The Big Mean Folder Machine

It seems that I spend half my life trying to manage the myriad of files and folders I create as I work through versions and edits of websites, images, content. It is something I have learned to do always, everytime, even if I am facing a deadline. Neglecting to organize fiies means that even an hour later I may not be able to figure which was the version we liked the best or be able to reinstall the latst version of a website after a catastrophe.

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Complete Guide To The Nikon D300 By Thom Hogan

On User Manuals, Digital Books, Travel, The Importance of eBooks and The Foresight of Thom Hogan

I like physical books.  By that I mean I like a book I can hold in my hand, feel the texture, and maybe even revel in the smell of the paper and the ink.  I like to consume well-done images that inspire or instruct.  I like books that open themselves flat and allow me to look at them without having to hold down both sides of the tight binding of a signature in the book without being afraid that the book would snap closed if I turned lose with one or both hands.

But then I have to say that there is a “but” that goes with all of that.  The bigger a book gets the less likely I am to have it along when I want it.  Big books in heavy bindings don’t fit easily into the weight requirements of modern-day air travel.  They’re, well, “big” and “big” and “ease of travel” are oxymorons.  They just don’t work interchangeably. Read more

Aikido Al’s Comic Con Slideshow

San Diego Comic-Con 2008: Mostly highlights of the vast Exhibitor’s Hall, with some additional shots of around the convention area. Read more

San Diego Comic-Con 2008

Part 1: Yikes! (an overview)

"Geek is good" said Marc Bernardin, Entertainment Weekly and EW.com Senior Editor on Friday’s Entertainment Weekly’s Filmmakers panel. 

That’s the second impression you get after the initial shock of the sheer size of the convention.  It is about 200,000 of your closest friends.  This year was the first Comic-Con that sold out entirely through pre-registration.

  The central core of Comic-Con is "comics."  In reality it’s a multimedia cross-section of pop-culture.  Picture if you will the football field-sized Exhibitor’s Hall.  Major movie studios such as Sony, Paramount, and Warner Brothers rub shoulders comfortably alongside the big two of the comics industry: DC and Marvel.  Video game companies such as NCSoft, Square Enix, and Sony Computer Entertainment also showcase their latest work, as well as television networks such as Fox, BBC America, and the Independant Film Channel giving previews of their latest shows.  Add to that a myriad of independant artists and comics companies, comics vendors, art suppliers, tabletop gaming companies, toy companies, and organized fan groups. Read more

Highlights of GigOfHam.com’s Comic Con 2008 Gallery

Photos by Carl Perry/ GigofHam.com Read more

Musings on Washing Machines and CompactFlash cards

If you have read any of my previous articles, you will already know that as a writer I tend to ramble, and that I am a photographer and computer geek. I like cameras more than computers, but use both every day.

One personality trait I have not shared in the past is my hang-up about things working… I like objects to work the way I want, when I want, every time. Yes, I will spend more money on an object if I believe that it will perform the way I want over a lower priced version of the same object. I spent more money on a clothes washer about two years ago than I really wanted to… I got a nicer front loader that had some features I wanted, and uses far less water than top loaders. Read more

Photographing Bears- Summer 2008

We are in Katmai National Park, a road-less area.  Hallo Bay is one of a number of bays on the Alaskan Peninsula, a special protected place for bears, a place to live in harmony with bears. These bears are coastal brown bears, grizzly bears, Ursus arctos.  They occur in very high densities in Katmai NP due to good habitat, plentiful salmon, and lack of competing human activities.  Read more

Whatever Happened To The “Decisive Moment”?

Photography has been evolving constantly from its birth in 1839. There have been many different kinds of photographs and processes through the years, including the daguerreotype, calotype, ambrotype, tintype, prints from sheet film, prints from roll film, and now images from digital capture. Each process had its advantages and disadvantages but most of us would agree that generally advances in technology have made life easier and better. But in this “Instantaneous, quantity over quality,  throw-away world,” have we also lost the ability to think? Read more

Seven Key Techniques For Taking Your Images From Flat To Fantastic

I included the sub-title with the title because I think it makes the subject clearer. I think that describes why Scott Kelby’s book is not just another Photoshop book even if you don’t know who Scott Kelby actually is. If you don’t know, then I suggest you crank up GOOGLE and pick a couple of dozen of the 999,000 entries it says it pinged up for your perusal when you punch in his name. I’ll give you the summation—he knows Photoshop. He knows it very well! Read more

The Nikon D3

I was always an F kind of guy. My first Nikon pro camera was the original F - a 1971 black body FTN. It supplemented my FM2 and I had it until just a couple of years ago when I sold it to a close friend, who bought it with the understanding that I might occasionally need to fondle it… call it conjugal visits.

A few years later I found a really nice F2 that I still have… I skipped the F3 and F4 entirely Read more

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