April - Big Ben

This month's image was taken from the top of the London Eye on the South Bank of the Thames.

I used the G11 to take 3 shots 2 stops apart, and then combined them into a single HDR image using Photomatix.

I imported the image into Photoshop and applied a 'Green with envy' action to the grass areas, along with a 'Baby Blue' action to the sky.

Final adjustments where made in Aperture 3 using SimoneVitale's Clarity preset.

I then added a slight vignette (again in Aperture 3).

WWDC 2010 officially announced

WWDC 2010 officially announced: "

Filed under: WWDC

At long last, the wait is over. Apple has officially announced WWDC 2010. The 'center of the app universe' will take place from June 7th - 11th at Moscone West in sunny San Francisco, California.



This year's event has five major sessions and lab categories: Application Frameworks, Core OS, Developer Tools, Graphics and Media and finally Internet & Web.



Tickets are on sale now for US$1,500. Just remember, attendees must agree to the Registered Apple Developer Terms and Conditions as part of the conference ticket purchase process.



We'll see you in June!

TUAWWWDC 2010 officially announced originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Wave Templates

Google Wave's Quick, New Wave Templates Guide Your Wave Use:

As excited as some of us still are about Google Wave, Wave's biggest problem remains: 'What would I use it for?'

With the app's new wave templates, Google wants to guide you toward answers. More »

March - A new 'Venture'?!

Another really busy month...

I am still working on finishing off the albums and prints from February's back-to-back weddings, nearly done now.

I also spent a day at Focus on Imaging with Dave McLean at the start of the month - Coming home with a set of Elinchrom DLite i.t. Studio lights.

This month's image was taken during my initial set-up test shoot.

Clare and I had some shots done at 'Venture' a few years back - Nice shots, but stupidly expensive... So I thought I would see if I could replicate a similar look in our spare bedroom with the 2 light Elinchrom set-up.

This is a white paper roll background, 1 head camera left into a softbox (main light), 1 head camera right firing against the white bedroom wall to provide some shadow fill.

Bring in a willing model, D300 with 35 1.8, 1/125 @ f11 and voila!

Still lots to learn, but enjoying the practise (and saving a fortune too!)

February - Top of the World

I have been VERY lucky this month - Clare surprised me with the best birthday present I could possibly have hoped for... 3 days in NYC for the two of us.

I decided to travel fairly lightly (camera wise) - Taking just the D300 + 18-200vr, and the G9 as a walkabout for the evenings.

Our first morning was spent at the Empire State Building - We arrived there at 08:30, which turned out to be the right thing to do... It was deserted, and we also caught the sun rising;

This shot is a 3 stop, 3 shot, HDR image, taken with the D300 perched on a ledge (no tripod).

I decided on the HDR route, as I was shooting into the sun - I wanted the reflection in the water, but at also wanted to keep detail the foreground buildings.

I combined the three .NEF RAW files in Photomatix - and then output the resulting image into Photoshop.

I ran a 'Cool Blue' action on the image - Then applied and mask, to that it only effected the sky.

I then duplicated the image onto another layer, and selectively lightened the parts of the buildings that I wanted to pick out (the gold steeple for example).

It was a fair bit of work, but I think the results are worth it.

I have lots of other images to play with from the trip yet - Can't wait!