Haven't Been Around Much Lately

I've been gone quite a bit lately. The county sent me to Charlotte the 7th through the 10th of this month. I took over 200 shots during those four days. I also made an important discovery. I took shots inside and outside, in shade and sun, and made quite a few changes to WB and ISO. Somewhere along the line, I hit the Quality button and inadvertantly took 88 photo's in RAW mode! I've read that it takes Nikon Capture (or third party software) or CS, CS2, Elements 3.0 or 4.0 to process RAW files. Turns out, Elements 2.0 will process RAW files. It's slow, but it does it.

Last week, we went on our family vacation. I went to the NC Aquarium three different days, and took 74 photo's the first trip, 94 photo's the second trip, and 200 photo's on the third trip. I have a mess load of photo's to sort through, but I know I have a few good ones of some birds. (I got egrets, herons, ibis, osprey, and one I haven't ID'ed yet) Those will be coming in the upcoming weeks.

The blessing of digital is no processing costs. Thank God!!! The curse of digital is all the time it takes to sort through hundreds of photo's! I'm still sorting...

Here's a panoramic I made from three of the shots I took in Charlotte. Hope you enjoy it.

Good to hear from you Robert, you have been missed. If your first example is any thing like the rest of your stored up images I can't wait to see them. Very nice job on this one. Look like a beautiful city.

I have been meaning to ask you about something in NC.
Have you ever been to the Schiele Natural History Museum?
It's in Gastonia, NC. Is that close to you at all?
Glad to see you are alive and kicking!
Brian

We haven't missed you at all! Dawn, on the other hand...

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Originally Posted by Old Timer

Good to hear from you Robert, you have been missed. If your first example is any thing like the rest of your stored up images I can't wait to see them. Very nice job on this one. Look like a beautiful city.

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Thanks OT, it's good to be missed.

As for the other shots, they aren't all as good as the first one, but I do have some nice ones. Charlotte is about 5.5 hours away from where I live. It is also the largest city in NC, by population. And while it is a beautiful city at night, but I'm a country boy. So I took my photo's and happily left it behind for the coast!

Here's an example of what I got at the Aquarium. This is cropped and a slight levels adjustment made. Oh yeah, I think it's a tri-colored heron, but Paul will need to confirm that.

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

I have been meaning to ask you about something in NC.
Have you ever been to the Schiele Natural History Museum?
It's in Gastonia, NC. Is that close to you at all?
Glad to see you are alive and kicking!
Brian

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Nope, never been there. Never heard of it until today. It is on the other side of Charlotte (the mountain side) and I'm on the coast, about six hours away. Any family relation there?

Glad to be back. Thanks for the comments buddy!

Here's a photo of a Lionfish for you.

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Originally Posted by Speed

Nope, never been there. Never heard of it until today. It is on the other side of Charlotte (the mountain side) and I'm on the coast, about six hours away. Any family relation there?

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The only connection I have with the place is the name, otherwise I don't know.
I have never been there.
Thanks for the fish pic!


Brian

Adina! I'm hurt. I'm crushed. I'm devastated.

:-O

No photo's for you then!!!!!!!!

You can't hurt my feelings, because I don't have any!

;-)

"Dawn, on the other hand..."

Oh sure, Dawn you miss...

Not that I blame you.

I must be getting soft in my old age...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

The only connection I have with the place is the name, otherwise I don't know.
I have never been there.

Brian

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My college buddies and I try to get out to the mountains every fall or winter ( I missed the last one), but otherwise I don't get out that way much. If I'm ever in Gastonia, I'll have to stop by and see the place. I love museums - the Life and Science Museum in Durham is awesome. I used to go there when Dawn had classes at Duke - her Masters classes to become a Nurse Practitioner.

Hey, when did Dawn get braces?! :D

Nice to have you back Speedo! Glad to hear the dark (digital) side hasn't sucked you in altogether!

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Originally Posted by walterick

Hey, when did Dawn get braces?! :D

Nice to have you back Speedo! Glad to hear the dark (digital) side hasn't sucked you in altogether!

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You're a riot Rick! And you don't know the half of it. My 17 year old had her wisdom teeth cut out on the 4th of August, and about 10 days later, the 11 year old got her braces. Within a week of that, my EX had braces put on my other two girls. We are officially teeth poor! All of our money is in our girls mouths.

"Glad to hear the dark (digital) side hasn't sucked you in altogether!"

It has it's ups and downs. Being able to take 200 photo's at a time is great. Getting the time to sort through them is practically impossible. And I'm not real impressed with the quality I'm getting from my night and astrophotography shots. Noise reduction only does so much. Which is why I've hung onto my N80, F5 and K1000!

:-D

yay---your back and Dawn's limbs are all functioning....:D

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Originally Posted by Speed

My 17 year old had her wisdom teeth cut out on the 4th of August, and about 10 days later, the 11 year old got her braces. Within a week of that, my EX had braces put on my other two girls. We are officially teeth poor! All of our money is in our girls mouths.

:-D

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I feel the pain of the braces. My youngest had to have braces, her teeth were coming in all wrong. I thought it was a terrible expense at the time. Looking back on it it was some of the best money ever spent. She is a beautiful 23 year old woman with a gorgeous smile. Those braces were worth every cent. So buck up Speed you will see the benefit somewhere down the road.

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Originally Posted by Old Timer

I feel the pain of the braces. My youngest had to have braces, her teeth were coming in all wrong. I thought it was a terrible expense at the time. Looking back on it it was some of the best money ever spent. She is a beautiful 23 year old woman with a gorgeous smile. Those braces were worth every cent. So buck up Speed you will see the benefit somewhere down the road.

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Yeah, it's a big hit in the checking account. But I agree with you 100%. It is worth every penny! The 17 year old came out of her braces this spring. The boy was the only one who didn't need braces - all four of his sisters needed them.

And for the record, I had braces when I was 12 - 15. Three of the longest years of my life, but I've got a nice smile today because of it.

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Originally Posted by natatbeach

yay---your back and Dawn's limbs are all functioning....:D

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Actually, she re-broke one of her bones this week. Reaching for the door, and caught her pinky finger on the door. She heard it snap and it promptly swelled up.

It's been one of those weeks. Dawn re-broke her hand, the 17 year old rear-ended someone ($3800 worth of damage to our car, none to the other vehicle), and last night we got a leak in our roof. Thank God it's a holiday weekend! We need some relief...


Here's another shot of Dawn on vacation.

Time or money... time IS money... good to see you back around these parts.

Bet I had been away longer than you have!! :D Anyways, good to see you. By the way, what camera are you using to take those RAW photos??? Great pics BTW!!!

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Originally Posted by megan

Time or money... time IS money... good to see you back around these parts.

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So very true. And if I had the money, I'd get that HP Media Machine I want to speed up the processing of my photos.

;-)

Thanks for the comments Megan. It is good to be back.

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Originally Posted by coloradoamigo

Bet I had been away longer than you have!! :D Anyways, good to see you. By the way, what camera are you using to take those RAW photos??? Great pics BTW!!!

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No takers on that one! I know we all have times when we just can't get on the boards here at PR. I hate it when that happens!

"By the way, what camera are you using to take those RAW photos???"

Nikon D200.

:-D

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