Last January we had a bit of Photoshop fun here on the blog with the Calling Photoshoppers post. In it I invited a few photographers to give a shot at editing one of my images. I then posted the results for everyone to see. It was pretty cool to see the different take each photographer took in editing the image.

Well, it’s time to do it again.

I am looking for four blog readers that would like to put their photo editing chops (Photoshop, Gimp, Lightroom, Aperture, etc.) to work on an image that I supply. They will each have one week to do whatever they would like to the image. In the end, I will post all the edited images along with the photographer’s commentary on what they did and why.

If you are interested in participating, please email me at rich(at)leggnet.com with the subject of “COUNT ME IN!”. I will take the first four respondents (plus one alternate).

UPDATE: We’ve got our participants. Thanks for the speedy replies.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/125 second, f/5, ISO 100

Happy birthday, friend. www.KennethLinge.com.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/200, f/4, ISO 100

Whew, I am wiped out!

I spent this morning doing a stock photo shoot at a prestigious preschool in the area. The director/owner arranged for the models in exchange for photos for the school’s use. We had a pretty aggressive schedule to get the images both the school and I wanted. I photographed the nearly 20 models for the better part of three hours in numerous sets in the school.

Here’s a sample from the shoot to share before I dig into the sorting, editing, uploading and keywording of the 400+ images.

p.s. If you didn’t know, preschoolers have a LOT of energy.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/125 second, f/5, ISO 100

This is not photography related, but I’m sharing it because it literally made me laugh-out-loud. My friend Aaron produced it with a few of his buddies for an upcoming talk on teamwork. Enjoy.

Today’s post is a couple of samples from yesterday’s Teenage Driver photo shoot with one of my regular models, Kylee. The afternoon sun and an empty parking lot made a great location for the shoot. As always, Kylee was a lot of fun to work with and it shows in the images.

Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens – 1/200 second, f/5.6, ISO 200
Canon 5D, Canon 70-200 f/4L lens – 1/400 second, f/4, ISO 100

I’ve changed my mind about camera phones. Being someone who makes my living as a photographer and having thousands of dollars of equipment, I used to dismiss camera phones as nothing more than a toy.

This all changed last month when a Photowalking Utah mishap forced me to upgrade my Blackberry. My new (non-soaked) Blackberry Curve has a 2 megapixel camera. The reason that I’ve altered my opinion is that I now find myself using my camera phone for taking quick notes. I will frequently see something that gives me an idea for a future photograph and in place of making a paper note I will take a photo with my Blackberry. I used to frequently carry my Canon G7 for this purpose, but now I have another option.

Any other photogs finding themselves using camera phones? How are you using yours?

RIM BlackBerry 8320 – exposure unrecorded

Today was another day for a couple of milestones in my involvement as a contributor at iStockphoto.com. The first happened just after midnight as I sold the above photo of a young woman in a fitness club. This was my 30,000th image sold from my portfolio on the site.

The second milestone happened with the acceptance of the photo below. With this photo being added to my portfolio, my overall acceptance rate has surpassed 90%. When I first began submitting to the site in 2006 my acceptance rate began in the mid 50% range and has steadily climbed. I feel like I’ve been in the 80′s forever, so it’s great to crack the 90% number.

Next month I will be attending the first ever Diamond’lypse in Seattle. This is an event where only Diamond/Exclusive contributors on iStock are invited to spend three days hanging out, shooting and learning together. It’s limited to 30 participants, so it should be pretty cool to attend.

As most people know, shooting and selling for iStock (and now Getty) has changed my life. It has allowed me to expand my photography in ways I never expected.

And it’s a lot of fun!

Now I promise, no more iStock updates until I sell my 50,000th image.

Canon 5D, Canon 24-105 f/4L lens – 1/125 second, f/4, ISO 100

The event offered a colorful assortment of subjects to shoot

Most of the people that know me for any amount of time probably come to learn that I’m not much of a morning person. Because of this I cringed a bit when I read the schedule for the latest Photowalking Utah event. The outing was an early morning session photographing hot air balloons at the America’s Freedom Festival in Provo on the Fourth of July. The balloons began inflating at 6:00 a.m. which necessitated a 5:00 a.m. wake-up call to make it to the field in time.

As many of the photowalkers as we could get to hold still for a group shot

A total of about 20 photographers joined in on the ‘walk. Since the starting time was so early, we didn’t have one set location to meet. Instead, we were able to coordinate as the event took place to join together. Afterward, the majority of the group headed off to breakfast together.

The heat of the inflation

The partial cloud cover eliminated the chance for any “balloon against blue sky” shots, but it kept the temperatures in the manageable mid-eighties range.

Inside the envelope of a balloon being inflated

One of the pilots tapped me on my shoulder and asked “want to get a cool picture?”. I obviously answered yes. With that, he took me inside the envelope of his balloon as his crew inflated it. It was kind of surreal being inside the massive craft as it grew over my head.

An “over-the-head” no look shot

Nikon / Canon / Nikon

I must admit that I’m glad I got up before light to attend this event. I took as many pictures before 8:00 a.m. as I usually do on a full day of shooting. It’s always great to hang out with my photowalking friends and this outing was no different.

The next Photowalking Utah event is still being planned. Keep an eye on the announcement section of the group’s Flickr page at www.photowalkingutah.com.