.
They have now gone one step further, and integrated an Odin transmitter, Odin receiver, and a Strato receiver into the Mitros flash, and called it the Mitros+ TTL Transceiver Flash.
Having a TTL flash with this functionality integrated into the flash unit means you no longer need to use separate triggers for each flash, reduces the complexity of a lighting setup, and reduces the amount of gear and number of batteries that you need to carry.

The Phottix Mitros+ for Canon is currently available, with a Nikon version expected in the future.



Phottix published a table showing compatibility between the various models of flash triggers that they sell.
If you are considering buying a Phottix flash trigger, or have some and want to know what is compatible with them, be sure to check out this compatibility chart.

• Fiddleoak's "littlefolk" series is a great set of images by a 14 year old consisting of people composited as miniatures in the real world. Check out his photos on flickr, his blog, and a tutorial showing how he created one of the photos. He has recently started a new series titled traveler.
• Dave Flynn's Mini Worlds is also a great set of photos showing tiny humans in the real world.
• Crafting scenes of iconic Americana is a flickr blog post featuring some great photos by Michael Paul Smith. At first glance, Michael's photos of mid-twentieth century America look real, but they are actually created using model cars on a table, with scale model buildings and real buildings in the background.
• Ben Heine's series of images titled Pencil vs Camera combine photography with hand-drawn pictures in a very unique and interesting way. Browse through his photos and see some of his work as featured on the flickr blog.

The Phottix Mitros TTL flash has been available for Canon for several months, and Phottix have now released the Nikon version of the Mitros.

David "Strobist" Hobby has been testing the Nikon version, and has published a positive review of the Mitros for Nikon. In his review, David said: With a 2 year warranty, the Mitros provides great value for money for anyone wanting a TTL flash for either Canon or Nikon.



Here are some interesting collections of photos to inspire you and humour you:

• The 33 Most Beautiful Abandoned Places In The World
• Rare Historical Photos
• Creative Photographer Combines the Past and Present
• 14-Year-Old Photographer's Amazingly Surreal Self Portraits
• Crazy Portraits of People Being Blown by a Leaf Blower

For some more inspirational photos, have a look through these recent galleries posted by The D-Photo Inspiration Fix in recent weeks.

• Child & toddler photography inspiration by Sarah Cornish
• Beautiful photography by Jenny Karlsson
• Black and white street photography by Francesco Medda
• Black and white long exposure photography by Neil Hulme
• Creative photography by Carolene Preap
• Photography inspiration: A selection from The D-Photo flickr group

Several of my children play soccer every Saturday, and I normally have my KAP gear in the car. Yesterday was the first time that there was sufficient wind to attempt some photos from my kite.

soccer fields

GoPro HD Hero2 (suspended from a kite)

The wind was a bit variable, so I did attempt to fly the kite over any of the games that were in progress. I am keen to try again at this venue, and hopefully some more consistent wind will allow me to get some photos a little closer to the action on the soccer fields.

Phottix recently announced a new TTL Flash called the Phottix Mitros. Only a Canon version is available now, with a Nikon version expected soon, and a Sony version planned for later this year. While not yet listed in Phottix's Phottix online store, the expected price is around USD$350.

Update: The Mitros flash for Canon is now available in the Phottix online store, and is priced at USD$349.99.

Phottix Mitros flash

The Mitros is a high-quality flash that works well in both manual and TTL mode, and is completely compatible with the fantastic Odin TTL flash triggers and the yet-to-be-released Strato TTL triggers.
It is compatible with Canon's IR triggering capabilities, allowing you to easily use one or more Mitros flashes with an existing set of Canon flashes. A USB port ensures the firmware in the Mitros flash can easily be upgraded.

After testing a Mitros for a while, I found it has a few key features that make it more appealing to me than a Canon 580EX II flash, including:

• ready confirmation beep
• battery indicator
• 3.5mm sync socket
• easier head tilt/rotation (no need to push a button)

Check out the full specifications of the Mitros on Phottix's website.



You can save 10% off all purchases in the Phottix online store until 2nd April when you use the discount code "EASTERTEN". If you have been considering buying some new accessories for your photography, then you should take advantage of this discount.



David Nightingale from Chromasia Training a discount on his video training titled "The Art of Black and White Photography", bringing the price down to USD$39 until Monday 1st April. Use this link to get the discount or enter the coupon code "Easter_2013" to manually apply the discount.

You can also get a 50% discount on the first year subscription to the Chromasia photography and post-production tutorials if you sign up before Monday 1st April. With a 50% discount, that brings the price down from £30 to just £15. Use the coupon code "F81A814D6F" when you sign up to get the discount.



Earlier this week, Google announced that they were reducing the price of the entire Nik Collection from USD$499 down to just USD$149. This suite includes six of their great plug-ins, including

• HDR Efex Pro 2
• Silver Efex Pro 2
• Sharpener Pro 3
• Color Efex Pro 4
• Viveza 2
• Dfine 2

These plug-ins can be used with Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture, and this bundle is great value at this price. You can also try them for a 15 day trial before purchasing them.

The Nik Collection can be purchased from the Nik Software website.
For a further discount, check the comments on this story for some coupon codes.



I have previously linked to some of the galleries posted by The D-Photo Inspiration Fix, and they have continued to post some fantastic photos. Here's a short selection of some of the recent galleries they have posted:

• Beautiful toddler photography by Sarah Wolfe
• Amazing nature photography by Magda Wasiczek
• Inspiring photography by Joanna Kitchener
• Landscape photography inspiration by Eric Rousset
• Still life & food photography by Sasha Bell
• Urban & landscape photography inspiration by Marcel Fischer
• Documentary photography inspiration by Rajagopalan Sarangapani
• Photography inspiration: A selection from The D-Photo flickr group
• Toddler photography inspiration by Heather Stockett
• Beautiful cinematic photography by Raúl González
• Amazing photography by Linda Raymond

Note that some of the other sets linked by the D-Photo are NSFW.

With Photokina happening at the moment, there have been a lot of announcements from camera and accessory vendors. Here are a few announcements that caught my eye.



Phottix released their fantastic Odin TTL Flash Trigger late last year, initially only for Canon. (Read my review of the Odin here.) A Nikon version of the Odin was made available earlier this year, and now Phottix have announced the Sony version of the Odin.

Phottix Odin for Sony

The Phottix Odin provides reliable triggering for multiple off-camera flashes, with three groups that can be configured in either TTL mode or manual mode, allowing all settings, including flash power levels, flash exposure compensation and flash zoom, to be configured from the Odin's transmitter. The Odin also supports high-speed sync and second curtain sync, and is backward compatible with the original Strato, Strato II and Atlas II triggers.

Phottix have indicated that the Odin for Sony will start shipping next week, and is now available for purchase in Phottix's online store.



At Photokina, Phottix have announced their newest flash trigger, the Phottix Strato TTL. The Strato TTL is a brand-new trigger in the Strato series, and provides a cheaper solution to photographers wanting reliable and easy-to-use wireless TTL flash triggering. As with all of Phottix's more recent triggers, the Strato TTL trigger uses 2.4GHz. It supports a maximum shutter speed of 1/8000 seconds in high-speed sync mode, and also supports second curtain sync.

The Strato TTL is compatible with the original Strato, Strato II and Atlas II triggers.

Versions of the Strato TTL trigger for Canon, Nikon and Sony will be released in Q4 2012 and Q1 2013.

Phottix Strato TTL transmitter and receiver

rear of the Phottix Strato TTL transmitter and receiver

While the details in Phottix's press release are pretty thin, it looks like the Strato TTL is a cheaper and smaller version alternative to the Phottix Odin, but without support for multiple groups of flashes.

No information is available about compatibility with the Phottix Odin, but it would be nice if the Odin and Strato TTL were compatible.

Pricing information for the Strato TTL isn't yet available, but it should provide photographers wanting TTL flash triggers a cheaper alternative.



Phottix have also announced a TTL flash, called the Mitros. The Mitros will be available for Canon, Nikon and Sony, and has been under development for more than two years.

Functionality includes ETTL, manual and multi modes, high-speed sync, rear curtain sync, auto and manual flash head zooming, and built-in IR master/slave triggering. The Mitros takes 4 AA batteries, and has a socket for connecting an external battery pack. With a guide number of 58, the Mitros flash output is likely to be comparable in power to a Canon 580EX.

front of the Phottix Mitros TTL flash

rear of the Phottix Mitros TTL flash

Something not seen on many other flash units, the Mitros has a USB port, to allow the firmware to be upgraded. This will allow Phottix to add compatibility for new camera models in the future.

The Mitros will be available for Canon, Nikon and Sony in Q4 2012 and Q1 2013.

Update: The Mitros flash for Canon is now available in the Phottix online store, and is priced at USD$349.99.



The Ares is a new wireless flash trigger from Phottix, and was announced on 20 September 2012. The Ares is designed as a no-frills non-TTL flash trigger that is easy to use, and provides reliable triggering, at an affordable price.

One of the key features of the Ares is the rotating transmitter mount. It allows photographers to use the transmitter in an upright position, for easy access to the controls, or folded down to make it more compact.

Phottix Ares flash trigger

Use of 2.4GHz for communication ensures the Ares has a range of over 200m, and a total of 8 channels are provided. The transmitter allows either a single channel to be triggered, or all channels at once.

The Phottix Ares is due for release in October 2012, and will replace several of the older Phottix flash triggers, including the Tetra, Aster, and the original Strato.

The Phottix Odin can trigger the original Strato, but no information about compatibility between the Odin and the Ares trigger was available at the time of writing.



Also at Photokina, Canon has announced the new Canon EOS 6D DSLR camera body. The 6D is a smaller-bodied full-frame camera, with a new 20.2 megapixel sensor, and is set to be released in December 2012, with an estimated price of approx USD$2100.

Canon say the 6D is the lightest full-frame DSLR, and it has built-in wifi and GPS functionality.

front of the Phottix Mitros TTL flash

rear of the Phottix Mitros TTL flash

The Canon 6D fits into Canon's DSLR lineup between the 7D and the 5D mark III, providing a cheaper option for people wanting a full-frame DSLR, without the higher cost (and additional features) of the 5D mark III.

The maximum flash sync speed of the Canon 6D is 1/180 seconds, compared to the 5D's 1/200 seconds, and the 50D/60D/7D's 1/250 seconds. The slower flash sync speed could be a big issue for any strobist photographers wanting to use flashes outdoors.

Phottix recently announced the Atlas II wireless flash trigger. The Atlas II is a transceiver, where each unit can be configured to operate in either transmitter mode or receiver mode, and can be used to trigger cameras, flashes and studio strobes. The Atlas II has a range of upto 350m, with one tester reporting successful triggering at distances of upto 600m (90% success rate at that distance).

The Atlas II is compatible with Phottix Strato and Odin series TTL triggers, where an Odin TCU can trigger Atlas II transceivers, Strato and Strato II Multi transmitters can trigger Atlas II transceivers, and an Atlas II can trigger Strato receivers.
Note that an Atlas II can not trigger Strato II Multi receivers or Odin receivers.

It is important to note that the Atlas II is not compatible with the original Atlas. This is because the Atlas II uses 2.4GHz for communication, while the original Atlas used 433MHz. This allowed the original Atlas to be compatible with some of the PocketWizard products, but had a limited range.

The use of 2.4GHz in the Atlas II provides a much better range than the original Atlas, ensures it can be sold world-wide, and introduces compatibility with other Phottix triggers.



Some photo galleries to inspire you:

• Absolutely amazing macro photography by Lee Peiling
• Pencil vs Camera
• 4x5 Kodachromes from 1940-1943 in WWII
• Five Year Photo
• Hilarious Portraits of Faces Being Blasted by Air (there's a related video available here)

Here is a short selection of creative photography projects to try:

• Make Photo Mosaics for your Fridge
• Mini Key Chain Photo Album
• Create Wonderful Sliced Fruit Images

Canon have announced a new prime lens - the Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens. I believe it's Canon's first pancake lens, and it'll work on full-frame and crop DSLR bodies.

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM lens

With 7 aperture blades, the bokeh should be a nicer than that of the 5-bladed Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens and the 5-bladed Canon EF 35mm f/2.0 lens.
At about USD$199, it seems to be well priced, and is now available for pre-order from B&H.



GoPro's much anticipated Wifi BacPac is now available, with various people reporting that they have received theirs.
The Wifi BacPac is available by itself, requiring the use of an app on your iPhone or Android phone or tablet to connect and control it. The Wifi BacPac is also available with a wifi remote control that is capable of controlling up to 50 remote GoPro cameras equipped with the Wifi BacPac.

The BacPac provides remote wireless connectivity and control over a GoPro Hero camera. Note that you need to update the firmware in your GoPro cameras before they will work with the BacPac. I have heard a few people complain that the firmware upgrade procedure is painful, so be sure to read all the information available on GoPro's website before attempting to upgrade your firmware.
B&H don't have any in stock yet, but are taking pre-orders.

According to GoPro's website, the Wifi BacPac cannot be shipped to Australia yet, as final certification has not yet been achieved.



There seems to be an on-going memory card price war, as various vendors regularly provide good discounts. B&H are once again running some specials on selected SanDisk memory cards.



The D-Photo Inspiration Fix regularly post a set of photos from different photographers, with some great photos being posted.
Some of my recent favourite sets they have posted recently include:

• Creative photography by Christopher Wesser
• Creative photography by Kevin van der Leek
• Documentary & people photography by Khalid Aziz
• Beautiful child & family photography by Angela Lumsden
• Beautiful landscape photography by Michael Breitung
• Amazing urban photography by Niki Feijen
• Amazing landscape photography by Andreas Wonisch
• Landscape photography inspiration from Tomas Suarez
• Landscape photography inspiration from Kenneth Barker

Note that some of the other sets linked by the D-Photo are NSFW.

I thought I'd also share some great collections of triptychs and diptychs that I've come across on flickr in recent months.


This is a collection of triptychs of strangers, titled, not surprisingly, "Triptychs of Strangers". The three frames of the triptych covering the stranger's head, hands and their feet.


An interesting collection of diptychs titled "Persona", with the first frame showing the person, and the second frame showing what they are carrying in their bag and pockets.

Because the old cities and buildings of Holland appealed to me while on holidays there mid-last year, I have enjoyed looking through the black-and-white photos from this project, and thought it worthwhile mentioning Jan-Willem's Cities of Holland project.

The Project
Cities of Holland is a project of the Dutch photographer Jan-Willem Eshuis. The idea of Cities of Holland is to take a unique photo of all cities in the Netherlands that have (or had) city rights. City rights are a phenomenon in the history of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The rights where given by a liegelord (for example a duke) to a settlement he owned. The rights gave certain privileges that settlements without those rights didn't have. Some examples of city rights are the right to build a city wall, have a market or the right to charge toll.

In the Netherlands there is a total of about 194 cities with these city rights. The goal is to take a photo of each of these cities with a characteristic building or on a characteristic spot of that city.

one of the photos from the Cities of Holland project: Skyline of Deventer

photo by Jan-Willem Eshuis, used with permission

Why?
The idea of this project is based on the Streets of the World project. In this project the Dutch photographer Jeroen Swolfs is traveling around the world to make a photo of every capital in the world. His project is taking five years and inspired me to realize a similar project.

About Jan-Willem Eshuis
Jan-Willem Eshuis is a Dutch amateur photographer who's working as a CTO at a Dutch media company named NLbuzz. In his free time he loves to take photo's of all kind of objects. He used to take pictures with his Nikon SLR D50 and D60 camera but in december 2010 he bought his Leica D-Lux 5.

For more information on the Cities of Holland project, check out the Cities of Holland website, facebook page, flickr stream, or twitter page.




If you have never seen The Little People Project, it is definitely worth checking out. slinkachu is a UK-based artist who does street art installations, and photographs them. However, these art installations are tiny!
The recently-posted Dead Leaves series is a great example of the type of work in The Little People Project. The Fantastic Voyage is another of my favourites.

More photos from this series are available on The Little People Project website and on slinkachu's flickr stream.



Lisa Bettany has posted 6 New Year's Resolutions Every Photographer Should Make in 2012.
Every photographer should read her list and add those resolutions to your list!



Year-long exposure of Toronto skyline, taken with a pinhole camera, has produced an interesting photo. Michael Chrisman installed the camera at the beginning of 2011, and pulled it down on 31 December 2011. I particularly like the interesting trails left by the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the year.



In another year-long photography project, Eirik Solheim has taken a photo out of his window every half hour. He then used a selection of 3888 of those photos, and using a 1-pixel-wide strip of each, created a different kind of time-lapse photo. Have a look at his One Year in One Image blog post for the resulting photo.
If you are interested in the technical background on the process used to capture these photos, have a look at this blog post.

Phottix are offering a 5% discount on all purchases from their online store until 25 December 2011. Use the discount code 5offxmas to receive your discount.
If you have been wanting a Phottix Odin TTL flash trigger, or maybe a Strato II multi trigger, now is the time to submit an order!

B&H have instant rebates on numerous items, including lenses, camera bodies and more, until 7 January 2012. Have a browse through their list, and see if there is anything you need while the rebates are available.




Commercial photographer Chase Jarvis once said "The Best Camera Is The One That's With You". In other words, it doesn't matter if you've got a great camera sitting at home...because if you don't have it with you, you can't use it! Chase has been a big fan of using iPhone cameras and similar, as a phone is something you normally always have with you in your pocket.

I don't carry my DSLR camera with me every day, as it's too large and heavy, and inconvenient to take with me everywhere. I've had a company-provided Nokia phone for many years, but the camera in my current Nokia 3120 Classic is only capable of very crappy photos!

I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S II Android smart phone, which has a camera that is capable of 8 megapixel still images (with a 28mm equivalent focal length), and full high-definition 1080p video at 30 frames per second. (Check out the interesting advert for it here.)
While the camera on my new smart phone will never replace my DSLR, it will provide me with the opportunity to take photos in situations where I previously did not have a camera with me.



I recently bought a GoPro Hero2 camera. It's a tiny camera capable of 11 megapixel still photos (with a field-of-view of 170 degrees!), full HD video, and comes complete with weatherproof housing and various mounts.

Check out this video on YouTube for some interesting ideas on how these cameras can be used.
I am intending to use the GoPro Hero2 camera for kite aerial photography.

Here's a photo to show just how small this camera is.

GoPro Hero2 camera in housing

photo taken with Samsung Galaxy S II phone

B&H do not yet have the GoPro Hero2 in stock, but have the older GoPro Hero Original and accessories for both the Hero and Hero2 avaiable.
GoPro cameras can also be ordered directly from gopro.com. I ordered mine from gopro.com, and it was delivered (to Australia) a week after being ordered.



Want to look through some cool tilt-shift photos? Want a place to show off your own tilt-shift photos? The tiltShifted.com website is an online showcase for tilt-shift photographers. You can submit your tilt-shift photos for inclusion - a couple of my tilt-shift photos are visible here on tiltShifted.com.



Here are some great selections of photos to inspire you.

• Tiny People's Wonderful World of Food
• Incredible Photos that Capture Day Turning into Night
• 100 Awesome Illustrations of Forced Perspective Photography
• yowayowa camera woman diary (Natsumi Hayashi, a Japanese girl who posts levitation self-portraits - see here for some background info)
• levitation photos by Denis Darzacq
• Create Wonderful Sliced Fruit Images

The Dear Photograph website collects user-submitted photos of a photo from the past in the present, and some great photos have been submitted.

Dear photograph
Some things never change
mikaelagallagher

Head over to the Dear Photograph website, and browse through their collection. Alternatively, dig out some of your old photos, and take your own photos to submit to the website.



The Young Me / Now Me website has user-submitted pairs of photos - where one photo is of the person or people from years ago, and the second photo is of the same person or people in the same location.

Photographer Irina Werning's Back to the Future project takes the concept a step further, taking old photos of people, and then re-creating the scene with the now-older person, using similar looking clothes, hairstyles, lighting and backgrounds.
(Note: some photos in the Irina's collection are NSFW.)



Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg have found a new use for animated gifs, using them to create some very interesting photos with subtle animation that they call "Cinemagraphs".

Have an adventurous weekend, by Jamie Beck

For more examples of these cinemagraphs, head over to Jamie's blog, or see this journal post on redbubble.com with more info and links to tutorials on creating your own cinemagraphs.



For all you keen photographers, you can now buy a piggy bank in the shape of a DSLR camera, called the DSLR Bank.

To help you dream about photography, you can also buy lens pillows, with a wide selection of different lenses available.