My New Toy!

I have been thinking of getting a new lens and I finally did get a new one last Saturday! It wasn't an easy choice because I went over my budget. But then, people said it's a good investment.

So, what did I get? Ta-nan....it's the Canon 17-40 f4 L lens! They said it's a good walkaround lens and I kinda like the wide-angle coverage. Other options I had in mind were:

• Tamron 17-50mm f.28
  
• Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L
• Canon 24-105mm f4 L IS

The last 2 are really out of my budget. :)

I'm happy because I feel that my camera looks 'professional' now! hahaha! Can't wait to try this out when I go to Indonesia this week. I'll post pictures later on.

Here's a picture of the lens, courtesy of amazon.com:

A Bit of Photoshop History...

John Nack (from Adobe) posted a link to all splash screens of Photoshop. It's nice to remember how long you've been using this application just by looking at the screens. Here's a link:

http://photoshopnews.com/feature-stories/photoshop-splash-screens/

Other things that you might want to see:
- photoshop icons: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/images/ps-icon-history.gif
- photoshop toolbars: http://photoshopnews.com/feature-stories/photoshop-tool-bars/

John Nack's blog: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack

Krispy Kremes in Manila!

For those of you excited to taste Krispy Kremes in Manila, we got free samples last Saturday at Hobbes, Greenbelt 3. I don't know if they still have it, but it doesn't hurt to try it out.

Krispy Kreme opens on Nov 30 at the Fort. Hobbes has a store beside them that's why they're promoting Krispy Kreme.

Btw, treats are in store for the 1st customer to ring the cash register: a 1 year supply of Original Glazed doughnuts.

Prices of doughnuts in the Philippines: P30 for original glazed doughnuts and P38 for assorted doughnuts.

PAC-MAN!!!

Congratulations, Manny 'PACMAN' Pacquiao!

kuler - new from Adobe Labs!

Checkout http://kuler.adobe.com/ ! It's new from Adobe Labs.

With Kuler, you can browse, create and share color themes for your web pages and other design/creative projects. You can then download the theme and use them with Adobe Creative Suite 2 apps!

You need to have an Adobe ID/Account to create your own. It has a nice interface and it's very very simple to use. It even gives you the RGB combination so you can easily use it with your projects. Here's a sample of the interface.

Lightroom Killer Tips!

For those of you using the new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, check out this new site from Matt Kloskowski called the Adobe Lightroom Killer Tips!

It's a videocast and you can subscribe it in iTunes or view the videos from the site itself.

Go check it out! I downloaded it immediately when I found out about it. Also, if you haven't done it yet, go download Adobe Lightroom now for free!

Aperture 1.5 Trial Version

Big update from Apple - they made a trial version of Aperture available to everyone! Is this a move to compete with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? I think so. Lightroom is offered for free (since it's still in beta), and this is the only way for Apple to attract more photographers to use their product.

My initial impressions - Lightroom is very simple to use and light on the machine. Aperture requires more processing power. Aperture's interface seems to have been designed for advanced photographers. Meanwhile, Lightroom has the simple menus like presets to fix white balance, etc. I will find time and post my comments on Lightroom's latest version (beta 4.1).

Apple also posted an update to Aperture (version 1.5.1 now).

Links:
Aperture -> www.apple.com/aperture
Lightroom -> labs.adobe.com

the BTT guy!

sunset and BTT
Originally uploaded by stephan_alba.

A very very nice sunset silhouette by Stephan... bonus points to those who can guess who the person is and what he is doing... hahaha!