National Geographic features Top Ten Photos of the Year plus the ongoing Visions of Earth gallery offering some new images from 2010.

Reuters features Life of Wine, an interesting gallery of images on wine from the vineyard to the glass.

The Big Picture from The Boston Globe features Chile, nine days later, a collection of interesting and still dramatic images of life there today.

Yesterday's review here by Mark Dubovoy titled Hasselblad H3D 50 II Multishot  Versus Phase One P65+ / 645AF generated some considerable discussion on this site's forum, particularly with regard to the issue of dynamic range. Though he found the Hasselblad and the Phase backs to be very similar in dynamic range, he also wrote "The dynamic range of a typical high-end professional 35 mm DSLR is around 7 F/stops. Medium Format cameras are closer to 13 F/stops of dynamic range," and the cat was among the pidgeons.

The issue seems to be contentious because different people use different definitions of dynamic range. As one person put it, "It's like comparing apples with cassaba melons."

I have therefore just added an Editor's Note to Mark's review with my observation on the subject. Hopefully it will clarify a debate that has been  murky for some time.

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Readers who purchase our current Lightroom 2 tutorial
will be eligible for a discount on our future Lightroom 3 tutorial.

...

The air is thin at the top. Whether it's Ferrari vs Lamborghini, or, of interest to photographers – Hasselblad vs Phase One – the two remaining leaders of the medium format world.

Every now and then it's fun to pitch top contenders against each other, and when they are both kings of their respective hills, all the more so.

Today we have an exclusive review by our regular contributor Mark Dubovoy titled Hasselblad H3D 50 II Multishot  Versus Phase One P65+ / 645AF.

What makes this particularly interesting is that the 50II back from Hasselblad is a multi-shot, in theory a technology able to produce higher image quality than that from a Bayer array, as used in the Phase One P65+. But the Phase is a higher resolution back, so how will it all work out?

I'll bet you'll be surprised.

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As you may have read previously here I have no field workshops planned during 2010. This is a sabbatical year for me, focusing on other business and personal projects.

But there are some very fine teachers and trips available which I can recommend.

My friend David Burren has an Antarctic Photographic Expedition planned for this coming November. The initerary includes the Falkland Islands as well as South George Island.

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Art Wolfe needs no introduction to anyone interested in nature photography. His work is recognized around the world. What you may not know is that Art is also a very fine teacher, and does a large number of lectures and field workshops world-wide.

Click here for further information, including a list of cities in the U.S. and Canada where Art will be speaking in the next few months.

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PictureCode Software today released v2.0.7 of its Noise Ninja plug-in for Apple Aperture. The only change is compatibility with Aperture 3.x, when the software is operated in 64-bit mode. Version 2.0.7 is backwards-compatible with v2.x of Aperture, and will work in 32-bit mode as well.

The Big Picture from The Boston Globe features NYC and Las Vegas from above, at night, the stunning nighttime aerial work of photographer Jason Hawkes.

Stepan Rudik, winner of the 3rd prize story in the Sports Features category of the World Press Photo 2009 contest, has been disqualified from the contest for removing a foot from the background of one of the photographs in his winning story.*UPDATED*

Foreign Policy Magazine features The Shooting War, a collection of work by various conflict photographers working in the world's trouble spots.

How do you get ready to do your photography? Jack Graham shares his thoughts in an essay titled Preparation Comes First.

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Sean Reid at Reid Reveiws has just published a thorough review of the Canon 85/1.2 L II (including extensive comparisons with the Canon 85/1.8).  He also has a previous review that compares the Zeiss ZE 85/1.4 with the Canon 85/1.8, as well, so the whole trio of fast EOS mount 85s is now covered on the site. Reid Reviews is a subscription site.

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The winner of last week's Contest is Marc McDonald of Boulder, CO. Congratulations Mark! We'll be sending you a full boxed copy of Adobe Lightroom 3 as soon as it ships.

Who will be next week's winner? It could be you!

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Readers who purchase our current Lightroom 2 tutorial
will be eligible for a discount on our future Lightroom 3 tutorial.

...

The Canon Professional Network features an interview with David Burnett who spent 44 days in Iran in 1979 photographing the Iranian Revolution.

The Denver Post features THE GAME: Spring Training 2010, a blog with an interesting collection of images from Major League Baseball's spring training camps in various part of the US.

Firmware v2.0.3 for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, announced today and expected to come available as a free download later this month, will add 64-level manual audio control, a new histogram display, adjusted frame rates and more to the video capture mode of the 21.03 million image pixel digital SLR. A lens communication problem affecting this camera with v1.2.4 loaded will also be corrected.

The Big Picture from The Boston Globe features some dramatic images from the devastating Earthquake in Chile.

Canon has posted updaters for Digital Photo Professional, EOS Utility, Picture Style Editor and WFT Utility for Mac and Windows, as well as Original Data Security Tools for Windows only. Changes include support for the upcoming EOS Rebel T2i/550D, the addition of an horizon correction feature to the Trimming Tool in DPP, support for Mac OS X 10.6 in EOS Utility (plus the removal of official support for a long list of older cameras) and more.

There has been no shortage of sports galleries from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and we've endeavored to round up some of the latest galleries and blogs.*UPDATED*

Apple has released Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 3.1 for the Mac OS, which adds support for the RAW formats of 11 new digital cameras, including the Olympus E-P1 and EP-2 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1.

When I do portfolio reviews with students and I discuss an image of theirs that I don't feel has been successful, the question that I ask is – What is it about? This seemingly innocent question is, in my experience, one which causes any photographer to reflect on their own work in a way that is necessarily part of the creative process.

A new essay titled What is it About? – Deconstructing an Image uses today's Home Page photograph as an example of how this process is done.

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Phase One has just announced the continuation of  PODAS – the Phase One Digital Artist Series, workshops to be held around the world this year that you will want to learn more about. I'll have more to discuss about these in the weeks ahead.

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Leica Camera has announced that it will bring the latest and newest Leica products to major North American cities as part of the first-ever Leica North American Road Show. Leica’s product specialists will visit 26 cities over the course of 14 weeks; the road show will commence on March 18, 2010 in Miami, Florida and conclude on June 23, 2010 in Nashville, Tennessee.  The series is designed to enhance participants’ knowledge of and familiarity with the M and S Systems.

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Readers who purchase our current Lightroom 2 tutorial
will be eligible for a discount on our future Lightroom 3 tutorial.

...

Apple has released Aperture 3.0.1, an update to the latest version of its pro photo management, image editing and RAW photo conversion application for Mac. The update addresses a long list of bugs.

The 67th annual Pictures of the Year international competition has posted some of the winners in various categories.