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» Tuesday Tidbits

 

Nikon is doing the release today, rolling out the brand new Nikon D60 with a 10.2 Megapixel sensor, still no live-view unfortunately (2.5" LCD screen) and an even smaller body than the D40 had. Also releasing are three brand new and exciting lenses, the 16-85 DX VR, the 60 f/2.8 AF-S Micro as well as the most exciting 24 f/3.5 PC-E lens with perspective control on it! Some cool releases by Nikon there today and I guess time will reveal how they operate and I hope I can get to try them out once they are released, at least the body.

Amazing underwater photography!

Today I invite you to check out the amazing underwater photographer, Cos Brosnan. His underwater photos will just blow you away, trust me! I’m still in awe over them! You can also read an interview with Cos over at Photography Corner.

Waiting for your MacBook Air? They might be shipping very soon!

According to Engadget, the shipments of the new MacBook Air’s will begin very soon and the first of them are rumored to be arriving on Februrary 1st! However though, this is if you ordered one right away since you might need to wait a bit longer if you didn’t. Read more »

Read on further in todays second post for the scoop on what WordPress plugins I love and use!

» Apple releases some new stuff, MacBook Air among them!

 

Hot off the Apple keynote we have seen some pretty cool releases and some that is far from that cool as well. Lets get to the main news first doing it the other way around than Jobs

 MacBook Air

Yep, we got it, the highly rumored MacBook Air did indeed release and here are the specs. It features a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Due processor, 80 GB HDD (optional 64GB SSD), 2 GB RAM, Full-sized backlighted keyboard, one USB port as well as one headphone jack and a micro-DVI port. Of course there is a MagSafe adapter that looks a little bit different now, so updated It’s quite a nifty computer but I don’t know if it lived up to my expectations. Now also, the lack of optical drive is replaced with an external, custom made SuperDrive for $99 for the MacBook Air. Starting at $1799.

Updated AppleTV

I never thought I’d hear “El Jobso” admit that an Apple product were not good, well I doubt he had unless he had a new version of it for display so here is revealed a new version of the Apple TV, which now can surf the iTunes Music store, .Mac and more without the need for a computer, which is basically the main news. However, if you had the old Apple TV, don’t feel left out as it is a free software upgrade! Also they have reduced the price to $229!

Updated iPod Touch!

The iPod Touch got a slight upgrade as well with some applications now available for the iPod Touch as well and all new iPod Touch’s will be shipping with it. Downside on the upgrade is that of course, you can upgrade the software but they are charging you $20 for it! Bad! I’m still waiting for the iPhone release here in Sweden.

 Movie Rentals in iTunes!

Yes! We all saw it coming and it is here, movie rentals in iTunes is reality, at least it will be when the new version of iTunes ships very very soon. Well so far only US folks will be able to rent movies although Jobs did say that they “look forward to get it out to International folks as well” so I hope that will be very soon as well since I actually can see myself using the feature because I have a long way sometimes to a movie rental store and we don’t have any net rental places here around really.

Time Capsule, wireless Time Machine!

We’ve been waiting on this since Leopard and well frankly it just seems like another way for Apple to earn some more money. Time Capsule is basically a hard drive with wireless network connection (500GB or 1TB available in sizes). Perfect if you have a network with many computers to back up or if you want to use as a network disc (which you can), of course it is a perfect match for the MacBook Air as well

Frankly I think it was a little disappointing. I’d been hoping for some more stuff to be released and I had certainly hoped that if there were to be movie rentals, why couldn’t Apple release it in the whole world… Now I want to hear your opinions on it!

» Apple releases new stuff!

Apple has released some new stuff before MacWorld! Booth an upgraded MacPro, now with a 8-core processor up to 3.2 GHz and the possibility to add up to 32gb of RAM as well as 4TB of storage (and even 15,000rpm drives if wanted instead) and a new update version of the Xserve also with a 8-core processor available up to 3GHz!. I think it’s some pretty darn cool stuff so go check them out on the Apple Store

- MacPro
- Xserve

» Monday Newsflash

Some cool things do happen on Mondays as well despite you think everyone is still left in their weekend mood. For me it is back to school tomorrow with a lot of school work, client work and project work to do on the same time however I have made it a new-years resolution to plan better this year, hope I continue with it as well otherwise it is only going to come down on myself. Anyway, over to the news

Sony announces A200 dSLR!

Today, Sony has announced their latest dSLR, the successor of the A100 is the brand new A200, featuring a 10.2 megapixel sensor, 2.7″ LCD screen and most notably an increased SteadyShot™ function that offers 2.5-3.5 steps anti-shake performance with all ? lenses. Sounds pretty cool really, price appears to be somewhere around $700-$900 kit-wise and they have continued support for all Sony and Minolta lenses Read more about it here.

ACE Boot Camp training course from Matt Kloskowski

Over at Kelby Training, Matt Kloskowski has just released a new cool training class that prepares you for the Adobe ACE  (Adobe Certified Expert) Exam. Matt has teached this is a pre-con class along with Dave Cross from time to time at Photoshop World and it is now available at Kelby Training in their subscription based online training service. Check it out!

 Lightroom tutorials in works!

I’m currently working hard on expanding the Lightroom tutorials booth with written text tutorials and recorded video tutorials. In this process I’d love to hear from you all what you want to see tutorials on as well so you get what you want So please leave a comment with what you want to see, also note I’m taking ideas on all the suite products so it doesn’t have to be Lightroom.

Photograph of the Year contest at Photography Corner

Photography Corner is still holding their Photograph of the Year contest and it is open to entrants until the 15th January! It’s just too cool to pass with over $20,000 in total prices and about $5,000 for the first price winner, prices ranking all the way down until the 10th place and that still is some pretty darn cool prizes! So go over to Photography Corner and check it out!

» Recapping 2007 - What’s happened

Very soon 2007 is past history and we are into the new year of 2008 before I’ve even begun to write this post I’ve already picked half of the categories that I post into because a lot has indeed happened. If you want to read some more what’s happened in ‘07, check out the posts by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski, Scott covers Adobe, Photography and NAPP and Matt covers what’s been happening to Lightroom in 2007. Because there have been two lengthy and I must say great posts from them about that, I’ll not venture into that as much in my post but I will cover on how 2007 has been to me.

For me, 2007 has been a very good year with a lot of things kicking up to speed, especially in the second half. I’ve had the tough periods this year that I very much hope that next year won’t have with a lot of personal things happening although I finally do feel that they are easing off and I’m a more happy person now.

Beginning of 2007…I hardly remember much of it really except that I’d just gotten my Nikon D50 and was shooting a lot and I mean a lot of experimental photos and slowly but securely started to gear into landscape photography. Also my web design business, XLD Studios, started to advance a lot as I got quite a few clients, one that continues to approach me with new and great projects. I think the whole beginning of 2007 was very photo centric especially in march when I got to do work experience in a camera store, the store where I now even get called in when they need someone extra.

I can’t say a lot important for this post happened until after the summer, I mean, life rolled on and school rolled on and it was soon holidays. Now after the holidays things started to happen that is now reflecting me to who I am, I really felt my design business kicking of and especially my photography, mostly during the summer. I got several very nice shoots (if I may say so) that I’m happy with and what’s made my year is the fact that I’ve won four photographic awards, Image of the Week at NAPP, Editors Choice at NAPP, Daily Deviation at deviantART and Photograph of the Month for December at Photography Corner. I want to send a thank you to the NAPP staff for selecting those awards, to the folks at deviantART for their awesome support and especially thanks to Kev Lewis who featured my photograph with a daily deviation, also a big thanks of course goes to the Photography Corner community whom I’d been away from most of the year because I was very busy but now returned to and they are as awesome as ever, thank you for your ongoing support.

Now, there are some people I really must thank extra that I really can’t thank enough for their ongoing support;
First off, Tove, Ellen and Johanna, my three best friends in the world! You are just awesome, I can’t put more words on your awesomeness, because there are none in this world!!!

Secondly and this is where all the other folks come I need to thank extra, because I really do only have two steps, I want to thank Tim L. Walker for his support, trust and everlasting projects, it has been a fun year ; Susanna Cotter for her everlasting support and for being there all the time (and also for her apparently everlasting featured as well ;)) ; Juha M. Kinnunen for his so inspirational work ; my family, for their support and trust in what I do and for allowing me to continue doing it, finally also I want to extend a more general thank you to every viewer of this site whether you read the blog, watch my tutorials or watch my photography, an extra special thanks to those of you that find time to comment on the posts.

Finally I want to end with the current state of my sites and what I plan for them; Starting with XLD Studios, it is progressing very well and I have some great plans for the site that I will not reveal as of now because they are only in the planning stages, you will find out later on though This site, I’ll continue updating it with new stuff, blog posts, tutorials and some other resources that I will launch now in the new year as well, I hope this will be the year of this site, I will also continue to update the CST&T podcast but I do need to find another host site for it since it is currently draining all my bandwidth and thus I can’t update it right now. As some of you might be aware, I recently launched Bernskiold Photography, a new kinda site that is based on Smug Mug, where I won a years pro membership, now it has been awesome these weeks I’ve had it up and I will keep on using it for long so it is there you’ll find my full photo home from now on I’m also going to be continuing to be active on booth deviantART and Photography Corner as well, because I think booth communities are great (oh and Smug Mug as well).

So to all of you reading this and to your friends and families I wish you a very Happy and Prosperous new Year and that you will find nothing but joy this year and if you have any problems as of now, I hope they will solve as we enter another exciting year that will for me at least, be filled with a lot of new (and therfore scary) things but also a lot of wonderful and cool things as well!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

» The Monday Stuff

There are a lot of things going on right now and here is a couple of goodies and news and as you see, I’m in for the posting and updating this week

Rumor: Canon releasing new dSLR in late January?

A new rumor has it that Canon will be releasing new cameras and specifically a new dSLR on January 24th, a week before PMA. The rumor has emerged from the Swedish camera magazine, Kamera och Bild’s web edition and the article there can be read here, in Swedish. Now this rumor doesn’t seem that unqualified since it comes right from the VP of Canon Sweden. We’ll just have to stay tuned and see!

Making your own calendars? Check this template out!

I’m making my own calendars for printing to family and friends this year as I did last year and when searching on the web, I found this nice and easy to customize calendar template online that consists of a .psd (Photoshop) file for each month! Complete with dates and all however in the format with Sunday first and Saturday last in the weekdays… Take a look here! My own calendar is not fully ready yet, but I’ll post some photos of it up when it is done!

Print purchases available from my photos!

If you remember me saying a while ago that I won a photograph contest where the prize was a years pro-membership to a website and service called SmugMug, then I can gladly say (and for those of you that don’t recall that as well) that I’ve finally gotten that site fully set-up and I’m uploading new photos and stuff there all the time and I find the site great! So if you want to purchase my prints, just head over to the Bernskiold Photography website and have a look!

Big photography contest coming up!

I know I’ve been saying this for a while now but it is really close to be released right now and it is gonna be huge I tell you! An advise you can get before it is released is to go over the photos you’ve taken this year and narrow out your best (only for this year of 2007)! Now I can confirm though that (if you wasn’t reading this, you wouldn’t know ;)) the contest is coming up in only a couple of hours, so I do really mean that it is close!

» It’s “Finally Friday”

Today is “Finally Friday” and I really mean it, I’m so happy it is Friday again and weekend because I’ve been so very busy during the week I’ve hardly gotten time to be on the computer. Anyway this was always going to be the most busy because it is the end of the term and yeah it is always most busy then. So here are the weeks hottest stuff

I won the contest I was nominated in…

I gotto start with some more self centered stuff eh, that’s all because I’m just totally psyched about it! If you remember I posted a little while ago that I had been nominated for Photograph of the Month over at the Photography Corner website and I’m stunned that I won the voting and my “Summer Memories” photograph became the photograph of the month of December over there, meaning it has now won two awards!! The prize was a one year pro account to SmugMug where I will be setting up a site where you’ll be able to buy my photos from! Cool eh

Wacom Cintiq 12WX

Wacom has announced a brand new tablet in their Cintiq lineup, it is a smaller 12″ tablet (active screen size) that works just like a regular drawing tablet, only it has a screen built right in. It looks super cool and the resolution is 1280×800. You can read more about it here!

Adobe News!

• Adobe has released Camera Raw 4.3.1 that addresses some bugs in the 4.3 release. You can download it for free here!

• Adobe has also redesigned their entire company website over at Adobe.com to match the new creative suite! To me I think the design is well organized and it looks very stylish, so go and explore and enjoy the interactivity as well! By just taking a quick look at the source it appears that they have used a couple of their own suite programs (apart from the design side) such as Dreamweaver (I see presence of DW Templates) which is pretty cool in and of itself!

» Tuesday Update Galore

I’m back to the normal schedule this week with my news postings so here are the Tuesday Updates coming to you right now!

Firstly, if you are looking at entering one of the best photographic workshops you are likely to encounter, you’ll be looking at an exclusive workshop with one of the best photographers of today, Jay Maisel, and itt will take place Monday, December 17 to Friday December 21, from 9am to 10pm each day. The cost for this (meals included) is $5,000 and it is limited to just nine people, first come, first served! Get more info by sending a mail to jay@jaymaisel.com or by calling 212.431.5013. Also, if you haven’t seen Jay’s work, check out his website here!

Website to guide you in computer spec building

If you are looking to build a new PC and you need a little help on the specs, check out the website called “Recommended Spec“. They have a Basic, Mid and High spec for a wide range of applications, Audio, Graphic, Gaming etc and could be a useful resource if you are looking to build a computer in near future.

Photoshop World ‘08 Spring - Orlando, Florida

Photoshop World ‘08 the east-coast or spring edition has been announced and it is going to be in Orlando, Florida from April 2-5 where April 1 is going to be the pre-con day! Go over to the Photoshop World website to read more about the exciting event!

Want to win a copy of Lightroom?

If you are feeling up to win a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom then you ought to check out the latest edition of Photoshop User TV from the NAPP folks! The prize is amongst others a full copy of the software (other prices being a NAPP membership, iPhone Book, iStockPhoto cap and more)!!

Finally…inspiration!

To cap of with some inspiration I’m going to leave you looking at two sites depending on your interest. If you are interested in some cool photography, take a look at the website of Andy Hornby who is a very talented photographer shooting many interesting photos!
If your interest lies in cool websites, you really need to take a look at 2Advanced Studios. These guys are really awesome and their company site is just real stunning! So go and have a look at it right now

» How do I do it: Video Tutorials

I’m getting some questions booth mails and comments on how I do when recording my video tutorials, so I thought, why tackle some of my questions I get before the upcoming episode of the CST&T Podcast tomorrow

What program do you use?

I’m currently using iShowU from ShinyWhiteBox to record all Video Tutorials and podcasts and I also use Mouseposé 2 to be able to highlight the area around the mouse pointer. Then for zooming it is the normal Mac shortcuts for zooming

What mirophone do you use?

Believe it or not, I’m actually using an old webcam mic for recording since my headset broke and I haven’t been able to buy a new. It does a decent job at the recording although I’d really recommend a headset!

Any tips and tricks?

Yeah, absolutely! Firstly, computer wise I’d recommend setting up a new user account to do all recording on, so it is all clean and fresh on the desktop/dock/menubar etc. something which I’m doing now in my latest recording that I have falling in love with! Also more location wise, try to close doors and windows around you so to not let light through and also try to record in a room that has cloth or fabric hanging from the falls with few open wall/floor spaces so that there are not much for the sound to bounce off.
Also, one last thing speak in a normal speaking tone with a distance to the mic like the distance between the thumb and the little finger when stretched, also place the mic a little bit above you so you don’t get unwanted mouth noises with.

In the end, just try to keep calm and go through it methodically and not rush.

» Monday News Stuff

Starting this Monday news stuff, I feel like I need to address a question that I’ve gotten quite a bit recently and it is apart from the question if I am an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) when the CS3 ACE tests will be out. The word from Adobe on that point, is that they will be out (with a prep-guide) sometime in November and then the current ACEs will have 90 days to take their exam to still be ACEs. Oh and on the other question, no I am not an ACE but I am planning on taking the exam when the CS3 one comes out!

 1TB Laptop Hard drives coming in foreseeable future?

According to an article I read over at the Swedish MacWorld site, with the help of the GMR technology (which is the technology that the Nobel Prize Winners in Physic are getting awarded for) will make it possibe to fit in 1TB space in laptop hard drives and up to 4TB into stationary hard drives. All this according to Hitachi as well. Pretty cool stuff, even cooler though is that there could be in store in as little as two years!

Adding Fireworks to the mix!

Right, from today and on, tutorials on Fireworks will also be appearing in the tutorials section right here on the site, booth geared to help you learn the features in Fireworks CS3, but also to convert from using previous ImageReady! Check it out as it comes up late today, early tomorrow, depending on how quick Revver accepts my video!

 Cool contest, prize is books and iPhone!

This contest just sounds amazing and it should be nothing short of amazing either as well! Check out Scott Kelby’s contest over at his blog right here where you each day now for ten days can win his iPhone book. As if that was not enough, on the tenth day you can win booth a signed copy of this iPhone book as well as an iPhone! So check it out here!