Art is more than culture, stories and memories. It's jobs and economic impact!

The dictionary defines art as “The expression or application of creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting, drawing or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.” I suspect that, at the least, poets, choreographers and musical composers, among many others, would consider that definition narrow and unnecessarily exclusive.

Contributing $763.6 billion annually to the nation's economy, the arts are more than just a critical part of the U.S. economy. The arts are important to the quality of most American's lives.

Pablo Picasso said, “We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.”

Art is a medium which is highly communicative and can tell the stories of people across the globe like no other medium.

Happy New Year 2018 - Time to change your copyright notice in your camera!

Happy New Year. I hope it's a healthy, happy and prosperous new year for you and your family.

It's January 1^st so it's time to reset the copyright notice in your camera(s) to reflect the new year, so your 2018 images will have the correct information.

Most digital cameras today, can automatically insert your copyright notice into the metadata of every image you make as they are stored. Each of my cameras have been reset this morning to insert “Copyright © 2018 NSL Photography. All Rights Reserved.” into every image I make.

If you haven't been inserting your copyright notice in your images, to date, to help protect them, I suggest you consider start doing it today.

I'm often asked the question when I run workshops, or anytime I'm with enthusiasts and we're talking photography, “You're a pro, so I understand why you place your copyright on your photos, but why should I worry about it? I'm not selling my photographs, nor using them in my work.”

Capturing cityscapes "under glass"

Some of the best potential cityscapes a photographer can capture are “under glass.” Whether you're shooting from a hotel room, an observation tower, or an observation deck, the glass between you and the cityscape creates photographic problems when making your images.

From the highest observation deck in the world, on the Shanghai Tower's 126^th floor, to the One Liberty Place observation deck in Philadelphia on the 57^th floor, the spectacular views from most urban observation decks can only be seen and photographed through glass.

Shooting through glass is an important skill for travel photographers.

There are a few glassless locations from which to shoot wonderful cityscapes, such as the top deck on the “Top of the Rock” in New York City and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but most are glassed-in.

Dealing with glass reflections at observation decks is the main problem for photographers there. It comes from the deck's internal lighting, plus interior surfaces reflecting sunlight on to the glass. Additional problems can come from visitor restrictions and maintenance.

Lexar is back...or at least soon will be. That's great news for Nikon.

In June, Micron dropped a major bombshell in the camera memory card market which affected Nikon professional level DSLR users probably more than photographers using other high end DSLRs. Micron announced the that they were shuttering their entire Lexar brand.

When Lexar closed, for Nikon professional level DSLRs equipped with XQD memory card slots, that left Sony as the sole manufacturer of XQD cards.

When they shuttered Lexar, Micron didn't just stop manufacturing XQD cards. They discontinued the entire Lexar retail business line, including memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, and other storage drives.

If your location in the U.S. changes from “Daylight Time” to “Standard Time” this Sunday, November 5, 2017, don't forget to change the clock in your cameras along with your watches and clocks at home and/or on the road 

To change to “Standard Time” set your clock back one hour.

On Sunday, November 5, 2017, most of the U.S. will switch from “Daylight Time” to “Standard Time.” That's most, but definitely not all of the U.S. Arizona, except for the Navajo Nation, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands don't switch to “Daylight Time” in the spring, and back to “Standard Time” in the fall. They stick to “Standard Time” year-round.

Nikon XQD based cameras have a future

Of the world's major Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) and Mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) manufacturers, only Nikon DSLRs have utilized XQD memory cards to store images and videos. Some Sony video cameras also use XQD cards.

XQD cards were manufactured by Lexar and Sony, until June, 2017, when Lexar announced that they were discontinuing their retail memory card business, including XQD memory cards. Since then, only Sony has been manufacturing XQD cards.

The XQD card was created for high-definition camcorders and high resolution digital cameras, as it offered considerably better performance than Compact Flash memory cards, even CFast cards.

While Nikon bet on XQD cards, their competitors bet on CFast memory cards. Today it's clear that Nikon won their bet. Frankly, based on the different cards' specifications, I don't understand how CFast supporters thought they'd win their bet.

DxO has acquired the Nik Collection from Google

DxO has acquired the Nik Collection from Google and will continue to offer it for free until they make a new edition available in mid-2018.


DxO, makers of PhotoLab, formerly OpticsPro, and other photo editing tools which are compatible with Adobe products, has purchased the Nik Collection from Google, one of the most widely used Adobe Photoshop plug-ins tools.

DxO announced they will continue to offer the current version as a free download, for the time being. By mid-2018 DxO plans to offer a new version of the venerable software.

Protecting your images from automated watermark removal

Many who market or sell photographs online or who just want to prevent online photo theft of the images they've posted for family and friends, often use watermarks as their first line of defense. While it's not the only defensive measure photographers can and should take to protect their images online, watermark use is sensible, practical and useful.

Although its true that someone with expert Photoshop skills can eliminate a watermark in an hour or so, even if thoughtfully constructed, watermarks still stop most thieves because it's rarely worth spending an hour or more to steal an image, especially if the final product has any telltale visual artifacts shouting, “Theft!”

This past July, at the Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference, Google demonstrated an algorithm capable of automating the removal of watermarks from photos. Google showed that the removal of watermarks from a series of photographs that now takes hours or days, could be done in minutes.

Planning to photograph the Continental U.S.' first total solar eclipse in 38 years?

As long as a year ago, many photographers made reservations to ensure they would be in the direct path of the totality of the upcoming total solar eclipse. It takes place next Monday, August 21. The last total solar eclipse seen in the Continental U.S. occurred in 1979. Fortunately for photographers the totality of the approaching total solar eclipse will be seen in parts of fourteen states, so there are plenty of places to setup one's gear to make full eclipse images.

For those unsure of what it is, a total solar eclipse is when the disk of the moon completely blocks out the disk of the sun. This will be seen in a path across the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina, about 70 miles wide, called the “path of totality.” Outside that “path,” those viewing the eclipse will only see a partial eclipse. The further away watchers are located from the “path,” the less sun will be hidden behind the moon.