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Long-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus scolopaceus, Bécassin à long bec). Brazil, 2007.

In September 2007, the Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that the Terrorist Screening Center (the FBI-administered organization that consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States) had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 - and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month. [1]

Interestingly, this statement allows to believe that by June 2008 the list will have grown to 1 million terrorists in the US of A. I believe that Americans can be silly, but I doubt that one out of 230 is a dangerous moron attempting to end western civilization next time he or she will take a plane.

I suggest that you have a look at the astonishing list of “unlikely suspects” displayed in this article from ACLU. It includes US Senators and US Congressmen (and their spouses), war heroes, John Does with a common name, dead 9/11 hijackers, foreign presidents (dead as Saddam Hussein or alive like Evo Morales), pop star singers and toddlers.

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Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulphuratus, Tyran quiquivi). Brazil, 2007.

After more than 10 years, Turok comes back and you are ready to kill dinosaurs in a video game. The solo mission of this FPS may feel a bit short, but it’s fun enough to be thrilled while killing lizards on your PC screen.

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Guira Cuckoo (Guira guira, Guira cantara). Brazil, 2007.

You may think that I am partial presenting you this portfolio today. Yes! Anne Roumazeilles is my nephew. But I really love what she does while she only began shooting photos a short time ago.

I let you judge these images taken in Île de Ré (on the Atlantic coast of France) and feel free to leave a comment (or constructive criticism).

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Copyright (C) 2007-08 Anne Roumazeilles - All rights reserved.
For Jacques.

Straight lines are actually really parallels.

It’s your brain trying to convince you they’re not.

Happy news here: I finally bought a lens I wanted for quite some time. I found and paid on eBay a Minolta APO G 400mm f/4.5 (Yes! The old white lens that is renowned so much for its optical and mechanical quality, while being nearly impossible to find in auctions).

It will go really well with the Giottos MT 8251 carbon tripod and the MH 1001-652 ball-head I bought a month ago in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China.

Soon to arrive from Osaka, Japan. I can’t wait.

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Brown-hooded Gull (Larus maculipennis, Mouette de Patagonie). Brazil, 2007.

Like all Internet reviewers, I hate this title because of the strain it puts on the writer just to put the name down on the keyboard. However, it has received a number of reviews. Let’s see some of them:

• JeuxVideoPC.com (screenshots)
• GameSpy (in English)
• CVG (in English)
• EuroGamer first impressions (in English)
• IGN (screenshots)
• Hooked Gamers (in English)
• All trailers
• Guru3D DX10 screenshots
• PCHG DirectX 10 video (Auf Deutsch)

I don’t know why (maybe because I’m looking for them) but I seem to find plenty of posts about optimizing your photography of food. Let’s share some of the best ones here:

• First, a real collection of them in one place: Big and Tasty Food Photography Tips Roundup.
• A smaller list of them: The Ten Tastiest Food Photography Tips, giving a list of things to manage correctly from the beginning.
• DIY: Light Beer describes a lighting problem for shooting clear bottles of beer.

This was a little event a few days ago: Adobe launched its first beta version of the online PhotoShop under the name of Photoshop Express. As it was easy to predict, it’s not as simple as marketing would like you to believe and you cannot replace one by the other as most of the reviews hereafter will show you:

• Les Numériques (en français): would better use Picasa to share the images prepared with Photoshop Express, and would want to see Raw files management, curves and histograms, and masks.
• Ars Technica (in English): it is rahter a cross between iPhoto and Adobe Bridge, but they love the basic features and (including color correction).
• Baekdal.com (in English) : disappointed; This is not an image editor, by far - just a fun way to apply a few corrections/effects. Woudl rather recommend Splashup, he feels is superior.
• Photojojo (in English): This is certainly not Photoshop but it does very well what it offers (basic image edition/correction).
• LifeHacker: Not the Full PS Package, but Good Web-Based Editing
• Pixinfo.com (in Hungarian): Honest! I didn’t understand what they think about it…

To notice: Photoshop Express is free, limited to 2GB of online storage (easy to reach) and in English only for now.