The Photographer’s Dictionary - shipping in the US and Canada
Yep, my Photographer’s Dictionary is now available in North America!
Buy it online from Amazon Canada or Amazon USA!
A new LCD
I’ve just had the integral LCD on my computer replaced, and wow. It’s amazing how bright everything looks!
On the one hand, it’s kind of nice to see things looking so bright and clear. But on the other it’s a bit depressing how rapidly a fluorescent backlit LCD can fade with time. This one was just about a year old.
One of the promises of LED backlights is that they don’t fade the same way fluorescent tubes do. I don’t plan on upgrading this machine for a little while yet, so I don’t think I’ll be picking up a new screen, but when I do I definitely think I’d prefer an LCD with LED technology.
Behind the scenes
Congratulations to the United States of America for a remarkable and historic moment! Amazing stuff.
Interestingly David Katz of the Obama campaign has posted a series of apparently unscripted snapshots that were taken on election night. (with an EOS 5D, for you camera nerds out there) A fascinating insight into some of the dynamics going on, and the sort of thing that you normally only see published years down the road.
http://flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/sets/72157608716313371/
The Photographer’s Dictionary - shipping in the UK!
At long last, my new title for RotoVision press, The Photographer’s Dictionary, has hit - or will soon be hitting - the shelves of a bookshop near you! Quite literally, too. RotoVision did a great job of the book’s internal design, and it’s a delightfully substantial tome, if I say so myself.
The thing contains hundreds of useful photographic terms, thoroughly illustrated with photos and diagrams throughout. I think it turned out pretty well, and there really isn’t anything like it on the market.
Some people may be wondering how it differs from my online dictionary available here. Well, they’re very different works. The online dictionary contains about 1400 terms, with terse text-only descriptions. The book has no content in common, and has some 300+ terms and is illustrated. Each term in the book provides much more generous amounts of information, in a sort of mini-encyclopaedia style.
Anyway. The book is now available for sale from Amazon in the UK, and pre-order in Canada and the USA. I don’t yet know about availability in other markets; stay tuned!
Japan: camera heaven
So I’m in Japan, land of cameras. Not only is almost every major camera manufacturer based in this country, but the Japanese have a real passion for and understanding of photography.
It’s been a really relaxing experience, being able to walk around and not being paranoid about the possibility of security guards and police and so on freaking out over my camera, as if it were some sort of horrifying security threat. Such a change from the West, particularly the US, where this bizarre mythology of “big cameras = terrorists; camera phones = normal people” rules supreme.
Photokina 2008
So I’m back from Cologne, Germany. Photokina is the world’s biggest photo and imaging trade fair, held every two years in a giant set of cavernous convention halls in a sprawling complex on the banks of the Rhine. It’s definitely the biggest trade show I’ve attended, and was sort of wacky and fascinating at the same time.
I went to the show for some meetings related to an exciting new project, but naturally had to take a few snapshots while I was there. Here are a few notes about a few things that caught my interest. Click on the eyeball below for my illustrated report.
The new PhotoNotes.org look
It’s been a while since PhotoNotes.org has really been about notes per se. It started that way, but now it’s full of long articles, extensive database-backed dictionary entries, searchable lookup information on various products…
So I thought it’d be worth revisiting the “notes” side of things and introduce a blog structure to the front page. Hopefully this’ll also make the site more interesting to visit on a regular basis. So, welcome!
- NK Guy