America remembers: U.S. marks 13 years since 9/11 with Twin Towers of light over Manhattan

America will today pay tribute to the nearly 3,000 victims who lost their lives in the September 11 attacks as the public prepares to tour the World Trade Center site for the first time on an anniversary.

The National September 11 Museum - which includes gut-wrenching artifacts and graphic photos of the attacks - will be open to the public as the area slowly becomes integrated with the surrounding streets again. Fences around the memorial plaza have come down, opening it up to the public and camera-wielding tourists.

But before they are allowed inside, relatives of victims will come together at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza for a somber name-reading ceremony honoring every one of the people who perished in the attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and inside the plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

During the ceremony, six moments of silence will be observed marking the strikes on the towers, and the Pentagon, the collapse of the skyscrapers and the time Flight 93 went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

It comes after two blue columns of light representing the towers illuminated the skies over Lower Manhattan in a vivid tribute on Wednesday night.

But for some who lost loved ones in the attacks, the increasing feel of a return to normalcy in the area threatens to obscure the tragedy that took place there and interfere with their grief.

'Instead of a quiet place of reflection, it's where kids are running around,' said Nancy Nee, whose firefighter brother, George Cain, was killed in the attacks. 'Some people forget this is a cemetery. I would never go to the Holocaust museum and take a selfie.'

For others, the changes are an important part of the healing process.

'When I first saw (One World Trade Center), it really made my heart sing,' said Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles Burlingame was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. 'It does every time I see it because it's so symbolic of what the country went through.'

'I want to see it bustling,' she said. 'I want to see more housing down there; I want to see it alive and bursting with businesses.'

Although the reconstruction has been plagued by delays, two of the new skyscrapers built around the site of the fallen twin towers are now open, while 1 World Trade Center, the tallest skyscraper in the Western hemisphere, is due to open later this year.

Against that backdrop, politicians, families of those who died in the attacks and other dignitaries will gather on Thursday to observe moments of silence and hear recitations of nearly 3,000 victims' names. It has become an annual ritual.

It is the first commemoration ceremony since the opening of the 9/11 museum and the adjoining repository for unidentified human remains at the site. That is an important milestone for families of the victims, officials say.

'For the first time this year, because the museum opened in May, family members will be able to visit the museum as part of the commemoration,' Michael Frazier, a museum spokesman, said.

Fuji Unveils the X100T with ‘Electronic Rangefinder’

The saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But while the X100S certainly wasn’t ‘broke’— it’s one of the most beloved cameras currently on the market — Fuji is delighting customers today by releasing the much-rumored X100T and making this phenomenal camera even better by adding some groundbreaking viewfinder tech and more.

One look at the X100T and its spec list and you realize that Fuji was, indeed, careful not to change what was working and somehow ruin a great camera. The 16MP APS-C X-Trans II sensor, EXR Processor II, and fixed 35mm equivalent f/2 lens are the same as its predecessor.



Where the X100T makes its mark is in the Advanced Hybrid Viewfinder featuring ‘world’s first’ electronic rangefinder capabilities, an updated LCD screen, updated ergonomics/external controls, and a new ‘Classic Chrome’ film simulation mode.

The headline feature is the Electronic Rangefinder capability, which is pretty much what it sounds like. It allows manual focusing lovers to use the camera’s hybrid viewfinder to focus as if they were using a mechanical rangefinder, only the images are overlaid electronically.

The LCD has also been updated, with resolution for the 3-inch screen now weighing in at 1.04M-dots; and the controls have been redesigned with 7 customizable Fn buttons, an aperture ring that clicks at 1/3-stops, and an exposure compensation dial that has been expanded to +/- 3-stops.

The last notable feature mentioned several times in the press release is the addition of a ‘Classic Chrome’ film simulation mode that promises “muted tones and deep color reproduction for beautifully dramatic images.”

We won’t dive any further into that feature here, but keep an eye out for an exclusive guest article by David Hobby (Strobist) about this particular feature, which he’s had the chance to play around with.

The X100T will hit store shelves in mid-November (just in time for Christmas…)

Inside the trailer park: Photo series explores the lives and loves of the families living in a a California mobile home community

Far from the kudzu-covered southern Piedmont or tornado-prone prairie where popular depictions so frequently park mobile homes, a San Francisco photographer has captured the essence of trailer life in a seemingly unlikely place: California wine country.

Trailer parks can be found anywhere, of course, and photographer David Waldorf set out in a Uhaul-turned-portable studio in 2006 to prove that beauty could be found anywhere, as well.

He found it in a Sonoma County mobile home park nestled near--but seemingly worlds away from--the sun-drenched vineyards and wine-making estates.

In the Brookside Trailer Park, Waldorf offered free photographs to folks willing to participate and in exchange was able to snap images both haunting and thrilling, down and out but somehow uplifting.

Whether it's a divorcee posing in her wedding dress by the light of a charcoal grill or an 18-year-old afflicted by a skin condition that makes him appear far younger, The Trailer Park is a complex journey through a world more often cast in simple stereotypes.

The Selfie Brush: New Heights for the Brush Industry, New Lows for Humanity

Give the Selfie Brush its due, it is probably the first substantial improvement in brushing technology since those gooey, gel-filled handles. Unfortunately, it’s also a brush — a vanity object in and of itself — that is built to facilitate instant post-brush selfie taking…

No, it’s not April 1st, and yes we wish it was. The fact of the matter is, this thing is real. Part brush, part selfie-designed iPhone case, the Selfie Brush eliminates that pesky problem of having to: Step 1 – Put down your brush; Step 2 – Pick up your phone; Step 3 – Take a selfie.

I know, we all have this problem. Imagine the time saved now that you can slide your phone directly INTO your brush and snap away the moment grooming is complete.



And that’s not even half the convenience this puppy offers up. You can text mid brush, there’s access to the volume buttons so you can listen to music, and the headphone port is also accessible. Consider our faces sufficiently palmed, and if you’d like to find out more about the brush or pick one up for 20.00 GBP in either pink, black or violet, head over to the Selfie Brush website.


(via Digital Trends)

Tutorial: Easily Focus-Stack Using a Photoshop Feature You Probably Didn’t Know About

Focus stacking is a fairly common technique used in the world of macro photography, but the process of focus stacking isn’t always a straightforward one. Sure, certain programs can automatically achieve a result for you, but when you’re looking for much more control, getting it done by other means is sometimes a necessity.



In the video above, Adobe’s Bryan O’Neil Hughes shows you an effective way to stack focus using a feature that’s been baked into Adobe Bridge and Photoshop since CS4.

The particular feature is aptly called ‘focus blending,’ and as Hughes explains in the video, it seems as though not a lot of people know about it. So, after a quick intro on what Focus Blending is and how it works, he dives in and shows you how to get great results with minimal effort.

The video is only three and a half minutes, so it’s a quick watch that provides a thorough, but concise walkthrough of the workflow. Of course, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all method, so you can tweak it as needed; but as a basic guideline, this is a wonderful little resource. Give it a watch or toss it in your queue, and as always, let us know if you have a better method!


via ISO2000