noinput.net | plug it in

Yesterday Me and Val spent the early morning with Jenny @ Red Loft Studios taking engagements.  Haha, talk about fun times. Jenny, you rock!!

Sexy Time

Check out a few from the shoot here: 
http://saycheese.redloftstudios.com/…morning-photo-shoot/

Recently I entered my Europe photos into Blurb’s Photo Book Now competition.  I’ll be at the awards ceremony in a few weekends up in the bay to check out all the other awesome books, but they have this people’s choice deal running now too.  If you’ve seen my shots and that book and liked it, I’d love for you to send a vote my way.

Anyone else submit a book for this competition?

I had really hoped I’d have the time to make one of my shots from China, but that’s not even close unfortunatley.  I’m hoping with some good luck to close a pretty big project I’m pitching for soon so i’ll have a little less web-worries and can focus on picking up the camera again.

Well, talk about a great start to the month, just saw the announcement of the new Canon 50D which looks mighty fine.  Here’s a quick lamens version of what’s new:

 

Canon’s newest entry into the fall season Olympics is the EOS 50D, which sports an impressive 15.1-megapixel APS-C format CMOS sensor that takes full advantage of Canon’s new DIGIC 4 image processor.

The EOS 50D can knock out up to 90 Large/Fine JPEGS or 16 RAW images at burst-rates of up to 6.3 f/p/s. If you often find yourself shooting under low-light conditions, the new camera can be set for ISO ratings up to 12800, which means you can not only photograph people standing in near darkness, you can also photograph what they’re thinking about. (Just joking folks… don’t get alarmed)

To keep noise under control and maintain optimum image quality at higher ISO ratings the EOS 50D allows you to choose from four levels of noise reduction – Standard, Weak, Strong, and None. The camera’s DIGIC 4 image processor also features in-camera peripheral illumination correction, which can automatically smooth-over uneven blue skies and other large areas within an image that can benefit from smoother tonality. This feature, along with other image enhancing tools such as Auto Lighting Optimizer can also be performed post-exposure using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DDP) software, which is included with every camera.

Image viewing has also been improved via a greatly enhanced 3″ LCD that employs 920,000 pixels for breathtaking clarity. Canon also tweaked the Live View function by incorporating a ‘Quick Mode AF’, ‘Live Mode AF’, and ‘Face Detection Live Mode AF’ that can detect up to 35 individual faces within the camera’s frame.

Other features of the Canon EOS 50D include an Integrated Cleaning System for preventing dust and other forms of airborne schmutz from gathering on the sensor’s low-pass filter and a choice of two smaller RAW formats (sRAW1 and sRAW2) in addition to the 50D’s standard RAW mode.

The Canon EOS 50D will be available in October as a body only, or in kit form with a Canon EF 28-135/3.5~5.6 IS USM zoom lens, which covers the field of view of a 44.8-216mm lens on a full-frame 35mm camera.

That’s some serious new features. I love the extended ISO range and all the sexy new additions they made.  A definate favorite is the integrated HDMI port on the camera, that just makes life so easy for geeks like me.

If you’re looking for an indepth review of this guy, DPreview already has one posted including sample images.  This one might just be a winner towards Christmas season, afterall another reason to get out there and shoot more never hurt anyone.

My good friend Anthony sent some shots over of a recent shoot he had.  The model Lindsay’s painting was inspired by a movie with the same name that has a very eclectic and strange feeling.

Semi NSFW Teaser

You can see more of his work at anthonywallace.com.  enjoy yourself.

Yesterday I spent the early evening driving to and walking around Signal Hill, CA.  It’s the vista point and neighbor to Long Beach where the views are awesome.  I gave myself three hours to try and capture the feeling and highlights of a few areas that I had driven by for so long but never taken the time to really look at.  Signal Hill is quite an interesting spot.  Oil derricks everywhere, an ancient cemetary from the 1800’s and abandoned warehouses & refineries all over.

Here are a few of my favorites, and you can view the whole set on Flickr.

No Trash

Pipe Dream with Thatches

Shadowplay

Caution

Vista Point

Love to hear your thoughts, and I’m looking forward to learning more about the history of this strange but beautiful city.

A really beautiful concept wonderfully executed, wonderland.  I don’t even need to explain it, it’s that great.

My dad just picked up a 1930 Ford Tudor Coupe that he’s going to fix-up and work on! We took it for a drive today, I can’t wait to help him work on it.

Congrats on the new addition to the family dad. Love ya!