What do I do with six hours in the city and a camera? Take photos of course!

The original ***Boston Photo Bonanza|http://gallery.prwdot.org/boston_20030824***, happened in August last year with a total of 84 photos kept. This year, I ended up keeping exactly two more than last year. You can see all 86 photos at ***Boston Photo Bonanza II|http://gallery.prwdot.org/boston_20040619***! This time around, I tried not to duplicate too many of the locations I visited last time. Highlights from this trip include the Zakim Bridge, the New Charles River Basin, Paul Revere Park, Charlestown Navy Yard, Bunker Hill Monument, and the Christian Science Plaza.

Here are some previews to whet your appetite…

ppp|  |ppp

Enjoy!

I’ve lived in Beverly for over a year and a half now, but I had yet to visit our fair city’s marina. Today I was home sick from work, but felt well enough by late afternoon to go for a walk. It was a beautiful day, so I walked down to the marina and shot some photos. It’s actually quite a nice little place!

***Enjoy!|http://gallery.prwdot.org/beverly_harbor***

I’ve created a new album in World Wide Photography to highlight what I consider to be some of my best photos:

ggg|showcase/DSCN0659|Hot Pink Flower|ggg

Let me know what you think!

There’s a bright yellow and green bush outside of our back windows… I took some photos and put the best ones in the ***Grab Bag|http://gallery.prwdot.org/grab_bag?page=2***. However, posting photos directly in one’s blog seems to be all the rage these days, so here’s a pic for you to check out right now:

ggg|grab_bag/IMG_6703|Green and Yellow Bush|ggg

There’s another bush out there that should start flowering soon, and you can count on seeing photos of that here, too.

I used to have a ‘PCS Blog’, to which I could post photos directly from my ***Sanyo SCP-8100|http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/PhonesAccessories/PhoneDetails.jsp?selectSkuId=sanyoscp8100*** camera phone. However, I have recently discontinued the Picture Mail service on my SprintPCS account. Cancelling this service does stop me from sending images directly from the phone, but I am still able to take photos on the phone, and store them in its internal memory. It’s just a matter of how to get them from the phone onto a computer. I already have a cable that connects the phone to any computer with a USB port, which I previously used in Mac OS X to connect to the internet over Sprint’s PCS Vision service. I just needed some software.

Enter ***BitPim|http://bitpim.sf.net/***. BitPim is a cross-platform tool (Mac OS X 10.2/10.2, Windows 98/2000/XP, Linux) that allows you to download contact information, calendars, ringtones, and images from compatible phones – sort of a (very) poor man’s PDA sync software. Compatible phones include several LG and Sanyo models. I was able to use BitPim to connect to my phone and offload the photos onto my computer! Hooray!

So I have set up a ***Phone Pics|http://gallery.prwdot.org/phone_pics*** gallery in which I can showcase these photos. The quality is far from that of my regular digital camera, but you can’t expect too much from a sub-$200 device that combines a tri-band, dual-mode phone, calendar, contact book, game-playing device, and digital camera.

Enjoy!

If you haven’t taken a look at our photo gallery lately, stop on by World Wide Photography.

I have added a new feature that allows you to see the top photos based on the number of views they have, as well as the latest photo comments, random images, and more. You’ll see these links near the top of the photo gallery, just underneath our spiffy new logo!

Speaking of the new logo, I have also created a “web badge” version of it which you’ll see at the top of our left hand navigation bar. If you would like to link to our photo gallery, feel free to use the image with your link:

In celebration of ***getting my camera back|http://prwdot.org/?p=archives/001765***, I have started taking photos of pretty much anything. I’ve created a new album in our photo gallery in which I can put these photos. It’s called ***Grab Bag|http://gallery.prwdot.org/grab_bag***. Go ***check it out|http://gallery.prwdot.org/grab_bag***.

In addition, I have made a few tweaks to the gallery software itself. You should now notice a pleasant blue shaded background, as well as slick drop shadows underneath each image. I’ve also renamed the gallery “World Wide Photography” for that extra little bit of punch. Bam!

I got my camera back today! Hooray!

I kept copious notes of the whole process, for the benefit of other Canon users who may run into the “E18” error that ***I experienced|http://prwdot.org/?p=archives/001725***:

The Timeline

April 19: I contacted Canon customer service, and spoke to a representative named Donna. After discussing the E18 error on my camera, she entered my personal information into their system, and told me to send the camera in to the Powershot service center, using a traceable, insured shipment method, along with a letter explaining the problem and a copy of the original receipt. As my camera was still under its original 1-year warranty, she said that the problem would most likely be fixed at no charge to me.

April 20: Sent camera via FedEx 2 Day from Mail Boxes, Etc. I included a detailed letter which noted the name of the representative I spoke to, all of my contact information, and the serial number of the camera which I was sending.

April 22: Camera delivered to service center in Elk Grove Village, IL

April 26: Canon performs initial inspection and evaluation of camera.

April 28: Canon completes their repairs to my camera.

April 29: I receive an acknowledgement from Canon that they will be performing the repairs to my camera at no charge to me, under the terms of the 1-year warranty.

also on April 29: Canon sends my repaired camera via FedEx 2-Day.

May 3: FedEx attempts to deliver package to our apartment, but nobody is home, so they leave a Door Tag.

May 4: We sign the Door Tag and FedEx leaves the package later in the day.

The Results!!

I must say, Canon was very meticulous in repairing and returning my camera. Not only did they return the camera, but they also returned the letter and receipt I had originally sent. In addition, they removed the mailing label from the package I had sent, and returned it in their package.

They included a letter with their package, with details of the service they performed. A couple of excerpts:

“The service on your equipment has been completed. As part of Canon’s commitment to its customers, you can be assured that your eequipment has been returned to Factory Specifications.”

“Replaced the optical unit.adjusted,updated,cleaned and ck all functions.”

Canon seems to have done an excellent job bringing the camera back to factory specifications. In fact, it is performing even better than before. When the lens retracts, extends, and zooms, it’s much quieter and smoother than it was when I originally purchased it.

Now that I have had the camera repaired through the warranty, it has a new “repair warranty” which lasts for the next three months. So hopefully, if anything else happens to the camera, it will be soon. I expect that it will be fine, as long as I don’t drop it or bump it or anything like that.

Let the [digital] photography resume! 🙂

***Amy|http://waltondammerunprwdot.org/g/*** was curious about what type of camera we used to get the photos in our gallery, so I figured I’d share some of that info in the form of a post.

Some of the very earliest photos in our gallery were shot with an APS-format ***Canon Elph LT-270|http://www.sureshotelph.com/elph/lt270/index.html*** film camera, printed, and scanned with a Canon scanner. This was used up through October of 2001. The camera itself was nice, but I had been wanting to go digital for a while, and the quality of the scanned images left something to be desired.

From mid-October 2001 to late-October 2003, we used a ***Nikon Coolpix 775|http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_cp775.asp***. This was a pretty decent camera. It took sharp pictures, had good color depth, and was very small and light. Major gripes were its low resolution, short battery life, and slow response time. We might still be using it, had I not lost it somewhere at Logan Airport. 🙁 The first album of photos shot with the 775 is ***here|http://gallery.prwdot.org/tsongas_center***, and the last is ***here|http://gallery.prwdot.org/san_francisco***.

After the loss of the Coolpix, I carefully evaluated all of the entry-level cameras on the market, and selected the ***Canon PowerShot A70|http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_a70.asp***. This is the camera we have been using since late October. The A70 is all-around a terrific camera, with some excellent features such as full manual control over shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and focus. The A70 also uses Canon’s DiGIC image processing chip for some really fantastic color. Battery life is terrific, with four 2000-mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries, I can shoot several hundred photos without needing to change. The first album of photos shot with the A70 is ***here|http://gallery.prwdot.org/maine_parks***.

In terms of exposure, many of the outdoor, still landscape shots I take are shot with fully manual mode. I adjust the aperture and shutter settings while watching the scene in the LCD, in order to get the exact exposure I want. Other shots use mostly-automatic mode on the camera, except that I turn off the camera’s so-called “intelligent” autofocus mode, since it often chooses a subject other than the one I want to capture, and ends up making the photo look out-of-focus. I also try to be careful to select the white balance mode appropriately. One of the gripes about the A70 is that it’s AWB (auto white balance) isn’t always entirely accurate. For the laymen, this means that photos would come out looking a bit too yellow, for example. I try to find a white object to calibrate the white balance, or else pick one of the pre-set white balance modes

I also generally try to follow the ***rule of thirds|http://www.dpchallenge.com/tutorial.php?TUTORIAL_ID=5*** for composing photos, though as Captain Barbossa would say, “They’re more guidelines than rules”. 🙂 If I feel that a photo would have more impact by breaking the rule, then I go for it.

I hope you continue to enjoy our photos!