Just how good is the on-board XRite-powered printer calibration and profiling on the HP Z series printers?  Take a look...  the answer?  Remarkably good. 

Special shoutout to the folks at Parrot Digigraphic for letting us play with their stuff!

Want to see what a cool quarter-mil will buy in the digital camera world?  Take a look at this- it's a large-format (48 x 72" scanning bed) Cruse Digital scanning camera, living at Parrot Digigraphic in Billerica, MA. 
 

Sure, sure, it's a big tri-linear CCD on a huge copy stand...  but the real secret to the scanner is the lights.  If you've ever shot copy work you know the issues- first, you want nice,even lighting, and most importantly, no glare.  That doesn't leave much room for control of lighting, or, least of all, creative lighting treatment.  The Cruse opens up a whole new world since it's sampling a very small slice of the original.  The lights are fully programmable and controllable, and you can treat an original for nice, flat, 100% even lighting, or you can use strong side-lighting to enhance the texture of the brush stroke, the collage, or whatever you're shooting.  (Models, perhaps?) 
 

Take a look, really cool stuff!
 

Every once in a while, I come across a photographer who's simple joy in takiing pictures comes through in the work.  Paris Visone, once a student of mine from AIB is like that, she sports a camera grafted to her hand... photography is so much a part of her life and identity, her photography reflects a pure, honest reality that you seldom feel.   Alex Morrow is another.  Alex is a student, her comments are below, but she started her "365 Photos" project- self-assigning a photo a day, because she loves photography and loves the process of taking photographs, and wanted to build it into her daily life.  
 

Just got this note from Phase One:

We are pleased to share with you the release of Capture One 5.1.1 on Thursday, March 25th 2010.
 

The release contains the following enhancements for Leaf backs:

OK kids- here's the camera support matrix, Adobe Camera RAW (Photoshop and Lightroom) vs. Apple Aperture.   

'nuff said.

(Complete list after the jump, natch.)