Monthly Archives: March 2009

The American Dream

Art Illustration, Photographs

Sadly, no more.

For an index of articles on art illustrators, click here.

I wrote despairingly about America’s End of Empire at the conclusion of last year and now think I was being optimistic. How years of prosperity and growing wealth were flushed away by a corrupt Wall Street, an incompetent series of governments and an all too willing US borrower, all in a matter of a few years, is now ancient history. What is yet to come is a depression of a severity that will fundamentally change the position of the US in the world, which is still in deep denial of the true depth of the chasm we all face.

It was easy to be reminded of this when reading the current issue of Vanity Fair – still the best photography magazine in the US – which profiles the decaying of the American dream. I’m not about to repeat the populist ethic at work here (anyone buying VF for its writing has a serious case of socialism to attend to) but the pictures accompanying the article are extraordinary.

They are reproductions of the enormous posters Kodak hung in Grand Central Station over four decades. Nothing less than an attempt to recreate the world of Norman Rockwell using photography, the result is in equal parts gauche, tasteless and saccharine. A new low in bad taste which, understandably, has not been repeated in a decade or more as Kodak is …. well …. bankrupt. Hardly surprising for a company whose management makes the captain of the Titanic look like a steady hand with great foresight and judgement.

Without further ado, here they are, all copyright of Eastman Kodak, though I’m not sure it’s something I would sue about:

So how many people did you count who are not named Scooter, Chip or Buffy and have colored skin? Are all these people simply stuffed mannequins ready for Madison Avenue’s predators?

In case you missed it, here’s a snap of the new US Treasury Secretary (I believe I am the first to disclose this) – the dude making the rabbit’s ears – from today’s Wall Street Journal.

He’s right to be concerned as the jerk put all his eggs in one basket.

As for Eastman Kodak, well nothing has changed judging by today’s headlines:

The Panasonic LX-3

Panasonic

A reader review.

A friend of the blog has migrated from the Panasonic LX-2 (I still use the LX-1) to the newer LX-3 which makes a couple of stellar changes from its predecessor. First, Panasonic has come to its senses and stopped the lunatic pixel race, opting for fewer pixels with the welcome result of improved image quality. Second, the lens has been stretched to a 24mm focal length at the wide end (35mm full frame equivalent) with less at the telephoto end. This may well be the widest focal length on a pocket-sized point-and-shoot digital and the reduced telephoto range allows for faster apertures across the range. I suppose the addition of HD video will appeal to many, also.

He writes:

“Thomas suggested that I provide some comments on the Panasonic DMC LX3 camera; he has written extensively about the earlier LX1 model.

DP Review has selected the LX3 as the best of the “enthusiast” pocket cameras, and rightly so. In this model, Panasonic has finally listened to the many complaints about the megapixel horsepower race and provided a reasonably large sensor without increasing the pixel count. They have also added a new Leica-designed 24-60mm f/2 lens and HD video at 24 fps. The result is a truly useful camera, with the best image quality you will get short of a DSLR, and that still fits into most pockets. There are numerous clever features, including the ability to shoot all three aspect ratios at once – very useful, if like me, you shoot for HDTV and publication at the same time.

While Thomas and I have found it desirable to glue accessory shoes for optical finders onto the earlier models, the LX3 comes with a hot shoe and an optional optical finder. I have yet to see one of the new finders, but the 28mm Voigtlander finder that I have been using on the LX2 works well enough if you ignore the bright lines.

There has been a lot of excitement recently about the quality of video shot with the new Canon 5D Mark II. It is outstanding, but I would say that the LX3 comes fairly close at 10% of the price and a fraction of the size and weight. It boils down to what your purpose is. For my daughter, who is a professional, I bought a 5D. For my personal use (and age!) I am happy with the LX3.

There are always reservations about any model. With the LX3, the problems are the 60mm maximum focal length – some cropping will be inevitable, and you will need another camera for sports and birding. There is no external mic input for the video, and the sound is mono. As on the previous models, the mode dial turns too easily; I jammed some tape underneath to provide a little more drag. For me, the f/2 wide angle and the image quality easily justify accommodating to the limitations.”

At the grocer’s

Photographs, Technique

Amazing what you can find when you try seeing

I really do not like pineapple. Too tart and acidic for my constitution, yet I was struck by the incredible complexity and beauty of the fruit at the local grocery store.


5D, 100mm Macro, ring flash at f/8, 4 images, Helicon Focus Pro

So I picked one up (carefully!) and took four differentially focused snaps, stitching them in Helicon Focus.

The ring flash head was half covered with black tape to add some modeling.

Alec Soth

Photographers

An interesting artist

When you read that Alec Soth is represented by none other than ace salesman Larry Gagosian, alarm bells tend to go off. Isn’t this the same carpetbagger who persuaded the world that a $100mm diamond encrusted skull was something worth buying?

In Soth’s case the concerns are ill founded, for his work is insightful, sensitive, and original. I especially enjoyed the Fashion magazine section of his web site. It’s a quirky, somewhat sardonic, look at the loons and twits who make up the modern fashion world, a world where publicity and labeling are more important than quality and originality.

Well worth a look.


Two prize twits – Karl Lagerfeld and some other dude at Chanel

Soth’s site has several broken links – inexcusable – but you can also find his work at the Magnum site.

MobileMe revisited

Software

It just (mostly) works.

A while back I wrote about Apple’s MobileMe service, at the beginning of my 60 day free trial period.


Amazon pricing on MobileMe

The bottom line is that I am sold and just paid Amazon $68 for a renewal. Apple wants $99 – no thanks. The awful review rating of 2 stars reflects the equally awful early performance of MM which was rushed to the market very much un-debugged. Too bad – it’s a fine piece of software.

Syncing across three Macs and an iPhone is smooth and unremarkable, with emails, Safari bookmarks, iCal events and Address Books being synchronized across all machines with no intervention. Email syncing is especially noteworthy as it’s now event rather than period driven. Get or send an email and the changes are immediately pushed out to all your devices. MM still refuses to sync Bookmark Bar bookmarks but that’s about the only thing I can find wrong with it. The wild emailing of expired iCal reminders has ceased and appears stable.

Finally, a newly added feature allows you to drop large files too big for emails onto the Public section of your iDisk for others to download with one click. A great way to share big photograph files.

Sure you can cobble together other ‘cloud’ syncing approaches for much less, but this one is robust, elegant, invisible and (to use that old car sales trick) less than $1.40 a week.

Recommended for those with multiple devices they wish to keep synchronized. I have no experience (and will be garnering none) of use with Windows computers.