I’m still posting these on Flickr. I’m going to create a full set out of them that will be printed and sold as a Folio, and also downloadable in PDF. Stay tuned.

The list of fixes is here.

Pacific Tank Farm, Reno, Nevada

Take a look here.

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.

San Jose, CA

Please be patient. This move have not been easy, but when it’s done, my web-site will work significantly faster than it did before under my former host.

Want to participate in a good cause and also win Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended? Here is how.

Last fall, I participated in a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and with the help of many of you I was able to raise over $2,000 for a stair climb we did. Cystic Fibrosys is a rare but deadly disease that affects the lungs and the digestive system of individuals, and currently there is no cure for it. The family we are good friends with, Brett and Carmen, have a son Jackson who has CF, who is our son, Maks’ best friend. In fact, they play together in our home every day (I took this shot just minutes ago – can’t get that boy to smile for the camera – maybe if I had Canon cameras…). While right now there is no way to tell that the kids are different on the outside, Jackson has to take a number of pills every day and participate in an hour of therapy every day to maintain his health.

We have a strong belief that the doctors will find the cure for this disease in our lifetime, and we want to continue raising money for this cause.

Brett and Carmen are participating in a fundraising event, Great Strides, this coming Saturday. I am helping them with the fundraising for the event. 100% of all donations go directly to the foundation and into research surrounding the disease.

This time there is an extra incentive to donate. Our friends at Adobe have been kind enough and donated a couple of items to help the fundraising. The two items are two full licenses to Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, or to any product within the CS5 family (InDesign, Acrobat Pro, Dreamweaver, etc.), if you already own CS5. Here is how we will give those two awesome prizes away.

First, we’ll give away the license to a CS5 product to the largest donor this week.

Second, all remaining donors will be entered into a random drawing for the second license.

To donate, please go to the donation page I set up and make a contribution there.

Here are the rules of how to enter.

- Any small donation counts and will be entered into the drawing.
- You have to donate before Noon, Pacific Time on Friday, May 21st. The drawing and winners will be announced here on the blog shortly after that.
- After you donate, if you want to double your chance of winning, you can do so by sharing the link to this post on your blog, on Twitter, or on Flickr and then sending me the link via email (ivan@ivanmakarov.com), so I remember to put your name in the drawing twice.
- The winners will be able to choose between Mac or PC versions, or other CS5 product.

That’s all! If you have a few spare bucks in your pocket for a good cause, and if you’re interesting in getting a license to an Adobe CS5 product, this is your chance.

Last Saturday was a beautiful “summer” day here in the Northern California and we headed down to Carmel to the beach. Maks kept asking that we go, and I had a hard time saying no this time, seeing how I just bought a lens I’ve been long dreaming about – the beautiful Nikon 85mm f/1.4.

I love that lens for two reasons. First, it is extremely sharp – definitely the sharpest lens I ever shot with. This shot shows you how sharp it is at f/1.4, but it gets even better once I hit f/2.8. Second, I love that lens for how it renderes the out-of-focus area of the photo. When I first rented that lens, I never wanted to shoot with my 50mm ever again.

I plan on using that lens mostly for portrait and family shots.