Four New SLRs - not much new about them

Last few weeks have seen some good action in SLR camera launch. Canon and Nikon have launched 2 SLRs each, one pro body and other semi-pro. But there is nothing really exciting or new about any of these cameras. How-ever, Nikon has managed to catch up by finally launching a full frame sensor in the new Nikon D3. Otherwise there isn't really anything exciting about any of these new launches. Links to press releases on dpreview:

* Nikon D300
* Nikon D3
* Canon 40D
* Canon 1Ds Mark III

Lack of anything very new and remarkable may be an indication of the fact that digital camera technology is not stabilizing. People who are planning to buy but have been postponing for a long time can now fearlessly buy without worrying about having to make an upgrade very soon. We have enough megapixels and good picture quality now, which were a major problem with digital technology a few years back. Further camera releases might only concentrate on making minor improvements and removing some annoyances like sensor dust.

Image: Waterfall

This waterfall was just a small trickle but coming down from a good height. It was windy and the water was swept away by the wind, creating these small droplets in the air. The time I reached there was also perfect - a little before midday - the water droplets were in the sun but the wall was in shade, providing a fine contrast between foreground and the background.



Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 100-400L at 400mm, 1/500sec, f/8.0, ISO 100

Earthshots Photo of the Day

Earthshots is a website that conducts a daily running photo of the day contest. It has some excellent contributors and the photos that make the cut everyday are worth seeing.

The homepage of the site says "Earth Shots is a Photo of the Day contest celebrating the beauty and diversity of our planet. Everyday we feature the best photograph submitted by our visitors." Anyone can enter the contest, and if you manage to get featured three times, you get to win a cash prize too.

Image: Hope

This image also won the weekly photo competition in a local flickr group. It took a long time and a lot of trial and error for me to arrive at this frame. I spent nearly 20 minutes and experimented with many compositions - as many 30 to 40 before finally framing this one, which was the last of the lot.



Exif: Canon EOS 350D, 17-40L at 23mm, f/6.3, 1/250sec, ISO 100, handheld

Imitating the best guys

One of the ways I have learned to grow my photography skills is to look at the images by well known photographers, read what they say and try to understand their ideas. It has often helped me in a few ways - to make compositions like them and to understand some theories(like the kind of lighting they look for) they use in their photography. I have often written about some such photographers here in my blog, but was not consciously aware that I was trying to imitate their compositions. I tend to enjoy reading articles by Galen Rowel and Darwin Wigget, who write things very useful to photographers. When it comes to imitating compositions, it is mostly Marc Adamus for me. It was very evident to me in my last vacation when a lot of my photographs were based on his composition ideas. Another photographer I have tried to imitate but failed miserably is Ganesh Shankar, an excellent photographer from my city. And then there is another class of photographers I admire - like Mitchell Kanashkevich and Steve McCurry whom I don't think I will ever be able to even imitate. Mitchell has also been kind to me by giving me plenty of feedbacks on my portrait images on travelphotographers.net