InFocus Fundraiser

Check Out Oleg Dou!

Talk about a guy who is out there! I really like his work but it seems that people either love it or hate it. Click here to check out the images.

Happy Birthday America!

When in the course of human events... thus begins one of our most cherished documents. I remember as a small child enjoying the 4th of July holiday with all of my cousins and other family members at my Uncle's home in rural Missouri. Towards the end of the day, before the fireworks, (yes fireworks were legal back then), my Uncle, seated at a picnic table in his enormous back yard, began reading the Declaration of Independence aloud with everyone gathered around. Everyone was quiet and respectful and at the end he smiled and said "Happy Birthday America"! Yesterday before going to my family's home for dinner and fireworks and celebration I took the time to read again this amazing document, I highly recommend it. Oh, and my favorite part, the last fourteen words. To read the Declaration of Independence click here.

Give Us Those Nice Bright Colors...

Give us the greens of summers... makes you think all the world's a sunny day, Oh yeah... I got a Nikon camera... I love to take a photograph... so Mama don't take my Kodachrome away! Well, Mama didn't but today Kodak announced the official "retirement" of Kodachrome film. While I do love digital... Kodachrome and Tri-X were and are to this day my favorite films. I first began shooting Kodachrome as a student in the photography program at Phoenix College in the fall of 1971, seems like yesterday. Yes, I'm aware that it was a black and white film with color added in processing, I don't care;
It's amazing color palette and longevity make it, at least in my mind, the greatest "color" film of all time. Farewell old friend, we will miss you.

Stumbled Upon This Article In Smashing Mag

Photo by Chan Chen
For 24 more beautiful examples of Macro Photography click here

Check Out Jeremey Cowart!

I really like this guy's work! To see more click here.

If It Wasn't So True It Wouldn't Be So Funny!

Honoring Fallen Warriors

"Today I fly the flag for those I knew well and those I did not know who fought and died so long ago and so far away." Memorial day is a tough day. For me it brings to mind memories of young men I served with who gave their life in service to their country. Time has done little to fade those memories and on this Memorial Day, like every other, I want to honor the warrior without honoring war and these quotes seems appropriate...

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. " John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"I hate war as only a soldier who lived it can, only as one who has seen it's brutality, it's futility, it's stupidity." Dwight David Eisenhower

Check Out George Fulton!

Copyright George Fulton

Beautifully crafted images by a photographer with a unique sense of humor.

DigitalRev Tests The Canon 5D Mark II - Check It Out!

A 21 meg pixel still camera that shoots HD video with decent sound? Sign me up! Check out the short film "Lumiere" but be sure to click on "watch in HD" so you can see what the camera is capable of even with YouTube compression.

Imaging USA Comes To Town!

Just in case you've been living in a cave for the last couple of months... Imaging USA and Professional Photographers of America are in Phoenix in a BIG way! Join fellow photographers at the big show January 11th - 13th. With 500,000 sq ft of trade show and a class for everyone this show is being billed as the largest in North America for 2009. Several companies with outstanding products will be at the trade show and we hope you'll visit their booths. They are:

Bay Photo - Booth 1146
Epson - Booth 1115
Nik Software - Booth 1540
Lensbaby - Booth 332

As always Visualville receives no compensation of any kind from any of these companies we just think their products rock! For more info on the big show click here.

Portraits of Tombstone Photoshop Seminar!

If you ever wanted to photograph Tombstone and do it right don't miss out on this opportunity!

The Friends of Arizona Highways has a great workshop coming up "Portraits of Tombstone" February 16th - 19th offers you a chance to work closely with two great instructors. Photographer, and former Arizona Highways Picture Editor, J. Peter Mortimer will help you find wonderful light to capture "period personalities" during prearranged and spontaneous portrait sessions.

You'll also have the opportunity to work in a casual classroom setting alongside one of the best print makers and Photoshop teachers in the Southwest, Steve Burger. I've known both of these talented men for many years and they get my highest recommendation.

A chance to capture great images in one of the West's most romantic destinations and leave with a great print! Photo workshops don't get any better than that! For more info or to sign up click here.

Looking For An After Christmas Deal On A Pocket Camera?

US1 Camera has the best price I've seen on one of the best pocket cameras currently available, the Canon G10. Call before ordering to make sure you're getting a new camera with a US warranty. To check out the order page click here. I nor Visualville have any connection to or receive any compensation from US1 Camera or Canon, I wish we did!

Nikon Kicks It Up With The D3X And The Beat Goes On!

Last week Nikon Inc. announced their latest entry into the ever expanding D-SLR format the D3X which features:

• 24.5 megapixels!
• 14 bit full rez files captured at up to 5 frames per second!
• Dual CF card slots!
  
• Virtually noiseless capture at 1600 ISO!
  

For more in depth info check out Imaginginfo.com by clicking here.

Texas Goes After 2 Online Camera Retailers!

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has charged two well known online camera retailers in an alleged "Bait & Switch" scheme. Broadway Photo and Starlight Camera & Video of Brooklyn, NY could face civil penalties of up to 20,000 per occurrence. To learn more click here.

Toshiba Kicks It Up A Notch!

Today Toshiba announced the launch of a 16GB microSDHC card. The largest capacity micro SDHC currently available. At the same time, the company extended its range of memory card solutions by adding ultra fast read/write 8GB and 16GB SDHC cards to its line-up. Mass production of the new SDHC cards will start in December, with production of the new microSDHC slated to start in January 2009 .

All of the new SDHC memory cards comply with the SD memory standard Ver. 2.00, and the two new SDHC cards announced today support class 6 ultra fast read/write speed --- a maximum write speed of 20MB per second, delivering high performance for continuous shooting of still images and recording video images. The new microSDHC can be used with an adapter that allows it to be used in SDHC slots.

No word yet on pricing. For more info click here.

Leica Kicks It Up A Couple of Notches!

"Leica Announces 37.5 Megapixel DSLR"! When I read the headline my first thought was "that's got to be a misprint they meant 17.5 or maybe, maybe 27.5, but 37.5 no way! Well, to quote Wayne of Wayne's World fame... WAY!

The S2's sensor is actually very large. Larger, in fact, than a standard 35mm frame, at 30 x 45 mm. That's 56% bigger. The S2 is essentially a medium format camera shoe-horned into a 35mm DSLR-sized body, and Leica is promoting this idea in its press releases.

The body contains a standard focal plane shutter, but the new lenses also have leaf shutters. allowing for very high flash sync speeds.

The CCD sensor is made by Kodak and the Maestro processing chip produces a very low amount of noise at very high ISOs. The body is acctually smaller than, a Nikon D3.

The price? What's the old saying if you have to ask.... $45,000 USD. For more info click here.

Sony Kicks It Up A Notch!

Available next month is Sony's full-frame 24 Megapixel Alpha DSL-A900. The camera's launch is no surprise as they showed the sensor and a model of the camera at PMA this January where the announcement was arguably the biggest of the show. The specs and features of the new A900 are definitely aimed at the pro market: 100% viewfinder coverage, 1/250th second flash sync, 5 frames-per-second capture rate, AF fine-tuning (AF Micro Adjustment) for up to 30 lenses, and the huge 6048 x 4032 pixel image size. The A900 has a magnesium alloy skeleton and weather sealing to protect it from the elements, and Sony’s SteadyShot built-in image stabilization that works with any Sony or Minolta Maxxum mount lens. The A900 is the first full frame DSLR to have sensor-level image stabilization.

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 will be available in November and should cost just under $3000. For more info click here.

Eight Exceptional People Remembered - A Repost

It's hard to believe that 911 was seven years ago. I want to share with you, once again, the story of eight of the 3000 people who perished that Tuesday; eight exceptional people, Joe Ferguson, (photo), Ann Judge (photo), James Debeuneure, Rodney Dickens, Sarah Clark, Asia Cottom, Hilda Taylor and Bernard Brown. This is their 911 story.

"Two staff members of the National Geographic Society, along with three Washington, D.C., teachers and three students they were traveling with, were among the victims of the terrorist attacks in the United States on Tuesday, officials of the Society announced on Wednesday.

Ann Judge, director of the Society's travel office, and Joe Ferguson, director of the Geography Education Outreach Program, were accompanying the three teacher-student pairs on an educational trip to California.

They were all killed along with the other passengers of American Airlines Flight 77 after it was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon at about 9:45 Tuesday morning.

Teacher James Debeuneure and student Rodney Dickens were representing Ketcham Elementary School; teacher Sarah Clark and student Asia Cottom were from Backus Middle School; and teacher Hilda Taylor and student Bernard Brown were from Leckie Elementary School. All the students were 11-year-old sixth graders.

They had been selected to participate in a program at the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary near Santa Barbara, California, as part of a Society-funded marine research project known as Sustainable Seas Expeditions."

"Through our educational outreach program, Ann and Joe were going to make geography and the environment come alive for these committed, talented teachers and their star students by putting them into the field with scientists and researchers," said John Fahey Jr., the Society's president and CEO.

"The D.C. School District has lost six extraordinary people, and we at the Society have lost two treasured colleagues," he added.

Today our thoughts and prayers are with all the victim's families, and this commitment we make to them, we will never forget.

Adobe Releases Lightroom 2.0

On Tuesday Adobe announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 software, with new enhancements such as dual-monitor support, radical advances in non-destructive localized image correction, and streamlined search capabilities. Lightroom 2.0 Adobe’s first application to support 64-bit for Mac OS X 10.5 Macintosh computers with Intel® processors and Microsoft® Windows® Vista® 64-bit operating systems, Lightroom 2 also provides improved memory performance for dealing with large scale images.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available now through the Adobe Store at www.adobe.com/store in English, French and German with the Japanese language version planned to be released at a future date. The estimated street price is USD$299 for new users with an upgrade price of USD$99 for registered users of qualifying Lightroom customers.