- The usual announcements
- RX1R III size compared to my previous street cameras
- 7.5 Weeks on the Road
Saturday, August 2, 2025
7 1/2 Weeks on the Road...
Friday, August 1, 2025
Stumbled onto 3 Star Trek artifacts...
[This blog post is an addendum to the 7 1/2 week travelogue. It has nothing to do with photography. GF]
So here we were in Sandusky, Ohio near Lake Erie. After a full day of driving the motor home, we parked for the night near a shopping mall. I went inside for a walk because I needed the exercise and besides, it was air conditioned.
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
The West Has Two Gods
![]() |
An example of western religious symbolism, where God #2 exists outside of you, somewhere up in the heavens. (Contrast this with most eastern religions, where God is everywhere, including inside us.) |
Recently, out of the blue, my wife asked me: "Do you believe in God?"
"It depends on which God you're talking about", I responded.
Monday, June 30, 2025
Someone at Godox Should Be Shot
Also in this issue:
- A6700 Update
- Safari Update
- Two projects worthy of your attention
- The latest edition of Cameracraft is free to read
Someone at Godox Should be Shot
I get offers all the time for free photo gear if I either give the reseller a positive review or if I post a glowing review of the product on youtube. So far I've only accepted the offer once. But a few days ago I got an offer from a Godox reseller wanting great exposure for Godox' latest low-end product, the TT520III Flash. (And if you're been reading my blog for awhile, you'll know that I really love Godox flashes!) Here's the email I received from the reseller:
===
Hi there,This is an authorized Godox seller, and I'm excited to invite you to review our latest product, the Godox TT520III Flash! I believe your insights would be invaluable to our community.
Saturday, May 31, 2025
Keeping an Eye on Generative AI
![]() |
My grandfather died when I was 2. Here's an image of the two of us fishing together. |
Also in this issue:
- New update for Sony A1 II ebook (printed versions, too!)
- Cameracraft Update
- Safari Update
- Lecture I gave at a pioneering microcomputer workshop
Way back in 2023 I took a deep dive into the burgeoning field of generative AI for CameraCraft Magazine. And in this blog post I summarized my findings and created a list of what developments would be necessary in order for these tools to be truly useful for real work.
Since then I've been keeping my eye on the field's development and the amazing work some of the users are able to generate. But I don't want to jump onto that bandwagon while the industry is still immature - I remember learning how to program analog synthesizers in the 1970's and that head start got me absolutely nowhere.
Fast forward to two weeks ago - my older brother (who looks quite a bit like me) was reading my April Fool's blog post from 2023 about my short-lived acting career, and he sarcastically responded, "Yeah and I had guitar lessons from Jimi Hendrix and Steve Howe!" That got me thinking...
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Masking Unmanageable Hair
- A1 II's 199 MP image vs. Samsung S23 Ultra's 200MP image
- Kenya Photo Safari II is open for registration!
- The usual announcements
- Viewer Mail
- Geeking with Gary - EV charging networks are the wrong idea
Creating Photoshop masks for highly detailed objects has always been a challenge. In the past I had a few techniques that worked pretty well, but if your goal is to add a dark background behind your subject the shortcomings of those techniques start to show.
Very quickly, here are the techniques I've used and their strengths and weaknesses:
Friday, February 14, 2025
The Inverse Square Law - Have I been lying all these years?
Also in this issue:
- Kenya Trip Report
- Next Time in CameraCraft Magazine
- Upcoming Seminars
- In the Pipeline
The Inverse Square Law
Imagine you brought a gun into space, and fired a bullet. Newton’s first law of motion says that bullet will travel forever in the same speed and direction, unless hindered by something like spacedust or diverted by the gravitational pull of a planet or star. (You would also go flying backward when you fired the bullet, but that’s a subject for another time.)
Photons work the same way. They keep going full strength until impeded. That’s why the light from the sun isn’t attenuated by the time it hits the earth.
My parents, taken with a point-and-shoot with pop-up flash. Under these conditions, if the subjects are different distances away, only one will be exposed correctly. |
Thursday, January 9, 2025
Saving Lives in Uganda
![]() |
Dr. Benjamin Warf, Professor of Neosurgery, Harvard Medical School |
He also founded a hospital with the help of CURE International, a charitable organization which builds children's hospitals worldwide. Most of them are orthopedic, but Ben was a neurosurgeon for children. And this would be the first and so far only dedicated hospital to children's neurosurgery in the developing world.
![]() |
Dr. Moses Ochora, Pediatrician at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, CONRIM-U project investigator |
While there Dr. Warf discovered a strong correlation between the Hydrocephalus (“Water on the Brain”) cases he was seeing in infants there, and an infection early in life. These infections also seemed to correlate to instances of Neonatal Sepsis (a severe infection in the first month of life). He began doing studies.
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Kenya Trip Report
[Ed. Note - This post is an amalgamation of two blog posts from Dec 15, 2024 and Feb. 14, 2025.]
-
So here I was, on my way back from Las Vegas, and I came across a run-down old building that has a certain "character". I pu...
-
Also in this issue: The Next Seminars Other Tidbits My New Favorite Travel Camera When it comes to travel photography, there was al...
-
Also in this issue: How I shot the video Copenhagen, Colorado, and California Seminars are happening! A65 / A77 book is out, and timel...