So what I was up to?

So you might be wondering what I was up to, for the last 7 months. Well the most important thing is that I worked for 6 months at a national newspaper here in Romania, where I learned a tremendous amount of things, from camera equipment all the way to studio lighting (yes studio lighting in press, I shot had to shoot like 15-20 girls a month for an yearly Miss contest). But I recently quit to start my own business in graphic design and photography.

Speaking of graphic design, I have finally finished my personal website with portfolio for web and graphic design, and I will soon launch an website for my wedding photography entitled Nunta in Imagini (Wedding in Images) , and after that I will launch a portfolio for the rest of my photography .  Stay tuned for updates.

What’s next?

Well, I promise I will update this blog at least weekly with news from photography world, and more photography and photoshop tutorials and this time in video format for better understanding. This is a future feature, and I need to learn more about video compression and the best way to shoot a video tutorial.

Also you can find more info about it here: http://www.help-portrait.com

Help spread the word.

Canon UK is having a show on October 27th and 28th to show all the new stuff.

And here’s the press release:

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., July 22, 2009 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, announced today the development of Hybrid Image Stabilizer (IS), the world’s first* optical image stabilization technology that compensates for both angle camera shake and shift camera shake. The technology will be featured in interchangeable single lens reflex (SLR) camera lens planned for commercial release before the end of 2009.

Several different preventative methods and corrective procedures have been introduced to compensate for errors caused by camera shake, which occurs when a camera moves while its shutter is open and its image sensor is exposed to light.

Canon began researching methods to compensate for camera shake in the 1980s, and in 1995 launched the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, the world’s first interchangeable SLR camera lens to feature a mechanism that compensates for optical camera shake. Since then, the company has continued to produce a variety of interchangeable lenses with image stabilization capabilities, and boasts a total of 21 such lenses in its current product lineup.

Canon’s newly developed Hybrid IS technology optimally compensates for angle and shift camera shake. Sudden changes in camera angle can significantly affect images taken during standard shooting, whereas shift-based shaking, which occurs when a camera moves parallel to the imaging scene, is more pronounced in macro photography and other close-range shooting.

The new Hybrid IS technology incorporates an angular velocity sensor that detects the extent of angle-based shaking and is found in all previous Canon optical image stabilizer mechanisms, as well as a new acceleration sensor that determines the amount of shift-based camera shake. Hybrid IS also employs a newly developed algorithm that synthesizes information from the two sensors to make optimal adjustments, thereby dramatically enhancing the effects of image stabilization during shooting, including macro shooting, which had proven difficult for conventional image stabilization technologies.

Canon is actively engaged in ongoing research and development of interchangeable SLR camera lenses incorporating Hybrid IS technology, and is aiming for the early commercialization and inclusion of the lenses in a wide range of products.

Canon Digital Learning Center
Online visitors and Web surfers are encouraged to browse the Canon Digital Learning Center and take advantage of the various educational resources that Canon has to offer for novices and advanced photographers alike. The Canon Digital Learning Center provides a schedule for a wide variety of Live Learning classes across the country with renowned photographers as well as online resources and tips. The site also features online tutorials for beginners and professionals to learn their way around a digital SLR camera and inkjet printer and unlock the full creative control of digital photography. To learn more about each program and register please visit: www.usa.canon.com/canonlivelearning

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2008†, with global revenues of US $45 billion, is listed as number seven in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies 2008 list, and is on the 2008 BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – - “all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future” – - Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company’s RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/RSS.

Chase Jarvis CURRENT: The Consequences of Creativity from Chase Jarvis on Vimeo.

Just a few days back I have found that the people from Avanquest improvised their web application: SendPhotos 2. What’s this? Well is a free photo sharing solution

So what’s so special about this application? Well the most important of all, it has certified support for more than 160 telephones, including iPhone and Blackberry, followed by other features as :

• complete revision of the Web client interface
• the acceptance of the iPhone
• the creation of a plug-in for iPhoto
• management of the leading social networks including Facebook, MySpace and Picasa.

The Avanquest SendPhotos photo-sharing web site, now available in the free public Beta 2 version, lets users to shares their photos with friends and family trough the web browser either from PC or Mac, with increased security, due to fact that the photos are completely private, hidden from search engines. Also they offer 1 GB of free space, meaning you can put as close as 1000 images close to a size of 1 mb per photograph, in which you can also store safely your precious photographs.

Bottom line: although this is excellent for people to store photos from their phone, I am not very impressed  for it to be an amazing photo-storing or even sharing solution. But I have to admit that I really like the design and functionality of the web site.

Also feel free to watch the presentation video:

So now that I have a Twitter account you can easily follow me at http://twitter.com/ConstantinC or you can easily click on the Twitter icon at the top of the blog near the RSS feed.

What you are going to gain to follow me on Twitter?  Well, I usually surf the net a lot, and I find a lot of cool things worth to share, and Twitter allows me to post and share a lot easier than writing an article on the blog. I also daily read more then 60-70 blogs  from witch more than half it’s about photography, so I can provide you with more information than this blog allows me.

Thank you.

That being said i would like to point out some very cool features:

• first and foremost it’s the improved high dynamic range that allows the camera to capture more details in darker area of a photograph
• another feature first seen in a DSLR camera, it’s the ability to produce a HDR image in camera from 3 different exposures.
• 77 metering sensors improves the ability of the camera to automatically set the correct exposure of the photograph
• ability to embed copyright information into the EXIF of all the photograph, feature seen only in pro DSLRs like Canon 1Ds Mark III or Nikon D3
• improved weather sealing on the body of magnesium/steel alloy with steel sub-structure
• ability to correct chromatic aberrations and lens distortions in camera.
• live view with contrast and face detection focusing
• improved vibration reduction with Sensor-shift system
• ability to scan the image sensor and exactly points out where you have dust on your sensor, and ability that can help a lot when manually cleaning your sensor
• video capture as the rest of the cameras from this generation
• dedicated RAW button that allows easy switching between RAW and JPG file formats without wasting time changing it in the menu settings
• allows you to custom change the name of the images
• another useful feature is the dedicated white balance sensor
  
• and last, but not least cool feature is, THE SIZE, having a very small size compared to Nikon or Canon.

Bottom line is that, they pulled out a cool camera, that I would love to have it in my equipment arsenal. These were only the features that appealed to me, but if you wish to read more about it’s specifications you can go to http://www.pentaximaging.com/slr/K-7/.

Also you can watch the introduction video:

First and foremost I want to apologize for my inactivity, it’s been 2 crazy months and I’m still not finished. I’ve been busy with the college and things, and also I have started to work part time, so my time is pretty limited.

Anyways, this couple of months were a lot of releases and news in the photographic world like:

• the release of the Canon 500D / Digital Rebel T1i DSLR camera
• the release of Nikon D5000 DSLR camera
• the release of Phase One P40+ camera system
• three new entry-level DSLR from Sony: A230, A330 and A380
• the release of Pentax K-7 DSLR camera

Although I wasn’t able to talk about these I promise that from now on I will struggle to be very prompt in talking about any news.

Also, I am planning to show some photo retouching techniques and maybe I will start a video podcast so you are able to understand much easier the steps of the future tutorials. I am also planning to integrate Twitter, so stay tuned for some changes in the interface.

Last but not least, I would like to proudly announce that I recently became a member of AAFR ( the translation: Association of the Romanian Artist Photographers ), hope I got right the translation. This is very important to me, because only best and most active photographers can take part . If you wish to see the photographs that helped me join AAFR, then you can go here.

Thank you for reading.