And our giveaway winners are...

First let me thank everyone for participating in our latest giveaway, as usual there was a phenomenal response.

Now, our two winners, drawn at random from all of the qualifying entries are... drum roll please...
Dennis Gingerich and Linda Montemarano!

Congratulations Dennis and Linda, all you need to do is email us with you snail mail address and we will get your Flex Lens Shades right out to you.

Black Friday with Scott Kelby at Kelby Training...

Without a doubt one of the best (if not THE best) online educational resource for photographers can be found over at Kelby Training.

And between now and December 2nd you can save some serious coinage on their annual subscription, you can get 12 months of unlimited access for just $159 (a $40 savings)

What that will give you access to is over 800 hours of training representing more than 7,000 lessons, and if that's not enough for you don't worry, because new lessons, tutorials, and trainers are added on an almost daily basis!

If you aren't ready for a long term commitment you can get one month for just $14.95 (a $10 savings).

Be it for a month or a year, your time at Kelby Training will be time well spent.

The best deal for photographers this year...

We have been a huge fans of Jed & Vicki Taufer over at V Gallery Haven for quite some time.

You can read some of our previous blog posts like an outstanding tutorial on how to overcome photographing people who wear glasses, their "unleashed" product which is both a great marketing tool as well as a way for photographers to help support the community, and they even had the Weekly Photo Tips product of the year.

Jed and Vicki are talented artists, have great products, but most important is they are wonderful people who care.

There latest sale is an example of their generosity to the photographic community as well as those in need.
 
From now until December 3rd you can get EVERYTHING in their store for just $69!!! Not only are you getting a couple thousand dollars worth of products for this ridiculously low price of $69, but you are helping others as well because 20% of every single sale will be donated to the victims of those horrific tornadoes in Illinois on November 17th.

Even if you're not in the market to buy something be sure to head over to VGallery because you will find free actions, free holiday card templates, free video tutorials, and soooooo much more.

The new Canon EF 28mm f/2.8 prime lens...

Canon has released a new prime lens, the EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM lens.

This 28/2.8 prime has a simple design, will give you a crisp, sharp image and displays high contrast with minimal distortion.

But the real reason for this post is not to review the lens, but to let you know you can get it for only $349 (with free shipping) over at Adorama.

This price is about $150 less than B&H and $100 less than Amazon!

Please keep in mind you will only see the $349 price during checkout (not on the product page), but trust me you will, I tested it myself.

So, if you are in the market for a fast prime lens for your Canon, this new 28mm f/2.8 might just be the ticket.

Let's give some gear away...

In celebration of our one million YouTube views we are giving away a couple Flex Lens Shades!

You can read more about the Flex Lens Shade and see a few "example" images in our post "Shooting Into The Sun".

So for you to have a chance to win you need to do the following three things:

1. Like us on Facebook and/or Google+ (if you've "liked" us for a previous contest, this requirement is waved)

2. Leave a comment on any of our blog posts or any of our YouTube videos

3. Upload any image that you shot to our Flickr group

If you are new to Flickr (or have never joined) you can get all the details on how to join the Weekly Photo Tips Flickr group here.

The giveaway starts right now and both winners will be announced on the blog on Friday November 29 (2013).

Good luck everyone, we always look forward to seeing your images and reading your comments.

Here is our YouTube video that includes the Flex Lens Shade.


Here is the small print (literally):

All rights and ownership of submitted images remain with the photographer who took it.

friend us once, then 1 image upload + 1 comment = 1 giveaway entry.

You can enter the contest as many times as you like, no limit.

Winners outside of the US will need to cover the cost of shipping their prize package.  

Veterans Day 2013...

There have been some pretty good posts for Veterans Day passed, if you would take a moment on this special day to give them a look it would be greatly appreciated.

Here's the list:

Veterans Day 2012

Veterans Day 2011

Veterans Day 2010

Veterans Day 2009

Veterans Day 2008

If you are a veteran (or you know one) there are restaurants tripping all over themselves to give you a free meal today, The Military Wallet has a pretty substantial list here.

For those of you old enough to remember there was a time when the brave men and women of our military did not have our support. They represented what many believed was a failed American policy and they bore the brunt of that.

The video below does a beautiful job demonstrating how some veterans, those of us from the Vietnam era, sometimes don't quite feel as "welcomed" home. But the best part of the video is it also shows it being overcome.


Happy Veterans Day to my brothers in arms.

When is it too much Photoshop?...

At what point does one step over the line and go from good photshop to BAD?

In my humble opinion, this is yet another example of Photoshop run far amuck.

It's one thing to "tweak" an image with Photoshop, it's another thing to hit it would a pound of C4!

This video is less than a minute, so please you tell me (leave a comment below), good thing or bad?

Today we turned 1,000,000 YouTube views...

The title pretty much says it all, today we rolled past 15,000 subscribers and topped 1,000,000 views on the Weekly Photo Tips YouTube channel!

I know there hasn't been a new video in some time, but know that there are more in the works even as I write this, so stop by our channel soon to see some new posting.

I big THANK YOU to all of you, our success is a result of you supporting this community.