For this photo, I should write something deep about what to do when life presents you with no simple way forward, and how you have to make a decision about breaking a rule in order to move on. Some times in life, there is no obvious way to move ahead. You reach a point where you must stop, assess the situation, calculate your risks, weigh up the pros and cons, and then, just go for it! And trust me, whenever you make such a decision in your life, it will either change things for the better more than you could have hoped, or, bang you get wiped out by a Kenworth barrelling down the highway with its speed limiter removed.
That you probably couldn’t see because of all of the signs on the road.
But I am not that deep. Here is the pic…
T-intersection in Hobart, with a No Right Turn and a No Left Turn sign.
And its a good’n too by the looks of it!
Canon today released the new EOS 50D, replacement to the 40D. Check out the preview on dpreview for all the details but to sum it up…
Almost exactly a year after the arrival of the EOS 40D, Canon has announced the 50D, which we’re assured will be a sister-model, rather than a replacement. Recent history has seen Canon release new models every 18 months-or-so but it’s been a busy year with newcomers such as the Nikon D300 getting a lot of attention in the 40D’s keen amateur/professional segment. The 50D puts essentially a 40D body wrapped around a newly-developed 15 megapixel sensor that finally rectifies the situation in which Canon’s x0D range trailed the company’s entry-level line, in pixel terms. Canon is claiming that the new sensor’s design (new manufacturing processes, redesigned photo diodes and micro lenses) mean that despite the higher resolution the noise is actually lower than the 40D, something we’ll obviously be putting to the test when we get our hands on a production model.
The other big change is the inclusion of a new, high-resolution LCD screen. 920,000 dots mean that it can convey 640 x 480 RGB pixels, making it effectively a VGA standard monitor. Three anti-reflection layers built into the screen do their best to keep it useable in bright conditions, too.
There are various other changes and added features, with many of them stemming from the first appearance of the Canon’s Digic 4 processor.
This looks great, and bodes well for the new full frame body, the 5D Mk2, 3D, 7D or whatever it will be called!
A recent acquisition of mine is a Lensbabies 3G kit, with macro adaptors, as well as telephoto and wideangle lenses. This is a great lens for creative portraiture, because it allows you to create “selective focus”, or a “sweet spot” in your picture which you can move around the frame to any position you want, leaving the rest of the image in a crazy looking almost radial blur. Special aperture inserts can be used to create special shaped specular highlights (the out of focus bright points in the background) in shapes like stars and hearts. This is fantastic for use in wedding and engagement photography for that special romantic look. Its not a lens you would use all the time (in part because its 100% manual and quite tricky to get a good focus with) but it does create a great effect when used. My best tip for Lensbaby use, is practice practice practice. A full frame camera body with a big bright viewfinder is also of great assistance.
I will be posting up a few images taken with this lens, but for now here is a shot of Zakk, who works for Alan Moyle at Photobat. We were messing about taking photos on Sunday night after the AIPP seminar, before dinner, and this photo gives a good indication of the Lensbaby effect. No photoshop filters here people!
I know carpark shots are becoming a bit cliche, but I thought I would put this one up anyhow, if only because I have not blogged one before. So here we go with the obligatory shot of some carpark markings. Clickety-Click, 66!
This crane was silhouetted buy the sun setting over Launceston. You cant see it in this image, because its too small, but there is a flock of birds above where the crane is in the shot.
Canon 30D, EF 70-200 f/2.8L IS
