I'm enjoying watching 42-year-old Jim Furyk battle a predominately younger field at the U.S. Open golf championship in progress at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, CA. I watched him at work in person during the Wednesday round, and he was striking the ball well.

Jim Furyk working on his short game at the Olympic Club on Wednesday.

After 8 holes on Saturday, Furyk is atop the leader board. We'll see what happens as the weekend plays out.

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Many Aperture users were hoping for a 4.0 debut this week, and instead they got 3.3. Joe Linaschke over at ApertureExpert.com breaks down this release in his post, Aperture 3.3: The ApertureExpert Review. It's an excellent overview of what is going on with the application, and a look at the features themselves.

Here at the Digital Story, we'll continue to post on the individual components. So stay tuned, Our first installment was on Fast Browsing.

Aperture Tips and Techniques

To learn more about Aperture 3, check out my Aperture 3 Essential Training on Lynda.com. Also, take a look at our Aperture 3 Learning Center. Tons of free content about how to get the most out of Aperture.

My next open Aperture Workshop is scheduled for Nov. 2012, in Santa Rosa, CA. You can get on the pre-registration list, plus learn about all the other photography workshops offered this season by visiting the TDS Workshops page.

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The 2012 U.S. Open Golf Championship is underway at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, CA. The combination of historic site plus world class golfers equals an enjoyable day on the green.

"Tee Shot" I held a 5D Mark II over my head with the 16-35mm zoom set to 16mm to capture this bird's eye view. For more photos, visit the TDS Flickr Gallery.

In San Francisco, it often pays to get up early for photography. On this morning, the mist was still in the air at the Olympic Club creating a mood that evaporated by late morning. I used the 70-200mm f/2.8 Canon zoom to capture these players enjoying a conversation on the way to the green.

Tournament play begins today. You can find out more about the U.S. Open here. It's going to be an exciting four days.

For more photos, visit the TDS Flickr Gallery

You can find more photo tips and "photography how tos" on my Pinterest page.

In addition to the 7 boards I've already populated on my just-launched Pinterest page, I've viewed hundreds by others who have posted on a variety of topics - my personal favorite, of course, is photography.

Here are three of my boards on Pinterest.

Pinterest is one of those online pastimes that you can enjoy without obligation. When you want fresh ideas for just about any project, browse and see what others are sharing.

There's also a decent iPhone app that's easy to use. Unfortunately, nothing really compelling for the iPad yet.

As for my page, I'm going to focus on photography tips and "how to." That's what I find interesting.

You can find more photo tips and "photography how tos" on my Pinterest page.

Aperture 3.3 provides much for us to talk about, and I'm going to start today with its improved rendering speed during import. Apple calls this "Fast Browsing."

Noting the "Fast Browsing" preference in the Import tab (Camera Previews). It should be activated by default. But you might want to double-check it just to make sure.

In the past, one of the annoyances for Raw shooters was the delay in building preview images during the import of files from a memory card. Now with Fast Browsing, Aperture takes better advantage of the Jpeg images embedded in those Raws. It shows you that image first, then will replace it with an Aperture preview (built to your specifications in the preferences menu) once the import has completed.

New "Fast Browsing" image that's available immediately in Aperture 3.3. (Click on image for larger version.)

I tested this feature on a 2010 MacBook Air using Raw files from an Olympus OM-D. As promised, large preview images were available right away during the importing process. And they looked good. I turned on Quick Preview to further speed things up while I worked.

Aperture's generated preview that replaced the embedded Jpeg. Even better than the embedded file.

Then I waited to see if I could detect Aperture replacing the embedded Jpeg with its own preview. And sure enough, a few seconds later it did. The color was a bit richer in the new preview, and it was a tad crisper too.

But gone are the days of the pixelated image that finally snaps into focus. You can certainly start rating and sorting your images during the import process now. My guess is that the quality of the initial preview will vary depending on what your camera embeds in the Raw file.

I still recommend turing Quick Preview on, because it seems to speed up the browsing process even further.

Aperture Tips and Techniques

To learn more about Aperture 3, check out my Aperture 3 Essential Training on Lynda.com. Also, take a look at our Aperture 3 Learning Center. Tons of free content about how to get the most out of Aperture.

My next open Aperture Workshop is scheduled for Nov. 2012, in Santa Rosa, CA. You can get on the pre-registration list, plus learn about all the other photography workshops offered this season by visiting the TDS Workshops page.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

Apple announces a 1-2 knockout punch for photographers: a redesigned MacBook Pro 15" with Retina Display combined with an updated Aperture (v 3.3) that supports the super high-resolution display.

Other Mac laptops were refreshed also (MB Airs, MBP 13" and MBP 15" without Retina display and with traditional hard drive), but my argument for this week's show is to purchase the 15" Retina MBP that is an all solid state machine. It's virtually the same thickness as the MacBook Air, has a quad processor instead of a duo, plus an impressive NVIDIA GPU that you don't get in the MacBook Airs or in the 13" MacBook Pro.

Add the updated version of Aperture with its improved performance and intriguing new editing tools, and you have a photographer's dream machine. If you don't believe me, tune in and let me make my case.

Listen to the Podcast

You can also download the podcast here (30 minutes). Or better yet, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. You can support this podcast by purchasing the TDS iPhone App for only $2.99 from the Apple App Store.

Monthly Photo Assignment

Signs is the June 2012 Photo Assignment. You can read more about how to submit on our Member Participation page. Deadline for entry is June 30, 2012.

More Ways to Participate

Want to share photos and talk with other members in our virtual camera club? Check out our Flickr Public Group. And from those images, I choose the TDS Member Photo of the Day.

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Repetition isn't necessarily a good thing when it comes to our daily work, but it can be a terrific photo subject.

A line of Mini Coopers. Photo by Derrick Story.

The trick is to find an exception to the pattern, or a way to isolate one of the items so the viewer's eye has a place to rest. Once the viewer absorbs the "resting spot" you've created, they can go on to enjoy the pattern that fills out the rest of the composition.

You can find more photo tips and "photography how tos" on my Pinterest page.

As Apple applies the finishing touches to Moscone West for the World Wide Developers Conference, we can look forward to some important announcements on Monday morning.

A long view of Moscone West, San Francisco, before WWDC. Photo and video by Derrick Story.

Even though this is a developer conference, Apple uses the spotlight for various types of announcements, both software and otherwise. We know there will be more information about iOS 6 and the upcoming Mac operating system, Mac OS X Mountain Lion.

Final touches to giant Apple logos being applied to Moscone West prior to the WWDC event.

I think we'll also learn more about the evolution of iCloud and how it will be further integrated into the OS and applications. There's a good possibility we'll hear news about hardware too, with a revised Mac Pro in the works. Personally, I would not be surprised by laptop announcements also. New MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs are still fitting for this event, and would add the pizazz that stock holders and the press would love.

So, it's going to be a busy week in San Francisco. With WWDC kicking off on June 11, then the 112th US Golf Open reviving up at the same time out at the Olympic Club, there should be plenty of traffic and a shortage of hotel rooms.

I think I'll follow the action via my MacBook Air, which I hope will soon be revised.

The Digital Story on Facebook -- discussion, outstanding images from the TDS community, and inside information. Join our celebration of great photography!

"I captured this with my Olympus Pen E-PL1 camera and 17mm 2.8 pancake lens," writes Roderick James. "This was the last day of the Royal Jubilee in the UK, and a giant poster of the Royal family (from the Queen's silver jubilee) was hung across the full width and height of a building along the Thames. I saw this guy with his Union Jack umbrella walking toward the poster, and I couldn't resist grabbing this shot."

Thanks Rod for sharing this image. It's funny, I was just talking about the pancake lens yesterday.

This is our 220th Grab Shot! Wow. If you want to review the collection that began back in 2006, go to our Grab Shots page.

If you have a candid you'd like to share, take a look at our Submissions page, then send us your Grab Shot. We'll try to get it published for you on The Digital Story.

And you can view more images from our virtual camera club in the Member Photo Gallery.

With the impending announcement of Canon's pancake lens, I thought it would be a good time to revisit this svelte class of prime glass.

So, what's the big (eh, small) deal?

The Olympus 17mm f/2.8 pancake lens on a PEN Mini.

Thin is In

There's something cool about a lens that isn't much thicker than the body cap that replaces it. You feel like you're getting away with something. And the thinner the camera is to begin with, the more thrilling the pancake is mounted on it.

Light is All Right

Big zoom lenses add much weight to our camera kits. But put a pancake prime on there, and it feels like your camera has been on a diet. You can barely feel it tugging on your neck.

Bright in Low Light

The typical maximum aperture on a pancake is f/2.8. It's probably not the fastest glass in your bag, but it's a whole lot brighter than the kit lens and most of your zooms.

And in addition to all of this, pancakes are usually sharp and affordable. No wonder photographers like them so much.

If you want to learn more about these thin primes, take a look at this excellent article on B&H about pancakes.

And yes, I'm interested in the Canon version that seems to be waiting in the wings...