Dobson Central Photography

I went on a trip to Phoenix last Friday and Saturday. I took my son to the Phoenix zoo on Friday and was amazed at the size of the zoo. It wasn’t quite as large as the San Diego zoo but it was large enough to tire out my 4 year old. We arrived at 9 am and didn’t leave until 3:30 pm. My son was super tired from walking by the end of the day. I must have snapped off around 90 photophaphs but only a few came out decent enough to post. The lighting was kind of harsh for most of them to turn out great. That, and it’s tough to take pictures of caged animals and have them look good anything remotely like what you’d see out in the wild. I also posted a couple of barrel cacti that were in bloom before I left for Phoenix. I really like how the orange blossomed one turned out.

Enjoy the new photos in the photo gallery. I’d also like to say thanks to all those that have been rating and commenting on the photos thus far. It is appreciated, negative or otherwise!

I was searching for a faster CF card today and I came across this over at InfoSyncWorld today. All I can say is that if they are that fast, I want one!!

Japanese company Green House has released a new line of compact flash cards that it claims have a write speed of 12 MB/second, or 80 times the speed of the original Compact Flash design. The cards also include new write-balancing features to prevent data from being written to the same area over and over again, which tends to reduce the life span of flash-based media. Such high speed cards are primarily intended for use in high-end professional digital cameras, which often require writing large image files very quickly to prepare for another shot. Available in sizes ranging from 256 MB to a spacious 6 GB, the cards range in price from 9,980 Yen (about $90 USD) to 596,000 Yen (about $5,300 USD), respectively.

Several people have asked me what that gradient bar at the bottom of the photo galleries is for. Quite simply, it’s for adjusting your computer monitor to see the photos as they truly should be. What you do is adjust your brightness and contrast on your monitor until you can see all of the blocks of color on the bar. Once you can see all of the blocks, all of my photos, and everything else you view on your computer, should be a true and accurate color.

View the Gradient Bar here

One final note. Some monitors will be impossible to see all of the blocks in the gradient bar. For example, on my flat screen monitor at work, I am unable to see the last two blocks of black. They both blend together. Mileage may vary, but for the most part, you should be able to see the majority of the blocks of colors.

A new digital camera site (DigitalCameraInfo) has just hit the web and looks to be of a great resource too. They have a huge review of Canon’s EOS 300D (my camera) and pretty much runs in line with all the other reviews I’ve read. Still, the review is very extensive. Hopefully all of their reviews will provide this much information in the future.

Check out the new camera site or check out their huge review of the EOS 300D.

I went to take a night photo of last nights blue moon and my tripod decided to break. The entire top assembly had been cracked for some time now and it finally decided it had enough. I guess it’s ok, since I’ve had this aluminum tripod since, oh I don’t know, 17 years now? With my new camera and lenses, it wasn’t really working out between the two of us anyway. To hold the camera with the heavier lens, I’d have to tighten it above my subject, so that the tripod could sulk a little bit and bring my camera down to the level I needed it at. Yeah, it was frustrating.

Still, it’s sad to be without a tripod now. I’ll probably start going through withdrawal symptoms soon. If anyone wants to donate to the “Ken Dobson Tripod” fund, drop me a line to get my address for the donations. Who knows, maybe with your help, I’ll be able to get a nice Gitzo by the end of the year. Or, if you’re affiliated with Bogen/Gitzo or any camera store, I’d graciously accept a free tripod and give it a review on this site.

Sincerely,

Tripodless Ken

P.S. After a couple email messages requesting info on my camera gear, I finally posted an “About Ken” on the main page for those that would like to know a little bit about me, or just be bored altogether. Read at your own risk.

I’ve posted my lastest article tonight called “The Other Half of Digital Photography“. It doesn’t apply to just photographers, but in fact, anyone with a computer. In this article, you’ll learn about two simple programs to keep your digital darkroom (aka computer) running better and faster than it has in the past. That is, of course, if you are like most people, who never knew about these programs or haven’t taken the time to run them in a long time. There’s quite a few simple things one can do to keep the “other half” of digital photography running smooth, so don’t be surprised if this two part article becomes three parts. Stay tuned next month for Part 2.

Read the article