We have now scanned and uploaded the first reel of my Dad's Bolivia Photos to the store. I am still working on streamlining the process. Now that we almost finished moving in to our new place and with the holiday season coming, I should find the time.

One day I went through my Dad's attic and ran across his collection of several thousand slides from years of business travel. I still remember vividly how he used to give presentations in my school, captivating my classmates with his stories. Back in his days, business travel used to be a real adventure. Our country was poor and travel restricted. Sometimes reaching a destination for him consisted of a week of hair-raising journeys, making for first-rate stories. Now his slides were collecting dust and fading away in the depth of time, eaten by acids and humidity.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we can now preserve his photos. Last year I purchased a Nikon Coolscan Slide Scanner , hoping he would be able to digitize his work. It turns out that the computer needed an upgrade as well. When I visited my parents this year, we worked on the scanning process a bit, but I will still have to put together a computer system.

Being separated by almost 10,000 miles does not make things easier for us, but we finally managed to scan some test cases. Eventually my Dad will have the tedious task of scanning a load of slides, while I just need to run some Photoshop actions on them, or so I thought. It turns out, that most pictures will need some individual attention as well, to fix some blemishes caused by the ravages of time.

I am looking forward to digitizing his photos and going on a journey through time, comparing the old and the new. I will visit some of the places and compare photographs. This should be a fun project.

You can find some of his Bolivia Slides in my Store. (Smugmug offers me unlimited storage)

Recently I have been taking a (well deserved?) hiatus from blogging. Meanwhile I have been working on some images, but I haven't really put much up on the site (yet?).

While I started writing on my next tutorial, I thought it would be good to bridge the gap with a short tip. Usually I can crank out a tutorial in a day, but as I said, I am still being somewhat lazy. Since I got a very long flight coming up anyways, I will probably find some time to write another one when I am on the plane. I have a head full of ideas for new material, I just need to find the time.

I love nightshots, partly because they are easy and partly because they are very effective. While the picture above isn't really outstanding, it's a fun picture to shoot. During that Night (in San Diego Downtown) traffic was really slow, but if you expose long enough you can get some very effective lights. I set up my camera at an angle (why not?) and waited for a car to take a left turn. I then shot a 30s exposure, capturing the entire turn creating a nice circular track of the blinkers. All you need is a tripod to impress your friends.

As I said, those pictures are relatively easy to take. All you need is a tripod and some traffic (or other moving lights, flashlight anyone? ;-) )

I have also been experimenting a little with my new Canon S3, partly because I wasn't in the mood for anything more serious. I guess I really need a vacation (due next week).

I finally figured out how to embed a Google map in my pages without having to go through too much of a pain. Google Maps are not really userfriendly.
I still have to write some code to automate the process of generating these Photo Maps from my Track Logs and Photos fully automatic.

Anyways, on this map you can click each of the little markers and an image should pop up. Later when I have the entire Gallery online those will link into the actual Galleries. I had planned to do this today but wasted most of it playing with Google Maps.

On this map I have plotted our trip through California on the Memorial Day Weekend (3 day Weekend). It was a 1000 mile journey through the Eastern Sierras (mostly on Highway 395).I have made some nice photos that I will put on the site soon. Enjoy the Map, I have worked hard for it.
I keep my GPS running all the time when I go on a photo shoot and I carry it with me wherever I go. When I get home, I can automatically assign GPS coordinates to my photos based on the Timestamps of the Photo and of the GPS Track Logs.

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Ellery Lake

There was still snow in Yosemite. + 37.9424111111111,-119.028541666667:

Mono Lake

Mono Lake at Night + 37.6622222222222,-118.826961111111:

Hot Creek

Colorful Jewels such as this can be found along CA-395. + 37.59485,-118.852166666667:

Convict Lake

A paradise for Fishers + 37.575675,-118.751172222222:

Cowley Lake

+ 37.5029888888889,-118.607261111111:

Mountains

+ 37.2117611111111,-118.613111111111:

Lake Sabrina

This lake lies over 8000 feet high. + 36.8050722222222,-118.201394444444:

Old Car

found in Big Pine + 36.5940666666667,-118.113386111111:

Mule

+ 36.602675,-118.118444444444:

Alabama Hills

+ 36.3106944444444,-118.025277777778:

Old Diner on Highway 395

+ 36.2863222222222,-118.009922222222:

Old Market

Decaying buildings can be found all along Hwy 395 + 35.6167666666667,-117.373086111111:

Trona Pinnacles

Bizzare Shapes outside of Trona. + 35.5244722222222,-117.599216666667:

My Toys

+ 35.3682638888889,-117.656141666667:

Randsburgh

A living Ghost Town + 35.2513166666667,-118.670194444444:

Rolling Hills

Typical for California + 35.6159138888889,-119.719975:

Oil Pumps

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This article received too much attention from the search engines.
On this page I outlined a dispute I had with Canon USA about a service charge.

If you found this page looking for a way to suck your Camera to a slippery surface, consider the Bogen - Manfrotto Suction Cups. They will make your tripod stick to slippery surfaces. If you were looking for a place to rant about the number one Camera Manufacturer, please find some other venue to vent steam. Canon is a great company and does not suck. I guess sometimes one has to admit defeat and just suck it up.

I am also going to turn comments off for this node.

Somehow I have been bullied into giving away a prize for Bets on the Handball World Championship. Since I already commited to this, you might as well give it a shot. You can win an Amazon Gift Certificate or a Print of one of my Images to hang on your wall (you choose).

All you need to do is create a login and post a bet (just follow the link). If you win, you will get an email telling you how to claim your prize.

No more bets allowed at this point

Well, I haven't had time to do it yet, apologies.

I would like to wish all my readers a Happy 2007. May all your wishes come true and may you achieve all your personal goals. Since I am a bit late, let me take this opportunity to remind all of you to stick to your new years resolutions (fortunately I forgot, so I don't have any).

This time, I did not spend all of Christmas and New Years travelling, but we did get to go to Santa Barbara and La Jolla. During the evenings I was programming some and Dani was studying. I got to squeze off a couple of decent photos (I sense some new Wallpaper Galleries coming):

Here is my personal scoop on 2006:

Even though 2006 was a great year for me personally (this site is growing traffic every day at a rapid pace), I don't feel so confident about the world as a whole. However there were a bunch of highlights too:

Rumsfeld left: probably one of the best things that happened last year ;-)
World Soccer Championship in Germany: defenitely one of the best things that happened
High Gas Prices: Actually a good thing, since the Oil crisis finally got noticed by the broad masses. Its about time to change our habbits now and work on alternatives. I think we are going to see a lot more of this in the future.
Bye Bye Berlusconi: I never liked that guy

Somehow I get the feeling the lowlights outweigh the highlights, but I am keeping them shorter (keeping a positive attitude):

War in Lebanon, Coup in Thailand, Genocide in Darfur, Record Deaths in Iraq, School Massacres: Record Killings this Year
Danish Cartoon Crisis: I guess we need to learn much more about each other if we want to get along better
North Korea allegedly tests Nuke: Some say it was fake?

Some of the Winners of 2006:

Democrats tip the Balance in Congress: Did someone wake up from hibernation?
Socialist Governments in South America: Bolivia and Venezuela
Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen): What can I say, I didn't watch it but he surely made waves
Youtube Founders: for taking an idea that is poised to be a money pit, violating copyrights and getting their users to upload tons of content to sell their network to Google for Billions. Nicely done!
Bruno the Bear: Not a person and in the end he was shot, but he mocked Police and special forces for a long time. Kudos to Bruno!
Warren Buffet and Bill Gates: Wow. Two guys that donate about $60 Billion together for good causes

And some Loosers:

Kramer and Cruise for making complete a55e5 off themselves.
Berlusconi and Aznar: Prime Ministers of Italy and Spain

My Plans for the next couple of months:

Not to bore you with personal views ;-). No really, I am having some nice things lined up (in my head that is) to keep this site interesting for you. I will start reviewing more of the gadgets that make the life of the photographer and tech geek more fun.

I also have some nice photoshop tutorials planned that I am going to start writing really soon. The next two will be about how to retouche blooming artefacts and a tutorial on HDR images. Naturally I am always willing to listen to suggestions, so if you really want to know something ask for it.

I've got a lot of photos that need to be uploaded and put into galleries. I also want to create more free wallpapers (people seem to love them). I will probably move ahead with technology and offer some 1600x1080 and some more high resolution widescreen formats. People seem to have a hard time finding them online and have asked for it.

 

During the last couple of days I have been working on creating a store where you can buy pictures. I have been getting a lot of emails asking for this, so here is it:

My Store

It's still in its early stages (the left menu is not yet integrated and the header still looks different). Eventually it will be fully functional but for now there is still a lot of work. So far I have uploaded over 7 GB of pictures (over 1000 pictures) for purchase. Initially I may upload as many as 3000 pictures there (not sure yet). Anyways, if you are interested in purchasing a picture to hang on your wall, check it out.

This week I will also continue my series on the digital workflow that I have put on hold to create the webstore and I will give a rundown on the Canon lineup, since I have so many people asking me for advice (maybe because of Chrismas? ;-) )