New Pictage Community Website

Pictage launched their new Community website and it looks great! There's all sorts of information on the new community site including a calendar, PUG meeting details, a community image gallery and interviews with featured photographers. Upload some of your images to the gallery!

Pictage Aperture Plugin Now Available

Pictage released their Apple Aperture plugin today, check it out.

Imitating A Scanner Darkly's Rotoscope Look

Looking for an edgy look for that senior portrait? Check out this cool Illustrator technique for creating that rotoscoped look from the movie 'A Scanner Darkly' and the new Charles Schwab (Slate.com) ads on TV.

Aaron Sacco, a freelance artist and animator on the film shows us how to take a photograph and transform it into a 'rotoscoped' looking image in Adobe Illustrator.



Aaron says he expects to spend 5 hours or so on an image as complex as the one above so this isn't a 'quick and easy' effect. However, for the right image, it might be worth your time investment.

Canon Announces New EOS-1 D Mark III Digital SLR

So most of you know I'm a Nikon user but I couldn't just ignore the fact that Canon just annouced a brand new version of the EOS-1 D dubbed the Mark III and it looks pretty awesome!

Highlights:

• 10 MP APS-H sized sensor
• Live view LCD
• Dual DIGIC III Image Processors
• Priced in line with the Mark II N

It should be available this spring. Have at it!

Lexar Introduces Breakthrough 300x Speed-Rated Professional Flash Memory Cards

Now that I've gone and purchased a wallet full of 133x 4GB Compact Flash cards and 4 cool stackable firewire 400 card readers, Lexar has to go and up the ante on me! Typical. :)

Lexar announced today a new breakthrough 300x Compact Flash card as well as a new firewire 800 version of it's widely popular firewire 400 stackable compact flash card readers.

Here's a snippet from their press release:

New UDMA-Enabled CompactFlash® Cards Capable of Minimum Sustained Write Speeds of 45MB/s; Significantly Improve Digital Photography Workflow

Fremont, CA , February 20, 2007 - Lexar, a leader in advanced digital media and accessories, today introduced Professional UDMA (Ultra Direct Memory Access) memory cards, the latest addition to the company's award-winning Professional line of high-performance cards. When paired with a UDMA-enabled device, such as Lexar's new Professional FireWire 800 Reader, UDMA cards improve the professional photographer's digital imaging experience by reducing the time needed to download captured images to a destination computer. In addition, the benefits of Lexar Professional UDMA memory cards extend well beyond card-to-computer transfer rates, to improved in-camera performance in several UDMA-enabled digital camera backs and digital SLR cameras expected to be announced later this year. Speed-rated at 300x, or capable of a minimum sustained write speed of 45MB per second, and available in capacities of 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB, new Lexar Professional UDMA cards deliver a 125% performance improvement over Lexar's previous generation 133x CompactFlash® product line when the card is used with a UDMA-enabled device.

While I don't think I'll be running out to replace my current set of 133x cards for these guys I will probably buy the new ones if I find the need for more storage space in the future. 300x is FAST and anything to streamline the process of getting images from camera to computer is worthwhile. Especially when you're at a reception creating a slideshow on the fly during dinner. :)

The new Firewire 800 card readers on the other hand... Those may need to find their way into my bag. I LOVE firewire 800. It's fast and reliable. How can you go wrong. I picked up a new Firelite hard drive at the Apple Store in Alderwood mall the other day and almost bought it just because they upgraded the interface to firewire 800. That's twice as fast as FW 400. Fast is good. I didn't buy it though, my Firelite FW 400 60Gb drive is still performing flawlessly and it's plenty fast.

February Seattle PUG meeting is this Thursday, February 22nd

Hey Gang,

It's that time again. The February Seattle PUG meeting is this Thursday, February 22nd at the Macaroni Grill at Alderwood mall. We're starting at 6pm with some socializing. Then I have a great guest speaker to introduce, Dianne Greene. Dianne is the director of the Washington branch of the Association of Bridal Consultants and will speaking with us about working with wedding coordinators. We also have some great new things coming up with Pictage that you'll want to attend to hear about. New features and redesigns are aplenty.

Please RSVP by emailing me or filling in the RSVP form on the PUG website.

I can't wait to see you all on Thursday!

Jeff

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2007 - 6:00PM

Romano's Macaroni Grill - Alderwood Mall
3000 184th St SW # 922
Lynnwood, WA 98037
(425) 368-2875

Local Agenda:

Dianne Greene, Director of the WA branch Assc. of Bridal Consultants (ABC), will be attending our February meeting to discuss the ins and outs of working with wedding coordinators

Pictage Agenda:
* Online statement redesign
* New proof book interface
* Pictage Partnership with theweddingreport.com
Upcoming events:

Mark your calendars for these upcoming Community Events

PartnerCons: We will be holding 2 conferences this year.
Partner Con Chicago
May 8-9
Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare
5440 N. River Road
Rosemont, IL 60018
Partner Con Los Angeles
September 12-13
Sheraton Gateway Hotel LAX
6101 W. Century Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045

The Conferences will be similar in format to last year’s Partner Con Los Angeles. Both of the conferences will have the same schedule and features, just a few different speakers from one to the other.

You can expect more info in the next couple of weeks. We will be launching the website in Mid February. I wanted to make sure that you all had a chance to block these dates out on your calendars before they book up. We will keep you updated on speaker information.
WPPI: March 26th – 28th
Please visit our large booth #335 and our small AD 3.0 demo booth #2201

Please join us for the Special Event at Napoleon’s Restaurant
Tuesday, March 27th from 6-8pm
Paris Hotel
Must be 21 to attend

We cannot wait to see you there!

Pictage is Creating an Aperture Plugin

This will make my workflow even easier. Now I won't have to worry about a separate ftp client when I upload an event to Pictage. Yay!

Saying iDo: Weddings, the iPod, and You

"You know iPods are popular. But after one of our editors recently became engaged and started to plan her wedding, we were shocked to find that the iPod has become one of the hottest wedding accessories today - iPods are now being used at every stage from initial planning to your eventual honeymoon on a beach. The amazing details are all here."

Check out the new article on iLounge.com. In it I talk a bit about ipods and how I'm leveraging them in my business for my couples. I think that Christina did a great job of reporting on how ipods are emerging in the wedding industry. I'll write more on this subject shortly. :)



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Ellen and Brett's Engagement Session

Ellen and Brett met me at Pikes Place Market in Seattle a few weeks ago for their engagement session. We had a great time even though it was really cold out that day. Brr! Their engagement slideshow is up so go check it out. :)


Ellen is having Save the Date cards made up and she's attaching a wallet sized photo from their engagement session to each of them. She just emailed me an image of what they're going to look like. Aren't they great?!

Hi Jeff,

I thought I'd pass along this version that shows what the picture would look like with the card. I must say, I'm very pleased with how these turned out! The perfect Valentine's Day treat to receive in the mail. :)

Ellen