Archive for January, 2007
- Patch your Windows for new Daylight Savings Time Rules - January 31st, 2007
- ASK FIRST, DAMMIT! - January 31st, 2007
- Sync Your PocketPC With Google Calender - January 30th, 2007
- Writing with a PDA - January 29th, 2007
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Finally Released - January 29th, 2007
- It’s On The Truck! - January 29th, 2007
- Birds, birds, and more birds! - January 26th, 2007
- Brown Headed Cowbird - January 26th, 2007
- Sudden Cold Brings New Bird - January 26th, 2007
- Shipped! - January 26th, 2007
- Philosophy - January 25th, 2007
- Big Changes at the CMPG - January 25th, 2007
- BDLS Now PDA Friendly - January 24th, 2007
- AMBER ALERT - January 24th, 2007
- It’s gonna be a Dell - January 24th, 2007
- CMPG Meeting - January 24th, 2007
- Standards? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Standards! - January 23rd, 2007
- Centon Electronics - January 23rd, 2007
- WordPress 2.1 - January 23rd, 2007
- Lunch Buddies - January 22nd, 2007
- And Speaking of Birds … - January 22nd, 2007
- A PDA for the Birds? - January 22nd, 2007
- Eleven - January 22nd, 2007
- I Must Be Crazy! - January 21st, 2007
- Photoshop Actions - Flatterizer - January 21st, 2007
- It’s Finally Winter - January 21st, 2007
- First Woman President? - January 20th, 2007
- Photoshop Action Exchange - January 20th, 2007
- Photoshop Actions - January 19th, 2007
- Busy, Busy, Busy - January 19th, 2007
- Kat Kaput - January 19th, 2007
- There Oughta Be A Law! - January 18th, 2007
- Tulip Deconstruction 1 - January 18th, 2007
- Yellow Rose Cavern - January 18th, 2007
- Like Herding Cats - January 16th, 2007
- New Arrivals - January 15th, 2007
- Seminar Success - January 14th, 2007
- CMPG-sponsored Strobist Seminar - January 13th, 2007
- Russian Camera Store - January 13th, 2007
- How to Read a [Camera] Manual - January 12th, 2007
- Helluva Week - January 12th, 2007
- Cat From Hell - January 11th, 2007
- For Those Keeping Score … - January 10th, 2007
- Sweet’s New Book, Using Adobe Camera RAW - January 10th, 2007
- Come on in, the water’s fine! - January 8th, 2007
- Sweet New Book Available - January 8th, 2007
- Interesting - January 7th, 2007
- WordPress Upgrade - January 7th, 2007
- When God Paints - January 7th, 2007
- More From Wednesday - January 6th, 2007
- National Geographic Contest Winners - January 6th, 2007
- Caution: Over-polarization - January 6th, 2007
- Houston, We Have a Problem - January 6th, 2007
- Home Sweet Home — Fishy-Style - January 5th, 2007
- Scanning Update - January 5th, 2007
- more Orten imaging - January 5th, 2007
- Orton Images and Scanned Film - January 5th, 2007
- New Arrival… - January 4th, 2007
- Maybe Not So Bad - January 4th, 2007
- The Automotive Trap - January 4th, 2007
- Morning at Turkey Point - January 3rd, 2007
- And, We’re Back - January 2nd, 2007
- YAH!* - January 2nd, 2007
- Blew it All Ready! - January 2nd, 2007
- Welcome to a New Year - January 2nd, 2007
- not quite what we hoped for - January 1st, 2007
- Resolution - January 1st, 2007
In August of 2005 the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which changes the dates of both the start and end of daylight saving time (DST). When this law goes into effect in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier (2:00 A.M. on the second Sunday in March) and will end one week [...]
While I’m flattered that Ryan Singel of Wired News Blogs liked my picture of the court house in Fall River, MA enough to use it on their blog the other day. And, I’m happy that he attributed the photograph to me, in accordance with the Creative Commons license under which it was posted to flickr.
However, it’s [...]
There are several programs out there that will sync your PDA with Google Calendar, but most require that you use MSOutlook as an intermediary application — first updateting your PC, and then syncing the PDA calender to the PC. I wanted a completely independent solution.
What I finally found is an application called Calsyncum, which is [...]
Writing a blog entry or a PDA screen can be an ercercise in frustration, especially when portions of the text box are obscured. It takes a bit of getting used to.
So this is a test post using the Opera browser and writing with the little stylus right on the screen. It’s amazing.
I remember [...]
After several months of the open beta test project, Adobe have finally offered Lightroom for sale!
For a limited time, the software is available for 1/3 off! (only through the Adobe web site).
New Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroomâ„¢ software is the professional photographer’s essential toolbox, providing one easy application for managing, adjusting, and presenting large volumes of digital [...]
According to FedEx, my little box of Dell goodness is on the truck, and on its way to me!
There are a couple of items that, in retrospect, I wish I had ordered along with the machine — specifically, the VGA adapter cable and the car charger. I mean, I’d already broken the budget. I won’t [...]
The downy woodpecker came for dinner today:
but he took the funniest posture while he surveyed the suet feeder to determine whether or not it was safe to land on it!
(Theresa: I guess we’ll be ordering pallets of suet blocks in addition to the seed-delivery service?)
A few more pictures are on flickr.
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Here are a couple of better pictures of our new friend, the Cowbird. We had a whole flock of them at breakfast time. Now that the sun’s out, and it’s marginally warmer, most of them have headed off to find something a little more “normal” for them to eat. However, there are a couple [...]
The sudden cold has brought a new species of bird to our feeders. These fellows are Brown Headed Cowbirds.
The Cowbirds usually eat insects — they originally followed herds of Bison to eat the insect they attracted. Now that it’s gotten really cold (for here), they’re looking for alternative eats.
Also spotted this morning [...]
According to Dell, my little machine will leave their plant today, and I should have it on Monday! I am so excited! Interestingly, it shipped according to the original “estimated” schedule, not the revised schedule that didn’t show up until after I placed the order.
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Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a night.Set a man on file, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.
– overheard in the book store
This is really a pretty deep thought. Sure, on a frigid night in January, the first thing to come to mind involves wood, matches, and [...]
We held our first formal elections at the CMPG last night, marking our change from what we’ve jokingly referred to as a “benevolent dictatorship” to a real, structured organization. Due to time constraints, I felt that I wasn’t giving the best as Director of the organization any more. Additional, I had always said that, once [...]
Thanks to Alex King, Blather de la Semaine is now PDA friendly, at least on the most common platforms. I have added his WordPress Mobile Edition package, which will automatically detect the most common PDA and web-enabled phone browsers, and serve up a plain, but usable version of the site. For those with your own [...]
This comes to us from one of Donna’s co-workers:
Rachel Smith of Platinum Drive, has been missing along with her friend Rachel Crites since Friday evening. They were in her friend’s dark blue (almost looks black or dark green) Subaru Outback Station Wagon with a black cargo box on the roof. The licence plate number is Maryland [...]
Well, after a much more realistic needs analysis, and a fair chunk of research, I decided to get the Dell PDA. Early this morning, I ordered the Dell Axim X51v.
Yes, it broke the heck out of the budget, because I had originally set a limit of $399MSRP. Nowadays, many items of this type sell for [...]
Monthly CMPG Meeting. See http://www.cmpg.org for details.
The discussion topic for the January meeting is the long-term storage of digital images. The discussion will be led by Rob Novak, who is the club’s resident expert in storage technology.
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(with apologies to Mel Brooks, and all who went before…)
As mentioned previously, I’m considering the purchase of a PDA. While the idea of a $250 piece of software on a tiny little chip to keep track of the birds we’ve seen has sort of gone by the way-side (as Rob points out, “$250 (plus $275 [...]
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but Centon Electronics is a great, low-priced purveyor of memory products. If you’re in need of a memory upgrade for your computer, FLASH cards for your PDA or digital camera, or one of those little USB memory drive thingies, these people are the folks to see. I’ve been [...]
It seems like just the other day that I upgraded this site to version 2.0.7 of WordPress. Now, version 2.1 is available.
2.1 is a major, major upgrade, with a huge chunk of the code completely re-written. As usual, I’m going to wait a couple of weeks at least to apply the update. But, with it [...]
Just a few shots from lunch today. It was a real feeding frenzy at our feeder! You’d think we were the only people in the neighborhood putting out food for the little critters!
These were all shot with my Nikon D70s and Tamron 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens, [...]
I walked into the kitchen for a little snack, and saw that the bird feeders were particularly busy. I grabbed the closest camera (my little cheapish point-n-shoot digital) and made a couple of pictures:
That’s a little woodpecker there munching at the suet feeder. We regularly get a couple of varieties. Also seen at the feeder [...]
Believe it or not, I’m actually considering getting a PDA. Yeah, me. The guy who had the original PDA (an Apple Newton), and gave up using it. Okay, we’re considering it. So, what got us started on this?
We were at the local wild bird emporium, when I spotted this nifty $500 package: A nice little PDA (Palm [...]
Damn! Lost a Tiger Barb this morning. Now there are eleven.
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Coming up in the next couple of weeks, we have consultations with two couples to shoot their weddings. This evening, Donna asked me in an e-mail if I thought we needed to buy a D200 to replace one of our D70s’s in support of these jobs.
I told her no.
Here was a chance to get a [...]
It’s happened to all of us. We’ve taken a portrait photograph of someone, and, while it’s technically pretty good — the exposure’s right, focus and depth-of-field are good, and the expression’s lovely — it’s just not exactly flattering. It happens most with women. Or, maybe it just doesn’t matter as much with men, I don’t [...]
Sure, the past few days have been cold. But now, it’s really winter. There’s snow coming down, and it’s actually sticking to something. Of course, you all know how I feel about snow…
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From USAToday:
NEW YORK (AP) — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton formally began her widely anticipated campaign for the White House, a former first lady intent on becoming the United States’ first female president.
Clinton, D-N.Y., posted the decision Saturday morning on her official website: “I’m in. And I’m in to win.”
Obviously, the wife of a President is [...]
Yesterday, I wrote about a couple of Photoshop Actions that I had written. Today, we have some links to other places to download for free:
ActionCentral — Devoted to the exchange of Photoshop actions among users, provided as a service to the image editing community by Photoshop user Jim Lewis.
GraphicsSoft Free Photoshop Actions — Free Adobe [...]
Actions are a cool thing in Photoshop that allow you to automate certain repetitive functions. For instance, creating the Orton Effect requires several steps: Apply Image Screen, Duplicate Layer, Gaussian Blur, Flatten. All in all, not terribly complicated, but certainly easier if you can click a single button. Or, suppose you like to make black-and-white [...]
Wow, it’s been a busy morning here. So busy, in fact, that it’s almost afternoon!
Our friend, Bob Sima, is participating in the North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance 2007 Conference, and needed an ad designed for the program. Of course, it ended up as a last minute job. At left is the final ad, [...]
Not to be confused with Cat Caput*.
We lost a Cory Cat last night. I was adjusting the PH in the tank, and the little bugger chomped on a mouthful of dry chemistry. It was obvious right off that he didn’t like it, as he barrel-rolled from the bottom of the tank, clear to the top, [...]
There oughta be a law requiring manufacturers of microwave ovens develop a standard for basic commands, so that they all work the same way.
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These images (yesterday’s Yellow Rose Cavern, and today’s Tulip Deconstruction 1) are my first attempts at using extension tubes. Here’s the story.
The van was in the shop yesterday — again – so I had to drive Donna to and from work. On the way home, we stopped into Harbor Freight Tools to get a heavy-duty cart [...]
The result of stacking three extension tubes (36, 20 and 12mm) behind a 90mm macro lens on a Nikon D70s. I’d guess the area of this image, in reality, is maybe 3/8″ tall by about 1/2″ wide. It’s amazing to me how shallow the depth of field is when the magnification is this high, and [...]
Do you have any idea how hard it is to make sure that you still have 12 of the same type/age fish in one tank? The damned things all look alike, and they won’t sit still! It’s just like herding cats!
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We brought a few new fish home from the store this evening — another half-dozen Tiger Barbs, and three Cory Cats. You save a few cents if you buy the Tiger Barbs by the half-dozen. Anyway, as usual, I floated the bags in the tank to get the temperatures stabilized. Tiger Barbs are shoal, or [...]
The Strobist seminar seemed to be a great success. There were no disasters at the door because of the last minute cancellations and seat swaps, and there were only two no-shows. A couple of folks did bail out early, I presume to watch the Ravens/Colts game. From what I know of the game, they really [...]
The CMPG welcomes David Hobby (a.k.a. The Strobist), who will present a seminar on getting the most from flash photography. More information is available here.
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Some folks have a penchant for Russian photo gear, and with good reason. Some of it is of very high quality, but at very attractive pricing. This morning, I have found a US store that deals exclusively in Russian import items. I know nothing about their reputation, but, you can check them out at http://www.rugift.com.
I [...]
From Lindsay Silverman, over at NikonNet: the proper way to read a manual.
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It’s been a helluva week. I really don’t remember being this stressed in a while. I don’t even remember some days!
I do know that our little government PEG channel, Howard County GTV, went on the air on Verizon FiOS in both Howard and Anne Arundel Counties today at 12:44PM. Our set up is not quite [...]
I’m not sure what happened, but, literally over night, Shadow has gone from being an almost reasonable cat to the Cat From Hell. So far today, he’s actually attacked me twice. Drawn blood, even (and that, I really, really don’t like).
Here’s the story.
This morning, as I was scurrying around getting ready to go to work, [...]
… The number of Tiger Barbs in the tank still equals six. I think you can actually see most of them in this picture.
One thing about the filter system in this tank is that the flow rate is really up there — 200GPH, they say. The tiger barbs seem to enjoy playing in the [...]
Tony Sweet’s new book arrived yesterday, and I haven’t put it down since. Great stuff, and highly recommended if you’re shooting nature or landscapes and are looking for some interesting twists. I also ordered and received his Fine Art Nature Photography, which I’ve only glanced through to this point.
If you’re having trouble getting your head [...]
These little beasties are some of the first inhabitants of our new aquarium. In all, there are six of them. These are tiger barbs, and damned if they don’t swim real fast!
They also look amazingly lost in their new surroundings. Of course, they’re at best a whopping inch long, living alone, for now, in [...]
We received this message from area nature and landscape photographer, Tony Sweet:
Fine Art Photography
Water, Ice, and Fog
will be released soon and I’ll have boxes here within 2 weeks.
If you’re [still] interested in purchasing a signed copy sent via priority mail, there are a couple ways to go about ordering:
1. Send a check or money order [...]
Well, now, this is cool. One of my pictures made the “Interesting” list at flickr.
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I’ve just upgraded the site to WordPress 2.0.6. You shouldn’t notice anything different. But, if you do, please let me know!
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I got an e-mail from my father this morning, entitled “When God Paints,” full of beautiful pictures that someone had snagged off the web, I guess. I felt compelled to send him back a message with some pictures of what I see when God paints for me. Some of you have probably seen these before, [...]
I’ve posted more pictures from my trip with Thom to my flickr site. The set includes straight images, as well as some that have had the Orton effect applied.
While I currently apply this effect using Photoshop, I don’t believe it strays from my general rule of not doing in the computer what I couldn’t achieve [...]
National Geographic Traveler have posted the results of their 2006 photo contest. The results may be found here. And, they have a blog up.
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In photography, the formula (a beautiful landscape)+(polarizing filter)=(beautiful picture), right? Well, that’s what we’ve been led to believe. Every self respecting landscape photographer lists a polarizer for every lens among their kit, as well they should.
Polarizers can be used to reduce glare on water or glass, deepen skies, and, to some extent, reduce haze. However, [...]
It seems the dresser that we put the aquarium on isn’t quite rigid enough. When I open one of the drawers (the middle one — go figure!) the upper structure of the dresser sags just a touch, making the drawer difficult to close.
This, of course, means I have to drain all the water from the [...]
The aquarium’s set up, in it’s home on the dresser in our bedroom. We’ve got to wait a couple of days before we can put any fish in it — there’s chemistry to do to make water that’s fit for humans fit for fish. In other words, we’ve got to undo all the good things that [...]
As promised, here’s a little update on the scanning situation. I’ve played some more with VueScan, and possibly better sources.
First up, is this slide from somewhere around 1980, taken in Annapolis. There’s a whole lotta schmutz on the slide, mostly because of crappy storage. Clicking on the little image will bring up a real big image. [...]
this time from Donna — this composition isn’t perfect (too much distracting red in the background) but thought I’d give the Orten thing a go…here’s the result:
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I was poking around on flickr yesterday, and happened upon something called “Orton images.” Basically, the idea comes from the days of slides (not that film is dead!), and is a sandwich of two images, both over-exposed, with one in focus, and the other out of focus. More details may be found here. Of [...]
We brought the aquarium home this evening, and have decided that we’re going to try the bedroom — so, we’ll be giving it a dry run for the night, with the light on a timer.
It’s a little bigger than I thought, but still, it looks good.
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Last week, last year, I grumbled that I was going to ditch all my old film images because 1) some were in bad shape and (2) I couldn’t get a good scan to save my life. Rob commented that he’d give some of them a whack, to see if he couldn’t get a decent image [...]
You know, I hate cars. I really hate cars.
The van’s back in the shop again. It seems that the alternator that was replaced last time has taken a dump, and needs replacement. Fortunately for the shop (and our credit card), they’re handling that under warranty.
There’s another bunch of stuff that needs to be done to the [...]
I went out shooting with my friend, Thom, today, on a tour of lighthouses and covered bridges. Here’s one of my favorite’s from the day. I shot basically two lenses all day long — the Tokina 12-24mm f/4 and the new Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, and had an absolute blast!
This image is of the Turkey Point [...]
As it turns out, the issue appears to have not been with my provider, ICDSoft, but rather, something between the company that provides their upstream and the local telco people in Boston. Probably a 99¢ fuse.
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* Yet Another Hobby — or two.
We seem to have gotten pretty gung-ho in the birding department, with a new feeder to be permanently installed, and a stronger support for the old one. An, all ready, Donna’s talking about another new feeder out in the front. If nothing else, it’s fun for photography.
At the same [...]
Yesterday, we went to see Tea and The Hub for their New Year’s Day open house. I figured that, even though I’d resolved to make more pictures, there was no real reason to take my camera along. I mean, it was their party, and The Hub has a nice camera (it’s one of my old [...]
Well, isn’t this special … Only a couple of days into the new year, and someone’s lost all the DNS info for ICDSoft’s world. I can’t even get to the support site, or the sales site.
Of course, this comes just a couple of days after I sing ICDSoft’s praises to a good friend who [...]
i cleaned & re-hung the bird feeder yesterday. we had three dark-eyed juncos, a chickadee, and two house wrens visit this morning, but none of them stayed very long. the longest visit was made by a rodent-with-good-PR:
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I generally don’t make New Year’s resolutions, cause I never manage to get to them. And, there’s all sorts of things I should resolve to do. You know, all those clichés:
exercise
lose weight
eat right
get the basement cleaned out
I’ve got news — probably ain’t gonna happen.
What I do need to do — and can do — is [...]
