According to a recent Federal Appeals court ruling, Republican members of Congress who confiscate citizens’ cell phones or cameras and do not allow filming at town halls are violating their constituents First Amendment rights.
Until last week, I was using Final Cut Express 4 on my iMac. It took me quite a bit of time to get familiar with the many features of Final Cut Express--I struggled so much to remember how to access the many features that I created a single-spaced four-page cheat sheet. Then, just when I finally got comfortable with Final Cut Express, Apple released a new ground-up version of Final Cut Pro (version X). It has major improvements compared to FCE, including background rendering, re-design of the work areas, ability to tag and categorize clips and much more. The previous version of Final Cut Pro sold for $800, whereas the brand new Final Cut Pro X sells for only $300. I hesitated to buy the new version, despite the many improvements, because I didn't want to spend a lot of time training up on a new video program (as I did when I ditched Adobe Premier Elements (on my PC) in order to move to Final Cut Express on an iMac). Nonetheless, I took the plunge last week, downloading FCP X from the online Apple Store (the only way to buy it). One factor in upgrading was the recommendation of Izzy Hyman, who offers first-rate video instruction at his membership-based site. In fact, Izzy now offers 25 free lessons on Final Cut Pro X at his site (Note: I've written about Izzy once before.). His lessons cover each of the following topics, and each lesson includes high-quality screencasts: [More . . . ]
I love this article. Yes, I stared aghast at the photos five months ago, immediately after the tsunami. And now, I see these photos showing immense progress in the clean-up. I can't imagine how many person-hours have been invested in this supremely admirable effort under the most difficult of circumstances. What a great testament to the character of the people of Japan.
Have you ever wondered how Monty Python's Terry Gilliam did his cut-out animations? In the following video, he shows exactly how he did his work, and the techniques he used were quite straight-forward. Gilliam's results were nonetheless extraordinary thanks to the creative imagination he employed in his work: Gilliam used thousands of pre-existing images. Watching this video made me wonder whether he was ever sued for copyright violation, given that he created an endless stream of derivative works (I'm assuming that he would invoke fair use).
About a month ago, I purchased a Canon S95 camera for about $400. I sought it out because I wanted the ability to capture non-blurred photos in low light. It has lived up to its reputation as a good low-light pocket camera.
After I purchased the camera I traveled to Europe and then to Chicago. I've been exploring a 
few of the special settings of the camera and decided to share a few of the photos here at DI. One of the settings allows you to take "miniature" looking objects, such as this Norwegian town along a fiord (click the image for a larger image).
The S95 also has a wider angle lens then most other pocket cameras, allowing you to take in larger 
scenes. I really appreciated this in the Berlin monument regarding War and Tyranny--the beautiful space completely fit into the camera.
I was also able to fit large scenes like the Eiffel Tour (I patiently waited for the even clouds to ripen before capturing this image). 
Of special interest to me is the "high dynamic range" setting, allowing you to take three photos with one click on of the shutter button. Then the camera itself processes all three photos into a single HDR photo. It's important to completely stabilize the camera, or else the images will not coincide. I haven't used a tripod yet, but I have used walls and fences--anything that 
might work to allow me to keep the camera steady. The following photo of Napoleon's tomb is an HDR photo.
This photo of the main hall of the Field Museum in Chicago is another HDR photo. 
Notice the ghostly people walking around. This is a multiple exposure technique, and these ghosts are an artifact whenever you've got movement during the 3 seconds during which the camera is taking the 3 images. I rather like the ghost people--it shows movement within the finished still. There will obviously be times when I don't want ghosts in my photos, however.
One other trick I'll mention is the ability to take "stitch photos," which combines several photos into a single panorama. The scene below, taken of the city of London from the top of St. Paul's Cathedral, consists of four separate shots. The camera offers a slick way to take the shots, and you then stitch them together, using special software provided with the purchase of the camera. 
I'll end this post with a gallery of other photos I took recently with the S95. Most of these are HDR photos. If you don't see the gallery, click on the title to this post, which will take you to the permalink version, where you will see the gallery.