A shot through the windows of the empty storefront on the corner. I like how the combination of the reflection and the view through the windows blurs the inside/outside distinction. Plus I like the contrasting textures between the brick sidewalk and the scraps of paper on the floor… (click the image for larger view)
Feb 292008
Feb 292008
I will be doing some work for Penn Appetit magazine over the next few weeks (UPenn’s “foodie” magazine).
Stay tuned for images! (food photography is fun!)
Tags: foodphotography, announcement,
Feb 262008
…one step closer to release! Sigma has added a gallery of sample photos from the DP-1. The images look very good, I’m impressed. I’d love to play with some .raw files though… Most are at iso 100, but there is one at 400 and one at 800 right at the bottom, both look great – obviously infinitely better than a small sensor digicam.
I hope the dp-1 does well, spurring other makers to follow the lead with large-sensor digicams.
Tags: sigma, dp1, dp-1, digital rangefinder,
I recently read about a great idea for a new slr innovation over at photographyblog.com. Zoltan Avra-Toth proposes an entirely new focus mode for modern SLRs. Frankly I am somewhat surprised no camera maker has thought of/implemented this before as it would be pretty easy to do from a technical point of view. Anyway, what he proposes is to have a focus mode that automatically focuses to the hyperfocal distance as the focal length of the lens changes.
Focusing a lens to it’s hyperfocal length is a very useful technique, used mainly by landscape and street photographers, but the lack of a distance scale on most modern SLR lenses makes it rather impractical to use, particularly with zooms (as the H.D. changes with the focal length). However, making the necessary calculations would be a trivial task for the camera’s on-board processing, and since the camera and lens “communicate” focal length and focus settings it could easily adjust the focus to hyperfocal dynamically as the focal length changed. In fact, adding this mode probably wouldn’t even need any hardware changes, it could likely be done with a firmware update!
Of course the hurdle would be practical implementation – in other words, how would you “set” this mode, and how would it “handle” the camera. E.g. when in normal af modes, the camera focuses when you 1/2 press the shutter button. In this new AF-H (autofocus-hyperfocal) mode, you definitely wouldn’t want that, as it would be refocussing every time you tried to take a shot. I think the easiest solution would simply be to add another position on the af selector switch for AF-H and have it decouple focus from the shutter button when you switched it on. This could also be done in a menu, without changing the hardware, but that could get confusing as people would forget they had it on and wonder why their camera wasn’t focusing when pressing the shutter button.
Anyway, I think it’s a fantastic idea that would appeal to a large set of pro & advanced ameture photographers. So if anyone out there from a camera company is reading this – bring it to your R&D team, and get it done!
Tags: photography, hyperfocal, focus, focal length,
Feb 142008
Another street shot with the G9 – the light was just perfect – I took virtually the same picture the next day at the same time, and it was totally flat and “blah”.
Feb 112008
Fellow photographer & Photoblogger Brian Auer has lauched a great new site:
The Fine Art Photoblog
(and their press release)
Kind of a cross between a photoblog and a collective gallery, it’s a cool idea with some great photography. I think of it as the “web 2.0″ version of a traditional artist collective gallery 
Check it out, it’s worth the look!
Feb 102008
Feb 062008
I have to say, I wasn’t blown out of the water by the announcements at PMA. Some nice new stuff, but nothing earthshaking or market-changing.
One announcement that stuck out though was by Sigma that, yes, the dp-1 is not here yet, but still coming. Hopefully soon. (they actually released some pre-production sample photos, which is a good sign!)
For those who aren’t familiar, the DP-1 has been that ever elusive vaporware- tantalizing the legions of pros and pro-ams who have been clamoring for a pocket camera with a slr sensor. (as a backup/travel camera). Personally I couldn’t wait for the DP-1, so I went with the G9, and love it. But for those who hold out, the DP-1 promises quite a bit – aps-c sized foveon sensor in a G9 sized package. Juicy! Of couse it has some downsides, the fixed 28mm f/4 lens is somewhat limiting, especially with the max iso of 800 (although that will likely be a *usable* 800, not like
other pocket cams).
But hey – this camera is definitely billing itself toward the “rangefinder” niche (compact, unobtrusive street photography) so just pretend you are Gary Winogrand – he did 99.9% of his work with a 28mm lens IIRC!
Price will also be an issue. Nevertheless, it is an extremely intriguing piece of kit, a niche camera to be sure – but if the g9 success is any indication it is a pretty big niche.
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