Have a delicious Saturday / Vi auguro un delizioso sabato

One of my best shots / Yashicamat 124

This is my lovely wife, Marcy back in 1975 when she was pregnant with our first child, Josef. It was shot at the camera's and my limits. Hand held wide open at F  3.5 and at 1/15th of a second on Tri-X professional 220 that had an ASA 0f 320. It was developed with D-76 full strength and printed on Kodak Kodabromide paper in the M surface. I just love this shot.

Here we go again; another version of Photoshop

Photoshop CS6 Beta is Available Now

Adobe's latest edition of Photoshop is well on the way to being released and has now entered open beta, which means that anyone who wants to download a not-quite-complete version of the software can do so for free. You'll only get to use it for a limited time, but a sneak peek at the latest and greatest from Adobe - as well as some free access to a powerful photo editing tool - is a pretty good setup.

Big additions to the latest version of Photoshop include Content-Aware Patch and Content-Aware Move, both of which build on the Content-Aware Fill introduced in CS5. Adobe also boasts a brand new graphics engine that brings quicker "near-instant" results when using different editing tools and effects.
Go to ADOBE's site for the trial download.

Looks like a real beauty

PENTAX,  a very popular brand in the days of SLR's, is now once again a player in the major field of photography. The Pentax 645 is what is known as a medium format camera. This term is really misleading since in the digital age this should be known as large format. In view of the fact that there has been so much improvement in sensors and the old 24X36mm or old 35 mm format and it has now reached the 40 mega pixel range, the future of medium format digital is rather tenuous. Nevertheless, these cameras have a great appeal for studio use. So this beauty of a lens should please it's fans.

smc PENTAX-DA645 25mm F4AL [IF] SDM AW

Have a great weekend / Buona fine di settimana a tutti

A few more from the trip to the garden / Canon 5-D

Just a few more, patience. BTW, the lens used was the Sigma 50 mm f 2.8 macro. It's sort of liberating to use a fixed focal length lens. Try it. For many of you it's a novelty. This should brighten your Friday

A trip to the garden / Canon 5-D

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, of course; where I found this new small magnolia tree  whose flowers are of  the most unusual color, a wonderful red unlike any other magnolia I have ever seen. I just want to share this so it may brighten your Thursday.

A photo for a Wednesday / Una foto per un mercoledi'

One from Marcy / Canon G-9

  A great photo shot by my wife Marcy. She creates great shots using the G-9. But the camera doesn't take the photo, the photographer does. I am very proud of her abilities. I just hope that she used her camera more often. I just love this photo.

My pride and joy

This camellia plant in my backyard is my pride and joy, This year it bloomed more precociously than usual. I just love it. They aren't great photos but I just want to share them.

"BIG" storage news from Western Digital

My first PC came with a 40 MB hard drive that was huge at the time. We now have 2 tetra bytes portable hard drives that fit one's pocket.

WD^® SHIPS FIRST 2 TB PORTABLE HARD DRIVE WITH NEXT-GEN MY PASSPORT^®

World’s Top-Selling External Storage Solution Gets Capacity Boost, Premium New Design, Improved Signature Features of Security and Automatic Backup

IRVINE, Calif. – Mar. 20, 2012 – Western Digital^® (NYSE: WDC) today announced the next generation of its top-selling My Passport^® line of portable hard drives, offering consumers a  fresh new enclosure design and the first-ever 2 TB capacity in a portable drive. Now available in five popular colors: white, black, silver, blue, and red, with a range of capacities beginning from 500 GB, the new sleeker My Passport portable drives offer digital consumers an appealing array of storage options that reflect their personal style. Additionally, the new My Passport drives offer WD SmartWare™ automatic backup software and WD Security™ for password protection and hardware encryption.
With the addition of premium finishes, specially-engineered to make the outer shell more resistant to scratches and fingerprints, the new My Passport external drives feature ultra-fast USB 3.0 connectivity; USB 2.0 compatibility; continuous, automatic backup software; and password protection with hardware encryption. The included software offers the flexibility to customize the drive to a user’s storage preferences: installing all features, just the components needed, or using the drive without the software. The new 2 TB model offers massive capacity in an amazing pocket-sized enclosure, affording plenty of secure storage for all of one’s photos, video, music and other important files.
Given the small form factor and easy portability of My Passport drives, the built-in security features of password protection and hardware encryption help protect files from unauthorized use, making the drives safe data repositories for data while offering peace of mind to busy consumers on the go.
“More than money, jewelry and other valuables, the item most missed if ever lost or stolen is one’s computer – and everything on it – so our goal in launching the next-generation of the popular My Passport drives is to encourage more consumers to protect their data before something happens,” said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products and consumer electronics groups. “The new My Passport makes backing up and preserving one’s digital life easier, reliable and more secure than ever – it’s the perfect blend of monstrous capacity, reliability and user-friendly technology in a sleek form factor, now in five colors.”

Have a wonderful Tuesday / Buon martedi'

Another great kid. Canon 1-D III

This budding guitarist is also a participant of the Walter K Hoerning fund. His name is Nahiem Mathurin.

Capture One News

Capture one post production software is considered by many as the holy grail of raw converters. The new version has  a lower  price and this is great news.

Phase One Makes Superior Image Quality More Accessible

Go to Phase One's  updated website, from which you can now download 60-day trials of its Capture One software.

The company Launches New Web Site; Lowers Price of Capture One and Increases Its Trial Period to 60 days.

COPENHAGEN, March 17, 2012 — Phase One, the world’s leading pro photography equipment provider, today launched a new web site dedicated to the user experience of its customers and new visitors. The site’s greatly improved usability offers easier access to information and tools to help professionals and other discerning photographers achieve the highest image quality results.
As part of this new user-experience focus, Phase One has extended the trial period for its Capture One 6 raw converter and photo editing software from 30 to 60 days and reduced its price. This gives more people the opportunity to experience the distinctive image quality available only with Capture One -- including its renowned raw rendering engine that produces photographs with the feel of film, superior control, true skin tones and robust support for very large files.
Capture One comes in three versions. Capture One Pro supports virtually every professional DSLR and most popular camera models and includes powerful tools to enhance the capture and editing processes. Capture One Express features the same high quality processing engine as Capture One Pro, but is without some of the more advanced tools. Capture One DB ships with all Phase One medium format camera systems, including the powerful IQ180 systems.
Capture One Pro supports the Capture Pilot iPad app that allows an iOS device to remotely view, zoom, rate, tag, and pan high resolution images during a shoot. An available 'Camera Control' in-app purchase adds a virtual camera display to an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to remotely fire your camera and control the most important capture settings.

Availability and how much it costs

Capture One Pro is available for USD299 and EUR229; Capture One Express is now priced at USD99 and EUR69. The software is available for purchase at: http://www.phaseone.com/store. The software is available for download at: www.phaseone.com/downloads. More information is available at: http://www.phaseone.com/capture-one

Buon San Giuseppe / Happy Saint Joseph Day

The typical sfingi di San Giuseppe that are ideal for those afflicted with hypoglycemia.

Future dancer / Canon 1-D III

This is Matthew Woodcock, a student taking advantage of the enrichment programs provided by the Walter K Hoerning Fund. This organization provides funds for talented and worthy African American Boys.  The recipients must  keep high academic standards, Matthew has been with the program for many years and has settled on the dance as his area of interest. From what he shows. he is impressively talented and appears to have a  bright future has a  professional dancer.

Archival shot / Nikon 990

One of my first digital photos shot way back in September, 2000.

Happy Sunday / Buona domenica