Can we go to Tightland now?

Raise your hand if Disney's new ad campaign gives you a giant case of the creepers. Annie Leibovitz is clearly a genius photographer, and she's probably getting paid more money than the GDP of a Balkan nation to photograph Jessica Biel as Pocahontas, but yee gods, does this ever make me want to run for the cover of Six Flags. Campaign objective: Failed. Tighten up, DisCo, and draw me some cartoons.

PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED

With the huge PMA 2008 photography trade show about to start in Las Vegas, press releases are flying left and right. Canon and Nikon both announced new consumer SLRs (EOS 450D and D60, respectively) and a ton of new pocket cams were announced.

Nikon (finally) announces a 9-blade, 24 mm, tilt-shift lens? Seriousy tight.
Also announcing (without specs so far) that new 45 mm and 85 mm tilt-shifts will be on display at PMA? Fantastic.
The price? So untight they're afraid to put it in the press release in dollars (side note: the dollar? an exemplar of looseness).



RRP: £1099.99/ €1642.00

Translated into dollars? $2,100+. (Compare to a similar offering from Canon for $1,200, only 8 blades...)

PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED: Digital Photography Review

The best explanation of how tight a lens like this can be, see this slideshow (with audio), courtesy of the NY Times.

Michael Hughes: Giving us a reason to buy kitschy souvenirs since 2003.

A fellow named Michael Hughes takes some pretty amazing photographs. He has one collection of images he calls "souvenirs". It's an ongoing project I like to check in on from time to time and today I thought I'd give it a nod.

The premise? Foreground: cheesy souvenir. Background: actual thing it represents. A great idea that makes for fun images. Here is the slide show.