This site (and apparently late-night TV ad) has been floating around recently and it's hilarious. Remember that POS instant camera I complained about on my last photowalk? This Vivitar compact is probably no better and could be worse.

It's interesting how in this pitch, film is less work than a digital compact. Well, I suppose it is partly true if you use a crap camera and limit the user interface to one button. Psssst. Don't tell grandpa that you can do the same with a modern digital - just ignore all of the blinkies. But I understand the lure of simplicity. Yes, to some people computers are infinitely more scary than a darkroom.

I don't have much to say except that I feel pretty comfortable with my 7D even though the 60D does pretty much everything the 7D does for most shooting situations and has an adjustable (and improved) LCD for more comfortable video shooting. The 7D has the greater FPS. 8FPS vs 5.3.

This is one of those situations where DPReviews' nice side-by-side comparison web feature is extremely useful.

On the L lens front, I think a few people who always wanted an L lens might be drooling at replacing their consumer mid-to-telephoto zoom with the new EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM. I'm not sure if it replaces their nice consumer 70-300 that I used to own (before going up to the 100-400L) but you can bet the build is going to be substantially better.

No, that's not the boat I was on. The boat I was on was an 11-ft two-man canoe. No fabulous babes, just me and my bud Dylan padding for hours to get anywhere while people in boats like this zipped past us once or twice even, happily waving as they flashed past us at twenty times the speed. Still, the time on the water was pretty idyllic and the weather awesome. Didn't see much wildlife except for harbour seals basking on rocks and logs, ravens and seagulls.

Fujifilm announced that it will be discontinuing Fujichrome Sensia. It's the 35mm slide film that I've used the most but only because it was part of a bulk expired film lot that I bought locally. I can't say I was any good with it. It rendered clouds very well though, I thought. Fuji still makes Provia and, of course, Velvia.

This is one of a handful of Sensia shots that I took that I like. I think maybe I should clean it up when I have time:

Even as the Gulf Oil Disaster attracted so much attention there was another oil spill in China. The Dalian oil spill began in mid-July and, while it was said to be stopped a few days later, devastated the coastline and exposed China's inability to deal with the clean up (obviously the U.S. has no great claim to superiority in that regard). Compared to the Gulf Oil disaster Dalian was small and claimed one life. However, that death is now revealed in a series of chilling photographs.

Freelance photographer Jiang He (who doesn't use his real name presumably because of press prohibitions on such disturbing imagery), recorded the final minutes of firefighter Zhang Liang's life. Zhang Liang and a fellow cleanup worker are absurdly trying to get a water pump clear that is floating in a sea of thick crude.

Photography seems to be in the zeitgeist this week as I keep stumbling over photo news.

America in Color 1939-1943

First off, a gorgeous gallery of 70 color photographs taken during the war years in America; just pictures of life in small towns, carnivals, speakeasies and lots and lots of people. The Denver Post seems to be taking the cue from Boston.com's The Big Picture blog by featuring very large images on their gallery. Kudos to them too. The color really pops in these images or maybe life was just more colorful then. This is a treasure trove for costume researchers.