Ian-Plant

After many months of false starts and hard work, I am pleased to announce the launch of my new series of Creative Digital Processing video tutorials. These videos present my personal digital image processing workflow using Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop CS5. The first eight videos in the series focus on basic techniques for raw conversion, working with layers and masks, image editing using adjustment layers, black & white conversion, and blending multiple exposures. Personally, I think that instructional videos are simply the best way to learn the complexities of digital image processing. Written tutorials, no matter how thorough and generously illustrated with screen shots, simply can't compete with seeing it in action. My video tutorials will get your digital processing workflow revved up in no time.

But wait, that's not all—the first two videos in the series are absolutely free! I'd love to give them all away for free, but hey, I have to find a way to pay my mortgage. That said, I've priced each of the rest of the videos much less than the cost of a double-orange-venti-nonfat-organic-chocolate-brownie-frappuccino—or, for that matter, the cost of a regular cup of coffee at most upscale coffee shops. I've designed these videos to be cumulative, with new lessons and techniques introduced as you progress through the series, so I want to keep the total acquisition cost as reasonable as possible.

I've worked hard to keep these videos instructive, easy to understand, and inexpensive. I've also tried to find the right balance between quantity of information, view-ability, and quality, all while optimizing file size for easy download. I hope you enjoy these tutorials, and the many more that will follow. Thanks for your support!

Hi all, I've just released my newest eBook, Patagonia Behind the Lens. This book presents twenty of my favorite photographs from Patagonia, an epic land of sapphire-blue lakes, towering glaciers, and mighty mountain peaks that pierce the heavens. Together, they tell part of this land's incredible story, and give you a sense of the flavor of the land and a glimpse of its diversity and character. Each photograph is accompanied by a detailed description of not only how each photograph was made, but why.

Patagonia Behind the Lens is a 45-page downloadable PDF eBook filled with informative text, stunning full-color images, and plenty of insights and inspiration. This book is newly designed to optimize viewing across multiple platforms including computer screens and iPads. ONLY $8!

Hi all, I've just released my newest eBook, Five Landscape Challenges 2, which I co-authored with fellow deviant Joe Rossbach. This book is the second in the "Five Landscape Challenges" series. Each book in the series focuses on five different common landscape scenes, providing detailed "recipes" showing you how to get each shot right, every time, discussing the best equipment, light, and compositions. This book focuses on the following five scenes:

1. Alpine Flowers
2. Sandstone Oddities
3. Coastal Scenics
4. Autumn Reflections
5. Above the Clouds

Five Landscape Challenges 2 is a downloadable PDF eBook filled with informative text, stunning full-color images, and plenty of insights and inspiration. ONLY $8!

I've launched a new weekly feature on my daily photoblog that I call the "Saturday Shout Out" (ianplant.com/blog/2010/12/18/s…). In this feature, I give mad props to a deserving photographer whom I have met in the field or online. I've kicked off the Saturday Shout Out with DA's very own "La Vitta a Bella"—Paula Cobleigh. Not only is Paula a great photographer, but she has been very kind in welcoming me into the DA community. As a matter of fact, all of you have been very kind in welcoming me here, so don't be surprised if more DA photographers get the Shout Out as the feature progresses! Paula was also very kind recently in helping to promote my bid to be sent to the North Pole, posting a journal entry exhorting her DA friends to vote for me (la-vita-a-bella.deviantart.com…). Thanks Paula! I'll have to mail you a batch of tasty cookies.

P.S. If you haven't already voted to send me to the North Pole, please consider doing so, I need all the help I can get! And spread the word: tweet, post on your Facebook page, send notices via carrier pigeon, every little bit of support will help me represent the DA community on the top of the world! Click here to vote: www.blogyourwaytothenorthpole.…

Thanks everyone!

That's right, you read the title correctly—I'm hoping that by this time in June 2011 I'll be on my way to the North Pole! Quark Expeditions is running a "Blog Your Way to the North Pole" contest. One lucky winner will get a free trip on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker to the top of the world. With your help, I'm hoping that person will be me!

Now, before you question the ethics of soliciting votes to win an online contest, this contest is expressly designed as a social networking contest. Yep, that's right—it's a popularity contest. Now, I've never been very popular before, but that's not going to stop me now. I'd love the chance to visit the North Pole. So as unpopular as I may be, I've decided to go for it nonetheless.

Just think, this might be your chance to get rid of me for good. The North Pole is a dangerous place, teeming with ravenous polar bears and ship-crushing ice. Chances are, if I go, I might not make it back again! Think of this as an episode of Survivor—you have to cast a ballot and vote one person off the island, to set them adrift in the cold, unforgiving North Sea—and that person could be me!

So, how can you realize the dream of an Ian-free world? With a few simple clicks you can vote for me and send me off. Start by clicking here to visit my entry on the contest website: www.blogyourwaytothenorthpole.…

Then simply click on the "Vote for this Entry" button at the bottom of my essay. Then spread the word to all of your Facebook, Twitter, and blog friends. Before you know it, you'll be free of me forever! Or, for two weeks at least at the end of June 2011.

Thanks everyone!