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Nikon has announced the new D90 which will be available this fall.  Targeted for advanced amateurs it has some features which are quite interesting and could possibly find applications for professionals as well.  One of the new items is D-Movie, which enables users to shoot 24fps movies at 720p as well as still photographs with the camera.  Some of the other items in the camera come from the D300 which was announced a year ago at this time.

Prior to the announced released Chase Jarvis and his crew had the opportunity to experiment with the D90 in a field test, and the link below shows a video of their experience as well as some of the images.

Chase Jarvis and Friends Try the D90

The D90 lists for $999.95 USD .

This weekend is the Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival at Chatfield State Park southwest of Denver.  You may recall in February I headed north for the Loveland Sweetheart Balloon Rally , and I am hoping to make it down to Chatfield on either Saturday evening and/or Sunday morning.

If you are unable to make this event, you may want to check out the Colorado Balloon Classic Labor Day weekend in Colorado Springs.

The Democratic National Convention starts Monday here in Denver. For the past couple of months they have been transforming the Pepsi Center for the event, and today there was a community open house allowing members of the public to see the changes. There are workers there still finishing the final touches and hooking up the last minute items. Media outlets as well are still preparing their skybox sets with views of the arena.

Approaching the Pepsi Center

The arena and testing of the video walls

Outside the arena

As I was leaving some protesters were finding a good location. Here a couple of people have a debate about the issue. The protester was in a zone (private property) which was not allowed and asked to go to the sidewalk to demonstrate. It should be interesting when a full palate of protesters show up next week.

Check back over the next few days for some additional photos during the DNC.

This weekend in China the Games of the XXIX Olympiad will begin.  For the past few weeks we have been hearing about some of the athletes from the US.  These include Michael Phelps and his quest for 8 medals, Dara Torres at the age of 40 participating in the 50 meter freestyle, the US Mens Basketball team and countless others in the 35 disciplines.  Each Olympics one event surprises and becomes of interest to people in the US.  This was curling in 2002, who knows what it could be this year.

While we watch from home on the networks of NBC Universal , either on television on online we will be able to see the events develop and learn about some of the stories of the many athletes over two weeks.  In addition to the NBC Universal coverage many other outlets will send reporters and photographers to the event.  One such individual is photographer Rod Mar of the Seattle Times .  Recently in his blog he listed all of the photographic equipment he will be taking to Beijing .  This list of equipment may seem like overkill, but keep in mind based on the event he is photographing he may be able to set up remote cameras to capture different angles.  It will be interesting to see the images he captures over the next couple of weeks and the blog entries he adds from Beijing.

Is there any event or athlete you are looking forward to in the Olympics?

Once again I have a limited edition print available through an auction.  This time the proceeds benefit Heide Medina who is battling a new round of cancer.  Heide previously beat breast cancer, but it has returned and spread to other parts of her body.  As medical bills can be quite expensive and insurance limiting all of the proceeds from the auction will help defer the cost for treatment she is currently receiving.  Take a look at some of the items available, and this is an opportunity to win a matted print which is ready to frame.

Auction to Benefit Heide Medina

This past weekend I spent some time at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival , located here in Denver, Colorado.  For three days 200 artists from around the country exhibited their works at what has been described by some publications as the number one outdoor arts festival in the US.  It is estimated over 350,000 people made their way to streets of North Cherry Creek this year for the festival.

Just prior to making my way through all of the exhibitors the wind picked up and some rain started to fall.  While not ideal for the artists, the rain did bring some relief to the near 100 degree temperatures.  As the showers let up, I was walking by one of the music venues with 49 Floors playing.  Liking the sound, I decided to stop for a while and enjoy the music.  With a mix of cover songs and songs written by lead singer Craig Maierhofer , their own work was a sound which was influenced by some of the musicians they covered.  These included Crowded House, Radiohead and John Hiatt.  Once their performance ended I decided to head on home as it was quite a long few hours in the sun by that time.

(more after the image)

This year while strolling through the streets and taking in the various types of visual artwork I found there were some artists displaying their craft which I enjoyed.  I kept track of some of these artists and have provided information about five.  The artists are listed in alphabetical order.

Jeffrey Cannon – I recall seeing the pastel drawings of Jeffrey Cannon a couple of years ago at the Cherry Creek Arts Fair and thought about getting a piece then.  When I noticed the works once again it reminded me of that prior art show.  There is something which draws me into his pieces and it also provides almost a calming effect to look at the work he creates.

Barry Hendrickson – An interesting subject in black and white always draws me in for a more detailed look.  This is what I experienced as I walked by Barry Hendrickson’s pictures of Ireland.  With a sky which makes the scene quite compelling in the scene it was a quite busy booth.

Leif Holland – Strolling by the booth of Leif Holland the subject manner drew me in to see more.  Once near the booth and checking out his work I quickly found it was bringing the outdoors inside with his botanical sculpture.  With aspen trunks, bamboo is was quite a different style of artwork than the others items on display.

Taman Vanscoy – I noticed Taman Vanscoy’s booth out of the corner of my eye as I was walking by in a crowed of people.  His style of drawing to me almost looked photographic.  I found the subjects to be interesting but quite simple at the same time.  Taman was not at his booth when I was there, as it would have been interesting to find out more about his work.

William Vanscoy – It is not only about finding the subject to photograph and interpret with your style, but transfering this only a print is also an important part of the process.  William Vanscoy does this quite well with a pigment process for his color prints on a velevt paper.  From envision to the final product his work brings the viewer a quality image to study and understand.

The Cherry Creek Arts Festival is held each year over the 4th of July weekend in the Cherry Creek North area of Denver.  If you are in town next year when it is held, definetly check it out.

Today Nikon announced the newest camera to their line of DSLR’s, the D700.  Featuring a mix of the features included in the D300 as well as the high end D3 it is something which I have been looking at as possibly my next camera.  One of the features which it includes is a full frame sensor, meaning the lenses which you use will be the same focal length as specified.  Prior to the full frame D3 all Nikon DSLR camera featured a crop factor of 1.5x, making a 50mm lens really act like a 75mm.  This is due to the sensor and the limitation of the size in a camera.  Canon also does a similar crop factor in some of their camera of 1.6x and 1.3x but they had the full frame option prior to Nikon.

With a MSRP of $2999 it is something I will need to think about, as I will need to replace a lens which will not work effectively with it as well.  However this is a camera many Nikon users have been waiting for over the past year.

Nikon D700 Press Release

By Thom – Nikon D700 Announced .

I came across the following post regarding common terms used in the context of blogs, which is quite comprehensive.  Due to the high quality of the list, I wanted to share the link.

The Bloggers Glossary

Today I joined the world of Twitter. What is twitter? Check out the site and find out more, http://www.twitter.com.

My Twitter profile is at Neil Corman Twitter Profile.