OH CAN-A-DA. J-One is here so get your stilts ready and your bulb mode fired up.

The fireworks display for St. John’s is set for 10pm at Quidi Vidi Lake. Right now, the weather is a go for the display, though a bit cold so if you intend on shooting, bring a your parka and thinsulate mittens cause it’s gonna be a chilly one. They’re calling for about 7’s at the airport, but off the water it might feel like a 5 or less.

If you have intentions on shooting you best get there early, say an hour or so, allowing for location scout, setup and traffic. Also, be prepped to be sat in some slow moving traffic on the way out, so bring your laptop to have them all proc’d by the time you’re home.

Personally, I won’t be shooting it. I always like to just watch the fires work with a bit of Debussey - Clair de Lune playing softly in the background. :)

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

cp

Friday, the weekend. Yay.

This weekend, me and the girlfriend are doing some driving and photoging. I’ve been wanting to see the Kittiwake Coast for a while now, specifically route 320, better known in tour books as the Road to the Shore. In doing some minor research for the area I happened upon a site that’s been around for a while but I often forget about: www.ICEBERGFINDER.com

Using satellite imagery and reports from tourism operators they compile a map via Google Maps service and it’s pretty accurate and updated on a somewhat weekly basis. Technology wise, Icebergfinder.com uses some pretty serious gear to accomplish the oh-so-seemingly simple task of locating Icebergs for us photographers….. and our seagoing vessels as well, pffft. You can read about the tech behind it, here which is a decent read if you’re even the slightest bit nerdy.

My other recent rediscovery is The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador’s website, to sum it up: welcome to Web 2.0 GNL! RSS Feeds, facebook, twitter and youtube are all there as well as a BOAT load of information for locals looking to vacay in their own backyard or tourists trying to get lost.

In case you forget what it USED to look like:

Before

After, Thank God!

Bravo to the guys behind the new NL site. As a fellow geek, webnerd and general NL propagandist it makes me proud that our provincial website, the front door to the rest of the world is as great as it is.

cp

Many of you, no, perhaps, most of you have never heard of NCIX.com. Unless you’re a nerd turned photographer (hey, some of us are) you’d never of built your own computer, upgraded the internals yourself or perhaps spent far too much money during one of NCIX’s many weekly sales; on stuff you didn’t really need but it was cheap and you MIGHT need that back lit keyboard for the one time you might be up all night playing Unreal Tournament in the darkness that is your “office”….. but I digress.

Arguably, NCIX.com has the cheapest prices on computer parts…. anywhere. Be it Mac or Windows PC, they have it and even on regular every day pricing, it’ll be the cheapest around (they price match too). Their shipping is inexplicably cheap and their inventory is always on hand, save for the few odd products. Yes,  these B.C residents have a store front, but it’s no larger then a shoe box, the rest of their building, errrrr complex is warehouse the size of England herself (or so I’m told). They ship same day with the carrier of your choosing and you get an oh so glorious tracking number promptly.  (www.boxoh.com)

It might seem like I’m really doing the hard sell here on NCIX, but it’s simply that they’ve saved me on several occasions and I know a lot of local photogs have never heard of them. Considering how much of our lives are sat in front of a computer, you should be aware of NCIX.

So if you need a new Terabyte hard drive for all of those accumulating RAW files or a new 16GB SDHC card NCIX is your place. One time I bought a 4gb SDHC card for 2.99 (free ship) just for the hell of it, I did not even need it.

This week is their Customer Appreciation Week Sale, frankly, the prices are not off the wall crazy, but one pick of the litter is the WD Caviar Green 1TB SATA 32MBCache Hard Drive for $79.99, which I’ll say isn’t the BEST price, but it’s damn near close to it and if you’re in need of 1000gigs of space right now, that’s your pick  @ 46% off regular price. Need a bit more? There is a 1.5TB Seagate (my fav brand) there for $129.

Next week however, is the Canada Day sale and if you’ve got even an ounce of patience then you MIGHT be well served to wait till J-One for that one, as it’s usually a very good week  comparable only to their Boxing Week deals.

Either way, now you know of NCIX and you can begin saving.

(thanks to colony in our forums for the heads up on this one)

Well, it’s that time of year again…. Summer? no. Iceberg & whale season? no. Contest season? You betcha.

Offiicial Site Here

from the site:

The Downtown Development Commission (DDC) is developing a calendar to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the creation of the Downtown Development Commission and the Business Improvement Area of Downtown St. John’s.

A photo contest has been announced to gather compelling images of the history, architecture and culture of Downtown St. John’s. Now through July 6, 2009, the DDC is accepting submissions from photographers who wish to capture the character of Downtown St. John’s through a photographic image to be featured in a 12-month 2010 calendar. Calendars will be sold to the public beginning September 2009 through the end of the year.

Entry forms are available at the DDC office at 155 Water Street, Suite 202 or via email scott@downtownstjohns.com or call 579 4139 and a form can be faxed to you as well!
Full details on eligibility and rules are at the link above.

Good luck all!

oh by the way, did we mention first prize is $1000?

NLP is not affiliated with the St. John’s Downtown Development Commission [so don't come crying to us if your boring HDR of waterstreet doesn't win.]

©Robert Mann

There are a lot of online photo contests, this article will focus on photo-of-the-day, week or month contests. Submitting to (and winning) these contests is a good way to share your photos with others and to get your photos seen by people from all over the world.

Some of these sites offer monthly prizes; with others your only prize will be to see your photo on a website. Some sites charge a yearly fee while others are free. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to pay to win. To be fair, some sites offer more than contests; there may be forums for photography discussion, web space for an online gallery or even members-only contests.

All it takes is a little bit of time to edit your photos and upload or e-mail them to various sites. Here are a few handy tips for entering these contests.

Research the Site

Check out the site you are entering your photos at. Make sure that you are not giving away the rights to your photos. Most photo-of-the-day sites keep winning photos in an archive on the site and may display some next to articles, forums or other places on the site. All of the sites I deal with work like this. Be wary of sites that do not respect your copyright.

Read the Rules

Not following the rules is a good way to not get your photo chosen. Some sites have limits on file size and dimensions, some do not allow borders or text (not even copyright) while others don’t allow HDR or digital art. Some sites let you enter as many as you want, others have a limit of 1 a day or even 1 a month. Some sites have several categories and allow you to enter 1 per category. It really varies from site to site and following the rules of each site will get you past the first step and on your way to winning a photo-of-the-day.

Enter Often
Enter as often as you are allowed. If you are like me you have thousands of photos on your hard drive. Pick out your best work and enter it all. In fact, it doesn’t even have to be your best work. What you might find boring and dull others may love. I’ve had many photos chosen as photo-of-the-day that I didn’t think were all that great, but they obviously fit the category and spoke to someone.

©Karen Chappell

©Robert Mann