LATEST ADDITIONS

When I began this blog the last thing I had in mind was commenting on other blogs, but in ZDnet.com’s Mary-Jo Foley blog, her plea to Microsoft programmers to NOT make the next Windows too Mac-like, had me laughing and fuming at the same time. (http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1747&tag=nl.e539) Especially today after reading in the New York Times David Pogue page with a section on Maintaining The Mac, (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/technology/personaltech/04askk-002.htm...) which amounted to almost nothing unless one is paranoid by disposition. I switched from Windows to Apple Mac almost a decade ago and have had virtually no maintenance that needed to be done in that period of intense computer work, compared to it being an almost constant chore before with Windows. But what really got me was what Mary-Jo put in her wish list “fewer UAC prompts, simpler backup and restore, better peripheral handling” which are all current included features of the Apple OS!

A short time ago I was shooting with a Tamron 18-270mm zoom lens on a Canon EOS 40D and discovered something very surprising. When I reviewed the images of some leaves that were backlit against a bright sky I didn’t see any DPF. You know what DPF is, of course: Dreaded Purple Fringe. It usually inhabits the contrasty edges that separate highlight and shadow areas in some digital images. I’d upload an example, but I know you have plenty of your own.

The first rental website for Scenic Backgrounds by Westcott will be available online October 31, 2008. With over 100 backgrounds to choose from, these backgrounds will appeal to everyone including the high end professional, photo enthusiast and even the parent or scrapbook mom. The rental program will allow photographers creativitywithout the expense of investing in a lifetime commitment to a background. Rentals will list at $49.99 for a 5’X6’ and $69.99 for the 6’X8’ line. Customers can save $20.00 with a coupon from their local participating dealer and the postage-paid packaging is provided to return it.

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Google “photographer” and you get, as of this writing, about 140 million (!) possible URLs; do the same for “photographer web pages” and you get over 25 million! The motivation for creating a web page with your photographs is legion: it can be used to display your work to a worldwide audience; showcase work to potential clients; license images for sale in publications and...