I spent about an hour yesterday calibrating my monitor (exciting or what!), so that I could more accurately judge the images that I will send to Peak Imaging to create prints for me. One of the first things that their calibration instructions tells you to do is change the Kelvin rating of your mointor from 9300K, which apparently is the usual factory default, to 6500K, which is the temperature of daylight. After following the instructions I decided to check a few sample images and noticed that they were rather “warm” in appearance (as you would expect with the temperature change).

Now I’m wondering whether or not most people are unaware of what their monitors are set to - if they’re all set to 9300K, then my online images will all look fine. They will look a little different on the 6500K setting though - not neccesarily worse, but definitely different.

I realise that I can’t control how people set up their monitors, but I can try and find out which is the most common temperature setting. So do you know what your monitor is set to? Drop me an email to let me know…

Tom Morris has let me know about a new photoblog that he’s just started called Photonymous. There are already some excellent images there so it’s definitely a site to add to your Favourites.

“You may be interested - I’ve just started up a weblog specifically to put photographs on. There isn’t much at the moment, but I’m hoping to add more pictures as I scan them (I’m all film!). The address is http://tom.bbcity.co.uk/photos”

A-Digital-Eye have posted an extensive set of sample photographs taken with the Nikon 5400 digital camera. They’re well worth a look if you’re interested in this top-of-the-range Nikon digicam and you want to see just what the camera is capable of.

Website: A-Digital-Eye

Pride Parade Supermen #1	Pride Parade Supermen #2	Pride Parade Supermen #3

Yesterday afternoon’s Pride Parade throught the heart of London was a vibrant and colourful event, with 30 floats and an estimated 35,000 people taking part. Amongst all those people, this group of Supermen caught everyone’s eye as they danced the whole length of the 2 hour parade.




Website: Pride Parade

Mike Johnston’s Sunday Morning Photographer column this week asks: Where the HECK is Digital B&W?!? You will be nodding your head in agreement if you consider yourself to be a black and white photographer.

“Another way this plays out these days is that the ?tyrannical? market wants color. Most clients prefer it, most consumers take it for granted. Thus, most digital cameras, and printers, and programs take color as a given.

So, okay. The only trouble with that is that a small minority of us happen to be black-and-white photographers. I came of age at the very tail end of the era in which B&W was considered the only ?serious? artistic medium. Worse, I prefer B&W. Virtually all my work is black-and-white, and, believe it or not, that?s by intention.”

Website: Sunday Morning Photographer

DCRP have reviewed Casio’s EXILIM EX-S3, a 3-megapixel digital camera that is less than 1/2 inch thick! If you’re looking for a camera that is the same size as a credit card, then look no further…

“The Exilim EX-S3 is a nice secondary camera that you can take anywhere. If this is your first camera, I’d probably skip it - the photo quality isn’t that great, and you’re really find yourself missing a zoom lens.”

Website: DCRP - Casio EXILIM EX-S3 Review

Canon have launched a new addition to their flatbed scanner range. The CanoScan LiDE 80 will be available from September 2003 for around ?139 inc VAT. Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

“Canon, leader in photographic and imaging technology, is pleased to announce the launch of the CanoScan LiDE 80, its new flagship film-capable scanner.  Canon has combined stunning design with three significant technology firsts: The world’s first film?capable Contact Image Sensor (CIS) scanner, world’s first 2400 x 4800 CIS scanner, and world’s first CIS scanner with FARE automatic film retouching technology.  Combining these technologies in a body measuring a mere 38mm in depth, the CanoScan LiDE 80 marks the beginning of a new era in scanning technology and further establishes Canon’s status as a clear market leader.”

Website: Canon UK

A new version of Cerious Software’s “ThumbsPlus” has just been released. If you haven’t heard of ThumbsPlus before then here’s a quick summary of what it is:

“ThumbsPlus is a highly customizable image database / thumbnails / graphics editor application that makes it easy to catalog, locate, maintain and modify all your graphics and multimedia files.”

I’ve not used this program before, but I’ve just installed the demo version to give it a try. I’ll let you know what I think in a few days.

Website: ThumbsPlus

The latest issue of Vivid Light Photography has now appeared online. The featured article this month is probably something that most of us won’t ever experience: “What Do You Say To A Naked Model?”! Other articles include an enthusiastic review of the new Fuji Astia 100F film, a look at digitally adding borders to your photos, and the excellently-written “Un-conceived Notions - Look Past the Expected”.

Website: Vivid Light Photography

It’s a quiet News day today (Fridays always are), so I’ve posted a new PhotographyBLOG article called “My First Photograph”, in which I share with you the image that first sparked my interest in photography.

“My First Photograph”
“I’m a relatively late-starter in the world of photography. I’m 28 years old and have only been interested in this wonderful hobby for about the last 2-3 years. So what made me become interested in photography?”

Now I want to know about you; what do you consider to be your first successful photograph, and how did you get interested in photography? After reading the article, I’d like you all to go and find the first image that you still fondly remember, scan it in, email it to me along with a brief story, and I’ll post them all on PhotographyBLOG.

Jason Sanford, who is the editor of storySouth, a US-based website that “showcases the best fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry that writers from the new south have to offer”, has let me know about their latest online photo exhibit. Called “Roadside Christianity”, the exhibit by photographer Joe York focuses on various Christian-themed images found along southern roads. This image is my personal favourite, just because of the idea that Jesus requires his own campaign head quarters… :-)

Website: storySouth - Current Issue

Casio have announced the QV-R40, a 4 megapixel digicam which has an amazing start-up time of one second and shutter-lag of 0.01 seconds - that’s a lot faster than my Canon 10D! DPReview is the only website at the moment that is reporting this story; they have the full press release and details of the camera here. There’s no word of a release date or price just yet, although the QV-R4 has an RRP of $499.

Website: Casio QV-R40 Press Release

Website: Casio QV-R40 Website

Imaging Resource posted a new review yesterday of the Sony Cybershot DSC-P32, a 3.2 megapixel pint and shoot digicam that sells for around $229.

“The DSC-P32 was pretty inconsistent exposure-wise, in some cases overexposing studio shots and in other cases significantly underexposing them. The amount of exposure variation was well outside what I’d consider normal, contributing to my poor rating of the camera overall.”

Website: Imaging Resource - Sony Cybershot DSC-P32 Review

Giraffes #7	Giraffes #8	Giraffes #9
Giraffes #10	Giraffes #11	Giraffes #12

Giraffes - 18 July, 9.30pm, Mile End Park


“A London premiere from international theatre ensemble Compagnie Off brings Giraffes to the heart of the East End. A night-time procession of life-sized giraffe puppets will cross Mile End Park, including the famous Green Bridge, accompanied by music and pyrotechnics.”




This is the second and final set of photographs from Compagnie’s “Giraffes” procession.




The Greenwich and Docklands International Festival culminates this coming weekend with Tattoo, “a surreal army of insects, elaborate costumes, giant mechanical structures and specially composed music”, and Raastay, “a series of incredible, large-scale pyrotechnic paintings, accompanied by a soundscape from Farzana Fiaz”.




Website: Greenwich and Docklands International Festival

The Fuji FinePix website is currently running a Macromedia Flash-based teaser on its website for a new digital camera, which will be officially announced on the 29th July (found via DPReview. The filename of the Flash movie is s5000.swf, which may be giving the game away about the actual name of the camera.

Imaging Resource were the first website to provide details about this new camera here. Apparently the new “will have a 3.1 megapixel SuperCCD HR CCD imager giving a final image size of just under 6 megapixel interpolated (2816 x 2120 pixels). It will have an electronic viewfinder, 10x optical zoom lens, 2.2x digital zoom, xD-Picture Card storage, power from 4 AA batteries, and will finally have the ability to shoot images in RAW mode.”

Imaging Resource have reported today that Fuji may be releasing two additional new cameras, the 53000 and 57000, details of which have been found on various Fuji websites.

Digital Secrets is a website that I’ve not come across before, but it seems to have been up and running for quite a while. They’ve just reviewed the Nikon 5400 digital camera (found via DCViews.

“The famed CP5000 Wide Angle Coolpix broke new ground for Nikon. Wide lens zoom cameras were rare when it came out and now the Coolpix 5400 brings a new idea to digital photography; a decent zoom range wide zoom camera. The 28 to 112 (35mm equivalent) zoom optic on the 5400 is sharp, capable and very decently wide.”

Website: Digital Secrets - Nikon 5400 Review

One story is dominating the headlines in the photography world today. Nikon have confirmed what many people already knew (as it was leaked on several websites last week) by announcing their new DSLR, the Nikon D2H, along with a bunch of new lenses and flashgun. Aimed at the professional sports and press photographer, the D2H body-only has a suggested RRP of ?2,800.

There are a number of websites that have posted extensive in-depth looks at the new camera. Ian over at DP-Now.com was one of the first to post the news and his preview is well worth checking out.

Website: DP-Now - Nikon D2H News

LetsGoDigital have had the opportunity to actually use the camera; they’ve posted an impressive presentation, although you will need to have the flash plug-in installed to view it.

Website: LetsGoDigital - Nikon D2H First Look

And as usual the ever-dependable DPReview have got the scoop, posting a 5-page preview of the camera.

Website: DPReview - Nikon D2H Preview

Giraffes #1	Giraffes #2	Giraffes #3
Giraffes #4	Giraffes #5	Giraffes #6

Giraffes - 18 July, 9.30pm, Mile End Park


“A London premiere from international theatre ensemble Compagnie Off brings Giraffes to the heart of the East End. A night-time procession of life-sized giraffe puppets will cross Mile End Park, including the famous Green Bridge, accompanied by music and pyrotechnics.”




Question: How do you successfully photograph a herd of human-powered Giraffes that move at jogging pace in the near-dark and are lit up by spotlights and the occasional flare? When the vast crowds of onlookers rule out the use of a tripod? And when I haven’t got round to buying an external flash and have to use the pop-up one instead?




Answer: After trying for about 2 hours, I still don’t really know, but it was fun trying…

Petteri’s Pontifications have posted an extensive user review of the Canon 200mm f/2.8 L lens in conjunction with the Canon 10D. There are plenty of sample images and Petteri also tries out the lens with a Tamron 1.4x convertor.

Website: Petteri’s Pontifications - Canon 200mm f/2.8 L Review

DCRP have taken a look at the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1, a 3 megapixel digital camera with 3x, f/2.8 optical lens made by none other than Leica. All for an RRP of $299.

“The LC33 has very good photo quality, a nice design, good performance, and above average movie and playback modes.”

Website: DCRP - Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1 Review