Our Royal Morning Tea

From Life.com and I quote:

"On Friday, April 29, 2011, England's Prince William and Catherine Middleton were married in front of their families, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and -- via TV and the Web -- more than a billion new, utterly thrilled friends.

It was the most-watched royal wedding in history, and here, as the couple embarks on a marriage that has captivated much of the globe, LIFE.com presents a look at the newlyweds' big day: the dress, the guests, the first kiss, the glamour, the rapturous crowds, the fashions, and everything else that helped make the event, well, something like a fairy tale."You don't have to be a royalist to appreciate good pictures! Go take a look!

Another great photo site for really good photo-journalistic shots is The Big Picture at Boston.com!

Stolen Camera Finder !!??

I came across this interesting site today!

This programmer by the name of Matt Burns has written a search engine that lets people find their stolen camera!!

Can that be done?

I learn that your digital photo's EXIF data actually have your camera's serial number embedded in it!

According to Wikipedia:

Exif was created by the Japan Electronic Industries Development Association (JEIDA). Version 2.1 of the specification is dated June 12, 1998, and the latest, version 2.3 dated April 2010, was jointly formulated by JEITA and CIPA.

Though the specification is not currently maintained by any industry or standards organization, its use by camera manufacturers is nearly universal.
The metadata tags defined in the Exif standard cover a broad spectrum:

• Date and time information. Digital cameras will record the current date and time and save this in the metadata.
• Camera settings. This includes static information such as the camera model and make, and information that varies with each image such as orientation (rotation), aperture, shutter speed, focal length, metering mode, and ISO speed information.
• A thumbnail for previewing the picture on the camera's LCD screen, in file managers, or in photo manipulation software.
• Descriptions and copyright information.

Correct ISO Setting

Recently I noticed many young, novice photographers like to set their ISO setting to "Auto"; when I asked why, they cannot give me an answer because to my horror, most of them do not know what ISO is about or for what purpose!

They, without realising that; the right ISO can make your photo and the wrong ISO can ruin it!

Before we go on, fast rewind 35 years to the good old days when I was using film to cover news jobs as a photojournalist.

That time, our standard shoot everything film was the Kodak Tri-X 135-36; which came in ASA 400.

Great Old Glass - Micro-NIKKOR 105/2.8

Nikon has created a great close-up lens in the Micro-Nikkor f/4.0 back in November, 1975, it took them 11 years later to introduced in April, 1984 this Micro-Nikkor lens which is a full stop faster and replaced the decade-old earlier Nikkor classic.

When I was working with the newspaper in the 70-90s, 105 mm lens was my favorite glass for portraits and candid.

Incredible, Cheapest 500 GB USB Drive from China!

A Russian blogger, santyaho91; has posted this amazing story in his blog! His post is in Russian though ;) With the help of Google Translate, I got this confusing result!

Instead of calling CIA to help, Google came to my rescue and I discovered a Alex Yumashev, the founder and lead developer at Jitbit Software has deciphered the story in his blog!

Composition 101 - FRAMING Your Shots

Last July, I mentioned that every photographers serious about their composition would understand the importance of "The Rule Of Thirds"; this week we will explore a composition technique through which you are able to create more interest and mood to your masterpiece!

I am talking about adding a frame around your subject, a frame which draws the viewer’s attention to the subject. By Using natural elements around you to create a picture frame of the subject is a great way of adding interest and making a photo stand out from the rest!

Framing objects can be found around your main subject, if you look; frames can be doorways, portals, arches, branches of trees, flowers as well as a lot of other things

New Fix for Hybrid HDD!

On February 17 I wrote about "A Hybrid HDD for my MacBook Pro", I was happy because now I have a 500 GB drive instead of only 160 GB of the OEM!

Now I am able to dedicate a 30 GB Scratch Partition just for Photoshop!

It was not all wine & roses though, after using my trusted MBP with the new innards for two days, I notice something "strange"; during a task, say; when I am running a Photoshop "action", without warning or reason, the action will just freeze for a second or so and then continue!

I also notice it is impossible to put the MBP to sleep when I wanted to!

It can't be my imagination, especially when a friend from Singapore post this link in Face Book!

It was a story from Engadget titled:

Momentus XT hybrid drive causing headaches, Seagate working to fix

Nikon D1 DSLR - Redux

In 1995, Nikon, the Johnny Come Lately in digital technology; realised that the future is digital and their rival, Kodak, is already trying to push their DSLR into the pro circle. Ironically, using their Nikon body!

But Nikon got their new secret weapon know as the E2! The camera was developed together with Fujifilm.

That same year I was doing my tour of duty in Singapore working for the Chinese Newspaper Division of the Singapore Press Holdings.

Nikon Singapore was keen to sell the E2 to the Singapore paper and they loan me a unit to play with for TWO days. I was impressed but the bosses think the ends do not justify the means and we did not commit.

Fast forward to 1998, I was back at The Star in Kuala Lumpur as their Picture Editor; Nikon came fishing again! This time round they show me their new weapon, the new D1!

My Nikon E-P2

In April 2010 I wrote about my Leica E-P2, one year on; I got myself a Nikon E-P2!

This is no April Fool joke! This was the camera I used to take those wedding pictures you saw on "The Incidental Wedding Photographer"!

By now you would have guess my Nikon E-P2 is really my Olympus E-P2 camera with Nikon lens attached ;) This is achieved with a special lens adapter ring that I ordered from CameraQuest; they stock the Voigtlander variety, they are NOT cheap but they are the best!

Just like the last time, I email Stephen at CameraQuest and in less than 6 days I received my Voigtlander M4/3 to Nikon F Adapter!

Thanks Stephen! Great service as usual!

I started using Nikon gear when I joined The Star newspaper in Penang, 1974; as their first Photo Editor. I was 25 year old :) Through the years I bought various Nikkor lenses to use in my work and I upgraded to newer one whenever I can afford it.