EPKPhoto's Tidbits

I finally got around to getting a haircut. I should have done this at least a month ago. My last ear-lowering was way back in December when I was home for the break. I wonder who the handsom guy in that photo could be? Now that I don't have to constantly worry about my hair falling in my eyes, I can concentrate on other things, like avoiding buying a Macbook Pro until the second revision, or delaying buying Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion until the summer so I don't ruin my grades.

Here I am in Rochester back from Chicago. Today marks the beginning of the Spring Quarter, and it is a pleasant 62° F outside, though a bit humid and dreary. Luckily, both of my new textbooks for the new quarter arrived in the mail this morning. You may have noticed that I have already posted my photos from the Chicago trip. Those will have to hold you until I get around to posting a colossal entry about the trip. I really do want to explain the details of the trip, so it should not be too long. In the meantime, it's back to the daily RIT grind of classes, work, and procrastination ;).

The few days since we arrived in Chicago have been quite busy and packed with interesting inside looks into firms and organizations. Chicago has also welcomed us by raining every day since our arrival Tuesday. Luckily, the rest of our stay should promise a bit more sunshine. So, on Wednesday we visited Doblin and VSA Partners. Yesterday we met a RIT photo alumnus at Field Museum, spent time at Digital Kitchen, and attended an alumni event at Tru Restaurant. I am very eager to expand on those experiences, but that will have to wait until some downtime…perhaps tonight or tomorrow.

No, I'm not high on drugs, but our hotel room is on the 24th floor. That's right, our little band of five RIT Honors students from CIAS is in Chicago. We are staying in a great location, too. Out my window, the view consists of skyscrapers, more skyscrapers, and…uh…tall buildings. That must mean we are downtown ;). I'm also happy because I have *cough*free*cough* wi-fi Internet access in our hotel room. On today's agenda, Read the rest of this entry »

The dorms have emptied for the most part except for just a few students on each floor. Spring Break is here and I am leaving for Chicago tomorrow. I am joining a small group of Honors students in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences on a "professional trip" to network with alumni and other contacts. Since I'm a freshman, this is more of a sight-seeing trip for me, though I'm sure the experience will benefit me in the long run. In other website news…you probably notice the display of the two blog posts on the main page has changed. Read the rest of this entry »

Here at RIT the Winter quarter has ended, exams are over, and "Spring" break is upon us. To celebrate another 11 weeks of work behind me, I went to see the Shooter Jennings and Dierks Bentley concert on campus. It was certainly a nice way to get me away from my computer for a bit to enjoy some great music. Unfortunately, as I am beginning to realize that the last few weeks of every quarter at RIT are quite hectic and stressful, you probably noticed my last post was over a month ago! Well, the good news is I now have a lot of things to talk about and plenty of reasons to post actively during the coming weeks. Check back soon to hear more!

Now here's a good news tidbit brought to my attention by my parents back home in Hampton Roads, VA. Apple is finally planning on opening one of their retail stores in Norfolk, Virginia, specifically the downtown MacArthur Mall. According to ifoAppleStore, a third party website that follows news about Apple retail stores, "Up to now, [Norfolk] has been the largest metro region without an Apple store." Sure enough, after I heard this news, I searched and found the relevant job listings on Apple's job site for this store. The applications for these jobs were required, well, today. I guess that means the planning process for this store has already come well along. Check out my post about this in the epkphoto.com Forum. One more word…yay! Okay, another…yipee! Lastly, how about…it's about time, Apple!

Another pre-PMA announcement came along today. In fact, this accouncement is quite revolutionary. Olympus is touting a new digital SLR camera, their E-330. The catch is, this camera has a feature never before found on SLR cameras: live LCD previewing to allow composition and focusing without using the optical viewfinder. Two things have prevented sensor makers from achieving this feat before, namely the mirror in an SLR that only flips up milliseconds before a shot is taken, and the difficult task of designing a sensor with the quality of an SLR, yet with the processing speed capable of moving that higher quality data off the sensor to the LCD. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that CES and Macworld announcements are starting to die off, the announcements I like to hear are growing in frequency. Those would be photography announcements if you had not already guessed. You see, PMA 2006 (Photo Marketing Association) is coming up at the end of February. Today's photo tidbit comes from Konica Minolta. They just put out a press release announcing their withdrawal from the camera and photo industry! Read the rest of this entry »

It sure is nice to have epkphoto.com back in action. I didn't realize just how much I rely on my email and other services through the site. Anyway, I am having a hard time keeping myself from wanting to buy the first MacBook Pro in site. When its February release roles around, I may have trouble convincing myself to hold back for a while. To keep my mind off my Mac lust, I'll mention a little tidbit I ran across to keep this site photo-related. Nikon has announced plans to greatly scale back production of their film SLR lineup to just 2 models (the F6 and FM10) and a several manual focus lenses. They will be putting their big $$ into digital production and research. Looking at this press release on Nikon's site just reminded me how terrible their website is compared to Canon's ;).