Category: Media

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Flickr a Day 356: ‘Bank Vole Transporting Hazelnut’

The series should feature more nature shots, and what an animal candid capture is self-titled “Bank Vole Transporting Hazelnut”.”I bought my first camera in the middle of 2014, and my first dSLR a few months later”, Hanna Knutsson says. “Now I take every opportunity to visit the nearby forest and take pictures of the local wildlife, preferably small mammals”.

She shot the rodent (sounds grim, doesn’t it?) on Nov. 18, 2015, using Canon EOS 70D and EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM lens. Vitals: f/8, ISO 400, 1/250 sec, 250mm.

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Last-minute Tech Stocking Stuffers

Here we are, days before Christmas, and you’re thinking about last-minute stocking stuffers. I’ve got an eclectic selection of things I would want to get or give for December 25th. Some of them will demand rushing online to take advantage of last-minute shipping offers. Others require no shipping at all, like music subscription services. Confession: Some items will require a larger stocking but no wrapping.

I present the list alphabetically, and in no order of preference. 

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Flickr a Day 352: ‘Left Alone’

What’s missing makes the photographic art of John Meadows so commanding. Color for one. Digital for another. The modern is absent, too. If you look at portraits from one-hundred years ago and earlier, the subjects often don’t smile; typically there’s a seriousness to their facial expressions and bodily postures. The look, feel, and mood is similar; most any of his captures could easily be mistaken for a picture from the 1910s.

But John is a modern shooter blending past and present techniques. “As time goes on, I find myself moving more and more drawn back to film-based photography and historic processes such as Cyanotype and Van Dyke Brown”, he says. “However, I will take advantage of certain digital technology, so even when stating with a film negative my workflow tends to be hybrid”. 

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Flickr a Day 349: ‘I’m a Little Photographer’

Sigma compacts are lean on extras, including video capture, and they demand patience—taking time to thoughtfully compose each shot. They can be point-and-shoots, but they aren’t meant to be. Rather, in competent hands, they produce spectacular IQ (e.g. image quality).

Ben Keough is spot on in his review of the Sigma DP3 Merrill, which Jay Hsu used to capture our selection: “The software deficiencies are all variations on a single theme: If a feature doesn’t help you take an unadulterated still image, the DP3 doesn’t have it. No picture effects, no scene modes, no panoramas, no collages, no dynamic range compensation, and no HDR capture”. The camera is no frills and slow to focus. Oh, but the IQ! 

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Six Headphones for Christmas

As Christmas comes closer, it’s time to think about rewarding your ears, or someone else’s, with exceptional audio experience—headphones that I would ask Santa to bring for myself or deliver to another. If big, booming bass is your thing, read no further. Buy Beats, Sony, or another brand boasting barreling lows that shake your skull as well as eardrums.

My picks deliver broader audio range, each with warmer mids and highs and amazing detail, depending somewhat on the source of your content. Highly compressed AAC or MP3 tracks lack lots, but these cans will get a little more fidelity from them. CD or lossless source might change how you listen to music forever.