David Brauchli's blog

I constantly see photos and stories from California about people's homes getting burned up in fires and, on occasion, there is a fire elsewhere in the country. The last time I was visiting Boulder a fire broke out on the grass lands just east of the mountains and it made for spectacular smoke, but not much damage was done. This fire though, was different. It started up in the mountains behind Boulder and because it's been so hot and dry lately, it took off. The wind was also whipping up, not uncommon if you are familiar with Colorado, and it fanned the flames to an inferno. The blaze took off up Fourmile Canyon and burned down at least 92 homes. People were evacuated down the valley to Boulder while the fire fighters went up to the hills to see what they could do. Nature has smiled on Boulder and it rained yesterday and the fire now is pretty much under control. The Sacremento Bee has a photo gallery of the fire, I wonder where the local paper, the Denver Post's photo gallery is. 

A slurry bomber drops a load of retardant on forest land on September 8, 2010 near Boulder, Colorado. More than 6,000 acres have burned in the Fourmile Canyon fire, including scores of houses and other buildings. Getty Images / John Moore

My first thought when I saw a photo of the coolpix P7000 was, "Man, that thing is Ugly." Normally I don't put happy snap announcements up here because they aren't something which you could make a really good photo with, but in some cases, as with the Canon S90-95 or this camera, it's a good second camera to your DSLR. Also our former instructor Bob Krist had some hands on time with the camera and posted a little article about it as well. Also Imaging Resource has a preview of the camera with some different views and some thoughts on performance. Anyway, below is the press release and a photo from Nikon. 

Nikon UK, 8 September 2010 – Nikon Europe today announces the launch of a high performance COOLPIX model, the P7000, that sets a new benchmark for quality photography in a discrete and stylish package. The result of extensive research amongst professional photographers, the COOLPIX P7000 delivers outstanding images in a less intimidating form factor than a SLR.

Did you know that if you take your computer or camera abroad, when you return to the US you can be subjected to search by customs? They have the right, under the homeland security act to ask you to open up your computer and show them what's on your hard drive. They can also look through any photos you have on your camera and any other portable storage devices you may have. And if you refuse to cooperate they can confiscate your computer and copy your hard drive to find out what you're hiding. Scary. 

Wow, what a year for natural disasters. By my count we are at three major earthquakes, three volcanic eruptions, two huge landslides, three major floods and two hurricanes. This doesn't count the man-made disasters which include the decapitation of the Polish government in a plane crash and the countless dead animals and ruined wild-life in the Gulf oil spill. Watch out 1989, this year has the potential to be the most important news year ever.

I was happy to finally see some photos of the Mount Sinabung eruption on Indonesia's Sumatra Island. I had heard about it on the BBC but since there weren't thousands of dead or fleeing, it got fleeting reportage on the radio. Fortunately Tim Reese over at the Sacremento Bee's The Frame put together a bunch of agency photos to show the explosion. The mountain continues to rumble, frightening residents away and confounding scientists.

Mount Sinabung spews volcanic materials into the sky as seen from Tanah Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Friday, Sept. 3, 2010. AP Photo/str

I just came back from the photojournalism festival in Perpignan France. It was nice, there were a lot of photo exhibitions up detailing events from this year. What I found disturbing though was the lack of anything that was "catchy." There were lots and lots of photos from Haiti, probably because it's a former French colony and it's close to the US, and the photos were nice. But there was nothing from Pakistan, a Muslim country where millions have been displaced by horrific floods. I saw no photos from the volcanic explosion in Iceland which touched off some of the greatest economic disruption of the year. There was nothing from the gulf oil spill.

When I questioned a couple of people about this, they said, well, lots of peopled died in Haiti, how many got killed in Chile? I found that weak reasoning. To me photography and photojournalism is about documenting events and making beautiful pictures. How many people get killed should absolutely not factor in when it comes time to choose photos for an exhibition or what will win a contest. Anyway, Pakistan continues to be flooded, people are displaced and the Boston Globe has another excellent gallery from all sorts of photographers. 

Mohammad Ramzan, a flood victim, places his hand on the door that was left after his house was washed away by flood in the Mehmood Kot village in Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan's Punjab province September 3, 2010. (REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood)

Press Release:

TOKYO and IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 2 - Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. and its parent company Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO: 6502), a leading innovator in NAND flash memory technologies and solutions, today announced the launch of 8GB (gigabyte)[1] 16GB and 32GB SDHC UHS-I cards compliant with the SD Memory Card Standard Ver. 3.0 (SD 3.0), UHS104. These new SD cards offer the world's fastest[2] SDHC data read and write speeds. Toshiba also extended its industry leadership in memory card solutions by unveiling the world's first 4GB, 8GB and 16GB microSDHC UHS-I cards compliant with (SD 3.0), UHS50.

Mass production of the new SDHC UHS-I cards and sample shipments of the new microSDHC UHS-I cards will start this November.

The new SDHC UHS-I Memory Cards are the world's first memory cards compliant with SD 3.0, UHS104. With a maximum read speed of 95MB per second[3], and a write speed of 80MB per second, the products introduce a new level of ultra-fast read and write speeds to NAND flash based memory cards.

Yeah, summer is just about over. In many places it was hot hot hot (not in Prague though, just a couple of weeks were decent summer weather the rest of the time, blah) and people took full advantage of it to dive in and go swimming. The Boston Globe's Big Picture has a themed gallery showing lots of different people diving into various swimming places. There are some nice features, interesting motion pictures and good moments. 

A man jumps into a river to catch ducks during a duck-catching competition held by the Chengdu Water Sports School in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China on August 7, 2010. (REUTERS/Stringer)

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 3.2, Camera Raw 6.2 and DNG Converter 6.2. These are final versions of updates that were originally posted as 'release candidates' on the Adobe Labs site, and are now available for immediate download. The latest versions provide final RAW support for sixteen recent cameras, including the Canon EOS 60D and Sony Alpha NEX-5. The updates also add more than 120 lens profiles and fix a number of bugs.

• Windows Adobe Lightroom 3.2
  
• Mac version Adobe Lightroom 3.2
  
• Windows Camera Raw 6.2 and DNG Converter 6.2
  
• Mac Camera Raw 6.2 and DNG Converter 6.2

Most of the photos we see these days from Afghanistan are from the soldiers, US, NATO or Afghan, fighting, shooting, being wounded, dying and mourned. What we often fail to see is why there is a war in Afghanistan in the first place and who it's really affecting. Tim Reese, the editor of the Frame, Sacremento Bee's photo page, has put together a really nice set of images that show some soldiers, yes, but also a lot of daily life stuff in Afghanistan. The gallery gives one a very nice feel of what it's like in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan. 

A vendor waits for customers inside a bakery in Karte Sakhi neighborhood in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 8, 2010. AP / Rodrigo Abd