new camera – first photos

On December 8, 2010December 7, 2010 By Rick McIn photos, product endorsements1 Comment

Testing my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP1. Originals 1024 x 768.

Features I wanted: small, light, inexpensive, manual shutter, no telescoping lens, fast to come to life, reasonable quality indoors.

Any camera is good outdoors in sunlight.

Indoor is the real test:

Rockin’ was cooking dinner.

National Geographic photo contest

On November 24, 2010November 21, 2010 By Rick McIn photos1 Comment

Rocco likes this one.

Suradita Village, West Java, Indonesia. Children playing with their roosters. Actually it was not a real cock fight because the roosters didn’t wear blades on their feet. Children like to play this game because they almost never have toys in their life. (Photo and caption by Ario Wibisono)

see them all on my favourite photo blog – Boston.com – The Big Picture

Those are entries in National Geographic annual Photo Contest, deadline for submissions November 30th.

city of the future, Lisbon

On November 3, 2010November 3, 2010 By Rick McIn photos, product endorsements, things getting better, travel1 Comment

I visited impressive and sprawling “Parque das Nações” (Park of the Nations), a city of the future built atop the Expo ’98 site.

It reminded me of all the “City of the Future” magazine articles (see more examples) I saw when I was a kid. This conception, for example, from 1964.

Thanks Paulo Barata, a new friend, gymnastics lecturer at the University here, for showing me this modern highlight of an ancient city. We had typical Portuguese lunch: cod, cod, wine, port, pastry, coffee.

(via Gymnastics Coaching)

hiking the Cinque Terre, Italy

On October 15, 2010October 15, 2010 By Rick McIn hiking, photos, travel1 Comment

Click through to besthike.com for my trip report and photos.

Bing vs Google – image search

On October 11, 2010October 2, 2010 By Rick McIn Google, photos, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I hate the latest version of Google Image search. It looks cool, but is slow and less functional than in the past.

Bing Image Search is far better:

… Unfortunately, for that image search term: “Starbucks take comfort in ritual“, Bing only came up with 8 results, none what I was looking for.

Seems I must use Google despite the interface.

Leave a comment if you know of any other better alternative. (Yahoo is now using Bing, so that’s not an alternative.)

18,000 man Statue of Liberty play

On September 14, 2010September 9, 2010 By Rick McIn photosLeave a comment

Dana forwarded me the photo of the Statue of Liberty. Amazing.

Snopes confirmed it to be true. It was taken in 1918 at Camp Dodge, Iowa, as a promotion to help sell war bonds during WW 1.

Click through if you haven’t seen it.

A bit of research led me to a page on the CARL HAMMER GALLERY site with many, many more similar huge performance art installations. This one from 1919: