Fujifilm FinePix HS10

Just Posted! Fujifilm HS10 Review

The Fujifilm HS10 is easily the most DSLR-like bridge Super Zoom digital camera. As if to make the point clear, the HS10 makes no excuses by looking like a DSLR and handling like one with its deep grip, manual zoom ring and lots of dedicated control buttons. The HS10 is targeted at those who want DSLR functionality without the hassle and expense of investing in additional lenses and other accessories.

[ Read more in our Fujifilm HS10 Review... ]

OK, there’s art, Art and ART. But this takes the cake home with dead flies and some scribbling by an “artist” calling himself [or herself?] “Flychelangelo.

View the gallery at: SkyNews.

The iNotePad features natural finger flipping page turning and freestyle writing and drawing using a carbon-tipped stylus.

[ via Bits Rebel ]

Many of us love to send our best pictures to Photo Contests. Sometimes the prizes are worth it, at other times, we just thrill to get credit. But beware, not all photo contests are good for you — or your pictures.

Most photo contests have submission rules. You should always read them carefully. Most of them are written so that contestants are judged fairly — and cannot sue the judges and participating sponsors. There are also rules on the use of the winning entries by the sponsors. Once you submit your pictures, you are granting the sponsors the rights to display these pictures to promote the contest. Usually, the winning entries can be used by the sponsors for the sole purpose of promoting the contest for a period of a year. The winners also agree that they cannot enter the winning entries into other photo competition during that time. After the year is over, the winners are free to use the winning entries as they see fit. At all times, photographers retain the ownership rights to their entries.

Then, there are the lazy [unethical?] sponsors who simply claim the rights to use your entries for anything they want — for perpetuity.

These are the bad photo contests you want to avoid. Unless you want to outright sell them your photos for the price of the prize, which is what it really amounts to. Still, some rules state that your entries (whether they’ve won a prize or not) now belong to the sponsors.

We admit we’ve been lax on this issue when featuring photo contests on this site, but we’re going to pay more attention and avoid those that are unethical.

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According to studies conducted by the different researchers at five universities and published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, spending only 20 minutes a day in nature increases a person’s “vitality” and sense of well-being.

Take a walk in the park during lunch time. Not possible? One study shows that even being exposed to photos of nature scenes enhanced subjective vitality. So next time you go for a walk in a garden, bring your camera and capture those scenes to display on your living or office room walls! It’ll make everyone at home and office feel better!

Read the article at: Futurity.org.

[ via @alltop ]

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D-Day

Mixed in with the soldiers crossing the English Channel and landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, were those entrusted not with a gun but with a camera to record the start of the liberation of Europe. Their pictures record the terrible price we paid in the Allied soldiers, as well as Germans soldires, who were killed or wounded during the battles that ensued to take control of the five heavily fortified and defended Normandy beaches that were stormed: Sword (British troops), Juno (Canadian troops), Gold (British troops), Omaha (US troops) and Utah (US troops).

The Normandy Landings were also known under the code names Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord. It started with an air assault landing of American, British and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight, followed by an amphibious landing at 6:30am on the five beaches of Normandy. Though by the end of D-Day, most intermediate objectives were met and the Allies were back in Europe, it took three months to capture Normandy.

Approximately 14,000 Canadians landed in Normandy on D-Day, about 450 jumped by parachute or landed by glider, and around 10,000 sailors of the RCN participated. Estimates vary, but there were over 1000 Canadian casualties, with more than 400 killed that day alone.

The French Resistance played an important part in the plan for Overlord, orchestrating a massive campaign of sabotage by attacking railway lines, ambushing roads, destroying telephone exchanges and electrical substations. The resistance was alerted to carry out these tasks by means of the messages personnels, transmitted by the BBC in its French service from London. Among the stream of apparently meaningless messages broadcast by the BBC at 21:00 CET on 5 June, were coded instructions such as Les carottes sont cuites (“The carrots are cooked”) and Les dés sont jetés (“The dice are thrown”).

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