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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 the subtitle - promises to give you "photography secrets from one of the world's top shooters." In that regard, it's pretty much a failure. There are very few "secrets" in the book.

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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 reduced to 1/40 to 1/80 second shutter speeds. Outdoors on a sunny day, at ISO 100, the "Sunny 16 Rule" tells you the shutter speed should be about 1/100 at f/16. That's nine stops faster or about 500 times the amount of light generated indoors.

Yet most people have no trouble seeing in either. The human eye is pretty incredible.

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 amazed at how good a job our eyes do of auto-white balancing things we see.

This summarizes my iPhone SDK experience:

In other words, after installing the iPhone SDK, I experienced massive screen artifacts. Behind the mess on-screen here is Safari.

I used Time Machine to restore my /System/Library/Extensions folder (the iPhone SDK installs several kexts), rebooted, and all is well. I doubt I'll be doing much iPhone development anyway until Interface Builder is updated to include the iP* elements.

P.S. Mac Pro, ATI Radeon X1900 XT, plenty of RAM… and the problems went away with the old Extensions folder. Artifacts appeared for every user.

I have only one iPhone SDK question: Is it possible and/or easy to synchronize data with desktop computers?

I ask because the first application we intend to make for the iPhone is an add-on for Scorecard. It will allow users to enter their stats on the golf course, then ideally to "synchronize" them with the desktop app (on Windows and Mac OS X) when they return home. And of course we'll want to make sure the user's iPhone has the user's course and tee details, so we need a way to copy that information from the desktop app to the iPhone.

At the present time, this doesn't appear to be possible. Failing any sort of "file movement," I wonder if we'll be able to automate something like emailing of a round of statistics (as an XML file or whatever) easily.

Brad, on his personal blog, is posting a few Cyndicate tips. The first article deals with granularity (i.e. "articles" are better than "feeds") while the second deals with organization.

NewsFire went free this week, which is fine. It's a fine app if you subscribe to a few items. We believe Cyndicate still has its place as a fine tool. Some people don't know about ratings, for example, and you won't find the auto-ratings system Cyndicate has in any other feed reader.

I've also got to kick myself in the ass a bit and start working on the Cyndicate screencasts. I was waiting for ScreenFlow and will likely use that app to produce the videos.

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. Ostensibly, we're allowed to do this because we're matching the lighting the camera captures to the lighting our eyes/brain work to produce for us. We're making the picture "accurate," and the basis for comparison is the image our eyes and brain assemble.

The same argument applies to saturation. Our eyes and brain combine to increase the saturation of any scene. Sunsets never seem to be as spectacular on film (digital or physical) as our memory of them, and adjustments made to "correct" that are, by and large, not very different than adjusting the white balance. So I reject the "inaccurate" portion of Mike's statement and suggest that slight bumps to saturation make the image "more correct." After all, our own perception and memory of the scene is still the basis for comparison.

And noise? Nobody "sees" noise. Noise is simply the manifestation of the limits of technology. There's no such thing as "accurate noise."

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, is purely loved.

If you mouse over the image below, you'll see a very quick before/after. I scribbled over the offending area using the defaults for the Retouch Brush. I should have probably fine-tuned it, but I didn't bother, and the results are pretty great, even for a fairly large item which blocks a good bit of the sky.

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After updating to Mac OS X 10.5.2, my AirPort connection started dropping several times per day. I resolved the issue by changing the channel from 6 to 1, despite not having any interference or even any other networks nearby (as reported by iStumbler). This was when I had an old, domed AirPort Extreme that did only 802.11g (or less).

Now that I've replaced the AirPort Extreme with a TimeCapsule, I'm running both a pure 802.11n and a "side" 802.11g network. The prior is 5 GHz.

The drops have returned.

Several times per day, my AirPort menu will indicate that I'm no longer connected. I'll select it, choose "Netski" (my g network is "Getski"), and re-connect. Thirty minutes to six or eight hours later, I'll be disconnected again. I cannot change the channel because my Time Capsule lists only "Automatic" as the option.

I had no problems with my AirPort(s) prior to Mac OS X 10.5.2.

When you screen share a machine that's screen sharing you…

I received my 1 TB Time Capsule today and, pursuant to the comments on my earlier entry, I'm hoping to get some help in setting up my new network.

For the past several years I've run an 802.11g network named "Netski." I have a domed AirPort Express ("Dome") that has served as a printer share point ((HP LaserJet plugged into the USB port.)) as well as the main access point ((Plugged into the cable modem.)). I have an AirPort Express in the living room ((It is hooked to both the stereo for AirTunes as well as an ethernet hub for the DVR and Xbox 360.)). I also have another unused AirPort Express.

The items that need to access the Internet include a Mac Pro, a 12" PowerBook, a Wii, and a MacBook Pro. The "Living Room" also needs access. Additionally, I now have a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro.

I'd like to run as pure an 802.11n network as possible. What I mean by that is that I'd like the Time Capsule, Mac Pro, and MacBook Pro to communicate via 802.11n without being slowed down by any 802.11g devices. Again, people seem to believe that's possible from the comments.

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To the right, you'll see a lovely radio button. I think the designers meant to use a checkbox. There was no other option - no "I do NOT want to receive" option, and no way to disable or deselect the choice. Lurvely.

I was going to drive to Cleveland today to pick up a Think Tank Airport International, but I decided to order online instead. The car was too clean and I've got too much work to do.

On the slightly unusual side of things, if you have a long Canon lens and want a lens cap, check out this kitchen supply store. I've linked to the 300/2.8 "caps," but they have others as well.

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 enjoy Levels. I've come to appreciate Levels. Hell, I prefer levels. I think it's more intuitive and just as flexible in real-world situations ((In other words, I'm assuming you don't want to create a curve with 14 inflection points.)).

So now, a simple question.

My new MacBook Pro arrived today. The FedEx guy first "attempted to deliver" it at 8:21am. By "attempted to deliver" I of course mean he walked up, didn't ring the doorbell, and stuck what was probably a pre-written "we attempted a delivery" note ((I was awake and reading downstairs, because I noticed that the package was "out for delivery" at 7:40am when I checked.)). I called FedEx and made the guy come back, which he did at about 12:38.

I haven't turned it on yet, but I did open the box and make sure I didn't get a brick or something. I'm impressed by Apple's recent packaging and the space and material saving they've done. The entire MacBook Pro case is less than four inches thick. The inner foam is attractive.

I took the MacBook Pro out of the case and was immediately confused. I almost thought I'd gotten a 17" model instead, that's how large it seemed to me. Of course, I've been using the 12" PowerBook for over five years at this point. I remain incredibly disappointed that Apple can't see fit to release a Pro model that's the same size as the 12" PowerBook ((And the 13" MacBooks are barely smaller than the 15" MacBook Pros, so they don't count either. Plus, they're more underpowered than a 12" MacBook Pro would be.)). What a great little machine that 12" PB was.

My Time Capsule will arrive by Wednesday and the airline adapter will arrive sometime by September, at this rate. I'll probably wait until Wednesday to set everything up. At this point, it's a race: will I use the MacBook Pro or the 300mm lens first? 🙂

No, I still haven't used the 300/2.8. We've had lousy weather and I haven't gotten out to use it yet.

I've added a Photo Gear section to this site. Big whoop.

I've signed up for the April 7 "Captivated by the Light" seminar in Buffalo, NY. It's only $19 if you use the coupon code "WESTCOTT."

We won our hockey game today against a team we haven't beaten yet this year. We're now only four points behind the fourth-place team, with four of our last seven games against a team we could beat four times.

Visit the Photo Battle Blog and vote!