Olympus DSLR with "Live View"

I don't know how I feel about this, not without getting my hands on it and testing it out for myself. But apparently Olympus has a DSLR camera that has a "live view" function. Essentially, instead of looking through the viewfinder, you can use the LCD screen to compose your image. Yep, like a point-and-shoot.

My only real concern is, wouldn't it be hard to steady the camera when you're holding it far away enough for you to look at the LCD screen?

From the Olympus website

JPG: Siggito

I subscribe to the RSS feed for JPG Magazine. The site essentially promotes people uploading their photographs and then I receive a feed per photograph. The thing you need to know about me is that I'm a little compulsive about things being left "unread". But with this site, I can be bombarded with at least 300 images a day. Sometimes it's so overwhelming that I just have to throw my hands up in the air, say "the hell with it", and mark them all as "read" even though I haven't seen them yet. Sneaky, I know.

I'd say 90% of the photographs are cool just because they're on the site. But there are those rare gems that actually make me stop and take a second look as I'm very quickly scrolling down my Google Reader page. So let me share the really cool ones with you.

For today, here's a photograph by "Siggito":

Photo by Siggito

It's in Kyoto, apparently. This means, I must stop by this city when I go to Japan next week. I love the color balance and the composition makes you want to see where the road leads. The photo really pulls you in. Beautiful!

365 Portraits

Photographer Bill Wadman set out to take 365 portraits - one per day, and all different people. The sheer scope of this project is at once so overwhelming and incredible as well. And considering the quality of his photographs, I'm often left speechless by how beautiful people can be, even when they're drenched head-to-toe. One of my faves:

Photo by Bill Wadman

Click here to start viewing the portraits from the very beginning (March 01, 2007). Warning: this may reduce any productivity to nil as you get caught up in the lives of these people based on the one photograph provided and the one-liner that indicates name, locale, and "occupation", as well as viewer comments. You have been warned!

Randomly Published

One of the things on my previous "30 Before 30" list was to get published offline. Randomly enough, one of my "projects" was selected to be published in the Learning to Love You More book recently published. Allow me to elaborate:

1. At some point circa 2005, I stumbled upon the site Learning to Love You More. The site provides prompts for people to participate in projects and then share the results of the projects in the community. Pretty cool!
2. I decided that as one of my 30B30 things, I have to complete a L2LYM project. Which I did.
3. I picked a really easy one (take a flash photo under your bed).
   
4. Months later they contacted me to get my permission to use my photo in the book. And I let them.
5. Months after that, I receive a hard copy of the book in the mail:

The way I approached the project, in retrospect, seems really thoughtless. Had I known they were going to publish a book, I would have made a much more concerted effort to make Chip look much, much cooler. Oh well. C'est la vie.

At least he now gets to live on forever in someone's vanity project.

Introductions & 30

I'm using this blog to proactively share my photography as well as write on all things related to photography. BTW - if you randomly landed on this site, you might want to consider checking out my photography website as well.

As a way of introducing myself, I guess, I've decided to share the cleaned-up and revised version of my "30 Before 30" list. The list was spurred on by friends about a year ago. I had another list before, of which I was able to accomplish about seven things already (e.g. skydiving, eat at Benihana's, get published offline). But I think this list better encompasses what I feel are important things in my life right now. For example, on the previous list I had that I wanted to learn French. I still would like to "par-lay fran-say a pew," but I'd rather go to a photography workshop instead now. (Not like those things are mutually exclusive.) Regardless, wish me luck in my endeavors! And without further ado, I present, my list:

1. Read one book every two months
2. Keep blog updated at least once a week
3. Take one “strangers holding hands” picture per month
4. Work out once a week
5. Volunteer 100 hours
6. Learn a foreign language
   
7. Send out four postcards a month
8. Tour a movie set, sound stage, or be part of a studio audience
9. Travel to Japan
10. Travel to Hawaii
11. Travel to Canada
12. Travel to Philadelphia
13. Travel to Chicago
14. Travel to Denver
15. Travel to Washington DC
16. See the US Open in Queens, NY
17. Travel to Eastern seaboard
18. Visit Eastern Europe
19. Travel to Caribbean
20. Travel to Australia / NZ
21. Write my screenplay
22. Foster a dog
23. Sit down and review all financial documents, organize tax forms, and clean it all up (close any open accounts that are unused)
24. Write my will
25. Sell and/or give away things I don’t need
26. Make a comprehensive list of family and friends birthdays
27. Attend a photography workshop
28. Design and print an album
29. Design custom products (e.g., save the date cards, holiday cards, etc.)
30. Book destination weddings