Picture 8767

Yes, I'm still working away at this. I hope to make it to 10,000 tonight -- which will not be half way through the CD1000 sets, but I'm not sure how far short of the number. The earlier disks had far more pictures (at a lower quality) than the later ones. But sometimes I dropped the quality for special reasons -- fireworks, where it really wouldn't matter much, and stuff like that. I do know that with maybe one exception every disk should have at least 100 pictures on it, and usually closer to 200.

I'm on disk 40 out of something over 100. It's slow going in some ways, but....

But it is giving me time to think. And to do little odd writing things while sets of pictures copy to the hard drive -- and longer stretches as I copy huge groups off to the DVD burner.

When I'm done with the originals I'm boxing them up and storing them at the other house. Eventually I'll do a second run of labeling on them, too. Right now, for instance, I have all the cats just under a 'cats' listing. Later I'll merge the sets of 'cats' and sort again by cat name. Same with things like birds and such.

Eventually I might actually be able to find something.

You know, I've always been amused by our video collection, which has over 12,000 entries. This is just the CD1000 pictures. I might have nearly as many on the old FD91 and FD7 disks. And then there's the print and slide stuff.

It's going to be.... interesting.

Oh, and the new camera is lovely. I can't afford a Memory Stick for it yet, but once I do, the two of us are going to be really going places! (grin) 

Pip Picture

I have finally succumbed to Picasa. Wow. Nice program and it even has some lovely little editing tools. This picture of Pip turned out very well considering the original was not particulary great.

You can expect to see more pictures dropped in now and then. I'm sorting and saving (and taking a few new ones, of course -- grin). One of my goals for this year is to make some sort of sense out of at least some of the picture collection. It's gotten way too far out of hand, and if I ever want to find anything again, it's time to stop messing around. I plan to do some print scanning as well. I might as well get serious about tagging them all from the start. The colors on this new camera are incredible. Look at the red in that shot! My poor CD1000 had started having red-shift problems, but I could mostly correc them in post production work.

I really like this stuff.

Yes, I did work on Kat Among the Pigeons today, too. It's still up back there behind a few other windows, I think. You know, I think I'm going to find a nice couple short stories to edit and send off, and not push myself on Kat. I'm too excited about other stuff, and I found myself racing through the book today and yesterday. When I went back for the final edit on yesterday's stuff there were far more mistakes than there had been on previous stuff.

Well, we'll see. Maybe in a couple days I'll calm down enough about the photography to get back to work... but somehow I doubt it.

Time to go play some more....

 

Yes!

The Old




And The New




Yes, we already did it. Russ came home early tonight and said we should do it then, while we had the money to buy the camera. We can get the extra stuff for it (like a memory stick and such) later. It has just enough built in memory to do about nine or ten pics at the full resolution, and that's enough to play around with here at home.

As you can tell, there's a huge difference in size. That's a 4 by 6 print picture behind the two cameras. Despite it being so much smaller, the new camera has as good a zoom (or maybe a little better) and is far more powerful than the CD1000. I'm going to look forward to taking it out and seriously playing with it.

I really can't wait for the first trip to the zoo!

I'm not unhappy about not getting the Konica Minolta that I had been looking at. This one is 1/3rd the price and really has a lot of the same features. I won't be carrying around heavy lens, either. I was looking at buying a wheeled suitcase for goign to the zoo. (grin)

I'm going to start up a new photo collection -- more than just zoo shots -- again. So far I've only done this:

http://zettesworld.com/newpics1.htm

This is going to be quite a distraction for a while!


Oh yes, I do like it a lot. There's quite a bit to learn with it, but so far I'm doing fine!

Changing my camera plans

There is no way that we can afford for me to buy a big fancy digital SLR this year. It's just not going to happen -- and my poor camera, despite moments of recovery, is still giving me troubles.

Tonight we hit on a new plan. We'll invest in a digital camera more akin to what I have (that is one that doesn't change lenses) and I'll use it for the next couple years while we get finances back in order. I've even already chosen the camera -- one that I looked at briefly right before I found out that Konica-Minolta had come out with a body only I could use with my old film equipment.

The new choice is a Sony 5.1 megapixel camera with a pretty good zoom lens -- not quite as good as the current camera, but really pretty nice. It has -- among many nice features -- a full manual setting, which I have really missed since going to digital, and some good mode choices. I held one today at a store, and it feels pretty good -- though small compared to my lovely Sony CD1000. It is about a third of the price of the other camera I have been looking at. I've been looking at reviews and sample pictures in several spots, and I have to admit that I'm really impressed.

And I can get it here in town. No one has the Konica-Minolta I want, which means I haven't even been able to hold one to see if I like the feel of it.

Part of this renewed interest in a camera has been prompted by something odd that has been happening. I've had several requests for the right to print pictures from my zoo collection in various publications. Another came today, and of a picture that I don't even think is one of my best -- but it is the only one I have of this particular animal. I realize that I might have a talent for this kind of photography, but using the poor old 2.1 megapixel CD1000 with the dying drive is just not going to work for much longer.

I might even be able to get this camera soon. Russ is expecting a good sized check in the mail in the next couple days. The guy even called Russ to say he sent it off, which means it isn't another case of us just thinking there's a check coming.

I'm kind of excited about this. Sure, it would be nice to get the other camera. But... I like this one. And it will allow me to stop holding my breath every time the current camera doesn't want to turn on properly and it takes me four or five tries before it catches.

The Omaha zoo is holding a photography contest, too. The pictures have to be taken between now and early next month. Wouldn't it be fun to go down and christen a new camera at the zoo?

I'm having a very hard time concentrating on anything else tonight. Good thing I already got some writing done!

Odd Moments of Vindication

In the last couple days I have found myself amused by some things. Most of them have to do with the Barnes and Noble classes I am taking -- the science fiction one and the mystery one. I think I'm going to enjoy both.

But what has amused me is reading things that I've been telling people to do (writing-wise) for a long time. They are things that I've learned down through the years, and try to pass on to others. Sometimes I've gotten flak over a couple of them... but now I see many of them in You can Write a Mystery by Gillian Roberts -- particularly in the Fifteen Commandments section -- and a couple points in the first pieces of material presented in the science fiction class.

It amused me. I am, obviously, very easily amused.

I've been working all day at trying to get caught up with various bits of work so that I can sit down with the class stuff. Unfortunately, now that I'm about caught up, I'm also tired. I may have to rethink this plan.

We are ten days into the year. I would like to say that I'm not behind... but I'd be lying about it. Still, I think things are going pretty well. I just have to get a little better organized.

And come up with ideas for the two classes....