Lightroom 3.4

A minor update, it seems, of Lightroom. As the Adobe website says it:

"The Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3.4 update includes these enhancements:

• Additional camera support for several new camera models including the Canon Rebel T3i, Nikon D5100 and Fuji FinePix X100
• Corrections for issues introduced in previous versions of Lightroom 3 "

While it's downloading, I thought some of my web-friend might like to know...

New spring, new lens

Treated myself to a new telezoom, a 2.8/70-200, especially because I wanted the large aperture. And boy, does it make a difference in the viewfinder! With such a clear view, you can use manual focus much better. However, this is also my first lens with HSM focusing and that is impressive too: smooth, silent and fast; so you don't really need manual focus.

But the main reason for wanting the 2.8 opening is that it reduces the depth-of-field so you can have very selective focus. Hope to make use of that in the coming days--and coming years!

The disadvantage of a big opening is that it is a big and heavy lens. Yet even here I was pleasantly surprised: the 1.3 kg have a very good handling, nice balance with the camera and you can use it very well 'shooting from the hand', without a monopod/tripod.

For the moment then, just a little example of what may be done with such a lens: a random insect on a random flower in a random place (the backyard of my house). The lens has a good bokeh, I think. I am pleased with this new toy!

Update on Lightroom: version 3.3

The Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3.3 update includes these enhancements:

• Additional camera support for several new camera models including the Canon PowerShot 95, Nikon D7000 and Olympus E-5
• Corrections for issues introduced in Lightroom 3.0

Autumn in the garden

Is it not strange that people--like me--want to take pictures the likes of which are everywhere? What is it in, for instance, simple autumn colours of a Japanese maple tree that attracts us, that makes us press the button and makes us want to share this with the Net community? Everyone (in the right climate zones) can see things like this, they do not need such a picture to get an autumn feeling, let alone to know that autumn has arrived.

At a photo workshop I once did, we had a discussion: is a photo an expression that the photographer wants to make, or is it a means to communicate a message to the viewer? I was the minority of one defending the communication theory. And here I go and show you a picture that is purely expressive of my feeling of beauty of autumn in a corner of my garden.

I'm all in favour of falsificationism (one counter-example may be enough to show that a theory is wrong), but I guess we need not reject the communication theory: it's different for different kinds of pictures. A press photographer in Afghanistan, in Sudan, or in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro has something to communicate in the first place. And I also guess that any photographer must keep in mind that even his/her expressive photos communicate something to the viewer--will it be the same feeling that the photographer had?

I'd welcome your reactions: is this a superfluous picture that has no communication value, or should I go on and put such pictures on the net, simply because I like them?

Visions of toxic industrial splendour - Image 7 - New Scientist

In a mixture of abhorrence and admiration I break the silence on my photo blog: How can anyone make such beautiful pictures out of utter ugliness? Polish paragliding photograher Kacper Kowalski has a series of photos showing how environmental disaster yet makes esthetic glory. Have a look at the gallery sported in the New Scientist!
Gallery - Visions of toxic industrial splendour - Image 7 - New Scientist