Moose News Blog

Yeap…we have dates for our VT 2008 DLWS event! Why? Well, the dates we want are during the HOT time for fall color, they go early & fast. Does that mean we’ll have fall color? Who in the hell knows to be honest with you. The 1st time we were in VT, it was supposed to be the hot time but once there, we were told we were two weeks “early.” We changed our dates for our 2nd DLWS event to VT and than we were two weeks “late.” So this time, we’ve split those dates and we’ll just see what Mother Nature has to offer us. Fall color or not, VT is a photographically rich area offering us plenty to photograph. This event always fills long before the dates, so if you’re interested, give us a call.

What about other dates for 2008? The DLWS staff are also staff at other big events and once we have all the dates with no conflicts, we’ll get them posted. No fear, we’ll have 6 DLWS events in 2008. We’ll be in Moab again and in Washington DC for the 1st time. Lots of fun coming, stay tuned!

Photo captured by D2X, 200VR on Lexar digital film (finished in digital darkroom)

77.61mps, that’s the speed I get running Lexar’s new UDMA cards & reader! That BLOWS away the old speed of the 133x cards & readers . But….there’s always a but ain’t there!

That speed only comes with a desktop computer running a Firewire 800/b board. You might be looking at the photo and asking yourself, “What’s up with those things and what’s connected to them?” There’s the rub in this race for speed. I’m sure like me, you’re doing the majority of your uploads via a notebook. Win notebooks and some Macs don’t have a 800 connector, some Macs don’t even have a PCMCIA slot. Getting the most out of these 300x cards and new reader (USB2 readers are a few months off) requires a little back engineering.

The fastest speed comes from the PCMCIA reader (I found the Unibrain performing the best) with a speed of 21.45mps compared to 11.64 for 133x or 8.17mps for 80x using the USB2 reader. The Belkin ExpressCard FireWire 800 (the only option for some Macs) crawled in comparison at 8.32mps with the 300x card/reader. If having to get slot cards & testing for the fastest speed wasn’t pain enough (for the speed, almost makes you want to take the desktop along), these cards NO matter what the manufacture state, must be powered externally. That’s right, another cable to find & buy & carry with you. You either find a 120v wall unit or use USB2 powered cables like those offered by Fortress . After all of this, is it worth it? Hell YES!!!!

I get back from a shoot and I have 3-4 8GB 300x cards to upload. A speed saving of 2x-3x means that average old time of 24minutes per card is down to 8mins per card (based on using multiple readers at once & DigitalPro’s 1-click upload feature). That’s time in my pocket and I’ll do anything for more time! Why am I telling you about this now, when you can’t buy it right this moment?

Often, knowing what’s coming down the road, knowing the future can put you ahead with some planning. Even if you don’t need new CF cards, buying and making use of the UDMA reader can speed up your upload time for your current cards. Buying a new computer, you might want to be sure it has or can take a FireWire 800/b card or that your notebook can accept a PCMCIA card. True, I am a bit of a gear hear, I love my toys. But this is a tool that puts time in a my pocket and I can’t dismiss it. I don’t think you can either!

It’s time…time to update to CS3 Extended. Why should you update? Well, come to a DLWS event and you’ll see first hand the new tools I find indispensable in finishing my vision. If you’re anything like me though, you’ve customized Photoshop with automation options like Menus, Styles and Actions (just to name a few). You might get real frustrated thinking you have to reinvent the wheel every time you update because you have to “recreate” all of this automation.

I learned long, long ago (thank goodness) from my good friend Peter Bauer to save all my Actions, Styles, Menus and the like to an external folder, a folder outside of the Adobe folder. By doing so (and you can do the same with plugins), all you have to do when you update to CS3 Extended (yeah, it has features you won’t find in Standard) is Load your Actions, Menus and Styles from that external folder. You don’t have to recreate a thing, they’re all good to go. If you don’t know how to do this, there are LOTS of tutorials on the web (like on the NAPP site) showing you how for Mac or Win. It will get you up and working a whole lot faster!

We got back home, which looks soooo good, to see sunset through the passing storm. This is a simple 2 image pano of the Sherwin Mtns from our home.

Photo captured by D200, 85f1.4AF on Lexar digital film

Driving home from Bryce, Sharon & I journeyed through Zion Nat’l Park. There is no doubt it’s a gorgeous, gorgeous place, but photographically, it’s just never grabbed me. Yeah, I’ve been there many times, spent up to a week hiking its many canyons, taking a camera along every time and yet, it’s never grabbed my imagination. So in exploring it again today, I wanted to push myself to find something that would excite my camera. And while I looked and looked, I still didn’t manage to make an image that speaks to the beauty that is Zion. Just means I have to go back again and try all over.

Photo captured by D200, 85f1.4 AF on Lexar digital film

PS…some have emailed me asking about what’s up with the 85f1.4. Looking for other f1.4 lenses to add to my EDL arsenal, Equipment Lady.com hooked me up with one. It’s one damn sharp lens!