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Nikon D5000 with Vari-Angle Monitor 12.3 MP CMOS Sensor – Advanced Amateur & Professional Digital Camera

Ranjay Mitra — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 05:21:14 +0000

Nikon USA has released the key notes on the new Nikon D5000 digital flagship camera. Targeted towards serious amateurs & new professionals, the Nikon D5000 features a 12.3 mega-pixels CMOS sensor along with a 2.7 inch vari-angle LCD monitor.

The Nikon D5000 imbibes the Nikon patented EXPEED processing technology & the camera includes a movie mode to appeal the camera to amateurs as well as professionals.

The Nikon D5000 is now available on Amazon. There are Nikon D5000 kits available with paired lens & discounts:

Nikon D5000 has the D-Movie mode to capture video clips at 720p HD movies with sound. This lets you expand your creativity with combination of images & movie clips.

Being a new camera, these following field guides are helpful:

You are Invited to Melange – Solo Photo Exhibition by Debanjan

Ranjay Mitra — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:54:48 +0000

One of my best friend & a great photographer, Debanjan is having his solo exhibition at Melange.

His photographs will be showcased at the Photographer’s Gallery in Kolkata from the 27th of December through the 31st.

Debanjan has been a prolific photographer. And besides his job at an IT MNC, he finds time to take to the streets with his cameras.

He is a traditional photographer. In the sense that he still works with his film SLRs. He has a good eye for both monochrome & color images.

This solo exhibition is a milestone – that it is possible to have a full time job that takes up 15 hours of your time everyday, every week of the year, and yet excel in an art where your heart lies.

In his own words:

try to look at the beautiful world in both Colour as well as Black & White.. I try to see beatuy, struggle, simplicity and peace in all that I try to capture through my camera.. it’s an ongoing journey and am thoroughly enjoying it

On behalf of Debanjan, I am extending this invitation to all my readers. You could also follow his activities on flickr where he posts very regularly.

Journalimage.com Launched

Ranjay Mitra — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:29:34 +0000

From: Photoduniya.com

We have finally launched journalimage.com, a website & blog specifically for street candid pictures and documentaries. After having your trust & readership for almost two years, your constant feedback, suggestions for more concentrated street photography and encouragement have convinced us to move ahead with journalimage.com.

If you have not started already, I would be very eager to hear from you on your experience with street photography. And as for the tool to share, WordPress is the best. I have spent sufficient time pondering over various blogs and tools, but I have not found one that could hold a candle against WordPress. It is as easy to set up as it is a pleasure to publish.

I shall keep posting on this blog too, but do update your bookmark with journalimage.com.

Nikon Vew & Picture Project softwares to be retired

Ranjay Mitra — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:52:46 +0000

NOTE: We have moved to Journalimage.com from Feb 2008. Please visit us on the new site & update your bookmarks.

From: Photoduniya.com

Nikon intends to remove the two popular softwares Nikon View & Nikon Picture Project from the market by the end of February 2008. Both these were very popular digital imagine softwares primarily used for copying, moving images between devices, sorting and archiving.

Nikon technical support team is allowing a full version download from their website and suggests that people who have a high dependency on these back up their data.

You could download the softwares from the Nikon Technical Site here.

New York City – making the homes for the homeless

Ranjay Mitra — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:12:31 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

NOTE: We have moved to Journalimage.com from Feb 2008. Please visit us on the new site & update your bookmarks.

The weekend prior to Presidents Day, while New York city, like the rest of the country was busy rushing from store to store buying as many items on sale as possible, a few young people were out on the chilly streets in Broadway trying to make a difference to the almost 50 thousand homeless, one person at a time.

All they asked for was a dollar. But the busy shoppers were even more keen to escape the fright of being asked for a donation. Albeit, changes could be brought by a few and rejoiced by all.

Musicnation.Com – copycat & desperate to survive?

Ranjay Mitra — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:58:25 +0000

I have had my pictures copied by many people. Most of them had either the courtesy to either let me know or to refer to my post. I was really shocked & rather insulted when http://musicnation.com/ (MusicNation), thought it wise to send me a link of a place where they have just renamed one of my images.

To add to the whole act of a desperate crook, they even went ahead and wrote obnoxious statement on Craig. No wonder they had no reference to what they were writing. Here is a link to Craig’s image on the post on Music Nation – http://mnmedia.musicnation.com/Blog/2008/080124/oldmanclarinet.jpg

Here is the original post on my blog, made on15th August 2007.

http://nonphotographer.wordpress.com/2007/08/15/san-francisco-street-artists-clarinet-by-craig/

I could think of the people behind this website of Musicnation.com to be no less than cheap and have no respect for either the music or the musician. Here is the post I am referring to – http://musicnation.musicnation.com/blog/2008/02/street-musicians-part-ii & the last image on that post is that of Craig.

They don’t realize that we could easily make a watermark on these images. However, we do not do that so that the readers get to see the image at its best!

Alan Rabinowitz – a mission to save the Jaguars

Ranjay Mitra — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:34:07 +0000

Mr. Rabinowitz of the WCS, New York, has been fighting his personal battle to save the wild habitats of the Jaguars. The “necklace” as it is called, is a strip of of green forest nearing Panama in South America that has been very crucial to the successful revival of the Jaguar population.
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As for the video, its am amazing 90 minutes if you are interested in film making, photography, traveling or saving the wildlife, and the delicate eco-system. But more than just that, it re-instates in us the feeling of worthy selflessness and the incredible strength one needs to have to stand up for a cause. Jane Goodall, who made a strong forte in my heart by moving into social oblivion, and so has Alan Rabinowitz.
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The National Geographic documentary, In Search of the Jaguar, gives us a tiny glimpse into the life of Mr. Rabinowitz as well as his eternal struggle to save the Jaguars. If you would like to help Wildlife Conservation Society please call or visit their website.

PMA 2008 – New Nikon Camera & Lenses

Ranjay Mitra — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:32:59 +0000

NOTE: We have moved to Journalimage.com from Feb 2008. Please visit us on the new site & update your bookmarks.

Its been a week since the PMA 2008 and the news of Nikon’s new camera and lenses have already flooded the markets. The new D60, another 10.2 megapixels digital camera for the amateurs, with in-camera photo editing capabilities and an auto dust cleaner. Priced at about US 700.00 dollars for the camera it is on the higher end for the amateurs.

Along with that Nikon also rolled out 3 new lenses. Though the new VR tele lenses (500mm et all) are yet to hit the shelves in US, the new ones probably will be retailed sometime in June or July 2008.

AF-S DX Nikkor 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens – this is a G lens, which makes it usable only on the electronic cameras. The focal range is very attractive for street shots and travel photography.

AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED is more of a close up lens, but the specifications say that the nearest focus point is 0.6 feet – and that isn’t quite attractive. But if you’re using a 1.5x crop camera, you could still get a good magnification for the distance. This is again a G lens, which makes it quite difficult to use on the manual cameras.

PC-E NIKKOR 24mm f/3.5D ED lens with its tilt shift capability and the wide angle is a good make. Although,if you’re using a low end camera with a 1.5x crop, you will not benefit from the wide angle (effective focal length on a D200 or a D300 is 36mm). But put it on a D2X or a D3 and you have some powerful composition at hand! It is nice though that Nikon has relaunched the Perspective control lens again. The 85 mm PC lens is still in the market, and this is a welcome addition for the serious photographers.

New York experiments with Street Music with Joshua Bell

Ranjay Mitra — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:22:10 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

This article was published a while back in April 2007. Washing Post, NY wanted to do a small experimental study on busking and had set up Joshua Bell to play some of the classics on his violin. The experiment was to study the impact on busy people walking by as well as the by standers.

The Le’Enfant plaza is an ordinary station, with either a mediocre or slightly above the average crowd most of the time. However, this experiment does bring the light a few things in my opinion.

there are extremely talented people who play on the streets – my project in San Francisco was an eye opener
while not many people “seem” to care, there are a lot more who do, in the music, in the art. Most of the time it is just the hour that matters
people do help as much as they can, either a quarter or a bill. I have known an incident in San Francisco where a busker was mugged off his accordion. His fellow buskers got together, pulled up some cash and got him a second hand accordion in a few weeks time. Such incidents could be rare for statistical purposes, but does occur. It is also difficult to keep measuring these incidents of goodwill
music and art is universal and so are the artists. They are a very small but critical part of the cultural face of the city

Here is the link to the post. It also has a very short video embedded which is, in my opinion, a poor way to undermine the whole art and concept of busking.

Street Musicians of San Francisco

Ranjay Mitra — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:19:23 +0000

From: photoduniya.com

The musicians who I have been meeting and photographing for the last one year has more to think of than just music. Playing on the streets and attracting the law keepers is in itself a big challenge. While normally the policemen do not prevent the musicians from playing, it is not so legal to earn money like that. In a way, that act becomes very similar to peddling or hawking, and hence illegal.

Playing within a private property is not allowed. And music which requires electrical boom boxes raise the sound level and hence has its own restrictions.

Think of it. Right in front of Macy’s, where thousands are shopping shoes and fancy clothes for hundreds of dollars, and a musician playing for four hours could make about a hundred dollar if he is very lucky! What a shame! Over and above that, the paid private security also flexes their muscles whenever they can.

Good news! Early this month, the San Francisco Port Authority acknowledged the Street Musicians and plans to certify them to play, entertain and sell their work on streets. You could read more on the San Francisco Street Musician’s Guild page. The detailed plan is now being worked upon by the authorities and the musician’s representatives.