NC Stock Images On Zenfolio

Bloggin Time!

During my extended vacation from blogging, I used a little of that time to re-size, watermark and uploaded larger images from the NC Stock Collection to my account on the Zenfolio site. I am still working on a few things ( key wording etc...) to get the images and the description info looking the way I want, but it's looking pretty good as of today. I really need to get descriptions back onto the images to identify the locations. For some reason, my file names were removed and replaced with a simple numeral? They were supposed to contain the file name, picture location and file number. Don't know whether or not I have missed an option during the upload process or if numerals as file names is all you are allowed to display. Let's hope not!

Also, worrying about image theft has never been a big concern, but having to put an obnoxious watermark on each of the photos was a painful, but necessary exercise. Without it, images get lost on an art director's hard drive, re - compressed or re-sized without the correct metadata and are never attributable to the photographer again. This loss of connection between the photographer and their copyrighted work can happen easily to any digitally distributed image without a visible watermark. Even so, I'm sure that I am not alone in saying that I still hate having to plaster my name and telephone number on the images........UUUGGGHHH!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey day!

Wishing everyone a happy holiday with family, friends and lots of yummy turkey! I will be enjoying the day without any camera geek talk or Microsoft bashing, but will return tomorrow with plenty more irritating banter, bad grammar and abysmal punctuation.

NOTICE: I am going to attempt to speed up the page load times with new Javascript code on the 'comments under post' hack that I installed last week. Wish me luck, I just bought a book on Javascript, so I don't really know jack about what I'm doing!

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Nikon D300 Sample Pics

Nikon teaser!

Nikon has posted a few more sample pics from the new D300 on their site in Japan. These are much more varied and interesting images than the first crap released to the press a few months ago. Judging from the sample photos, it looks as though they have designed a great camera, producing superb skin tones, rich colors and fine detail. Some of the first images released to the press were professional looking and technically good, but too moody and dark to give the viewer an impression of the look of the files produced under ordinary situations and certainly not a great example of the cameras capabilities. I say, lets have a few more pictures of pretty Japanese girls and less rocky coastline images! What can you really tell about a cameras abilities from a few snaps of the ocean and breaking waves? Why not throw a few bikini models in the ocean to make it a little more interesting? Just my opinion.

Also, they might want to run a little unsharp masking on the bottom two Harley Davidson images!

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New JPEG Format Coming...

Don't mess with my JPEG!

The Joint Photographic Experts Group, namesake of the universal photo compression format known as JPEG, will push to add a new standard of image compression called JPEG XR. The new standard is basically a re - named version of the "Windows Media Photo" format released by Microsoft in May of 2006. Slow to catch on, but supported by Microsoft's new Vista operating system, 'Windows Media Photo' ( WMP ) is now referred to as 'HD Photo' in Microsoft press releases.

Read more at Stephen Shankland's UNDEREXPOSED Blog on CNET News.com

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Update On Dr. P's EOS 40D

One more thing...

Last week I posted on Dr. P's in - store focus experiment with an off the shelf Canon Eos 40 D. His initial review of the images was a bit disconcerting, but might have been influenced by the lenses he used for testing, some of which had been re - calibrated by camera technicians for another of his Canon cameras. Hmmmm....

UPDATE:
Dr. Pimento finally decided to take the plunge! He put in his order for a Canon Eos 40 D and BG-E2N Battery Grip. Thankfully, he made his purchase from one of our trusted affiliates ( shameless plug! ) and if there should be any issues with the camera, he will have no problem receiving a replacement or refund.
( ...end shameless plug ! )

After testing the 40 D, it seems that focus accuracy isn't an issue with most of his professional Canon glass. Only one lens, an older zoom, has any problems with accurate focus. He seems to have found a work - around by using the Servo Focus mode. Either way, the images from the camera are fabulous and the low noise at High ISO shooting is just what the Dr. ordered!

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New Chip To Speed Video Compression...

Need more speed!

Intel will announce a new family of Microprocessor Chips to improve the compression and transmission speed of high - definition video across the Internet. Code named Penryn, the chips will be available in upcoming processors for desktops as early as the first quarter of 2008. You can expect to see the technology marketed as the Intel Core 2 Duo and Core Duo Extreme chips sometime next year. This could be a great leap forward for both video geeks and photographers who often use the same computing technology on a daily basis. Imagine high definition video blogging!

Follow this link for a more in depth article by John Markoff at the New York Times.

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