Playing around

I have been trying real hard to update my post processing skills. I think I have the regular fixes under control, but some of the advanced manipulations I need to work harder at. A prime example is background removal and feathering selections. The weather has not been good, so I haven't been out to take any photos.

Things going on.

Click on photo of Dylan to enlarge.

I haven't had a huge time to devote to my photography, but a little time is better than none.

I was contacted by the Dicain representative regarding the release date for the vertical grip and shutter release for my K100D Super, and the news was not good. He told me that the release planned for December has been postponed until after the new year holiday. I was very upset as I was hopping to have it. Well I hope the wait is worth it, but I think it will be. The unit for the DS is a real nice product, so I figure the one for the K100D & Super will be just as good or better. No price has been set that I am aware of.

Computer Problems solved for now.

I can now get back to things important, the computer has had a memory transplant and seems to be working fine. I added the 2gb of DDR2 ram yesterday and the system now has a new lease on life and it no longer crashes when doing my photo editing. Now if the weather would change for the better i can get out and take some photographs.

The above photograph was taken a while ago when I went to the pdn Photo Plus show in NYC. I used Paint Shop Pro Photo Pro X2 to edit it. I used a process which gives the photo the Ansel Adams appearance.

Computer Upgrade

After the catastrophic crash of my Dell Windows XP Pro computer I spent about 30 hours trouble shooting the elusive problem. I am happy to say that I have found the problem and it turned out to be a memory problem. At least I hope so, as I am pretty confident it is the proper diagnosis. I tested the memory a number of times and it failed, so I ordered a 3gb upgrade kit from www.Crucial.com the complete upgrade cost $61.00 including tax and shipping. I am hopping the parts reach me by Wednesday of next week. Once the upgrade is in I will be able to once again edit my photographs without the system going crazy resulting in a crash and a restore would be required. Once I am back to proper operating efficiency I will post more often.

Below are photos taken at the Museum of Natural History in NYC. All are done with no flash at ISO1600 and hand held.

Order nightmare is over.

Back on November 8th I ordered a Transcend 2gb 150X SD card to backup my cards I all ready have. On November 12 I sent the Amazon dealer a email request for the shipping information and later received a USPS delivery confirmation number. The USPS numbers are not tracking numbers like UPS or FedEx, so there is no way to track the shipment. A week went by and still no package, so I again contacted the company by phone and spoke to the owner who apologized and said he would reship the package again. Later that night I received another tracking number. Another 10 days passed and again no package so again I contacted the company who said they would ship out the package by 2 day air that day. Well that was the 27th and today I received the package. I have no doubt that the Amazon seller had none in stock, so they thought they would delay by saying the shipment was on it's way. You and I know that the USPS is not that inept to loose two packages to the same address. I have no way to prove my theory, but I am glad it has arrived. I will not be evil and give the company a perfect rating, but i will let it pass as all is well now.

On another subject! I have been hunting for a vertical shutter release for my Pentax and haven't found one that meets my requirements until now. Dicain will have their's available for sale sometime in December and I will chances are get it from them. The one they make for the DS is very nice, but I am hopping that this one has a USB connection so that I don't have to remove the SD card to off load my pictures, or remove the grip to connect the cable. Only time will tell. I will update this subject as time gets closer to delivery.

Below is a few photos from recent shoots. My granddaughter is below followed by my Desert Lynx Dylan.

A few weeks ago I wrote here that my router had failed and I ordered another to replace it. I was also concerned that this router might not be strong enough to reach the upper floors, but I am happy to report I get a "Very Good" signal on the third floor notebook computer.

I am unhappy to report that my Dell E510 the computer that I edit my photographs and most of my other work on crashed. The thing had a catastrophic hardware failure that caused Windows XP to crash. So far I have worked at least 30 hours on it and have it running, but I am positive it will crash at any time. I am able to do anything but edit photos as it seems to fail with heavy CPU and memory usage. My next computer will be an iMac 20", but it will have to wait until this system is no longer usable.

What next?

The other day while uploading photos to my gallery my Internet connection went dead, but it turned out to be the Linksys router. All other computers on the network were OK but mine, if I plugged the computer directly into the modem I had a great connection. Now I choose the least expensive route to fixing this and that was purchase a new router. I bought a Buffalo WHR-HP-G-54, which are very hard to get. I am hopping that this fixes the issue and it isn't my computer. If it turns out to be the computer, I don't think I will buy another PC. My next computer will be an Apple.

My main concern is will it have the range to reach the upstairs, I guess I will find out soon. I store many photos on a remote drive up stairs.

On another subject, here is a photo I did yesterday that has a lot of nice elements. It is a photo of glass oblong marbles in a oval container underwater. I like the ripple effect from a drop of a marble into the water while a piece of cardboard prevents splash.

My latest updates

This morning the S&W lens shade for my Pentax FA 50mm 1.7 came and I measured it in order to find the proper lens cap to go over the shade rather over the lens filter. Since the shade is a screw on type not a bayonet type it is extremely a pain to leave the shade on the lens, and still replace the cap. So by ordering a 58mm snap on lens cap it will go on over the shade. I found a Pentax 58mm on EBay for $7.00 shipped, which is a fair price.

Yesterday I placed an order for a 2gb Transcend 150x SD card as a second card for future use. I do think I will purchase a 4gb card in the future as the one to keep in the camera for the trip to Europe.

Tamrac Velocity 8x has arrived

Yesterday while I was seeing a Broadway show UPS dropped off my new sling pack. My first impressions is that the pack is well made, but the Velcro partitions are a pain to move about. But once they are positioned as I wanted they are fine. I would have liked the movable lens partitions to be easy to open and close as the lenses in the lower compartment might be hard to access. Not a big deal as I am only going to be carrying only the Tamron 18-250 mounted on the camera and the Pentax FA 50mm f1.7 in one lens compartment and the Pentax DA 18-50 in the other compartment. The three additional compartments will remain empty.

Wearing the sling pack is not uncomfortable while on my back. In order to pull the pack to my front to access the inside of the bag requires me to loosen the shoulder strap, which is very easy. Included is a waist belt that I don't see myself using as it is meant for use when on rough terrain or activities like biking. The pack can also be moved to one side making quick shots easy, while maintaining quick access to the inside of the pack. There are additional M.A.S. (Modular Accessory System) products available such as a filter pack and a accessory pocket.

Gear bag ordered

As I have a bad back and suffer when I am on my feet for long periods of time, I needed a gear bag for traveling. I at first thought I would get a belt mounted system, but after a lot of thought and after speaking to my friend who is an Orthopedic Surgeon i decided a sling bag is the only way to go. I ordered the Tamrac Velocity Sling Bag model number 5768 from Calumet Photo. It looks like it will hold my Pentax K100D Super and the Tamron 18-250 mounted on the lens, plus at least two additional lenses. I should have it this some time this week, and I will post my first impressions. The bag will allow me to carry my gear in the back, but swing it to my front in order to get to my camera. My next purchase will be a small case for the front strap to hold filters for quick availability.

I will also have to purchase an additional memory card and the adapter that allows me to transfer my photos to my Archos 504. This will allow me to off load my photos each night for safety.

I will also purchase on EBay a lens shade for my Pentax FA 50mm f1.7 lens, as I plan to use it often. A Pentax flash would also be nice, but that won't come so soon as I will need to save for this.

Benro Monopod has arrived

Yesterday I received my Benro Monopod as well as the Giottos Mini Ball Head model 1304-110C, and the Sima Quickonnect model SVR. I am very satisfied with the Monopod and the ball head, but not as much with the Quickonnect as it is about 2 1/2" diameter which makes the unit a little cumbersome. The Benro Monopod is well made and very light, even feels lighter when extended as the weight is spread out. It seemed very steady when held with one hand on the monopod and one hand on the camera. The Ball Head is very nice and easy to use, but I will have to be very aware of the level of the camera, no more than when not using the monopod. I could always add a level to the camera if necessary as they are small and clip into the hot flash bracket.

My next purchase is going to be a carry around camera bag which can hold my Camera with the Tamron 18-250 and one or two additional lenses. I am thinking about the Domke F6 shoulder bag or the Lowepro Off Trail 1 or 2 belt pack. I will try to see this combination somewhere so I can judge the size.

It is that time of year

Yesterday I went to visit an old graveyard which as graves dating back to the Revolutionary War. I snapped off about 12 shots and choose which ones I wanted to keep and post process in Paint Shop Pro X2. Here are a few of the photographs.

Click on photo to enlarge

I have choose different methods and filters to give each a different aged effect. I chose both black and white and sepia. I like the result of the first photo the best it realy has great lighting.

What I did today.

Click on photos to enlarge

I set out for a round of picture taking at the lake in Princeton, as I was hopping to catch the rowing teams in practice. I got to the starting point just as they were getting ready to start, so I parked and setup near the shore line. It was very windy and there was a lot of movement of the subjects so I judged that TV mode was what I should shoot at. I took almost 100 shots in a few minutes hopping to get a few good and in focus shots. I am posting one of them. The EXIF is as follows F13, Shutter Speed 1/125 and ISO200.


I also ordered a Giottos light weight ball head from B&H in NYC. It should complement the Benro carbon fiber monopod and the Sima quick release. Here are the specifications:

Load Capacity	7 lbs (3 kg)
Height	2.1" (55 cm)
Tripod Mount Thread Size	3/8" (1/4"-20 reducer bushing is provided)
Weight	2.6 oz (73 g)

Photograph I am working on today

Click on Photo to Enlarge

This is a panorama consisting of 8 photographs stitched together using Pnaorama Plus and post processed in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2.

Shoulder Stock Progress

I finished embedding the shutter release in Epoxy and just need to sand and prep it for painting. I think it will work out real well. I used a Hama monopod shoulder support and a hand grip from a flash bracket. I cut a hole in the grip and embedded the shutter release in the hole with Epoxy. It can still be used with a monopod by just un-screwing the grip.

Latest news from my desk

I have been working on a custom shoulder stock with shutter release, and hope to have it done in a couple of days. I am waiting for the Epoxy filler to set before I can sand and paint the grip. I will post some photos when the job is complete.

On the status of the Sima Quick Release for my Benro Monopod that is somewhere over the Pacific at this time, the Sima was shipped yesterday via FedEx and should be here tomorrow.

Regarding the Benro monopod and my K100D Super's shake reduction, I have posted a thread on www.dpreview.com regarding this subject as I am uncertain if I have to turn off shake reduction as I do with a tripod. I am assuming that it would be necessary to turn the SR off.

To the rescue!

I had a very serious mishap while taking photographs at the local canal. I decided to change my filter on my Tamron 18-250 to a circular polarizer, and that is when the problem began. As I was removing the filter and had the lens facing up a bird dropped a huge glob of poop on both the filter and the lens. I quickly ran home to clean the lens as I thought the birds excrement might eat into the coatings of the lens. I used my standard liquid lens cleaner and some lens tissue to gently clean the filter as I didn't want to experiment on the expensive lens. Well all the lens cleaner did was smear the junk around. The next day I attended PDN Photo Plus in NYC and went to both the Hoya & the Tamron booths and asked both what to use to clean the filter and the lens. They both suggested "off the record" that I use Eclipse Lens Cleaner and Pec*Pads to safely clean both. I ordered both as soon as I got home, and prayed that the delay would not do permanent damage to the equipment. I received the package yesterday and proceeded to clean the filter first. In a few minutes the glossy spots on the filter were gone and it looked like there was no permanent damage to the filter. I next held my breath and started to gently clean the surface of the lens. The lens took two pads and only 4 drops of the Eclipse liquid to clean the lens. After cleaning I examined the lens and to my great surprise there was no damage what so ever to the lens. I highly recommend this combination of cleaning materials to all that want to keep there equipment in pristine condition.

I was notified today that my Sima Quick Release was shipped today via FedEx and I guess i should have it in a few days. The Monopod was shipped Airmail from Hong Kong on the 23rd, but that will take a week to 10 days to reach my desk. I will write a mini review on both products.

Equipment Ordered

Between yesterday and today I ordered the following equipment which I feel is necessary for my upcoming European Cruise. The first item is a Benro Carbon Fiber Monopod Model MC-66 and a Sima Quick Release mount for the camera end. The quick release will allow a lot more flexibility in my use of the camera.

My Equipment

I thought the first post should be devoted to the equipment I have at this time.
Pentax K100D Super
Pentax 18-55
Pentax FA 50mm 1.7
Sigma 28-200 f3.5-f5.6
Tamron LD 70-300 f4-f5.6
Tamron AF 18-250 f3.5-f6.3
Lowepro AW 100 Sling Pack

My latest acquisition was the Tamron 18-250 which is my carry around lens. I plan to use this lens and my Pentax FA 50mm f1.7 while on our river cruise in Europe.

I also bought an inexpensive white balance lens cap which allows the setting of a custom white balance. I am just testing this cap today and I have gotten some promising results. to the left are two photos one with auto white balance and one custom using the cap. The photos are of my office and for baseline purposes the walls and ceiling are white.

Top photo is using Auto White balance and the bottom is the custom white balance. As you can see that there is a color shift in the top photo while the walls are white in the bottom photo. There was NO post processing other than the resizing for posting here. The lens used is the Tamron 18-250 at 18mm.