Imsticking's Leica D-Lux 4 Blog

Know That You Made Such a Difference

Colourful Apple and An Englishman in New York

What you wanna do is... - 21.1mm at f/2.8, ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/100 sec

I thought I'd post a few color images from those I took 2 weeks ago at the opening of the 300th and the world's largest Apple Store in Covent Garden, here in jolly old London. Well over due, I know. I've been rather busy working on other interests and commitments that I enjoy working on too. Sadly the weather seems to be turning towards winter already in England, and so the days will soon be something most nine to fivers only experience while at the office. If you don't have an office job, well, you're lucky I guess. Although everything comes at a price.  I've started using Hipstamatic for iPhone quite a lot recently. It's pretty cool. I usually tweet those photos directly to my tweet stream, @imsticking.

Cosmic - 7.4mm at f/2.8, ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/40 sec

If you are somewhere near London and enjoy photography exhibits, Jason Bell's An Englishman in New York exhibit opened at the National Portrait Gallery on the 14th August 2010. I went to check it out on Friday evening and was very impressed with some of the work. Sadly, it's quite a small exhibit with approximately 20 prints on display. It's well worth a visit however, and there is still a lot more to see at the Gallery and I found myself spending a good hour viewing the BP Portrait Award 2010. While not photographs, the work is astounding non-the-less. You can see some of Jason Bell's work in his online portfolio at jasonbellphoto.com and you can stalk him on Twitter at @jasonbellphoto. Seeing Jason's work immediately made me want to go out and photograph somebody. I love that about other exceptional photographers. How they stir up that desire to be creative. Another photographer that makes me want to improve my skills is Lara Jade. I'm not really into fashion photography, but I like her style. It's quite dark and romantic. I think that would be a very interesting approach if you could capture that as a street photographer.

Help! I need somebody! - 12.8mm at f/2.8, ISO 200, Shutter speed 1/125 sec

All of these image were taken with my Leica D-Lux 4. Interestingly, I haven't touched a single Saturation slider while editing these images. 

I'm in line - 12.1mm at f/2.8, ISO 80, Shutter speed 1/200 sec

The Largest Apple Store in the World Grand Opening

I decided to check out the new Apple Store in Covent Garden on Saturday. It was the grand opening of Apple's 300th and largest store in the world. Something special I think. I've never been to a grand opening before, but the temptation of another free Apple shirt was more than enough to get me up at 5:30am.

The best place to see great photographs of the inside of the new store is on the Apple UK Retail site and also on Electric Pig. They even have a video tour of the store. It was a great experience, and the staff go well out of their way to make you feel like you are the stars of the day. Two hours after the grand opening they were still doing mexican waves in a long tunnel for every customer that entered the store! Some of them must have lost their voices by the end of the day, I'm sure. 

The first photograph, top, is of the guy behind me in the queue who I got chatting to. He was on holiday from New York with his wife and was super friendly. We chatted about Apple for ages and he thought the new store was really cool, even from the outside because unlike the ones in America this one was not made of glass! It would be cool to have a glass store in the UK, just for fun, but I've always thought the store on Regent Street was very stylish, outside and in, and something special. Enjoy the photographs, I'm not going to dissect them like I usually do, but I will post more soon, and they will be in color too! I'll updated this post to include the Silver Efex Pro preset files I used to process each and every photograph in this post, so check back later in the week if you are wanting some of them.

International Bright Young Thing

Click here to download:

iPad 28th May.sep (4 KB)

Chasing Apple

I ended up strolling around Argyll Street after picking up some gig tickets at Star Green this evening after work. Is it a coincidence that the best image I took was a shot of the Apple Store on Regent Street? I'll let you decide! Despite what some may think, I'm not obsessed with Apple, it's just a harmless infatuation. Which actually reminds me of someone I used to work with referring to my MacBook Pro as my 'girlfriend'.

Something I only noticed about this image while processing it, is the group of Apple staff looking out the store window on the left. Clearly something or someone on the sidewalk is keeping them entertained.

How To Present Like Steve Jobs

It's been a while since I posted anything Apple related. I blame it on tablet rumour fatigue. All I can say is, lets hope to hell this Event on the 27th January is a religious experience. Kara Swisher over at All Things D has been joining in the iTablet rumour hype and ended off a post with a video of how to present like Mr Jobs. I thought I'd break it down for you below the video, save you 6 minutes of your already evaporating life. But seriously, it's worth a watch, especially if you work for Google and you presented the... um... NexusOne... err... 'show'.

Set the theme

• Make your theme clear and consistant.
• Create a headline that sets the direction for your meeting.

Provide the outline

• Make it easy for your listeners to follow your story.
• Open and close your points to transition from one point to the next.

Demonstrate enthusiasm

• Extraordinary, amazing, cool, unbelievable, awesome.
• Wow your audience.

Sell an experience

• If you offer numbers and statistics, make them meaningful.
• Analogies help connect the dots for your audience.

Make it visual

• Paint a simple picture that doesn't overwhelm.
• Small on bullet points, big on visuals.

Give them a show

• Identify your memorable moment and build up to it.

That's it! That's all there is to it. Simple no? No.

Steve Wozniak Talks Tech Future

iPhone OS pushing out Windows Mobile in US

Some figures coming from comScore this time, showing Apple's iPhone OS that runs on iPhone and iPod Touch devices pushing out Windows  Mobile to claim the number 2 spot in the US for the number of active users by OS for the month of October 2009. The picture worldwide is certainly better for Apple, with reports recently claiming that Apple are within 10% striking distance of catching RIM in the hardware stakes. It will be fascinating to see where we're at in 6 months time. 

Microsoft: Do not mention/use Apple products at our events

via 9to5mac.com

Microsoft are a constant source of amusement for me. Constantly shooting themselves in the foot, with actions and statements so detrimental to their own business and image a blind man could see them.

Banning journalists from using or talking about Apple products at Microsoft events is a step too far though. It reminds me of a quote I read the other day from a book I'm busy reading called Apple Confidential 2.0 by Owen W. Linzmayer. In it, he goes on to describe the birth of the spreadsheet. Created by Daniel Bricklin and Robert Frankston, and while still named Calculedger, they approached Microsoft in 1979 in the hopes that they would publish their application, that would later go on to be named VisiCalc. Bill Gates' response was "We do not talk to any end users".

Yeah, no kidding. Considering the current focus in their Windows 7 adverts mostly bragging about how they are now listening to end users, it only took them 30 years to cotton on to the idea. That's almost my entire lifetime, give or take 4 years, but who's counting?

Jobs, well done.