Dobson Central Photography

It seems that since my last message on Canon releasing their latest EOS Viewer Utility (EVU), that they redesigned their site and the location of this file. I’ve been seeing a lot of traffic to this site trying to find it and when I went to test the link again, it wasn’t pointing to where I originally had found it. After a little bit of sleuthing, I was able to find a link that will get you within close proximity. You’ll have to choose a few choices from their menus, but I think I can get you there. If this link ends up pointing somewhere else down the road in time, just click on the download library at the top of their site and you should be able to pretty much follow the same directions.

1. Click here to visit Canon’s page

2. Choose EOS (SLR) Camera Systems

3. Choose Digital EOS Camera

4. Choose your type of camera. In my case it was EOS Digital Rebel

I believe the EVU is the same for all EOS cameras, but choose your camera just to be safe.

5. Click the link under “Software Applications and Updates”

#5 will open up a new window where you can choose your language and on the next page you’ll get your choice of operating systems for the EOS Viewer Utility (EVU).

Hope this helps some of those that were tangled in the web.

I finally got around to writing my first article for DC.com. I’m itching to get back into night photography and I think the 4th of July is going to be a great place to start. A local resort is just a mile down the road and apparently they put on their own fireworks show, in addition to the one the City of Tucson puts on. I’m thinking I’ll have a great vantage point from either my back yard or my roof. I’ll have to ask some of my neighbors that have lived around here longer than I, to see where exactly the fireworks will go off in the sky, but from what I hear, it’s supposed to be pretty good. If I can come away with at least one decent photo, I’ll be happy, considering it’s been about 12 or so years since my last night photography shoot.

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(click thumbnails for a larger view of photos)

I went to Washington D.C. on a business trip Wednesday. The business part of this trip wasn’t going to be a full day on Thursday, so I decided to lug my camera equipment out there hoping to photograph some of the memorials.

I should have prayed instead of hoped.

The weather was miserable. The humidity was like fifteen thousand percent. Instant sweat factory. It really hit home how nice it is in the desert where humidity hardly exists.

So off I went to my first stop, the Lincoln Memorial. I take my camera out of the bag and started to take a photo when I noticed something is amiss. Everything had a haze to it. Taking a closer look, the lens and filter had instantly fogged up when I took it out of the bag. I’m guessing it did this since the camera bag was still cool on the inside from my air conditioned hotel room. Once the camera warmed up, everything was hunky dory. For the camera’s sake that is.

Taking photos of the memorials proved difficult. Waiting for visitors to disperse from my frame took patience and time. Time which I didn’t have, as I’d find out soon enough. The visitors flock here in crowds, and for good reason too. They are spectacular. It really hits you hard seeing all the names of people that have died for our country and the people who have lost their loved ones who visit and pay their respects.

Walking out of the Lincoln memorial, I see this gorgeous view of the Washington monument. I must have snapped off a dozen shots from the steps of the Lincoln memorial. An issue here is that there is this unsightly fence in the foreground, the lighting was too bright on the monument, and of course, more visitors.

So I decided walk up past the unsightly fence and closer to the water for a better shot. Still more visitors, and a new problem. The lighting was still too bright on the monument and I couldn’t get all of the water in the frame. I did the best that I could and continued on.

While walking towards the monument, I see these nasty storm clouds rolling in. I get to the World War II memorial at the end of the water and took about six photos before it started pouring like crazy. The camera was starting to get wet and I was getting drenched. No where to run or hide from the rain, I stood under a tree with many others, as lighting bolted across the sky and the thunder that sounded like it was right on top of me. Not a very comfortable feeling being under a tree during a big storm.

After the rain took a break, I decided to head to the hotel to start packing. Good thing too. The rain started up again with a vengeance. Later, I’d see on the news the many cars that stalled or got stuck from the flooded freeways under bridges and interchanges.

What kind of pictures did I get out of all of this? Snapshots! Upon reviewing the photos from the trip tonight, I’m stuck with snapshots. Not a single photo that really stood out for me of great value. Just snapshots that can be found all over the web. Next time? Next time I’ll hopefully be there when it’s not so humid and do some night photography.

After struggling with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for a couple of days, I think I finally completed the new look of the main page. I *hope* that it looks the same for everyone, but it’s nearly impossible to predict how every single browser will handle it. If you have issues with the main page and it just looks absolutely horrible with your browser, drop me a line. So far, there is only a slight difference between Mozilla and Microsoft. I used Firefox and Internet Explorer 6 for testing. I unfortunately don’t have copies of older versions of browsers. I need to find some I suppose.

In any case, I hope the new look is more pleasing to the eyes than the old look. I hope to continue a similar look for the rest of the site in due time. If you are running 800×600 resolution, the main page should look like this for you. If you are running 1024×768 or higher, it should look something like this. If it’s completely different or really messed up, please let me know what browser and version you are using. Thanks!

What can a 110 pound, 6 foot camera do? Besides make a hefty 2.6 GIGAbyte file, it can produce some of the highest resolution landscapes ever made.

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