Is auto-focus a real problem? I’m not sure, but I have an XSi which seems to work pretty well. A friend has a D90 and some of the shots taken with his camera (on auto-focus) look blurry. Maybe it’s time to try the steps laid out in Photo.Net’s Focus Testing article. Or even try AutoFocuX???
Archive for July, 2009
Focus Testing – photo.net
July 15th, 2009World Wide Photo Walk: Maybe next year
July 15th, 2009
I’m bummed — I won’t be able to make the WorldWidePhotoWalk this weekend in Annapolis –see 27,000 photographers to “walk” this weekend – Technology Live – USATODAY.com for more info. Looks like a blast! I’ve passed this on to a friend, hoping he’ll get some good pictures of downtown and the Academy. Forecast looks pretty good (if you like heat 
too.
Jason Bell | Photographer
July 11th, 2009
Through an article on Smashing Magazine’s website, I found a link to Jason Bell’s website: http://www.jasonbellphoto.com/. I’m still a real beginner with photography and recognizing photographers’ names, but I really enjoy Jason’s work. Check out his website to see portraits and landscapes, all well done and very attractive. Although I’m not myself keen on portrait work, his is what I would like to emulate.
NYT Magazine Withdraws Altered Photo Essay [PDNPulse]
July 9th, 2009PDN Pulse published a report that the New York Times Magazine Withdraws Altered Photo Essay after finding several indications that the photographs had been digitally altered. MetaFilter also published an animated graphic showing how one photo was too perfectly symmetrical.
The NYTimes has even published an article describing the manipulation and clarifying why the essay was withdrawn (correcting the introduction to the photo essay which asserted that the photographer “creates his images with long exposures but without digital manipulation.”
A very sad day indeed, but kudos to the NYT for sticking to their “longstanding policy” (see Assistant Managing Editor Michele McNally’s Q&A regarding edited photographs and the NYT).
[Update 8/4]: See Behind the Scenes: Edgar Martins Speaks on the NYT Lens blog for his response. Here are some of his comments posted in that blog:
“Where does one draw a line when seeking to represent but also shape reality? And how does the viewer relate to this? The only constructions which were conceived in the context of this project were made at a representational level only. It is not reality which I have sought to ‘manipulate,’ but its image. This work explores the concept of ‘home’ as an idea and a form, and summons a disquieting conjunction of reality, hyper-reality, fantasy and fiction.”
With all due respect to Umberto Eco, Mr. Martins clearly has his role confused. He isn’t a fictional artist, but was paid to represent reality, something which he clearly did not intend to do. If only he had made the NYT aware of this before he posted his photo essay.
Infographic: History of the American Flag
July 4th, 2009
Mike Wirth has posted a beautiful infographic on the history of the American Flag — how it became what it is today, complete with colonies for the red and white stripes and states for each of the stars. Fantastic, and just in time for July 4th!
[Thanks to CoolInfoGraphics for the link!]
