WE’VE MOVED – PLEASE FOLLOW US…

Topical Optical  has relocated to a new location and the transfer of RSS and EMail subscriptions is sketchy at best… so.  Please make sure you follow us:

• FULL NEW SITE (http://topicaloptical.com)
• Subscribe to Topical Optical RSS FEED
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Thank you!  We’re going to be bringing some fantastic new content (thus, the move to a new host) and don’t want you to miss any of it!

Little help, please! WordPress.com -> WordPress.org

This blog started out as a way for me to share some images and just post some random musings on the world of photography. But in the two years I have been doing it, it’s grown to a level far beyond anything I’d ever expected. It’s opened wonderful doors for me, and helped forge new relationships with people who I respect and who I admire.

But as I am humbled and (quite frankly) amazed by the traffic it is now getting, I am looking to offer options and features which are simply not available on its current host.

I am beginning the absurdly arduous task of moving it off of the centrally hosted WordPress.com, to a self-hosted option utilizing WordPress.org. This is going to take some time as I don’t want to launch the new site without it being on par with this one. I have the site itself set up and hosted, and moving the posts and comments has been fairly easy (through an export XML file), but I’m unable to move other things like images and layout/UI settings. I also want to make sure that readers and search engines can find the site when it goes live at the new URL.

If anyone has been through this before and can offer some advice, please let me know by either commenting or sending me an email at contact@garretthauenstein.com

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App – Slideshow

Yet another update of the 500px BETA iPad app was released today. I’ve never seen a development team work quite this fast and yet still release a relatively bug-free software.

If you haven’t read my three previous posts which describe the app in detail and show off the screenshots for the main pages of the app, please see:

• BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App
• BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App (Part II)
• BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App – SCREENSHOTS

Today… The update included, among other things, the release of the very solid Slideshow feature.

This feature allows you to

• Run a slide show beginning with the thumbnails on any given screen
• Use any one of three transitions
• Play music from your iPod app while the show runs (optional)

• Slideshow Launch Menu – In the bottom left corner (also available in the upper right corner on full image pages) is the Slideshow button. From there, your options for setting the parameters of the Slideshow appear.

• Music Selection Screen – When you select the ‘Music’ button, you may select multiple tracks from your iPod by artist, track, playlist, etc.

TIP: Any photo enthusiast worth his salt knows that Toto’s Africa makes an especially good backdrop for Landscape photos (Ed. Note: This statement is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the musical preference of 500px, although we’re pretty sure they would agree, because… honestly, who the hell doesn’t love that song?)

As for what the Slideshow actually looks like, it is the full screen version of the photos, as crystal clear as if you’d expanded the images manually, which was described in my previous posts.

More updates to come as new builds are released!

Technical Difficulties

We’re sorry… but we’re having some technical issues with our hosting today… please be patient.  We will be back to 100% soon enough.

Nikon’s PR Disaster – RESPONSE

After the misstep of posting the following  on their Facebook Page:

“A Photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses.” 

Nikon has issued the following reponse:

“We know some of you took offense to the last post, and we apologize, as it was not our aim to insult any of our friends. Our statement was meant to be interpreted that the right equipment can help you capture amazing images. We appreciate the passion you have for photography and your gear, and know that a great picture is possible anytime and anywhere.”

We all got a good chuckle out of this.  It was so obviously just poor choice of words and not a legitimate sentiment by the camera giant.  Forgive and forget… I’ll let the love affair with my two Nikons and various Nikkor lenses continue now.

Adobe Lightroom 3.5 – Now Available

 

 

Today, Adobe moved Lightroom 3.5 out of RC status and made it officially available.

 

 

It includes the following updates:

• Additional camera support for over 20 new camera models including the Nikon Coolpix P7100, Olympus E-PL3 and Sony SLT-A77
• Corrections for issues introduced in previous versions of Lightroom 3

To download the latest version, visit the Adobe Product Download Page

Nikon's Huge Public Relations Error…

Nikon published a post on their Facebook Page stating:

 

 

“A Photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses.” 

 

 

Now, I understand the sentiment of this, but when you actually stop and read it, it can be taken as:

1) You can’t shoot good photos, unless you have [our] “good” gear.  

Or even more scandalous…

2) Your “good” photos, are a a result of our “good” gear 

… thus totally discounting your skill and hardwork in the process. 

This is more humorous to me than offensive.  But really… just a wonderful example of why it’s important to have the PR team run the post by someone before it goes live.

How much enjoyment do you think the folks over at Canon are getting out of this.  🙂

 

 

Nikon’s Huge Public Relations Error…

Nikon published a post on their Facebook Page stating:

 

 

“A Photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses.” 

 

 

Now, I understand the sentiment of this, but when you actually stop and read it, it can be taken as:

1) You can’t shoot good photos, unless you have [our] “good” gear.  

Or even more scandalous…

2) Your “good” photos, are a a result of our “good” gear 

… thus totally discounting your skill and hardwork in the process. 

This is more humorous to me than offensive.  But really… just a wonderful example of why it’s important to have the PR team run the post by someone before it goes live.

How much enjoyment do you think the folks over at Canon are getting out of this.  🙂

 

 

BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App – SCREENSHOTS

This afternoon, I was informed that the restrictions on NOT publishing any Screenshots from the new 500px BETA iPad app had been lifted.  As a result, I am pleased to finally be able to show the images below.  I’ve been asked to reinforce the fact that this is a work in progress, with changes being made daily.

 

If you haven’t read my two previous posts which describe the app in detail, please see:

BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App (30 minute review) and BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App (Part II)

 

• The iPad Splash Screen – As I said before, they are holding a contest to find an image to be the permanent “front door” of the app.  I think this one’s pretty good… but hey… who knows.  You slide your finger across the bottom right corner to open the app.

 

• The Main Screen of the app – This is in Portrait mode, my preferred orientation.   I have a thumbnail for a landscape view below.  You’ll notice the navigation menu on the left side of the screen with all of the options you need.  To the right of the menu, 12 crystal clear thumbnails.

Click image to see Landscape view:

 

 

 

 

 

 

TWO MORE SHOTS AFTER THE JUMP:

BETA REVIEW: 500px iPad App (Part II)

THIS IS A FOLLOW UP TO PART 1 (read first)

NOTE:  At the time of writing this, I was asked NOT to include Screenshots, thus there are not here.  But since then, they have lifted that restriction.  Please see THIS POST FOR SCREENSHOTS.

I received an UPDATE to the 500px BETA iPad app this afternoon and finally had a chance to sit down and play with it this evening. I wanted to just offer a couple quick updates, letting you know what’s happening with it.

Already I am growing more and more impressed with it as it seems they are taking to heart some of what I brought up in my first review. Now… I have it on good authority that these changes were already on the books to be implemented, but it is so much more pleasing for my ego to think I played some role in this.

Seriously though… Banged away on it for an hour tonight and I am noticing the following changes:

• Fresh Gallery: Yes! The newest images. Offered from a menu on the left side along with all the other options.
• More Export Options: For individual images, you can now ‘Open in Safari’ and ‘Export to Tumblr’

On a separate note… Something I neglected to mention in my original write up: I’d really like to see the ability to Filter by Category in all of the galleries. On the website, I am able to select (from a drop down) which type of images I want to see, i.e. Landscape, Fine Art, Macro, Portrait, etc. Maybe even a search by tag… But I don’t think i even need that much sort power, so I’ll just stick to the Filter by Category request.

Again… Still looking good. Load times and image quality still top notch. For the new Fresh functionality, increasing my rating to:

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Still waiting to see where we net out on some other points mentioned in the first post. Until next time…