While downloading the latest podcasts from Brooks Jensen, the publisher of my favorite photography related magazine Lenswork, I discovered that he recently started new photography related blogs, thus jumping in with both feet into the world of blogging. Up to this point Brooks produced free podcasts on creativity  and on photography as an art medium (which I consider to be the best in that area of photography), and there are 600+ of them now. However, that must not be enough, and it appears he’s been rather regular poster on his new blogs.

I’m a big fan of all things Lenswork. I like the quality of the magazine they produce, I love that they make fine art photography available at normal people prices, and I loved their podcasts, because they really force me to think about photography as something that is more than just snapping pretty pictures. I really have no idea how Brooks does it all at the same time (although he did address that question recently), but he does it well, and with deep passion for the world of photography.

Here are the new blogs -

Lenswork Technology Blog – all things technology. That’s an interesting topic, since Lenswork historically focused on everything else about photography but the technology.

“Ask Brooks” Blog – this is a place where Brooks answers various emails and questions from Lenswork readers.

Visions of the Heart Blog – further thoughts on imaged recently published in Lenswork.

Check these out when you get a minute.

One of my contacts on Twitter and Flickr Christopher Stern is raising money for a great organization, Hearing Loss Association of America. Christopher wrote to me that he has been hearing impaired all his  life and wore hearing aids until he experienced additional loss of hearing in February 2005.  After numerous hearing tests, Christopher was approved for his  first Cochlear Implant in June 2006.  A year later, he received approval for the second implant in July 2007.  Fortunately, both implants were a success and today Christopher is hearing more than ever before.

He shared this example that illustrates what a blessing it has been for him in his life -  “Soon after receiving my first cochlear implant, I was on a ride with my in‑laws.  We pulled over to the side of the road and my mother‑in‑law asked if I heard the sound outside the vehicle.  The sound was of a cricket chirping and it was the first time I had heard one.  The power of this technology is amazing and I can only imagine what is in store for the future.”

Those of us with good hearing take this ability for granted. So when Christopher asked if I would donate one of my prints for the auction he was having, I was more than happy to do it. The picture above is the one you can bid on in a silent auction. You can also bid on prints by such great photographers as Dave Cross, Jason Moore, Jeff Revell, Laurie Excell, Matt Kloskowski, RC Concepcion, Rob Jones, Roger Madsen and Stephen Zeller. All proceeds go directly to Hearing Loss Association of America.

Please make a jump to the web-site that hosts the auction – link.

To wrap up a week and to offer you some weekend reading, here are few links that I found interesting this week.

• Tips on Photographing Children – Rich Legg shares some tips from his extensive experience of working with children. As a parent, I know it’s one of the hardest types of photography.
• How to Get Fun, Memorable Shots of Your Kids – similar topic, but with some ideas of how to make it fun for you and for a child.
• Spending an Afternoon With Adobe’s Lightroom Team – Thomas Hawk recently visited with the Lightroom team in their Adobe headquarters, and shares behind the scenes of how the team that creates Adobe Lightroom actually works.
• The Mega-Important Automatically Write Changes into XMP Switch – speaking of Lightroom, if you’re a user, you’d want to read this.
• Twitter Background using Adobe Illustrator – if you’re on Twitter (I recently joined), here is a quick tutorial on how to make a better background for your page.
• Why Social Media Matters to Photographers – Jim Goldstein, an expert in online marketing and a photographer himself, discusses the topic of social marketing, which is becoming crucial to today’s photographers trying to get their name out there.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

After long resistance, I finally joined Twitter and Friendfeed. Please follow my feeds where I share thoughts on photography, hockey and whatever else comes to my mind. If you’re my blog reader and you have an account with either of those services, please leave a link to your feed in the comments – I would love to follow you as well.

If you need a little boost to your creativity, here are few links that may help.

– Chase Jarvis shares 22 ideas of how to shake your tree. Some of the ideas could easily apply to other areas in life;
– An instant classic – Zach Arias video – if you haven’t seen it yet, you are by all definitions missing out and if you already have seen it, watch it again;
– Rose Smith offers plenty of good advice and tips on her blog;
– Recent issue of Lenswork (my favorite photo magazine among those I subscribe to) just came out and the editorial piece by Brooks Jensen is about 10 ideas on how to jump start your creativity. If you’re not a subscriber, stop by your local bookstore and read the essay – well worth your time;
– 92 examples of creative photographs;
– Giving Yourself a Photo Assignment, by Scott Kelby.

Hope you all had a good weekend. Before mine is over, here are few links worth a click.

- One of my favorite artists, publishers and podcasters, Brooks Jensen, recently published a new folio, Winter Trees III. I purchased it last week, and couldn’t be more pleased. The whole set brought back a flood of memories of Russian winters growing up. He also has the folio available for free download in PDF format.

- Jim Goldstein partnered with Borrow Lenses and is giving away a free one-week rental of any lens you’d like on his blog to one random poster.

- As an extension to my previous post about how to improve your Flickr experience, please follow the link to the post on Flickr and read through the comments. One poster share another useful tool called Black Magic (which I loved – it’s a new way to view Flickr images) and another one is a comment from Thomas Hawk about how to create your own Flickr favs fine art gallery.

- Check out the web-site of another Bay area photographer Dan Mitchell. His recent work will remind you what time of the year it is.