Prairie Merlin on Campus, February 25th

PHOTOS ONLINE NOW

I think I photographed a pair of Prairie Merlin (Falco columbarius) this afternoon on the campus of Rocky Mountain College.

The two birds seemed to be putting on a show for each other and appear to have attempted to mate a few times. As I am leaving in the AM for Yellowstone I have not look to verify what the birds are so I can only guess as to what they were doing.

Always look in the trees, as you never know what might fly into your backyard.

clik elite

The clik elite home page is here.

A new camera case, or two, to try out.

As many of you know I am always looking for a new bag to fall in love with. I have, over the years, found some great bags to get gear around in; but the cases that I still can not find perfection in are cases that will work when I am out pushing the miles or limits. Clik elite may have a few options that could do the trick. As I am teaching Photographing the Faces of Winter for Rocky Mountain College this semester I am reminded that I need a pack to get a pro body and 70-200 around while skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, etc...

I have one of these:
http://www.clikelite.com/shop/telephoto-slr-chestpack/

and one of these:
http://www.clikelite.com/shop/camera-capsules/

in the mail.

I'll get them test them and let you know what I think. If they do a good job of this maybe they will do a good job with a pack for those 15+ mile days.

Aperture 3

Apple has announced a new version of their popular Aperture software. Aperture 3 has over 200 new features including face detection and brush control of many settings.

I use Adobe Lightroom, Aperture's main competitor; but I am glad to see Apple come up with a new version. Competition is a good thing.

What all is new you ask... you can learn more here.

2010 Great Backyard Bird Count

NEWS RELEASE

February 12-15, 2010

Bird watchers coast to coast are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010. Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers counting birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges.

I'll be taking part and you should too. If you will be in the Billings area and want to tag along for some birding just let me know, as I would love the company.

Medium Format at a New Price

Hasselblad has announced a new Medium Format (MF) camera that brings a full kit to you for $18,000.

The New H4D-40 is a 40mp MF system that comes with an 80mm lens and viewfinder. Costs are coming down more and more all the time. Remember that the sensor size of these MF cameras is about twice that of a Full Frame 35mm DSLR. This means that better quality is becoming available at a lower price. For me (as of now) the MF days are over; but for those who shoot portraits, products, and do commercial work the MF days may be coming back around.

A Question for Apple...

I have a question for Apple...

Are you going to add support into Pages or iWeb for average folks to be able to create real multimedia content to fully utilize what the iPad can display?

Here is my thinking. If the iPad is going to replace newspapers/magazines/books and at the same time put our entire digital lives at our finger tips, while making the web fun; what is Apple going to do to help expedite that transition on the family scale?

I can see iBooks being a hit. (heck I may start reading books again ;)
I can see the comfort form of the internet, especially if Flash support is added, doing great things.
I can see using an iPad to have all of our digital media at our finger tips.
I can see us using iPad to control our TV's someday soon. (networks give in and let apple do subscriptions)
I can see Newspapers and Magazines getting better at web capitalization and getting folks to buy subscriptions via Apple for content. (note that magazines and newspapers will have to make the experience even more interactive than they do online currently)
I can see a Verizon version of the iPad that also has a web cam so we can chat with our friends and family around the would.
I can see this device really changing things in the future.

But I think Apple needs to make the iLife and iWork suites ready for moms/dads, aunts/uncles, and grandparents to be able to create a WOW experience for friends and family to share their lives and to be able to specialize that to the iPad/iPhone.

iWeb is easy to run and do all kinds of cool things, Pages is very easy yet helps create stunning documents. Any reason not to merge them and allow them to make content for the iPad/iPhone that mobileMe can serve up?

My Mom needs to be able to start up her Mac and make a family newsletter that in a few pages (idealized for iPad/iPhone) can share the family news in a way that could never have been done before. The content needs to be all that the iPad/iPhone allows and at the same time be easy to create. A quick newsletter layout that has photos turn to video with one click or an entire slideshow rather than just the one image that fit. A story about a game that can have audio play in the background. A question field that can display answers from others in real time (i.e. who is attending the family reunion). Grandma and Grandpa should be able to simply tap a button and play the embedded photos on the iPad/iPhone like it is a picture frame. Media needs to be able to be served up to family around the world by people who can't tell you what HTML is. I know this is all easy to do with web technology (it is what I do for a living); but Apple has a history of making this easy for average people to do. I also know that much of this can be done in iWeb for a web site; but this is not a web site for the masses this is a simple newsletter "subscription" for families (one page at a time flip the pages, no need for "site" navigation). It is all about brining a new level of WOW to families and friends all while putting more WOW into a great new piece of hardware.

While the iPad device is taking off, assuming it will, this is the time for Apple to let average people make great content for friends and families. If you have already seen what the iPad/iPhone can do for family content will you not be more willing to consider paying money to have a subscription to National Geographic for iPad?

I wont even go into the fact that small businesses could use these same features to grow in a time when small business growth has never meant more to our economy.

This is just one example, of many, where Apple has the chance to make iPad/iPhone full multimedia content creation obtainable to the common man. And I think it will just help Apple in the end.

Just a thought.

I assume Apple is already ten steps ahead of me, I just hope in thinking big they have not forgotten to think small. I could also be off of my rocker and ranting about things people don't care about too... Sorry.