Joanna's Foto Blog

Tamron came up with this short and sweet video about using lens hood. And it just summarizes in few words- why do you need it.

As simple as it seems, there is a lot of photographer- just starting up, still on their beginners path that don’t exactly know why they have it in the box with lens and how to use it.

So there you go:

It’s been sometime since I posted my personal review of really nice book, written by Scott Kelby- The Digital Photography Book. My review was only mentioning one book, since than I have read the remaining two from the series. Definitely recommending all of them to anyone, who wants to learn more about using your equipment the best way possible.  (p.s. it is my personal opinion, I haven’t been asked to advertise any of this )

Anyway, I love these guides! Very easy to follow, quick to read and really to the point. It’s like the perfect book you would like to learn from! Without whole a lot of extra distracting and unnecessary info.

And now there is a dvd coming out with some  of the set ups described in these books- but shown live in the photo studio. Just to give you a bit of a taste of how it looks like like you can watch almost 50 min video (part of the dvd) .
Also- if you hurry you can get the dvd at nice discounted price!
Use discount code: KELBYPREMIERE to save 35% and pay only a little bit above $29!

Enjoy!

Welcome new month, new set of things to do and hopefully more sunny and warm weather!

This month I have to make sure to stay on top of birthdays etc and not be late, like in past.
This month on of my photographs donated to the International Festival organized by Broughton High School students (Raleigh NC) and will be auctioned off as a way to support the Enough Project.
Check my Events tab to stay up to date as events come and will be added there.

I want to start this month with calm peaceful feeling….

Have a great month everyone!

Lost Florals

photo gifts!

Recently, after suggestions from my friends and thinking it over and over I have decided to set up small photo gifts store.
All products are featuring my photographs.
So visit my photo gifts store hosted by zazzle.com and maybe you will find this one and cute coffee mug, or maybe mouse pad, that will make your office brighter. For yourself or someone else- just pick a gift!

The store will be getting bigger, offering more items in near future, so please, check back often. To make finding it easier- I have posted direct link to my photo gifts store in the right hand side column on the blogs home page.

Please, let me know, what you think and definitely if there is specific design you are looking for – I will try to accommodate your request the best I can!

Some examples:

Weather has been really harsh on us this winter. It’s cooler than usually. So sometimes it’s nice to get some heat from handmade community. Like from this treasury curated by rhradcliffedesigns. Please visit her shop for beautiful watercolor pieces of art!

So the treasury. This treasury beams with heat and fire, but there are some ice elements in it too!

Featured here is my print On Fire.

Enjoy it!

fire ice

make sure to visit this treasury before it’s expiration date, i.e. Friday, Feb 26th, 3pm

The new World Press Photo exhibition, presenting incredible photographs from around the world is available for viewing.

Most of photographs presented in this event are photographs inspired and reflecting recent events from around the world. Unfortunately, as there is a lot of violence going on in the world- these seem to be presented in majority of work presented.

To view the whole gallery, including not only the Spot News section, but also Portraits or Arts and Entertainment and some more, please visit the World Press Photo gallery on their website, unless you are lucky enough to be able to visit local gallery presenting this exhibition- than I definitely recommend seeing it live! Check out their tour calendar.

I have seen few of their exhibitions in past years and it is definitely amazing experience!

Few days ago my computer got shot down suddenly, due to some electrical problems. After restart everything seemed to work fine until I started my web browser.

I use Mozilla Firefox and have been very happy with its performance, speed and- all different ways to customize it.

Yes- customization is great. And make sure to save your custom add-ons, special settings etc, because if you have to restore it from the level zero- it’s becoming time consuming process.

I am not saying it’s not worth it. I just learned though- that it would take me much less time to restore everything if I did some backing up.

Luckily for me Firefox makes backups for bookmarks by itself, so that was easy part this time.

And speaking of which- while restoring some of my add-ons I was thinking how much those little scripts can make life easier and browsing so much more pleasant. They can remember things for me and remind me about things. They can make my experience in front of computer easier, they can also protect me from getting upset with pop up windows..

So what was first add-on I reloaded to my browser after re-install? Greasemonkey.  The reason? There is many great scripts called Etsy Hacks, without which using Etsy can be really painful. Etsy Hacks can help with using forum, listing new items, printing your receipt, etc. So far it only works on Firefox, but I am pretty sure other browsers will get this function available soon.

When doing anything in front of computer I love to listen to some music. Listening my own music is fun, but I know exactly what I have. I like listening to some radio, especially if there is no talking, no commercials and music, that can surprise me. So I made sure to have my Fire.fm add-on installed again. It’s plug in from Last.fm radio.

Make sure to use some Ad Block. Works so well on those annoying, constantly playing commercials. You can customize it and block whatever you like!

If you are like me, where I come across something online, maybe someone suggest it through Twitter or maybe I will StumbleUpon it but don’t have really time to read it? Well- Read It Later is the plug in for me- and for you if previous sentence sounds familiar to you. It will keep them in separate bookmark, ready to be read, so you can come back to those pages in free moment.

That’s me. These above are my favorite add-ons.

What are yours? How custom is your browser?

At the beginning of February I got this really nice surprise send to me through twitter.

One of blogs promoting handmade, and Etsy sellers to be precise,  had published feature presenting few pieces from my Long Grass photographic mini series.

Visit Etsy Item of The Day blog to view the feature and please, leave a comment if you like it!
It’s a such a nice way to brighten the day- when looking at summery photographs of Queen Ann’s Lace, captured with great detail and beautiful soft look.

This series have received so far a lot of compliments and I am really happy it attracts this positive and very kind type of attention!
Thank you, Etsy Item of The Day blog!

I Love You and Coffee!

Only love let’s us see normal things In an extraordinary way

Hope all of you, my dear visitors, have wonderful and sunny Valentine’s Day!

… I got excited! I wanted to capture it, I wanted to grab my camera and capture the white beauty!

So, let me share only few images!