Tamron has announced the making of a 70-300mm F/4-5.6 telephoto zoom lens to celebrate Tamron 60th anniversary. The new lens can be used with both 35mm and full-frame cameras or with APS-C cameras. It also features Vibration Control (VC) and a USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive) auto-focus drive.

For the time being "the high-resolution DSLR telephoto zoom lens has been produced for the Nikon mount, with the development of compatible mounts for Canon and Sony to follow.
[...]
With superior optical performance, Tamron's own USD (Ultrasonic Silent Drive) and VC (Vibration Compensation), the SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD (Model A005) provides the performance of a high-end premium telephoto zoom that is appealing to a broad spectrum of photography enthusiasts." Tamron Press Release

Another thing to be noted about this lens is.. the New optical system [...] with specialized glass elements including an XLD (Extra Low Dispersion)

Nikon owners enjoy! Everybody else (me included) wait your turn

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the German company has also produced aircraft engines, motorcycles and bicycles and has brought forth many engineering solutions, for example from aircraft engines to racing engines and than from the racing track on the normal road and I have the best example for this: the 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL, the fastest production car of it's day!

The 300SL describes the 2995 cc straight-6 engine and the "SL" stands for "Sport Leicht" or put in plain English "Sport Light". The car has it's origin on the race track, being based on the highly successful 1952 Mercedes-Benz 300SL racing model, code named W194. The 1954 road model 300SL was codenamed W198.

Noteworthy is also that the 300SL was the first production car to feature direct chamber injection, technology that Mercedes took from aeroplane engines, which made the car's engine able to produce almost 230 PS, compared to the actual carbureted racetrack version which developed only 115 horse power (86kW). The direct injection was a Bosch mechanical direct fuel injection system.

This particular car was requested by the New York Mercedes distributor and official USA importer Max Hoffman. He told the Mercedes-Benz AG management in Stuttgart Germany that the market, especially the US market, is well prepared for such a car taking into account the economic boom after the Second World War. More than 80% of the vehicles produced were sold in the USA.

After it was first introduced in 1954 as a closed sports car with distinctive gull-winged doors the German car company also offered the 300SL as a open roadster. Until the production of the model ended in 1963 Mercedes sold 1400 gull-winged coupe units and 1858 roadster units.

Today the value of this car is quite high being a popular collection item for car enthusiasts. In 2009 a couple of 300SL models were offered for sale from the Foxwood Collection at over $1.3 Million US Dollars.

I'm a car passionate and loved photographing this car, I think it is the car I took most of my time on from the entire Stuttgart Mercedes Museum and trust me it had plenty to offer. For most of the shots I used the available light and the on camera flash did not help as much as patience did. Why patience ? I had to wait for all the other museum visitors to pass by, to photograph the car, to try again or to listen to the guide while walking round the car.

I'll post more about other cars I have photographed during my visitation in the coming days.
Until then..

Cheers! Z.

Long story short, I got this little shot here which I really like a lot and it turns out that not just me. I decided to gave the pictures to my friend since they are his pets anyway and he placed the next one on some pet owners forums.

As you can see if you followed the link on my image above, it got a few votes in the pet image contest, reason enough to be a little bit happy, but that is not the explanation for the title at all.. no, this is a happy shot because.. well, just look at the image.

And if you want to see it larger you can check the shot on my flickr stream:

Zmurfu.

Who collects information and makes a tourist profile?
Most commonly this type of study is conducted by national Ministries of Tourism, for example the Ministry of Tourism from Mexico made one study of this type to find out the Tourist Profile and Satisfaction Level.
There are other institutions that collect and analyse this type of information and make this type of studies, for example within the European Union and at EU level, which is not a state and as such has no actual Ministry of Tourism.

The entire commune has 16.082 residents, split among Baiersbronn village with 5.735 residents, Friedrichstal, Mitteltal, Obertal, Tonbach, Klosterreichenbach, Röt-Schönegründ, Huzenbach, Schwarzenberg, Schönmünzach and Schönmünz with only 162 residents.

With such a small community that receives plenty of tourists all year round people are cheerful and welcoming. We went there to find some ski slopes and were amazed by how trusting and friendly everyone is there.
One example is at the ski renting shop in Baiersbronn village, where they were closing shop on Sunday at noon but let us keep the skis all day with the promise to put them behind the house, with a small paper note in them stating our names, before we left. Where would you find something like this ? Complete strangers renting a couple of ski equipment sets and than walking away on promise to bring them back in the evening.
Another example is that we left our gloves and hats and a pair of snow glasses on a bench near the slope elevator when we got there and they were still there in the evening when we packed things into the car.
Not to mention that everyone on the ski trail was friendly and helpful even if at times bothered involuntarily by some of us making mistakes and falling off the cable while going up.

And at the end of the day we left for home tired, happy and with a few lovely photos from which the ones posted above. Sometimes things just go right.. happy with the photographs and the time spent there, now all that's left is to get back there before summer comes and melts the snow.

Cheers!

Enjoy!

On his blog, photographer Robert Caplin, who did the cinematography for the film, says:

I'm very excited to announce the launch of "Betrayed", a short thriller co-written and directed by Joshua Grossberg and starring Seth Gilliam (The Wire), PJ Sosko, and Cara Buono (The Sopranos). Betrayed, one of the first narrative works to be shot on the Canon 5D Mark II, follows husband and reporter James Vance (PJ Sosko) who mysteriously disappears, but not before leaving a cryptic video diary leading law enforcement to unravel the crime of his demise.

Betrayed was co-written and directed by Joshua Grossberg, who according to IMDB is also writer and producer for "A Bridge Life: Finding Our Way Home" documentary, following Katrina in September 2005.

What can I say about the short film from the trailer is that the images are incredible! And so they should, considering the great camera which the 5D Mark II is and most likely the nice lens sets that Robert Caplin and Joshua Grossberg could put together. Best if you watch it yourselves and make your own opinions on the matter (share if you dare).

If you want to learn more you can visit the official website at betrayedshort.com and read Robert Caplin's photography blog.

Enjoy!

The Nikon competitor:
"Vincent Munier - Summer Variations - Nikon D3s"

The images are very captivating and very expressive and they should be as they come through Getty, Associated Press, Reuters, etc. and that implies of course real quality. As you may have already guessed the article presents in photos people at work, but the trick is these images come from all over the world and capture a variety of professions and people in different circumstances. I think that the article, as a whole, so both Part I and Part II, is in very good spirit especially in these times of economic troubles.

My favourite images from both parts are, in no particular order: At Work Part I - image 1 - the man and the clocks, just have to love the light; At Work Part I - image 17 -
the shallow depth of field makes me wonder about the details at the tip of that pincer; At Work Part II - image 30 - the dof is great and the dark dirty hands in that light truly inspire in me the hard work of the miner.

So best if you watch and read the details yourselves.

The Boston Globe "At Work"
The Boston Globe "At Work" Part II

Enjoy!

According to a few newspapers from the UK an amateur astronomer by the name of Mr Shah has managed to modify his garden shed, install a retractable roof and a telescope linked to his computer. Armed with these tools, 20.000 pounds poorer, lots of coffee and the support of his wife Lisa, Mr Shah lost countless nights to produce some amazing space photography. And I would not be writing about it if there was nothing to see.. and that it is!

You can view the gallery on http://www.astropix.co.uk where you can also find information about buying Mr Shah's picture book or contact him for information regarding his technique and astrophotography.

If you are lazy and just want to view the the gallery, hier is the direct link: http://www.astropix.co.uk/ps/index.htm

Enjoy!

About Bryan F. Peterson
I thought you may not know who Bryan Peterson is, what he does, etc. and I wanted to know a little more about him myself, so I did a little bit of search engine digging. Also, it just feels right to give some sort of background to the person in the above video.
Here are a few facts about Mister Peterson: takes amazing photographs for a few decades already, commercial photographer, his client list includes companies like Kodak, UPS or American Express, author of "Understanding Exposure" and "Learning to see creatively"; the Bryan Peterson photography website.

Hope you enjoy.