We're going on the road again

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We're hitting the road again. This time it's out to East Hampton, New York. Each year there is a "Cloths Line" art show to benefit the local cultural theater. I have 5 pieces to exhibit. I'll let you know if any sell. It's all for a good cause. Then we're going on to Cape Cod to see some friends. The Cape is always fun with lots of opportunities to take pictures. The main image of this blog was shot out there last year.

Above are 2 additional pictures from New Mexico. The sunsets out there are just wonderful. The second image is of the Miracle Staircase in Santa Fe. You can read more about it here. I have others that I'll post later.

In some other news, Kelby training keeps churning out their classes. You can find them here. Believe me when I say that it's a great value.

Have a wonderful week and I'll post again when I get back.

NIK free daily webinars are great

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By now you know that everyone of my pictures is touched by at least one, if not more, of the pieces of software produced by NIK. Their line of products include Viveza 2, Color Efex Pro 3.0, Silver Efex Pro, Dfine 2.0 and Sharpener pro 3.0. The company offers 3 free daily webinars 6 days a week. I sat in on 2 of them last week and learned some wonderful tips. If your a user of any of their plug-ins or are thinking of buying them, I strongly suggest at least a visit to their site or take one of the webinars.

The Photo Walk in Chinatown was great fun

It was hot. 97 degrees hot with very high humidity. I would guess that less than half the people showed up. They may have been the smart ones. Steve and I walked the parks and streets at a snails pace and drank plenty of water. We took lots of pictures but I must admit the heat got to me. I'm feeling it today. Was it worth it? Sure.

I shot in AV mode at a very high ISO. For the most part things worked well.

The streets were alive with people and there was a great energy. Tourists were everywhere carrying every kind of photo gear imaginable. Our group carried mainly Canon cameras and lenses. Nikon was also well represented.

Have a great week and I'll try to post other images from the photo walk and my New Mexico trip in the coming days.

Back home and ready for the NYC photo walk

Hi all. We had a great time in New Mexico. Good hikes, good company, good food and lots of pictures.
The Santa Fe Plaza at night comes alive with street musicians. All kinds of music. From Country to Bluegrass to Classical. Great fun.
I did take my camera gear with me all the time, and yes, I did carry my tripod on every hike. I'll post some of the pictures in the days to come. I hope you like them.
Tomorrow is the 3rd Annual Kelby International PhotoWalk. My good buddy Steve and I are doing the one in New York City Chinatown area. Of course it will be in the high 90's and high humidity. Oh my. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

Have a great week-end.

We're going on a field trip

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Well, this past week-end was a computer nightmare. My MSN account was hacked and my entire email list was sent a message from me saying that I was mugged in the UK and lost my passport, money etc. etc."SEND MONEY". That's not the worst of it. My password, second email address and secret question answer were also changed. Your right. I was locked out of everything. What a mess. One would think that MSN would have a simple way of repairing this since it was probably their computers that were hacked in the first place. But NO! They leave you out on a Lonely Island. (Lonely Island, that's the title of my son's new CD)

I digress. I finally found some computer type on Google who had the same issue earlier in the year. He found a secrete website at MSN. I'm not sure that it's secrete but they sure make it hard to find. You go in and fill out a questionnaire about personal things that only you would know, and press send. Out it goes and a few seconds later receive back an email saying that they, Microsoft I think, will review the answers and respond within 24 hours if they accept your request. Admittedly it was a holiday weed-end so about 40 hours later I was blessed with a positive response and I thought that my world was OK again. Wrong.

I was able to reset a password and get back to my now EMPTY files. I could go on but you get the drift. It will take a while to figure this all out and rebuild my computer life.

I know that there are much larger issues out in the world to be solved so I'll move on.

We're off on a hiking trip to New Mexico at the end of the week. I am taking my photo gear and hope to come back with a few images worth sharing.

To those of you who did offer help me and send money, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Have a safe holiday

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It's July 4th week-end here in the USA. The weather should be great for all outdoor activities and of course watching firework. In Princeton they were held last night, July 1st for some unknown reason. There was a large crowd and we all had a wonderful time.

A few days ago I posted my favorite settings for shooting fireworks. If you scroll down you should find them.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday.

Trey Ratcliff releases his new eBook

Trey, I hope you don't mind that I reproduced part of your new eBook on this site. I know all rights are reserved but I thought it important to let people, who don't follow your site "Stuck in Customs", that this is now available.

You can tell by the title what it's about. Trey uses his own early photographs as examples and explains the mistakes and corrections. Great stuff. I've got my copy and I have to say that I wish I had the these answers years ago. I've made all these mistakes and a whole bunch more.

For just $9.97, it will save you lots of time and frustration.

Another "juried" show acceptance

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I'm really excited about this one. I submitted 5 images to the "Gallery 14" juried exhibition and "the Glass Blower" was chosen. I've always like this image. It was shot just outside of Santa Fe a while back.

It's a single image HDR processed in Photomatix and Color Efex Pro 3. I hope you like it.

Also, I just got a Logan Simplex Plus #760 mat cutter. I took a few practice tries but I have it down now and can cut a great looking mat in about 5 minutes. I would highly recommend it.

International HDR Day

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Rick Sammon and Trey Ratcliff, two of my favorite shooters and teachers, have announced that this coming Saturday, June 26, will be designated International HDR Day. Why not. There are so many wacky "Days". You can find the information here.

I love fireworks

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My wife and I love fireworks. This is one of the images from our trip to New Hope last Friday night. The sky was clear and it wasn't too hot. Just perfect.

For those interested here are my settings for this shot:

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  Use a tripod
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  Manual mode
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  Set on Bulb mode
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  ISO-200
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  f-8
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  Set lens to infinity

I used a cable release so I could watch and shoot at the same time

Click when you see the rocket start up and hold for one or two bursts

Not every shot will be a keeper but you'll get a few great ones.

I have also tried the following:

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  Auto focus - off
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  Image stabilizer - off
• 
  
  Use a tripod
• 
  
  Shutter speed - 3 seconds
• 
  
  f-11
• 
  
  ISO - 200
• 
  
  Lens set to infinity

Do some quick test shots and make adjustments if necessary. Let me see some of you images.