Hugh Kretschmer

Obama Inauguration & New York Photos

Back in January I took a trip to New York and the Obama Inauguration in DC. Unfortunately I can't take credit for the photo above but here's my DC photo set on Flickr. Below is a panorama of downtown New York from Jersey City and here's the rest of the New York set.

Olympus's little 'carrot camera' official, and other PMA news

Late last year Olympus revealed this impressive little concept camera that uses a system developed with Panasonic called Micro Four Thirds. The MFT system blurs the lines between small point-and-shoot consumer cameras and big honking professional/prosumer DSLR cameras by combining a large image sensor and interchangeable lenses with pocketability and video recording. It's a magical concoction that promises the world, though the only MFT camera on the market is still bulky, expensive and doesn't record video. While the Olympus concept lacks a lot of specifics it may still prove to be a blowout in form and function.

Last week at the Photo Marketing Association trade show Olympus made the concept official and said it would be out some time this summer. No further details were announced, though a Russian photography site posted a rumor (translated) that this model will be named the M-100 and come with a 14-70mm kit lens (28-140mm 35mm-eqiv.). The kooky Russians also rumored there will be a larger version dubbed the M-1 that will have HD video recording capabilities. An interview with an Olympus official confirms that the M-100 will have image stabilization as well as a high speed electronic view finder (read a Japanese person's interpretation of the interview here). He notes the design is not final–the unit on display is the same mockup from last year–but the final package will stay true to the dimensions of the concept camera. If you look closely at this picture you can even see the mockup is getting a little dusty.

Anyway, keep your eye on it. Other notable announcements from PMA:

• Samsung will release a Micro Four Thirds camera series dubbed NX. It looks almost as appealing as the M-100 and seriously small compared to a regular DSLR. Few details and no price or release date were announced but Photography Bay put together as many facts as they could here.
  
  
• Epson announced the R-D1xG, a rangefinder camera that improves on their first model released five years ago. A rangefinder attached to a point and shoot camera allows for adjustable and clear focus on one's subject. This is great for photojournalists because the Epson and Leica digital rangefinder cameras are small enough for one-handed operation but still provide incredible quality. Unfortunately they're damned expensive.
  
  
• Panasonic showed off this little 'tough camera' that stands up to beatings and diving and keeps working while looking fine.

JPG Magazine is No More (for Now)

On Friday JPG Magazine's parent company 8020 Media announced it will be shutting down in a few days due to financial stress. Just when I was considering a subscription too, damnit. There is a possibility the magazine could get picked up by a third party.

JPG always displayed exceptional content from its subscribers and supporters and brilliant little pieces about photography advice and recommendations, such as this tribute to the Spinshot 35S 360° film camera.

The Big Picture's Best Photos of 2008

Boston.com's The Big Picture has posted a three part retrospective of 2008's best in photojournalism. Here are part one, part two and part three. Highly, highly recommended.

David Perry and his hotter than cool hot rod pin-ups.

Foundphotos

Foundphotos finds pictures accidentally shared over P2P, plucks out the cool ones and throw them up for all to see. It's kind of voyeuristic, and I love it.

SKYplay

Flickr user hb19 playing with clouds.

New Flickr Set: Spark+Flame

More here.

The first digital camera, 1975.

"GO!" @ The Ritz Ybor, "Warriors" @ VItale Studio

Last Saturday there were so many conflicting events going on in the Tampa Bay area it was maddening. These two art/fashion/music shows were happening at exactly the same time, one in St. Petersburg and one in Tampa. I managed to attend both.

Warriors: Come Out And Play

Warriors was held at Vitale Studio in Pinellas Park (north St. Pete). The show was loosely tied to the upcoming anniversary of the 1979 film of the same name. Vitale is a print and design shop, so the show area was a bit small but when I got there about an hour in the crowd was big and people were still streaming in. The DJ (I don't know which one of the three scheduled) was cutting up some very cool hip-hop and people were milling around the stage, bar, and art pieces and spilling out into the parking lot. I didn't stay long enough for the fashion show or take any photos but Alexis Ziritt of Calavera Comics has a photoset over at Flickr, looks pretty wild.

GO! A Square One Art, Fashion and Music Showcase

I spent most of the rest of the night at GO! held at The Ritz Ybor (previously The Masquerade) and hosted by Square One, an artist collective (I think). The Ritz has held art shows like this a couple of times over the past few months and each time they've grown in size. This one was huge, taking up every square inch of wall space with local and regional artists. The place was packed, and I came in around the middle of the second fashion show with its spectrum of colors strobing over sexy models in tight-fitting clothes. There was also a stage for bands to rock out, tables of hors d'oeuvres and several bars to lubricate the socialites.

I met up with some friends and made an effort to see every artist's display. Left to right, top to bottom on the collage up above are my favorites: Carolina Cleere, Ryan Prado, Jedd Lancaster, Art Damage (Melissa Oraath), Deuha (Dana Robinson), Justin Sancho, Nancy Brown, and Alison Ware. Steve Downing has a huge photoset over at pbase.com and a few more tidbits about the show.

Cover Art: Songs Of The West by The Norman Luboff Choir

(click for larger version)

Columbia Records
CL 657
No year listed.
Cover credited to Arizona Highways magazine.

Excerpt from the back:
"It is not surprising that the American west has captured the imagination of Europeans, for Europe, with its centuries of crowding, has no comparable vistas. Neither has any other area in the world been so swiftly and recently developed, opened up less than a century ago, and with the legend-makers still living. The songs and stories of the west, its histories (still to be got at first hand), its memorable movies—all of these excite the European imagination enormously. Perhaps because Americans are so close to these things in both time and space, we sometimes tend to overlook the sweep and richness of the story, and to think of "cowboys and indians" as a children's game, forgetting that only yesterday it was a matter of life and death to many."

I picked this up just because of the cover, I rarely see one without text. Because of The Big Lebowski I tend to grab any record that covers "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" but the music here is not that great. It was only a dollar though so I'm not complaining.