TO WEB OR NOT TO WEB

The countdown's on! With Will and Kate's wedding only 26 days away, the anticipation is growing and we at Viva know we're not the only ones who can't wait for the big day to arrive.

Knowing that many, like us, would not only be dying to see all the details come together on the 29th but would also be dying to hear about them leading up to the day, St. James Palace launched the Royal Wedding website. The website is the official source of information for anyone interested in the upcoming Royal Wedding and is updated regularly with exclusive content including photo galleries and video.

Wedding websites also know as "wedsites" are nothing new and while not all brides and grooms-to-be choose to create one, they're a great way to keep your guests up to date with the details of your own wedding day. Some like mywedding.com are free while others like wedsite.com offer couples a free 7 day trial with the option to purchase an extension for a small fee if you decide you want to keep your wedsite active.

Viva loves wedding wedsites!! Do you?

My "Tangled" love for Disney..

"Hi, I'm Scott and I'm a Disney addict..."

Yes, I have confessed love for Disney before (like here, here, here, here, and oh ya, here). I bet you're picking up that I've posted about Disney in the past.

I like their parks. I like there movies.

Some of the movies are entertaining and fun but every once and awhile there is one that I absolutely LOVE.

For some reason we did not make it to see Tangled when it was in theaters so we got it this week to watch on our "pizza and a movie" Friday night.

It is one of the best Disney movies I have EVER seen, it harkens back to movies like "Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and The Beast" then mix in a little stunning Pixar animation and you have Tangled.

If you haven't seen it, please do, and you may want to buy it (instead of renting) because I promise you will watch this move again and again.

Below is a Tangled trailer, enjoy!

And the winner is!...

Okay, I am done shoveling our April fools snow (and whining), so let's announce our contest winner.

The latest contest winner, randomly selected from among all those who entered our "Shiny" contest using a program called "The Hat", who will get these goodies:

Prize 1. The two DVD set "Digital WakeUp Call" from David Ziser. I don't think anyone has combined photography AND business as well as David, and he is the most prolific blogger on the surface of the earth and the entries are packed with useful information (no fluff).


Prize 2. "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Book for Digital Photographers" from Scott Kelby.

Scott Kelby trains tens of thousands of professional photographers every year on how to use Photoshop, and almost without exception they have the same questions, the same problems, and the same challenges—and that’s exactly what Shares with you in this book.


Prize 3. The (really) good folks over at IGT America will be donating a print, but not just any print, they are going to take an image from you the winner (an image of your choosing) and give you back a 16 x 20 Metal Print!


is...... Dave! Here is his winning shot:



Congratulation to Dave and a BIG thank you to everyone who took the time to enter their great images.

Dave, email me with your contact details (snail mail) and I will get your prizes out to you.

Another snowstorm... REALLY?!...

Unfunny Aprils fools... very unfunny.

5am, I'm making my coffee and feel an all too familiar rumbling that gets stronger and stronger... then I see it, the big orange behemoth passing by my kitchen window with its lights flashing... and.. and... THE SNOWPLOW DOWN.

We had completed our "seasonal transition", putting the shovels back in the garage, mittens, hats, and boots packed away and why shouldn't we, it's "officially" been spring for some time now!

A quick check and the news let's me know school has been cancelled (yeah), everything will be closed, so we are hunkered down to weather yet another snowstorm.

wa, wa, wa, wa...

I will announce our contest winner as soon as I finish shoveling.

:)

Here are a couple images of the orange behemoth, went a little over the edge with processing (but it was fun), clicking on any image will open it larger and in a new window (not sure why you'd want to).

Whoop, whoop, whoop!!....

Now, you need to have a mental picture of me singing this post (badly) while doing the cabbage patch dance (again, badly), 'cuzz I'm a happy guy.

Yesterday we passed the 1,000 subscriber mark on the Weekly Photo Tips YouTube Channel (with over 140,000 views)!

But I have to give credit where credit is do, it's my friend Mark who does everything (and I do mean everything) that makes these videos possible. He does the audio, the filming, the editing, and final production of all our videos. So thank you Mark.

Me, well... I'm just the eye candy in front of the camera.

;)

And I want to thank you for making Weekly Photo Tips the success it is.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You have just 24 hours left...

There are just 24 hours left for you to enter our latest contest and get your hands on the fabulous prize package.

So check out the details here and be sure to get in before it's too late.

Good luck everyone.

More on the GamiLight review...

Shortly after posting the GamiLight review yesterday I received several comments, one from Larry "From the photos, it appears to be pretty hot in the center" and another from Anonymous, "Looks very interesting, but I'd like it to be bit bigger. With that size, you can just do headshots...".

Let me address both of those comments (with info I probably should have mentioned as part of the post yesterday). I setup the light for a certain look... I wanted the image to be very bright starting in the upper left corner of the image then for it to fall of dramatically (with marked shadows) as the light (and your eyes) moved to the lower right corner.

Had I positioned the light differently, like pulling it further away and towards the front of my subject the light would have been softer, more evenly spread, and it also would have wrapped more.

Using a reflector (or two) would have helped by pushing the light into even more places.

The camera was set @ f11 and iso 200, a lower fstop and higher iso also would have helped in brightening up my subject as well.

Above is a setup shot from yesterday, in it you can see the GamiLight softbox in the upper left corner (and my daughter goofing around) the Nikon SB900 was fired manually with a pocket wizard and was set @ 1/16th power.

I hope this additional info will help folks realize that the GamiLight is a pretty darn versatile softbox.