Love is Blind served as an excellent opener to the show with some pretty visual effects. The audience was really, really getting into it when she played Fallin’. You could tell Alicia noticed the crowd’s energy and she would return the favor; She put on a great show and was certainly enjoying herself. The background singers seemed to be having a great evening too!

After Fallin’, the show definitely got started and pretty much everyone was up on their feet during her upbeat songs (remember, it was an all-seated concert). Halfway through the show, when she was behind the piano, her dazzling talents truly shone through. However, I don’t agree with most other reviews that she should just stick to being a soul queen behind the piano.

For me, the best of the show was saved for last, my highlights were If I Ain’t Got You, Doesn’t Mean Anything, and No One, after which the background vocalists stayed on stage in the dark (!) singing No One’s oh oh oh oooh with the audience until the encore: ‘Empire State of Mind’. The concert ended a bit abruptly when she thanked the crowd and walked off stage, or, perhaps I’m just used to longer encores.

To summarise, a wonderful performance by Alicia and an energetic crowd made it a night to remember!

Setlist:

1. Caged Bird (Intro)
2. Love Is Blind
3. You Don’t Know My Name
4. Fallin’
5. Another Way to Die
6. Karma
7. Let Me Play for You
8. Pray for Forgiveness
9. Diary
10. Keep a Child Alive
11. If I Ain’t Got You
12. Like You’ll Never See Me Again
13. Wait Til You See My Smile
14. Feeling Good (background vocalist)
15. Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart
16. Superwoman
17. Unthinkable (I’m Ready)
18. Doesn’t Mean Anything
19. No One
20. Empire State of Mind

All of the following photos were taken with a Sony Cyber-shot T77. A real concert camera, but I hate its handling. However, I must admit, the results are pretty impressive.

This is my first. I took this photo during a school trip to Rome in 1995, when I was 15 years old. I don’t remember where exactly in Rome it was taken. At the high school I attended, Anciet Greek and Latin were compulsory subjects. The trip to Rome was intended to let us students finally experience all that we were taught the years before.

The photo was shot with a simple Rollei point-and-shoot camera that my mom had bought before I left for Rome. It was the very first time I took a step back and think about composition. Before I got the developed photos back from the lab, I knew already that this one would be my best shot from the trip to Rome!

• be doddema (I must admit, I kinda like this one.)
• display two comments (Not three or four?)
• lili aaron soundtrack (Who’s Lili Aaron?)
• overload on homework (I’ve had my fair share of homework, and I wasn’t able to handle an overload either.)

And last, but not least, my favorite one:

• scare sheep (Now why would one scare sheep?)

Whether you’re happy (Love the size and the retro look!) with the camera or not (You’re kidding, no viewfinder and no flash?), you’ve got to hand it to Olympus’ PR and Marketing departments, they executed on a good web strategy. The E-P1 launch was fun. They’ve been teasing us for quite a while since the mock-up first appeared at Photokina in September 2008; Mysterious tweets by @getolympus, the videos commemorating the Olympus Pen from 1959, the invitations to the Berlin event, and the sudden involvement of Blendtec. It doesn’t happen very often, but the web was full of Olympus buzz!

So, what’s been causing all of the buzz? Here’s a short recap of the most important rumors and events:

19-4-2009: This is the mock-up camera that was shown at Photokina 2008. A prediction of the camera’s specs is made on 43rumors.com, where else?

29-5-2009: Rumors of the camera’s name emerge on a Korean forum: E-P1 (via 43rumors.com).

1-6-2009: Sketches of the camera’s front are published at 43rumors.com.

2-6-2009: Olympus invites prominent journalists and bloggers to a Micro Four Thirds event in Berlin held on the 15th and 16th of June.

4-6-2009: Sketches of the back of the camera appear on 43rumors.com.

5-6-2009: The first real picture of the camera is leaked, photography enthusiasts on the web are getting excited.

11-6-2009: A very tiny image (120×90 pixels) of the camera and the kit lenses appears on a Chinese forum (via 43rumors.com).

15-6-2009: Stock images of the Olympus E-P1 leak all over the web. Some photoshop the images and add a black model to the line-up.

16-6-2009: The camera is officially announced by Olympus and goes on pre-order at camera retailers worldwide.

16-6-2009: Yes, it blends.

It’s been an interesting launch, and so far, most hands-on previews of the camera seem to be in Olympus’ favor. But, what will the pixel-peeping reviewers have to say about the camera? What are your first impressions?

Replacing light seals can be a bit daunting, it’s a fiddly process that includes some trial and error. So, take your time and be patient. However, I noticed that the whole replacement process can also be very rewarding, I couldn’t escape from feeling a good sense of achievement after restoring my Canonet QL17 G-III to its former glory. Heck, if this isn’t connecting with a camera, then I don’t know what is!

Without representing myself as a camera repair expert, here’s how to replace the camera light seals:

• Buy a light seal replacement kit, I got mine from Camera Repair Materials. It has everything you need: self-adhesive and non-adhesive foam (3mm and 5mm thick), self-adhesive felt, 10ml of adhesive glue, 10ml of adhesive remover and a pair of tweezers. Don’t worry, you’ll get plenty of foam with this kit, it’s okay to make mistakes and waste some.
• Read the instruction manual! Read it from start to finish and preferably twice. There’s a good, elaborate manual at Favorite Classics, Matt Denton also has some tips and tricks.
• Put a few drops of adhesive remover onto the light seal and let it soak in.
• Add a few more drops and start scraping! Use the wooden scrapers and cotton buds.
• I know it’s tempting to leave a few bits of the old light seals on, but please continue until everything has been cleaned away!
• I cut approximately 7×13,5 mm of foam for the lower part of the film chamber door and 3,5×13,5mm for the upper part. Please do take your own measurements as well! It’s better to cut out a piece that’s slightly too large than a piece that’s too small.
• Gently place the new seals onto the camera with the pair of tweezers. If you’re using the self-adhesive foam, note that it’s very, very sticky, you may have to lick it before you stick it.
• Well, that’s about it, no more bullet points!

Done! I did notice that the camera back closes very tightly, but I figured it’ll be fine when the newly placed foam compresses after a while.

Bryan, thanks for allowing me to use the light seal repair kit image! For more information on the Canonet QL17 G-III, visit the following sites: the Canon Camera Museum, Cameraquest, Matt’s Classic Cameras, and Photoethnography.

This post was written with wpToGo, seems to be working just fine! You can download it for free from the Android Market.

The day after, I ordered some OM to EF mount adapters with focus confirmation from BIG_IS. The focus confirmation works fine, however, I noticed that when I attached the lens to the adapter, the lens was slightly loose on the adapter and could move around a bit while focusing.

I contacted the seller about it and learned this little hack: There are three small grooves on the adapter’s mount, if you use a tiny screwdriver to widen these grooves just a little bit, the OM lens will fit the adapter more tightly. Be careful though, don’t widen them too much or it’ll be very hard to dismount the lens from the adapter again. See the image below, it works!

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

See on Flickr.

Like you, I’m usually pretty suspicious about such blah blah and flowery language, even more so in press releases. But last year they predicted that 2008 would be the year of PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris. Now, I believe that color blue closely resembles Obama’s blue, doesn’t it? Interesting…