It is not often that I come across a piece of software I really like. I have tried all kinds of backup software and had lukewarm results with most of them. A few months ago I tried GoodSync. I was a bit skeptical when installing it but soon learned that this is a powerful tool for backing up files to external hard drives as well as offsite locations.

I stopped taking my laptop home from my office and instead opted for a 16 gb Kingston USB drive. I installed the Goodsync software on my computer in my office as well as at home. Before I leave, I pop the USB drive into the computer and it recognizes my drive, looks for differences between the set of files on my computer and my USB drive and copies over all the missing files and updates any files that have changed. When I get home, I do the same thing and it is set to copy all my files from my USB drive to my home computer. It really is that easy. It was fast to set up although I did have a small glitch and had to contact support.

I also downloaded the Portable Apps software and carry around a ton of software on my USB drive. It has made my life so simple and I don’t have to carry around a laptop anymore. If I ever need a file, or application, I just pop it into a computer wherever I am and I instantly have access to all my files from work, home and my favorite applications.

Goodsync has a fee trial version and sell for under 30 bucks. A good investment. Available at www.goodsync.com

Tamron photo contest

Baseball, apple pie, diners, drive-ins, folk art. From its music to its main streets, America is defined by its history and its present, how we live and breathe within the fabric of our society. Enter the 2009 Tamron User Photo Contest and showcase your image of what makes America tick!

The Grand Prize Winner of the 2009 contest will receive a Tamron AF18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical IF Macro zoom lens—the world’s first 15X ratio zoom— featuring Tamron’s new Vibration Compensation mechanism (a $599 value).

AFi - 10 56 MP Camera

True Wide Frame’ (TWF) sensor
The new Leaf TWF sensor restores lenses to their full angle of view. Together with DALSA Corporation, Leaf designed the exclusive new 56x36 mm TWF sensor to deliver 56 megapixel resolution across the entire width of the Leaf AFi 10’s 6x6 sensor area. TWF sensor technology in the Leaf AFi 10 imaging module and Aptus 10 camera back is also compatible with over 80 large-format cameras, maximizing their capture area. 

Following the success of the Hasselblad H3DII-39, the market’s most advanced DSLR, Hasselblad is taking its H camera system even further and today announces the launch of the Hasselblad H3DII-50, featuring a new Kodak 50 megapixel sensor, which is twice the size of the largest 35mm DSLR sensors. A new 645 sensor will also be launched in 2009.

“We are very excited to announce these two ultra-high resolution sensors,” says Christian Poulsen, Hasselblad Chief Executive Officer, “but having huge amounts of megapixels does not help your photography much if you are not using a camera system that can reap the benefits of these resolutions. What we are most proud of is the fact that the unique resolution and optical quality of our H-system lens line, combined with our digital lens correction and UltraFocus accuracy, has made it possible for Hasselblad to take our system even further with regards to the accurate capture and recording of image detail.” 

From a birth celebration in India to the winning run on a baseball diamond in California, the top entries from the 5th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest reflect decidedly international points of view, with a wide variety of content and style. In the July issue of Smithsonian magazine and on the web at Smithsonian.com, six photographs in five categories were chosen by Smithsonian editors, with one Readers’ Choice selected by Smithsonian.com visitors, readers and photography enthusiasts.

Smithsonian received nearly 7,000 entries in six categories: The Natural World, People, Travel, Americana, Altered Images and Readers’ Choice. Recreational photographers from 50 states and 82 countries submitted their work and the winners reflect the geographical and aesthetic diversity of the contest as a whole.

Olympus 550UZ

Cameras with this option usually indicate a need for the anti-shake feature by displaying the icon of a vibrating or shaking upheld hand in the viewfinder. Often there is an illuminated button or switch with the same icon, which turns it on and off. Several different technologies can be used to accomplish anti-shake; however, the results are not the same among them.

Newly introduced digital cameras are offering built-in programs that help solve photography problems. One of the latest is face recognition capability.

In past camera models, photographers had to be very careful when taking a multi-subject portrait because it was extremely important to set the autofocus distance to subjects correctly. You had to depress the shutter release button halfway during the auto-distance measurement, holding it there. Then you moved the camera so that the viewfinder included multiple individuals and snapped the picture. If you merely placed two people on each side of the viewfinder, the auto-focusing target in the middle would most likely adjust for the distant wall behind the subjects. Therefore, the faces would be out of focus.

Images made by famous photographers sell for thousands of dollars and are outside the reach of most people. Having seen these images in books and on the internet, people have grown to know the work of the pioneers of photography. As time passes many of these images gain in value and become even less accessible to the guy on the street. Now, it is possible to acquire some very important and historical images for barely the cost of making a print.

Copyright prevents people from copying images and selling them to the public but when the copyright owner is the US government the story  is slightly different. From 1935 - 1944 a group of photographers were hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to document the plight of poor farmers affected by the dust bowl.

Free Online Software Brings Photoshop Technology to Anyone Taking Digital Photos

Adobe Photoshop Express

Using a Monopod

They all offer great stability and have different heads installed for different types of shooting but the support that I enjoy using the most is my trusty monopod.