TRAVEL
I am on the road. Photos are
here.
Canon 20D
It was rumored, now it's official. The new Canon 20D looks like an impressive successor to the 10D. The sensor is 8 megapixels. It still has the same 1.6x field of view crop as the 10D. I was hoping for a bigger sensor so my wide angle lenses would give me a wider field of view than on the 10D.
Start up time is much faster, it shoots at a maximum of 5 frames per second vesus 3 fps on the 10D, and it has a bigger buffer.
DP Review has an excellent 11 page preview
here.
COMPUTER MOUSE
When you refer to your computer mouse, you probably aren't thinking about a living, four-legged, furry critter. My son went to do some work on his computer one evening and found a very young and small mouse happily sprawled out and warming itself on a power block plugged into a power strip. My son and daughter-in-law decided the mouse was too young and cute to kill, so they captured it and turned it loose at the back of their yard. He went back to work at the computer.
Early the next morning, he again headed downstairs to the computer and there was the same mouse, back in the house and warming itself again on the same power block. (Notice the ignored mouse trap, baited with peanut butter.) Once again, the persistent mouse was captured. This time it was taken for a car ride and turned loose at a city park.
And what happens in the unlikey event the mouse finds its way back again? It will be deemed worthy of a proper home and they will keep it.
SEQUEL - August 14A day after posting the above, I received the following photo and note from my brother-in-law.
"Ours wasn't so lucky."
PERSEID METEORS - AUGUST 11-12
The Perseid metor shower goes on all month, but peaks the evening of August 11-12. It is usually better after midnight. Look high in the northeastern skys about 45 degrees above the horizon.
To photograph the meteors, use 400 or 800 speed film, or set your digital camera to ISO 400 or 800. Use a medium to wide angle lens set to an aperture around f/2 or f/2.8. If you don't have a fast lens, set your lens to its widest aperture. Put the camera on a tripod, point it high in the sky above the northeastern horizon. Set focus on infinity. Lock the shutter open and take pictures between 10 and 15 minutes long. This works best with dark skys away from city lights. In the city, cut your exposures to 3-5 minutes.
With luck - luck being the operative word - you will catch a meteor on film or your imaging sensor.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson died Tuesday at the age of 95. He was one of the foremost photographers of the 20th century.
"The Family of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Foundation Henri Cartier-Bresson, the photographers and staff of Magnum Photos are sad to announce the death of Henri Cartier-Bresson the 3rd of August 2004 at 9.30 am, in his house in the department of Luberon. His funeral was held in the strictest of privacy. A commemoration will be held in honour of his memory at the beginning of September." - www.magnumphotos.com
(Hyères, France. 1932)
Henri Cartier-Bresson's remarkable eye captured wonderful moments in time which have often been dubbed "the decisive moment." One of the classic examples is a man running with his reflection captured in a pool of water.
(Paris, Behind the Gare Saint Lazare. 1932)
Cartier-Bresson's description of the moment: "There was a plank fence around some repairs behind the Gare Saint Lazare train station. I happened to be peeking through a gap in the fence with my camera at the moment the man jumped. The space between the planks was not entirely wide enough for my lens, which is the reason why the picture is cut off on the left."
(Madrid, Spain. 1933)
Some of his photos are icons of the photographic art. Cartier-Bresson was walking down the street and snapped a photo just as the man ahead of him turned and looked back. What is the man thinking? The photo is a classic.
(Allées du Prado, Marseilles. 1932)
Many of his photos evoke questions. Why is this girl running? The photo is so much the better for having the girl in it.
(Siphnos, Greece. 1961)
Many of my favorites involve just a one or two persons in a larger landscape.
(Salerno, Italy. 1933)
(Town of Briançon, France. 1951)
Some of his photos are a remarkable study in line, shape and form.
(Abruzze, Village of Aquila, Italy. 1951)
I have created a photographic restrospective of his work which you can view
here.
You can see a lot more of his wonderful photography in a multi-album retrospective at
Magnum, the picture agency he created back in the 1940s.
NPR has an article and a retrospective
here.
Henri CARTIER-BRESSON. USA. New York City. 1935.
Photo George HOYNINGEN-HUENE, D.R.
