I’ve been in my google reader all evening and thought I’d share some of the cooler stuff I’ve come across!

• Need something to shoot this weekend? Here’s 5 ideas to try!
• 10 tips each for family and fashion photography!
• Here’s an article on creating seamless white (high key) photos anywhere without spending a fortune!
• DIY or die: multiflash bracket tutorial (because two flashes are better than one!)
• http://www.wix.com/ lets you make free(?) flash portfolio sites…anyone checked them out?
• Jazz up your studio with these 7 super easy DIY projects!
• 33 Twitter accounts to follow to improve your photography!
• Cool wedding planning site, Utterly Engaged, for those wedding photogs out there (…you DO pay attention to industry trends, right?)
• The gulf photo plus 2010 shoot-out featuring David Hobby, Zach Arias and Joey L who were given 25 minutes to shoot a surprise model(s) in front of a packed auditorium and Joe mothaeffin McNally. Watch here!
• No flash? Sick of flash (gasp)? Ritz camera provides some excellent tips for using natural light.

Here’s a long overdue link round up!! (All open in new tab/window)

First of all, end the first week of 2009 looking back on 2009 and setting some goals for 2010:

• This post from Digital Photography School has 30 GREAT goals to set for 2010, most of which were on the list I made the other night.
• Photojojo encourages you to do the same, maybe with a picture a day project!
• They also have a list of the best photo round ups on the web!
• If selling prints is one of your goals this year, look into Print Society…I am!
• Strobist has kicked off 2010 with a new feature: Archives!
• Here’s some photo round ups for 2009 from The Big Picture (3 parts), The Australian, The Wall Street Journal, and TIME.
• DPS has listed it’s most popular posts of 2009.

And here’s the rest of the links piling up in my “to post on blog” folder!

• I’ve got wedding work on the brain this week prepping for the 2010 season. Here’s an amazingly cool site for inspiration, Rock’n'Roll Bride. Here’s where my nerd love for photography and design collide at Design Sponge: Our Wedding.
• Here’s a great article on lighting.
• This is a great Strobist post on pre-planning (aka “worrying”) shoots. A must read!
• Nikon has posted two videos starring Joe McNally demonstrating color control with Nikon flashes. You don’t have to be a Nikon shooter to get something from these videos as the information applies to any hot shoe flash! Part One, Part Two. And if you’re feeling snubbed, go here and see some videos with Canon flashes!
• It’s bloody cold here in New England, if it’s bloody cold where you are this article on shooting in cold weather conditions should be helpful!
• Here’s 4 DIY projects for boxes from DIY Photography.
• New to photography? Here’s 101 tips for new photogs from Stephen Sidlo.
• Lucky enough to live somewhere that ISN’T a frozen tundra? Shoot some cool bugs in your own backyard studio.
• If you’re doing some indoor shooting these days to avoid the cold, here’s a handy article on lightening backgrounds in LR

While I wait for my 2nd wedding to batch re-size, I thought I’d clean out the ton of links I’ve accumilated in the last month or so! I really need to start doing these posts more often.

• Great tips from a hot-shot child photographer here.
• DPS has 7 Excellent Open Courseware Collections for Digital Photographers.
• What The Duck is hilarious, as usual.
• How to make moving pictures (like in Harry Potter) over at Photojojo.
• Patrick Pike made his way into my “inspiration” folder. (Everyone has folders and subfolders organizing their links, right?)
• Keep your eyes to the skies before storm season is over! Photograph lighnting!
• Here is 20 absolutely amazing examples of photo-manipulation.
• Photography 101: crash course on light meters.
• Cool Lightroom plug ins for flickr and facebook!
• Here’s some great info on properly cleaning your lenses. Those puppies aren’t cheap ,treat ‘em right!
• Two photographers show that the best camera is the one in your hands.
• DPS challenges you to introduce children to photography.
• Cool behind-the-photo lighting post, for the strobist dorks out there. (ahem)
• Photojojo’s 1st post in a serious on starting your own photography business. Great advice and questions to ask yourself here.
• Pixsylated has more things not learned in photography school.
• Do you know WHIMS? If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check this out.
• Dana Lane shows the hideout how he lit this badass model.
• I’m a sucker for book lists, here is 26 books every photographer should own, according to popphoto.com and 15 books no photographer should be without according to camera dojo AND 10 books the readers of diy photography think you should have.
• Portrait photography tips from Scott Bourne.
• One of my favorite photographers I found on The Hideout is involved in this beautiful book, check it out!
• Canon Professional Network talks custom functions for wedding photography.
• Amazing photos from a shoot with ASkars. (Have I mentioned my love for True Blood on here?)
• Here is 40 tutorials for using textures and backgrounds in photoshop.
• Think all HD is gross and overdone? Not so! Here are some incredible HDR images. Want to try it yourself? Check this out.
• The Pioneer Woman shows how to make your own storyboards to display your work.
• If panning has left you aggravated and unhappy, try some of these ideas to get all the best parts of panning with less stress!
• Amazing photos of the longest solar eclipse on Boston.com.
• Chase Jarvis gives you 9 ideas to try when you’re feeling your inspiration go stale.
• Do you know the Sunny 16 Rule? You should! It saved my ass last week shooting with a vintage camera which has a broken light meter.
• This is just awesome.
• Make a paper clip into a point and shoot tripod.
• Have you seen fotopedia yet?
• I’m not sold, but  here’s a tute on sharpening in Lightroom.
• AWESOME site that tells you whether you can use vintage and older flashes on your DSLR.
• FREE LIGHTING DIAGRAM MAKER. So awesome!

Noticed an incoming link from Weekly Photo Tips , Scott runs a pretty sweet blog over there and linked my DIY Gridspot tutorial in his post on DIY grids! Go check out his blog, I did…when I should have been working…Thanks Scott!

I’ve collected quite a pile of links and haven’t gotten a chance to post them yet! I’ve been finishing up Ben & Molly’s wedding and catching up on paperwork…well…and reading trashy vampire novels but that is beside the point.

Photos from Ben & Molly’s wedding coming, once they see them! I’ve also got a shoot at a Belly Dancing rehearsal coming up and I’m working on scheduling a day to shoot a friend of mine doing Silks. Silks performance is those incredibly badass women roll themselves up in and climb the long panels of silk suspended from the ceiling. Very cool. I’m hoping to get a wide angle lens by then.

I have two more weddings this month, one this weekend and one next weekend and a possible product shoot coming up. I’ve been busy, busy! It’s great!

Anyway, bring on the links!

• DPS has turned 3! Check out their top 10 articles from the first 1,000 DPS posts!
• Are you looking to flatter your subjects every time or just look better when (shriek) someone takes YOUR photo. Tyra Banks has some tips…if anyone would know, I suppose she would!
• Want to try your hand at pinhole photography? Check this store out for affordable kits!
• Mother’s Day has come and gone but you never need a reason for good photography gifts for Mom, Dad or another person in your life!
• This is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen ever.
• DPS introduces you to time lapse photography here.
• And shows you how to make the ever-popular triptych in Lightroom here.
• Here is an article on 5 “keys” to taking great maternity portraits.
• Stuck with hard light on the go? Check here for finding a DIY softbox in your surroundings.
• Obsessed with texture? Lacking texture? Check this article out.
• Scott Kelby’s response to that fighter jet scare in NYC made me laugh.
• Photojojo shows their favorite 10 online photo magazines.
• Does white balance hate you? This is a pretty cool, pricey, but cool product.
• Ever wonder how people make custom watermarks? Learn here.
• If you’re thinking of advertising with brochures, why not make your own in photoshop?
• Scott Kelby has a quick tute on making photo posters, which is easy and kind of addictive!
• The Pioneer Woman explains how she nails focus when shooting groups.
• This guy has been making waves lately for his amazing commercial and concept work, and my friend Adam just re-designed his website! Check it out at thatsthespot.com.
• Want sharp eyes without sharpening the whole shot? Check out this tute on selective sharpening.
• Feel like a photoshop master? Check out these amazing photo manipulations and eat humble pie!
• Here’s a list of the 12 most iconic photos ever taken: GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING.
• Leningrad’s tragic past burns through modern photos here.
• Fairy tale princesses take a turn for reality in this amazing series.

It’s Earth Day, go take some photos!! This website is putting together a mosaic from photos from all over over the world. Your photo could be on there, upload a photo of your little piece of Earth here! http://earthmosaic.org/

TONS of cool links!! Ready your eyeballs for some serious reading!

• I love Annie Leibovitz. She’s got a new book out called Annie Leibovitz At Work. Check out reviews from Strobist here and Digital Photography School here. I’ll post one up too, probably, I pre-ordered mine!
• Speaking of Strobist, go add a vote for them for the 2008 Weblog Awards. Strobist is easily the most informative lighting blog on the net and they more than deserve to win!
• Beyond Megapixels gives you the rundown on printing your digital photos for longevity and quality.
• Pioneer Woman shows you how important contrast really is. (As a contrast fan…probably to the point of overdoing it, I approve!)
• Photojojo teaches you how to lure young, impressionable youth into photography.
• This is really cool. Life (magazine) and Google have partnered up to host a photographic archive from the 1860′s to now. From the site “Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.” These photos are amazing. Check em out here.
• SLR Newb? Feeling lost? Check out the WikiHow Guide to understanding your SLR.
• Got Ovation TV? You might and not even know it. If you do, check out Ovation’s Genius of Photography series airing now. I’m about to dive into the episodes on my DVR.
• Interesting article about San Diego computer scientists that have built a software program that can perform key duplication with just a photograph of the key! Photography for evil? You decide.
• Spoonflower prints fabric from your photographs. As an interior design freak and photographer, this really sent me into nerd overdrive.
• Sometimes photography isn’t pretty, but powerful and disturbing. Boston.com “The Big Picture” (a favorite of mine, check it out if you’re into photojournalism) posted a story in photographs about the crisis in Congo currently worsening as I type this. All photos of the deceased are blacked out unless you click on them, so if you can’t handle that stuff, this link is still safe.

Alright, maybe not weekly.

Just a few tonight, I’m exhausted and shouldn’t even be on this idiot box right now. I spent the last few hours reading my blog feeds and otherwise screwing around…here’s the coolest things I came across:

• You Suck At Photoshop : Hilarious photoshop tutorials narrated by Donnie Hoyle. Misery loves company, go check them out!
• DIY Photography has a cool little article on using small strobes off camera, handy for speedlite newbs like moi.
• Got a craptastic flatbed scanner you never use? MAKE blog shows you how to turn it into a creepy photo-taking camera! So cool.
• Photojojo takes us back to the practice of post-mortem memorial photography. Creepy, but part of photography history. (Old photos of dead people warning.)
• Photojojo is awesome, and teaches you the ways of night photography.

That’s it for now. My eyes need closing. Well…after I put up my 365 photo.