Send your Father here for his Gift

We know that most of us find ourselves in a quandry about what Dad will most treasure for a Father's Day gift. And while I cannot promise you your Father will find exactly what he wants here, until you click on my galleries you won't know if this is it. Take a moment for the one you love and choose from Eight Galleries.

Digital vs Film

Do any of us still shoot film? You say "No I don't see anyone shooting film, but I've heard there are a few". However some of us would say "Yes about half the people I know still shoot film".



Certainly it would be rare unless of course you are among the crowd who shoots for a specific venue. Digital is so quick and easy. True, but is it as good? Well that depends. Digital certainly seldom fails to produce a good image in a relatively easy manner. But does it produce as good as image as film?

When printing up to say an 11x14" print digital looks fantastic and can go way beyond that if a lot lines up well. But when you try to print larger and are not getting truly nice prints, sharp from center to edge, then you might see why film can produce some very very good large prints for those of us who demand the very best Image Quality.

I'll keep this brief as someone else has done an excellent job of describing the details of the differences between film and digital. And you might find some very interesting details

It is a rather exhaustive article so for those of you who prefer getting to point, I'll sum up in just a short read right here. Feel free to Comment if you have any questions or helpful advice.

For reasons many of us won't spend reading all or even most of Ken's article, suffice to say that the ability of even the best sensors coupled with massive MP data, to collect sufficient light, followed by the need (when enlarged to a big print size) for image data to be created, is not going to be as good as film's ability to allow for enlargements. The reason is that the informations which is needed for enlargements already exists from film, but has to be created for digital.

A Can-O-Worms? Sure. A controversial subject? You bet. But When you read Ken's article you will see convincing evidence. When will digital catch up? Perhaps sooner than some of us think. But the sensors must be created with much more expensive sensor photons and hugely increased Megapixel dimensions. How many of us will be able to take advantage of this? Very few. It's damned expensive to do either of these and the two combined will prove in the short term, to be available only for the highest echelon of Pro photographers.

The positive side? Well if we are creating our own art for our own homes, then we will be able to pardon some indiscretions in perfection. Either that or we leave the big prints to the professionals.

Happy Mother's Day

You can imagine a Mother, any Mother in any part of the world which celebrates Mother's Day, when she receives her flowers, or her invite to brunch, or that special call, but one I like to think is even better is the print she receives which will hang on her wall for years which celebrates her. Hopefully your gift is on time, but even if it is late, make certain you remember her this year in a most special way. Linking to the title 'Happy Mother's Day' above, will give you a number of prints to choose from in my Gallery titled WhiteBorders.

Guess this Landscape

Hints may be provided depending upon the guesses.

OK OK I'll give you one; it is the headwaters of one of the world's least known rivers, but one of the world's most talked about sources. And I'm facing South.

Hint number 2: It lies just below the most famous mountain known for a volcanic blast about 30 years ago....

What does Anna Jarvis know about your Mother?

Well according to Wiki>(Right Click) , in 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and created the Mother's Day International Association.

You have just enough time to take care of your gift to your Mother by choosing a print for her to hang on one of her walls. You think she doesn't have a wall for a new print? You think all of her walls are full? Well just ask her. She'll know exactly where she wants it. Even if it arrives a bit late, and she'll never forget what you've done in her honor.

Now where do you find this print for your Mother? Get one right here and your name will echo in the halls of your family for decades to come. Especially when you sign the matte with your name as a gift, from you, for Mother's Day 2009. And if you'd like me to sign it as the photographer, just be sure you contact me before you purchase.

Happy Mother's Day May 10th and you'd better get moving.

Winners are selected Thanks for Subscribing

The Mother's Day Contest has ended and the winners have been selected. Thanks for those who entered and subscribed to OutsideShooters Blog. Your prints will be on the way soon. For those of you who missed your chance, sign up or become a follower and you'll be notified of the next update, post or contest as they happen.
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Enter the Mother's Day Contest by subscribing with a valid email to OutsideShooter's blog, and we'll award you one of five prints of your choice. First one to sign up gets their choice of any print at 12x18", next two, any print at 11x14", the final two, any prints at 8x10".

Where do you find these prints? Scroll down to About me OutsideShooter and click on Subscription Contest. Now here's the key: just let me know which one you want. Give me the name of the print. Post a comment at this blog under any article to let me know. We can control any spam by having you enter a Comment. There is not other way to enter.


Good luck and who knows you may be able to present this as a Mother's Day gift if you are quick enough. Contest ends April 28 @ 6pm. Remember to subscribe with a valid email address just above and to the right.

Reformatting Your Flash Memory Cards

We get into habits and one of them may well be when we get back from a shoot, of taking the media card out of the camera, be it a Compact Flash (CF), a Secure Digital (SD), or whatever and placing it into the reader slot in our PC's to ingest for saving or working on them. Then once they are in the PC we right-click on Format. Done, now we are ready to shoot again. But should we do it that way?


OK this is not an example of format corruption but I thought I'd scare you anyway.


I would not and I do not allow my PC to format my flash memory. A PC has it's own formatting procedure and it does so from the PC angle. To prevent this I never take the card out unless it is full and I need a fresh card for more shots. When I get to the ingesting of data into my PC, I will USB cable to PC. The camera is specific to the type of formatting it was engineered to do even given the media card format specifications. All Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Hasselblad, Mamiya and so on (with few exceptions) format slightly differently so that there is always present at least the opportunity for data degradation or corruption if not formatted using the hardware which then interprets incoming data, in this case light, and then writes that data onto the card which it previously formatted according to it's own formula.

To say this a bit less complicated, make sure you reformat your card in-camera.

Have any questions? Leave a comment below and I'll get back to you.