Mustafa Arif | مصطفی عارف » Photography

Nikon release impressive D80

Mustafa Arif — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 00:28:15 +0000

Nikon has released the D80, as an upgrade to the D70s. The specs look pretty neat. Ken Rockwell thinks its 95% of the high-end D200 in a plastic case… Tempting! (0)

Lebanon – Emergency Demo today

Mustafa Arif — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 00:51:22 +0000

Most of you who know me will know that demonstrations are not really my cup of tea. I don’t generally find them a productive use of time. On top of that they normally attract the sort of ‘hard’ socialists with whom I can often find very little in common. Nevertheless I have been appalled not [...]

Lunar Eclipse on Tuesday

Mustafa Arif — Sun, 02 May 2004 22:32:00 +0000

For those of you who aren't on the ICU AstroSoc mailing list, there is a total lunar eclipse taking place this Tuesday (4 May) evening. Weather-permitting, it should be visible in Britain.

This being one of the few Tuesdays in term-time when I don't have an evening meeting, you'll probably find me on the roof of the Huxley Building attempting to photograph the eclipse. Having not had the time to go to one of the AstroSoc 'Star Parties' so far this year, I might even get round to paying my membership fee!

Apple’s iPhoto rules!

Mustafa Arif — Mon, 12 Apr 2004 03:59:00 +0000

Some of you may know that I use an Apple Macintosh computer system at home. Like most computer nerds I went through a fairly geeky phase when I would get into fanatical Mac vs PC arguments. (Actually in the early years I was a PC fan and hated Macs with a vengence for being wussy computers.)

I've since come to realise that life's too short to worry about petty things. I use a Mac because, much of the time, it just makes my life easier. Amateur photography is one of those areas where the Mac particularly excels.

I'm currently still using a film camera (mainly). However, I now get all my photos processed on to PhotoCD and am progressively scanning old albums. Managing JPEG files on a computer hard disk using a file manager is do-able but has its limitations. You want to be able to browse a collection, quickly, and break it down by any number of factors (film roll, event, time, etc.). By far the best program I have come across is Apple's iPhoto software. It used to be free by they now charge for it - and it is well worth the investment.