Here’s a HD (720p) field video test I recently did with the PEN E-P2, the diminutive DSLR from Olympus. I shot it in South Florida, and it features tropical plants and flowers. No additional equipment beside the camera and the 14-42mm kit lens was used. The sound you hear is from the in-camera microphone. The DSLR was hand-held, and I had motion-stabilization turned off.
When I edited the video, I tweaked the colors just a little bit, but the images are pretty much right out of the camera. No software motion stabilization was used, either. You’ll see that the kit lens is quite capable of macro shots and it gives beautiful bokeh under the right conditions. There’s even a surprise shot at the end. Try to guess what it is.
ComputersOFF.org is hosting a virtual Green IT Week from June 1-7. This is an issue that’s of particular importance to me. Having been an IT director, I know how much power the combined laptops, desktops and servers of an organization can consume, and how much pollution is generated by the disposal of computer hardware (see this post, and this one as well).
I’ve written about this topic since 2004. Here are three of my articles that deal with saving energy in IT:
Electronic Waste: Minimizing the negative impact of information technology use on the environment, and
Energy Efficiency: Using information technology to help solve environmental issues
They’ve put together a few facts that help to drive home their message, so I’m going to quote them below.
By turning off your computer each night or when not in use (i.e. lunch times, weekends, when in meetings at night) for a year you save as much energy as it takes:
to run a clock radio for 1,392 weeks
to make 9,280 bags of microwave popcorn
to wash 464 loads of washing
to use your blow dryer for 5,568 hours
to vacuum for 464 hours
to produce 3,480 plastic bags
to run your microwave 24 hours a day for a week
to boil your kettle for 24 hours a day for 268 days
By turning off your computer tonight when you leave work you will save as much energy as it takes:
to run a clock radio for over 3 weeks
to make over 20 bags of microwave popcorn
to wash over 1 load of washing
to blow dry your hair over 12 times
to vacuum for over 1 hour
to light a 100 watt light bulb for over 10 hours
For both companies and individuals, there are some really easy actions they can take to reduce their energy use, including:
Turning off computers, games consoles and TVs when they are not in use
Setting your computer to “sleep” after 15 minutes of inactivity (this reduces the power it uses because “sleep” mode is a lower-energy use mode for the computer to operate in)
Turning devices off at the power point (because even in standby mode your appliances are using electricity)
Buy green energy (to help push electricity suppliers to convert from coal based production – which creates greenhouse gases and requires mining – to sustainable technologies like wind power)
Buy and use a laptop instead of a desktop computer. Laptops only use 190kW (average) of electricity per year.
Want more of these neat factlets? They also have 100 Green IT Tips. They’ve put together a video as well, where various celebrities endorse the cause.
Make sure to check their website from June 1 to June 7 for more good info about Green IT.
The spring season in a temperate climate is a wonderful time, isn’t it? If one is affected by such things, and I am, the colors, the new life, the fresh air, the sunshine, and the chirping of the birds can make you ecstatic with joy. Just as winter can be a time for quiet thought and reading by the fireplace, and that sort of thing is much-needed after a full year of work, spring is when you can get out of the house once more to explore nature as it comes back to life.
I thought I’d put together a little collection of some of my best spring photographs, taken in states such as Maryland, Virginia and DC. There are 50 photos in this post, all of which you can see individually below, or in the embedded slideshow.
Therefore, I selected 44 photographs which you can see here. The rest are in my photo catalog. I’ll start at the micro level first, looking at individual buildings, then I’ll show you a few New York cityscapes, taken from above and from the bay. Enjoy!
What’s perhaps the best known building in Manhattan?
For someone who’s seen and loved both versions of “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947 and 1994), this store is quite well known.
One of my abiding photography subjects — as a matter of fact, a principal subject of my photography — is architecture. I keep coming back to it. I love photographing interesting buildings. I spent most of my time in New York walking about, as I usually do when I go somewhere, with my camera in hand, looking at buildings and capturing what I found interesting. Continue reading →
I’ve decided to try something different, and lowered the prices for the web-use photo licenses (the 1 megapixel sizes) to $3 for personal uses and $5 for commercial uses. These sizes are great for article illustrations, or for header images for your websites, or even for desktop wallpapers. A typical 1 megapixel image is a little larger than 1200×800 pixels.
This is essentially micro-stock pricing, but you get access to my premium image collection. I’m going to see how this works out in a few months’ time, and I may adjust the price back up if the economics don’t make sense.
If you’ve been on the fence about licensing a few of my images, now is the time to jump in and try things out. Have a go, browse my catalog and see what you like.
Raoul Pop 