i found this interesting article about swedish designer sixten saxon, who was the driving force behind historic designs like the original saab 92-model and the classic hasselblad camera.
november 8, 2006, great milestone as windows vista his rtm (release to manufacturing). microsoft's most costly and ambitious development project, so far, comes to an end. i can't wait to load this final version (i've been running various betas) and take it out for a spin. i'll do that tomorrow. :-)
now this rap video from carlos mencia is too funny! :-)
i got this from scott kelby's blog, quote from by portrait photographer Arthur Levi Rainville:
“A Picture is of somebody, but a Portrait is about somebody.”
i haven't really got around to it, but i'm getting increasingly curious about hdr (high dynamic range) photography and i found this tutorial what seems to be a good starting point. then head over to flickr and search for "hdr" and enjoy!
i've tried a various rss readers but no one seemed to stick, e.g. the built-in rss reader in outlook 2007 lists unread posts along with unread emails in my top shortcut/folder which is not how i want it, but then i (yeah, i know, much later than everyone else) stumpled upon bloglines which really rocks! it is free, accessible via any type of browser and one can easily organize various feeds into groups. i really recommend it!
oscar-winner sven nykvist has passed on at the age of 84 years. he was considered by many to be one of the greatest cinematographers of all time - the true and original masters of light. through out his career he worked very closely with directors like ingemar bergman, andrej tarkovskij, john huston, woody allen, roman polanski, louis malle, peter brook, richard attenborough and lasse hallstrom etc, but many of you have probably seen his work in movies like what's eating gilbert grape, sleepless in seattle, chaplin, fanny and alexander (won an oscar for that one), the unbearable lightness of being and many more.
his sense of simplicity and naturalism was celebrated and his 60-ies black and white work are true classics.
i can highly recommend light keeps me company - (a somewhat sad) documentary made by his son on his father's work in a later stage in life during which sven had become increasingly ill, but is a great celebration to his legacy. one can rent it via e.g. netflix.
after decades and decades (apart two unsuccessful stints) the center-right wing coalistion finally managed to win the general election in sweden.
it is a new day in sweden where hopfully the new coalistion can enforce some much needed reforms into the tax and contribution systems, labor laws etc. to open up for innovation, entrepreneurship and individual responsibility. hence, i'm not saying that the current swedish model is a complete failure, far from it, but it is flawed and abused, thus reform is needed in may places.
you all know that i'm a big fan of travel photography, espeically images of people. i found this pbase portfolios by manuel libres librodo jr, just great stuff! do check it out.
and take a look at andy farrington's portraits as well.
there is this wonderful steve mccurry documentary up on the magnum site. definitely one of my all time favorite photographer.
I guess this article by Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor, is required reading nowadays.
Somehow this has a clue-train ring to it, doesn't it?
the 2006 version of "the wired 40" is out.
this blog is not seeing much action but i felt compelled to share what many of you might have read already regarding the consolidation in the imaging software industry
1) adobe buys pixmantec, makers of the award winning rawshooter with the intent of incorporating the technology into Lightroom.
2) microsoft just announced it's aquisition of iView Multimedia, maker of the award winning iView Media Pro product for digital asset management (dam).
things are definitely heating up. management of digital media is now definitely a common challenge thus the large players are (finally?) catching on and starting to circle the wagons.
this is pretty funny...
i stumbled upon some outstanding travel photography by julian li. so far i have only had time to review his cambodia folder but i'll definitely come back to this guy. phenomenal stuff, if you ask me.
finally, chimping has been documented as a social phenomenon and addiction it truly is.
phil askey's review carries a lot of weight in the photography community and he has finally posted his review of the nikon d200. the results shouldn't shock anyone who has actually used this camera - it is simply the best dslr on the market today when you combine parameters like performance, handling, interface, build quality and sheer value.
edited 06/08/06: "simply the best dslr on the market today..." is simply not true. after the initial new-camera-honey-moon was over the high noise at ISO 400 and up started getting to me. why can't they make a nikon d200-style body with a canon-engineered sensor/algorithms???
found an intersting article on robgalbraith.com about underwater photographer alex mustard.
there is also this married couple making great images with very humble gear - great stuff.
an article on extremetech.com on "optimizing photoshop cs2 performance". that headline is enough to warrant my attention.
what else is new? nikon halting manufacturing a heap of 35mm film slrs and manual focuses lenses should of course be noticied, but that was shortly trumped by minolta's announcement to get out of the phot business alltogether(!). i still stand by my judgement that the konica hexar rf + lenses was an awesome product.
today is a good day. shortly after nikon announces that they will stop manufacturing a bunch of film slrs + manual focus lenses, zeiss announces a new line of lenses in nikon f-mount. i'm a big fan of high quality manual focus glass such as leica and zeiss due their stellar performance in terms of (corner-to-corner) sharpness, high contrast, tonalities and superlative bokeh. i cannot wait to get to try them out.
michael reichmann has a great early impression of abobe lightroom available on his site. i'm a windows guy so i haven't been able to kick-the-tires yet, however, i'm really looking forward to being able to try out this software.
nikon guru, bjorn rorslett, has finally posted his review of the d200.
i strongly share his assessment about nikon's marketing/pr department, please acknowledge the mistakes and post a timeline and process for the fix (even though my copy doesn't seet to suffer from any striping/banding issues).
always a pleasure viewing the images of national geographic, especially from the readers and their annual contest.
i picked up a d200 yesterday, haven't had time to try it out seriously, but my initial assessment is that we have reach a place in the digital revolution where improvements in image quality are only incremental and now the focus is more on getting the interface/hardware right. the d200 can rightly be described as a digital f100 - probably all the dslr i will ever need for a very long time. more to follow.
now this is pretty funny. i'm just amazed how much time some people have on their hands.
now, what did they do to firefox 1.5?
other noteworthy tech news is that yahoo! bought del.icio.us. first flickr.com, now this. i'm curious why ms/msn isn't more aggressive in picking up social networking/community properties like this?
i finally decided to start paying attention to one of the fundamental pillars of photography - color management. As I search discussion forums and articles on the web, I'll try to post some of the valuable content in this post.
white balance
ron bigelow article
interview with joe schoor, apple's product manager for aperture on creative pro.
it was world aids day earlier this week. found pep bonet's "posithiv+" online exhibition. great stuff.
**addition**
just spend some time on pep bonet's homepage, tons of interesting stuff there. some of the most captivating images i've seen ever. reading about pep's awards and recognition it is surprising that i haven't seen his work before.
i found this story via 400iso.com but i do think it deserves to be spread around. hobby photographer thomas hawk writes an interesting blogpost about his strongly negative experinece trying to buy a camera from priceritephoto. i just load this type of behaviour so i am more than happy to do my part in spreading the word. consumers should/must unite via social networks to put a stop to this business practice.
now, if we could only find a way to stop spam as well...
**update 12/02/05**: thomas story has had some real impact. tons of bloggers and new media, e.g. slashdot, has linked to it and the priceritephoto site is down, apparently due to denial of service attacks ;-), but more importantly their feeds have been removed from yahoo! shopping, cnet.com as well as microsoft's windowsmarketplace.com
german (amateur?) photographer carsten bockermann recently posted a new album from a trip to mexico. some great travel images in there. i can only aspire to have his eye and post-processing skills, those colors are just yummy!
speaking of travel photography with a nikon d70. gary voth has a very nice travel diary/alum up from his trip to india last year. well worth a visit.
man, these 6x6 black and white images of rain by justin ouellette are sweet
ever wanted to be a sport photographer? me neither. regardless, here are the recommended settings by sports illustrated magazine for those high fps machines.
seriously, pretty louse place to spend 1/7th of your life... this was my monday (so far): wife has thrown out her back and it seem impossible to have her see a specialist within a forseeable future; network problems at the office so i couldn't stay there and get the tons of stuff i really need to do after being on the road for 2 weeks; just got notice that we have been randomly picked for an audit for a 2004 tax filings; i bought a new lens which fedex has lost in transit, now found it but shipping it back to the sender (why?); and it just goes on like that.
on the upside - i finally managed to go and pick up a contact sheet of some film i shot a couple of weeks ago. not that i have a scanner so i can show anything, but i do get a warm/fuzzy feeling when reviewing a contact sheet again. it was a long time ago.
ok, you have to be swedish or having lived in sweden for quite some time to find this funny, but i have to admit, is all true...
albeit early alpha, this is a pretty cool idea by riya.com. automatic tagging of the people and text in your photos by facial recognition. read more about it in this pcmag article.
wired mag has a nice read on the worst software bugs in history.
ms recently some new services where i personally think that live.com holds a lot of potential for singel users looking for an effective, cool and flexible interface to key apps like email and instant messaging. it is based on newish technology called ajax. i just spent a few minutes to drag-and-drop a personalized interface onto live.com, added some rss feeds from fav blogs in no-time. pretty cool and useful stuff. hotmail-users should definitely keep it on the radar screen and early adopters should by all means set it up right away.
if you haven't had a look at ms powertoys yet, please do so. some nifty utilities in there, especially the synctoy and raw image thumbnail and viewer.
Legendary graphic designer Paul Rand has been called the "king of stripes". Seems appropriate. here are a couple of him more notable work, the ibm logo from 1972 and the apple logo from 1976. i wonder how the microsoft logo would look in strips...
stowe boyd comments on the "re-grooving" and future of microsoft in this get real blog-entry. i felt compelled to comment on it.
my knowledge/experience is limited to the (large) enterprise space, where i don't see any real change to the momentum and dominance of ms windows and office system. the cost to change platform is simply too risky, too expensive and there is no system out there that offers the same capabilities and value. why migrate to something that is capable, more costly to administrate/maintain and has an unclear product roadmap?
hontestly, i can fully understand that a single home user may consider e.g. an apple machine, especially if he/she is heavy on photoshopping for his digital photography anddigging his/her music via ipod/itunes. but then you have the whole switching to the intel-chip platform thingy... forget about linux on the desktop for the average user unless you are a heavy enthusiast wanting to be your own 24/7 support. anyone tried running photoshop and your epson printer on a linux? good luck.
software powerhouse adobe is out with an updated version of their beginners/advanced amateurs elements 4, which gets a glowing review in pcmag.
if i hadn't invested all that money in pscs2, i'm sure this release would be the way to go. god knows i don't use 70% of the [advanced] features in cs2 anyhow...
pretty amazing what they do with digital cameras these days...
church of the flying spagetti monster. now isn't this the funniest thing you've seen in a while?! apparently the fastest growing religion in the world with millions of "pastafaries" since june 2005.
i suggest you start by wiki definition/explanantion.
as many of us windows user are gearing up for windows vista, microsoft today announced the availability of some related technologies important for designers/photographers. do check out microsoft expression and microsoft codename max.
the design tools are leveraging the new windows presentation foundation (formerly code named "avalon") which is the new unified presentation subsystem for the windows operating system. the windows presentation foundation (wpf) is exposed through winfx, windows vista's managed-code programming model that extends the microsoft .net framework. i know, this is a lot of techie-talk but it is actually very cool. wfp consists of a display engine that takes full advantage of modern graphics hardware and an extensible set of managed classes that development teams can use to create rich, visually stunning applications. wpf also introduces extensible application markup language (xaml), which enables developers and designers to use an xml-based model to declaratively specify the desired user interface (ui) behavior.
vista is still a long way out from being on the shelfs, but trust me, it will rock!
i always thought that i was bad with regards to owning many cameras over the years. my friend frank seems to top me. easily.
sales corners like ebay, the ones on photo.net and fredmirana.com, has really revolutionized one's ability to pick up a lens or camera used, try it out and flip it if it doesn't fit. i've done my fair share of that over the last 2-3 years, however, that wears out as well. so has my interest participating on various online forums. at the end of the day, it isn't very productive for one's photography, nor focus on family or work. engough is enough. less is more. you get the drift...
this microsoft video marketing the new virtual earth service is a bit funny (oh well, at least a bit...). but the technology/service is pretty cool though. not that the 'locate me' service i tried worked very well - aparently i'm located somewhere north of denver, co...
ok, the article is in swedish from the daily swedish paper dagens nyheter, but the gist of it is that a anglosaxian priest, evans david gliwitzki, married with two children, was allowed to convert to become a roman-catholic priest.
i know religion is a big faux-pas to discuss on blogs, but i think this is great. the notion that a catholic priest should be a man who lives in celibacy just doesn't make sense to me. at all. moreover, it was something that the roman-catholic church apparently didn't mandate until the 11th centuary.
and it becomes even more interestin in light of the current pope's recent comments to the youths of the world against pre-marital sex and religious shopping.
interesting event/development.
nature photographer bjorn rorslett is being interviewed at some photoforum called nwp. good reading.
"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."
-Thomas Paine
my mind goes back to 9/11 in new york/arlington, 3/11 in madrid. now we add 7/5 london to that list. our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of those affected by these horrific events.
and here we go again in the dc metro area:
times.com recently posted their 50 coolest blogs. our friend dave over at chromeasia.com made the list. congrats!
jim laurel and his wife shares some great photos from a recent trip to china in this gallery. or a different version here.
technical details can be found on jim's post on lug.
microsoft just launched a new site dedicated to professional photographers.
microsoft today releassed it's new raw thumbnail/viewer for windows xp. i was using the beta version but this v1.0 has some nice improvements over beta. overall, i must say it is a very useful and fast product that helps you archieve, organize and view your raw files directly in winxp. job well done, microsoft rich media group!
while your at it, i suggest downloading the two following microsoft documents:
i have an urge to shoot some porta 800 after viewing stacy newgent's folder from his las vegas trip. those colors, combined with the grain, looks great.
not pj alex majoli according to this article on robgalbraith.com. sometimes less is more.
i concur with his final assessment - small digital camera with interchangable small, fast prime lenses (sans leica pricing, por favor). that would be fantastic. at least for travel purposes - i hate to hunt down my kids with af and zoom.
this outdoor photographer article gives you some idea of what it takes and what is involved before you plunge hard-earned dollars/euros into a new mp monster.
this is what i always point out to people that are thinking about going digital. sure, the immediacy of the images and the low/free addtional cost of making another exposure are huge advantages, but once you start adding up the costs of new cf cards, photoshop and other software, new or beefed up computer, external storage, countless hours doing post-processing, the immediate appeal of digital photography may seem less strong.
here is a different (but interesting) view on apple's recent announcement to switch from ibm to intel chips. far more though-provocative than the normal garbage viewpoint that john dvorak puts out in his ever-lasting microsoft bashing.
i'm so impressed/inspired by these images by dutch photographer bas wip. i wish i had the talent, skills and patient to learn how to use a medium format 6x6 camera.
microsoft today released an updated msn toolbar that allows for tabbed browsing in internet explorer 6.x. in all honesty, it is a fairly basic offering, but at least now ie users have another option.
this is great news for all end-users. i suggest reading gary voth's comments on this on this rob galbraith tread, as well as tim grey's post on dpreview.com
also take a look at this article/commentary.
the digital rat race continues on, nikon vs. canon etc. for a while it looked like nikon was being schooled really bad, however, with the advent of the d2x it seems like nikon has a real winner (albeit out of reach financially for many of us, and even to big/powerful for most of us). let's just hope they can translate many of those advancements into a really competivive and stellar "d200".
Phil Askey just post his d2x review at dpreview.com.
Other d2x reviews/comments:
- bjorn rorslett
- thom hogan
- mike weber
- dave black
- john shaw
- digitaljournalist.com
- links to various other reviews
for all those of you who still prefer the integrated approch of microsoft here is a very light-weight and fast add-on that allows for tabbed browsing on internet explorer. additionally, pc magazine has put up a very favorable review of the msn search toolbar, which actually works very nicely imo.
why do i still use ie? well, after a sp2 install it is as secure as the other option and the key advantage to me is the ability to synch bookmarks/favs accross multiple machines via groove virtual office.
michael reichmann over at luminous landscape made me aware of this document in the adobe support knowledge base. it helps you tweak the performance of pscs2 when using a computer with over 1gb of ram.
i found this thread over at photo.net's wedding and event forum. very well written and easily understood instructions, I think. Enjoy.
i'm not a baseball fan. in fact, i have never been to a game, even if i've been handed tickets to corporate booth seats. but it is hard to not feel a bit cheerful over the fact that baseball is back in the dc metro area for the first time in 34 years. earlier tonight washington nationals won their first ever home game and there is a real buzz around town.
i doubt i'll ever become a huge baseball fan, but i'm glad the city is getting some much needed bump.
this service is pretty cool if you want to look for apartment/houses to rent or buy.
everyone seems to jump as soon as bill gates expands into new markets, which is definitely the case with corbis latest acquisition of the roger richman agency. corbis now "owns" einstein and steve mcQueen!?
kids, you gotta check out these dramatic sailing photos. don't try this at home.
[note to self: always carry a high-buffer dslr with a huge zoom...]
other links of the day: these neighborhoodies are kinda cool. perhaps one with arlington, va would rock!?
nordilux v1.1 is live! still doing some last checking but thanks to mel over at moxie this site finally looks/behaves the way i want.
hey, logging into MT i'm realizing that this is my 100th post, perhaps worth noticing but hardly worth celebrating. should post an image, but i have too much on the plate and i'm way behind.
my link/sharing today is really about these images by bas wip. i wish my vacation images looked like this. rich in tonalities. effortless. beautiful. black & white. sharp and crisp. full of life.
i'm sorry to bitch, but i've had it with crime scene investigation tv. it seems like every night there is a different csi/svu/bla-bla-bla "drama" where all mysteries can be solved by cotton swabbing a crime scene and finding the bad guy via his/her dna. enough already!!!
on a second note, i'm about to start a redesign of nordilux.com, fix the lay-out and structure, organize the archieving, personalize the interface a bit etc. i'm guessing the new site will be launch sometime later this month or early april. meanwhile, i've started cleaning up my links and also added a few worthwhile ones. cheers.
downloaded google's latest free software - picasa 2 - today. i surely haven't had time to use it heavily but my initial impression is that it is a very worthwhile tool for viewing one's photos. the structure and features are very intuitive and it is cool that it supports both nikon nef and canon crw. additionally, it is (supposively) free from any type of "additional" add-ons of the spy nature. give it a spin!
an interesting black & white pj story of president bush by photographer christopher morris from vii photo agency.
i have always, and continue to, love black and white images. i wanted to share some recent work i've found. old school, the two first one is rangefinder work, the last one hasselblad, tri-x in d76 1:1, multigrade III fb, and kodak sepia toner.
i had plan to post some type of last image of the year, but honestly i cannot gather the motivation. in all, i think 2004 contain more than it's fair share of disappointments and horrors. the grand final being the tsunami around the indian ocean, which weighs heavy on my mind and spirit. let's hope and pray (if you are so inclined) that 2005 will be a more joyous and prosperous year for mankind.
ok, i work in the high tech sector, not a techie (obvious by all the issues with this site - duh!) but i found the netcraft site pretty cool. you can find out what systems (webserver/s) are running any site by typing in the url.
also, i keep going back to grard laurenceau's landscape work. just gorgeous!
isn't there a beauty of being up late? when i was a teenager or at university i was truly a night-owl, staying up late listning to music, reading, watching a movie or spending time at cafes/at someone's house discussing life with old or new friends. it was all about making the most out of each day.
the wife is on a business trip, the kids are asleep, and i find myself being up late organizing stuff, surfing a bit on various blogs and photoblogs, catching up on email. there is something special about being up late in the middle of the week, not worrying about how tired i'll be at work tomorrow or doing something productive. i guess that i'll keep cherrishing/taking advantage moments like this all through my life.
frank van riper writes about richard avedon and his legacy in washington post.
digital journalist has a tribute to eddie adams.
i've always been interested in innovation and change in a business sense. few people in the industry has a stronger legacy in terms of innovation that steve jobs. the seed of apple's innovation in business week is an interview with steve jobs, nothing revolutionary but a nice read.
i saw the movie/documentary outfoxed earlier tonight. even though it is clearly an liberal opinion piece, much like uncovered: the war on iraq that i saw the other day, it speaks to a larger issue that so imperative to united states of america that i cannot avoid commenting on it.
newsjournalistic traditions differ from country/culture to the other, i understand and respect that, but i am simply amazed over how far the phenomena of political propaganda disguised as "news" has come in this country. news, as far as i am concerned, should be the reporting of pertinent facts regarding important issues, may they be local, national or global matters, to the general public. associated with that reporting there may be analysis, sometimes commentary if two or more different views are in play. but what we don't want/need in there are opinions from the journalist, especially when they solely exist to serve a hidden agenda.
what is going on in american media at the moment is nothing but an outrage. fox may be the poster child for this type of corporate/politically driven "news" coverage, however, they are not the only ones adopting this business model. because at its heart, it is a business model with profit-maximization at its essence, not a public service to the people/citizens. in fact, that the people communicating these scewed information dare calling themselves journalists and the content "news" is nothing short of an embarrassment, for themselves and for us the public. there is a law against falsely posing as e.g. a police officer, shouldn't there be a law, or at least ethical rule/oath, against pretending to be a journalist?
i haven't figured it out yet, but there has to be some type of grassroot action taken before it is too late. in the outfoxed movie there were some very alarming facts which basically boils down to that fox news viewers have a different comprehension of the facts/reality than consumers of other media outlets. for example 60+% of fox viewers thought that there is a clear connection between iraq and al-qaeda vs. 16% of pbs viewers. that is just mind boggling. i'm deeply concerned about the route that corporate-owned media with a political agenda are taking us down.
we all knew it was coming, but still it is sad news to learn that ilford is preparing to sell off (best case) or close (probable case) their film production business. i've used/liked delta 400/100 a lot over the last 1-2 years, even a fair deal of xp2 which i think is the best c-41 mono film out there with wonderful latitude. agfa announced last week that they are doing the same, so soon enough we'll be left with kodak and fuji. could be worse, right?!
too late/tired to post any image today (again) but i wanted to share some new exposures from steve purcell in the UK. a wonderfull collection of images from the birth of his first child (congrats steve!). so tender, filled with respect and love. just gorgeous!
on a completely different topic, canon just announced their new 20d dslr today. everything as expected, which isn't bad per se, but it would have been nice with some surprises. i for one am looking forward to try it out first hand and evaluate the performance and handling. this one might just take me back to dslr as it seems some of my main issues with the 10d appears to have been properly addressed.
it is getting way late so i'll leave you with a quick welcome to the newly launched nordilux.com (and thanks for stopping by!). i transferred most images and text entries from my old domain over here, but some might disappear as i clean things up. until i get things under control i'll leave you with some new photoblogs i've added to my links section.
henri cartier-bresson passed away on august 4, 2204 at the age of 95. he is certainly one of my all time favorite photographer in my humble opinion/knowledge one of the true pioneers in street/documentary/travel/social commentary photography. i'll try to link some good articles about his work here later.
this part of the ny times obituary is worth high-lighting:
He insisted that his works not be cropped, but otherwise disdained the technical side of photography; the Leica was all he ever wanted to use; he was not interested in developing his own pictures.
"My contact sheets may be compared to the way you drive a nail in a plank," he said. "First you give several light taps to build up a rhythm and align the nail with the wood. Then, much more quickly, and with as few strokes as possible, you hit the nail forcefully on the head and drive it in."
view some of his extensive body of work at magnum photos, the agency he co-founded with robert capa, george rodger and david "chim" seymour (see history of magnum).
also, if you only buy one photographic book in your life, make it HCB's The Man, the Image and the World: A Retrospective
dear friends, i'll be on the road back and forward for a while so i have decided to take some vacation from the photoblog. i'll pick it up again towards the very end of july. on the bright side - hopefully with lots of new images!
namaste,
patrick
i watched the documentary "the wonderful/horrible life of leni riefenstahl" (1993, by ray muller) earlier tonight. it reminded me of a heated discussion at photo.net at the time of her death in 2003. i remember adding something along the lines of '...one cannot admire the painting of an outhouse without also acknowledge the stench...' but that got deleted from the thread.
i cannot adequately reflect on her life/work just yet. i need some time. but one question that surfaces is: should one recognize or judge the art of a person that puts her/his creative talent to use for an evil/wrong cause? even if this person pioneered many aspects and/or techniques of, in this case, images making?
the situation surrounding leni riefenstahl is very complex and one must also consider historical context, but nevertheless i have deep reservations about awarding any amount of praise and/or recognition for an artist that believed in and glorified hitler, who's work furthered the nazi cause, regardless of the creator's talent and ingenuity/creativity. an image-maker definitely has a greater responsibility and cannot turn the other cheek to the context within which her/his work is being shown.
i felt compelled to watch the 9/11 documentary again. it is a film that leaves no one untouched.
as faith would have it, french-born documentary film makers gdon and jules naudet were side-by-side with engine 7 of new york fire department as the tragic and horrible events of 9/11 unfolded. it is such a powerful experience to watch this documentary again.
i just came from the movie theatre after having seen michael moore's film "fahrenheit 9/11".
many people say "it is not an objective film". it is not. it is not meant to be objective. it is moore's opinions mixed with selective facts. as a tool for criticisim it is very blunt and seems more aimed to redicule instead of serious debate. and it preaches to the quire instead of trying to reach/inform/evoke dialogue with a broader audience. nevertheless, it is a monumentally important film. what i think about it or what my views are on the bush administration is not relevant. just go and see the movie.
i wish more of you could read swedish. yesterday in the swedish daily, dagens nyheter, a very well respected historian and member of the swedish academy by the name of peter englund wrote an extremely interesting piece called the war game in washington - and the reality.
in the piece professor englund goes through the background that led up to the irak war, which he refers to as 'a strategic mistake by magnitude not seen since the vietnam war'. he paints a picture of a president almost clinically free from anylitical skills/will surrounded by neoconservative civilians with hybris related to their own ideas and the power of war to solve international issues. it is indeed a very frightning picture.
i humbly wonder how many americans that truly understands what what direction that bush & co has taken this nation and the trajectory of that direction.
this is a decent service, go to wired.com and on the top right frame you can enter a zipcode to find listings of local wifi hot spots. pretty convenient.
mark tucker, atlanta-based photographer, recently visited berlin and prague and just posted a travel diary. wonderful images. mark has a very distinctive style/look with selective focus, grain and a special color palette. he uses canon dslrs so a lot of work goes into post-processing. regardless, i have a lot of respect for his vision and creativity, there is something very simple about his images, and i find them inspirational for my photography.
now, if this isn't funny, i don't know what is... (well, you do have to "know" the leica crowd for it to be amusing...)
there is a powerful/must-see series in the #6 issue of blue eyes magazine called "haiti turns 200". color street/documentary photography at its best, i think. up, close, personal and wide. review and reflect.
i stumpled upon this cool project - portait and a word - earlier today. technically speaking the images are very modest, perhaps not much more than snaps shots, but it is interesting to see how a person identifies with a single word. and how a single word adds so much to an image.
also, pdn photo annual 2004 it out. definitely worth checking out.
there is a lot of discussion if one should shoot raw or jpg when taking digital images. i've always been a great believer of raw because of the simple fact that i'm still learning to use photoshop and having a 'digital negative' to go back to again and again as my skill-set and the technology per se improves is the only way. michael reichmann of luminous landscape takes the time to explain it much better than i would ever care to do in a recent article called "understading raw files".
sometimes, it is best to start fresh. i've made some previous attempts via blogger.com, but it never really came off the way way i wanted. i have decided to take those other blogs down instead of transfering over the content here. fresh start, as I said.
thanks to marcus holmer i have i have now managed to load movabletype on my server. fredrik olsson was a lot of help too and a great motivator. thank you very much guys!
i expect there to be many changes and tweaks in the near future, so hold on for a bumby ride.