One of the many difficulties of taking pictures is, you must set your focus of what you to portray and then take the photos. This has been a challenge for many years in consumer photography because getting things into focus isn’t as easy as it sounds. This is especially the case, when I request a photograph to be taken in a specific composition. Therefore trying to compose the photo AND get the right part in focus really puzzles everyone. Well, for those who are not taking professional photos and are simply interested in snapping what you see, there is a new innovation in town. It is the ability to take a photo regardless of the focus and just take the photo. You can fix the focus after it is taken and save the image as you see fit. Imagine that! I would love to see this is in professional cameras someday because it will make our lives easier as well. The technology is called Lytro (http://www.lytro.com/). If you want to see how this technology works, please visit the website.

Here’s an article from MASHABLE: http://mashable.com/2011/10/20/lytro-camera-hands-on-videos/:

We had so much fun at the launch of the Lytro, the groundbreaking light-field camera that takes pictures instantly and lets you focus anywhere within the frame, we wanted more hands-on time with the device. Even the media won’t be getting review units until 2012, so we did the next best thing: inviting Lytro founder Ren Ng to Mashable’s San Francisco offices for a personal demonstration.

Check out the videos above for the result. Some key takeaways:

The zoom button is almost impossible to find, but very natural to use once you know where it is.

The touch-sensitive LCD is tiny! It’s very responsive, but hardly the world’s best screen for viewing your photos.

Pointing and shooting feels amazing when there’s absolutely no delay.

There is a slot on the side that lets you add a carrying strap, which allays one of our concerns.

Lytro pictures get much more dramatic when you’re lining up something very close and very far away. You’ll have fun playing around with that.

I generally love the National Geographic photos for their sensational work and dedication to great photography of the world we live in. I just spotted this blog (http://blog.pokkisam.com/content/brilliant-photography-natgeo-archives) that had this general list of outstanding pictures, where some of us can only dream of taking. I always imagine the ideal life as the National Geographic photographer where they would sponsor me to travel the world and take pictures and get paid for it. I can’t imagine a better life. Credit to National Geographic. I don’t expect any less from them.

I cam across some photographs by Dan Ng who took pictures of the San Francisco streets. Until now I’ve always know the city landscape to be really hilly but this pictures really prove a point! Have a look and enjoy. The blog pictures extracted from Amazing Planet.