Fred Ritchin says that we are obsessed with ourselves and images of the unreal. That we are escaping from very real photos of destruction into visions of idyllic fantasies, and that this escapism is being branded by governments and corporations for their own ends. We are being sold products and social scenarios that appeal to our fantasies but ultimately fail us. Unlike many critics of capitalism, however, Ritchin offers solutions.
On May 19, 2001, the Apple Retail Store at Tysons Corner in Virginia opened its doors to the public and no small amount of criticism. From only two days later, the headline “Sorry, Steve: Here’s Why Apple Stores Won’t Work” is hilarious now, especially the prediction of it being “two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake,” but at the time it arguably made sense.
In 2001, Apple Computer was struggling. The tech bust saw Mac sales plunging as much as 50 percent in one quarter in 2000. The company was fully engaged with launching OS X. If Apple didn’t have enough problems with its own business model, there was the cautionary tale of Gateway Country Stores to consider. In March, PC reseller Gateway closed ten percent of its retail stores. If ever there was a time for Apple not to try retail, it was 2001. How fortunate for Apple and consumers the company did try it anyway.
The origin of the Apple Store begins with a full-sized mockup built in a warehouse. That idea came from Mickey Drexler, CEO of Gap, who had joined Apple’s board of directors in 1999. Not surprisingly Apple and Gap stores share certain design similarities, but Apple Stores took retail minimalism to a new level, using just three materials. The materials were, as Apple Senior VP of Apple Retail Ron Johnson pointed out at the time, “glass, stainless steel, and wood.”
Much more importantly, the focus was not on products to the exclusion of all else. Organizing products around categories was perceived as a mistake, or as Steve Jobs put it, “we were like, ‘Oh, God, we’re screwed!’ But because it was a mockup, Apple was able to redesign the store, emphasizing Mac usage and related interests, like digital photography. That focus on developing relationships with customers, especially when compared to competitors like Best Buy, is an underrated part of the Apple Store’s success, and what an astonishing success it has been.
Ten years later, there are 324 Apple Stores: 233 in the U.S., and 91 international locations. In terms of foot traffic, Apple saw its billionth retail visitor last month, with 71 million in the last quarter alone, up 51 percent year over year. The increasing number of visitors can be ascribed not only to the popularity of Apple products, but location of stores. In the U.S., the goal has always been to have 85 percent of the population within driving distance of an Apple Store, which has often meaning paying a premium for retail space. Bu it’s been a strategy that’s paid off.
For fiscal year 2010, just under billion in sales came from Apple Stores. Last quarter, revenue from Apple retail was .19 billion, up 90 percent year over year. That means Apple Stores accounted for 13 percent of the company’s revenue, an impressive figure that puts them far ahead of competitors like Best Buy when measured by metrics like sales per square foot.
Last quarter, Apple sold 797,000 Macs in Apple Stores, up 32 percent year over year. One of every five Macs sold now comes from an Apple Store, but even more important is who is buying them. Going back at least five years, about half of those buying Macs in Apple Stores are new to the platform. For the Mac, the Apple Store has contributed to the brand’s halo effect, boosting Macs sales by affinity just like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. It’s also been instrumental to the iPad’s success, according to CEO Steve Jobs, and can’t be underestimated in terms of its contribution to how well the iPhone’s done.
Looking at the numbers, it’s hard to argue the Apple Store has been anything but a huge success (and one made visually apparent in this infographic from last year), but perhaps not a flawless one. In 2004, Apple began experimenting with “mini-stores” in six locations. While it was rumored the concept would see expansion to as many as 50 locations, that never happened, likely for the obvious reason. The mini-stores are just too small to accommodate Apple Store traffic. The above mini-store in Palo Alto is relocating to a much larger space in the same mall, and other mini-stores can be expected to follow.
Besides the mini-store experiment, it’s hard to fault Apple’s execution of its retail strategy over the last ten years. But what about the future? Here are five predictions for the next ten years at the Apple Store.
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If you wish to master the digital photography by making use of digital camera, you have to know more about it especially for its amazing functions. One of many special features of the digital camera is the optical system. In the centre of every digital camera, no matter how it keeps its graphics, is surely an optical system. The optical system is essential in getting high standard image. For this reason, we will look at this special feature in this post. You may wish to know about Best SLR Camera and Cheap Digital SLR Camera too.
Most digital cameras come with 2 distinctive viewfinders which are an optical one and a digital one. Usually, the optical viewfinder consists of a glass or plastic lens that shows you your subject instantly that is just a plain eyeport that permits you to look through your camera to the other side.
Digital viewfinder is a large Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) that reproduces what the digital camera image sensor is actually seeing. Which one would you utilize? Just simply select any system that that suits you. You can obtain far better effects, although, in case you are aware of the distinction between the two. With a majority of cameras, you will not really find out precisely what the digital camera sees when you look through the optical viewfinder.
This is precisely why: Whenever capturing with a distance, the optical viewfinder and lens see basically the exact same thing. Close up to your subject, even though they clearly get 2 distinct things. Digital viewfinder, however, shows you precisely what the digital camera sees, and thus is an extremely reliable gauge of your potential photograph. You do not wish to use your digital viewfinder on a regular basis, though.
For beginners, it utilizes a large amount of power, and you could get more usage beyond batteries of your digital camera when using the optical viewfinder instead. Moreover, the LCD display can be very difficult to see in certain lighting conditions, such as outside in mid-afternoon.
Last but not least, without mastering the secrets about optical system, it is not possible for us to get the excellent shot by using digital camera. I really hope that you guys can actually get some ideas about optical system after reading this particular article.
The local art center has a working artist as their gallery director. The Hempfield Township resident first discovered her talent in high school, majored in art at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and has been active in the local art club since 1970. It is a regular affair for the art center to showcase her work. She says she works in oils and pastels and does some silk screen printing.
A member of another art club recently invited the artist to demonstrate landscape pastel painting from a photograph. She says that for a beginner, working exclusively from photographs is not a wise choice. She recommends that those who are starting out should get out in the open to see the nuances of light and shadow. If you want more paintings resources visit custom painting canvas.
If the painter paints outside, he can absorb the details better, sketch the actual scene, take a photograph and refer to it later on. She normally does it like this. She uses several photographs to create a composite landscape. This technique becomes very useful when the customer asks for elements that aren’t present in just one photograph.
Photography is an art form too however when it is used as a reference for paintings, once can adjust the painting so as to not include anything that is not likable in the photo. You have to decide what to make the most important part of the painting. When a painting is completed how it would look would be decided by using a photograph.
For her model, she took a photo during the fall at the Slippery Rock and enlarged that photo to paint the pastel portrait. She says that she doesn’t draw all the way to the edges of the paper, so nothing is covered by the frame. She draws on the wrong side of a pastel paper because it is less textured, and works better for her technique in layering colors. To enjoy more quality paintings information make sure to visit custom painting photograph.
Reds and blues are used to evoke the logs and branches rising from the water. Her photographs are added with bits of red to enhance certain sections of her painting. She is careful in exploiting the characteristic of pastels being close to using pure pigment.
The color values should be stopped and thought about according to her. It is best not to use excess of light too soon. When painting with pastels one can always layer the lighter values over the darker ones without worrying about conserving the whit areas like in watercolors. Pastels just have to be felt by you.
The color range should be used carefully as per her. Without having to mix different shades, one can get the right color by using today’s wide range of colors. If we do not like the results achieved, we can wipe the color and start over again when painting with pastels. It’s a very easy going medium.
Deciding on your first DSLR Camera or even upgrading later is of course fun, but it might be daunting. The choices are plentifold and the lists of features are wide. How do you decide on what camera choice to make? The primary decision is the brand choice… Nikon VS Canon DSLR, One of the Four Thirds brands?
This first DSLR Camera decision is perhaps the most important because it limits your future choices to the brand. From here on you should invest in lenses that will be compatible with your DLSR Camera choice.
If this is your subsequent DSLR Camera investment, your brand decision was probably made before and you most likely own a few lenses. Your choices will be limited to a model within the brand choice.
Near everyone spends a lot of time carefully studying the Camera Body features and tend to focus too much on the obvious features such as the camera’s megapixel size. There are a lot of other, wider considerations to focuson. Most of such considerations go beyond the Camera body.
The ultimate aim surely is to take good photographs and to do this you need to look beyond the camera body. One needs to evaluate your investment in Lenses, investment in your own skills and when it comes to digital photography, photo editing is an essential part of the process. These extraneous issues are more important that the money you invest in the camera body.
The first is the lenses you will be using:
As a general rule of thumb, spend more time and more money on your lens choices. The lenses determine the brand you are going to live with. If necessary go for a lesser featured camera .The lenses will outlast the camera every time and you are likely to upgrade.
The second issue, beyond the camera body has to do with photography skills.
Taking good photographs takes more than the kit, even lenses. Too few people spend time and money on learning to operate their sophisticated equipment. Unfortunately you cannot buy skills like you can equipment. You can buy training, but if you do not invest in the training time it is money wasted. Fortunately experimenting on the guidance of a good course is time and money well spent once you commit yourself and it is one of the most rewarding things you can do.
Another area where people typically under-invest is in Photo Editing technology.
This is where you can become very creative and turn ordinary shots into art. Spending money on software is less exciting than shiny Camera kit, but it does make an enormous difference to the end product… Making good photos Great!
In summary, when considering a DSLR Camera purchase, consider looking. Good photography in my view is 20% camera body, 20% lens choices, 20% photography skills. 20% post processing and 20% luck. The Camera body is only a small element in the mix
Digital photography has become a trendy topic in the world. It has dramatically boosted up the fashion industry too. If we wish to be part of this trendy field, we should learn to know more about digital photography.
Firstly, this digital photography tutorial will start off with the regular parts and terms that we need to know when talking about digital camera. Those terms are important for us to know well about digital camera.
1. Pixel- means the tiniest part of the digital photo. A photo image is composed of combined millions of pixel.
2. Resolution- the overall quantity of pixels in a photo. Enhancing the resolution would make the image become sharper. Thus more pixels are needed to obtain a better photo image quality.
3. Mega pixel- a photo composed of three to four mega pixels will have a better quality that a photo with only one mega pixel.
4. Dots Per Inch (DPI) – this term is used to explain quality of the computer monitor and printer. Specifically, laser printers have more dpi resolution than monitors. Hence, higher the dpi resolution means better quality.
5. JPEG (joint photographic experts group) – it correspond to the format for saving images in the digital camera.
6. Memory Card- this is where the digital files will be stored. Memory cards consist of different sizes and capacity. A memory card with higher storage capacity would be more convenient to purchase.
7. LCD (liquid crystal display) – almost all digital cameras have this specification. The purpose of LCD is for the photographer to be able to view the scene first before capturing the photo.
After we learnt about the terms and basic parts of digital camera, we will move on to the second part which will show us the proper way of handling digital camera.
As we all know, it is important for us to know how to handle the digital camera in order to capture the top quality image by using it. A good photographer will maximize the function of the digital camera with a good skill in handling the camera.
As a beginner, we should master the methods of taking photos first. However, if we do not understand how a digital camera works, it is difficult for us to handle it. Moreover, we should learn how to take indoor and outdoor pictures too.
Below is the second part of the digital photography tutorial. These are good ideas to help beginner master the secrets of taking photos.
1. Pay attention to the subject
One of the most fundamental digital photography tips. You should be able to compose carefully by working on the frame. Play with your camera, and explore the different shots. Avoid positioning your object at the middle of the photo, as it may result to dead middle image.
2. Capture Close Up Photos
Take great images by capturing them in extreme close up. Close up photos add a little creativity and excitement to the photos. In addition, this feature is only of the different ways to enhance you photo.
3. Use a tripod
Oftentimes digital cameras results to blurry photographs if your hands quiver a little. Getting a tripod will surely save your effort from taking low quality photos, and preserve otherwise great photos.
4. Be active
Try creative shots. Take photos from the top of a hill, or off the side of a yacht. Go outside and explore your environment. You’ll surely have fun taking those once in a lifetime photo shots.
5. Join a photography class
On the other hand, we can also learn from an expert instead of learning by ourselves. We can learn from their experience in digital photography. This can help in our learning process.
In conclusion, it is tough to become a good digital photographer. We need to keep on learning to polish our techniques and skills.
If you want to know more about digital camera, you may read Top Digital Cameras and Easy To Use Digital Camera.