June 2016

Adobe revs Photoshop, Creative Cloud with some cool new tools and VR support

I’ve been using the new June update for Creative Cloud for about a week, and am enjoying both the new Content-aware Crop feature in Photoshop, and the native 360-degree video support in Premiere (anyone who has tried to edit 360-degree video in a traditional video editor knows how painful it can be). There is also much improved integration with Adobe Stock for those of you who buy images, rather than sell them. On the sell side, Adobe has also promised a spiffy contributor portal for Adobe Stock, but no details yet on when it will be available. You can read my .

New Sony RX10 III field-tested: The ultimate all-in-one Superzoom is now even better

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 III Digital CameraNo one like carrying a lot of camera gear, or changing lenses. But for many of us it is a necessary evil to get the shots we want. But the question I get asked most is "I want a camera that does it all, but I don't want to carry several lenses or a big backpack or tripod, what should I buy?" The new is an excellent answer. With a 1-inch-format 20MP sensor, and a 24-600mm super-zoom lens from Zeiss, it takes remarkably good images for an all-in-one camera, and it does it across a massive focal length range. The big upgrade from the Mark II is an increase in zoom range from 200mm to 600mm at the long end (resulting in a slightly larger, and more-expensive, camera).

Exciting new discoveries about the extent of cities surrounding Angkor Wat and other Cambodian temples

Cambodia’s Khmer temples are not only a wonder of the ancient world, but one of its great mysteries. With almost no written record of what was once a vast kingdom, researchers have been left to speculate about its origins, rise to power, and ultimate fading from glory. The large stone structures that remain have many inscriptions that help explain the kingdom’s religious life and the facts about the royal family, but are largely silent about the society, culture, or even the technology that helped Khmer agriculture power an aggressive campaign of expansion and conquering neighboring civilizations. The extent of its cities, and whether the area was an extensive urban sprawl or merely a set of disjoint small cities has also been a subject of conjecture -- until now...

OPTIC 2016 Trip Report: Outdoor photo extravaganza courtesy of B&H Photo

I’m just back from an East Coast swing including some fun bird photography on the Eastern Shore (hands-on with the coming soon!). The highlight, though, was definitely B&H’s OPTIC 2016 conference & tradeshow. Now in its second year, OPTIC was bigger and better this year, with more sponsors and more speakers. The tradeshow floor featured a wide-variety of cameras, lenses, accessories, and photographic service offerings. My thanks both to B&H (David Brommer, Deborah Gilbert, and the rest of the team) for hosting, and especially to DataColor for sponsoring my talk on Photographing the Bears of Alaska (based on the 17 years I’ve been capturing them on film and digital, and 15 years of ). Here are some of the highlights of the show for me...