That’s “image stabilization” for those of you not paying attention. Or “VR” for the Nikon folks out there. I believe Canon and Nikon use very similar electronic systems. Either way, this is fascinating. This is what the inside of a Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens looks like when the image stabilization is operating. Image Stabilization Revealed from Camera Technica on Vimeo.

I’ve written articles in the past about color management–you know, ICC profiles, calibration, metamerism, blah blah blah–but the world keeps changing around us. In general, things change for the better, which is great, but as a photographer looking to display images on the web, there are always things to watch out for. I found a great article on the burgeoning “Gear Oracle” site about web browser color management, which breaks down the effects of displaying images with different color spaces in different browsers.

The goal of photography is to capture a moment, an idea, a thought, or an event and suspend it in time. Whether it is journalistic, editorial, representational, abstract, or artistic is not important in reaching that goal. Occasionally, as a photographer is striving toward their singular goal, they unwittingly meet another one. Such is the case with these amazing depression-era color photographs published by the International Business Times; though they were taken at the time as recordings of events (though demonstrating the aesthetic sense of the accomplished photographer), the social and cultural distance between the depression and today has vaulted these images into pure artistry.

I’m sitting on a bunch of material that I will eventually develop into full articles, but in the meantime, feast your eyes on this exquisitely detailed cross-section of a Leica lens. Just in case you were curious why these things are so expensive… After careful inspection, I can confidently say that these are two photos of the same half of the lens from either side. I have no idea why someone would have one half of a lens and not the other half, perhaps it was just a demonstration piece.

The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” has been around since at least the ’20s–according to Wikipedia–and it’s just as true today as it was then. The phrase refers to our ability to absorb information faster in a visual mode than in a reading mode. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that all living creatures are born with the ability to see and to recognize (to varying degrees), but humans’ ability to write is something that we created.