This is, I thought, a well written article expressing what has been evident for decades: a sad lack of respect for raw creativity, and a misunderstanding of its enormous importance to every nuance of life. Worth reading.

I’m going to set a goal of 3 pages per day, every day (a few more on the weekends just to make up for the 10 pages). I’m going to use the same approach I used during National Novel Writing Month: plow the row, don’t look back.

If anyone is interested, there are useful resources at their site, including a nice, brief section on how to format a screenplay. In addition to instructions about screenplay formatting, they also include templates for writers using MS Office or OpenOffice.

If you’re going to try it … no pressure … please feel free to post your progress here and let us know how you are doing. But make sure you also register with Script Frenzy so you can get all of the encouragement from other frenzied writers.

I’ll post my progress weekly.

Deadline: March 31

For more information: sfapress.sfasu.edu

Couch in a Room at Garden City Hotel. © Ronda Birtha

Imagine the scene:

You purchase your first Point & Shoot (P&S) digital camera and media card, and begin taking photos of everything that you never bothered looking at with interest before: the light cutting across a couch in a hotel room, the camouflage pattern in tree bark, the ice vine hanging at Frank’s Creek in Robbinsville.

With even a limited budget, many people can purchase a modest digital “point & shoot” (P & S) camera, load the media card with images and have the images printed at the neighborhood drug store with decent results.

Despite the ease of use, or flexibility afforded by digital photography, photography is still a field in which a quality product is made, not by a chance occurrence when conditions were favorable (and you don’t even know what favorable conditions are); but with consistent practice, progressive knowledge, and a desire to deepen and broaden your understanding of basic photography concepts.

Camouflage. © Ronda Birtha

Oftentimes I am asked questions on how to improve image quality, and oftentimes people want “photography penicillin”: a quick cure to fix the problem. Sometimes such penicillin can be prescribed, but often we need more.

For example, “red-eye” is a common problem that occurs when light from the flash reflects on the back of the eyeball onto a thin membrane called the retina. On P&S cameras, and even on those 35mm SLRs with on-board flash units, it is a problem that may be difficult to resolve because the flash is very near the angle of the lens, and therefore is pointing in the same direction as the person you are aiming at. The software that accompanies digital cameras often has a “red-eye” removal component so that these problems can be corrected in post-production (that is, after the image has been downloaded to your computer and you begin the image-editing process).

Cameras that support external flash units with swivel and rotating heads can be used to rotate and angle the light away from the subject to avoid red-eye, and other harsh lighting side effects. Furthermore, affordable flash accessories, such as bounces and shadow boxes, can be purchased to soften and spread the light, and produce pleasing images.

Questions that cannot be answered so simply include, ‘why are my pictures so dark?’ or ‘why are my pictures so blurry?’ The answer may be a lack of light, the flash didn’t fire, the shutter speed is too fast, the aperture setting that is too narrow. Rather than an answer here, what is needed to progressively develop an understanding of how and why things work, and how and why things under many diverse circumstances.

With knowledge and understanding, we can better predict outcomes before we start shooting, or understand why things did not turn out so great after the shot and then correct it next time.

Ice Vine. © Ronda Birtha

This column will explore technical as well as non-technical topics related to digital photography and image-editing for hobbyists and amateurs alike. Feel free to send comments, and questions to rbirtha[AT]rondabirtha[DOT]com.

© Ronda Birtha

Writer’s Digest has published the 10th Annual listing of top sites for writers on their site. They’ve organized and expanded categories to make your foraging through the list efficient. Take advantage of this excellent resource.

And if you are not already a subscriber of Writer’s Digest magazine, or a frequent visitor to their website, boo on you.

© Ronda Birtha

CreateSpace has just announced the 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. This contest will award the winners a $15K publishing contract with Penguin USA, along with distribution of the winning novel on Amazon.com.

One award will be given to the writer of an English language, unpublished or self-published manuscript in the General Fiction and Young Adult categories. Submissions are being accepted until February 7th, or until they have received 5,000 entries in each category.

The contest is going to be conducted like a tournament in which contestants will be shuttled through First-round, Second-round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals. Check out CreateSpace for specific information about the judging and the key dates.

From the Rust Collection

As mentioned on the Digital Photography FYI page, this category will be dedicated to Digital Photography issues. The sub-categories will include the following topics:

• Digital Capture (Basic photography principles, camera settings, Automatic vs. Manual settings)
• Digital Data (What’s a JPEG? What’s a TIFF? How many MPs do I need anyway?)
• Digital Asset Management (Saving and cataloging your images, software options)
• Image Editing and Compositing (The fun stuff)

Photography can be complicated by itself. Adding the digital component just makes it all the more dynamic. I promise to keep this light and engaging. Don’t be scared.

Dry Creek Rd., Stecoah Valley, North Carolina

The North Carolina Writers’ Network is taking submissions for the 2010 Doris Betts Fiction Prize. Short stories of up to 6,000 words can be submitted. The Betts contest will award the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. There is a $10 entry fee, one entry per writer. Writers must  be legal North Carolina residents to register for this contest. Deadline is February 1.
Check out the NC Circuit Writers website for more information.

Conducive to Creative Meditation - The porch at the CDS

This award is sponsored through the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University in Durham, NC. A prize of $20,000 is awarded to a writer-photographer team each year. Again, I apologize for the short notice. Deadline is January 31.

Go to the CDS website for more information. This application process is involved so if you’re  going to shoot for it, you need to get moving.