What was I THINKING....

Like a dummy, I went and spent approx 8 hours at a POW WOW...before going I did not have any where near full range of motion in my neck...and it hurt like H***.... ... ... ...well it really hurt, to just try and turn it or look up and down...so what do I do...i toss my camera harness to the side and attach my neck strap...yep that is right my neck strap with my D300+70-200f2.8 lens and off I go... ... 8hrs later I am driving home with really intense pain in my neck shoulders and top half of my back...all my muscles are tight, I mean really tight and each key stroke I make hurt real bad....but I am now off loading a few hundred images of various circle dances and people sitting around enjoying the drumming and chanting of the inter-tribal musicians...and I made a few contacts.... now the contacts are what make this venture worth while...
Good Night all have a great Sunday and Week ...

In Need of a Really Good P.I.M. (Personal Infomation Manager)

Looking for a bit help from my collection of really diverse friends ...
I used to run my life off the standard DayPlanner / Day runner and I would loose 2 or 3 a year...quite costly....then I met Palm and wow, my Palm TX with the add on keyboard was fantastic...it up dated the calendar on my destop or laptop so I always had back up calendars ... but alas my great little Palm will not work with Win 7 ... I have tried all sorts of hacks and stuff and it still does not work properly ...sooo where I need your help ...

Can any of you recommend a really great PIM (Personal Information Manager) that can be run say on a tablet and then update my desktop / laptop calendars ... I have found some that are portable (actually run off a usb thumb drive...not viable ...i loose those easier than the paper day planners ... 

PLEASE PUT YOU SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW

THANX IN ADVANCE ...

and if you're wondering...yes my Palm TX is still running great and it will be going to ebay with all accessories shortly to help fund a Windows 7-9" tablet to use as a Photo Portfolio and PIM only.

Blessings to all

CRAZY MIND BLOWING FEBRUARY SPECIAL MINI SESSIONS FOR $25

February Special...
This is your coupon: Feb Special cut and paste to your word processor (MS Word, etc etc) to print and bring along...only accepting Cash for this special.  unfortunately i really do need a printed copy of this coupon for the accountant....they get real mad otherwise and so does the IRS ... ...

Mini sessions $25 (upto 45minutes session price includes tax): includes either 2- 8x10's or 1- 8x10 and 2- 5x7 or 1-16x20 ... your choice.

 

Will shoot in your home, office or outdoor location of your choice in the Wichita Ks area...

Call 316-250-8761  to make appointment.

PayPal Really Read the Terms of Service before asking to be PAID by the GIFT OPTION

this is what Happened on a Photo forum I belong to...
Person is selling a lens for $xxx to be paid by PAYPAL GIFT.  This is a huge infraction of the PayPal TOS and can cause the seller and the buyer to PERMANENTLY lose their PayPal Privileges ....

Below is my post on the forum in to the seller the comment is with his post quoted on the forum but not here.....so my reply to the sellers for sale post is as follows ...



This is just for educational purposes as I would really hate to see anyone permanently lose the ability to use PayPal ... ... ... then again is quite a mystery to me why DGRIN allows anyone to even post an offer this way ... it should be in the flea market TOS that such things will cause your post to be deleted without warning ...

If shipping is included why not the 3% paypal fee???

You do realize that the single bolded line above is going against 2 items of the PayPal terms of service...

1st offense is the asking to be paid as a gift...the gifting is solely for that purpose..sending a gift to someone, also asking to be PAID for Merchandise using the gift option can in fact cause YOU, the seller, and the buyer to loose your PayPal privileges PERMANENTLY and the other reason it is wrong is that if the lens is damaged the buyer has absolutely no recourse.

2nd Offense is the asking for 3% more to use PayPal PROPERLY...It is NOT ok to ask to have added fees for this...IT IS HOWEVER PERFECTLY alright to just add the cost in...So if you would raise your price to $927 OR $930 that would be perfectly acceptable with the PayPal TOS... 

Thoughts on Flip or Twist Lock Tripods

On almost every forum I belong to I praise the almighty tripod...the true image stabilizer.
Tripods were stabilizing cameras and lenses long before the 1st stabilizer was a gleam in the inventors eye....but that is not the reason for to nites post... this post is about flip locks or twist locks..both work and work extremely well.

So why should you choose one locking mechanism over the other?  That is truly a personal choice.  I started out with the quick lock, flip lock, and after years of blood blisters in the web between the thumb and 1st finger I went to the twist lock and never looked back...also i found my wildlife kill average went way up....those flip locks are noisy and I worked to get mine to close quietly...but deer and other wildlife have fantastic hearing.  So now I can be setting up my tripod and have wildlife looking at me and not get spooked by that ever not so subtle snap of the flip lock...yes it takes a few extra micro seconds to adjust and lock down the legs to hold that 50-500mm lens + body but my ratio of shots gotten now as opposed to before is way up...so for me it is very much worth saving myself from the pain I was inflicting on myself.

Aperture Ring, Depth of Field Scale and New Lenses

I have been wonder why aperture rings have been removed from the newer lenses...I mean really people....I used Hyper Focal Distance a lot when shooting outdoors, for wildlife and especially land/cityscapes....which you cannot do without an Aperture Ring and Depth of Field Scale....I know a lot of you have no idea what Hyper Focal Distance is or even the Depth of field Scale is...so i will do a post on that later...but every photographer worth any amount of salt needs the aperture ring and depth of field scale... I know it seems like being able to change the aperture wit hthe turn of a wheel is great... ... ... and it is..but being able to turn an aperure ring to get to hyper focal distance is even greater... 

Photography is about control, control of the light and focus and all the other elements it take to create your perfect image and with out an aperture ring you do not have that control.

ANOTHER FREE E BOOK BY SCOTT BOURNE.

http://tinyurl.com/78eewmn  This is a link to a FREE eBook by Scott Bourne...hope you find it helpful.