New And Exclusive Micro-Site Content

ePHOTOzine's Micro-Site Roundup - Find out what's been happening on our five Micro-Sites.

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Here's a roundup of the exclusive content we've got for you to have a read of on our five micro-sites this week:

On PENTAXPORTAL this week, you can take a look at some top tips for photographing seals with your Pentax camera, and check out some top Pentax sunset photos. Plus, the brand new K-3 DSLR has been reviewed on site this week, and there's news of new images from Ricoh Imaging brand ambassadors.

Over On EIZO ColorZone, you can learn how to perform a monitor viewing angle check and find out why ColorNavigator software is a great tool for aiding calibration. Plus, there's news of a new 3D CG colour management handbook that's now available.

Meanwhile, on Olympus Image Space this week, there are techniques on how to use blur creatively, and there's news on Olympus workshops taking place over the coming months with Damian McGillicuddy and Steve Gosling. Plus, news on the Olympus Impressions 'Fall' competition, and £100 accessory cashback when you buy an Olympus OM-D E-M1 camera have also gone live.

On Totally Tamron this week, you can learn some top tips for taking better photos of ice with your Tamron lens, plus there are some top Tamron portrait photos for you to take a look at. Don't forget to take a look at David Pritchard's blog the days zoom past, too, as he's been out-and-about with his newly acquired Tamron 24-70mm lens.

Last but not least, on Nikon Nation this week, you can check out some ideas and tips for on location portrait shoots, get creative with colour balance and lots more. Plus, don't miss the Nikon D5300 Offers DSLR review and news of ono-to one training with Nikon School in December.

Make sure you check back to the Micro-Sites regularly, as new and exclusive content is posted weekly!

Source: Ephotozine

Nikon Df Demand Apparently Not As Hot As The D800

<Nikon D5300 Offersp>It wasn't too long ago that Nikon announced their new full-frame mirrorless camera hybrid in the form of the Nikon Df. Given that there aren't too many full-frame mirrorless cameras at the moment ( Sony's A7 and A7R do come to mind), we would have expected many photographers to hop on board the bandwagon, especially given Nikon's history and reputation when it came to cameras. Unfortunately that does not appear to be the case, at least according to the folks at Nikon Rumors who claims that according to their sources who are retailers, it seems that based on pre-orders of the Nikon Df, the camera is not as hot as one might think.

The retailers are apparently trying to compare pre-orders of the Nikon Df against the Nikon D800, the model which apparently the weather sealing of the camera is based on. According to the retailers, it seems that demand for the Df is not as hot as when the D800 launched. Could the Nikon Df end up being somewhat of a dud like the Nikon 1 series of mirrorless cameras? Or could it be that photographers are waiting for reviews and feedback of the camera first before deciding if they should go ahead with their purchase? Given that this is something of a new system, unlike the D800 which had its predecessors, we can understand the apprehension and we guess we will just have to wait and see what the official numbers have to say. In the meantime what do you guys think? Is the Nikon Df worth picking up?

Source: Ubergizmo

Nikon D5300 Rumors, Specs, Price and Release Info: Camera Company Recently Releases Full Specs

<Nikon D5300 Cyber Monday Dealp>Nikon has recently come out with a full list of specs for the new D5300.

The latest model of the DX-format DSLR has 24.2 megapixels, a DX-format CMOS sensor with no optical low-pass filter, built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, a built-in GPS, a durable light body, a 3.2-inch 1037k-dot vari-angle LCCD monitor with wide viewing angle, NAL-1 features for zoom/focus assist, and more.

It also has a full-HD 1920x1080/60p capability for movies, where selection can range from 24, 25, 30,50, and 60p. There are also 9 special effects for creative expression.

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As previously reported, Nikon Rumors reports that the Nikon D5300 is expected to be introduced before the Photo Plus show in NYC at the end of the month or the CES show in Las Vegas in January.

It is reported that this will be the first camera to get the new EXPEED 4 processor. Some other rumored specs include 24 Megapixels, 39 AF points, built-in Wi-Fi and built-in GPS.

Photography Bay reports that the D530 will be introduced as an entry-level APS-C format camera. There are no reports yet of whether or not it will have better image quality over the D5200, but it would make sense to add additional video features to the D5300.

No prices have been reported yet either, but Inferse reports that it may be priced lower than the D5200 was when it first was released.

Source: Designntrend

Nikon Unveils D5300 DSLR With WiFi, GPS

By Greg Tarr On Oct 17 2013 - 10:59am

Nikon's Nikon D5300 Black Friday Deal ($799 body only) is the company's first DSLR to incorporate WiFi and GPS geotagging.

Melville, N.Y. - Nikon introduced Thursday its D5300 D-SLR, offering an enhanced 24.2 megapixel CMOS sensor and a Nikon-first built-in Wi-Fi and GPS.

The company also added an AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G lens prime lens.

Nikon's D5300, which will be available in October for a $799.95 (body only) suggested retail price or $1,399.95 for a kit including the camera and an AF-S Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens , is the company's first D-SLR with built-in Wi-Fi and GPS functionality to provide instant photo sharing with smartphones or tablets, and to enable geotagging images.

The camera incorporates a 24.2-megapizel DX-format CMOS sensor and is features a compact, lightweight ergonomically body design.

Other key features include a 3.2-inch swiveling Vari-angle LCD display; a 39-point AF system with 9 cross-type sensors; 5 fps continuous shooting, FullHD 1080p video capture with built-in stereo microphone; intuitive scene recognition and a variety of image efects and in-camera editing tools.

The D5300 will be available in a choice of black, red and gray body colors.

The AF-S Nikkor 58mm f/1.4G lens, which will be available in October for a $1,699.95 suggested retail price, will accommodate both FX and DX format cameras offering high quality low-light shooting performance.

Nikon said the unusual 58mm focal length is ideal for portraits, landscapes and street photography.

Source: Twice

Theater reviews: 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Julius Caesar'

Elizabeth Olsen's 'Romeo and Juliet' remains earthbound; 'Julius caesar costume child' rules in Donmar Warehouse production

Joan Marcus

'Romeo and Juliet'
Classic Stage Company
136 E. 13th St.
Tickets: $60-$125; (212) 677-4210
2 stars

'Julius Caesar'
St. Ann's Warehouse
29 Jay St., Brooklyn
Tickets: $50-$80; (718) 254-8779
4 stars

Being star-crossed is just one issue facing the Verona lovebirds in a downtown "Romeo and Juliet" that comes dressed in contemporary clothes and leaves no impact.

As played by newcomer Julian Cihi and film starlet Elizabeth Olsen, the doomed youths lack passion and vocal chops. Each delivers Shakespeare's poetry with all the music of a broken iPod.

A month after Broadway's tepid take starring Orlando Bloom, Classic Stage Company's wan version provides an even less compelling reason to revisit the tragedy.

Director Tea Alagic's vision is streamlined - no prologue, no epilogue, no Lady Montague, no knives for a couple of murders; just blood capsules that burst and leave a gory trail. That final bit rouses interest momentarily, as does a wildly costumed masked ball.

The show's minimal scenery - blank floor and matching wall and a few sticks of furniture - is a backdrop for acting styles that are all over the map. The mashup makes for an unsatisfying piecemeal effect.

As Juliet's dad, David Garrison stands out, thanks to his regal and reserved approach. T.R. Knight pinches his voice into a weird whine for his manic Mercutio. And as Juliet's nurse (better, her sometimes Spanish-speaking nanny), Daphne Rubin-Vega recalls Anita of "West Side Story" and Ricky Ricardo. The actress is memorable, which isn't the same thing as wholly successful.

Meanwhile, at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, a muscular and mesmerizing all-female production of "Julius Caesar" from London's Donmar Warehouse makes for a thoroughly riveting evening.

The action takes place in a women's prison where inmates are presenting the tragedy of power and alliances. It's refreshing that the show trusts the audience's intelligence and makes only minimal effort to underline connections.

Kudos to director Phyllida Lloyd ("Mamma Mia!"), who proves she's as adept with gritty classics as with modern musical fluff. In a top-to-bottom terrific cast, Cush Jumbo makes a mighty Mark Antony, Jenny Jules is a persuasive Cassius and the great Harriet Walter anchors the cast as Brutus.

A scene where prisoners run around willy-nilly is a head-scratcher. But in a show where Shakespeare's language is spoken with such crystal clarity, that's a pardonable offense.

jdziemianowicz@nydailynews.com

Source: Nydailynews

Groundbreaking held at Peerless Street

<sr560p>By Katie Atkins

editorial@westfieldrepublican.com

PORTLAND - Town Supervisor Daniel Schrantz stood on Lake Avenue with a shovel in hand on Thursday, Oct. 3 announcing the beginning of construction for the new Peerless Street bridge.

Article Photos

After a brief speech by Schrantz, Brocton and Portland council members and highway superintendents dug their shovels into the earth to signify the beginning of what may be a year-long project.

Schrantz said, "This (new bridge) is very important for the safety and convenience of our residents."

In August 2011, the bridge was closed by the New York State Department of Transportation because of its deteriorating support system. Schrantz said Portland, Brocton and Chautauqua County worked together to come up with a plan.

Brocton Mayor David Hazelton said at the ceremony, "Let's get this bridge back in place for our residents."

After two years of discussion and research, a cost effective strategy was developed. Highway superintendents will work with crews on the project and it will be funded by Housing & Urban Development monies acquired in previous years.

Schrantz said he had spoken with state Senator Cathy Young and Assemblyman Andy Goodell about funding from the state but the availability of grants for the project was scarce. It was decided then that the two municipalities would come together to work on the bridge.

Schrantz ended with, "This is a good example of what great things can happen when we come together."

Construction work will be postponed through the winter months and resume in the spring. Project Manager Garrett M. Hacker said the bridge will most likely be finished by fall 2014.

Source: Westfieldrepublican

A Terrorism Suspect Long Known to Prosecutors

<timesp>More than a decade ago, federal prosecutors in New York indicted a fugitive suspected of being a longtime operative for Al Qaeda for his role in the bombings of two United States embassies in East Africa in 1998, which killed 224 people. But the capture on Saturday of the fugitive may represent something far more significant.

The fugitive, known as Abu Anas al-Liby, possesses decades of intelligence into Al Qaeda, extending from the group's early days behind Osama bin Laden in Sudan to its more scattered fragments today.

Abu Anas, 49, who was born Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, has been described as a Qaeda computer expert who also helped to conduct surveillance of the American Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, one of the two that were bombed. In the investigations after the attacks, the authorities also recovered a Qaeda terrorism manual in his residence in Manchester, England.

The manual is a detailed treatise about how to carry out successful terrorist attacks. It focuses on forged documents, safe houses, surveillance, assassinations, codes and interrogation techniques. It also cites "blasting and destroying the embassies and attacking vital economic centers." It also recommends the use of explosives in attacks because they "strike the enemy with sheer terror and fright."

It is not known if Abu Anas wrote the manual, but federal prosecutors introduced it as evidence against defendants in the 2001 trial of four operatives convicted in the embassy bombings conspiracy, and that of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a first former detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to be tried in the federal system. It was also used in a 2006 trial in Virginia over whether to impose the death penalty on Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 plot ( he received a life sentence).

The Defense Department, in a statement on Sunday, said that Abu Anas was "currently lawfully detained under the law of war in a secure location outside of Libya."

The statement also suggested that the authorities were seeking to take an approach similar to what they had done in other cases of international terrorism in recent years - interrogating Abu Anas for intelligence purposes and only then advising him of his rights to a lawyer and a speedy court appearance.

Abu Anas is expected to face trial in the United States District Court in Manhattan, although it was not immediately clear when he would be brought to New York. The indictment first charged Bin Laden in 1998, and has since expanded to include Abu Anas and two dozen other defendants.

With Abu Anas's capture, only three key Qaeda operatives charged in those indictments are believed to be alive and still at large, most prominently Ayman al Zawahiri, the deputy to Bin Laden who succeeded him after he was killed in a 2011 American operation.

One of Bin Laden's former close aides, a Sudanese man who defected from the group in the mid-1990s and became a cooperating witness for the American government, testified that Abu Anas was a computer engineer. "He run our computers," the witness, Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, testified in the 2001 trial.

Abu Anas was also part of a small team of Qaeda operatives that in the early 1990s traveled to Nairobi and carried out surveillance of the American Embassy and other potential bomb targets, according to the federal indictment and other prosecution evidence introduced at Qaeda trials.

The team met there with Bin Laden's military commander, Muhammad Atef, and an operative, Khaled al-Fawwaz, who led the Nairobi cell of Al Qaeda at the time, evidence and testimony has shown.

The photographs, diagrams and surveillance report from the Nairobi mission were ultimately reviewed by Bin Laden in Khartoum, the government has said. "Bin Laden looked at the picture of the American Embassy and pointed to where a truck could go as a suicide bomber," another member of the surveillance team, Ali A. Mohamed, said in federal court when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy in 2000.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

Source: Nytimes