Pete's Eats

CII, originally uploaded by thelastwordisrejoice.

From the group ‘Camera Toss‘.

Are you brave enough to throw your camera in the air after setting a long exposure? :s

Some amazing photo’s in the group’s pool though…

As evidenced by the large amount of photo entries here recently, I’ve re-found my passion for photogrpahy somewhat… I know I’m not that good (yet, hopefully) but posting them here at least offers the opportunity for folks to criticise if they want to (and, please do so – I’d like the feedback, good or bad…).

I’ve been a heavy Photoshop user since v2.5 now but thought I’d do some research at Microsoft to see what kinds of things we have to offer too. I have to say, I was pretty surprised at the content I found and thought I should share…

• Microsoft Pro Photo – a site devoted to professional photographers with news, blog, articles and events. I’ve only just started to explore this site myself but I’m pretty impressed so far. One of the recent news items there is announcing a partnership between Phase One and Microsoft.
• Microsoft Photo Info – an add-in for Windows Explorer that enables you to see and edit the metadata of an image without opening another application. This is actually pretty handy.
• Microsoft Pro Photo Downloads – a download site, linked from the Pro Photo site. Features some great apps, articles and utilities such as Synctoy and various Photoshop workflow pieces.
• Microsoft Research Group Shot – use this to create a composite image from a series of photos. I haven’t played with this yet, but it’s from MS Research so should be worth it…
• Photosynth – browse large collections of photo’s in 3D. You have to see the videos to get this.
• Seadragon – not specifically for photo’s, but imagine being able to view large images like this if you’re a pro photogrpaher… The speed is amazing and will be seriously useful in a studio environment I think.

So, some pretty good resources so far. I’m sure there are some more hidden depths to explore too…

Great news, Baidu.com, Asia’s biggest website by unique users, launched their first Silverlight site last night.