Robert Jensen

Robert Jensen What? You want to know about the guy who writes this stuff?

Well, I was born in a small town outside Detroit ... huh? I should skip to the good part?

OK, I was in the photo retail business for over 27 years. I sold millions of dollars worth of photographic gear in that time, which makes me sound like some great salesman, but really, I sold only what I liked. I loved talking about camera gear as much as I did taking pictures. I was always known as the guy to go to for technical information but who could explain it in simple terms people could understand.

I left retail in '97 and turned to professional photography where my first gig was shooting content for Playboy's website. Its hard work (really I lost 11 lbs on my first shoot for them) but someone has to step in and do what needs to be done! Since then I've done just about every type of job there is in the photo biz, from shooting for stock to shooting stock cars. I've done weddings to website content, clothing catalogs to corporate advertising, album covers to architectural, and yes, even pet photos.

I'm mostly known for my vintage pinup photography, which I've been doing for almost 20 years. When I started out I was almost the only one shooting in the genre and seem to have inspired a few of the well known names in the biz today.

I'm so completely addicted to gadgets that writing about them has become part of my 12 step program to recovery.

(They got it wrong. He who dies with the most toys isn't the winner, its the guy who gets to play with the toys for free, and gets paid for it. ~ Robert Jensen )


Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Christmas gift ideas for the photographer - Part 2

PPC News Staff | 11/26- 09:17 PM

Memory, more memory, and faster memory

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Today I’m going to recommend a great gift that every photographer who shoots with a digital camera always needs more of, memory cards - but first a word of caution for you who don’t know about camera gear - be sure that whatever memory card you buy it will work with that particular brand and model number camera that your photographer owns.  Digital cameras accept only certain sizes of memory cards and there are several formats/types of memory cards on the market.

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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Christmas gift ideas for the photographer in your life - Part 1

PPC News Staff | 11/26- 05:13 PM

No matter what your budget here are some good ideas for Christmas gifts for the photographer in your family.

Its that time of year again where you’re trying to come up with gift ideas for the people in your life.  Well, if you know anyone who’s interested in photography I’ll be posting a few articles with gift ideas that will cost you from nothing but your time, up to several thousand dollars.

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Keyword editing made easier

Sara Frances | 02/04- 11:54 AM

Composition 101 trick simplifies keyword selection and organization

Combined Photo Mechanic & Lightroom Workflow Video

Dan Carr | 01/28- 10:45 PM

How to make the most of these two favorite programs in a singular workflow

LIGHTING STRATEGIES: Exploiting a Single Light Source

Art Adams | 01/28- 11:14 AM

Sometimes all it takes to make a beautiful picture is placing one light—as long as it’s the proper light source. This still photo shows an example of one style of soft lighting that’s been in use for centuries, and for good reason: it works.

Cuba! People-to-people 2012 dream trip for photographers

Sara Frances | 01/19- 10:14 AM

Hands On With The Canon G1 X

Dan Carr | 01/16- 11:02 PM

Nikon At CES With The New D4

Dan Carr | 01/15- 10:56 AM

Hands on impressions with Nikon’s latest flagship

A Look At JVC’s New 4K Camera And The Future Larger Sensor Interchangeable Lens Version

Dan Carr | 01/12- 12:14 AM

Intriguing first public look at prototype JVC 4k camera

Hands On Impressions Of The Fuji X-Pro 1

Dan Carr | 01/11- 05:00 AM

Photos and video run through of Fujifilms latest retro star

Adobe Launches Lightroom 4 Public Beta

Dan Carr | 01/10- 08:56 PM

Time to get testing !

Fuji Launches New X-Pro 1 And 3 Lenses

Dan Carr | 01/10- 12:45 AM

Fuji’s first foray into the interchangeable lens, large sensor market

Canon Creates Its Own Space In The Marketplace With The G1 X

Dan Carr | 01/10- 12:02 AM

Small camera, surprisingly large sensor

Lexar Introduces 1000x Memory Card

Tony Donaldson | 01/09- 07:10 AM

A CompactFlash card capable of 150 MB per second and full HD video.

Datacolor Launches Spyder4 for Simplicity and Accuracy in Color Calibration for all Display Devices

PPC News Staff | 01/06- 10:08 AM

Spyder4 Express, Spyder4 Pro and Spyder4 Elite Provide Full Spectrum Color Calibration for Creative Professionals

Hands-on with the HP Envy 110 e-All-In-One

Tony Donaldson | 01/06- 09:01 AM

It prints, scans, copies and faxes, more wirelessly than you even expect.

CRU-Dataport Drive Boxes

Tony Donaldson | 01/06- 12:33 AM

A safe way to archive and store your old hard drives.






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Keyword editing made easier

Sara Frances | 02/04- 11:54 AM

Composition 101 trick simplifies keyword selection and organization

Effective keywording is one of the three most important ways to get your site or post found on the internet - along with title and description. But I’ve always found keywording a disorganized chore. Here’s a way to make the job simpler, quicker and more logical.

Remember how in composition 101 class you had to make an outline of topics, content, facts etc.? We used to do this on index cards, one card for each separate fact or topic. We wrote these in no particular order, just as they came to mind or emerged from research. Then we rearranged the stack of cards to create the logical skeleton of the essay. Done this way it was easy to see if there were any gaps in the content or if further rearrangement were needed.

I’ve found this analog approach works well for proposing, editing and sequencing keywords.

Once you’ve done your research, possibly on Google Adwords, to propose keywords, then you’ll also try to think inside the head of your audience to imagine what they might search on. I always make a big list of potential keywords, even if some seem a bit far out or not fully on target. For something as important as your website, you can never have too many keywords to start the edit process. Don’t forget keywords that speak to business products or services you may not do right now, but are targeted in your business plan.

Here’s my system to edit and organize your search keywords. My example is done on a blank file folder, easily preserved for future reference or for colleague comment.

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  • Write down each proposed keyword “candidate” on a separate sticky note. I use the smallest size sticky notes and cut them in thirds to save space.
  • Arrange the stickies on your desk or a white board to get a good look at the total field.
  • Re-arrange them, grouping categories like Photo services, Photoshop, Album design, etc. (or whatever is your business)
  • Select the 2-5 most important keywords, then second tier from ones to be discarded.
  • Re-arrange again in a logical, customer-friendly sequence.
  • Generally choose no more than 25 keywords for your main core list (federal governments site limit). This is hard for us because we do so many things related to video, stills and productions.
  • Rearrange as many times as needed, because individual pages or blog posts will need different, specific keywords than those for the site in general
  • Keep a dated record of your final edit, and don’t throw away the de-selects, because they will eventually find a use - no need to rethink totally from the ground up

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Combined Photo Mechanic & Lightroom Workflow Video

Dan Carr | 01/28- 10:45 PM

How to make the most of these two favorite programs in a singular workflow

I’ve posted a detailed video about what makes Photo Mechanic a must have program for many journalists and sports photographers before. But many people also like the easy adjustment tools of Adobe Lightroom. This video walks you through how to setup a workflow that incorporates the best of both of these programs.

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