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Megapixel madness discusses a review I read comparing the Canon 30D with 400D where the review thought the 2mp difference between these cameras was far more significant than it actually is.

RAW vs JPEG is my take on the debate that still continues regarding the pros and cons of these formats.

Enjoy!]]> http://www.andysimages.com/sphpblog049/index.php?entry=entry070611-173613
However, here's a product that made me very excited: Delphi For PHP from www.codegear.com

What is it? Well, it's not a photography product but a web development product that harnesses the power of PHP (arguably the most popular web development language at the moment, certainly my favourite) in a way I have never seen before.

Anyone who has used Borland's Delphi or C++ Builder will know what I mean by this - they took quite tricky computer languages and took all the pain away. Using C++ Builder I can knock up a robust, fast and powerful application in hours - Andy's Art studio was less than a day's work!

But I have never found anything that made me really happy with Web Applications. Java is too 'big' and bloated for web applications (IMHO of course), and I have serious reservations about the language (despite earning some of my living from using it). 'Pure' PHP is relatively good, but getting a decent HTML display AND lots of power is tricky. Add a database and there's a lot of work to do.

Delphi for PHP removes all the pain - it seamlessly links with the Smarty PHP/HTML template engine to let me design powerful Web Applications that 'plugin' to my HTML user interface with ease. It's fair to say I'm in love with this product.

What will I use it for? Well, currently my galleries are built using Coppermine - a truly fine application. However, it does far too much for what I need and I also want a way of linking my Image Catalogue software to my web gallery. Sure, I could amend Coppermine, but that makes upgrading it a pain and it would take a lot of work to understand it all.

With Delphi for PHP I can design my own MYSQL database to mirror my Image Catalogue database; I can get my Image Catalogue database to directly update the MYSQL database and then use a Delphi for PHP application to display the gallery.

Currently, it's still in the design stage (which means it's in my head =:-O ) but my prototype worked well! I'll publish the new gallery when it's ready - there's no rush.

Many developers have commented that Delphi for PHP still has a way to go - certainly the documentation supplied with it is a bit weak, but the main areas (PHP docs and the PHP VCL (Visual Component Library) around which Delphi for PHP is built) are documented online, so it's not a big issue.

The main problem is the paradigm shift from Delphi (Pacscal)/C++ Builder to Delhi for PHP. Some concepts are the same, some are similar and some are totally different. Also, the PHP VCL is still a work in progress, so sometimes you have to work in pure PHP when you'd expect the PHP VCL to provide a solution but it doesn't. Not a big deal, really.

Also, Delphi for PHP comes with the PHP VCL source code, so bugs can be fixed yourself, without waiting for Codegear to issue an update.

It goes without saying that I like the product!]]> http://www.andysimages.com/sphpblog049/index.php?entry=entry070516-080003
UK based forums, such as www.globalphotosite.co.uk, make no such distinction, possibly because there are very few areas in the UK that are genuinely untouched by man.

Now, I have no problems with Forum owners making their own rules and I happily abide by them. But it got me wondering - why make this distinction, and can it really be justified?

Photographers such as Charlie Waite, Joe Cornish and Peter Watson have all published books of Landscape Photography which include people, barns, gates, road, tracks and the like. Yet, they still call them Landscapes. Charlie Waite, in the introductory section of 'The Making of Landscape Photographs' says something along the lines of man has contributed to and enhanced the landscape (this is from memory, I don't have the book to hand at the moment). Here he's not talking about areas where man has literally ruined the land, but he does seem to include towns and other man made things.

One of the US forums cites the The American Heritage Dictionary's definition of Nature as a reason for making the distinction. Here's the definition: "the world of living things and the outdoors".

Personally, I think this quote is meaningless. Man is a living thing and the outdoors is, well, outdoors :-) And these sites don't always abide by their own rules - one site has detailed restrictions on what constitutes 'too much' in the way of human elements to even be posted in their 'Human Elements' forum, giving detailed sample images. So, when a (very good) photo with virtually no discernible 'natural' elements gets posted, the site moderators rightly comment that the image is outside of the site's guidelines. Yet, the same moderators (I presume) then select this image as their 'Human Elements' Image of the Week :-0

Why do I care about this? In reality, I don't lose sleep over it and, as I said, I abide by these forum's rules and I don't question their decisions on their forum. Partly out of respect for their opinion and partly because of the emotional responses such posts have had in the past.

What bothers me is that some (not all) posters who defend the separation of Landscapes into human/non-human seem to think an image is intrinsically more 'valuable' or 'pure' with no human elements. Personally, I don't see it that way. Yes, man has shaped the land, sometimes detrimentally. But so have animals. True, animals are following their instincts, whereas man is (sometimes) being creative.

Now, no forum I know of has an 'Elements of Aviankind' forum (for images where the trees contain birds' nests) or an 'Elelemts of Giraffe-kind' for the areas in Africa where the trees have been virtually stripped bare by them. Why? Because it would absurd to make such an arbitrary distinction. So what makes human elements different?

For me, man 'arrived' on the planet by the same 'process' as the animals (and I think this logic holds true whatever you believe) and, therefore, we and our endeavors are as 'natural' as anything else on the earth. This is not to defend the abuse of freewill that can be seen all around us but, rather, to question the viewpoint that 'Nature' is a term that cannot be applied to mankind.

So I think the distinction between images with no human elements and some human elements is arbitrary and rather pointless. As I've said before in this post, I have no issue with any site owner making their own rules, although it would be nicer if they truly abided by them. I just can't see any real value in them. And that's why my Galleries section makes no such distinction.]]> http://www.andysimages.com/sphpblog049/index.php?entry=entry070516-075124 Ebay. This sale ends on 23rd May 2007.

Why am I selling it? Not because I don't like it, because it's a fantastic lens and has been the mainstay of my Landscape work for the past year. Rather, it's reach at the long end and lack of Image Stabiliser made me look for an alternative, particularly as a 'walkabout lens'.

In the end, after much research, I concluded that the Canon EF-S 17-85 IS USM would suit my needs. Optically, my test shots show that the Sigma has a minute edge where image quality is concerned, but you only notice this with images viewed at 100% on screen. Now, 100% on screen represents a 4 foot by 3 foot (approx) print - a ridiculously large size! For normal on-screen viewing and A4 prints, the differences are negligible. Sure, the Canon has a lot of distortion of the wide end, but software can fix that...

]]> http://www.andysimages.com/sphpblog049/index.php?entry=entry070412-094617
PhotographyBlog

Apparently, Kingston Memory are going to place vending machines for USB flash drives and digital camera memory cards in every airport and mainline railway station in the UK.

Hopefully, they'll be next to the chocolate vending machines - food for the camera and food for me!

Seriously, this is a pretty good idea - now that memory is almost the price of a candy bar, and the tendancy to forget important imtems that travellers have, being able to stock up in such a menner is a good thing...]]> http://www.andysimages.com/sphpblog049/index.php?entry=entry070410-035909
Here's an image taken on Sunday 8th April:



The only disappointment was the sunsets - they just didn't happen. Actually, that's a side effect of the clear skies - a good sunset needs some clouds...]]> http://www.andysimages.com/sphpblog049/index.php?entry=entry070405-033648 http://www.andysimages.com/sphpblog049/index.php?entry=entry070402-162054
This site showcases my opinions, images and software for all things photographic. All the software downloadable from this site is freeware - it's yours to use and redistribute as you like. Kind hearted individuals can make a small donation for any software they find useful, but it's not required or expected!

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