Tag Archives: Blog

*Nauti Straps has a new look. Forest Flora ready to follow you out into the wild.

by in General ramblings, Nauti Straps - handbuilt camera straps, Photography gear and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

regatta19

Shameless self plug alert, but my kids gotta eat, and I’m also very proud of these.  ***Nauti Straps has a new colorway available in 3 different straps.  The new mottled Forest Flora blends light and dark greens along with a clay beige to put a pop in your camera fashion for the summer months.  Mimicking the dappled light through a forest canopy, Forest Flora blends into nature, or compliments more monochromatic backdrops.  Available in the Regatta and Wayfarer shoulder straps, along with the Cascade wrist strap, it’s a new look for the three popular strap designs.  As always, every Nauti Strap is 100% hand built to the highest standard (by moi) using high end sail racing line designed for open ocean races under the harshest conditions.

NS-Wayfarer19oncam

The Nauti Straps Wayfarer (see HERE)

A fully adjustable rope strap enabling a longer, looser throw for the cross body sling, or a tighter, closer length to keep it from bouncing off your belt when over your neck.  Available in 8 different colors, this design came from a desire to have a nice rope strap that didn’t have to be built in various lengths for different needs or body sizes.  One size fits all, and can be adjusted between 32″-55″ (81-140cm) long.  Held by nonslip O rings, and fastened by stainless steel quick release clasps, the Wayfarer is a great strap when needing versatility and comfort while looking slick.  Having a double strap at your neck also helps distribute weight better than a single rope strap.  Available in 8 different colors.

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The Nauti Straps Cascade (see HERE)

Our most popular wrist strap has a new look as well.  The secure and adjustable Cascade wrist strap is fastened to the camera via a 170lb test, steel split ring and is fully adjustable to fit any sized wrist with ample room to operate the camera.  Strong nylon, dyneema and high tenacity poly dual braid line, finished with hand spliced and whipped ends makes this, quite possibly, the strongest rope wrist strap in existence.  It feels and looks good too.  Available in 7 different colors…

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NS-Regatta19oncam 1

 

The Nauti Straps Regatta (see HERE)

Are you more of a traditionalist?  The Regatta shoulder strap uses the same high end rope, and keeps it simple in design.  A straight 46″ (117cm) non adjustable, hand built rope strap attaches to the camera via two stainless steel quick release clasps.  A stylish and elegant rope strap while out and about.  Available in 10 different colors, the Regatta suits most any shooter’s style.

I handbuild each and every strap I sell, and I’ve extensively used and refined each and every design to provide both a practical, and comfortable option in the strap game.  I guarantee these straps will last, and have now been building and selling them for over 7 years now.  You can read what others have to say via the reviews at Nautistraps.com if you don’t want to take my word for it.

I hope everyone in the Northern hemisphere is enjoying the summer months, and for our friends in the south, here’s to hoping the winter solstice has found you well, and know that your days are now getting longer.  Drop a comment to let us know where you shoot and reside, and if you’re a Nauti Strap user, let us know how it suits you.

Happy shooting and all the best,

Tyson

*From the hip. A retouch tutorial, using @alienskin Exposure, October 2015 with Billyburg.

by in Monthly retouch, Photography Apps, Photography tutorials, Postprocessing techniques, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

final (1)

Hi all!  Welcome to a new, recurring feature on the blog here.  I’m partnering with Alien Skin software to work through the processing of images using their Exposure software.  Alien Skin Exposure is one of the most complete software processing solutions that I use, and I just love it.  With each new release, the functionality and depth become greater and more streamlined.  Exposure X is in its final beta, and should be ready to go very soon.  You can download a free trial of Exposure HERE if you’d like, and follow along with one of your own images as we explore what Exposure has to offer, together.  (if you’re looking for a discount code, you can get 10% off any Alien Skin software using the code “tysonrobichaud” so have at it).

Using images submitted by readers, I will retouch, process and in general, just have fun playing around with them as I might one of my own images, sharing my process step by step along the way.  I’ll be using Exposure X today (which may look a little different compared to the screenshots below, when finalized) to process a submitted image from my friend, Billyburg (see more from him on flickr here).  

Without further ado…

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*Moving onward and upward! A new recurring retouching project for the blog w/ @alienskin software.

by in General ramblings, Monthly retouch, Software tutorials / reviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

IMG_7323As many of you have figured out, we stopped our monthly flicker photo blog challenge, much to my dismay.  Flickr’s desire to dumb itself down, into little more than a mobile app proved to be the death rattle for our monthly project which was going really well, bringing in hundreds of submissions for our monthly contests.  C’est la vie.

Well, with these lemons, I’d like to make lemonade because lemonade is awesome, especially if you only use half the recommended sugar and watch your unsuspecting friends, and young children drink it.  

I’ve been in conversation with my friends at Alien Skin Software, and have had the great fortune to be both a contributor to their blog, and a beta tester for many of their programs over the years, the newest of which is the yet to be released, Exposure update.  As a long time fan of Exposure, I’m excited to see the final version.  With this new project, I’d like to gauge interest in having a retouching tutorial, where by I process and retouch submitted images using Exposure, which may then be shared with many, many thousands of viewers here and through the Alien Skin blog.  Come on in for more details, and my hope for this collaboration…

Continue reading →

*Congratulations to Gonzalo Broto, our winner for “Textures” with @Mirrorlessons

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Water caprice

Congratulations to Gonzalo Broto (see more from him HERE) for winning our fifteenth monthly challenge for the theme “Textures” during the month of May.  See more from Gonzalo on his Blog HERE.  Stop by, say hi and give him a follow.

Thanks as always to Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons for co-hosting.  We know that the recent flickr redesign has made it a bit trickier to stay abreast of the goings on through the groups there, but thank you to everyone that made the effort and submitted this month.  Hopefully Yahoo will leave flickr alone for a little while and let us get used to where everything is as opposed to continuing the attempted transformation into a boiled down, instagram clone.

Stay tuned for our soon to be announced theme for June, as chosen by Gonzalo, and keep up with all our challenges, reviews, specials and tutorials via the socials, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram and if you’re into the email thing, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Thanks for the read and happy shooting,

Tyson

*Congratulations to Giorgio Lumaconi, our second, semi-annual Flickr Photo Blog Challenge Champion!

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

bookmark

It came down to a foot race at the end, and Giorgio Lumaconi emerged victorious with his image “bookmark”.  Congratulations to Giorgio and I’ll be in contact to get you your free stuff!

Please visit Giorgio HERE to see more of his work, and to connect, say hi, make friends with, follow… you know.

Thank you so much, to Jimmy and the folks at Alien Skin Software, and Darcy and the team at Topaz Software for generously providing us the ability to give away killer photography software, and to Keri and crew at Lensbaby my friends and hometown lens manufacturing gurus, for the LM10 smartphone, selective focus optic!  All wonderful people and companies, that have always been awesome in their support of me and my blogging adventures.  I chose to contact them while still in my blog infancy because I loved their products.  I choose to continue to buy from, use their wares and shill for them because I know them and how hard they work for and within the greater photographic community, so thank you all.  

Giorgio will also receive a brand new Cascade style wrist strap.  I am working on having these available to purchase very soon and will be an addition to the Garda style wrist straps currently available HERE.

Finally, thank you to Heather and Mat at Mirrorlessons, my partners in crime for these monthly challenges.  We have really enjoyed being able to grow the community through these theme based photo challenges and look forward to continuing to.

If you’re new to the monthly flickr photo blog challenges, visit us on Flickr –

Keep an eye out for our monthly theme threads.  It’s a fun, free way to connect with other photographers worldwide, it can be fun motivation to get out and shoot, and get your photography seen by an ever growing audience. 

Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Instagram . To stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Keep on keepin’ on, and happy shooting.

Tyson

*Choose the Champion of our semi-annual Photo blog challenge winners!

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

champions round 2

Alright, we have successfully crowned 6 more, monthly challenge winners, and the time has come to choose your overall favorite.  The winner gets free software from Alien Skin and Topaz Labs, an LM-10 smartphone, selective focus optic from Lensbaby and a brand new, yet to be released TRP camera wrist strap that I’ve been working on.  Please vote for your favorite, tell friends, and remember to visit Mirrorlessons HERE as well to vote there too!  This vote will run for a week, and we will tally the total amount of votes between this poll and the poll at Mirrorlessons with the overall winner receiving all the free stuff and title of our second, semi annual champion.

Thanks as always to everyone who has, and continues to contribute to these monthly themes.  Thanks to Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons for co-hosting all of these cool challenges with me, and helping promote so many cool photographers through these monthly photographic contests.

These challenges are entirely free to enter, and we’ve created them as a way to both provide motivation to get out and shoot with fun new themes each month, and help showcase much of the awesome photography from all of you guys and gals.  All you need to do is find us on Flickr (TRP HERE and Mirrorlessons HERE) to submit your images to the monthly theme threads.  Because we’ve been able to build up steam with it as time has gone on, we have companies that are excited to sponsor these challenges by offering stuff for our semi-annual giveaways.  

Thank you so much to Alien Skin Software, Topaz Labs Software and Lensbaby for being so awesome.  I’ve had the good fortune of working with these three companies for years doing reviews and beta testing and I strongly stand behind them as companies.  Great folks, great products and while I wish my wrist straps would be a cool enough draw, these challenges are so much better because of their gracious gifting so that we can sweeten the pot.

We have 6 wonderful options from the winners of our 6 previous monthly themes.  View all 6, and choose your favorite in the poll at the end.  In chronological order they are as follows…

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*Monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge #13; “Man vs Nature” with @Mirrorlessons

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Rügen 2014

“Rügen 2014” by Pommes.Fritz123 on Flickr, see more from him HERE.

Welcome to our 13th, monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge.  Congratulations to Pommes.Fritz123 for winning our Architecture theme last month.  The theme this month as chosen by Pommes.Fritz is “Man vs. Nature” and it can be interpreted however you see fit.   These challenges are a fun way to spur a bit of spontaneous creativity, or provide the motivation to cull through your library to find that perfect shot.

Rules are simple.  Submit your image, or images to our flickr threads for consideration.  At the end of the month, Heather, Mat and I will choose our three favorite images and will showcase these three on both of our sites with an open vote.  The image to receive the most votes between the two sites will be entered into our next semi-annual giveaway vote and will choose our theme for the next month.

To participate, head on over and submit your images to our flickr group theme threads: TRP Flickr Group HERE and Mirrorlesson’s Flickr Group HERE.

Visit and stay tuned to Mirrorlessons and find me on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram . To stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Thanks as always to everyone who has continued to submit to these challenges.  I hope you have had as much fun as we have.  Thanks to Heather and Mat for the continued partnership in co-hosting these challenges.  Great folks who do awesome work on their site.  Stop by and visit them for reviews and articles on all things mirrorless.

Have fun and happy shooting,

Tyson

*Congratulations to Pommes.Fritz123 for winning our February Flickr Photo Blog Challenge, Architecture! with @Mirrorlessons

by in Photo Blog Challenge, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Kuppel10_24_7

“Kuppel10_24_7” by Pommes.Fritz123 (see more from Pomme.Fritz123 HERE)

 

With his sweeping lines, Pommes.Fritz123 has won our twelfth monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge, “Architecture.”  Congratulations P.F123!  You’ve now been entered into our semi-annual giveaway post which will happen within the next couple weeks to vie for our reader’s overall favorite image from the last 6 months, and a free plugin from Alien Skin, another plugin of your choice from Topaz, a Lensbaby LM-10 smart phone camera lens and a brand new, yet to be released TRP wrist strap for your camera!

This was yet another awesome month with remarkable images.  I feel like we’re all seeing a collective stepping up of our respective games, and I hope that for all who choose to participate, you’re also seeing these as a fun way to spur creativity.  For all of those who submitted, thank you again.  To everyone who has, who may and will continue to submit, keep your eyes peeled for this month’s theme.  Each month is a new opportunity to motivate and connect with a larger community.  We start a new 6 month cycle with March’s theme.

These monthly themes, co-hosted by myself along with Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons.com were started as a fun way to collaborate and grow our community.  It has given us a way to share much of your photography with a larger audience while connecting with many more photographers, and hopefully aid in providing some motivation for all of us to get out and shoot.  Not that everyone needs it, but I find that being given new direction can help keep my shooting fresh.

Stay tuned for our new theme this month, and keep watch for our semi-annual giveaway vote in a week or so to help us decide who gets all that cool free stuff.  Visit Mirrorlessons.com to stay abreast of all things mirrorless and find me on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram . To stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Thanks for the read and happy shooting,

Tyson

*Time to vote! Vote for the winner of our twelfth monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge; Architecture. With @MirrorLessons

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

With each passing month, these themes are bringing out more and more amazing photographs and this month was very difficult to choose our favorites.  I could have settled on a dozen or more of the contributions myself, and I’m sure it was the same for Mat and Heather.  If you haven’t seen them, feel free to stop by the Flickr threads (TRP Here and ML Here).  For those new to this, each month, in collaboration with Heather and Mat from Mirrorlessons, we co-host monthly challenges where anyone can submit an image based on their interpretation of the theme.  At the end of each month, we each choose an image we feel best represents the theme in our eyes, and we open up a vote, like this one.  The vote runs for 5 days, and afterward, the totals are tallied and the winner chooses our new theme and the process begins again!  Anyone can submit, so stay tuned for new themes.  With that, we have chosen the three that caught our eyes this month, so please vote for your favorite:

Denver's Union Station

“Denver’s Union Station” by Michael L Ricci (see more from Mike HERE)

Kuppel10_24_7

“Kuppel10_24_7” by Pommes.Friz123 (see more from Pomme.Friz123 HERE)

Fisheye Madness

“Fisheye Madness” by Fabio Morbec (see more from Fabio HERE)

We will have this vote open through the 5th, and with this winner, we’ll have finished our second semi-annual stretch.  We will be taking our last 6 monthly winners and opening up a new vote sometime this month.  The winner from the semi-annual vote will win software, some fun hardware and a new, soon to be released hand built wrist strap by yours truly.  Stay tuned for that, and in the mean time, please vote for your favorite below and over on Mirrorlessons too!

Thanks to everyone who submitted this month, it really was an awesome group of contributions.  Congratulations and good luck to Michael, Fritz and Fabio.  Keep submitting, and stay up with new challenges and articles by connecting via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram and to stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Happy shooting!

Tyson

*Time to vote! Vote for the winner of our eleventh monthly Flickr Photo Blog Challenge; Portrait. With @MirrorLessons

by in Photo Blog Challenge and tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

This was a very difficult month to pick our favorites you guys.  It is honestly one of my favorite themes in that it is one of my favorite types of subject to shoot.  I like a good portrait, and this month provided us with many to choose from.  Thanks again to Giorgio Lumaconi (visit Giorgio HERE), our winner from December, for choosing this theme.  Below are Heather, Mat and my choices for this month’s vote.  The poll will run for the next 5 days, so make sure to vote, tell friends and visit Mirrorlessons HERE to vote there as well!  We present our favorite three images from January’s theme, Portraits:

Matt Seattle by mullygun

“Matt Seattle” by mullygun (see more HERE)

Festive Spirit by Manizkrishnan

“Festive Spirit” by Manizkrishnan (see more HERE)

New Goggles by Brian Frank

“New Goggles” by Brian Frank (see more HERE)

For those new to our monthly theme challenges, we have open threads in our respective Flickr groups where anyone can submit an image based on their interpretation of the monthly theme. Find our Flickr groups HERE-TRP and HERE-Mirrorlessons.  At the end of any given month, Heather, Mat and I choose our three favorites which we then showcase on both our sites with an open vote, like this one.  The vote runs for 5 days at which time we tally the totals and the winner gets to choose our theme for the current month as well as gets entered into our semi-annual vote.  Our second semi-annual vote will happen after this next theme wherein we have our 6 monthly winners in a new vote with the winner taking home various prizes, goods and adoration.  It is free, and a way for all of us to get exposed to wonderful photography from all over the world.  Our growing community is awesome, and I, along with Heather and Mat I’m sure, have thoroughly enjoyed doing these monthly challenges, so keep on keeping on!

Don’t forget to vote over at Mirrorlessons HERE as well.

Thanks to everyone who submitted images this month.  It was certainly one of our best theme challenges ever and stay tuned for this month (and future months) theme!

I’d love to connect via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Instagram and to stay posted on new articles, feel free to add your email address at the top right of the page here.  You’ll get email alerts as new articles are released.

Thanks all and happy shooting!

Tyson