Archive for November, 2007

Jumping in the leaves and a little more on HP Photo Books

November 29, 2007 | Douglas, Products

Christmas is edging closer every day. We got our trees last night and plan to decorate them over the next few days. Pictures next week. But before we officially move on from fall, I wanted to share a few pictures I took of Douglas jumping in the leaves last weekend.

In addition to doing a little Christmas shopping, I also made a few HP Photo Books as gifts over the weekend: one of the large size for my uncle and his wife with photos from their 25th anniversary party, and smaller ones for their kids, mostly filled with pictures of their granchildren taken at the party. Of course, I also made one for my mom with pictures of Doug from the past year. (Merry Christmas, Mum!)

Don’t forget about the 20% discount on the Photo Books at the HP store, good until the end of the year, if you’d like to make your own books. Coupon code.

n00b with SLR and Linux by the Uncle

November 25, 2007 | Equipment, Products, the Uncle

I had planned to write more for Snapshot Chronicles, but life has been busy in recent months. It still is, but I have an opportunity to share with folks my experiences moving from budget snapshot cameras to more advanced, fancier ones. I now have a digital SLR camera. So I am going to force myself to write regularly, even if my posts are brief.

Single Lens Reflex is complicated to do, but is really simple to explain. The viewfinder looks through the same lens you take pictures through. You will photograph EXACTLY what you see in the viewfinder. This adds expense and complexity, as well as weight and size to a camera, and it is NOT required for great pictures. But it opens up a whole world of capabilities that are simply not available with less complex cameras.

The camera I chose is the Nikon D40 – widely considered one of the best inexpensive digital SLRs. It is not one of the highest pixel count cameras available, but as with many things, the law of diminishing returns applies: 6.1 megapixels produces wonderful images and for most uses (and photographers) will look every bit as good as a higher pixel count camera. Available as a kit for around $500 USD, all that is needed is to charge the battery. I chose this camera based on the recommendation of a friend who is VERY into photography, and actually DOES know what he is talking about.

Initial impressions: I opened the package and was amazed at both how small and light the D40 is, even with the included 18-55mm lens. Well, the lens is a bit big, but it is still very light. I opened the manual and set the battery to charging up while I began reading about the camera and how to use it…

Began reading the manual

I am still reading the manual, and trying to understand what it says. It has been a long time since I used anything but simple point-and-shoot cameras. Fortunately, an intimate understanding of every technical option and setting is NOT required to begin taking pictures! The D40 has a fully automatic setting that works pretty well, and a number of preset settings for specific environments: indoors, outside, cloudy, etc. I am mostly using the presets right now. It is going to take me a while to really LEARN how to use the camera to best effect and start doing anything “artsy.”

A caveat about the Nikon D40

One of the advantages of an SLR is the ability to change lenses- tele-photo, wide-angle and more, and this can be done with the D40, BUT….Most similar cameras have the focus drive motor built into the camera, and this one does not. Only lenses with the drive motor built into the lens will do auto-focus, although the others will usually work fine manually. The lack of a drive motor in the camera body is one of the reasons the D40 is relatively inexpensive for the quality of the camera, but additional lenses will be more costly than those without a motor.

For many people (such as myself) this will not be an issue, but if you already have a 35mm camera and assorted lenses, getting a digital SLR that can use the same lenses is likely to be worth any additional cost for the camera body itself.

Other than the lenses, the D40 seems to pretty much match up with any other camera as far as flash attachments, mounting to a tripod, etc.

I have included three pictures for comparison: one with my cellphone, one with a Canon point-and-shoot and one with the Nikon.

LG VX9800 Cell Phone

Canon SD450 (snapshot camera)

Nikon D40 SLR (Auto setting)

Note that while the phone-cam looks pretty bad, both of the other two look quite good. Nothing wrong with simple cameras at all, eh? As I learn how to use the D40, I expect to see better results and be more capable of “artsy” photographs, but nevertheless the far simpler camera does a very nice job and is far more convenient.

About the images: All three pictures were taken one after another for minimal variation. All were saved as jpeg images. No re-touching. The images were re-sized using the GIMP, an Open Source image editing application similar to Photoshop.

The ridge in Barnard, Late Fall

November 15, 2007 | Photo Contests, Vermont

We went up to the house in Barnard Vermont for Veteran’s Day weekend. We didn’t do much, but it was nice to get a change of scenery. And I was able to get some shots of the ridge behind the house in late Fall for my series. See the earlier shots on Flickr.

New interviews have been posted in the Photographic Memories series, and don’t forget to checkout my sidebar for the latest HP Photo Books giveaways and contests from the mom bloggers. New this week:

• Due to a shipping error, Maya at The Laurent Files got an extra Photosmart A626 compact photo printer which she is giving away in her contest.
• Mir over at WantNot.net is also giving away some HP Photo Books this week. Entries for her random drawing end tomorrow.

Finally, if you are struggling over what to get your favorite child or Mum this holiday season, checkout the Cool Mom Picks Holiday Gift Guide.

Tags: HP Photo Books, Photographic Memories, photography, mommy bloggers

Photographic Memories Update

November 9, 2007 | Parent bloggers, Photo Contests, Products

We’ve created a badge for the Photographic Memories interviews that links directly to the page on the HP site with all the interviews. If you would like to use it on your blog or website, you can download the graphic or, even easier, you can link to it here using the code on this page.

Don’t forget to check out the HP Photo Books contests and giveaways, listed in my sidebar, and the 20% discount on the HP Photo Books at the HP Store until December 31st. Get the code for the discount here.

Thanks to Tracey for the suggestion to do the badge and Kristen for requesting the code version. I now know how to do something I didn’t know how to do yesterday !

Creme Brulee

November 8, 2007 | Douglas

Creme brulee has become Doug’s favorite dessert, so we made some last night.

Be sure to check out all the neat HP Photo Books contests from the mom bloggers I interviewed for Photographic Memories. The current ones are all listed in my sidebar.

Announcing Photographic Memories

November 1, 2007 | Equipment, Interviews, Parent bloggers, Products, Projects

Cross-posted to Marketing Roadmaps

As I’ve mentioned here before, I occasionally help HP with social media projects. I’m thrilled to announce that the most recent one, Photographic Memories, went live today.

Part of the US launch of HP Photo Books, Photographic Memories is a series of interviews with mom bloggers about the photos that have captured the memories of their lives. I interviewed 23 women across the US – young moms, older moms, moms of newborns, toddlers and teens. Working moms and stay at home moms. Professional photographers and moms who simply carry a point and shoot in their pocket, just in case.

HP Photo Books are a great way to share photographic memories, and in these interviews, the moms share theirs with us. The first group of 10 interviews was posted today and the rest will follow later in the month.

A little bit more about HP Photo Books

With an HP Photo Book, you can easily create a professional quality photo book at home. Particularly cool is the innovative binding system – think of a big clip – that lets you replace or rearrange pages and add mementos like invitations, children’s artwork and so on. They are available in two sizes, 5×7 and 8.5×11, and multiple colors.

If you’d like your own Photo Book, HP is offering a 20% discount until the end of the year.

Or you can take your chances in one of the many contests and sweepstakes the women in the Photographic Memories series will be having on their blogs over the next couple months. Some contests have already happened, others are going on right now, and some will be starting next week. As I get the details, I’ll add them to the Photo Contests list in the sidebar of Snapshot Chronicles.

Later this week, I’ll be writing more about the project. For now, please enjoy the interviews.

Tags: HP Photo Books, Photographic Memories, photography, mommy bloggers