It has been raining most of the day with the temperature around the mid-60's. This is January in the mid-Atlantic? But more to the point, I have had a cold that began on the weekend and still feel like ........ So I decided to sit down and reorganize some old Aperture libraries. The rumor mill says Apple will be releasing 4.0 sometime soon and I want to be ready.
As I was looking at files that go back to 2002-03, I began to be surprised at the image quality. These were all shot pre-Nikon D100 and with a little shirt pocket Olympus. Most of the files hover around 1 MB. Sure they are noisy by today's standards and non have the dynamic range of today's cameras, but they seemed, to me at least, to have a directness and reality that I miss in some of my more recent images. Wave a Nikon D3 with an 85mm F1.4 or my 70-200mm F2.8 at people and they react as if you are from ICE or the IRS. This was one reason, I had decided to get a Panasonic GX1 to shoot some images of the people who keep these beach resorts going - some of whom really do have to worry about ICE.
Who knows, maybe this is just the cold medicine talking. Or it may be my jealousy at those of my friends who are already in line the to pick-up the latest Nikon, the D4, or a 36 MB Nikon D800 that is said to be about to be released. I still lust for the perfect photo bag, but less and less for the newest high end camera. If I could get those gears in the head turning, the gear in the hands are more than adequate. I hope you enjoy these images. All were from the March/April 2003 after the "end of major combat operations" in Iraq. There was then a hope and optimism on the streets of Baghdad that I hope you can see in these snaps. This evaporated too all quickly by the summer and my camera was replaced by a Glock.
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