Worldwide Photo Walk

The Worldwide Photo Walk is almost upon us! I really hope lots of people show up, even if they don't register. A couple of the other leaders are posting equipment and recommendations, so I figured I'd do something similar, here.

I will be taking a medium-sized photo bag with a short telezoom, a Lensbaby 3G, a flash, and my D100, with a spare card and batteries. For longer walks (think: day at the zoo), I typically only take the body and one telezoom lens to keep the weight down. But this is a short walk, so I don't mind lugging the extra pounds. I will also have a Slik monopod and micro ballhead for slower shutter speeds.

The local paper, the Los Alamos Monitor, was kind enough to do a special insert for me to support this walk. I'll scan in the article and post it here soon. Unfortunately, the article makes it a little difficult to actually get all the information you need without reading the whole thing. Still, they were kind enough to give me lots of room in the paper, so with any luck we'll see a good turnout.

Even though my chosen location is not as exciting as other cities', I think there's great potential for getting shooters to find a new way of looking at the world around them. This is one of my basic drivers for doing experimental photography - how to present the mundane in new ways. It's not just the challenge of the photographer to get a unique angle on something, but of the artist inside the photographer to get viewers to see something new in the subject. A picture of a coin may not be exciting, but a picture of a coin in a child's hand as they put it into a candy machine tells an entirely different story. Doing the same shot from the perspective of a smaller child watching big brother or big sister makes it even more complex still.

My real hope, then, is to get people who enjoy taking pictures to start to make pictures. What better way than to take them someplace familiar and let them watch how other people see their world.

Check back here in a couple of days - I plan to have a link up to the group flickr site for your enjoyment!

Nikon screws the pooch, fails to shower afterwards...

Nikon makes some really great equipment. But counter to the glow of their technical genius, the business people are giant black holes of intellect. The much-anticipated P6000 advanced compact camera (no, I will not give the link - they won't see a link from me on this issue) uses a new raw format called NRW. Proprietary raw formats are a BAD, BAD thing. People want to choose the best combination of software and hardware they can, and locking them into one path or another ought to drive them away. Of course, there are the iPod lemmings who have no problem with iTunes and iWhatever because they don't want to bother thinking or making choices.

I digress...

Now, combine a proprietary file format for digital images with a single-path solution for viewing and editing those pictures, and you have a RETARDED situation. Do some reading to understand my ire.

It's not bad enough they pick a douche like Ashton Kutcher as a spokesperson, and ran those lame-ass advertisements. Now they have to pull this shit and just drive away folks who want flexibility. I hope to god they do not try this crap with the dSLR lines.

I've been shooting Nikon for almost 20 years, and this is the first time I've considered dumping them altogether. Unfortunately, Canon doesn't seem to be any more intelligent in this regard. As long as Adobe comes out with a workable DNG converter, I'll be ok. Or I won't ever buy another Nikon. I'm already done with Micro$oft.

New Photoshop Hall of Fame Inductees

John Nack, senior product manager for Photoshop, and Martin Evening, photographer/instructor/author, will both be inducted into the NAPP's Photoshop Hall of Fame. More from Scott Kelby:

http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2008/archives/1773

I don't know Martin at all, and have only met John once in person (though I've known him for a couple of years via email). However, I am familiar with work from both of these gentlemen and am very happy for them. John especially has been instrumental in bringing Photoshop into a new frame of mind, and has pushed not only the capabilities of the application, but by proxy the capabilities of the communities who use Photoshop.

Photoshop users around the world have John and his team to thank for some very exciting changes in a very exciting piece of software.