My wife, Jude, just received her new D700 today. What a machine.

Jeffrey Friedl’s blog:

Marianne Oelund recently posted a sequence of images of a Nikon D3 shutter in action, over on the Digital Photography Review Nikon D3 forum. With her permission, I have turned that sequence into a mini web movie application, such that you can animate the frames by sliding your mouse back and forth across the image.

This isn’t half as good as the cherry blossom time-lapse.

(via DF)

Glenn Tilton Must Go:

Your voice has been heard, and United has repealed the decision to sell meals on transatlantic flights. They have not yet changed their other wrong-headed policies, including domestic business class flights being served only Buy on Board items without being charged . Our petition will remain to discourage future bad ideas, which will doubtless occur as soon as the Tilton management group believes this one has been forgotten.

It’s shocking what these airlines are getting away with nowadays. They’ve got such a loose leash, they’ll shamelessly try anything — no matter how ridiculously offensive it may be to travelers their customers.

The world’s greatest travel rewards program just got better.

From Starwood:

We have some thrilling news we want to share with our members: SPG® Flights, a new and truly groundbreaking redemption opportunity, is now available.

Now you can redeem Starpoints® for airline tickets on hundreds of airlines worldwide — with no blackout dates — even during peak periods such as holidays or for last-minute flights. If there’s a seat available for purchase with cash, you can use your Starpoints. It’s exactly how our signature Free Night Awards took off. 

Starwood Preferred Guest® is the first and only hotel loyalty program that allows members to redeem award points for air travel on available flights without the restrictions or fees typically required by frequent-flyer programs.

With SPG Flights, you can conveniently search, book and redeem Starpoints for your ticket — starting at just 10,000 Starpoints — all at SPG.com/flights.

Now you have the ultimate freedom and flexibility to travel the world using Award Nights and Award Flights without blackout dates. I think you’ll agree that SPG Flights sets the new standard in airline redemption. See for yourself. Then fly without boundaries.

I bought the full-sized The Travel Book years ago, and I swear I flip through it often. So inspiring. In case you have a small coffee table, from the Lonely Planet pressroom:

The award-winning and best-selling pictorial now comes in a gift book format! In full color with 888 pages and 217 maps covering 230 countries, The Travel Book Mini invites all kinds of travelers to get out and explore the world.

This new, compact mini edition transforms The Travel Book from essential coffee table tome to constant bedside companion. A definitive pictorial dedicated to travel and the world, The Travel Book Miniprofiles every country on the planet and combines stunning images with entertaining, informative text, both of which are updated for this edition.