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Christmas
Drew, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.



I love Christmas. Why? Probably because Christmas brings up a lot of happy memories.

Growing up, Christmas almost always meant driving to northern Colorado to spend a few days with grandpa, grandma (who passed away when I was too young), aunts and uncles (10 of them) and cousins. Those days were filled with enjoyable times spent with a wonderful extended family.

There was always the traditional Christmas feast which would include wild game if grandpa had been fortunate on his most recent hunting trip through the fields of northeast Colorado. A few times we got to go along. We always had a blessing, and it would often be sung: "Be with us at our table Lord . . ."

We would often open gifts after Christmas dinner. Getting gifts was nice but having fun with the family was a lot more important. Sitting in grandpa's lap, playing horsey on uncle Ken's back, wrestling with whoever, making mud pies with cousin Linda. We went home from our annual Christmas pilgrimmage with lots of gifts, but mostly with lots of happy memories.

Packing a big family into grandpa's house was a trick. Every bed, hide-a-bed, and sofa was put to use. When we were small, they would put several of us cousins in one bed lined up like cord wood. One night I woke up in absolute darkness, standing in a room somwhere in the basement (I had walked in my sleep). I heard strange noises coming from in front of me (someone snoring). I reached out ahead of me and felt a bed, but it wasn't mine. I turned to the side and bumped into a table. I reached out and my hand went into a glass of water and I felt - - - teeth! Yeccch! I did not want to wake the person in front of me, so I lay down on the floor and went to sleep. The next moring I was back in bed where I started, squashed between several of my cousins. I don't know if I walked back in my sleep, or if someone put me back.

In the pantry on the back porch was a box of chocolate chips. Along with the other cousins, we would sneak out on the back porch and steal just a few chips. Not too many though, lest it be obvious. We did not learn until many years later at grandpa's funeral that our parents were sneaking chocolate chips too. Then we found out grandpa was actually buying several boxes of chips each year to keep up with the demand. 20 or more people stealing chips is a lot!

Each year brought the annual Christmas program at church. When we were young we had a chance to be a sheep. Later on we cold be a cow. If we were lucky, we became angels or shepherds in our teen years. Young adults played Mary and Joseph, older men were the wise men.

High school brought band and orchestra concerts at Christmas time, filled with all of those wonderful arrangments of Christmas music. I loved rehearsing for those concerts, and the concerts themselves were even better.

There was caroling on frosty December nights, followed by hot spiced cicer and hot chocolate back at church.

Diagonally across the street from our church in Pueblo, Colorado was an older home which would always be decorated in a way that looked splendid to our young eyes. There was a choir of carolers, Santa and elves, the traditional nativity scene, huge candles, and Christmas lights all over the house and in every tree. Christmas music played through outside speakers. After church on Sunday and Wednesday nights in December, I would walk to the corner of the church lot with the other kids and look across the street and listen in wonder. Bright stars twinkled overhead in the night sky, as well as one big one over the manger scene across the street.

Marriage, a job as a band director, and children brought more Christmas memories. Some years we had very little money for presents, but we did have good memories. We still have most of our first Christmas tree. A styrofoam base, a very large pinecone, and a string of inexpensive beads to wrap around the cone. Only the foil metallic angel that set on top has disappeared since we bought our first "tree" for less than a dollar, many years ago.

As a band director in Louisville, Nebraska I always hoped for an early first snow fall. On that day, I would hand out Christmas music and we would play to our hearts content. The Christmas concerts were always a treat. A few days later school would be out and we would head for North Platte and Denver for Christmas with my family and Melissa's.

After buying gifts one year for the children, we had less than $6 between us. Melissa took her $2.87 (more or less) and bought a gift for me at a drug store in North Platte, Nebraska. When she came out with her littel sack, I took the remaining $2.87 (more or less) and bought her gift.

We would buy the $1 Christmas albums that tire stores sold in the late 60's and early 70's. Tapes of those old albums are still family favorites and our children (ages 26 to 31) still look forward to us playing the same music each year while we open presents and have Christmas dinner.

All of our children were home some time or other this Christmas season. We had one Christmas celebration with two of them on December 26, and another celebration with two of them today. They all have spouses or significant others with families to spend time with.

I will end this little trip down memory lane. I hope you have a collection of memories that brighten this season for you. If not, I hope you begin some happy memories.

What a blessed season this can be. May there yet be Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward all of God's children.

Merry Christmas!

 

Great Gray Owl, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

CHRISTMAS HUMOR

Go here.

Go ahead, shake up the snow globe. At least once, let the girl finish building the snowman before shaking the glove.

FIRST GIGAPIXEL PHOTO

The photographer stitched together 196 separate images from a 6 megapixel camera. The final image is 40,784 x 26,800 pixels for a total of 1,093,011,200 pixels (1.09 gigapixel). Amazing!

The image is here.

 

Lightning - Yukon, OK, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

Digital Camera Advice

If you are going to be buying a digital camera in the near future, read on. If you know someone else who is thinking about buying a digital camera, send them a link to this article.


WHY?

It happened again this week. One of my friends said "I wish I would have done some reading on your website before I bought my digital camera."

This happens often enough that I decided I would provide some camera suggestions, especially since it is Christmas and you might be thinking about a digital camera purchase.

I do not consider myself to be a digital photography "expert" (I will refer you to one in a minute), but I do have significant digital photography experience (20,000 photos with three digital cameras in the last two years).


EXPERT REVIEWS

The best advice I can give you is this: DON'T BUY A DIGITAL CAMERA until you read a review of the camera model you have in mind at Digital Photography Review
(DP Review).

Unless you have a very good reason to do otherwise, don't buy a camera unless Phil at DP Review gives it at least a RECOMMENDED rating, or better yet, a HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED rating. Since anyone can log on to this website and make comments about a camera, be sure you are reading one of Phil's "Full Reviews."

There are other good review sites out there. You can find them by going to my LINKS page in the section titled "DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY EQUIPMENT INFO" (lower right side of the page).

Read DP Review first, then Megapixel.net, then any other sites that interest you.


WHAT KIND OF CAMERA?

You can spend from a few hundred dollars to upwards of $8,000 or more on a digital camera. There are all-in-one, point and shoot cameras with either single focal length or zoom lenses. There are digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras with interchangeable lenses. What kind do you need and want? This is where some helpful advice from me comes in.

Spending a little time in the DIGITAL and TIPS sections of my website will help.

If you have never tried digital photography, read my intro to digital article.

One of the most important decisions is whether you want a single focal length lens or zoom (multi-focal length) lens. Advice about lens focal length is in this article and it applies to digital as well as film cameras.

My article with suggestions about choosing digital cameras is here. This article and the one that follows are updated once in a while in terms of the latest camera models that have come out. Once again, let me recommend the camera reviews at the DP Review website, plus look at my recommendations below.


EXCELLENT POINT-AND-SHOOT CAMERAS

If you are using a point and shoot film camera now, and are thinking about switching to a digital point and shoot, here are some models to check out. They are mostly Canon because they are the cameras I know best.

Canon A70

For a good basic digital point and shoot with a good feature set and excellent image quality, look at the Canon A70. Two of my friends have purchased this camera at my recommendation and they both love it. It is a 3 megapixel camera. If you want to make prints up to 8x10, 3 megapixels is the minimum pixel count you should get in a digital camera. Cost is less than $300 at the right places.

Used Canon G2

This is a great camera model that was discontinued when the G3 came out. The G3 has a little better image quality and a longer zoom range, but the G2 is still an excellent camera with lots of features. It has a fast lens for taking photos in low light without flash. One of my children uses a G2 and loves it. Read the G2 review at DP Review.

Canon S40 or S45 (new or used)

This is essentially a Canon G3 in a more compact package with a slower lens and a 4 megapixel sensor. If taking pictures in low light without flash is important to you, get a used G2 or a new G3. If not, the Canon S50 will be just fine.

If you don't understand lens speed or apertures, read my EXPOSURE article in the TIPS section. (Wide apertures like f/2 or f/2.8 let in a lot more light than slower apertures like f/4 or f/5.6 of f/8. Wide apertures let in more light and result in faster shutter speeds.)

Canon S400

This tiny camera in the "Elph" tradition produces 4 megapixel photos. If you are looking for something small and don't need a fast lens aperture, this could be the camera for you.

Canon G3

This is a wonderful camera with excellent image quality and lots of controls and features. I have taken thousands of photos with this camera. It is what I carry when I am traveling light. It has a fast lens for taking photos in low light without flash. It is referred to several times on my website, including here.

From what I read, the G3 is preferable to the newer model G5. More on this here.

OTHER BRANDS

There are other excellent, highly-rated cameras. Here are just a few examples. For more, go to DP Review.

The Sony DSC-F717 is a great camera with a 5x zoom range, a little more more than the Canon models listed above.

The upgrade to the F717 is the Sony DSC-F828 which has a "Preview" at the DP Review at the Preview website. The Full Review will come later.

The Nikon Coolpix 5700 is a highly rated camera with an 8x zoom range.


EXCELLENT DSLR CAMERAS

If you are new to digital, a point-and-shoot (above) may be the best way to go to get your feet wet and see if you like it. If you are using film SLR (single lens reflex) cameras and you are ready to switch to digital, then a DLSR might be just right for you. If you are using a digital point-and-shoot camera now and want the flexibility of interchangeable lenses, then the move to a DSLR might be in order.

The cameras below take Canon's vast array of lenses. You can buy one medium focal length zoom lens and use these cameras like glorified point-and-shoot, except you can make bigger prints; and at higher ISOs (digital "film Speeds") you will get better image quality with less digital noise (the digital equivalent of film grain). When you are ready, you can buy both wider, longer, and specialty lenses to increase your photographic possibilities.

Canon 10D

This is a superb camera. Just read the reviews, including my own. I have now taken over 16,000 photos with this camera. The image quality is stunning and I have made excellent 20x30 inch prints from the files this camera produces.

You do need to do everything right photographically to gets excellent prints up to 20x30, just like when enlarging from film. Read this article.

The only downside to the 10D (and most other DSLR cameras) is that wide angle lenses are less wide on this camera than on a film camera. This is because the image sensor is smaller than 35mm film. A 20mm lens on the Canon 10D will give you the same angle of view as a 32mm lens on a 35mm film camera body. The focal length multiplier for the Canon 10D is 1.6, which means you multiply the focal length of your lens by 1.6 to get the equivalent field of view for a lens on a 35mm film camera. This is great for telephoto photography where everything looks bigger and closer, but not so good for wide angle photography. Most other DSLR cameras from most manufactureres have the same blessing and curse.

The Canon 10D will set you back about $1,500 from a reliable dealer.

My reviews are here and here.

Canon Digital Rebel

The new Digital Rebel (300D in Europe) gives you all of the image quality of the Canon 10D, but with less features in a lighter and less robust camera body for less than $900. If you get the body with the kit lens, the price is still less than $1,000. Such a deal.

I think the extra features of the 10D are worth the $600 price difference, but I could live with the Digital Rebel if the 10D did not exist. The Canon Digital Rebel is currently the most digital image quality you can get for under $1,000.

Canon 1Ds

Everything you could want and more in an $8,000 package. Ouch!!

Dear Santa, For Christmas I want . . .

Used Canon D60

Unless the price is REALLY , REALLY good (well under $900), get the 10D or Digital Rebel instead. This is a fine camera (read the review at DPReview), but the 10D and Digital Rebel have better image quality.

Used Canon D30

Unless the price is really good (well under $900), get a Canon Digital Rebel for $900. If the price is well under $900, grab a Canon D30. It is a fine camera and fully capable of producing excellent 12x18 inch prints (if, as I said above, you do everything right).

Disadvantages. The autofocus is slow and images are grainier at high ISOs than with the Canon Digital Rebel or the Canon 10D. If you mostly do landscape work at low ISOs, or use flash indoors so high ISOs are not so important to you, then this camera is fine. If autofocus and fast moving subjects are important to you, don't get this camera.


OTHER DSLR Cameras

If you have Nikon SLR film cameras and lenses, you should look at the Nikon and FUJI DSLR bodies that take Nikon lenses. Other manufacturers are coming out with DSLR bodies for their lenses. These cameras vary in quality. Read the reviews at DP Review and other review sites listed on my LINKS page.


BEST CAMERA DEALERS

The short list of dealers I have dealt with and that I trust are on the LINKS page of my website. Check out B&H Photo first for new equipment. They are my "Alpha Supplier." If someone has a price that is a lot better than B&H, be suspicious. Several other good new and used equipment dealers are also listed.

Beware of buying "gray market" merchandise unless you really know what you are doing.

Danger! A lot of the camera equipment dealers on the Internet will steal you blind in more ways than you can image. Buyer beware. Don't deal with anyone you can't check out. Always use a credit card for Internet purchases. Don't use a debit card.

Local camera stores may or may not have good prices. Some behind the counter folks at your local camera store may really know what they are talking about, but many do not. You never know when you are being sold an inferior model because the salesperson is getting some special kickback. The situation is even worse when it comes to advice at the big discount electronic stores. I have heard terrible advice at these places. Good prices, sometimes. Advice, no! Buyer beware.

Trust DP Review for camera model ratings. Take Phil's word over behind the counter clerks when it comes to camera comparisons.

Most of the questions this article will stir up will be answered by one of the article's on my website.

I hope this helps in your camera quest.

Happy Camera Hunting!

 

Kea, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr. To see how this photo was made, go here .

Outgassing with RC Inkjet Papers

Digital photos on RC papers can have outgassing problems while they are drying or curing. Glycol in the inks evaporates into the air. This process can take up to 2 weeks. If the print is framed under glass, the glycol will collect on the inside of the glass and appear as a film that is oily to the touch. The solution to this problem is to let prints air dry for two weeks before framing them under glass.

It is important to frame your prints under glass since this extends the life of the print.

You can speed up the curing process by following the suggestions on this page.

 
Simon & Garfunkel

There is nothing like being there in person. The music, the coordinated light show, the ambiance, the big video screens, the energy of the crowd, the artists live on stage.

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel performed tonight in Columbus, Ohio. Melissa and I dug deep in our pockets, scarfed up two tickets for a small fortune, and went. After all, how often do you get to hear these two in person? What a treat! As children of the 60's, Simon and Garfunkel's music is somehow written deep into a lot of our psyches. The music is infectious, fun (or should I say "groovy"?), thoughtful, meditative, poignant, and at times, profound. It was good to be there tonight. Part of it is nostalgia of course, but there is much more to it than that, something deeper. Something about some of their music gets into your soul and resonates. They are poets and troubadors. They spoke to a generation of youth, more than one generation in fact.

Paul and Art met 50 years ago in 1953 when they were both in their 6th grade class play, Alice in Wonderland. They were eleven when they met, began singing together at 13 and had their first recording at 16. They bought cheap tickets to London and sang ballads for donations in Leicester Square. They kept an eye out for the bobbies since you aren't supposed to sing for money on the streets (something that is still true decades later as a good friend of mine found out when she and another college friend played French horns on the streets of London just three years ago.) Art and Paul honed their craft. The rest, as they say, is history.

Decades later, Paul and Art's appeal is still obvious. I looked around at 16,000 plus other fans, many of whom also grew up in the 50s and 60s and 70s, plus a whole raft of much younger fans. Pre-concert energy was high and when the lights finally went out and the video screens showed old clips from 40 something years ago, the roar of the crowd began. When Art and Paul stepped into the spotlights at the end of the video clips, the place exploded.

They began with "Old Friends," the tour theme. Unfortunately, their opening notes were pretty shaky. Attacks were a bit ragged and vocal quality left something to be desired. Oh no, I thought, I hope that they haven't totally lost it. But hey! It is still Simon and Garfunklel, and for the first time I was hearing them in person.

With the next few songs, things improved. Vocal quality got much better. Attacks became cleaner. Their voices are older of course, they won't sound quite like they did back then, but they are still very good.

They did almost all of the old favorites. Some of them with a pleasant twist to the usual arrangements. The back up band was excellent, with some stunning solo performances by individual band members which you don't get on the albums. All around me, people were mouthing the words. Many of the people there knew most of the words to most of the songs. At some points, thousands would join in for some of the choruses.

The huge surprise of the evening was when Don and Phil, the Everly Brothers, came on stage and did a set of their own classic numbers while Art and Paul took a break. Folks just went wild. At the end, Paul and Art came back on stage to join them for one song together before Don and Phil left the stage.

There were lots and lots of good moments, a ton of old memories stirred up, and some very powerful musical moments. Scarborough Fair and Sounds of Silence were quiet and evocative, other songs were pulsating and driving. At the end of the concert (before the encores) the strong closing chords and vocals at the end of Bridge Over Troubled Waters were absolutely electric.

Paul and Art stood a little distance apart for most of the evening. At the end, however, something was a little different. Art reached over at one moment as Paul was turning to walk off stage, and touched him on the shoulder. In the second encore, they sat closer together, and at one point Paul put his arm around Art's shoulders. Here and there, a few folks lit their Bics. Shame that I don't carry a lighter for such moments. Something died when Paul and Art split up years ago. One can only hope some of the old hurts are healing. It was good to see them together again.

I left with several souvenirs. Memories of the evening, a "No Cameras Allowed" poster, one of the tour t-shirts they were hawking out in the parking lots, and some mostly blurry photos.

Tunes are still running through my head, and good memories of a wonderful evening. We had a great time tonight, and for a little while, Melissa and I were back in the 60s. It was a strange and troubled time, with hopes and fears and the cold war and Viet Nam, and turmoil in the streets and riots on campuses. But in some ways it was a very good time. People were very passionate about some of the right things, even if they couldn't find the best ways to express it. Paul and Art's music spoke through it all with a distinctive and evocative voice. Thanks Simon and Garfunkel. I'm glad you are back together, if only for a little while.

 
FALL COLOR


Upper Tahquamenon Falls, Michigan, Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.

There is a fall color explosion going on! Go out and enjoy it. If you like photography, grab your camera and go capture some of it.

In many places around the country, the color is at or near peak conditions. The color has already left some places like the high Rockies of northern Colorado, but it is still hanging on in SW Colorado. Some places are reporting their best color in years.

To find out what the current color conditions are for many places around the country, go to my Fall Color Reports page. This page has links to fall color reports from all around the country. There are also links to recommended fall color drives and fall color web cams.

Although not specifically fall web cams, I also have a page of links to Scenic Web Cams around the U.S. Some of these will reveal the current color conditions in their locale.

To get the best photos of the fall colors, you need to use the best films and filters. My suggestions are here.

If you have a digital camera and you can adjust the saturation, turn it up a notch or two.

Go have fun!

 
Epson 825 Printer

The Epson Stylus Photo 825 is an excellent printer. It is essentially the same printer as the Epson 780 with the addition of a card reader so you can print photos directly from a memory card. The inks are the same.

My review of the Epson Stylus photo 780 is here. Everything I say about the Epson 780 also applies to the Epson 825.

I am writing this because the last time I dropped in at Office Max, they were selling the Epson 825 for $100. Such a deal. True photo quality with a semi-archival print life span (ca. 25 years) in an affordable package.

The Epson 825 has a card slot and comes with two adapters that will take Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory Stick, MultiMEdiaCard, and SecureDigital cards. Just plug in your memory card and print to your hearts content.

From the card slot (without a computer) you can print an index page (or pages) of all of the prints on your memory card. You can also print individual pictures on 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, and letter size paper. Letter paper is the largest size this printer takes.

You can set up the printer for plain, glossy, or matte paper, all without a computer. You can also change the quality setting.

You can't view the photos on the printer without an adapter, so you need to know which photo you want to print, either from an idex print or from viewing the photo number on the memory card before you remove it from your camera. Epson does sell a addo-on photo viewer as an accessory to the printer.

Of course, you can hook the Epson 825 up to you computer and use it just like any other computer-attached printer. Many digital camera files need to be tweaked in some kind of software to bring out the true quality of the original scene that is hidden in the digital camera file. For more on this, read my article on Fixing Digital Camera Files.

As I said in my review of the Epson 780, the photo quality of the output of this printer is excellent - true photo quality if you use Epson Enhanced Matte, Glossy, ColorLife or other photo quality papers.

If you are looking for a printer that will give you true photo quality at a reasonable price with prints that will last as long as many traditional (analog) prints, the Epson 825 is one excellent solution.

 
Don't Pass A Cattle Truck With Your Windows Down

I've known this rule for a long time, but I was reminded of it anew on a recent trip.

If you have ever watched a cow relieve itself, you know the deluge can be quite impressive. If you haven't been in the country enough to have seen this sight, trust me, the volume of liquid delivered and the length of time it takes to deliver it, are both something to behold.

Couple this bit of information with how cattle trucks are constructed and you should be aware of the apparent dangers. If a cow happens to be backed up against the side of the truck and is aligned just right with one of the slots in the side of the truck, well . . . you can imagine.

On a recent trip to Colorado, I approached a cattle truck on I-80 in Nebraska. My windows were up. As I passed the truck, one of the cows found that to be an an opportune moment for a bodily function. The cow was not well aligned with the slots in the side of the truck, so my car was sprayed with just a little light mist. My windshield wipers took care of the immediate visibility problem and a stop at the car wash solved the remaining problem.

As I said, I learned my lesson some years ago.

I was driving through a small town in western Oklahoma on old U.S. 66 which was the four lane main street through the middle of town. It was a beautiful, drive with your windows down, kind of day. I pulled up behind some vehicles stopped at a traffic light. A cattle truck was in the right hand lane. Two or three cars were ahead of me in the left hand lane. Immediately ahead of me was a couple in a convertible. (I can tell that you are getting ahead of me!)

The convertible was even with the back half of the trailer of the cattle truck. As we waited at the red light, one of the cows let fly. It was an amazing, horrifying, aweful, and hilariously funny sight - depending, of course, on where you happened to be sitting. The cow released a virtual flood upon the unsuspecting couple. There was no excape. They were trapped between me and the car ahead of them. I could not back up because of the car behind me. All I could do was watch with rapt attention. As to the couple in the convertible, it must have been like one of those nightmares that plays out in exceedingly slow motion - with the added agony of being awake. I am sure you can imagine what it must have been like to sit there and watch the whole scene. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to clean out their car later.

A word to the wise is sufficient. Don't pass (or sit next to) a cattle truck with your windows or top down.

 
"BIG" Canon 10D Prints

So how big a print can you make from a digital file produced by a Canon 10D digital SLR? Good question.

The true but misleading answer is "As big as you want." You can "res up" (or resize) any digital photo file to any size you want, BUT the quality may not be what you want since every digital file begins to fall apart at some degree of printed enlargement.

With my Canon 10D at the "large - fine" jpeg setting, I can regularly produce photo files that can be printed out at sizes up to 12x18 inches with excellent quality. I have sold exhibition prints at this size that are just as good as enlargements from a 35 mm slide. 12x18 inches has been my self imposed limit since that is the biggest size I can produce on my Epson 2200 printer. But I have always wondered how much larger my 2 MB jpeg camera files could be enlarged.

When I open one of the 2 MB jpeg files from the Canon 10D in Adobe Photoshop, or Photoshop Elements, it becomes an 18 MB uncompressed file. Without resizing (at 300 dpi), this prints out at about 6.75 x 10.25 inches. With resizing, I can go up to 12x18 inches with excellent print quality.

Friday, I walked into The Camera Trader on Hampden Ave in southwest Denver, Colorado. This is one of my favorite Denver photo haunts. I found out they have a new Epson 7600 printer which prints on paper up to 24 inches wide. I asked if we could go play. Dave said yes. I happened to have a photo of a zebra with me on a flash card. I popped the zebra file into their computer, resized the file up to a print size of 20x30 inches and we printed it out. I was really surprised at the high quality. Eyes, eyelashes, hair on the head, and chin whiskers all looked sharp. Very impressive. I really wasn't expecting the print to look this good. All this from a 6.3 megapixel sensor and a 2 MB jpeg file. Kudos to Canon for the quality of the CMOS camera sensor and the "DIGIC" digital image processing.

I am not sure I really want to know that I can make prints this large. I will be tempted to make more really big prints. Bob, my brother-in-law and Colorado photo buddy (see a previous post at this site), said to me "You just got me in trouble." "Why" I asked. "Because now I will be down here making big prints" he said. Such is life!

If you have a Canon 10D, go ahead and try a really big print. I should add that the original file has to be of excellent quality. You need to do everything right photographically, just as you would when producing an excellent quality image on film (see my article on getting Maximum Sharpness).

You need to know what you are doing when you edit and resize an image in Photoshop or your favorite image editing software. You also need to know what you are doing when you use "unsharp mask" to sharpen your image. Your unsharpened image well not look good when printed at large sizes. An oversharpened image will look just as bad or worse. Learning to use unsharp mask takes a little time and experience, but the high quality prints are well worth the time and effort.

By the way, the price for this 20x30 print at the Camera Trader was $17.00.

If you are in Denver, stop in at The Camera Trader and ask for Dave, Kristen, or Frank. Tell them Jim and Bob sent you.

Info on the Epson 2200 printer is here.

More information on the 10D is here and here.

Information on digital photography is here.

 
Canon Digital Rebel

The other shoe has finally dropped. When Canon announced the EOS 10D digital SLR, the superb upgrade to the D60, there were rumors about a less expensive sibling hidden somewhere in the wings. I have been producing digital files with the 10D for several months now that can easily be printed print out at sizes up to 12x18 inches with excellent quality.

There is now a less expensive Canon option than the 10D that will still produce the same lucious digital files. Canon has announced the EOS Digital Rebel (the 300D in other parts of the world). The Digital Rebel will have the same 6 megapixel memory chip and the same "DIGIC" color processor as the 10D but in a less expensive Rebel body.

The Digital Rebel body will have less bells and whistles than the 10D, but once the shutter has been pressed, the same high quality digital files as you can get from the 10D will now be yours.

The 10D sells for around $1500. The estimated U.S. price for the Digital Rebel will be around $900. This will be, for a while at least, the most memory per dollar that you can get in a digital SLR.

More information about the Digital Rebel/300D is at the DP REVIEW and at Canon USA.

My reviews of the Canon 10D are here and here.

UPDATE: DP Review posted a review of the Digital Rebel/300D on Sept 4. The review is here.

The part of the review you need to read most carefully, especially if you are choosing between the 10D and the Digital Rebel, is the features that are missing from the Digital Rebel that you get with the 10D.

 
PDA MEMORY RESTORED

I had a Magellen GPS module plugged into the expansion slot of my Handspring Visor PDA. It plotted every step of my journey between Iowa, Ohio, and Michigan. One night in Michigan, the Magellan unit and my Visor locked up. When I tried to turn it on in the morning, the batteries were dead.

This meant my calendars, phone books, memos, special programs I had loaded, plus the Bible and other books in its memory were all gone. It would be a long time while before I would be back home and could hotsync it to my computer. Of course, the hotsync operation is meant to update the database of information for the PDA's basic functions. It does not restore special downloaded programs, books, and lots of other goodies I have stored in its memory.

Fortunately, my son talked me into getting a MemPlug Memory Module (it holds a CompactFlash card) some time ago. The module with memory card are plugged into the expansion slot of the Visor when the Magellan GPS unit is not there. I back up the Visor to the MemPlug module on a regular basis. In fact, I did that just before I plugged in the GPS unit for the latest leg of my trip.

On the morning of the dead batteries, I unplugged the GPS unit, popped in new batteries and turned my Visor on. It was just like brand new - that is, no calendar items, no phone books, no memos, no class notes, no digital books, no cool added programs, no Depth of Field photography program, no moon phase program, no user name - zilch. It didn't even know who it's owner was!

I plugged in the MemPlug module, clicked RESTORE, and 10 minutes later, several MB of precious data was all back in my Visor. I am nominating my son Jared for sainthood. Or maybe I will just thank him for talking me into getting the MemPlug module in the first place.

If your PDA takes a separate memory module with a backup funtion, I highly recommend that you get one. It might save your precious data and programs when you are miles from your computer. Especially when you consider that even a hotsync with your computer will not restore all the extra goodies you have been adding to your PDA.

I have a 64 MB card in my MemPlug module, so I can keep a lot of information on the card that will not all fit at the same time in the 8 MB of memory of my Visor. If I need something (like a book), I just drag it over from the memory card to the Visor's own memory. When I am done, I drag it back to the memory card in the module.

Incidentally, the Magellan GPS module is a cool little accessory for the Handspring Visor. You can download maps to your Visor and the GPS unit will show you on the map where you are. It will also show the direction you are going, how fast, how far you have gone, your exact position (in latitude and longtitude), where you are in relation to your "waypoints" and much more.

One last thing - remember to back up your PDA on a regular basis.

Handspring is here.

Handspring Visor accessories are here.

Some memory modules are here.

The Magellan GPS for the Visor is here.

 
PHOTO BUDDIES


Bob, Rocky Mountain National Park.

I do most of my nature photography alone. Sometimes a subject presents itself spontaneously when I am on a trip, other times I head out for a specific photo location with a specific set of subjects in mind, but it is usually alone.

Every once in a fun while, I get to go out with a photo buddy. I enjoy these times that a partner can go with me. It makes the trip more fun, and if the drive is of any length, it goes faster with a buddy along.

Sometimes you can share equipment, or hold a diffussion umbrella over a flower for each other, or hold an errant branch out of the field of view, or shade your partners lens from the sun while they set up a special shot.

Most important is the sharing of memories. Lots of places are linked in my mind to the emotion of the place and the picture taking and the joy of sharing it with another. White Sands with Stan, Bear Lake with Bob, and the Old Mission Peninsula with Jack immediately to mind.

A joy shared is a joy multiplied! And if we get caught in a downpour or other unfortunate photographic experience, well, misery loves company. And you can both tell the tale.

It isn't easy to find a good photo partner. If your taste in landscapes is to pull over to a turn-out, roll down your car window, snap one shot of El Capitan in Yosemite and drive quickly on, you need a photo buddy whose pace is pretty much the same.

If you hike up get to tree line in the Rockies and then spend an hour shooting one small, wind-twisted pine from every angle and with every lens in your bag, you need a photo partner who is attuned to that kind of photography.

I tend to spend a lot of time and energy on one photographic subject so it is not easy to find a photo partner with the same inclinations. Suitable photo buddies are a rare and valueable find.

It all started many years ago with Stan in Oklahoma. We were doing a lot of non-photography traveling together when we discovered that we both love photography. After that, we would allow some time for photography on trips across Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. White Sands one splendid evening before and after sunset was a real highlight.

Bob is my longest term photo buddy. We have been taking pictures together for well over 20 years. Life doesn't seem quite right if we go more than a year or two without spending two or three days up in the Colorado Rockies. We've also taken pictures in Michigan, Alaska and other places. We have acquired a lot of photos and a bunch of great memories.

One glorious fall afternoon, we were sitting on some house sized boulders up on a mountainside. Surrounded by golden aspen leaves, we looked down on Bear Lake which reflected the sky and clouds above. Long's Peak, the Keyboard of the Winds, and other mountains were in the distance. After hours of photography, were were just sitting there in the cool breeze, drinking it all in. "It doesn't get much better than this!" Bob said. I agreed. We weren't just talking about the place and the photography. It was also about wonderful friendships and a profound appreciation of the Creator who made all the splendor that surrounded us.

Other photo buddies have been added to the list. Dave and I made several day-trips together in Michigan. We have memories of sharing both mosquitos and sunsets at Bishop's Bog. We will always have a certain fondness for Trillium Ravine. When it is blanketed in flowers for two short weeks in late April, it is beautiful. One fine spring day, Dave's wife Sharyn called and left a message: "Dave wants to know if Jim can come out and play!" Trillium ravine was in bloom!


UPDATE: If you love birds, see the recent Point Pelee post here.

Some of my photo buddies don't even take pictures. They are good friends who enjoy the outdoors and visiting together while I take pictures. At Seney National Wildlife Refuge, Jack watched me for an hour one day while I crept up on a muskrat and slowly sank deeper into the muck. Jack also watched me fall through the ice into the very cold waters of Lake Michigan at the Old Mission Peninsula.

Loretha watched me work my way carefully up on an eagle and take several photos I would be truly proud of. The sound of my camera bothered me somehow. By the time I figured out there was no film in the camera, the eagle was gone. Loretha also saw me go through the ice one late-winter day at the Old Mission Peninsula. Some photographers are slow to learn.

I have a couple of semi-photo buddies who aren't in to stopping to take pictures. David in Oklahoma is just not wired for patient picture taking. When we travel together I don't plan on taking any photos along the way. Even at that, there have been a few times when we came upon something so interesting that David has yelled "STOP AND TAKE A PICTURE OF THAT!" Of course, I comply.

All of my photo buddies have two things in common, different as they are from each other and from me. A love of creation and a love of the Creator. That seems to be the common bond.

So this is to all of the photo buddies I have, both with and without camera. "Blessings upon each of you!"

And if you love photography, may you be blessed with good photo buddies too.

 
Family

A good friend of mine told me that she couldn't understand why people got all goofy over their grandchildren. Then she saw her first grandchild, and suddenly, "goofiness set in." Our grandson was born four months ago in Germany. We have anxiously awaited the chance to see him. Our daughter-in-law and grandson finally flew here last week. Well, goofiness has set in. Laughter, giggles, silliness, wierd voices and making faces and everything else that being a grandparent means. What a joy!

Our son will leave Kosovo and fly here sometime in August. He has been there since October (his second Army tour in Kosovo) so he is very anxious to get back to the U.S. and to his wife and son. We are so anxious to see him too.

One by one, the rest of our children have come here to visit this summer. What a great summer it has been. Children are one of life's great treasures. I was driving across the country last week and had one of those "father moments" and I called all of our children to tell them I love them.

We have saved one phone message from each of our children on our answering machine. A press of a button anytime day or night and we can hear each one of them saying hello. Of course, hearing their voices means we want to chat for real, something that we do often.

Have I shown you pictures of my family? Go here. A personal favorite is the page of photos of our children growing up at O'Haver Lake. Our new grandson is here and here.

Parents are treasures too. I lost both of mine over a decade ago. I still miss them. Probably always will.

Brothers and sisters are treasures too. So are aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews. One just sent me an email a little while ago.

Just a little while ago, my wife called her mother to say "I love you."

Go ahead. Pick up the phone and call someone today. Tell them you love them.

 
DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY DANGERS

There are a few monsters lurking in the digital photography woods. They probably won't eat you, but they can devour your photos.

On a day trip to take some butterfly photos, I stumbled across an Asian Festival. I postponed my butterfly trip and chased crowds and booths and martial arts exhibitions and exotic (in the original and wholesome sense of the word) dancers. In less than 2 hours I took over 300 photos. I was beginning to run out of room on my 1 GB compact flash card. During a lull in the action I quickly went back through my memory card to erase any bad shots to make more room. At one point I turned the jog dial on the camera one click too far and I was at ERASE ALL (meaning the whole card) rather than just ERASE (current photo). A fraction of a second before I pushed the button that would send all my pictures into oblivion, I realized my mistake. I nearly lost the equivalent of 8 rolls of film (36 exposures per roll) in one careless moment.

Lesson One: Be very careful when erasing images from the memory card.

Better yet, buy another memory card and don't erase images during the heat of the action. I bought a back up 1 GB memory card.

I have read sad stories about photographers who erased an entire memory card worth of photos which they thought they had copied to their computer, but they hadn't.

Lesson Two: Be sure you have copied a memory card before you erase it.

I look at a card in my camera and look at the first two or three images and the last two or three images. Then I look at the same folder of images on my computer to verify that they are all there beforre I erase the images from the memory card.

Sometimes the images on the computer look like they are there, but they aren't really there. I read a couple of tales about photographers who transferred images to their hard drives but they weren't really there. In detail mode, the file names, dates and sizes all showed up. In thumnail view (Windows XP), all the thumbnails were present. But when they went to open the full size images in Photoshop, the images were not there. that must have been an awful moment.

Lesson Three: Just to be sure, after your transfer images to your hard drive, open two or three of the images with an image editing program to make sure they are really there. Only then should you erase the images from your memory card.

When I scan a slide and put the digital file on my hard drive, my image now lives in two places. If my hard drive crashes, I can always rescan the original analog slide. With digital originals, this is not the case. Repeat this to yourself: MY HARD DRIVE WILL CRASH. MY HARD DRIVE WILL CRASH.

One photographer had his hard drive crash along with hundreds of valuable images. A drive recovery service wanted several thousand dollars to TRY to recover his images, but they would provide no guarantee that they COULD recover his images. Fortunately, all his images were archived on CD.

Lesson Four: Back up all of your images on at least two CD-R discs.

Why CD-Rs? Because they are the most universally readable format. I send images to publishers on CD-R discs and they have no problem reading them on their computers, both PC and MAC.

DVD has not yet settled down to one universally readable format. When that happens, DVD will become the preferred archiving choice.

Why two CD-Rs? Data files are more subject to loss from scratches than music CDs. To insure that your images are still around several years from now, make sure they are all on at least two different DC-Rs. Don't use re-writeable CDs either (CD-RW).

There is a lot more about this in a CD-R article on my primary web site.

Not all CD-R burns are successful. Sometimes your software warns you when this happens, but sometimes it doesn't.

Lesson Five: Check the images on your CD-R discs.

Use your image editing software to open up a few images on your CD-R to make sure they are there before you delete the images on your hard drive. If possible, check them out on a different computer than the one that burned your CD-Rs in the first place.

You never have enough hard drive space. Not only is my hard drive filling up with digital photos, Photshop runs slower as there is less hard drive space for Photoshop to use as a scratch disc. I bought a BUSlink 80 GB USB external hard drive as a back up. This was a very good idea, but not as permanent storage space solution.

Lesson Six: Go through your digital photos and throw away all of the the bad ones, so-sos, and rejects. Keep the very best, and the ones of family and friends that have sentimentla value. Then . . .
Lesson Seven: Burn your hard drive photos to CD-R right away. Save thumbnails of your favorites on your hard drive. Delete the rest.

Be nice to your hard drive. Edit your photos, save the good stuff to CD-R, and clean up your hard drive.

RAW files are usually better than high-res jpegs if ....

All other things being equal, you get better image quality at the end if you save your photos in your camera's RAW mode. However, RAW mode is not unversal from one company to the next, or even from one year to the next. Conversion programs for RAW files are periodically updated and changed. Photographers who went digital some time back are discovering that they can no longer open their RAW files from a few years ago. Their old jpeg files can still be read.

Lesson Eight: Convert all of your RAW files to tif, jpg, psd (Photoshop) or some other widely readable format soon after you transfer them to your hard drive. If not, you may not be able to read them a few years from now.
Lesson Nine: If you don't take time to convert your RAW files right away, then it is best to shoot in your camera's best jpeg mode.

So how do you find all of these digital photos you have been carefully saving to CD-R? Use Adobe Photoshop Album. For more information, go to the link in the middle of this web page.

 
TINY PHOTOS

Why would someone put over 2600 tiny photos on their home page? OK, so the pattern of photos repeats, but it is still worth a look. Click on a group in the overall mosaic and see what comes up.

 
WHAT CAN YOU PHOTOGRAPH?

If you take photos outside of your own home or studio, this is an important question. As I wander the country and take photos, the answer to the above question keeps changing. I have taken a number of photos from bridges in late evening light. I like the look of long steaks of the car lights in the deep blue evening light. I have had law enforcement officers drive by without a second thought. One Sheriff stopped one night where Bob, my brother-in-law, and I were taking photos from a bridge over I-80 in Oklahoma. He chatted a bit, asked us to be careful not to step in front of any traffic, and drove on. This was all before 9/11. Setting up a tripod on a bridge is a different matter today.

I have a nice set of photos of the Lincoln Memorial. They were all taken at night, using a tripod, over a span of two hours time. Park Service rangers were around. I am told you can no longer use a tripod in and around the major monuments and memorials in Washington D.C. unless you have a special permit. This was changed long before 9/11.

I have not had an unhappy run-in with the authorities over taking pictures, but some photographers have had serious incidents with overzealous authorities while taking photos that were completely legal. I have watched a few grumpy people go up and challenge photographers who were taking pictures of landscape scenes in National Parks, or public buildings in public places. What prompts this behavior? Unfortunately, I have witnessed a few photographers climbing fences, ignoring signs, and wandering on private property with clearly posted warning signs. This may explain why some people react to photographers the way they do.

A few bad egg photographers who disregard what is legal and proper have made things more difficult for the rest of us. I should add that the vast majority of photographers are thoughtful, responsible folks. During classes and workshops I have conducted, I have taken pictures in the wild with dozens of nature photographers over the years and found virtually all of them to be respectful and protective of the environement.

I have photographed persons unknown to me in public places, in several different countries, with their knowledge and without incident. Lots of folks do not regard photographers with suspicion, but some do and make their feelings known.

National Park Rangers have always treated me well. I was deep in the dunes at White Sands, New Mexico taking photos at sunset and by late evening light and lost track of time. The lateness of the hour finally hit me, so I huffed over the dunes to get back to my car and found a ranger waiting for me. She pleasantly asked me if I got some nice photos. I told her I certainly hoped so and I apologized for being there so late. She followed me to the entrance and unlocked the gate to let me out. I understand you can now pay for a permit to stay overnight at Whites Sands to catch the best light.

What you CAN legally photograph is different from what some folks, including law enforcement officers, THINK you can legally photograph.

Mike Johnson has written an interesting article about this on Michael Reichmann's website, the Luminous Landscape.

 
CANON 10D

The new digital Canon 10D is every bit as nice as the early reviews say it is. I've worked with if for several days now and I am very impressed. It produces files from which I can make 12x18 inch prints that are every bit as good as prints from a slide or negative. My hands on first look is here. My specifications review is here. The VERY detailed review at DP Review is here.

THE DOLOMITES

The Dolomites are a well known set of peaks in Italy. Three webcams are set up in the area. You can go there anytime it is daytime in Italy. My favorite views are just before sunrise which is usually late at night in the Eastern U.S. Click on one of the three webcams on the right side of the page.

 
ELIE WIESEL AND THE WAR ON IRAQ

On March 11, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel, urged direct intervention in Iraq. His L.A. Times article is reproduced at this U.S. Embassy web site.

Elie Wiesel was born in 1928 in Sighet, Transylvania, now a part of Romania. He was fifteen years old when he and his family were deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz. His mother and younger sister perished, his two older sisters survived. Elie and his father were later transported to Buchenwald, where his father died shortly before the camp was liberated in April 1945.

His web site is here.

 
TODAY IN BAGHDAD

I was stunned by the images from Baghdad today with Iraqi people and U.S. troops pulling down Saddam Hussein's statue, followed by the Iraqi celebration. It was a compelling moment. As the head of Saddam's statute was dragged through the streets, a boy was hitting his head with his shoe. The war has been quick, however long the clean up may take. I am proud of our troops and how they have tried to relate to the Iraqi people.

Responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of his own people, it has long been known that Saddam is/was an evil person. Elie Wiesel, before the war started, urged a direct intervention in Iraq. As one who suffered under Hitler, Wiesel did not want to allow another tyrant like Hitler to continue to rule.

With horrid fascination I have watched the war unfold, day by day, since the begining three weeks ago. My heart and prayers went out to American families that lost loved ones in the war. And my heart and prayers went out to Iraqi families too. Some of them had loved ones who fought, not by choice but at the point of a gun, or because of threats to their own families. I have prayed for a quick end to the fighting for the sake of both sides.

We have waged war against a cruel regime and won. Good people have died on both sides. More lives will be lost as pockets of the regime are sought out around the country. Good people's lives are still at risk.

We have waged war well, now the question is, how well can we wage peace? It will be a difficult process. May our leaders by wise in helping Iraq to their own rule - and a better and less fearful way of life. It is still a time to pray for Iraq.

 
SAVING DIGITAL PHOTO FILES

I have been asked how I save, label, and keep track of digital photo files. What works for me may not work for you, but this is what I do with a few recommendations.

The short answer is that I save all my digital camera files chronologically in one folder (with subfolders) with the original names. I go through these files and rename the best photos and I resave these files in folders by subject (with subfolders). When I get enough files in my folders, I burn them to disc and then erase the folders from my hard drive and start over.

I do keep some small jpegs of my favorite photos on my hard drive all the time.

Now for the details.

PROCEDURE

1. First of all, check your camera's numbering system. At one setting it will restart its numbering system every time you put in an emptyr memory card. With the other setting it just keeps numbering without starting over. It is best to choose the second setting so you don't have duplicate numbers and accidentally erase two different photos that have the same file number.

2. Save all of your original photo files to your hard drive (and eventually to CD-R) with the original camera designated numbering system. I have a folder on my hard drive (DIGITAL PHOTOS) where I dump all original digital files until I have enough to burn to a CD. Files in the DIGITAL PHOTOS folder are arranged in sub-folders chronologically (The first card download is in folder "A", second download is in "B" and so on). That way if you ever need to go to the original file, you have it. When my DIGITAL PHOTOS folder gets between 300-500 MB, I burn it to two identical CDs and then check to make sure the computer can read the CDs before I delete the folders inside DIGITAL FOLDERS and start over.

3. ASAP, I look through my original photos files and re-save the good photos as tif files with new names. Re-named files are saved into folders and subfolders by subject (Family, Landscape, Wildlife, Church, Misc) until there are enough files and folders to burn a CD. A CD will have two or more subject folders with subfolders. I make 2 or 3 identical CDs and check them before erasing the original folders from my hard drive.

CHECKING CDs

One more note about checking CDs before you delete the folders from the hard drive. I learned the hard way that just looking at the file names on a CD does NOT mean those files are useable and readable. I will usually open several randomly selected files on at least one and preferably two computers before I delete the original folders from my hard drive. Of course I am obsessive about things like this.

FILE NAMES

You can stick with the file names your camera gives your files, or you can come up with your own. It can be a chronological system, topical or both. I use a chronological system with short subject descriptions.

Examples:

"03C13A05 Drew Jen"
"03C13B02 Market"
"03C13C06 Sunset"

The 8 digits are the date, "roll" and photo number, followed by a short description. It is nice that Windows allows long names.

The 8 digit code is as follows:

03 - year (2003)
C - month (March)
13 - date (13th)
A - roll (first subject of the day is A, second is B)
05 - picture number on that roll

Some computers have a problem with file names longer than 8 characters so I wanted each photo to have a name no longer then 8 characters in case I needed to leave off the short description.

Months are as follows:

A - Jan
B - Feb
C - Mar
D - Apr
E - May
F - June
G - July
H - Aug
J - Sep
K - Oct
L - Nov
M - Dec

I skipped "I" as a month because it looks too much like the number 1.

I thought about J - Jan, F - Feb, but substitute letters for months that begin with the same letters seemed more complicated than A through M.

The first roll or subject for the day is A, then B, and so on. The letter for the roll separates the date number from the photo number.

A day with not many photos would all be roll A. But if I was on a trip and shooting lots of photos, I could divide the day into locations or subjects and give each one its own letter.

If I took 8 photos of Drew, then 10 at the market, then 6 of the sunset, I could call the Drew pictures roll A, the market pictures roll B, and the sunset roll C. Of course with only 24 pictures, I could just call them all roll A.

When I was in Colorado, I shot 10 or more rolls of film per day. If I had done that digitally, I would need a system that would handle that number of photos. That is why I came up with "rolls" even though they might all come from the same flash card.

I give improved versions of the same photo a letter and number designation in between the 8 character code and the short description.

"03C13A05 t2 Drew Jen"

The “t2” means it is a tiff (.tif) file, second version. It probably means I corrected the exposure and color balance.

"03C13A05 p3 Drew Jen"

The “p3” means Photoshop (.psd) format, third version. Files with mutiple layers must be saved in the Photoshop format (extension .psd). This means I added some layers to the file.

Usually the highest number version is the best version.

FINDING PHOTOS

Once your files are all nicely labeled and saved, how do you find them later?

One way is too keep a chronological file list, like I have with my slides for years.

Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements both allow you to make a contact sheet of photos in a file folder (with sub-folders). I make a contact sheet of the photos on a disc and put this in a three ring binder. By looking through the binder I can find which disc has a particular photo.

This is not as elegant as using software.

Software:

ACDSee is one of the best programs under $50. There is also a free downloadable version you might want to try.

Now Adobe has just come out with Adobe Album. There is a good review at DPReview.

Adobe Album captures your digital photos from your hard drive or CD-R and remembers where they came from. You can search by date, subject, place, or even color once you have the photos properly entered.

I don't think I would put everything into Album, just the good stuff I had renamed.

BACKUP

Since all hard drives crash, it is important to get everything important saved to CD-R (don't use CD-RW discs). Michael Reichman's 18 month old hard drive crashed recently. He has a nice website.

It would have cost him about $3500 for one of the drive saver places to attempt to recover his files.

Basically, he still has what he saved to CD-R.

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

Following a good recommendation from one of my sons, I got a BUSlink external hard drive that connects to the USB port. I drag copies of important folders over to this external drive on a regular basis. If one of my internal hard drives crashes, or my computer just refuses to work, I can plug this external drive into the USB port of another computer and have access to all of my important data files. The BUSlink drive has more memory than my two internal hard drives put together. BUSlink also makes external hard drives that connect by Firewire.

Happy Photo Filing!

 
ZONE ALARM and ARIN

This is my second post on protecting your computer while you are on the internet. I will assume you have good virus protection software on your computer. If not, go ASAP to Norton's Antivirus or McAfee's, or PC-cillin from Trend Micro and protect yourself.

I also assume you have a good firewall which will let you know if anything is trying to get into your computer, or out. If not, get the free version of Zone Alarm from Zone Labs. They have a paid version which you will probably not need.

So why do you want to know if something from your computer is trying to get out, to "reach and touch someone"? Your browser does that, so does your virus protection software when it gets updates, and so do other non-malicious programs.

But there might be monsters lurking in your computer that are reaching out to give someone private information about you. This includes spyware (see yesterday's post) and even worse programs that could be trying to send confidential information from your computer to folks who would like to steal your credit cared numbers, bank account information, or your identity.

With Zone Alarm running, you will know when programs are trying to get in or out. You can mark known and trusted programs (like Internet Explorer) so they can reach out without having to get your approval each time. My web publishing software is another program I have given "reach out" approval.

One day Zone Alarm told me an unknown program wanted to access the internet. It gave me the file name and the numerical address the program was trying to reach. I did not recognize the file name, and how do you look up an address like 6.0.9.184? ( This address happens to be the good folks at Zone Labs.)

That is where ARIN comes in. You can do a "whois" search based on the numeric IP.

Using ARIN's search, I tracked down the site my computer was trying to contact. It was a company that collects information from your computer and sells it to advertisers. (I no longer recall whihc one.) Without Zone Alarm, I would not have even known my computer was trying to send out information. I told Zone Alarm to block this program from accessing the internet.

Later I found Ad-Aware which found this little bundle of Spyware code and deleted it from my computer.

Any time Zone Alarm give you the numeric IP address one of your programs is trying to reach, you can now use ARIN to find out who it is. Usually it is some legitimate program doing its normal thing. But if it isn't, and it wants to go some place on the internet that you don't want your computer to go, tell Zone Alarm to "Just Say No," Then use Ad-Aware or Spybot (see yesterday's article) to get rid of the program.

Safe Computing!

 
SPYWARE

Spyware programs, also known as "scumware", are the parasites of the computer world. Spyware is undetected by most virus protection software. Spyware can end up on your computer simply by clicking on a link, opening an email, or you can get it from one of those annoying popup ads while you are browsing. A number of downloadable programs such as Comet Cursor come complete with spyware.

What does spyware do? It keeps track of the places you go on the internet and the online purchases you make. Then it sends this information out to advertisers and retailers who pay the spyware company for the information. What happens next? Lots of ads in your email box. It does all of this without you even knowing it is going on. Do you think this is an invasion of your privacy? I do!

So how do you get rid of these low life parasites? Software. The best, free software for a long time was Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. I have had it on my computer for some time now and I run it periodically to locate and exterminate these parasites.

There is now some new spyware detection software, Spybot. A review at Cnet says Spybot is even bettert than Ad-Aware, and it is also free, although the author would like you to send a small donation if you so choose. I have tried it and I like it.

If you don't have a program to find and kill the parasites on your computer, I recommend you get Spybot. Use it regularly.

There are more computer links at my web site, including some more that will keep your computer safe and happy.

 
DIGITAL ADVANTAGE

I was taking pictures during church yesterday and I realized I should have been using a digital SLR camera (DSLR) instead of film.

Using flash during most religious ceremonies is distracting if not downright obtrusive. Fast film and/or fast lenses are the solution.

I had my usual kit for indoor church services: a 35 mm SLR (single lens reflex) camera body, three lenses, flash (for when it IS appropriate to use), and some rolls of Kodak E200 slide film.

When I use E200, I set the film speed on the camera body at ISO 640. When I have the film processed, I ask for “Push 2” processing. If you don’t understand push processing of slide film, read my Color Film article at my web site (toward the end under "Slide Film Recommendations".

640 speed film allows me to have a decent shutter speed inside. I was using a 50 mm lens at f/2.0 with a shutter speed of 1/60 second. (For more on f-stops and shutter speeds, see my Exposure article.) At one point, I needed a much closer view, so I switched to a 100-300 mm zoom lens with image stabilization. I was now at an aperture of f/4.0 and a shutter speed of 1/15 second. This would ordinarily be way too slow to handhold a lens this long but the image stabilization built into the lens makes this possible. I have some published photos shot at 300 mm in focal length with a shutter speed of 1/6 second. Without image stabilization I would ordinarily need a shutter speed of 1/250 second to get a good image.

So far so good. A little faster film speed would have been nice, but I had what I had. (I don’t like to push E200 beyond two stops.)

After church there was a surprise birthday party and I was asked to take photos. Then I wished I had slow speed fine grained film since I could use flash. Had I known in advance, I would have brought along a second camera body with slow speed film. I could have changed film mid-roll in the body I had with me (I have done that before) but I did not even bring slow speed film (shame on me). Besides, it was a surprise and I didn’t have much time to get ready to shoot.

Here is where a digital SLR would be a real advantage since you can change the “film speed” from photo to photo. No film switching mid roll or need to carry a second camera body (except as a back up).

With the new Canon 10D SLR, or any other similarly equipped DSLR, I could set the camera for a speed of 800, 1600, or 3200 for the low-light, hand held shots. The images would be a little grainier (actually “noisy” in digital terms) but useable without flash. Then for the birthday shots with flash I could quickly reset the camera to a speed of 100 for maximum quality. The digital advantage is that you can change the “film speed” with every single photograph as the situation requires.

To learn more about digital photography, both its advantages and its disadvantages, go to the DIGITAL section of my main web site.

By the way, did I mention my new grandson?

 
I have joined the world of blogging. Welcome to photography and more.

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Here are some links to other Web Cams.