Emerald Bay Photography News and Updates

Just recently, I've written about the Lensbaby. It's a little lens with a bellows for SLR (and dSLR) cameras that brings one area into sharp focus while creatively blurring the rest of the photograph.

Fresh off the Photography Blog RSS feed though, comes the announcement of Lensbaby 2.0.

Lensbabies Launches Lensbaby 2.0 for Brighter, Sharper, Faster Selective Focus Photography

March 21, 2005, Las Vegas, NV. Today at the WPPI trade show, Lensbabies launched Lensbaby 2.0, a second-generation selective focus SLR camera lens, bringing brighter, sharper, and faster selective focus photography to professional and avid amateur photographers.

"Lensbaby 2.0 has proven to be a wonderful creative tool for demanding photographic assignments. Compared to The Original Lensbaby, Lensbaby 2.0 has a greater range of aperture settings, a much sharper 'sweet spot' of focus, and a new levitating magnetic aperture system, which makes it a snap to change apertures," said Craig Strong, the inventor of the Lensbaby and Co-CEO of Lensbabies, LLC.

Lensbaby 2.0 and The Original Lensbaby bring one area of a photo into sharp focus, with that 'sweet spot' surrounded by graduated blur, glowing highlights, and subtle prismatic color distortions. Photographers can fluidly move the sharp area around the photo by bending the flexible lens tubing.

Lensbaby 2 features an f2.0 aperture setting, plus f2.8, f4.0, f5.6 and f8.0. Lensbaby 2 is available for sale now at http://www.lensbabies.com for $150.

Sounds like an improvement, but there's still no mention of the fact that you have to move the bellows around MANUALLY - which can be somewhat of a problem for dexteriously-challenged photographers. The price point however had me shudder. $150 for a tiny plastic lens? Come on ...

Labels: photography, photography gear

Thanks to all the contributors, participants, and bringers of delicious food items, the First Ever Bend Slideluck Potshow last Friday was a resounding success!

Far more people than expected showed up (a random count put the number around 25 - when at most 15 were expected) - standing, crouching, and squishing themselves into the cozy living room at our host Matt Preusch's house to catch a glimpse of the outstanding eye candy so many contributors served up.

And they've proven once again, that we photographers really aren't solitary creatures, but rather beings who become social under the correct circumstances - such as having the possibility to talk shop with a peer, ogle someone else's work, or simply feast on free food and drink in combination with all of the above.

A few special thanks go out to these folks:
1. To Matt and Diane, who so graciously and generously hosted the event in their home. I hope no red wine was spilled ... ;-) ... and to Matt for bringing the idea down from Seattle in the first place ...
2. To Tom Merrow, without whom this event would not have been possible, for he provided the hard-to-find digital projector that allowed everyone to show their work (and in addition, he even wowed us with his beautiful work).
3. To everybody who brought food and drink. This potluck rocked! I've hardly ever been to one that furnished so much delicious and various foods.
4. And finally to Sol Neelman who let me fondle his brandnew, 2-day old Canon 1Ds Mark II, and provided the evening's most memorable quote:

Rob Kerr to Sol: "So have you broken her in yet?" (referring to Sol's new camera)
Sol (grinning) to Rob: "Yeah. I popped her cherry at a news conference yesterday."

- proving once again, that (male) photographers don't view their cameras as mere work tools, but rather as .... uhhh ... companions.

Equally surprising was also that most folks dished their images up in digital form. Which was damn lucky for me - for my old and trusty Sawyers Rotomatic 600 A slide projector of course picked this very day to croak ...

So to wrap it all up: Slideluck Potshow rules! Suggestions for next time's date and place are being taken now (email them to me). We're also looking for a fitting theme - something photographers can (but don't have to) abide by when selecting slides for their show. It can be nature-related, travel, political, whatever. Again, email me for suggestions.

Labels: photography

Are you a photographer who likes free food? Or maybe free food is your main thing but you dig photography, too.

Either way, Slideluck Potshow is for you.

Started by photographers in Seattle and now being carried across the country, Slideluck Potshow is an informal gathering of photographers to show their work in slideshow form in the context of a good old fashioned potluck. Hence the name. It's a way for photo pros, amateurs and neophytes to get together in a non-judgmental atmosphere to show their work, talk about the craft, eat, drink and then eat and drink some more.

Everyone should try to bring food or beverage (homemade food is encouraged), but the most important part is to bring your work. Without the slideshows Slideluck Potshow can't work, so don't be shy.

Interested? For more details on the how, where and when, check out the informational site I've whipped up today.

Hope to see y'all there!

Labels: photography

If I ever assumed that time could stand still somewhere, I would have thought it could be Mexico, especially Southern Mexico. With its slow lifestyle and vibrant Mayan culture, reaching back many centuries, to me, time always felt like molasses down there, trickling by at a decreased pace, turning minutes into hours and hours into afternoons.

Judging from a travel report by my friend Paulie though (who has just returned from a 4-week trip to Guatemala and Southern Mexico), times indeed have changed now.

The next day we went to the ruins outside of Palenque. Tons of people. At least outside the entrance. We never went inside. I got into a pretty serious argument with the guard at the entrance. They wanted me to pay $300 US for the privilege of being allowed to bring my tripod into the compound containing the ruins. Needless to say, this was not in my travel budget. It seems that regardless of who you are or what kind of still camera you have, it's the tripod that means you are going to make big bucks. They also had a $250 daily fee for any video camera.

What? 300 bucks to bring your tripod into the ruin compound at Palenque? Since when?



My idyllic picture of this area has been utterly crushed. In April of 1994, when I travelled through Palenque, the ruins were pretty much devoid of tourists. Sure there were a few stragglers, but that was it. I faintly remember paying a small fee to gain entrance to the park, but certainly no outlandish charge for bringing in *a tripod*.

Mexico has lost its mind.

Labels: photographer advocacy, photography, travel, travel photographer