PhotoShelter Inc., an online destination where more than 30,000 professional and
amateur photographers find tools and opportunities for selling their work, today
announced that it will participate as a technology sponsor for the New York Photo
Awards, the official awards of the New York Photo Festival. Honoring talented
photographers from all over the world whose work breaks new ground visually, intellectually
and aesthetically, the New York Photo Awards is a celebration of outstanding achievements
in the world of contemporary photography. As part of PhotoShelter's sponsorship
of the event, the PhotoShelter Personal Archive will be used to store each photographer's
images, distribute galleries to jury members, support the process of filtering
and the ultimate selection of winning images. The Personal Archive is PhotoShelter's
solution that allows photographers to archive, organize, distribute and sell their
images online with powerful tools including slideshows, lightboxes, ecommerce
capabilities, and website customization.
The awards ceremony will take place on May 16, 2008, in the St. Ann's Theater
space in DUMBO, Brooklyn and will feature guest speakers and the presentation
of awards to sixteen category winners and thirty-two honorable mentions. The winners
will be selected by the New York Photo Festival jury, which includes PhotoShelter
Director of Photography Meagan Ziegler-Haynes among several distinguished photo
industry veterans. Winners will be publicly recognized before an audience of peers
and industry luminaries.
Founded by Daniel Power and Frank Evers, and a joint initiative of powerHouse
Books and VII Photo Agency, the New York Photo Festival will be the first international-level
photography festival based in the U.S. For the inaugural edition of this annual
event, to be held May 14 through18, 2008, a group of internationally respected
curators have been selected to deliver their personal vision of the newest and
most important trends in contemporary photography. These curators include Magnum
photographer Martin Parr, The New York Times Magazine picture editor Kathy Ryan,
Lesley A. Martin of the Aperture Foundation, and Tim Barber of tinyvices.com.
In addition to the curated pavilions, the Festival will offer visitors an extensive
range of activities that will generate dialogue and buzz among all the communities
of photo professionals, amateurs, students and aficionados of art and culture,
including seminars, portfolio reviews, slide shows, book signings, photographic
workshops, live performances and events and a gallery row. More info about the
event can be found at www.nyphotofestival.com.
...
Expanding on its popular portable storage offerings, WD (NYSE: WDC) introduced
its new My Passport Elite Portable USB Drives which are designed to make it easy
to securely carry thousands of songs, videos or photos. Weighing in at less than
5 ounces and available in capacities of 320 and 250 GB, the new My Passport Elite
drives are small enough to fit in a pocket.
Adding
to the small footprint, these drives are USB-bus powered, which eliminates the
need for an external power adapter.
Unique features of the new My Passport Elite Portable USB Drives include:
· Capacity gauge that enables users to know at-a-glance how much space is
available;
· Powerful automatic backup software lets users designate files and folders
for automatic and continuous backup;
· Synchronization software that lets users sync their changes and protect
their information with 128-bit encryption;
· Retrieve forgotten files from any MioNet-enabled PC (compatible with Windows®
only) and copy them to My Passport Elite with MioNet installed allowing users
to retrieve forgotten files from the road using the unique MioNet Key software;
· Available in four elegant, soft-touch colors: bronze, titanium, westminster
blue and cherry red;
· Industry-leading 5-year limited warranty; and,
· Plug-and-play capability with gaming consoles to make it easy to play
music and view photos and video files on a TV.
WD's My Passport Elite USB Drives are available now at select retail stores
and from WD's online store (www.shopwd.com).
MSRP for the My Passport Elite USB Drive with 250 GB capacity is $169.99 USD and
the My Passport Elite 320 GB is $199.99 USD.
Kingston Technology Company, Inc. announced it has posted answers to a new series
of questions submitted by professional and aspiring photographers on its Ask the
Icon interactive feature on the `Icons of Photography' microsite at www.kingston.com/iop.
"Kingston's `Icons of Photography' continues to generate
interest from photographers worldwide who have specific questions to ask of some
of the world's most-respected photographers," said Jaja Lin, Flash
memory marketing manager, Kingston. "Providing a platform for sharing thoughts
and ideas was the impetus for creating the `Icons of Photography'
program and we're pleased to see that consumers and pros alike are utilizing
this resource to forward their own careers and creative interests," added
Lin.
Questions submitted by photographers from Malaysia, Zimbabwe, Europe and the U.S.
were addressed by Kingston's Icons including Harry Benson, Colin Finlay,
Gerd Ludwig and Peter Read Miller. The Icons offered sage advice on topics including
shooting in extreme conditions, how a publication captures events from multiple
angles and finding work as a photographer.
"It is encouraging to see how many people who really want to learn more
about photography and take their work to the next level," said Peter Read
Miller, Sports Illustrated photographer who recently photographed the Super Bowl
and is preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics. "Consumers are looking at
their photography as a form of personal expression and that is always a good thing,"
Miller added.
In April, Kingston will publish the next round of Critique My Image. Visitors
are encouraged to submit any photographs they would like to have critiqued by
Kingston's Icons. Submissions can be made through www.Kingston.com/iop.
The latest member of the ZM lens family is the C Biogon T* 2,8/35 ZM. The "C"
in the title indicates another outstanding feature: rather unusual for a lens
of this performance class, its moderate speed of 1:2.8 permits an exceptionally
compact construction. The symmetrical Biogon construction with 7 lens elements
in 5 groups allows for practically distortion-free images.
Mamiya has announced two new high performance digital (Mamiya Sekor D Series)
lenses for the Mamiya 645AFD II and the newly announced 645AFD III camera systems.
Sekonic has announced the release of new Data Transfer Software for the L-758DR
exposure meter. The software is used to create and edit camera exposure profiles
and then transfer them to the L-758DR for extremely accurate control of exposure.
Along with the sensor's dynamic range, it records the unique variations of your
digital camera, such as the effects of shutter speed and aperture mechanisms
as well as the characteristics of the lens in use.
Direct Source Marketing, the U.S. distributor for medium and large format Horseman
and Rolleiflex professional cameras, has announced the MiniDigi AF 5.0, a three-inch
high, fully functional digital replica of the original and classic twin reflex
camera. In 2006, Rolleiflex introduced the original MiniDigi, which looked like
the original but, due to popular demand quickly sold out. The new MiniDigi AF
(auto focus) 5.0 has been given some significant performance upgrades, including
a 3 megapixel CMOS sensor; auto focus (between 10CM and infinity); and a clear
1.1 inch TFT, which is located at the top of the camera as it is on the full-sized
Rolleiflex TLR.
It
is available through specialty retailers. Pricing is expected to be $399 MSRP.
...
The following was posted recently on the Adobe blog page site:
The Lightroom 1.4 update for Mac and Windows has been temporarily removed from
the Adobe.com web site. Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4
should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1.(Mac, Win) until a further
update can be provided. For those not in immediate need of the updated camera
support available in Camera Raw 4.4 or the DNG 4.4 Converter, it's recommended
that you also continue working with the 4.3.1 versions. (Mac, Win) This decision
is based on the following errors that have been discovered with the recent update:
EXIF Time Stamp Error: There is an error in the EXIF time stamp
update technology that causes Lightroom to believe that the files are out of
sync with the correct time stamp as displayed in Lightroom. Any ensuing metadata
update will attempt to incorrectly modify the EXIF time stamp in the original
raw file itself. This is the only metadata field that Lightroom will write to
an original proprietary raw file. This error will not impact the integrity of
your image data. The Camera Raw plug-in also will incorrectly change the EXIF
time stamp in files converted by the plug-in. The information written to the
XMP sidecar files or XMP metadata in the converted files will remain correct.
DNG Conversion Error(Windows Only): With the latest version
of the Lightroom 1.4 and Camera Raw 4.4 applications, Adobe has included technology
to verify that the image data in a DNG file is unchanged from when it was originally
converted to DNG. Unfortunately, when converting to DNG using Lightroom 1.4
on Windows, the application will write an incorrect verification tag to describe
the image data. When Lightroom attempts to work with those files in the Develop
module, the application reads that incorrect tag, believes that there is something
wrong with the raw data and will present an error. Rest assured, there is nothing
wrong with the integrity of your image data or metadata. For those that have
already converted their files to DNG using Lightroom 1.4(Windows only) we recommend
using the DNG 4.3.1 converter to convert the DNG files you've created
with Lightroom 1.4.
Olympus Conversion Error: There is an error in converting Olympus
JPEG files to other formats in Lightroom 1.4 and the Camera Raw 4.4 plug-in.
To uninstall Lightroom 1.4 please see the instructions per your platform: Mac:
Delete the Lightroom application in the Application folder(Mac) and Delete the
following file: Library/Receipts/Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.pkg Windows: Choose
the Uninstall Lightroom 1.4 menu item from the Windows start menu. The Add/Remove
Program utility on Windows will also achieve the same result.
A funny thing happened to me while I was shooting and reviewing the new Sigma DP1 compact camera in New Mexico. I had taken a lunch break in a local taqueria and in came a couple that sat down at the next table. Next to the guy's backpack and hat he set down the Sigma DP1. I did a double take, and asked him how he liked it. "Great," he said, "the picture...