PShizzy: The Blog

The Mercury defeated the Sparks 89-80, and now own the best record in the League. With a flurry of games (They stand at 5-1 within the first two weeks of the season), they’re off to a great start, and it seems like the teams gelled already. Cappie Pondexter had 21 points, and Diana Taurasi added 17, but the story was Temeka Johnson, who added 18 points, with 10 in the fourth quarter.

So, uh, why the picture of Lisa Leslie? Because it’s all about  smiles and cries (If you haven’t seen Training Day, go see it). A better way to put it, for those that haven’t seen the movie, is that you need genuine emotion to make a photo work. You’ll always hear people saying things about their images featuring a players face, and that’s true, but beyond that you need a face that shows a genuine emotion. Smiles and cries.

When a player is injured, there’s no hiding it. Leslie took a bad fall and could barely walk off the court (hip injury, out a week). Another example I like is the look of dejection, often happening after a game losing shot or your final game in the regular season or playoffs. With most games, there’s always tomorrow. When there isn’t, it’s a somber feeling.

More after the jump. (more…)

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The Mercury stand at 4-1, atop the Western Conference, with their 104-80 win over the Minnesota Lynx. Diana Taurasi put up 28 points, and rookie Dewanna Bonner had a double double with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Generally speaking, after a few games, you get a feel for the style of the team (if they have one) and the tendencies, both good and bad. Understanding the team allows us a better opportunity to catch moments, and make some nice photos.

For example, I’m sure that Diana Taurasi has a chip on her shoulder. Was it from not making the playoffs last year? Does she see that perhaps this team has the talent to go far, and wants to display a level of intensity as a standard for her team? I don’t know what the answer is, but I like it so far. Every game has had her reacting to foul calls and non-calls. Every game, she’s been playing very aggressively (which may explain the fouls). I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up MVP and leads the league in technicals.

So what else am I noticing two weeks into the season? More after the jump. (more…)

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The Mercury faced the Liberty for the second game of their season, winning 91-84 despite the slow start. Cappie Pondexter put up 26 points, and Diana Taurasi had 21, albeit on 6-15 shooting, in the victory.

Despite the shooting woes, Diana contributed in other ways, grabbing five boards and five assists, as well as two steals and two blocks, rounding out her stats.

When one of the bigger names on the team is having an off game, or even the entire team seems to be in a funk, what do you do? I mean, you gotta show something for being there. So what do you do? Just like players can contribute in other manners, we can look for something other than the usual “player driving to basket” shots.

Read on to for more pics, a gallery, and the type of shots I look for besides the usual peak action. (more…)

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Another season of the WNBA season began on Saturday. The Silver Stars came into town, a strong contender after making it into the finals last year (only to be defeated by the Shock). So to kick it off, I tried to get a little bit of everything. I won’t necessarily start backwards, but if you look at the starting image, I’m pretty sure you can tell who won and who lost given Becky Hammon’s expression. Most people like jube shots, I prefer dejection.

So, what else do I try to get when a new season starts? Read on to find out. (more…)

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AdoramaPix is at it again with their big print sale. Running through March, 4.95 gets you a 16×20 Kodak Endura Matte or Lustre print, and 7.95 for a Kodak Metallic. And like last time, you can purchase prepaid prints at these prices, and use them after the sale ends. This is great for anyone who prepurchased the metallics last time, as they’re still paying 4.95 for those.

Not only that, but if you’re signing up for the first time, you get 25 4×6 prints free.  And if you happen to do that, please consider dropping my name as a referral (my email address for this is msimbron at gmail dot com). I’ve accrued a bunch of 4×6 prints and plan to do something (don’t know yet) with them.

If you read my previous article on this, “Big Print Giveth,” there are comments from users who purchased large prints from AdoramaPix and were quite happy with the quality.

Feel free to add any thoughts or queries in the comments.

Tags: business // 1 Comment »

After the huge success of the Lynda.com seven day trial, which was on again off again, I received an interesting email from another e-learning source, the Virtual Training Company, or VTC for short. I was interested for two reasons.

First, VTC has been around a while. They offered training cd’s over a decade ago, when the concept was still new. So VTC definitely has a solid background in application training. But the second reason is what caught me: The email was from Mark Vernon,  the founder of VTC.

vtc.com is an online learning library similar to lynda.com, but with 80,000 tutorial videos. We started in 1994, delivering online in 1997, so we’ve been around a bit longer than most.
Check out the library using a 7 day free pass, using promo code “twitter”, at vtc.com/promo
cheers

Mark Vernon

The Virtual Training Company

So please, feel free to sign up and give it a whirl. Read on for a short review of the material as well as my overall opinion. (more…)

Tags: business, general, photoshop // 3 Comments »

UPDATE 2/17/09: The trial is back on. I believe it will alternate on and off, so try it. if you’re in a rush, try the day pass in my other post. Remember, each one requires an email address.

The week long pass that I posted about last week expired. It was a very popular post on this blog, so I contacted Lynda.com to see if there were any other trials available or coming up. It took a few days, but they responded.

As I mentioned in my other post, Lynda.com is a good resource for training, and the monthly or yearly cost is a boon to anyone who has an interest in learning more than one application. For my review of the service, read last weeks blog post

Click more to read on about my response from Lynda.com customer service, and the link to the 24 hour pass. (more…)

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Canon announced that they are offering a free repair for anyone with a 5D that may be suffering from a loose mirror box due to a weakening of the adhesive that holds the mirror in. More on that over at

PDNGearGuide article on 5D Mirror Detachment

The notice is also available on Canon’s website. The repair is free, as is shipping, from user comments on other forums. I will be calling them tomorrow to send in my 5D.

Canon 5D Notice: Main Mirror Detachment

If I send it in and get any paperwork, I’ll scan it and do an update thread.

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