That’s right, a holster. Like something you might find on a police officer around his belt, only for camera lenses instead of guns and bullets. The “Quickdraw” device is a lens holster worn around your waist that allows you to quickly store and retrieve lenses. It’s the perfect companion for the wedding or event photographer. Just screw a lens in to secure it and protect the back element, and unscrew another lens to put on your camera. For $75 you get 1 Quickdraw. Bear in mind that you will need to purchase a Quickdraw for each lens holder, so at the very least you will probably spend $150 on a set of two.

Based on the product video, it looks like a must-have device for many photographers. It comes in two forms: a Nikon mount and Canon mount. You can reserve a Quickdraw Lens Holster from Kickstarter.com for a limited time. If you’ve missed out on the Kickstart campaign, you should follow the product through their Facebook page or website.

After spending a day filming this event and seeing most of the work on display, I can wholeheartedly endorse this event as one of the most impressive collections of artwork that I have ever seen. You really can’t find such an assortment of work anywhere else, and most of the work here is very modern and hip unlike what you might find from a museum of the same size. Check out the video to get an idea of what the event is about and what types of works was on display this video.

The majority of projects submitted through Thumbtack are couples seeking a wedding photographer. The bread and butter for most photographers, especially in the summer months. It seems like 4/6ths of the jobs listed on Thumbtack for the San Francisco area are for a wedding ceremony or engagement shoot. About 1/6 projects will be some other form of portrait photography, which could be anything like corporate headshots, boudoir, or graduation photos. The final 1/6 of listings are various things like product or real estate photography.

I should probably mention now that Thumbtack isn’t strictly photographers. They actually support all sorts of service providers like house cleaners, tutors, general contractors, magicians, and just about anything else you can think of. They make finding these providers very easy, and even better for me they make finding legitimate clients simple too by having them fill in some basic information when they perform a search. As a photographer being given a client’s details I can quickly see what type of work needs to be done, what form of delivery they want (digital or prints), their selected time frame, and contact details.

Where Thumbtack makes their money is by having providers pay a fee to contact potential clients in response to their queries. You can either pay a one time $2.99 fee to gain access to the client, or pay a monthly membership cost of $39.99 for unlimited access. You can see how many providers have applied for the job before submitting a message, so you will know which jobs are being competitively bid on. So far I haven’t had a chance to bid on a job, but I know that Thumbtack also offers a feature where you can have the client pay for the project via their website. I will have to post a follow-up detailing that feature in a future post.

Overall I am very impressed with the number of leads that Thumbtack is generating for my photography business. I haven’t acted on any as of yet because I have been too busy to take on any extra work at this time, but I look forward to exploring all of the features that the website has to offer me. If you are a photographer looking to gain new business, Thumbtack is a great way to start attracting new clients. Keep in mind that if you are from the San Francisco area, then treat this post like it’s opposite day and stay away. I don’t need any more competition in the Bay Area, so you are going to have to either move or find a different career.

Interested in seeing my fantastic Thumbtack portfolio? Click here to check it out.

• Price: $2,995
• Resolutions: 2.5K RAW at 2432 x 1366.ProRes and DNxHD at 1920 x 1080
• Frame Rates: 23.98p, 24p, 25p, 29.97p, 30p
• Dynamic Range: 13 stops
• Lens Compatibility: EF (Canon) and ZE (Carl Zeiss) mounts
• Software: DaVinci Resolve, Blackmagic UltraScope, Media Express

They are packaging this camera with a $1,600 software package so that you can actually do something with that beautiful 2.5K RAW video. Davinci Resolve’s color grading is pretty impressive, and I imagine working with files shoot by their own camera will only enhance the experience across all of the included software platforms. Speaking of software, the ability to pop out a SSD hard drive from the camera and bring it straight into your edit suite is pretty awesome. The camera even offers 2 compressed recording options at 1080p including Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD so that you don’t need to transcode footage when bringing it into your nonlinear editor (NLE). Another big advantage to using SSD hard drives as recording media is that they are relatively cheap and will only go down in price over the next couple years as more consumer laptops and eventually desktops adopt them as standard equipment.

An interesting feature that the Blackmagic Digital Cinema Camera offers is the ability to add meta tags to video files in camera. This is used as an organizational tool so that when you bring the footage into your post-production software you can easily find clips. This sounds like a smart idea, especially for more organized shooters, but it is probably something that I could personally live without.

The Blackmagic Digital Cinema Camera won’t be available until July 30th, but you can pre-order it from Adorama here. Here is a link to some sample footage for those of you who can’t wait to get your hands on it.

The reality is that most well built camera lenses are actually quite tough, especially on the front element. Don’t believe me? Watch the video below.

It’s hard not to cringe when you see that hammer come out, but surprisingly the Canon 50mm takes a beating without showing any signs of damage until the end of the video when the hammer is reversed. It’s not that a Canon lens will never show signs of damage from a fall, but it would probably have to be caused by extraordinary circumstances. It’s probably more likely that the non-glass portion of the lens will break before the front element is noticeably damaged.

What’s the harm in using a UV filter? Well to use an analogy it’s like putting a suit of armor on an olympic runner. Yes you are protecting him from scraping his knee, but you will be hurting his performance. In most cases you are adding an inferior layer of glass in front of your lens. Cheaper filters may reduce contrast, create additional lens flare, or just have a bad build quality. That extra couple centimeters added to your lens barrel may also create a slight vignette in the corners of your image.

If you are still shooting with a film camera, you may actually want to continue using a UV filter to improve contrast on hazy days. Digital sensors aren’t nearly as sensitive to UV light as film, so if you are shooting digital there’s really no discernible reason to use these filters for that purpose alone.

UV filters are still useful if you are for example shooting in a heavy mist or dust. Other than that, I see no reason to recommend a UV filter. For the purposes of protecting your lens, you should make sure to use your lens hood at all times and lens cap when the camera is not immediately being used.

The other day I had my first chance to cross the Golden Gate bridge and take a photo of it while facing San Francisco. I was headed out to wine country with a friend and my wife, so we stopped once on the way out and again on the way back. During the first stop I wasn’t very inspired by the angles provided by the tourist spots along the roadside, but by night time the bridge and city came alive with lights.

This image was captured at the edge of Battery Spencer, a walkable area that is accessible even by wheel chair (my friend was in one). It provides a close up view of the bridge from an elevated spot. I had my camera placed on a tripod and set my camera settings to the following: 14mm, ISO 1000, F/7.1, 13 second exposure. I captured 4 shots and combined them with Photoshop after applying some color and tone adjustments in Lightroom.

Directions to the location: From the south, you will head north across the bridge. After crossing the bridge, take the second exit to the right for Alexander Ave (exit 442). Merge to the left side of the fork in the road to make a left turn, then you will need to make a right to follow the scenic route up the side of the hill. Battery Spencer will be the first major spot to take a photo, but if you want a view from higher up there are several other spots as you drive up the mountain side. From the north you will take the first exit (number 442) after the Redwood Highway tunnel and keep to the right.

Interested in finding other angles to photograph the Golden Gate bridge? Check out this article, which covers different locations with example photographs and helpful suggestions.

First let’s start with some of the good points about Lightroom 4′s video editing capabilities. Lightroom now lets you scrub a video thumbnail to preview its contents. That comes in handy when you want to quickly check the contents of a video file. The video trim feature is another handy tool if you just want to do a quick in and out point edit before publishing your video. Last, but not least, is the ability to apply effects to images in a way that is somewhat similar to editing still images.

The previous positive point about editing images is also one of the biggest problems with Lightroom 4′s video editing capabilities. In order to apply effects to a video you have to either: A) apply a previously created preset to the video, or B) capture a still frame from the video, edit that frame to your liking, then apply those settings to the video. There is no simple way to enter the develop mode for a video. This makes the process unnecessarily complicated for people who just want to apply a quick color or exposure correction to their video. What should be a 2 step process has become a 5 step process.

The second big issue that I have with Lightroom is that it limits the effects that you can apply to a video. Wite balance and tone are allowed, as well as color treatment effects (see above image for the full list). Noise Reduction, Lens Corrections, Effects, and other items aren’t allowed though. Adobe didn’t include these features because they are CPU intensive and wouldn’t provide a buffer-free experience when previewing videos. This is something that I wish they would have built an on/off switch for because I would really appreciate having a Noise Reduction filter for my videos, at least when I’m exporting.

Adobe added in the new video editing features as a way to appeal to photographers who dabble in cinematography, but they left out the functionality required to actually edit clips together into a single piece. Once you’ve trimmed down your shots, applied effects, and exported them you will have to combine the clips together in another program like Avid, Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, or (…shudder…) Windows Movie Maker. This makes sense since Adobe Premiere (~$555) is better suited for real editing and Adobe doesn’t want to cut into their own product line.

The few video editing features that were added into Lightroom don’t feel like they were thought out entirely. The need to generate snapshots in order to develop a custom setting for a video is an annoying process that will keep many photographers from ever discovering how to apply effects to videos. The Lightroom 4 update is more of a small evolutionary update rather than a revolutionary one. I will provide further coverage on this product update, including the new Map and Book modules in a future blog post.

When you shoot in RAW, your camera doesn’t apply a lot of educated guesses to the image file concerning color and contrast like a JPG file would. When working with RAW you are expected to make those judgement calls yourself when you import the photos to your computer for editing. If you are a Lightroom user, you should use the Camera Calibration module to either choose a profile (Ex. Camera Faithful, Camera Landscape, Camera Portrait, etc.) or to sculpt your own if you are looking to produce the same look as those JPGs. Here is a video that demonstrates this feature pretty well.

By using the camera Calibration tool, you should be able to get a look similar to what your camera outputs in JPG form: a vivid and colorful image. If you don’t want to ever forget to apply the Camera Calibration setting to your images, create a Lightroom preset and apply the effect to your images during import.

The release date for the next version of Adobe’s Lightroom software is March 6th, 2012. This unverified information was published on Amazon.com, where Adobe is currently listing a pre-order for the Student & Teacher Edition of Lightroom 4 for $79.99. In order to be eligible for this price you may need to provide proof that you are currently attending or teaching at a school. From what I’ve learned, Amazon will ship you a DVD with a product code which you must then submit to Adobe who will verify your eligibility. Adobe takes this seriously and will request a copy of your student ID and tuition before they hand over a serial number.

If you read the product description on the Amazon page, it appears to reference the new photo book creation tool added to Lightroom 4. This signals to me that the page is indeed for the next version of Lightroom. For those of you unfamiliar with what’s new in Lightroom 4, check out this list of expected improvements:

• Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.
• Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
• White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
• Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.
• Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.
• Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr.
• Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.
• Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.

For the most part, these are minor changes. The three big changes are the map module (if you use geotagging), photo book creation tools, and basic video editing. What I am most excited about is the ability to use Lightroom to retouch video coloring. From what I’ve seen from the Lightroom 4 beta version, the workflow for dealing with video color still needs some work to remove some extra steps from the process.