Imre Z. Balint, BSc, MPM, MBA

I'm very happy to announce that the second part, and conclusion, to the macro photography series is done. I liked the way it turned out and hopefully in a few days I'll finish up the supplemental blog post. Enjoy!

I know, I know! It's been a while since my last video and by the end of the week I should be done part 2 to macro photography. But for now, I thought I'd share a couple of new photos from my wooden fighter plane project I've been working on. For about one to two hours before I head off to bed, and for the last week or so, I've been carving away at this model and it's finally starting to look quite plane-like; not meant to be any specific aircraft by-the-way. Now I can appreciate why such finely hand-crafted wooden art pieces cost so much! In all honesty, when I started on this jet I thought I'd be done within a week. However, the more I got into it and as I'm starting to become more accustomed to carving, it's far more delicate work than I'd ever imagined. This is seriously going to become an addiction though. I'm already starting to think about the next carving.

Olympus E-5 Press Release As a long time Olympus camera user, I was quite looking forward to the release of the company's next flagship dSLR. When I bought my C-5050 back in mid-2004, I thought it was an amazing little camera with its f/1.8 lens, crisp 5MP CCD (well... crisp at ISO 100), and the many options it offered. A short while after the E-500 was released, I picked one up and found it to be a worthwhile investment and a wonderful step up from the advanced point and shoot model. By the time Olympus came out with the E-3, I could hardly stay in my skin. I wanted a better, faster dSLR, and Olympus delivered. The E-3 was a monster; weatherproof, faster and more accurate AF, improved image quality, more megapixels, and many controls to keep even the most avid of photographers happy. I was also very pleased to add the E-P2 to my collection at the beginning of this year. Even though the little stainless steel beast sits in a different class, it manages to capture higher qual...

Lately I've been braver in applying various image effects to my photographs in order to make them more interesting, which has also infused them with different stories to tell versus their original nonchalant versions. Sepia tones and black and white conversions focus attention on subjects in images where color was distracting or simply didn't add any value to the photo. In addition, such versions can age a scene or add a gritty feel, especially when combined with other effects like pinhole and noise. In fact, I'm particularly becoming quite fond of noise to make it appear as if the shot was taken with a fast film and to remove that digital crispness. For my next outing I think I'll deliberately set my ISO to 1600 on some shots to see what that yields. So much for having a camera that handles high sensitivity levels well. Image effects aside, I wanted to add a little about unusual compositions. Breaking rules can often be difficult as it both puts us beyond our comfy z...