Library

Library
Originally uploaded by Rick Blythe.

An easy way to get wild colors is to photograph at night.

Our eyes are much less sensitive to color at night. Digital cameras and film retain the same sensitivity. Therefore photos made at night have much vivider colors than what we see under the same conditions. This makes it easy to get wild colors.

Photograph before the sky turns completely dark, typically a half hour after sunset, to get a sky instead of a black hole. Skies at night turn funny colors from whatever street lights are miles away. Make your shots while there is still light in the sky for better results.

Photograph any neon or artificial lighting. Artificial lighting, either as an object in your photo or as a source of illumination, adds wild colors. Every kind of light, mercury, sodium, fluorescent, tungsten, renders as a different weird color in photographs. I use this to my advantage.

Kodak EasyShare Z915

There are plenty of sub-$200 compact cameras around, but few offer as much as the Kodak EasyShare Z915. The pocket mega zoom camera has a strong feature set including fully manual and fully automatic shooting options. It's uncomplicated to use and has faster performance than much of the competition.Considering its 10x optical zoom, the Z915 is still compact enough to fit in a large pants pocket

Sony Alpha DSLR-A550

Compared to the Sony Alpha DSLR-A500, the A550 has a higher resolution sensor, a higher resolution LCD, a faster maximum frame rate, greater buffer depth, a shorter battery life, and weighs just 0.07 ounces (two grams) more. The Sony is actually comfortably more expensive with the Nikon D90 being a close rival. As such in our full review we’ll compare the features and handling of all these bodies, while taking a detailed look at the image quality compared to the D90. Read-on to discover how Sony’s latest Alpha measures-up. CameraLabs.com have a review up of the A500.

“Sony’s Alpha DSLR-A550 may not have video recording, but becomes one of the fastest DSLRs in its class, not to mention one which delivers the most-rounded and usable Live View experience to date. The ability to capture fast action while framing with the screen sounds like a simple request, but it’s one which eludes the majority of DSLRs. Not so with the A550, and its cheaper sibling the A500, which manage it with ease.

Depending on your requirements, this may be all you need to know. DSLRs which shoot at 5fps or quicker are necessary for serious action photography, but normally carry semi-pro price tags. The A550 and especially the A500 bring this capability to a more affordable price-point, making them a top choice for anyone who wants to shoot action on a tighter budget. The ability to switch into Live View in an instant and still enjoy fast continuous shooting, along with continuous autofocus too, is the icing on the cake.”

Shore Ice

Shore Ice
Originally uploaded by Rick Blythe.

Here is a photo I got today down on the shoreline of Lake Ontario. I like it because it contains three elements of nature: ice, wood, and stone.

The original photo was not so close in, but when I viewed the photo in full size I noticed how much better it was than the larger one of the whole log. So I began playing with different crops of the photo and basically decided on this scene as it had the most interest.

Chill
Originally uploaded by Rick Blythe.

Be sure to get out in the cold weather and head to the nearest shoreline. There's always something to photograph!

Another one from the same shoot:

Photographing Parties

Holiday gatherings are great opportunities to take pictures your friends and family will enjoy for years to come, so it’s wise to get the camera out early—while everyone’s fresh—and follow these tips to help make the most of your pictures from this special time of year.

Get the Group

It can be difficult to get everyone in one place. While you have the whole gang together, take a group or family portrait! It will probably be a treasured keepsake.

Be Candid

Resist the urge to make every shot a posed photo - jump into the "life of the party" for candid shots that capture the spirit of the people and the occasion. Move around to get different perspectives on any games, hugging, dancing, cooking and eating. If you’re shooting digital, take lots of pictures and then edit later. Don’t forget to use your camera's video mode to capture the fun as well.
 

Zoom In

Closer to your subject is almost always better. Use your zoom to fill the frame and get more dynamic compositions. Sometimes once a guest sees the camera, they freeze up, so standing back and using the zoom mode can also result in more authentic and unexpected candids.
 

Set the Mode

Unless you’re going for a specific effect, use the camera’s easiest shooting mode for your situation. If your camera has a “Party” mode setting, use that. If not, use the “Automatic” mode and let the camera figure out the right shutter speed, flash and other settings. You’ll miss fewer shots, and have more time to focus on enjoying the party.

Windows 7 Enterprise Edition Review

I have installed Windows 7 enterprise edition day before yesterday. However i have tested it around three months back with beta version of Windows 7 ultimate. At that time my system was having just 1 gb of RAM. I felt bit slow and i faced bit of hanging problems. Hence i have removed it from my system. This time i have upgraded my RAM(Which is the only thing i can upgrade in my old system) and tried and i very much satisfied with the performance.
  This month CHIP magazine is shipped with Windows 7 Enterprise edition 90 days trail version. As i always interested on testing new OS i have burnt the image on to DVD and installed into my system. The beta has taken more than  90 mins to complete the installation in my system. But this version got installed completely without any set backs in just 60 mins. When it comes the speed considering my system configuration 1.7 Ghz Pentium and 1.5 GB of RAM, i can say awesome.
  It has beautiful themes inbuilt. All are having wonderful photos. My system is rated with 1 in Windows experience rating but the looks are really great.

  The booting time is very less compared to Windows  Vista. It takes slightly more time than Windows XP to boot up.  I have tried opening some applications and installed programming languages which i was using in Windows XP. The time almost equal to XP. Moreover i never faced issues of system getting hanging or any problems as such.

I have faced only problem that is using Sleep function. It fails to return from Sleep state. I can understand that it is because of my system configurations.
  Finally i will recommend Windows 7 to all. That is because it has more features and less resource hungry. As per the reviews i read so far i got a feeling that it is safer than any other versions of Windows XP.

Price range:5800-11500(Lowest for Windows 7 home basic and maximum for Windows 7 Ultimate.)

Hope price will reduce shortly.

Windows Hacks

We all faced this. That is, even though we are using the systems for ourself and no one else is using the system but the every time you will get password prompts. This can be bypassed editing the registry entries.
 Windows can be configured such away it automatically log in a user on starting.  For doing this just follow the steps mentioned below.

• Login to the user account with administrator rights.
• Go to registry editor. For this, Click on Start-->Run  and type 'regedit' and OK.
• Navigate to the left side of the tool to the 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Currentversion\Winlogon' key.
•  Now we need to  change some values on the right side for activating the automatic log-in. For this, double click the entry and enter the new configuration in the 'Edit string' dialog box under 'Value'. Subsequently, confirm this action with 'OK'. If one of the values described in the following do not exist, create it. Use the command 'Edit->New->String' for this and name it 'AutoAdminLogon'.
• Double click the 'AutoAdminLogon' and change the value to '1' which basically turns on the automatic login. IF you wish to turn off this feature replace '1' with '0'
•  Enter the name you wish to log in to, under 'DefaultUserName'. If it is not there create that. Enter your password under 'Defaultpassword', If this is not available create it.

Note: Activating automatic login will face security risk if some else is using your computer. As your user name and password are visible in registry this is not recommended if you are using public systems.