GX GARNERINGS

Hasselblad cameras are way beyond the confine of serious compact cameras. But good photos know no boundary. I tumbled into the Hasselblad Masters Award webpage and you may wish to check out the admirable images of the 2009 contesting photographers. The webpage writes that the Hasselblad Masters Award is the most prestigious awards in the industry, each year celebrating the best in both established and rising photographic talent. Masters Awards are given in recognition of a photographer’s contribution to the art of photography and are judged on overall photographic ability, encompassing creativity, composition, conceptual strength, and technical skill. Past Masters include both renowned artists of international standing as well as promising newcomers in a wide range of fields and disciplines. The complete 2009 entries can be viewed here . Winning entries of 2008 and earlier years are here . (Photos are screenshots from the webpage and copyrighted to the respective photographers)

We continue Wednesday's discussion of pattern and rhythm in photography with the abstract image for illustration.   ^ The final shot.  The rhythmic patterns of the secondary triangular structures in the background were attuned to the pyramid shape placed in the middle of the frame, hopefully forming a point of interest. Explanations to follow. Pattern and rhythm hold important positions in photographic composition. The souls of composition they are. Pattern is the regular repetition of elements, while rhythm is the sentimental kind of pattern. Despite the fundamental difference, both are made up of lines, shapes, the change in shadows and colours. Making use of the patterns, photographers can apply subjectivity to the composition to create a rhythm to accentuate a meaning, not least in an abstract image. More directly put, patterns can give rise to rhythm; and rhythm is the higher form of patterns. But all coins have two sides. If unduly employed, patterns can m

  Panasonic has issued the following message about the firmware for the camera available a few days ago: The download for the firmware update program to Ver.2.0 has been temporarily suspended, in order to make sure the reliability of the firmware, more specifically in case of the use of some newly added functions on Custom shooting mode. The download is expected to be available back again around the 20th Oct. < For the users who have already updated LX3 to Ver.2.0 > The camera which has been already updated to Ver.2.0, can be used without any problem after the reset of the camera by selecting the [RESET] in Setup menu. Please note that all settings except the clock setting will be reset to the initial settings. To keep the current settings, please make sure to write down the settings on a note in advance to reset the settings.

^A fishmonger did anatomy to the fish, just as a tester to a camera and me to the GDR III in writing. In September, a review of the GRD III was done.  I'm still wondering about the possibility of Ricoh producing the next camera with a APS-C size sensor.  If that is to be the case, the pricing is a point to be pondered on.  Judging from the prevailing options, such a camera should sit in a price range between the M4/3 system and the GRD III, which is not wide enough to maintain the appeal of the latter.  Could this be a reason why the price of GRD III in Hong Kong has seen a drop to the level of the GX200 at whose launch? The following are the links to the GRD III review: 1) Ground bReaking Deal for 3 (just an introductory post with a photo I like) 2) Hong KonG RhapsoDic Impression3 3) Quintessentially Hong Kong + GRD3 = ? 4) Get Raw Dng h3re 5) Go aRounD 3ongkok 6) Further Improving Ergonomics in GRD III 7) Tips on Lesser Noticed but Notable Functions of GR

Ricoh has issued firmware version 1.21 for GRD III, downloadable here , to fight the following bugs (update instructions here ): 1. With the combination of the following conditions, it will not properly appear the image in the position display window that is shown when you playback with enlarged. - [Auto Rotate] ON - Rotate the camera to the lengthwise direction - Playback the picture that was captured in the lengthwise direction and with [3:2] or [1:1] in the image size 2. Set the focus to [MF] (Manual focus) and turn the power off, and then turn the power on again, the focus distance will become infinity. 3. In Manual focus, if you enlarge the centre part of the image in the screen, the enlarged part may become black-out rarely. 4. With attaching the GW-2 (wide conversion lens), there may be rare occasions that information on the focus distance in Exif will not be recorded correctly (Correctly, which should be recorded as 21mm; 35 mm filmcameras equivalent). 5. I

  Photography is a two dimensional medium.  With creativity at play in the composition, however, an image can look vibrant in rhythm and motions. Photographers can train themselves to be observant about the lines, shapes, points and colour patches of similar quality in a scene. At the right shooting angle, these similar elements can accumulate into a rhythmic factor to guide the viewers' eyesight to the primary subject of the image. If done handsomely, the image in the limited space can succeed in revealing the idea only in the end, much as the effect of an ending climax in a movie which is however in the space of hours.   Here, an attempt is made to create a visual guidance in the photo by way of the seemingly reducing size of the masonry rocks.  Hopefully, this leads the viewers to focus on the homeless man who is the primary subject.  The busy street in the background serves to accentuate the sorrowful situation of the man and his companions not far away from him lying

The newest firmware version 2.0 for LX3 will be available for download in a day here .  The last one was version 1.3. Panasonic is very generous with this version with which new functions are added to the camera and some performance improved.  The description of the firmware is as follows: Improved auto white balance performance. Auto Focus speed-up. Recording function with an aspect ratio of 1:1 has been added. A white balance (WB) bracket function has been added. [HIGH DYNAMIC] has been added to scene mode. [LENS RESUME] has been added to the [SETUP] menu. [MENU RESUME] has been added to the [SETUP] menu. The exposure compensation and the auto bracket compensation can now be set up to ±3EV. Position of the guide line can now be set. It is now possible to display the highlights in playback mode. It is now possible to record the user’s name in the picture. Digital red-eye removal has been modified. Items saved in the custom set

^Coiled incense used inside a temple for the Northern King, a Chinese folk deity. Chinese temples make for a good destination on a leisure, educational and, all the more so, photographic trip. Apart from the effigies depicting the divine celebrities, incense is an intriguing photographic subject. As for all other photographic assignments, GX GARNERINGS suggests coming up with a theme before going on a photographic trip to the Chinese temple. Learning about the place before setting off also stands you in good stead; take for example, the incense so that you may have an idea about your unique perspective of photographing it. The Chinese word for incense is pronounced as Heung in Cantonese or Xiang in Putonghua. Heung literally means "aromatic stuff" and comes in various sizes and shapes. The use of incense was recorded as early as in biblical times. In the Paraonic Egypt, incense were made from gums and resins of aromatic trees were imported from the coasts of Arabia and

^The E-P1 on a Sigma 300-800mm f5.6.  On a 4/3 camera, this Sigma lens covers an equivalent field of view to 600 to 1600mm.  I have not done the arithmetic to figure out what it will be on a M4/3 E-P1 or GF-1.  If you have some legendary regular lenses from your film cameras, and provided that the right converter is available, should you invest in a full-frame DSLR or shift allegiance to an interchangeable-lens serious compact? The question lingers over my mind after I checked out the full-framed A850 last week. Deterioration of Optical Quality For some technical reason of the imaging sensor, full-frame DSLRs demand harder from regular lenses than the SLRs do.  The top-rate regular lenses perform less good optically on full-frame DSLRs than on SLRs.  No wonder that since the advent of the fuller-sized digital cameras, digital-specific lenses have been launched. Simply put, these full-frame DSLRs exaggerate the optical weaknesses of lenses in relation to sharpness, chromatic

But those are strings made of cotton, mark you, not spaghetti. Get something proper to eat. This is Sunday. Enjoy the day with your family. Kiss someone you love.