New Radish

I have a new logo project to work on, this time for a blog about "science / politics / complex systems + biology. The last one means, essentially, that we look for overarching rules that govern biology, typically through cloud-style computing (like what google does to make search better!)."

The blog is called "The New Radish", a play off of some of the research that my client is involved in. This research shows (among other things) that radishes (at a genetic level) are very similar to humans. And that goes to show that wildly different things can have surprising connections.

UPDATE: The logo has been designed in collaboration with my client. He drew the lettering (which is used throughout the blog). In addition to the logo, I also helped advise him on color, layout and shapes for the webpage itself.

FujiFilm Finepix Z20 camera review

I received my camera in the mail last week and I've been carrying it around everywhere. First impressions were as such:

-oOOoo, pretty blue and shiny!

-turns on really fast

Okay, but what about the photos it takes? I used macro mode, anti-shake, took pictures with the flash on and off. I didn't have a chance to use the face detection technology though - mostly because I forgot about it whenever I was taking pictures of people. One thing that bothered me a lot while taking pictures was the low quality of the view in the LCD screen. As I was lining up the shot, the image was incredibly grainy. I felt a little better once I saw how the photos actually turned out, but it's disconcerting to have them appear so low quality during the act of taking them.

On the whole, I'm mostly pleased. It lives up to it's reputation - a fun little camera for running around taking random photos of life, but it's in no way a good camera for art shots. I'm not impressed with the quality of the images - overall, not particularly crisp.

Things I am impressed with:

-The flash is great. I actually want to use it. It's not overpowering and the background is decently exposed. Which does make it a handy camera for social situations, which often happen in the evenings and/or inside. I don't feel comfortable posting any example photos here, because I'm not sure my friends would be comfortable with that. You'll just have to trust me!

-On a similar note, check out this photo below from Sea Life Park. It was really bright outside and pretty dark inside but it managed to expose both areas appropriately.



My only other complaint would be that it was way too easy for my finger to get in the way of the photo!



Anyway, expect to see more photos in this blog now that I've got a camera to carry around with me everywhere!