A great way to get images for your presentations is to take them yourself. Unfortunately, most of us don’t consider ourselves skilled enough to take high quality pictures on our own. But with some of the latest releases from Apple, it looks to me like it’s gonna be easier than ever to get better at photography. Here’s three reasons why.

1. iPhone volume button becoming a shutter button.

They say that if you want to get better at photography you need to carry a camera with you everywhere you go. But unless you’re already a photographer chances are you don’t lug your camera around most days. That is until your cell phone became a camera. The iPhone has a great camera in it, but it’s always been a little awkward to get to the app and to trigger the shutter since you have to touch the screen (rather than a physical button) to take the picture. Apple announced recently that iOS five will add a button to turn on the camera directly from the lock screen. Also, when using the camera, the volume up switch will become the shutter button, which will make the phone behave a lot more like a real camera. Add to that the ability to use the headphone volume controls to trigger the shutter, too, and the iPhone is quickly becoming more of a serious photography device.

2. Photo Stream makes it easier to get your pictures off the device.

One of the real problems with using my iPhone to take pictures, though, is moving those pictures to, well, anywhere else. Of course I can email them to myself, but that seems so clunky. With the newly announced iCloud, though, all of the pictures you take on the phone will automatically sync to your other devices, making it easy to share them, save them, etc. This is a big deal because just making things more convenient makes me more likely to use them. I’m betting you feel the same way.

3. Snapseed

The iPad already has a lot of good photo-editing apps, but the problem for me has been trying to get my pictures on to the iPad in the first place. This is a little easier if you have the camera connection kit, but still it’s not ideal. iCloud seems to be solving that (hopefully), which put me on the lookout for the best photo editing app out there. Recently I found Snapseed, a really powerful but still fun and easy to use photo editing iPad app. I’ve been using it for a week or so now and I have to say that it’s controls are really easy to figure out and make the whole process of editing photos much easier and more fun than any other app I’ve tried. And it’s a steal at just $4.99.

Check out this amazing new photo set by photographer, Melissa Munding. The look of the wedding was inspired by the film, Amelie.

I loved Amelie for its visual style, and this wedding captured that remarkably well. I love the simplicity and balance of the bright vivid colors and vintage-y feel. And Melissa’s capturing of the event is exquisite, too.

For more inspiration in this style you might also check out the movie itself, or the lesser known TV series, Pushing Daisies, whose producer, Bryan Fuller, said plainly that the look of the show was heavily inspired by Amelie. I would love to see some presentations that looked like this. Maybe I’ll have to make one.

Excellent work, Melissa!

Icebreakers is a really cool, simple to use idea to add some conversation starters to your next event. The site makes it cake-easy to create little name badges that you can customize with quirky questions or prompts for your attendees.

It’s no wonder Icebreakers is so simple and brilliant, as it was created by one of my favorite bloggers, Swiss-Miss. You can also check out the flickr pool of previous Icebreakers prompts if you need some inspiration.

Dan Roam has a new book coming out this November and it became available for pre-order on Amazon this week.

Details about the new book are scarce. You can see a little about the cast of characters in Dan’s blog post.

I feel confident in pointing you at this book though because of the superlative-ness of Dan’s previous books, The Back of the Napkin, and Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures. I recommend both to anyone who communicates, whether or not you already do so with pictures.

In his commencement speech at Dartmouth College this past weekend, Conan O’Brien is at times hilarious, irreverent, and also very, very poignant. For the most part this is typical Conan tomfoolery, but near the end it takes a serious turn as he talks about failure, changing dreams, and knowing who you are.  Conan has been a little higher on my radar since his final remarks at the end of his time on the Tonight Show caught my attention several months ago. It’s clear that Conan is one of the most intelligent cable talk show hosts out there.

My favorite quote comes at about 21 minutes in: ”It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique. It’s not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can be a catalyst for profound re-invention.”

(Parental warning: Conan gets a little coarse at times, so just be prepared for that.)