Update and Meeting Notes

A little "critique humor" to brighten your day.

Now that your day is brighter how about a couple of images to pique your interest in things photographic?

This, as you probably recognize, is from Trey Ratcliff's photoblog Stuck in Customs. The photograph was taken at San Simeon, more commonly known as The Hearst Castle. I've been there and to a remarkable degree this photo captures the sensation of being in this almost unworldly place. If you have been regularly been visiting this blog, you know that I greatly admire Trey's work, but I have to say that the uniformity of his images-- the unvarying  heavy application of HDR--  detracts from the experience of viewing  his work.

 These photographs are from Petra, a remnant of the Nabathean culture which flourished in the late Roman era along a trade route from the Mediterranean at Gaza to the Yemen and points east. It is located in present day Jordan and easily accessible  from Israel. I've been to Petra twice but have very few decent photos to show for it. These images do capture the experience of entering the site quite well. One walks though of 3 km rift-- this is not a canyon or derivation of one but a rift resulting from the separation of 2 tectonic plates-- as nicely shown in the top image. Then, rather suddenly, the architectural relief seen in the lower image comes into view. This is not an actual building but rather a carving in the face of rock. It is difficult to photograph because the plaza in the foreground is packed with tourists. This photographer evidently chose to crop them out which in my estimation detracts from understanding the context.

I have a submission for the Ask the Experts segment: If one has a camera which takes noise free photos at very high ISOs-- such as the Nikor D7000-- is there any reason to ever purchase a lens faster than f5.6? Does anyone else have questions? If so, it would really be helpful to them in advance.

Byron