The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” has been around since at least the ’20s–according to Wikipedia–and it’s just as true today as it was then. The phrase refers to our ability to absorb information faster in a visual mode than in a reading mode. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that all living creatures are born with the ability to see and to recognize (to varying degrees), but humans’ ability to write is something that we created.

I know it’s been a super long time since I’ve posted, but I assure you that it wasn’t anything you did. Perhaps it sounds like a lame excuse but as much as I enjoy sharing photography news, tips, and ideas with all of you, this blog is just a hobby and life has a way of encroaching on hobbies sometimes.

That having been said, and in the theme of “shameless self-promotion,” I would like to (very, very happily) announce that I finally posted my photos from both the Grand Teton National Park as well as Yellowstone National Park; a trip that I took nearly a whole year ago. I hemmed and hawed over which photographs to use and how to process them for an enormous amount of time.

Sometimes I feel like a shill when I talk about these sales and deals, but it’s so hard for me to look at a fabulous bargain and not pass it on. Such is the case with the so-called Canon Loyalty Program, which is apparently Canon’s way of saying “thank you” for buying one of their point-and-shoot cameras.

I found this on the venerable deal-hunting site “FatWallet,” and if you like you can read the original post yourself. Basically, if you have a qualifying Canon digital camera (it has to be digital and it’s really limited to point-and-shoot models), even if it doesn’t work anymore, you can trade it in for a refurbished white-box replacement at a pretty reasonable discount.

The best thing about shooting in RAW is that you can “develop” the file to adjust exposure, white balance, and scores of other settings without losing much image detail. I’ve seen people do some pretty cool stuff with that ability, but those people don’t have an equally cool name, like Calvin Hollywood.

Calvin Hollywood–and yes, that’s his real name–is a prolific photographer and digital darkroom master from Heidelberg, Germany. Maybe you’ve heard of him, but I hadn’t until this morning when I ran across this tutorial he made about “double RAW conversion” wherein he loads the same RAW file processed in two different ways into Photoshop to boost image detail.

Have you ever wondered about that “gamma” thing you keep seeing? You nerd.

Really, though, gamma is important and you have probably seen the word all over the place in photography and design. It’s actually a really cool thing and when you understand how it works you will likely feel better about yourself, your photographs, and about the universe. Well, you’ll feel smarter, anyway, and you will be. You’ll also be able to add another item to your lists of:

• Answers to questions nobody will ever ask you,

• Greek letters you recognize, and

• Awkward things to bring up on a first date

You can already check off number two if you look up on the right there. Yup, that’s gamma.

Additionally, if you are friends with other photographers and they don’t know what gamma is or how it works, you might come out of this looking like a rockstar. At least to the extent that rockstars are knowledgeable about non-linear power-law expressions.