Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA

I spent few days in Los Angeles for work last week. To wake myself up and get going for the day, I spent each sunrise shooting the Walt Disney Concert Hall located within the walking distance of my downtown hotel.

For those who love shooting architecture, this place is a Disneyland, pun intended. It’s very hard to point your camera anywhere around this structure and not like the shot. And the best part – I spent hours there walking around with my camera and not once was I bothered by security. Some building management gets it.

I came back with a total of 400 frames. I’ll share a few of my favorite in the coming days.

A month or so ago I had a chance to visit the exhibit by one of my favorite photographers Michael Kenna. Actually, it was a book signing where Kenna was present, but it was as part of the exhibit that was there for several weeks. The exhibit was held in the Stephen Wirtz Gallery in downtown San Francisco. It’s almost over (it’s on till August 21st), but I thought I’d share a few thoughts anyway.

• Besides being a terrific photographers with great eye, Kenna is also a terrific printer. His prints were on par with those I’ve seen of Ansel Adams. What I love about Kenna’s work is that he prints all his work in one format – his square prints are all printed approximately 8 inches wide, and matted for 16×20 frames. When exhibited together, aestethically, they tell a story. Smaller prints also let the viewer focus on the content rather than a print itself.
• The gallery itself has a large collection of Kenna prints on hand. If you missed the exhibit, but would still like to see them, pay them a visit, and they’ll be happy to show the prints they have on hand. After the book signing was over, I spent an hour looking through their Kenna prints collection. I think I found a few I’d love to save up and eventually buy. Kenna prints start at $2,000 and go up in price depending on how many they’ve sold so far.
• Kenna turned out to be a very nice guy. I spoke to him for several minutes during and after the book signing. He answers questions thoroughly and with a smile.
• On top of that, he also has a beautiful writing. Not surprising, considering he’s all about simplicity and visual beauty.
• Kenna told me that he tends to work in projects, but he usually has several going on at the same time. That’s how I tend to work as well. I can’t just focus on one project, but I find that I’m much more productive if I have several going on at the same time. Right now Kenna is focusing on Korea, China and other places around the world. Next year he’ll have a big project in Russia, where he recently accepted an invitation for 300-print exhibit. While there, he plans to travel and shoot in Siberia, where he’s never been before.
• He told us that he shoots with just five lenses. He used these same lenses for years now.
• He still prints all his work by himself, without any assistants.
• While there, I end up buying Ratcliffe Power Station book. What a beautiful body of work.
• Kenna turned out to be younger than I thought, but also taller than I thought he would be. He’s probably 6′4 or so, if I was to guess.

Pacific Tank Farm, Reno, Nevada

The much awaited update to Lightroom 3 is now available from Adobe. Judging by the list of bugs they fixed, it’s a major update. I’m downloading it right now. I am hoping it works as well as they describe, because I was frustrated with how buggy and slow Lightroom 3 has been for me. So much so that recently I’ve been tempted to switch back to Lightroom 2 that worked flawlessly for me before. I spend more time in Lightroom when I’m working on my photographs than in any other software. I am hoping I can take my mind off how problematic that part of my workflow has been.

The list of fixes is here.

I finally convinced myself I need an eReader. I read at least one book a month. I think having an eReader in my bag would actually help me read more. I know I don’t need an iPad – it does too much and it is too expensive for how it performs. I don’t like the prices for data plan either, and I know I’d want one so I could use Google Maps or whatever else. I just need something to read books that is not backlit. After spending all day long on a computer, the last thing I want is to spend couple more hours staring at another screen.

I decided to order Amazon’s Kindle. The price on it dropped to $139, and from all eReaders I tested, it has the best screen for what I want to use it for.

So I go to Amazon to order one, and what does the web-site says?

Temporarily Sold Out. Order now to reserve your place in line. Due to strong customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out. Order now to reserve your place in line. Orders are prioritized on a first come, first served basis. Orders placed today are expected to ship on or before September 8th.

That’s actually kind of irritating. Here is the biggest issue – Amazon releases new version of Kindle at least twice a year. I don’t want to wait a whole month to get one just to have them release a new model for Christmas.

I can’t imagine Apple dropping the ball like this with a release of a new iPhone or iPad or MacBook Pro. Yes there are long lines on the day they release their product, but not a month long.

Get your act together Amazon. You’ve released a great product but clearly dropped the ball on sales forecast.

Pacific Tank Farm, Reno, Nevada

One of the more frequent question we get as photographers from our non photographer friends is which camera to buy. I typically offer a couple cameras I am familiar with, and then refer them to sites that specialize in camera reviews and tips for beginners. I’ve recently found another good site that offers that kind of service. That site is DigitalImagingHQ.com. From those who are new to photography and are looking for their first camera to the seasoned vet, Digital Imaging HQ is a good place to start.

Take a look here.

Earlier this morning I had a chance to play with my new 10-stop ND filter “Big Stopper” from Lee. I finally got it in the mail after ordering it almost four months ago. So far I’m impressed. I’ll play more with it this weekend, and will leave a more detailed review later.

This photograph is a 10-minute exposure.

A few of you who visit my blog shoot weddings. Maybe I’m just ignorant, and all Swedish people get married like that. But I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like this before. They’re simply the strangest wedding photos I have seen. Check out the link below. The man who’s getting married is Henrick Zetterberg, Swedish star hockey player who plays in the NHL for Detroit Red Wings. Many of his guests are also Red Wings players.

Anyway, take a look for yourself – link.

UPDATE: Puck Daddy has an article with more photos and explaining why they’re all dressed like this. Clever people. Take a look here.