5second slide and store frames

There are new frames out that make it easier to hang and store your pictures. They're called 5second slide and store frames. They have a unique hanging tool that once you've attached it to your wall, it self levels (no more getting out a level to make sure your picture is hanging straight). Also, to put in a picture, you simply slide it in from the back (no need to undo the back to get your pictures inside the frame. It even has a handy slot in the back to store photos!

You can see a video about them here. They are available at Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Mervyn's, FredMeyer and Bi-Mart. It looks like displaying your photos just got easier!

Rand McNally fabMAP of Chicago Review

I first saw Rand McNally's fabMAP in the Garden District Book Store in New Orleans (great book store, if you happen to visit New Orleans). It is a waterproof, tear-proof map that Rand McNally makes for various cities, and sells for $5.95. It covered a small area of New Orleans, so I decided not to get it. Now the other day I am in my local camera store, and I see a bin of cloth lens cleaners, selling for $5.95 each. Suddenly the cloth fabMAP doesn't seem so expensive! It can easily be folded up and stuffed into your camera bag. When I got mine, it said it was machine washable, microfiber cloth, that can even be used to clean your glasses. Imagine a cloth that you can use to clean your lenses (or your eye glasses) that also has a map of downtown Chicago (or Las Vegas Strip, Midtown Manhattan Theatre District, Washington D.C. Mall, Waikiki, Hollywood-Beverly Hills, San Francisco Golden Gate Park-Haight Ashbury, New Orleans French Quarter, Miami's South Beach, Key West, Seattle's Pike Place Market, San Antonio River Walk, Denver's 16th Street Mall or San Diego's Balboa Park). You can get them here, along with many other great Rand McNally maps and things. Search for fabmap.

Update 11-16-2008

Rand-McNally let me know that they are having a contest (see 3rd comment) where you could win a $500 gift card, or a brand new Buddy Scooter (valued at $2,000)! They want you to send them a photo or short video documenting your fabMAP adventures by December 5th, 2008. Go to iNeverGetLost.com and check it out. And if you go to their website now, the fabMAPs are all on sale for $2 (regularly $4.95), with free shipping! I'm going back for more (Midtown Manhattan, Washington D.C., New Orleans French Quarter)!!

Mardi Gras, New Orleans 2008

My wife called her friend in New Orleans in January, asking about us coming to visit for a weekend. What she didn't realize was that the weekend was Mardi Gras weekend! She was afraid the entire time would be spend wandering up and down Bourbon Street, and that wasn't what she wanted for this trip.

What we found is that most of the Mardi Gras parades are in Uptown, and travel down St. Charles Street, which is just a few blocks from our friend's house. Mardi Gras is very family oriented; families bring their kids, pack a lunch, and the lucky little ones have a ladder with a wooden box secured to the top. The tiny tots then have a catbird seat to view the parade!

Hope you enjoy some of my photos from New Orleans!

Government checks

Ok, time for another poll. The government is supposed to give us some cash back, depending on your income level, so that we can go out and buy stuff and jump start the economy. No one wants to head into a recession, right? We all have to do our part to keep this economy rolling! So, when you get that cash, what do you plan to do with it? See the poll above!

Santa Express on the CTA

Every year, the Chicago Transit Authority (the el) dresses up one of their trains for the holidays, making for a fun photo opportunity if you're in town. Matthew Zdano (aka BrokenBat on Flickr) has captured two great photos: SantaExpress and XmasTrainTrail_1. I wished I had thought of it earlier. There is only one day left to see this train in action: Saturday, December 23 from 2 to 8:45 pm on the Orange and Brown lines. See details here.

Well, maybe other folks have also captured some fun images. Anyone else care to share? And thank you, Matthew Zdano!

Nikon D300 - I Still Want One!

Well, I was in my local camera store, Central Camera, picking up my black and white prints (yes, Kodak still makes Tri-X!), and had to ask about the new Nikon D300. The fellow behind the counter told me that they get maybe 10 in with each shipment, but they have folks waiting for them. They list them for around $1,794.95. He told me that the D200 has come down to around $1,399.95 now. That's pretty good for a camera that started out at $1,700!

So that got me to thinking: is the D300 worth $400 more than the D200? Some of the improvements seemed like they might be 'nice to haves' and not 'need to haves.' I searched for a D200 vs D300 review, and Scott Kelby did a nice hands-on job here. I bought his book on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (I've got a link below for Amazon.com if you'd like to check it out) and found the guy seems to know what he's talking about! I like his comparison of the two cameras, because he actually bought the D300, and was able to compare it to the D200 he also owns (not just compare the specifications that anyone can dig up).

Well, to cut to the chase, he says on his blog "the D300 is a much better, more fully featured update to the D200 than I had ever imagined it would be. How much so? Well, needless to say, I’m selling my D200." And later he says "To me, the D300 doesn’t feel like an upgrade; it feels like a whole new camera from the ground up. The improvements are that significant."

Read the whole article, it's very informative. I've decided it is worth the extra money for the D300. Now I just have to find out where to get this money! I know it seems trivial, but that huge screen (at least compared to my D70) really has me hooked. Scott was also impressed with the utility of the Live View (like adjusting White Balance and seeing the effect in real time). Anyone else out there have any hands-on comparisons for us? If you're fortunate enough to have the money, you can get the camera here from B&H. I've bought camera (and other electronics) both off of their website, and at their retail store in Manhattan, and have always had a good experience.

Update 3/14/08

Phil Askey has just posted his thorough review of the Nikon D300, and said the hardest part of the review was trying to come up with the 'cons' for the camera. See his review here.

Update 3/17/08

Ben Long at Macworld has also posted a glowing review of this camera here. His biggest complaint was that "Nikon’s menuing system is cumbersome and not easy to navigate." But in the end he says "the D300 is a great DSLR" with "excellent image quality, high ISO performance, robust feature set, and sturdy build."

Update 4/5/08

Ken Rockwell has a nice review of the D300 here. He calls it the "world's best amateur camera!"

Is Photography Dead?

Do you think photography is dead? Read the Peter Plagens article in Newsweek, then take the poll above and/or leave comments. I'd like to hear what you think. Here is the comment I posted to the Newsweek article:

Comment: Is photography dead? I don't think so. It is a bit strange to link digital photography and Photoshop to the beginning of the end for photography. For some fields, such as photojournalism, I do agree that photographers must be careful not to modify the image to the point that they are making history rather than reporting it. And I don't care for some works of art that started with a photograph, but with software end up looking more like a cartoon or a Dali painting.

But for any work of art, be it literature, a painting, the cinema, or a photograph: the truth lies both in the eye of the creator and the viewer. We all have our own frame of reference and set of experiences that affect how we interpret the work of art.

With the advances in digital cameras and film, I think the art of photography is accessible to more than it has ever been today. As someone that still loves to load up a roll of Tri-X black and white film in my camera, or on another day take out my digital camera, I feel photography is very much alive. So grab that old film camera out of the closet, or that brand new 12 Megapixel DSLR, and lets go out and takes some photos for all too enjoy! Who's with me?

Michael Watry