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The title of this post is a quote from the film “Sneakers;” one of my favorite movies of all time (I’m a huge nerd). I am actually in Monterey, though. Monterey, California to be precise.

We’ve only been out photographing a couple of times so far. The weather here is inclement and probably won’t clear up until later this afternoon. We’re going to head over to the Monterey Aquarium to see what we can see there since it’s really rainy and gloomy outside, then hopefully catch sunset out in Big Sur just as the storm passes us by.

Sometimes when you’re shooting in broad daylight you may have a reason to use a longer exposure than you can achieve from your smallest aperture and lowest ISO setting. That’s where neutral density (or ND) filters come in.

ND filters have been widely written about, so I don’t intend to flog a dead horse here. Still, while shopping for ND filters today, I realized that this whole numerical rating system they use is kind of confusing, and I always wondered why some manufacturers will say ND.3, while others simply write 0.3, and yet others come out and plainly state “one stop.”

I personally prefer that everything be expressed in stops, but since that isn’t often the case, here’s my explanation… After the jump.

I’m traveling all over the place this year teaching art photography workshops, but I am also notoriously disorganized. So when I saw an article about the ultimate grocery list, I knew I had to make a checklist for travel photographers to keep track of all their essential gear.

Now I know I’m not exactly Chase Jarvis when it comes to packing and transporting gear, but I’d like to think I’ve thought of all the important things.

I have been waiting in the wings, so to speak, for quite some time on the topic of upgrading Photoshop. Because I do a lot of other design work in programs like Illustrator and even occasionally InDesign, it’s quite a bit more costly for me to upgrade than if I were just buying Photoshop.

Anyway, I finally broke down and purchased a brand new (okay, refurbished… But brand new to me!) Mac Pro, which uses the Intel chips. Only CS3 runs natively on Intel chips, and the thought of my software not running as quickly as it could on my brand new (…to me) machine bothered me. So I found a really good deal on Creative Suite Design Premium CS3 and bit the bullet. Hard.

After the jump, a list of my first impressions, tips, and a selection of articles from other places that may be helpful for anyone making the transition to CS3… Which I highly recommend.

This sweet video from someone called “cobbler” on Metacafe shows you how to make a rather ingenious image stabilizer, which I have decided to call an “inverted monopod.”

I won’t ruin the surprise, nor will I keep you from the video, which is right here:

(View the original video on Metacafe)

Personally, I think this idea is brilliant and I give a tip of my cap to “cobbler,” whoever and wherever they may be.