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Gmail has gotten a small redesign—minutely more blue, and live notification of updates to your emails. (That is, when you’re viewing a conversation and the recipient sends you another message, Gmail will notify you of that.) There’s a link to the old version on the top-right corner, if you prefer it.

Posted by Michael at 6:47 pm under Google
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Like many, I’m pretty good at taking something existing and changing it, tinkering, playing around, adding some touch to it.

Like many, I’m somewhat less skilled at creating something from scratch, without an existing idea.

In fact, that’s perfectly fine as far as photography goes. Photographers never start with nothing. There’s almost always some existing element, be it a visualization, a “found” scene, or even just a feeling. Photography is a subtractive art, like Michelangelo freeing the person from the marble.

Drawing and painting are additive arts. They involve starting fresh and adding to the canvas to create something totally new. Drawers and painters are creators; they can make something out of nothing. Some painters simply start with a feeling; others prefer to meticulously plan each detail beforehand.

Photography and painting require similar thought processes, but they require contrasting physical techniques.

Posted by Michael at 7:46 pm under concepts
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A prototype lens from Adobe lets you see the world from slightly different angles at once. It can project 19 different views in one shot, letting you change focus, angle, etc. without going back to retake the shot.

(French blog post; English video.)

Posted by Michael at 10:58 am under Adobe, Equipment, cool stuff
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Canon has released about a million products today, including the:

• Powershot G9. It’s a 12.1MP G7 with RAW, a 3″ screen, and some decorative changes. It also supports Canon’s ST-E2 wireless flash transmitter, a boon for strobists.
• Powershot A650 IS. It’s a 12MP A640 with a longer zoom and the solution to a nagging problem: Image Stabilization. The lack of IS has always been a disadvantage of the high-end A series, and Canon has made a smart move by addressing the issue in their new cameras. Style-wise, it seems to follow Canon’s SD1000, with an odd mixture of black and pewter.
• SD870 IS. It’s a small revamp of the SD800 IS, with a wider field of view than usually found on point-and-shoots.
• EOS 1Ds Mark III. It adds five megapixels to the 1Ds Mark II’s resolution (a grand total of 21MP, in fact), does 5FPS, and has nearly everything the 1D Mark III had.
• EOS 40D. Pretty similar to a 30D, with the usual improvements (3″ screen, Digic III, 6.5FPS…) and adds live view, interchangeable focus screens, and nine cross-type AF sensors.
• 18-55 IS and EF-S 55-250 IS! It’s amazing! Yes! Stabilization for the masses! Slow aperture and no USM, though. Also, the idea of EF-S telezooms is interesting, but not for me.

Overall, not a bad crop at all. Canon’s made some smart moves here.

I’d get a G9 if it had a flip-and-twist LCD like the A650. I’d get the A650 if it was the size of the SD870. I’d get the SD870 if it was as flexible as the A650. SLR-wise, I’d get a 40D with the 18-55 IS as a walkaround lens.

Posted by Michael at 6:44 pm under Canon, Equipment
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Writing much takes skill; writing little takes more skill.

Posted by Michael at 2:30 pm under Things I've Learned, short-n-sweet
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