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A company called onOne has released an iphone application called DSLR remote that remotely triggers Canon EOS DSLR cameras. Costs about ten bucks. You can set your aperture, shutter speed and white balance remotely. Read about it here! Or, if you want a wireless remote that triggers DSLR cameras from distances up to 20 miles, read this.

Shot fans tonight in San Diego at an American Idol Adam Lambert fan party, as they watched a live east coast feed of the program. Most of them couldn’t believe it when it was announced that the other guy won. This girl says out loud “WHAT??” when the results were announced:

The New York Times today unveiled a photo blog today called “Lens – Photography, video and visual journalism.” Their first feature is from DC photographer David Burnett, with photos of reggae singer Bob Marley.

Ya mon. On both accounts!

Photo by David Burnett

Not referring to myself here: shot Southern California rap artist Lil Rob yesterday (he had the hit Summer Nights recently). I photographed him at four locations throughout the city, the last at Mission Bay Park. There, people picnicing in the area took notice of the shoot, then saw it was Lil Rob, and pretty soon there was a gallery of a dozen or so people who wanted autographs and pictures. Here’s a bit of what was shot.

I can almost feel the pain of the people pictured in this photo story by Maciej Dakowicz. He photographed young binge drinkers in the UK, a four year project.  See some of the photos and a story about the project here.

Went to a construction site today, where a hospital is being constructed in Escondido, California. The suit is the CEO of the soon-to-open hospital, the ladies behind him are nurses.

In setting up this shoot, I asked for the marketing guy if he could make available about five construction workers for the shoot with the CEO. He thought that sent the wrong message (having construction workers), but he countered with an offer to get about five nurses, who also will work at the hospital, to be in the photo instead.

I took him up on the offer knowing that laughter, emotion, bad jokes, and other “moments” flow more easily from a group than one individual looking at a camera. I just put the people in place, give them a little direction, and document what happens.

The best moments always seem to come after I announce “we’re done”. That’s when people tend to loosen up and start doing things that look good in pictures.  So today as I often do after shooting, I told them were done, thanked them, then whispered to my assistant Dave to turn the lights in the direction of the CEO as he walks away… just in case anything happens.

The layout below IS NOT MINE! It’s my photo, but the layout was lifted from the internet. This post visualization design works is just for my own kicks, and I do it often. It trains my mind while I’m shooting to visualize how a photo might play in juxtoposition with text. Is there dead space somewhere in the photo for a big headline or cutline? Is the subject in the center of the frame, where the magazine fold might go? If I see something good, am I shooting verticals as well as horizontals?

More stuff on the jump, the next page…..

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Was up in Los Angeles Thursday and Friday… Thursday for a scout at the company where I would shoot, and Friday for the actual shoot. LA assistant Ric Tapia helped out, did a great job. It’s always nice having someone who can sit in before the “man” arrives, and who can also lug around a lot of crap.

Felt like I was in the Navy again when I was assigned by a local paper to go to the local Navy base and shoot a ceremony honoring some Korean War Veterans. Afterwards they toured the ship.

Bu the real story was last night, when I was covering a ho-hum college baseball game which turned into a little bit of a historic event. San Diego State University has a phenom of a pitcher, who suddenly last year went from mediocre to the most coveted player in baseball. You’ll hear of this guy soon, because he may go on to become one of the greatest pitchers ever to throw a baseball.

Last night he threw a shut out. What’s amazing about this 20 year-old named Steven Strasburg is that he has a fast ball, a hard ball, that might be faster than anyone in history.

From a yahoo story: “Two men holding radar guns as well as his pitching coach said he has touched 103 mph this season. Only three others have done that, and all were major league relief pitchers, not juniors in college. Strasburg is a starter for San Diego State, and his velocity levels off in triple digits, something never seen, not from Nolan Ryan or Randy Johnson or any of the modern fireballers since the advent of the radar gun.”

He’s been described by ESPN’s Buster Olney as: “the best I’ve ever seen.  And, it’s not even close.”

He is going to be the number one draft pick in June, and reports say he will fetch more than $50 million.

Only one other photographer was there to shoot Strasburg’s first shut out, a shooter from the Union Tribune.

Saw a link to this on sportsshooter, a time lapse video made by Keith Loutit. It’s pretty cool:

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.