Nexus 7

Admittedly we knew there would be a tablet coming from Google, it really wasn't a surprise to anyone. In the past few weeks we've seen keynotes and gadgets galore, os's and show business from all these titans of tech. Microsoft tried but fumbled in their presentation of the Surface tablet. They really wanted to showoff not one but two keyboards ooh! Two different tablets and I admit I was intrigued by the "pro" version when I saw Lightroom on it, but then reality sets in, wait did they say a price? Did I miss it? Are the keyboards that they loved so much included or separate? Shipping today! No wait that was an Apple thing! A... No set date, but the pro ships 3 months after the arm version and I'm sure double the price of it if not more! So can they hang with Google that they tried to prempt with Surface? No. No way they can match price because Google is selling Nexus 7 at cost! I have one on order to replace my aging iPad 1! Can't beat the price and with all the Google integration a no brainier. Won't need the camera on the back I have an aging iPhone for that and my 2 main cameras Canon 60D and the Sony NEX 5N for that!

Vivian Maier

    Vivian Maier 1926-2009. And this would be all that anybody would know of her. No family, no known friends, never married, worked all her life as a nanny. Except for a secret life she hid from everybody. Hidden in storage lockers, whose contents where auctioned off for non payment, were thousands of negatives and undeveloped film. And if it wasn't for John Maloof, they would be lost for all time.
     The other day at a Barnes and Noble, one of the last bookstores now, I stumbled on a book about her work. On its cover is a striking self portrait of her, half in shadow, holding the Rolleiflex she had used to take most of the shots with. I can only imagine what people in those days thought of her walking around taking shots with a big camera. Those same looks happen to this day to me. Upon opening it and reading the bio I was awed! Inside the book was the most awesome array of photos of a time long gone to history, in stunning quality and detail that would put most pros to shame today. And this was a simple woman, self taught by all accounts, she processed her own film, a nanny. And in the end those three boys who thought she was Marry Poppins  to them when she was their nanny, took care of her till the end. No one knows why she told no one. But today her work lives on . 
The book is published by Powerhouse books. Its a must have for your library.
  http://www.vivianmaier.com/
http://www.vivianmaierprints.com/index.html
http://www.powerhousearena.com/products-page-2/?category=11&product_id=704

A little 5DM3 envy

I follow Nikon, Canon, and Sony, as far as camera's go. The latest releases, news, and rumors. I love it.   And I freely admit to loving the latest tech gadgets and software as well. And since the latest Nikons were released, I've yet to see them in the wild or know someone who has them. The D4 and the D800 respectively. But lately I've seen, and held, ( more on that in a minute ) the Canon 5DM3. So this passed April At the N.Y.C. Auto show I saw someone with it. so I asked if I could check it out, I hope he didn't notice my sweaty hands! wow! Heavy, but not too much for me. Awesome viewfinder with all those auto focus points. A big diference compared to my 60D. Anyway the guy never took it off his neck and who would blame him! I wouldn't either, and good luck getting it from my grip if I had one!!!  But this week not one but two. at Union Square a woman had it with a grip and long lens. And at the local Starbucks before my eyes, an unboxing, as I was writing a blog post on my first gen ipad! Time to rub those pennies for some luck!

LR4

Making the jump to Lightroom 4. After testing the waters I've found that while there was a bit of a learning curve coming from Aperture 3 and Photoshop it's worth every penny. More bells whistles and power than Aperture. Also not sure what Apples' end game is with their app.?

Surface me a pc

Mystery guest is....well hello mr. tablet. oh wait you brought a friend, well hello mr. portable pc. So today,  after what looked from the pictures that were live blogged, to be a rave or a fashion show, was Microsofts big event. And in what seemed like a big kick to its hardware partners, now being more Apple in their approach to doing software and hardware integration,  The Surface in two forms. The lesser Windows RT with ARM processer from Nvidia, and the Pro version running Intel's i5 processer, basically making it a portable pc. In fact running Lightroom 4 at the event! Now how well these things function in the real world is anybody's guess. Will the next ipad run Lightroom or Aperture? Who knows, but if the Surface makes it, it had better!  ( photo from +The Verge )http://live.theverge.com/microsoft-live-blog-tablet-announcement/

MacBook pro or not to MacBook pro

I've had MacBook pro's since the first 12" model came out, miss the little guy, mom has it now. I have a 15"about 4 yrs. old. It has, don't get mad, Windows 8 dev on it! Don't ask me why I hacked it but I did. Lastly I've got a 2011 13" MacBook pro with a 128 ssd and 8 gig's of memory. Its pretty fast but has 2 drawbacks. One the low res screen, why Apple?. Two no dedicated graphic card. Well maybe three, the weight. It is my main workhorse. But now comes this 15" retina monster, if you tricked it out all the way, is about $4000 with apple care, that you must get with this thing because it can't be fixed only replaced. So while it's nice to look at and drool, it's not a must buy at all for me right now.

And the mystery guest is.....

Your invited to our event, you will want to be there! Don't miss it! It's in L.A. Oh it's on Monday at 3:30 pt. See you there. Thanks Microsoft! And basically that was their invite to the tech press. No location and not much heads up that it would take place at all. Guess we will see tonight.

colorblind pt.2

In my opinion it is retarded that Apple took the RAW fine tuning out of the inspecter window. You must now select it , not on the right pull down menu, ( where it was ) but now on the left. If this is supposed to be a pro app, or was, RAW fine tuning should not have to be found but instead be already there to use right away!

Windows 8 the new fiasco

Soon Microsoft will launch it's most schizophrenic operating system yet , one that forces it's users to use two interfaces at once. Having tried the dev. Preview and hearing that not much has changed other than it's Metro interface having a firmer foot hold on it , can mean only trouble ahead! It seems Microsoft is not letting either succeed with this OS. Those still running XP, well it's time to give up the ghost! Running 7? You're in some luck , it's still under the hood. But you have Metro and charms and other goblin magic in order to get to it ! Sounds like fun no? I Think not. Lion seems like a kitten walk compared to this coming hell on wheels.

colorblind

Is someone color blind at Apple that they need to monocrome the icons in all their apps? The new Aperture interface .

Stung

Our curious Pixel got stung by a bee today and is now resting at the vet . Send her get well wishes .

Over Atlas

The other day at the mall.

One shot

Sometimes it's good to have your DSLR in your favorite coffee shop !

Inks

This is the inked version of those pencils . Since I'm doing some shooting tomorrow I won't be posting much . I hope you like.

The Comics

This is the cover of issue 2 of a book I'm working on in pencil form. I hope to have it ready to go by the end of the year. Online only. And since I ink myself the pencils are rough with the little x's marking blacks.

Processing

Same shot in raw just starting to process. Usually I start with sharpening or cropping , white balance , exposure and contrast and go from there to more heavy lifting.

New picture being processed

This shot was taken at the Memorial for 9-11. Working on it in Aperture3 . This is the jpeg of it in the cinescene picture style that I shoot with all the time.

Testing

Just testing mobile .