Three reasons to check out Elena Wilken today...

There are more than three reasons, but that's all I am going to list here today.

1. If you are interested in family portraiture you need to check out her work, there are samples below. This is a link to her site, but don't go there until you have some time spend because I promise once you start looking at her images you will be there for a time... for a long time.

2. Elena gives away some very nice templates every month, here is the link for those.

3. For April Elena is giving away 11 great prizes, none of which I am going to name here because I am going to make you follow this link to see them for yourself. I will say this, I would be very happy to have ANY of the prizes on her giveaway list.

And she gives her readers soooo much more than what I have mentioned here.

Here are four of Elena's images, clicking on any image will allow you to view it larger and in a new window.

Caught jumping on the bed...

Pretty much says it all, don't you think? You can almost hear them laughing.

I love the images you folks submit to our Flickr group.

Another very cool DIY project...

I love DIY (do it yourself) projects, creating things with your own two hands is fun AND these kind of projects tend to save you a bunch of money in the process.

Mathew Monroe has put together a very cool DIY flexible flash arm that will run you less than $15 and is extremely functional.

Here's the link, go check it out... and thank you Mathew!

You have to check out these images...

Here is a sampling of the kind of images you will find over at the Weekly Photo Tips Flickr Group.

Pretty darn good stuff, don't you think?

If you would like to join our group (please, please, please) and share some of your images with us (and the world) you can find instructions right here.

Clicking on any one of these images will open it larger and in a new window (for better viewing).

A deal AND a date...

I have been a fan of Ibarionex Perello since I got into photography. I stumbled upon his podcast "The Candid Frame" back then and have listened to it ever since. Though you may not be familiar with his guests... David Hobby, Chase Jarvis, Joe McNally, Jay Maisel, Rick Sammon, and Tony Sweet... just to name a few.

So what's not to like, he has great guests, comes to the interview from a photographers perspective so he asks questions we the listeners would ask, and he has a voice made for radio.

In case you're not picking up on it, BIG fan here.

As you might imagine I was just a little excited the other day to get his new book "Chasing the Light: Improving Your Photography with Available Light" and though I haven't cracked the cover yet this post could not wait for two reasons:

Reason 1 (the deal). Peachpit is offering 35% discount AND free shipping on the purchase of the book, all you need to do is type in the code "PHOTOCLUB" when you get to the checkout page.

If you would like to read a little before you buy just follow this link where you can download and read the entire fourth chapter of the book "The Color of Light: White Balance".

So, here is the link to the book, go check it out.

Reason 2 (the date). Tonight (April 19th), from 8 - 9pm (ET) Peachpit Photo Club will be hosting the very same Ibarionex Perello. And the topic will be.... LIGHT.

There will be talking and there will be doing, from the webinar page:

"Webinar participants will receive an assignment at the end of the session. Once the assignment is completed, Photo Club members can upload their work to the Peachpit Photo Club Flickr Group where Ibarionex and the Peachpit crew will help critique your work. And of course, there will be a chance for prizes!"

Pretty cool, huh?

Here is the link t to signup for the webinar, you do not want to miss the webinar or this great book offer.

Food & Photography, a tasty combination...

We have been a fan of food photographer Lou Manna for a long time and used the tips and techniques learned from reading his outstanding book "Digital Food Photography" to shoot food for our clients (you can see the images here). If you would like to read our review of his book you can find it right here.

Lou Manna has a new site, well it's more than a site, it's an interactive community where folks can share their own work to be critiqued, get ideas, share information, and more... it shares the name of his book and is called "Digital Food Photography".

You will find articles, videos, and resources like "Taking Better Food Pics" that will, well... help you take better food pics.

;)

And it's not just Lou sharing, it's the entire community of photographers who share with you and with each other.

Speaking of sharing and learning, Lou will be teaching a seminar on May 8th called "Digital Food Photography: Creating Delectable Images" at Adorama (in New York City).

Adorama is sponsoring a bunch of workshops this spring that run just a couple hours to all day affairs and for as little as $25. You can check out the entire list/schedule here.

Check out these Lexar 16GB memory cards...

For the next 12 days you can get 3 Lexar 16GB Platinum II 200x compact flash memory cards for only $99 at Adorama. If that price isn't tempting enough they are offering free shipping and are throwing in a free memory card wallet too.

Not only are these cards fast, they also hold a lot, one card will hold 3,200 16MP images (or 2,300 21MP images). Video your thing? One card will hold up to 6 hours of video.

To give you some perspective on just how good this price is their competition is selling the exact same memory card at $87 for a set of (just) two. Plus shipping and no wallet.