You HAVE to see this!! If you haven’t ever heard of Jasmine Star, then you are missing out!! I’m honored to call her a friend and she is truly an incredible photographer! She’s also newer to the industry, so when you look at her creative eye and extraordinary talent, then consider that she’s just getting STARTED, you won’t believe it! (but it’s true!) She JUST launched her new website and it is OFF THE HOOK!!!

I have a 30 inch cinema display and when the site opened up in front of my eye….in all of it’s 30 inches glory, I think I started to drool!!! It is SOOO amazing and A MUST SEE, in my opinion!!

(her new BLOG is also amazing…she is just on FIRE that girl!!!) It was also created with, what I would consider to be one of the HOTTEST AND MOST INNOVATIVE up and coming products out there, David Jay’s SHOW IT SITES!! David is also a friend of mine and so I got a sneak peek of SHOW IT SITES earlier this year in Vegas while at WPPI and I was BLOWN AWAY!! It’s the most incredibly simple, yet POWERFUL tool for designing websites…on YOUR OWN! It’s just crazy how GREAT it is!! It will be THE product of the year, NO doubt!!! I really give kudos to DJ for thinking of a product that will be SOO valuable to photographers! If you haven’t seen show it sites, do yourself a favor and GO CHECK IT OUT!!

Many of you have heard of DROBO lately! It’s really cool and a very smart storage system!! It’s basically a RAID storage system at a MUCH lower price than RAID systems are known to be!! In their words, it’s “The world’s first storage ROBOT! Fully automated data storage that ensures that your data is always protected, your capacity is unlimited and requires no special knowledge or expertise!” It’s a GENIUS thing for weddings because you can keep updating your storage capacity as you add more events and not need to continue stacking up external hard drives on your desk! Ok, maybe I’m the only one who does that! AND….EVEN better, they JUST announced a STELLAR deal on the DROBO with HARDDRIVES!! You can get the DROBO system WITH 4 TB of STORAGE for $1075!! STEAL!!! It’s normally $1600, so that is a GOOD savings for a RAID storage system, complete protection and reliability on the safety of your DATA and 4 TB’s of storage!! WOW!!

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!!!

Itty Bitty is AT IT again with an ENTIRELY new set of actions, borders, collages and MORE for 2008!! Their stuff is just DRIPPING with FUN, WHIMSY and SUCH STYLE!! I loooove it!! Just when I think their things couldn’t get any more GREAT…they go and amaze me!!! CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT….and be sure to go through the entire site!!!

THIS is cool!!! It’s PHOTOSHOP in fast-food-drive-through EXPRESS form…and on the INTERNET! HOW coooool is THAT?!?!?!?! CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!!!!!

If you are a photographer who edits your images, you MUST see this new product! I am BLOWN away by it…..really! It’s called VIVEZA and it’s a NIK PLUG IN for PHOTOSHOP. It’s literally like combining many photoshop tools into one mini application that does completely customized adjustments on images with incredible speed and ease! I just watched all of the demos and I’m sitting her in awe of this!! YOU MUST check this out!! I HIGHLY recommend checking out all the demo’s to see the full capability of VIVEZA! INCREDIBLE!!! BORDERLINE….REVOLUTIONARY!!!

Soooo, the rumor on the street is that my uber-fabulous album company, Leather Craftsmen, is UNVEILING a NEW kind of album at WPPI!!! I am MUCHO excited about this and I just HAD to tell you!!!! So, if you are at WPPI…STOP by and SEE what it is! I REALLY have no idea, I just have heard rumors!!! I LOVE rumors about photo stuff…i’m SUCH a geek!

I am a CANON FAN, through and through…BUT…if I were a NIKON fan…I would be JUMPING UP AND DOWN over THIS:

These tests are really close to being unbelievable!!! Nikon really made a HUGE improvement with this camera!! I hope CANON is WATCHING CLOSELY!!! (more like I’m PRAYING they are!!!!) I would DIG the auto ISO and the AMAZINGLY low noise levels at CRAZY ISO’s such as 5000 and 6400!!! This is amazing….

CLICK HERE to VIEW THE D3 TESTS:

http://www.opensourcephoto.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=22156

JUST when I think they have thought of EVERYTHING, I’m proven WRONG!!! CHECK THIS OUT!! The EYE-FI SD Memory Card with WIFI WIRELESS will automatically image transfer from your camera to your computer, your blog and your favorite printing service via a wifi connection!!! SO LONG to those annoying transferring docking station hubs and USB cables because SD cards just got JAZZY AND SMART!!! Crazy…but COOOOOL!! CLICK HERE TO GET THE FULL SCOOP ON THIS LITTLE WONDER!!

hmmmmmm….to impulse buy or not impulse buy??!?!?! that is the question!! I thought my sd cards with built in USB were COOL AS A FOOL but apparently, that was soo last week!

A good friend of mine who is a local photographer sent me an email with THIS LINK:

http://www.photographybay.com/2007/09/18/canon-5d-mark-ii-coming-november-2007/

COULD IT BE that the 5D Mark II is on the horizon??? I must admit, I have heard rumors…but I also heard that they were ONLY rumors and no proof of this SO CALLED camera had been seen anywhere!! So, the info that this site provides is MUCH more than I have seen or heard…so this is EXCITING!!! Of course, standard operating procedure for CANON calls for a new version of the 5D somewhere in 08 or 09, most likely after the 40D is off and running….so if this late 07 stuff is true, then we could have something great on our hands!! I think that the recent 5D price drop was also a little hint that the announcement about a new 5D was coming…or at least I was hoping it was!! I’ll be the first to tell you that the IMPROVED AF is a MUCH needed thing….and the 14 bit RAW and sRAW thing will be pretty cool, as well…and the dust reduction sensor will be SOOO helpful!!! The 3 inch screen, increased FPS and 16 MP won’t hurt, either!! Funny, my friend GARY told me several years ago about how the world of RAW files would change….and would expand into several forms of RAW files, RAW that was more like JPEG, etc….(even though he’s ANTI raw!) now it’s unfolding before our eyes!! Here is another link discussing the news….

http://www.photographybay.com/2007/09/03/the-next-canon-5d/

KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED, folks!! I didn’t think that it could get ANY better than the 5D and it just looks like it might be possible!!

I’ve been in search of a SIMPLE organizational software for a LONG TIME and recently found one that is GREAT, called BACKPACK!!

It’s basically a software program that allows you to create a main project (i.e…clients, in my case) and connect notes, to do lists, projects, reminders, contact info, events, important dates and MORE with those projects (i.e…clients!)! It’s not specifically for photography, but also can be used for anything….which is ANOTHER feature I like about it!! Click here to see LOTS of examples of it’s use! I know that there are COUNTLESS programs that do things just like this, so you might be wondering why I don’t use one that is made for photographers…but for me, I HATE ultra complicated stuff that has a million features that I will NEVER use! I prefer a program that has JUST what I need, is simple and VERY easy to use and is CHEAP!!! This program is ALL of those things!! It emails me for all of my reminders and allows me to schedule reminders several years out (helpful with weddings that could be more than a year away) and just does TONS of great but SIMPLE stuff!!

CHECK IT OUT!!