Software of Note (Free Stuff I use)

I've started a new list and called it Software of Note (Free Stuff I Use). As I come across stuff I think is cool & helpful and end up using it myself, I'll include it in the list.

That doesn't mean I'm an expert on any of the software, but I'm willing to chat about application and challenges or tips if you end up using an app yourself.

Everyone Knows About This ...

Likely, I'm the last person to discover this. But just in case .... here's a way to search through blogs

This Caught My Eye

Source

Micah & Elizabeth at Oma & Opa's for the Day

We were fortunate enough to spend the day with Micah and Elizabeth -- they are so much fun, and they are such good friends

Move Back!

I've given you fair warning!
My hand of cat razors is ready to slice!
My cat fangs are exposed
My cat eyes are showing no fear
My cat prowess is ready.

Micah & Elizabeth

Dream Home Series

Here's an interesting house. I'm not sure it fully qualifies to be in my "Dream Home Series", but it some some unique elements. Don't know what to make of it, but here it is.

Glad you asked. I found this place near where we were camping last July in Cumberland Bay State Park, near Plattsburgh, NY

Word Art

Before I forget, there's a Word Art site I added to my "Other Places of Note" list, that features the work of Elizabeth Nanninga -- I like her word art.

Old Abandoned, Falling Apart Building Series

I've always meant to start a photo series of old, abandoned, falling apart buildings. My brother alerted me to this site that does almost what I had in mind, just better. I'll put the link in my "Other Places of Note" list.

I'm Watching!

Feb 7, 2009. Before we move on, just a note to tell you that this is a Paint Shop version of a photo I took of our cat, Jehu. He had this 'look' and I wanted to explore that a bit, and bring out his icy stare. -- Ed

John & Grace's Farm

In the Mean time

Soon

Hugin the Stitcher

In my post about Gigapan I mentioned the Gigapan Stitcher. It's good only in conjunction with Gigapan.

But that reminded me of something very useful, Hugin, which is now stable. It has served Jason and myself very well for some time already.

Carts of Darkness

This 59 minute movie is strong stuff (including the street language). It's not entertainment- it's real, raw, and puts most of what we do in a different perspective. It also made me think of my post on van dwelling

"Murray Siple's feature-length documentary follows a group of homeless men who have combined bottle picking with the extreme sport of racing shopping carts down the steep hills of North Vancouver. This subculture depicts street life as much more than the stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media. The film takes a deep look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk. Shot in high-definition and featuring tracks from Black Mountain, Ladyhawk, Vetiver, Bison, and Alan Boyd of Little Sparta."

Gigapan: President Obama's Inaugural Speech

My brother alerted me to this super photo of President's Obama's inaugural address

You can zoom in on any one of the faces and scenes -- it really is spectacular!

What interesting is how it was made .

He writes, in part,

"I made a panoramic image showing the nearly two million people who watched President Obama's inaugural address. To do so, I clamped a Gigapan Imager to the railing on the north media platform about six feet from my photo position. The Gigapan is a robotic camera mount that allows me to take multiple images and stitch them together, creating a massive image file.

My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.

Use the controls to zoom and pan around the photo. You can also double click to zoom in and double click again to get even closer."

And for those who are really interested in the Gigapan Imager and its setup, check here (there are several parts to this in separate videos).

And if you want their Gigapan Stitcher, it's free and here, but only really useful with the imager.

A Brief history of my cameras past and present

Cameras so far: (I'll fill in details as I recover them).
(Updated Feb. 4, 2013, 8:45 a.m. Aug. 21, 2013, Aug 23, 2013 Nov. 15, 2015)

Film:

Kodak Brownie Hawkeye - 620 film. I remember developing my own film in a cereal bowl in the closet - I was 12 (circa 1963)

The Unknown Camera -In the history of things, there is a camera in this spot, one that I found at Niagara Falls. I have a mental image of it, but can't remember the name and model.

Nikon F -SLR 35mm film - "found it"; sold it to my dad (long story, informed the police, waited a year, then it was declared ours); I was around 13 (1963/1964).

Argus/Cosina STL 1000 - SLR 35 mm (used it for a couple of weddings)

• During the winter of '72-'73 I had a fairly well stocked darkroom (processing b/w film & prints) in a large walk-in closet

Olympus OM10 - SLR 35 mm, not a happy camera. Purchased it for our one-year internship in the Philippines ('79-'80). Needed repair - sent to Japan; never really worked properly. It had a good lens.

Olympus OM-2n - SLR 35 mm -- still my best camera. Bought the body during the early 80's and used the lens from the OM10 (used the OM-2n for Pete and Angela's wedding)

• For this Camera, the OM-2n, I have a bag full of filters, lenses, screens, and many other accessories.
• From 1982 till 1988 I had a terrific Darkroom that I built in the basement of the house at 2830 Rae St. Regina, Sask. I processed b/w film and prints and also large colour prints as well as slides to print; it was a great hobby.

Digital:

Kodak's PalmPix 0.6 mp! for the Palm IIIxe and equivalents- still functionsSony Mavica MVC-FD90; 1.6 mp!!! stored on 3.5" floppy disks (remember them?); this camera was lent to me for my trip to West Africa. Later it was given to me -- thanks to Fred Boven.

Canon S30 (3.2 mp) -sold to Aaron - took fabulous photos notably my trip to China

Canon G5 (5 mp) -sold to Jason - still in use, now given to Aaron.

Canon SD-110 (3.2 mp) - retired, but still have it. Took great shots, but has developed a problem with the screen (I've tried fixing it).
 
Nokia 6265i cell phone: (2 mp camera used only if absolutely necessary, it has an odd pink "glow" in the centre of the photo - many complained about it) -- retired.

Canon S3 IS (6mp) - gave it to Jason who continues to do great things with it


Canon SX10 IS (10mp) - retired August 2013. A great future is planned for it. I think I gave it to Jason.

Canon SD-880 IS (10mp)- my every day in-the-pocket-camera; retired January 2013. Gave it to my niece, Renessa Visser, Aug 22, 2013. I've seen her work with cameras and I'm sure she has an eye for a good photo.

Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant (Android Smartphone)  2010- 2013 Takes a fine shot.Retired.

Asus Transformer TF300T
Takes fine photos and videos- Jean uses the tab now.

Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS20K Current 2013 Jan - ? 
To replace the Canon SD880IS. This is my pocket/travel camera. Yes, I read all the reviews, and for pixel-peepers this camera produces "noisier" photos than some will find acceptable.

But for $299, and for what I was looking for -- a replacement for my Canon SD880IS and yet fits easily into my pocket -- well, this is the camera.  And so far, I'm loving it.

Update: I soon discovered that the design of this camera (the world's thinnest 20x zoom), is such that when the camera turns on and the lens zooms out, there's so much going on inside that a vacuum is created sucking dust in which can end up inside the lens or more likely right onto the sensor. Earlier models in the series could be opened up and cleaned by handy, adventuresome folk like myself, but the ZS20 has a different sensor alignment/mounting system, which best be left alone. I tried and got as far as the sensor mounting screws, but soon realized that going the next could give me a heap of trouble.  I brought the thing to Panasonic's repair depot near Toronto, and within the hour they had it fixed under warranty. The technician's advise was to keep it in a seal-able plastic bag. I've done that ever since and all is well.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200  2013 Aug - July 22, 2015
This camera replaced my Canon SX10IS (which is still a fabulous camera - I gave it to Jason who continues to take excellent photos).
It's been said that the main competitor to the FZ200 is the Canon SX50 which has an enormous zoom lens. But in the end, the FZ200 won my vote, and it was on sale making the cost advantage of the SX50 moot. I have not regretted the purchase. Plus, Graham Houghton has posted some very fine instructional videos on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/ghough12

I sold my FZ200 to Carson Visser, who seems to be enjoying it fully.  I'm glad about that, because I really liked the FZ200.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000 At some point during the summer of 2015, I succumbed and purchased the FZ1000.  I had waffled between another bridge camera and DSLR, but I find there are so many advantages to the bridge camera (please, can we just call it the fixed lens camera), that I opted for the FZ1000 and love it.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N900W8) It's a phone, a fabulous phone, a serious computer, really, with a fine camera.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S (SM-T800), this is the greatest tab I've had. An amazing battery, a fantastic screen- photos and video look great on it.


 

"There is No Spoon"

I was at a meeting the other day and someone served us coffee and tea. Check out the interesting spoon.

Mother and Son

It was a fine Sunday afternoon. Here is mom happily showing off the jewelry that Meghan made for her.

Dream Home Series

Saw this beauty on our way up the escarpment in Hamilton.

Early Morning Freeze

Traffic came to a stop this morning and barely crawled along (for no apparent reason). What is that cold?

All I Really Need To Know

I saw this ancient piece of wisdom today.

At Their Best

So today we went for walk in our favourite park. There's a nice long hill that needs to be worked properly as shown in this photo.

To appreciate their expressions you ought click on this photo for the larger version.

I know this isn't the clearest picture I've taken, but I've reached the limits of my SD-110 3.2 mp camera.

But what's really interesting as a side note is the description of the SD-110 when it was first introduced.

Ready for Work

Elizabeth stayed with us today. Here she's packing away "seasonal decorations". I thought the sun light looked neat in her hair.

Jewellery For Jean

This was a great team effort. Rowan found the fossils and mailed them to Meghan who mounted and set them to produce this fine earring and necklace collection for Jean and then I took a picture. Full size version of this photo was sent to Rowan, Meghan and Jean.

The Great "DeBoer-Visser Soup & Video Fest"

The photo was edited and saved to look like a Daguerreotype - Widely used from 1839 to 1855, the daguerreotype was the first popular form of photography. Images were captured directly on a thin piece of silver-plated copper. Because no negative was produced, copies could not be made, so each image was unique.

There's that "thing" again

Without anyone saying anything, Gerrit just knew what this thing was for. You'll recall that this was a ball that Aaron tore apart with his bare hands. Now it's become a favourite toy for kids that come over.

This just in: both Micah and Gerrit independently call it their helmet.

Further on Car Pooling

I found this photo somewhere, but I've not been able to figure out where (that is in which desert) it was taken. From other similar scenes I'm pretty sure it was in Mali, but that's just a guess.



























Reference for this second photo:

http://flickr.com/photos/63446035@N00/308192329
The old Mercedes trucks that cross the desert are heavily loaded with peoples' bundles and jugs of water, not to mention the freight underneath. [taken in Agadez, Niger -ewv]

Car Pooling

So, you see, in West Africa, they have the right idea about car pooling.







I took this photo during a visit in January/February 2002. And for those who know the place, this was the next photo I took after Mac's Refuge (dining room shown below).

Well, I'm all for it, but...

I'm all for children and grandchildren learning by experience. But really...in situations like this ...

Dream Home Series

I think I could live in this house. True, it's not a Victorian style, but there's something so interesting about this place. Now if there's high-speed internet ...

______
Thanks to Derek for asking about some details about this place. I did some digging and found some info about the "house" on this blog where it says,

"This bizarre house overhanging the Seine river in Vernon, 5 km from Giverny, surprises and puzzles many visitors.

It seems so strange that somebody had the idea of building it this way!

No wonder when you know that it once was a mill. The wheel doesn’t exist anymore. In the Middle Ages mills were currently built on bridges.

Monet was inspired by this old house. He painted it from his studio boat. The painting is now in the museum of Fine Arts in New Orleans." (By Ariane, Guide Interpreter, Giverny France)

There Be Pirates!

Micah & Elizabeth had a sleep over last night at our place, and that meant we had a chance to see their inventiveness. Suddenly, they appeared threatening me with extinction. I took the picture and there you have it, matey.

Elizabeth wore a fancy head-dress thing, shown here in side-view. Micah wore half that ball his Dad tore into two some time back. But of particular note, is Micah's weapon of his own construction--it's some sort of two stage, adjustable, unstoppable weapon of choice. Of course, only love comes out of the barrel!
____________
Dec 31, 2008: Here's the original shot

The Family Reading Room

Crazy Days

A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away, I owned a 1972 Austin Mini Minor. If you look closely, you'll see me in the driver's seat.

Side of the Road Wonders

Where you might least expect it--wonders on the side of the road!



Taken with a Canon S-30 (still one of most surprisingly good small digital cameras I've owned).

Beauty From the Ground

Spring is Coming Soon!

Removing a Background etc, revisited

We're agreed that the previous rendition was a little overdone, giving Elizabeth that "hollywood" look. This might be a little better. And, as I mentioned in the comments, Elizabeth doesn't need any fixing--she's beautiful just as she is; it's the photo that needs help and that's only a reflection on the photographer.