Well Howdy Y’all.  This is a special Texas post.  That’s because I am actually in the Lone Star state for a few days visiting family.  I’m still going to try and get my daily posts in but they might be a bit shorter for the next few days.  But enough about that.

Yesterday I was reading John Nack’s special guest post over at Photoshop Insider and while he was talking about all of the reasons why Adobe develops the features that get put into new versions of Photoshop, he mentioned something that caught my eye.  John was making reference to Matt Kloskowski’s suggestion of semi-translucent dialog boxes.  John’s opinion was pretty straightforward when he said “I think translucent interface elements generally suck: they make it harder to see both what you’re adjusting and the controls for adjusting it”.

That got me to thinking though and I have to admit that semi-translucent boxes are a pain… but what about transparent dialogs?

So here is my idea, when you have your cursor on top of a dialog box, it appears normal (see below).

If you want to see the image behind it, just move your mouse cursor off of the dialog box and it becomes transparent, yet still shows the pertinent information.

Just move the mouse back on the box and it’s back to normal again.  This would probably never work and I can’t think of a program out there that uses anything remotely like this but I figured if everyone else was throwing out their ideas for the new Photoshop, why not me.

When I wrote my post yesterday I think my tone was misinterpreted by some readers who thought I was angry with Nikon for launching the D700.  What read like anger was actually confusion.  To that end, I thought I would give a little clarification.

So why was I confused?  Because I was having a little trouble understanding why Nikon would release the D700 when the D3 and D300 have been flying off the shelves.  I only see the D700 as hurting sales for both the 3 series cameras.  That being said, I think the D700 is absolutely the best of both worlds!  I have shot with both the D3 and D300, favoring the D3 for the full frame, dual card slots, and great low noise/high ISO images.  At the same time, I thought that it was lacked some of the best features of the D300 like dust removal and the pop-up commander flash.  I was also a little disappointed that Nikon didn’t roll out a D80 replacement to bolster their lower end consumer lines.  The D40 and D80 are getting very long in the tooth and are in need of replacements that utilize some of the newer technology in a mid-level camera.  I can say that if I was going to spend my hard earned cash on a new body, the D700 would most certainly get some serious consideration.

Now on to some other news:

More TinEye Info

The other day I wrote a little article about some new technology called TinEye that allows photographers to search for their images on the Internet.  If you were intrigued with this new technology and wanted to learn more, you will definitely want to tune into Jim Goldstein’s Exif and Beyond podcast.  In Episode 18, Jim interviewed Leila Boujnane, CEO and co-founder of Idée.  Idée is the creator of the TinEye search engine technology.  You can find the Interview here.  By the way, Jim is the talented photographer behind the very popular JMG-Galleries blog.

America loves B&H

Or maybe we just love B&H Gift Cards.  And if you want a chance to get your own gift card, then you will want to enter your best “America” themed photo into the TJP Photo Contest.  In honor of the 4th of July, Towner Jones Photography is holding a contest for the best photos that represent America.  The winning entry will receive a $25 B&H Gift Card.  How sweet is that?  So if you want to throw your photo in the ring, head on over to Towner Jones Photography for all the info (entries must be received by July 3rd for consideration).

According to the news from the overseas site Nikond700.com, the D700 has been officially launched.  Of course this is still un-official here in the States (update: it’s official!  check out the official D700 website) but there has been some serious buzz and leaked press that I am now pretty convinced that it’s accurate.  According to the reports, the D700 is pretty much the D300 with the full frame FX sensor.  The price is also reported to be in the $2500 to $3000 range.  If all this is true, I am struggling to see the reason for this camera being released.  My only thought is that Nikon saw the success of the Canon 5D with the full frame sensor and felt that they were missing out.  Meanwhile, Canon is starting to clean up on the lower end of the consumer market with 6 digital SLR models priced below the Nikon D300.

The Nikon D700 will also pull sales away from both the D3 and the D300 models which have had strong sales since their release.  What really surprises me is that Nikon didn’t replace the aging D80 or bust out a 23MP full frame D3x.  I guess what I find most surprising is the name.  What happened to the 400, 500, and 600 models?  I suppose if you were torn between buying the D3 and D300 you now have the best of both worlds in a mid-priced package.

The one thing that does make since is the release of the SB-900 flash.  The SB-800 has been a technological wonder that has completely changed the way photographers use flash.  It only makes since for them to carry the technology into a new flash unit.

Click on images for a larger view

This weekend I saw a story (courtesy of Imaging Insider) over at Automotive Traveler about car photography.  The title of the story was Car Photography for Dummies and it is intended to help those that are photographing cars for publication or even eBay.  After all, the better your photographs of your car, the better your chances of selling it.  The article gave some great tips on shooting cars but I did see one downside to it in that the article assumed that you could move the car around and shoot it in the best light possible.  So what if you couldn’t move it?  In fact what if the only light you have available is that suckiest of all light, the mid-day sun.  This is what you will probably encounter if you want to shoot at car shows.  So how do you overcome these problems?  Well, in my case, you shoot the details.  I really love classic cars and one of the things that really makes them appealing to me are the details, the curve of a fender, the design of a grille, the shape of a hood ornament.  By focusing on these details, I can usually overcome the lighting, the location, and even the crowds.  Here’s a car show collection from the past couple of years (click on the thumbnails for the larger versions).