Thursday, September 27, 2007

UPDATED - New hurdle for photographers at airport security

10/1/2007 UPDATE:

I received a response from TSA today. While they did not specifically mention DSLRs in their response to my very specific question, my take on their response is that their policy does not require DSLRs to be removed from bags.
"Laptop computers, full-size video game consoles, full-size DVD players, CPAP breathing machines and video cameras that use video cassettes must be removed from their carrying cases and submitted separately for x-ray screening. Laptop computers and video cameras that use cassettes have long been subject to this policy. Small and portable electronic items do not need to be removed from their carrying cases."

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Pro photographers Scott Kelby and Tom Hogan have both blogged about their recent experience going through airport security in the United States while traveling with their DSLR cameras. It appears that there is a new TSA policy that requires DSLRs to be removed from their bags when going through the airport security screening area. TSA has had a policy of requiring laptops and video cameras to be removed from their bags, but DLSR cameras are a new addition.

Scott said in his blog that "while passing through security the TSA Agent at the X-ray belt, said: “That’s a LowePro camera bag; do you have a DSLR in there?” I said yes, and he said I had to remove it and put it on the belt." Scott questioned another TSA agent about the new policy, who said that as of August 4, 2007 that all DSLR are supposed to be removed, but not all airports have instituted this new policy yet, but he felt certain most would.

According to the TSA website:
"Laptop computers and video cameras with cassettes must be removed from their carrying cases and placed in one of the bins provided. You will also need to remove your coat, jacket, suit jacket or blazer and place it in one of the bins. These items go through the X-ray machine."
I was unable to locate any mention on their website of DSLR cameras being added to this policy. I submitted a request to TSA for additional information regarding this new policy but have not received a response as of this writing. I will post an update if/when I hear back from them.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Maryland Renaissance Festival

E Muzeki

I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival on Sunday with my family. I have been to the Texas Renaissance Festival a couple times in past years, but this was my first time at the one in Maryland. These festivals are a great way to take a break from the real world for a day to feel like you are in a completely different world.

There were some extremely talented performers there. The young lady shown in the picture above is a part of the E Muzeki musical act. We didn't find them until we were about to leave. I really wish I could have listened to them longer, but I only saw them for a few minutes. I'll definately be watching for them next year.

The highlight of the trip was a bagpipe (yes... I said bagpipe) and percussion band named The Rogues I never figured that I'd really enjoy an hour of listening to bagpipes, but these guys completely captivated their audience. They're listed in iTunes if you want to listen to some samples of their music.

Click here if you want to view the full set of my Maryland Renaissance Festival pictures.

Monday, September 24, 2007

And we're back!

After a little more downtime than was expected (mostly waiting for DNS to propogate), we're back up on the new web host, HostGator.

The staff at HostGator really are top notch. I ran into a problem where I needed a higher version of MySQL to get the site working again. I opened a live chat with someone from the technical support team at approximately 1:30am early this morning. Within a minute, a friendly representitive was in the chat with me and referred me to sales and provided me with their email address.

I emailed Sales at 1:50am and explained that I needed to be upgraded to a higher version of MySQL. I received a response 10 minutes later explaining that they would need to move me to a different server. They said that they could move my files to the new server for me, or they could create a fresh blank account. I opted for the second option since I had a few things that I wanted to do differently. They had my site created within 15 minutes from the time that I responded.

That's what I call service! They had my issue completely resolved in less than an hour from the time that I first contacted them. After that experience, I will gladly refer my friends to HostGator when they are looking for a web host.

I can't say that I received that level of service from my previous web host. They lure you in with a price that's too good to be true, and then you find out that the network reliability is not very good and their technical support staff take days to respond to your issues. No thanks!

Oh... and while I was going through this migration to a new host, I also updated the site to WordPress 2.3.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Switching web hosts

When I chose my web host, I went for a sweet deal at $10 for a full year. I didn't do a whole lot of research on the host because at that price how could I go wrong?



"You get what you pay for"



After only a week or two using this web host, I have noticed several instances where I cannot connect to this site from multiple locations. If I experience these reliability issues, you are probably experiencing them too.

Over the next few days, I will be switching to a new web host. I have been researching hosts for the past week and have found one that should result in faster page loads and better reliability in general.

Thanks for your patience and support!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Using Lightroom to simulate HDR effects

UPDATE 8/29/2008 - Download the Lightroom preset for the method described below.

It seems like HDR photos created in Photoshop are all the rage these days. But creating those HDR images takes some effort.

What if you could create similar effects in less than 10 seconds, working with a single photo?

Good news... you can! Flickr member 'Tbatty' shared his method of achieving these effects with other Flickr members.

Here are the settings to use as a base:

Recovery: 100
Fill Light: 100
Blacks: 30
Contrast: 30
Clarity: 60
Saturation: -20
Sharpening Amount: 50

Some pictures will turn out great with these settings, and some you may need to tweak a little, but it's a good base to start with.

I created a User Preset in the Develop module set to these values so that applying this effect is a single click away.

Here are a few photos that I converted using this method. Each photo only required a single RAW file. I included a photo of the Pentagon memorial that I posted in my last blog entry for reference.

Let me know what you think.


0705_ArlingtonCemetery_020.jpg

0707_WashingtonDC_065.jpg

0709_ArlingtonCemetery_089.jpg

0707_WashingtonDC_098.jpg

0707_WashingtonDC_028.jpg

0707_Gettysburg_072.jpg

0708_WashingtonDC_145.jpg

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Zombie geese!!!

In honor of International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2007, I was searching for some images of zombie or undead geese, but a Google image search turned up dry.

Why zombie geese? Well to be honest... that just sounds too cool for words!!! It could be because I am psyched to see Residen Evil: Extinction this weekend.

But really it is because I went to one of my favorite locations to photograph on Sunday, Arlington National Cemetery, where I saw a huge flock of geese as I was leaving. There were hundreds of them spread out in groups through three sections of the cemetery. I pulled into a parking area so that I could snap some shots of them.

0709_ArlingtonCemetery_152.jpg


I visited the columbarium for the first time while at the cemetery. Almost all pictures that you see of Arlington National Cemetery focus on the uniform headstones lined up perfectly, but you rarely see pictures of the columbarium, so I wanted to share some photos of the lesser known areas of the cemetery.

0709_ArlingtonCemetery_065.jpg

0709_ArlingtonCemetery_067.jpg

0709_ArlingtonCemetery_064.jpg


With the recent anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, I visited the Pentagon memorial (another first for me). The memorial was done very nicely and several of the victems were laid to rest in front of it.

0709_ArlingtonCemetery_089.jpg

0709_ArlingtonCemetery_092.jpg


The full set of photos can be viewed at my Flickr page.

If you happen to have a picture of zombie geese, leave a comment!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Adobe says CS3 suite not fully tested with Mac OS X Leopard

Adobe said on Tuesday that their Creative Suite 3, including their flagship Photoshop and Illustrator products, have not been fully tested with the upcoming version of Apple's operating system (codenamed 'Leopard') due out next month, which could lead to incompatibility issues.

During an interview with Reuters, Adobe Chief Executive Bruce Shizen stated that "CS3 hasn't fully been tested under Leopard." He went on to day that "If it doesn't work, we will make the necessary adjustments."

Mr. Shizen said that Adobe has not received a final copy of Leopard with which to test its software.