New Year, new computer, new (years) resolution
Dear readers (wordpress tells me there were still some of you left in 2013),
first of all I wish you all an exciting, insightful, enjoyable 2014!
2013 has been a busy year, and photography, alas, was not my highest priority for most of the year. On top of my preoccupation with other things, I have had neither what could be called a functioning computer nor an internet connection at home. This has forced me to put off sorting, editing, and sharing my photos (I did still take a few … thousand … which I am eager to go through). As I write this entry, however, my new Acer V5 netbook sits before me on the table and is only waiting for an SSD drive to arrive at my house in the next few days so that I can finally get started installing an OS, Lightroom, Photoshop and all the good stuff to dig into all those photos from Alaska, Marocco, Mallorca, Romania, Ireland, Germany, California, still sitting unprocessed, and sometimes never seen even by me, on various harddrives.
Which brings me to point three of my post, the resolution. One of my new years resolutions is to be less negligent of my blog and my photos this year. There are literally thousands, probably tens of thousands of pictures waiting for me to go through and actually do something with: post them here, on my website (where, let me remind you, you can aquire large format, limited, numbered and signed prints at a more than reasonable price), as well as offer them to more magazines, stock agencies, and galleries.
So now it’s out; and, tellingly, I only have a photo on my stick to seal the deal that’s, uhm, pretty old … but at least it’s a moose cow looking optimistically into the new year.
Moose Cow “sealing the deal.”
Fehrle Photography Blog 
Good to hear from you and look forward to more blog posts and seeing your pix!
I am busy trying to get going on scanning my slides. I have a Nikon 5000 scanner, supposed to be really good, but I never learned how to use it properly so it’s just been sitting there… I was so naive when I bought it, I just thought you put the slides in and bam… So I just downloaded a trial copy of Silverfast, which is supposed to be the best scanning software, and it was like looking into an abyss of pain and frustration. So I’ve decided to use a scanning service. But which one?? There’s a really good trustworthy service called West Coast Imaging but their scans start at $25 for 100 MB. I’m going to try them with only a few of my very best slides, that I might like to make prints of, but which ones?? So hard to pick… Then I have to find another cheaper service for just getting something I can post on the internet. I think I’m going to try DigMyPics…
If the scanning service thing works out, I’ll sell the Nikon 5000 to help pay for the scans!
My other big photographic news is that I just bought a Canon 6D, my first full-frame sensor. I got it because I’m still unhappy with the detail/sharpness of my pictures even though I have good lenses (at least, I think they’re good…) I realized, correctly I hope, that I was still thinking film, where the lenses are crucial but the camera doesn’t matter so much, whereas with digital, I think the camera matters a lot.
And photography isn’t even my main interest in life! I’m learning new Schubert waltzes all the time, just started working on 4 more this week. I counted them up last night and found that over the years, I’ve learned over 70! And I’ve reserved a small hall with a decent piano to record some of them in July… I much, much, so much prefer to sit in front of a piano than a computer!!!
January 15, 2014 at 6:24 pm
Dear Denis,
good to read from you. I have no experience with scanning, so can’t help you there. But I am curious to hear what you think of the 6D. I’ve only read about it, but it seems like an odd bag, I hope to be able to afford a 5DIII this year, or maybe even a 1Dx (I might have to sell a kidney for that) and solve my fast action focus problems once and for all – we shall see how it goes.
Glad to hear you are playing the piano again, I thought you’d stopped doing that. If you have any recordings I’d be interested to hear them. I still listen to the one you sent me way back when occasionally. All the best!
January 16, 2014 at 9:52 am