http://www.macworld.com/article/1166816/tricks_for_photographing_flowers.html#lsrc.rss_main

Excellent article on photographing flowers.

Slideshow on the ORPC Web Page

I successfully uploaded four photos onto ORPC Group Flickr page.  I am able to click on Slideshow and see all photos.  When I go to the ORPC Web site and click on the slideshow arrow my photos don't show there.  Is there something I have to do to get them to show there?

Near Infrared (NIR) Photography

For a recap of the NIR presentation by Mr. Rankin at the April 2012 meeting, please go to the April section of the Monthly Events area in the Sidebar (click HERE).

To see Mr. Rankin's notes for the presentation, click HERE

Google Picasa - Free Photo Enhancing Software

At the Club's Apirl 2012 meeting, Bob mentioned using a new program for editing/enhancing photos - Google Picasa.  Here is the LINK

The Newest in Photography - LYTRO

I have just learned about the NEWEST in Photography. How would you like to show photos that after only one exposure, could be in focus anywhere you chose?! With the new LYTRO light field camera photos you can be looking at a photo on a computer, a smart phone, an ipod or an ipad and change the area that is in focus! Click on the foreground - it focuses there; click on the background - the focus changes to to there or anywhere you click in the photo. Although it sounds like something in the far distant future, these cameras are available now for as little as $400

Click the link to go to the LYTRO web page and play with some photos and/or read about the technology.  https://www.lytro.com/living-pictures/289

The Best Macro Video Photography

For some of the best macro video photography you will see anywhere click this link.
It was recommended by Walter Markowski. It is all about the birds and the bees (and the flowers and the trees, etc  - no words just pictures.  I enjoyed it. I think you will also.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0

CAMERA SIMULATOR

As shown/discussed during the meeting on March 12th, here is the Camera Simulator website:  HERE  Take a look and experiment with the different settings - pretty cool!

Photographing Fireworks

here is a site for photographing fireworks.

http://www.pixiq.com/article/how-to-photograph-amazing-fireworks

Walt M

Zoner Photo Studio Free

Zoner Photo Studio Free

• Version: 14
• Downloads Count: 57
• License Type: Free
• Price: Free
• Date Added: Feb 29, 2012
• Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP
• Author: Zoner Software Inc.

Editorial Review of Zoner Photo Studio Free

It takes a while to get to know Zoner Photo Studio Free 14. The interface is a tad daunting at first, but it's time well spent. There's little that the program won't do in terms of cataloging, displaying, or editing photos and images--and it's free. It beats the pants off of GIMP in ease of use and is more powerful than Picasa, though the language tends to be a bit more technical.

Though it appears daunting at first, Zoner Studio Free 14 is actually easy to use--and very powerful.Zoner Photo Studio Free's interface is divided into three sections, which you switch between using tabs placed in the upper right corner of the main window: Manager, which handles file browsing and cataloging; Viewer, where you view individual files and slide shows; and Editor, where you manipulate your images.

The Manager has several tabs so that you can switch between views of the files as they reside on your computer, placed by date in a catalog, photos you've added to your favorites, and photos you've uploaded to vendor Zoner Software's Zonerama online sharing service. The Viewer is simple, with a thumbnail slider at the bottom to preview multiple photos in the current location so you can jump forward and backward by several photos, as well as a view a slide show of your photos. Though the program doesn't edit video, it does play video in the viewer section.

The Editor offers many effects, such as emboss, detect contours, pencil drawing, waves, etc. Standard editing functions like crop, canvas size, red-eye reductions, clone are on hand--as well as some more esoteric functions such as mesh distort, deform, align horizon, and others.

Zoner PHoto Studio free supports 3D, tags, GPS, and the usual cataloging tools. You will not be disappointed with the editing capabilities--and performance is top-notch with nary a lag anywhere. The program supports a wide variety of file types, including JPEG, BMP, GIF, TGA, PCX, PNG, HDP, JXR, WPG, and Zoner's own BMI.

There is one thing about Zoner Studio that I most decidedly do not like: persistent delete confirmation. I found no way to turn off the dialog asking me if I truly wanted to delete what I just said I wanted to delete. I often scroll through photos to weed out those that aren't up to snuff, and facing this dialog every single time wore on me. In fact, it sent me back to Windows Photo Viewer as my default viewer/pruning tool.

All in all, Zoner Studio Free is probably the best free photo editing software to be had. Unless you're a pro who needs dual-monitor support, HDR, batch operation, and advanced photo correction filters provided by the pay version, the free version is probably all you need. Now if Zoner would just let me get rid of that darn delete confirmation dialog.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

--Jon L. Jacobi