Saturday, March 12, 2016

ShelterBox

A brilliant and practical solution to really useful disaster aid: ShelterBox.org.
They started getting really noticed during the Japan disaster.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Love must illuminate

Our ol' doctor friend Pascal (he's not around so often now, as he's got his own clinic established) wrote this, I don't know where it's from, but it seems it's an original Rassi:

Le vrai amour, c'est comme la religion: il doit illuminer, pas éblouir au point de rendre aveugle. -- (Pascal Rassi)

Translation:

True Love, like religion, must illuminate, not dazzle to the point of blindness. -- (Pascal Rassi)

Wednesday, March 09, 2016

"Less Gear More Photos"

This guy gets it: LessGearMorePhotos

You always hear that in order to become a great photographer, you need to have your camera with you all the time. I always wanted to be that guy, the guy who carried around his [big, heavy] DSLR all the time, but to tell you the truth, I already carry a backpack, lunch bag and gym bag out to my car every morning. I tried to carry my big camera bag too. It worked for a few weeks, but inevitably I’d wind up putting it in the car each morning, and then taking it out (along with the three other bags) when I got home…with no photos on the memory card. Then the next day I forget to take it with me or just not feel like it, and kick myself when the sunrise/clouds/sunset/rainbow/storm/light/fog/foliage on the Hudson River looked amazing and I had no gear with me.

It was Olympus designer Maitani's life work: designing cameras that were as small as possible for the image quality. He wanted the perfect "take-everywhere" camera. I'm not sure we have it yet, there are many good choices, but compromises in them all. But things are moving fast now in the digital age, so in five and ten years it'll look different yet again.

The new Olympus Pen-F. A beautiful camera, and compact and light for the quality and powers it has. 

Monday, March 07, 2016