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Written by Day Tooley
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Sunday, 21 June 2009 |
Camera envy.
Lens envy.
Pixel resolution envy.
Now and then one or all of these wash over me when I notice other photographers doing their thing. But then, I remember why I chose my $399 (now the msrp is $349) Canon S5 camera.
First of all, it has zillions of pixels (8 MP), more than I ever need. All the way up to 3264x2448. But one of the formats is 3264x1832 (widescreen 16:9 format) which matches HD television. Anybody making video these days needs to make HD format their standard. About 2500 pictures fit onto a 4GB SDHC memory card.
By the way, 3264x1832 works out to 6 MP, still 3-times more than necessary for 1080p HDTV which is 1920x1080 (2.1 MP). Nice megapixel calculator here.
Secondly, it has a "hot shoe" that accepts an external flash that can bounce light off of ceilings and walls to illuminate big areas and eliminate shadows.
Third, this little camera is a compact 450 grams (1 pound) but can take 640x480 30 fps video movies with stereo sound that rivals my video camera. About an hour of video fits on a 4GB SDHC memory card.
Oh, there's a fourth indispensable feature. The LCD can be twisted in any direction to allow shooting from awkward positions – such as waist height or with the camera held above the head. Just what a paparazzi photo journalist needs to see things from a more creative angle.
Nearly all of the video slideshow examples on this site since September, 2007, including the video, were shot with this camera. Take a look and see what you think.
For the more technically curious, read the review at Digital Photography Review. It lists tons of additional features, many of which I am still learning. It just gets better. |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 21 June 2009 )
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Written by Day Tooley
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Friday, 15 August 2008 |
I made a bumper sticker to put on my car supporting Obama. Imagine my surprise when other people seem to want one.
 Here is what it looks like.
Dimensions are 11" x 2¾". Cost is $6 each or 2 for $10. Shipping (via USPS) is included. If you think it is worth more, please send a contribution to the Obama campaign.
Order by requesting through my Contact us page.
Payment can be made from here.
Enjoy and share your experiences.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 27 November 2008 )
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Written by Day Tooley
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Friday, 09 May 2008 |
I love Discover Magazine. Every issue stimulates my thinking with insights that help define existence and place. Today I learned that virtual water is a close relative to carbon footprints.
Virtual water is a calculation of the water needed for the production of any product from start to finish. A cup of coffee takes 37 gallons of water to produce (plus the toilet flush).
Here are some examples:
It takes about 155 gallons of water to grow a pound of wheat.
An apple takes 19 gallons.
A pair of leather shoes requires a whopping 4,400 gallons of water to produce!
The world average for annual virtual water usage is 328,410 gallons per person.
An American doubles that at 656,012 gallons per person annually.
China: only 185,412 virtual gallons of water per person per year.
As we cope with the effects of global warming, the big issue for many nations will be water. The U.S. imports virtual water from China with every purchase of anything made or grown there. Like biofuels from corn take food from the hungry to feed our gas tanks, our consumption of stuff takes water from thirsty people worldwide.
Want to know more about this and determine your own virtual water footprint? Dip your virtual toe in WaterFootprint.org. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 09 May 2008 )
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 26 February 2008 |
I am often asked about how to best display photos and videos on a website. There is no best answer. I did my first website in 1995 using Hot Dog as an authoring tool. Now, 13 years later, things are much easier.
About 2/3rds of the web servers on the Internet are Unix/Linux based. Most of the rest are Windows based. There are good reasons for choosing something other than a Windows server, mainly speed and efficiency. TheTooleys.com is hosted on a Linux based server.
You no longer need to know how to code in HTML to have a contemporary web presence. Now is the age of Web 2.0 with interactive database driven content. All content is created using your web browser, e.g. Internet Explorer or Firefox.
You could simply use one of the popular free web services to host your graphic content. Here are some:
1. Flickr.com (part of Yahoo!)
2. Picasa Web Albums (part of Google)
3. PhotoBucket.com
I chose to use a commercial web hosting data center where my site could be customized just the way I wanted it, not a template copy. Cost is $156/year at WestHost.com for the Business Value account.
Here are my tools of choice:
Main application is Joomla. This is a program that runs on the web server. Check it out at Joomla.org. It's open source and free. If the program doesn't have a function you need, there are a ton of plug-ins (components and modules) that you can easily add.
For static photo images, I use another open source application. This one is a stand-alone program called Gallery2. It can be a totally separate website if you want (mine is at http://www.hannahjo.org/gallery2/). But since Joomla can embed any website into a page, you can see my Photo Gallery on the Joomla menu (both on the left side menu as well as the tab menu at the top of each page.
Finally, I wanted to be able to have visitors view video shows using Internet standard code. So each video slideshow is included as a Flash file common to all browsers. Most also have a link to a YouTube.com version.
There you have it. Nothing too mysterious. The only "special sauce" is in knowing how to take, manipulate and blend images and sound into a living show to delight your family and friends. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 10 March 2008 )
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