cinnamon thoughts.

A collection of photos of our trip to Tokyo, Japan three weeks ago.
See the whole set on flickr.

While reading thinking about how photography started, pinhole cameras came to my mind and I thought how easy it would be to make one using a DSLR and some cardboard from a shipping box.

Exhibit A:

After a few shots I started wondering why we pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for lenses, cameras or iPhones just to use Instagram and other software to create images a black box with a hole in it could have taken. (Only half kidding.)

My photos are really bad pinhole shots but the (w)hole purpose of this little experiment was to see what a simple pushpin hole in some cardboard was able to do—and it was a success.

Canon EOS 60D, cardboard lens of unknown focal length and aperture, ISO 400, 5 seconds

Canon EOS 60D, cardboard lens of unknown focal length and aperture, ISO 400, 8 seconds

Canon EOS 60D, cardboard lens of unknown focal length and aperture, ISO 400, 8 seconds

Dylan Bennett created a YouTube playlist where he explains basic photography concepts in a very simple manner.
The videos are even useful when you already know what an f-stop and DOF are. His explanations are easy to remember.

Recently I’ve started shooting with a DSLR (Canon EOS 60D). This post is a random collection of links I’ve found interesting and that got me started. I might update this list in the future.

General Information

• LensRentals.com Blog Technical Discussions — fantastic in-depth photography info
• Canon Professional Network — Technical
• Canon Digital Learning Center
• Canon Camera Museum — Technical Room

News, Rumors and Reviews

• Canon Rumors
• The-Digital-Picture.com
• Digital Photography Review

Photo Blogs

• Alaska Photography Blog
• The Lively Morgue (New York Times)

Video Podcasts

• The Art of Photography Podcast

Software

• Apple Aperture
• Hugin Panorama Stitcher

And of course you should use Instapaper to save the articles for reading later.

Son Doong Cave, Vietnam

Tianmen “Heaven Gate” Mountain, China

Wulong Chongqing, China

GeoMapLookup 1.1 is now available on the iOS App Store. The details view is now displaying the country’s flag and the update also includes minor fixes.

In case you find a bug or have a feature request: please contact us at support@geomaplookup.net or on Twitter @geomaplookup and give us a chance to fix the issue before leaving a negative review. It is much appreciated!

(Flag icons are made by www.IconDrawer.com)

Apple recently purchased C3 Technologies, a company partly owned by Saab before Apple got its hands on some nifty mapping technology.
It would be pretty cool should these 3D maps find their way to iOS devices.

Apple created devices way cooler than imagined on Star Trek.

Thank you, Steve

My thoughts on iPhone 4S in (re)tweet form:

The bottom line is (while the new model is a nice refresh) I still feel like my iPhone 4 is up-to-date. No need to buy a new one when I’m getting lots of improvements for free with iOS 5 next week.