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This video is a chilling statement of the times: a man is harassed simply for taking video of people in a public place. The problem appears much worse in the U.K., but I suspect they're simply a few months ahead of the U.S. on their ass-backwards "no cameras/pictures/filming" policy. I've just read a short essay […]

A few days ago I picked up my Airport International v2.0 from Think Tank. It's a medium-sized roller-case that meets international standards for carry-on luggage. I needed a bag that would carry the 300/2.8, the rest of my gear, and a few other things.

Rumors have been floating around for over a year re: the Canon 5D Mark II (see also: Canon 3D, 6D, and 7D). Earlier today, MacNN's generic electronics site and Gizmodo both published specs of the "forthcoming" Canon 5D Mark II. The source? Some bozo without a source or a real name on DP Review's forums. […]

I read the Strobist review. I read the reviews at amazon.com. Originally I tried to buy the book at Barnes and Noble. They had one in stock. For $54.99. Same at Borders. Sorry, but there are very few books (paperback no less) worth more than $50. Amazon.com sells it for $35. The book - via […]

You know, one of the most amazing things I've discovered about photography is just how amazing our eyes are. They auto-adjust for white balance, saturation, focus, and the amount of light available. The last constantly amazes me any time I try to take a shot indoors. At f/2 to f/4, and ISO 1600, I'm often […]

Handy javascript bookmarklet that shows only the image at flickr: http://blackr.net/. It's free. BTW #1: Except for sports photographers who need the raw speed of JPEG (file writing), I have a hard time understanding why anyone would shoot JPEG over RAW when given the choice. BTW #2: Lighting indoors can sometimes be awful. I'm constantly […]

Mike Johnston writes in a brief essay about over-saturation of digital images: Why is inaccuracy in color rendering simply a given, while a little blurring of fine detail resolution or a touch of noise in the shadows are so adamantly not tolerated? It's widely accepted that we can adjust the white balance of an image. […]

Aside from Aperture 2's new Recovery and Black Point tools, the tool that's impressed me the most has been the Retouch Brush. I had a love/hate relationship with the "Spot and Patch" tool in Aperture 1.0, if by "love" you mean hate and by "hate" you mean hate. The Retouch Brush, on the other hand, […]

I often see people trash Aperture's "Levels" adjustment tool. These people typically state that Apple should have borrowed, bought, stolen, or otherwise implemented the "Curves" control from Photoshop as if it's a given and anything less is just plain stupid. Moronic. Inconceivable. I grew up using Curves. We all did, didn't we? I've come to […]

Today I spent a little time playing with a new site that integrates with flickr. It's called "photophlow, and the owner describes the site as: photophlow is a way to share flickr photos in real-time with your friends, and is a good way to discover new photos in a social way or receive more immediate […]

I skimmed a book in Barnes and Noble and wrote down quite a few tips. The book was How to Photograph Your Life and the concept was that the author used what amounted to a point-and-shoot camera to photograph the images. He'd usually show you an example of a "bad" photo, then an example of […]

If you're well beyond the "beginner" phase in photography, have a little free time to work on a project that could be fairly successful (($$$)), and the interest in combining those two things, get ahold of me ((Preferably via AOL IM - see contact info to the right.)). I've recently re-thought a lot of the […]

Later this week I expect a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens to arrive at my house. It should come with a 1.4x teleconverter and a drop-in circular polarizing filter ((Canon makes the only one?)). The 300/2.8 is perhaps one of the finest lenses Canon makes. Its average overall rating is a perfect 10 […]

This is simply an experiment, but one I'd call relatively successful. I took three exposures of the local Outback near my house. The scene has a wide range of light and dark tones, and thus was suitable for an HDR technique. The three images (+/- 2 stops) are included along the top row. I picked […]

Sometimes Aperture 2.0's hue selector yields some surprising results. Moving around within this bright sun, I can grab just about every color: blues, yellows, greens, reds, oranges, purples… That makes sense, and should serve as a warning: don't try to select hues in super-bright or super-dark areas, or you'll get similarly surprising results. You can […]