Photography, Tech News and Other Randomness

Today i added a new section to my blog, the photo gallery. I will put up photos that I take every now and them. The ones that are up right now I took this afternoon when I got home from work in the cemetery across the street. I believe that these are some of my best photographs to date and I like the mood that they created. 

In other news I am writing this post on my brand new MacBook Pro. I’m so happy that I finally have one, now I just need to get all the programs that I use on it like Lightroom 2 and maybe Photoshop CS4 when that comes out (if I can save enough money for it).

And in even better news I am back on the day shift at Timken. It has been so nice getting up to go to work at 7 am and get home at 3 pm. I will be once again be able to enjoy my life and get involved with the theater, I can start to look for a band to play with and take lot of photos. With all this new free time I hope to have more to write about so keep checking back to see what new in the world of me and my photography.

Yesterday I sent my Xbox off to Texas for repair. Almost 2 weeks ago lightning struck somewhere very close to the apartment, I was able to save the game I was playing and turn the system off but when I went back to it a few hours later after the storm had passed I got one red light and an error code. I searched MS site for the meaning of the code but I could not find it anywhere. I happened to stumble upon it on a Xbox users forum were the same thing happened to someone else. Lightning struck and the got error code E 76 and could find it on line. They called costumer service and was told it was a dead ethernet card. So I went online and filled out the repair request forms and waited for my empty box to arrive. For some reason the UPS driver didn’t think it was safe to leave an empty box at the back door of the apartment so I had to wait an extra day because on day to they left it. I got it all packed up and headed down to the local UPS store and set it on the counter and as the guy working there was walking up says to me, “Another Xbox?” How many are being sent out at my not very big towns UPS store that the guy would recognize the box the MS sends to people to mail there Xbox’s back in. 

So now I’m out an Xbox for 2-3 weeks and the sad part is Madden 09 is out shortly and I will have to wait a few weeks to get it. The only good thing about all of this is it isn’t costing me a single penny.      

After hearing rumors for the past few weeks Engadget at 12:15am is reporting that Nikon will be release the D700, I am writing this at 1:00am. It’s a 12.1 megapixel camera with Nikon’s new full-frames (FX) sensor. I would love to get my hands on one of these but with a price tag of $3000 thats something that I wont be getting anytime soon.

Nikon also will be releasing the SB-900 speed light in August, a PC-E Micro NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8 ED and a 85mm version as well. Just more stuff to get my NAS going.

(Update) Here are is were you can find the official press releases from Nikon.

D700

SB-900

Lenes

Well the long awaited Lightroom 2 came out the other day in beta for and I downloaded it today. From what I have seen so far in my very limited use of it I like what they have added. They have made it easier to search the meta data (which I need to get better at tagging and all that), added dual monitor support (I don’t think Katie’s going to let me get a second one), the ability to do some pixel editing like spot removal. They have added a brush tool. Made the print module more powerful as well as adding different templates to the web gallery module. Some other things that I have heard other people talking about is even better integration with Photoshop CS3. Lightroom has helped with my work flow so  much this past year I can’t wait to see what I will be able to do once all the bugs are fixed and the final 2.0 product ships in the fall.

Anyone can download a 30 day trial of the beta at Adobe Labs but if you own Lightroom already you can use the beta until the end of August 2008, or if you know someone that owns Lightroom they can invite you in and be able to use Lightroom for the entire beta period.

According to the Stock Photo Market and Creative Digital Photography Guide Nikon will be coming out with three new 1.4 prime lenses. All three are upgrades to the current models, a 35mm, 50mm, and an 85mm and rumor has it a 24mm as well. It looks like Nikon is expanding the line to accommodate the new line of Full-Frame cameras the current D3, a D300x and a 24 megapixleD3x that are due to come out later this year. Nikon it’s self doesn’t have anything on there site about this and the people at Stock Photo Market don’t have any links or sources but it sounds like it could be true. We will just have to wait and see

A MacBook Pro is what I would like to get for Christmas. I’ve wanted one for a couple of years now and just never had the money to spring for one, but the next couple of months I’m going to try and save up as much as I can (and hopefully get help from people buy things from Amazon through my store) to buy one by February of ‘08. Kate just got a MacBook the other day and it looks great and make me wont one even more. All I’m asking for is the 15″, 2gigs of Ram, and the 200 gig 7200rpm HD, maybe throw in a copy of CS3 and the Nikon D300 while we’re at it.

I’m now trying my 4th browser on this computer. I already have EI7 (that is only used for updates), Firefox 2, Safari 3 for Window (just trying it out, there are a lot of bugs), and now Flock 0.9.1.2. I’ve heard that Leo Laporte really likes flock so I thought I would give it a try. I really like how it looks and so far in the little time I’ve been using it I haven’t run into and problems.

I’m really excited, I just ordered a new lens for my camera, the Nikon Zoom Super Wide Angle AF 17-55 f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Autofocus Lens. I have heard so much about this lens and after saving up some money,previously using one before, reading a lot of reviews, and just general discussions with members of a photopgraphy forum I made the plunge and bought the lens. Now all I have to go is wait.

Nikon won the 2007 Camera Satisfaction in DSLR from J.D. Power and Associates. I think this is a big step for Nikon since it has seemed lately (until this and the release of the D3 & D300) that Nikon was falling further and further behind Canon. But in a survey conducted by J.D. Power Nikon users are the most satisfied with there DSLR followed by Sony, and a 3 way tie with Canon, Pentax, and Olympus. You can read the entire press release here.

Nikon has announced today that will be releasing the next generation of digital SLR’s in November. The D3 will replaced the D2xs in the high end pro level and the D300 will replace the D200 in the high end consumer level. Here’s a quick list of some of the features.

D3 body only price $4999 msrp

• 12.1 mega-pixel FX format (full frame) CMOS sensor
• 51 point AF system with 15 cross-type AF points
• 3.0 inch LCD
• Live View

D300 body only price $1799 msrp

• 12.3 mega-pixel DX format CMOS censor
• 3.0 inch LCD
• Live View
• ISO range 200-3200

You can learn more about these amazing cameras at Nikon Press Center page.

D3

D300