The 20th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Mike Hulsebus.

“Not far from a district of large, fancy historic homes in Grand Rapids, Michigan a neighborhood is undergoing what is often called “urban revitalization”—in other words, it’s being torn down in favor of a new subdivision with a ritzier sounding name (MidTowne Village in this case). Most residents have already left their homes. In their absence, the neighborhood falls into further disrepair. One Habitat for Humanity home was gutted by Habitat workers for materials and now is little more than a wood frame filled with old insulation. Nearby, owners of another house couldn’t bear to sell what they saw as a piece of their heritage and instead decided to burn down their home.”

Website: www.mikehulsebus.com

Website: Portfolios: Mike Hulsebus

In line with the idea that “a picture is worth a thousand words”, visitors to the A Picture’s Worth website are invited to share the memories, emotions or creative stories triggered by a photograph of personal significance in the form of a photo-essay. A Picture’s Worth has been running since August 2003 and is about to celebrate its 1st birthday. Founder David Chin explains:

“In a few days time, “A Picture’s Worth” will celebrate its first year of “show and tell”!

Since 1 August 2003, “A Picture’s Worth” has been showcasing daily the works by visitors who have sent in their special photographs with an accompanying story to explain the photograph’s significance.

Since birthdays aren’t meant to be celebrated alone, I would like to invite you to join in the first birthday celebrations! I have attached to this e-mail an invitation (in .jpg format) which you are encouraged to share. The invitation outlines that one of the birthday presents to the site can come in the form of a submission. A submission would certainly kick start the site’s second year.

However, I can understand if you do not have the time or are not interested in writing about a photograph. If you are still keen to celebrate, there are certainly other ways to support the site into its second year. For example, you can donate funds to help with running costs or by spreading the word (such as forwarding on the attached invitation) to help the site reach a wider audience. Such help would be significant as most of the contributors have come as a result of learning about “A Picture’s Worth” through word of mouth.

It is undoubtedly the work contributed by visitors that has been responsible for the site receiving “site of the day” awards from Yahoo!, LockerGnome and Coolstop. More importantly, “A Picture’s Worth” has become a haven for people to “show and tell” and where visitors can learn the story behind personal photographs. The site remains a non-commercial project and into its second year my work on “A Picture’s Worth” will continue to aim to provide a valuable contribution to the internet community.”

Website: A Picture’s Worth

The second and final installment of the Royal Horse Guards photos.

You can click on each image to view a larger / better quality version over on my personal website, markgoldstein.co.uk

The techmology website bios have reviewed FotoStation Pro, asoftware application that has been designed for people who work professionally with digital assets. It puts you in command whether you work alone or in a large organization and whether you have just started building your archive or need a fast, powerful solution to organize your existing one. FotoStation Pro offers powerful group collaboration tools and adapts perfectly to even the most complex workflow requirements.

“FotoStation Pro is an overkill for those who simply want to manage their holiday snaps. If this sounds like you, you’d be much better off using a low-cost application such as ACD System’s excellent ACDSee (?26.72 ex. VAT). Business users managing masses of images will appreciate the way FotoStation Pro lets you search media files, write IPTC text (Photoshop compatible), acquire new multimedia files from different sources, as well as enhance and colour correct images.”

Website: bios - FotoStation Pro Review

The technology website bios have reviewed the EPSON Stylus CX6600, which is a new All-in-One designed to improve the quality and cost efficiency of home and small office printing.  It combines high-speed inkjet printing, scanning and photocopying with the flexibility of a memory card reader and the quality of EPSON DURABrite inks.

“We were really surprised by the Stylus CX6600’s exceptional print quality on a variety on media. The printer’s 4-colour printing system (up to 5760dpi optimised) uses variable-size ink droplets as small as 3pl to create detailed images with little visible evidence of dithering or banding - even using the software’s default settings. Text quality on regular paper was tight and controlled with little evidence of bleeding and areas of solid black appeared rich and convincing, a feature rarely seen with all-in-one devices. Photo reproduction was also above par on regular paper, although dithering and banding was more obvious.”

Website: bios - EPSON Stylus CX6600 Review

About.com have reviewed the Fuji FinePix S7000 Zoom, which is an updated version of the very popular 3 megapixel FinePix S602 Pro Zoom and features a brand new 6 megapixel 4th Generation Super CCD HR sensor.

“I am thoroughly impressed with the image quality this digital camera produces. The 6 megapixel images are some of the sharpest I have seen in a compact camera. According to the literature, this digital camera produces 12 megapixel recorded images, though it has a 6 effective megapixel CCD, due to the design of the CCD.”

Website: About.com - Fuji FinePix S7000 Zoom Review

Website: Read my Fuji FinePix S7000 Zoom Review

I was checking back through the relatively few photos that I’ve taken recently and discovered these shots of the Royal Horse Guards, complete with the Queen and Prince Phillip, taken last month. I’m not quite sure why I didn’t post them at the time, but here they are anyway, with more to follow tomorrow.

You can click on each image to view a larger / better quality version over on my personal website, markgoldstein.co.uk

Bob Atkins has published a comprehensive test of teleconvertors, which are are optical devices which when attached to the rear of a lens increase the effective focal length. Are they a relatively cheap and effective way of adding focal length? Bob has the answer.

“So how well do they work. Well here are a series of test images that might give you some idea. I used a Tamron 1.4x TC with three different lenses/. First a Canon EF75-300/4-5.6IS, representative of a consumer grade telephoto zoom, second a Canon EF28-135IS, representative of a reasonably good consumer grade mid-range zoom, third a Canon EF300/4L, representative of an excellent “L” series prime lens and fourth, a Canon EF50/1.8 representative of an inexpensive consumer grade prime lens.”

Website: Bob Atkins - Teleconverters - Are they useful?

The latest issue of the monthly online photo magazine, Vivid Light Photography, has just been published. It’s packed to the rafters with some great articles - here are my highlights, in no particular order:

- Street Shooting Tips
“For many of us, street shooting is something we only do when we’re traveling. For others it’s our prime form of photography. Those candid shots of people in an exotic local can make your images of buildings and places come alive. It helps put a place into context and brings it alive - both for the people viewing your images and indeed for you when you go back and look through those images later.”

- What Really Matters?
“To get so wrapped up in the technology, or so wrapped up in tradition is to lose sight of the real reason we do what we do. Technology is great for those who enjoy it, as is tradition to the person who appreciates it. Trust me here when I tell you, I still have to focus my digital camera, compose my image, select the right focal length and figure out the exposure just like I do with my film camera. I still use a tripod and a cable release too. I use the technology that I have but I don’t allow the technology to come between me and my subject.”

- Le Flaneur de la Photograhpie ? Paris
“I love Paris. It is my favorite city in the world. I have been visiting Paris for business and pleasure for over twenty years and now that I live in France I go even more often. I have burned many rolls of film in what is probably the most photographed city on Earth. But I never tire of Paris and its marvels. Like all cities, Paris has its good and bad points; it also has its secrets and special photographic gems.

My purpose here is to share with other wandering photographers some of the locations and views I have discovered while photographing Paris over the years. I hope these will be especially useful to those of you who may be on tight schedules and must maximize your shooting time in “the City of Lights.”

I’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of this month’s issue.

Website: Vivid Light Photography - Issue #37

Steve’s Digicams have taken a break from reviewing digital cameras by taking a look at the Zenon MagneFlash 68Plus flash unit. This is a flat-panel electronic flash unit for use with digital or film cameras. It’s a self-contained, slave-activated flash unit with a 6 x 8 inch metal-backed optical panel that’s only 1/8th of an inch thick. The MagneFlash can also be triggered directly via wired connection from the camera’s PC sync port or flash hot shoe.

“I fell in love the MagneFlash 57 and only wished that it had greater range for portrait work. Apparently I was not the only one that wanted to see a BIGGER version of this incredibly versatile flash unit. The Zenon folks answered our request with the new MagneFlash 68 and its 6 x 8-inch illumination panel and three adjustable output light channels. Using two or more of these flashes it’s now possible to produce studio-quality diffused lighting for portrait work at five or more feet away from the subject. And believe me, they’re a lot easier to move around than big studio strobes and softbox frames.”

Website: Steve’s Digicams - Zenon MagneFlash 68Plus Review

LetsGoDigital Press Release 16/07/04

LetsGoDigital kicks of with a French edition and extra features

EMST, 16 July 2004: LetsGoDigital, the multilingual online magazine about digital imaging, is proud to announce a French edition of its website. French speaking readers and French natives are now able to get the latest news about what is happening in the world of digital imaging by clicking on http://www.letsgodigital.fr By reaching out to the French speaking audience LetsGoDigital considerably expands the effect on its publications. According to Dennis Hissink, editor of LetsGoDigital UK and Dutch edition: “By investing in a new French edition we are able to bring the daily news in an extra language beside the already existing editions of LetsGoDigital; English, Dutch and Spanish.”

Raphael Lessinger, editor of LetsGoDigital France: “By kicking of a French edition we will be able to reach a possible figure of millions of French speaking readers. For France it will be a welcome news source for those who want to know the latest of Digital Imaging.”

The 19th PhotographyBLOG Portfolio has been submitted by Mark Isenberg.

Simply, “Simple Digital Photography” best describes my photography. The following images were created with an inexpensive 2 megapixel Canon A40 Point and shoot camera. This simplicity allows one to concentrate on the images themselves, not the mechanics of the camera. I wanted to demonstrate that no matter what type of digital camera you own, you can create striking images.

I have been interested in photography for most of my life, having earned my living as a photographer in the early 1970’s. I have recently returned to photography for personal enjoyment, rather than a profession. My best advice is, “Don?t be intimidated if you own a basic camera. Just look around you, photographic opportunity is everywhere”.

Website: Portfolios: Mark Isenberg

I don’t often link to photo websites (maybe I should do this more often?), but Timecatcher.com caught my eye with its clean design and amazing landscape photography. Quite a humbling experience really…

“This site is dedicated to the beauty this planet has to offer. Most of the time we are unaware of these wonderful places or just too busy to stop for a moment and appreciate what’s been given to us so preciously. Photography has the power to bring all those incredible images right into our home and has given us the drive to create this project.

What better way to experience our wonderful world than to bring together a team of passionate photographers from around the world (Patrick Di Fruscia, Adam Burton, Kenneth Kwan, Francis Cailles, Ian Cameron, Richard Nicholls) that day after day, constantly strive to capture that magical moment. Hopefully, this site will help you experience the true beauty that lies not only in far away places but also in your own neighbourhood. So, sit back, immerse yourself and get ready to start on this wonderful worldwide journey.”

Website: Timecatcher.com

The Hungarian website Index Digicam have just reviewed the waterproof housing kit for the stylish 5 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T1 digital camera.

Website: Index Digicam - Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T1 Waterproof Housing Review

Dphoto.us have just reviewed ImageAlign, a software tool that can correct both camera tilt and lens curvature distortions in a single pass. In just a few seconds ImageAlign can restore all the natural perspective to any scanned or digital image! The result is just what the human eye perceives, uncontaminated by the camera angle or focal length.

“ImageAlign is a digital chiropractor for your images. Fisheye shooters and wide angle photographers will find this product a “must have”. It is quick to process, easy to operate, renders quality output and is relatively inexpensive for what it does. When opened in Photoshop, you are presented with a console that displays your original image and a set of sliders that control barrel correction, pincushion correction, rotation, vertical perspective, horizontal perspective, vertical skew, horizontal skew and rescaling. There are also provisions for zooming, before and after, grid enabling and a button for a larger preview. All adjustments are rendered in real time with no requirement for lens specific modules. This is a very nifty product with a simple and effective interface.”

Website: Dphoto.us - ImageAlign Review

Website: ImageAlign

CNET have just reviewed the new 3.2 megapixel Canon PowerShot A75.

“If you want to smoke the competition by going from 0 to 11 frames in less than 6 seconds, you’ll be delighted by the high-speed burst mode of this replacement for the popular PowerShot A70. Canon kept all the good stuff intact, including the 3X optical zoom, the versatile manual and automatic controls, and the above-average image quality, while providing a larger LCD, improved autofocus, significant ergonomic improvements, and handy scene presets for the most common shooting situations.”

Website: CNET - Canon PowerShot A75 Review

PictureCode Press Release 15/07/04

July 15, 2004—Noise Ninja 2.0 released for Mac OS X and Windows

Austin, Texas (June 15, 2004)—Noise Ninja 2.0, the latest generation of PictureCode’s popular Noise Ninja image noise removal software, was officially released today. Notably, the new version is available for both Macintosh OS X and Windows platforms.

With the release of Noise Ninja 2.0, the Macintosh community can, for the first time, utilize state-of-the-art noise reduction in an efficient, native application. This allows a large number of professional photographers and news organizations to fill a significant gap in the digital workflow. Moreover, Noise Ninja 2.0 has been optimized to exploit high-performance capabilities of the PowerPC architecture.

Windows users will enjoy a range of improvements over Noise Ninja 1. The list of enhancements includes a threefold improvement in filtering speed, simplified automatic profiling, multiprocessor support, and numerous user interface refinements.

Vicman Software Press Release 15/07/04

As everyone knows, JPEG (.jpg) image compression doesn’t save all the information in an image. It compresses images so consume only a small amount of disk space (e.g. compared with .bmp), but also damages them with a “blotchy look” and “JPEG artifacts”. Most graphics editors have JPEG as a default format. And almost all digital photo cameras save images in JPEG format.

Jpeg Enhancer is a simple and extremely powerful program that lets you restore the images damaged by low-quality JPEG compression.

It uses a unique technique that allows even novices easily, quickly and effectively to remove the so-called “JPEG artifacts” and the “blotchy look” from their images.

Shortcut Press Release 15/07/04

ARNHEM, Jul 15, 2004—Shortcut just put the finishing touch to a new version of their software product PhotoClean. Many improvements and additions are included with the new release.

Shortcut PhotoClean is an extensive tool specialized in photo repair and improvement. Any photo made with a digital camera has room for improvement. PhotoClean enables you to quickly and effectively remove shadows, noise, JPEG artifacts, red-eyes, and dead pixels, correct colors and exposure, repair skin, sharpen, and a lot more. Even photos from mobile phones (with built-in camera functionality) can be upgraded into very acceptable printouts with ease. Don’t let the low price mislead you, PhotoClean competes among the highest quality standards and is superbly fit for professionals.

The new version includes a completely redesigned interface and eight new reparation filters, while several existing filters have been improved. The update is - as always - free for registered users on both Macintosh and Windows platforms.

PhotoClean can be downloaded at http://www.trulyphotomagic.com/downloads/

Cerebrosoft Press Release 15/07/04

Cerebrosoft has released B*Gallery v. 2.2, a Windows, Linux, and Macintosh OS X application that makes it easy to create HTML image galleries that can be updated, extended, and shared. Unlike most thumbnail programs that create simple, static clickable galleries, B*Gallery makes it simple to add, update, customize, and connect image pages into meaningful online catalogs, sales presentations, reference works, and home photo albums.

B*Gallery is easy enough for beginners to use. It’s simple to organize thousands of photographs from digital cameras. You can create web pages and share your images with friends and family, without having to learn to program the web.

After organizing photos into albums, and combining albums into categories, you can drag and drop images across your entire collection. You can add captions to photos, and descriptions to album pages. It’s simple to create multiple categories, and to move pictures among categories. B*Gallery can automatically generate HTML for selected photo albums or for the entire gallery. The built-in FTP program lets you upload your images and HTML to your web site.