Thank you for all of your entries and votes for the ColorMunki Pack contest!.
As you can see by some the votes on the site, plus a huge amount of email votes we received, the overwhelming winner is:
D.
“I love visiting your site because it puts my mind in a world where my imagination is stretched to it’s limits and beyond and my own photographic potential is increased.”

Submitted by Tim Jordan Of Logan, Utah, we will be shipping out his package containing the ColorMunki calibration system, The Family of Man book, and a DVD of Blow Up, the classic Antonioni movie about a fashion photographer who believes that he has photographed a murder.

With 80% of the votes, you let us and Tim know how you felt. Thank you for a great response.
We’ll do more of these contests, for sure.

As we start 2009, there was a bit of sad news today as JPG magazine announced they will cease to publish as of Jan. 5, 2009. If you have been a fan, go to their site and download whatever files /articles/photographers you wanted to review.

We’re working on a couple of product reviews for you right now, with the new Fuji Instax camera (picking up where Polaroid has left off.), the Canon G10, and the Nikon P6000 coming right up. We’ve been shooting with these and putting them through what we fell, are your normal situations, and you may be surprised by what we found.

Last day to vote for the ColorMunki Pack contest winner.look further down the HOME page for details)

OK, Lets Focus on the best of what 2008 had going for it.
It’s always easy, what we call low-hanging fruit, to diss the events.

But we got this email this AM and it had a pretty good message:

1) For the past six months, we (me too) have been too focused on the “right now” instead of the “everything”. I took a half hour to write down 100 things I was grateful for and it made me realize that when you look at everything, the right now is not so gloom and doom.

Here’s a few things I’m grateful for: (The first 30 are God #1, family #2-12, and my closest friends #13-30)

#31 – I’m Grateful for having 30+ people who love me just as much or more than I love them.

#62 – I’m Grateful for Technology. Microwaves, Internet, Computers, Emails, Text Messages, Cell Phones, Cars, etc.

#73 – I’m Grateful for Opportunity. The ability to change the world and make a difference is in me and everyone of us.

#100 – I’m Grateful that Gas Prices are cheaper. Not sure for how long, but it’s cool to fill up for $25 instead of $65.

Hopefully, you get the picture. If you spend 30 minutes today listing the things that you are grateful for, I’m confident you will start 2009 off with a much better outlook on life. It’s our hope that this can be impetus that propels you and your family into a much better situation. No matter where we are in life, we can always do better.”

Now this came from a dude that sends out the party invites for events in Los Angeles. Usually he’s talking about table service ,DJ’s and hot bodies. Nice switch-up.

Also, you can follow along with your local NYE celebrations with this streaming video EARTHCAM link:

Plus a little JibJab:

And if you can get up early in the AM, the 120th edition of the Rose Parade from Pasadena ,CA.
It was about 75 F yesterday, and should be beautiful. Plus Football right after !
[photopress:rose3.jpg,full,centered]

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can’t tell the players without a program. And it’s a hat.

[photopress:rose1.jpg,full,centered] Rose Parade Queens inspect the floats
[photopress:rose2.jpg,full,centered] behind the scenes

Every year you get to see the volunteers put together the floats and adhere all kinds of vegetation to the forms. Loooooooong lines though, for limited access. Still, quite a community event. Took the Boda bag to this one, and was ready and comfortable.

Happy New Year, Everyone!
What will be your first photo of 2009?

This is too freaking funny. Or we think so anyway.
Please be forewarned that there is some adult language in this vid.
But it’s funny stuff.

This should break up your day.

To close out the year, this week we are offering up one of the most popular giveaways this year : the ThinkTank Photo Urban Disguise 30.
[photopress:UD30_1_1.jpg,full,centered]
If you want to take it to the streets and be a bit stealth, you have to check this company out. Very smart designers. Working photogs who know what you need.And they produce camera bags in any color you want: as long as it’s black.
We know that you need the right tool for the right job. There are a wide variety of bags, from different manufacturers, and we use em’ all, depending on the situation.
When we’re in the streets, no need for folks checking out about 4k of gear hanging on your shoulder.
And for some reason, when you add a lens hood, somehow the rig looks more “pro” to the casual user. Not real helpful for street shooting. We’re not the subject.
Now this pup was described fully here.
When you get your NEWSLETTER in your email inbox on Weds. Dec.31st, at 9:00AM PST, all of the details will be there on getting this bag for free. No Charge. No Shipping. No nothing. Nada.
Not a bad way to end/start a year, right?

We’d like to thank everyone who sent in an entry for this contest.
It’s always hard to figure out a best and fair way to do these things.
Honestly, we thought about having prints submitted but you would want to have the prize already to make the best print possible.
This way, we get to find out what you like here, and we can let manufacturers and publishers know you like it here.
That way they want to be here, too. And sometimes donate some excellent photographic products for you. Win-Win-Win, we think.

And now here are the 5 finalists for the ColorMunki Pack including a Color Munki Calibration device, A copy of the DVD “Blow Up” and a copy of one of our favorite books-Family Of Man. They all seemed to embody the essence of the site.

A.
“I like how you are very humble about your own personal abilities. Most other blogs are: “â€:.look at what I shot!!” Yours is purely educational and informational. I like your product reviews because I feel like your reviewing products you would use not just products you want us to buy.

Even though I have never won anything I keep coming back.”

B.
“Visiting photoinduced.com means
– high signal to noise ratio
– information
– video infotutorials
– humour
– nice pics
– weekly giveaways :-)
– broad sphere of interest”

C.
“I like Photoinduced because you introduce me to photographers that, as a beginner, I am not aware of. You show us examples of their work and quite often I find that inspiring. I also like that you visit the shows and exhibitions and report on those as I haven’t the time to attend. In general I find the newsletter inspires me to go out and take pictures.”

D.
“I love visiting your site because it puts my mind in a world where my imagination is stretched to it’s limits and beyond and my own photographic potential is increased.”

E.
“This site keeps me coming back for the tips, news and inspiration to
keep me exploring with my camera. It’s a real treat to get the email
and be inspired by the work on the site. Keeps me centered in
photography.”

Vote for your favorite by leaving a comment here on this article, with the letter (A,B,C,D,E) of the entry that is your favorite, OR sending us an email at info@photoinduced.com and putting “Munkiwin” in the subject and adding the preferred letter in the body.

Then on Jan.1, while lots of folks are watching the Rose Bowl or the Rose Parade , nursing a hangover, we’ll be tallying the votes and sending a winning email out to one lucky reader.
Sorry, there will be no van driving up to your house with a majorly oversized check, or a huge gift box with a bow, ringing your doorbell and embarrassing you.
But then again, none of us will have to get dressed up. Or put on real shoes.