Photog

My old point-and-shoot Canon from my 18th birthday simply will not produce the type of pictures I want for this summer's trip to Austria.

Let me rewind a bit here. Four years ago (cue a flood of high school memories) my parental units gifted me a nice digital ISO camera. Three years later I used it to make a photo slideshow on my own story Web page in my introductory class to online journalism class.

In short of six week I will embark to Europe for the Salzburg media program hosted by my university, which covers global media literacy. I hope even more timely blog posts then, by the way. Now I need help choosing an affordable camera that will take mesmerizing pik-churs for me. I'm leaning towards a Pentax, but as a clueless photog-to-be I need advice. I especially love those vintage shots that look straight from the 70s. Not sure whether that's a filter on a photo software like Photoshop or a camera setting?

Questions aside I hope to take wonderfully, journalistic photographs.

Excuse the Delay...It's Oil Spill Time

These Gulf oil spill images on the Web are breaking environmental hearts everywhere. There's the image of the pelican drenched in oil with its sparkling blue eyes darting at the camera. And then the lonely fish floating to the top of Gulf waters. While a Earth-devastating oil spill might produce wonderful photography, it's killing more than animals and livelihoods. The spill is lessening hope in humanity. Then, we have the videos comparing the spill to a tipped cup of coffee, alleviating the minds of all. I'll save my judgements about BP and the Obama administration and simply point out that this oil spill represents more than the an acceleration of the Earth's eventual demise, but a perfect example of the evolution of multimedia.