Pushing Pixels

I’ve been searching for a new monitor for quite some time. I’m one of those old school hold outs that up until a few weeks ago still had a giant CRT display taking up my entire desk and threatening to collapse it. I put up with the beast as long as I did because it still looked sharper and provided more accurate color than any of the slim and sleek looking LCD displays I had a chance to preview.

I knew there were brands such Eizo that produced LCD monitors suitable for professional graphic design and photography work but I also knew they carried a huge price tag. To be honest, I had finally given up on ever owning one. I thought that perhaps I’d go with an Apple display on my PC. Yikes! The reviews of Apple displays immediately scared me off. Then I started looking at NEC and LaCie models as legitimate options. I was about to purchase the LaCie324. Then I saw a blog entry on ShootSmarter with the tile “It’s Here.. the PERFECT Monitor!”. Sure enough, they were referring to an Eizo. The Eizo CG 222W. The catch? This model costs $1,300. That might sound expensive if you’re used to standard consumer models but it’s a bargain for a monitor that meets high end benchmarks. With in a few minutes I was on B&H ordering one.

I’ve now been using this display for about a month. It’s awesome! I was initially worried that it might be too small. They call it a 22″. The viewing surface is 18.5 inches wide, and 11.5 inches tall. I’m working at wide-screen resolution of 1680×1050. It’s plenty or real estate for design and photography work. Email and Pandora are perfectly happy living on secondary monitor. Color calibration is easy with the included software. This is the first LCD monitor I’ve owned that gives me confidence I’m working with super accurate color representation. Fine tuning photos in Lightroom no longer feels like a guessing game. Developing color palettes for new design or identity projects is no longer such a daunting task.

If you aren’t a professional designer or photographer I think you’d probably be crazy to spend more than a thousand dollars on a monitor. However, if you make a living working on color critical projects this monitor is a great addition to your work flow.

Here’s a link to the product description on Eizo’s site.

If you routinely take your camera with you to harsh environments like beaches and mountains you’re going to accumulate dirt and sand in all of the little crevices on your bodies and lenses.  This “Cyber-Clean” product from Switzerland is great for removing the gunk build up. Actually, it’s great for all of your geek devices. I use it on my computer keyboard, telephones, remote controls, strobes, etc. Plus, it’s fun! It reminds me of that slime in a can that was a toy back in the day.

Stingray city is a phenomena.  Located in Grand Cayman it is probably one of the most popular dives in the world if you go by the sheer number of divers that visit each year. As such I was expecting dozens of divers tripping over each other, stirred up sand and poor visibility for photography. That’s pretty much exactly what we got. That said, it is certainly a unique dive location that will get you up close and personal with large Southern Stingrays. Our DM allowed individuals to feed the rays with large chunks of squid. Of course you don’t just plop squid in to a waiting mouth upon request. First you make the ray work a bit. Elisa was an expert air traffic controller, directing the ray in circles around her.

Only once did she lose control of her dancing partner when the ray decided to take a shortcut to the squid by sweeping in over her head. What does it look like wearing a stingray for a hat? See for yourself.

Would I dive this location again? On a large chartered dive boat, probably not. With my own boat and model, absolutely!

Lightroom is my application of choice for editing and processing photos. Zenfolio is my favorite site for sharing photos with family, friends and clients.  It has been available for sometime but I only just now realized that there’s a great plug-in for exporting directly from Lightroom to Zenfolio.  It does exactly as it says it does.

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/zenfolio

Being in GrandCayman with the family was great but in terms commercially viable photography it was a bit of a bust!  I was sick for half the trip and once healthy and able to dive I managed to drop the backplate to my housing overboard.  However, I did manage to get a couple of nice shots including this Green Moray Eel. I’ve included that one and a few others in a gallery of shots from my favorite dives that can be viewed on Zenfolio here.