On last Tuesday, Saint Barth was celebrating its Carnaval. Funny to participate to a carnival with such kind of temperature and scenery!
There is also a flickr dedicated photostream here.
Saint Barth – Part VI
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Saint Barth – Part V
Some fantastic panoramic views from the terrace of our (rented) villa in Saint Barth. These panoramic pictures are based on 5 to 7 pictures and are stitched with The Panorama Factory (v3.4).
Be careful, the original versions are quite big:
- 8.1 MB, 6’976×1’708
- 12.4 MB, 7’773×2’043
- 11.3 MB, 8’383×1’990
Not so bad, as I didn’t use any tripod…
Saint Bart – Part IV
Yesterday, before the Saint Barth carnaval, a good time at the Shell Beach.
http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf
4th HD video from Saint Barth – Some sunsets
Some of the fantastic sunsets we have seen last year, from the villa Ella.
In about 10 days, we will there again, so I don’t know if I will publish new ones or not till then ;-)
Let’s see!
As usual, you should have a look at the high-res version here.
http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf
Gosh, 37 years old!
Yes, today is my birthday. 37 years old.
Thanks to Laurent and Mathieu for their wishes via Twitter.
And thanks to Stephen, Thomas, Patrick, Robert, Géraldine for their nice words via Facebook.
And thanks to all my friends and colleagues who have sent me a mail, as Martine, Doris, Bruno, Manu, Olivier, Andreas, Salah.
And thanks to all, my friends and family, who has contacted me per telephone today.
And thanks to my wife and son, Laurence and Julien, for their surprise this morning :-)
Special thanks to Martinique for her Frangipani (picture taken in Senegal).
And to the Xing team for their virtual birthday cake ;-)
From an Innoveo CI/CD point of view, Andreas (our designer) won the price ;-)
A year more, but thanks to everybody, a nice and brilliant day!
PS: yesterday evening, we had a cool dinner at “La Table de Louise”. Very nice local, very friendly and professional service, great food, and … 3 birthdays to celebrate the same evening at 3 different tables :-)
Vincent Laforet is just great!
via Marc Silber
Marc Silber, who is regularly bringing very interesting information and inputs concerning photography and visuals (his blog, his portfolio, his press-room), has posted a link to a video from Vincent Laforet.
I haven’t known the work of Vincent before and … what for a visual shock! This is a MUST-HAVE-SEEN to my mind. Very innovative, fresh, emotional, and just beautiful at the end.
“Waiting for the swell”
http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf
The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version
“Taking off”
http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf
The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version
Who is Vincent Laforet
From his blog, impressive bio!
Vincent Laforet is a New York based commercial and editorial photographer who is regularly commissioned to work on a variety of fine art, advertising, corporate and editorial projects. His approach to aerial photography has been singled out as one of the most unique and interpretive amongst photographers today.
At the age of 33, his work has been published in most major publications around the world and he has been sent on assignment by Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, and Life Magazine. In 2006, Laforet modified his staff position at The New York Times to become The Times’ first national contract photographer.
Vincent’s fine art prints are exhibited in galleries internationally including the International Center of Photography in New York City, and Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, and are part of numerous private collections.
Vincent was recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine in 2005 and was named one of the “30 photographers to watch under 30″ by PDN in 2002. He and four other photographers were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for their post-9/11 coverage overseas in 2002. His work has been recognized in the Communication Arts Annual, PDN Annual, The SPD Magazine Cover of the Year, The World Press Photo Awards, The Pictures of the Year Competition, The Overseas Press Club, The National Headliners Awards, The Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Vincent is a Canon Explorer of Light and Canon Printmaster and serves as consultant to companies such as Apple, Bogen, Lexar, and X-Rite. He and his work have been profiled on CNN and Good Morning America.
Vincent has been invited as a keynote speaker by a variety of organizations and universities from around the world. He has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the International Center of Photography. Vincent is represented by the Stockland Martel Agency. He resides in Manhattan with his wife, Amber, and son, Noah.
What you should look at
A lot of great visual material are available online on the portfolio website of Vincent Laforet.
Have a look, for example, at the Paniolo cowboys Hawaii in the Adventure section, or at the Golf digest in the Sports section.
All the best for 2009!
Some thoughts concerning 2008+ and wishes for 2009.
Looking back to … 2008+
Actually, 2008 started for me already in 2007 :-)
Difficult to make the cut in January 2008, as we have started Innoveo in October 2007…
So, below, some pictures which are representing my 2008+, a mix of private and professional stuff, as usual.
And, without explanations, for sure ;-)
All in all, 2008 was again extremely “different” and “stable”.
- Different, because I could learn a lot of new stuff, a bit more about myself, meet a huge amount of persons, very smart and people-oriented. A lot of new experiences, in so many different fields, wow :-) And, on top, a strong and deep feeling of being very lucky to be able to lead our own company with Nick . Different also, because it is the first time that I feel so clearly the quite high pressure, even positive, of leading a company and being “responsible” for this company!
- Stable, because I had the chance, first, to work with and for the same great people! I like very much this ecosystem! Stable, secondly, because my family and private life is solid, full of happiness and great private moments. I don’t like stability, excepted in these two fields ;-)
What about 2009?
Looks interesting, isn’t it? As during all the downturn and crisis time, we will all have our ups and downs.
Hopefully with more “ups”, and not too deep “downs”!
Flexibility will be essential, as speed.
I wish you and your beloved ones all the best for the exciting coming year, a lot of fun, good wines and meals (!), success in your new business(es), and a lot of new learnings!
And keep dreaming :-)
Take care, Didier
[click on the calendar-zone to enlarge]
My new lens: Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
I am using a Canon EOS 20D since April 2005 (!) with 2 lenses:
- an ultrawide-angle, the famous Canon EF 17-40mm, absolutely great
- a standard zoom lens with Image Stabilized, the Canon EF 28-135mm
I have taken a majority of my pictures with the 17-40mm, which is really very nice. Now, for travelling, and specially when you are in a “non-safe” atmosphere (humidity, dust, sand, etc.), it is quite difficult to change your lens. Without speaking about the transport ;-)
Canon has released this autumn a new lens, which is to my mind the “perfect” compromise between an ultrawide-angle and a zoom lens, the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6, with Image Stabilization, but without the USM (Ultra Sonic Motor). Perfect compromise for the usage means also automatically … some optical compromises! Which “forces” me to start to use a “post-production” software, to be able to correct some very visible optical aberrations (barrel distortion, chromatic aberration, softness, etc.) with this lens. I am using DxO Optics Pro, but I will talk about that in a coming post!
Good summary from Wikipedia
Reviews indicate that the 18-200 does not compare to the 28-300L in terms of image quality, though this is understandable since the latter is priced much higher, due to it belonging to the L-series line. Most reviewers have criticised the lens for high levels of barrel distortion at the wide end, and chromatic aberration and softness evident at all focal lengths and apertures. The lack of an UltraSonic Motor has also been noted by reviewers, and along with the 18-55 IS has given rise to concerns that Canon may be moving towards removing USM from their lower-end lenses. It has generally been rated higher than Sigma and Tamron’s offerings however, and has gotten generally positive reviews with the caveat that it is designed for convenience rather than image quality.
Some detailed reviews
Snow – part II
As said before, heavy snow again ;-)
Snow at home today
First snow yesterday evening.
And it is snowing again right now ;-)
