Digital Shutters

Wildlife photographer Mitsuaki Iwago travels the world to capture images of animals in their natural habitat; he takes home poignant photos of wildlife struggling in the ravages of global warming.

Global Warning Witness, sponsored by Olympus, is a photo and movie documentary of the plight of Polar bears in Wager Bay in Canada’s Arctic. Iwago depicts the effects of climate change on the life of the bears, even as he brings us in awe of Nature’s majestic beauty.

Episode 6 of the documentary shows two bears – mother and son – hopping from one ice floe to the next, wading through melted ice. Nearby, flowers bloom on the exposed earth.

Mitsuaki Iwago is an internationally acclaimed wildlife photographer whose work has twice graced the cover of National Geographic and one of his photos was selected as the best photograph in the wildlife category by Life. His published works include Serengeti: Natural Order on the African Plain, which has become a worldwide bestseller, and many more featuring wildlife.

[Site: Olympus.co.jp]

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HP is trying to earn a Good Citizen badge with a report on its recycling program. It proudly reports that it has recycled last year the equivalent in weight of more than 600 jumbo jets (empty and hollow jumbo jets, we might note) of its own hardware and print cartridges. That’s actually 164-million pounds (74-million kg) of computer waste recycled.

Not bad, considering the mounting threat posed by the burgeoning waste of computer hardware around the world. Hardly had we mastered how to use the computer we just bought than a new one comes along, promising even faster, newer features.

HP also reports that worldwide, it had collected more than 2.5 million units of hardware – weighing more than 50 million pounds (22.6 million kilograms) – to be refurbished for resale or for donation.

To date HP has recycled more than 920 million pounds (417 million kilograms) of hardware and HP print cartridges globally, which makes them likely to surpass its goal of recycling 1 billion cumulative pounds (455 million kilograms) by the end of this year.

There’s a video here on how HP does its recycling program.

[Via: HP.com]

hp, recycling, computer, waste, global

PBase Magazine, in its January 2007 issue, is featuring Manuel Libres Librodo, Jr., a talented young photographer who hails from the Philippines. In the featured interview, Librodo shares his photos – mostly portraits – which somehow came out with impeccable lighting despite the lack of a studio.

“The entire world is my studio and the sun provides all the light I need to create my photographs!� says Manuel, whose gear consists of a Nikon D200 body and three Nikkor Lenses: 70-200mm F2.8, 17-55mm 2.8 and 60mm F2.8. A D2X professional camera is forthcoming, courtesy of Nikon Philippines, he said.

His favorite photo is that of Rosalinda (photo at left), a cigarette vendor who supports 11 children in Iloilo, Philippines. “There’s a lot more to tell. But I don’t want to state the obvious. Just take a closer look and examine every line in her wrinkles,� Manuel said.

And what to him is the most important element in a good photograph?

“Light. The photo has to show flirtatious light. They add drama to the scene. They make the picture lyrical,� says the young photographer.

The PBase Magazine (PDF, 7.4MB) is a free download from the link below.

[Site: PBase Magazine]

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The Bonnefanten College in Maastricht, The Netherlands, will start in February a novel way of doing things in the classroom.

Instead of toting around bulky books like overworked beasts of burden, the students will be sporting a lightweight (390g) device called Edupaper, which will contain all their books and other reading materials and a few more convenience.

The Edupaper, with a display size of half an A4 (122 x 163mm), uses an electronic ink that makes it as easy to read as paper, without any distracting reflections. Even in bright daylight, the text appears very readable.

It has a touchscreen on which students can jot down their notes separately or on top of the book pages. Handwritten notes can be stored and automatically converted to MS Word documents.

They can use the Edupaper to take tests too. Multiple-choice tests can be made and automatically checked by connecting the device to a central computer. The school also plans to upload a daily newspaper into the device for classroom discussions of current events.

The Edupaper is a project based on innovations by E.INK Corporation and Royal Philips and is produced by the iRex company, a spin-off from Philips, located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

[Via: DCViews.com]

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Karin Brussaard of LetsGoDigital has published his review of the Olympus PT-E02 underwater housing for the E-330 digital SLR. His test field: the deep blue waters of the Maldives.

But while reading through the review one can’t help but be distracted by the fascinating and beautiful photos that Karin took of their dives: the majestic and mild mannered whale shark (despite its shark designation), the turtle who just happens to pass by, the beautiful oriental sweetlips, the yellowfin emperor, the gorgonian fan corals…

Oh, forget the review. Just enjoy the pictures. It will make for a good weekend read. (The PT-E02 and E-330 gear apparently survived the dive; the magnificent photos are proof.)

[Via: LetsGoDigital.com]

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Hasseblad now offers their H3D-31 digital back camera with a whopping 31 megapixels of resolution. The lovely monster could be yours for $25,000.

The H3D-31 has a 44 x 33mm image sensor to accommodate all those pixels and micro-lenses to boost ISO sensitivity up to 800. It’s the 31-MP version of the H3D-39, pictured above, which Hasselblad likes to call the world’s first 48mm full-frame DSLR camera system.

Hasselblad boasts that with the H3D camera system they are able to offer photographers the full benefits of professional medium-format digital cameras as well as the ease of use of the best 35mm DSLRs. When compared with high-end 35mm DSLRs, the H3D delivers unmatched pixel resolution, better colors and detail rendering and a new choice of viewfinders for creative image composition, according to the company.

[Site: Hasselblad.com]

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Who said Konica Minolta has left the building? It is alive and well, thank you, and it is hosting a reunion of its dealers and partners in New Orleans.

Dubbed “Connect for Growth_07�, the conference at the Hilton Riverside Hotel on February 6-8, will be attended by some 800 people who will hear top Konica executives talk about their new marketing plans. The 3-day event will also serve as exposition center for Konica Minolta products which are now focused mainly on their bizhub brand of office printers and copiers, their camera division having been taken over by Sony.

And how do they jazz it up?

“We selected New Orleans as the site for “Connect for Growth_07″ as a way for Konica Minolta to help the city regain its place as one of the top meeting and conference destinations in the world,” said Bill Brewster, Vice President, Marketing, KMBS USA, Inc.

Now, there’s two brave souls for you – Konica and New Orleans – reconstructing and rising from their respective storms.

[Site: KonicaMinolta.us]

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PhotoAcute v.2.10 is now capable of extracting high-quality pictures from digital video. The company who makes it says the software uses several consecutive frames to create high-resolution and low-noise picture that is much better than the single frame.

The $49 app has a simple and intuitive interface and is quite easy to use according to photoacute.com, and it produces high quality photos by increasing spatial resolution without losing details or distorting the image.

This would be quite useful, not just for Dad who wants some snippets from the family video, but also for White House newsmen at times when the president does not want them to take his pictures but hands out his own staged photo.

I mean, what self-respecting newsman would want to use this stiff photo at left of a president who was supposed to be addressing the nation about the war in Iraq?

The news wires and other agencies instead used some frame grabs from their video footages to accompany their story about the president’s speech. Low quality, of course, because they haven’t heard yet about PhotoAcute Studio v.2.10.

[Via: DPNow.com]
Photo: Eric Draper/White House

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Taiwan-based BenQ today announced two compact digital cameras which they hope will appeal to the consumer market, the BenQ DC E610 and C610.

The E610, above, touts a 6.1-megapixel CCD sensor and a Pentax lens, 3x optical zoom and a 2.4-inch TFT LCD screen. BenQ says the advanced smc Pentax lens provides the E610 with enhanced sharpness and color presentation.

The C610, left, is a slimmer camera with a sliding front cover and no protruding lens. It sports 6 megapixels of resolution and a 2.0-inch LTPS LCD screen. For added convenience, the C610 uses just two AA batteries for power.

“The BenQ DC E610 and C610 are perfect options for users looking for a convenient way to enter the digital photography market,� says Conway Lee, BenQ Digital Media Business Group General Manager.

[Via: DCViews.com]

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A call for entries has been announced for amateur and professional photographers to join the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Grand prize is £10,000 prize (about $20,000) from a total of £23,550 that will be shared with the other category winners and runners-up.

Aside from the established categories, there are two new ones: the “One Earth Award� for the image that best highlights the interaction between man and the natural world, and the “Wild Choice Award� for fresh and new images that don’t fit in any of the other categories.

Now on its 42nd year, the Shell photo tilt aims to find the most striking and original nature photography in the world. Last year’s grand prize winner was Göran Ehlmé of Sweden for his perfectly timed photo of a walrus feeding at the bottom of the cold Greenland Sea.

Shell Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year was Rick Stanley who took this picture of a Hispaniolan treefrog in the fangs of a green vine snake. The frog survived like nothing happened.

The Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition is owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, and is sponsored by Shell.

[Site: Natural History Museum]

Photo: Rick Stanley

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