VietVet'67's photostream  

My Toy
Nikon D80

All of my images here on flickr are protected by copyright. Please NOTE and RESPECT the copyright. Copyright © 2010, by Phillip L. Buice. These images may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any manner or medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.
PhilB007@comcast.net
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Updated Profile 01.11.11:

Hi my name is Phillip, Married to my beautiful wife Sylvia, Four wonderful children, three girls Leslie, Susie, and Holly and one Son Jason, and between them seven Wonderful grandchildren ranging in in age from 3 to 22. Oh I just about forgot Baxter – our Westie that thinks he is human and seems to have us trained pretty well.

Sylvia, Baxter and I live in Tucker, GA – a non-incorporated town about twelve miles NW of Downtown Atlanta – Out near Stone Mountain for those that might have been in the area. Was born just three miles from where we now live and except for the time Uncle Sam took me away for two years this is as far as I have lived.

Love to travel and have been in most states except for some of the North Central and upper two North West States. Photography is just a hobby - but one where I can express myself, I guess my camera is to me what a brush is to someone that paints. I have been a camera bug for just about all my life starting out with my aunt’s Brownie, a few 110’s, my Dad’s many Ansco and Agfa range finder 35mm and then my own 35mm SLR a Yashica J-7 I picked up in Vietnam. Had the old Pentax screw in mount and a lot of fun to have a Zoom lens. Then I got what I still say is my all time favorite an original Canon A1 SLR – it could do just about everything our Nikons and Canon’s do today but on film. Got a Canon Elf ASP and it was a lot of fun with the ability to change from one file to another in mid-roll – we don’t think a thing about that much more, of being locked into roll of 100/35 and have only shot about 5 and then comes along the shot of a life time but now you are indoors poor light and no flash allowed – Need that 800 NOW. Well we just dial it in or easier still let the camera do the thinking and changing for us – what small things we have come to take for granted.

Got my first digital a few years ago – a Minolta Z1 – a few from that camera are posted here. Then the big move – at least for me – a Nikon D80. Do all my shooting in RAW and use Nikon Capture NX 2 as my first and sometimes my only editing software. There are a few things that Capture doesn’t do so I switch to the low cost Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, to add Textures, Text, Borders etc.
I have found Capture NX 2 to be one of the most versatile, capable of doing things others can’t and easy to use. I can change colors or tones to a select region without making mask etc. There isn’t a Mask or Layers option to get bogged down in. It is almost think of how you want something to look like and with a few clicks of the mouse – Walla there it is.

I use Firefox for my browser and have a lot of Greasemonkey Scripts to make doing things in flickr quick and easy. One of the programs I like best and use it to get around in flickr quickly is Cooliris. With it I might be looking at my ‘Recent Activity’ and would like to see the work of someone that made a comment on a photo of mine. I don’t know if the newer versions have worked this out but it was gone for a while – and that is if you put your mouse over the lower left corner an icon for Cooliris will pop up and by clicking on it, it will open their Photostream in a wall type display. The photos are posted here in a medium size and if you click on it, it will grow to full window size and from there you can go to that photos page, comment or whatever, and then return to easily go back through their entire site in just a few minutes. The other – and one I REALLY Love – is using it on Groups. Say you got an invite to ‘The Worst Photo on Flickr’ and had to comment on three or four. By just going to the real pool (not the first page) and clicking on the first photo you will have the same wall of photos to quickly and easily scan and go to. Then scan through them easily and no thumbnails to look at.

Reminds me two of my favorite Greasemonkey scripts. One is ‘Flickr Refer Comments' By Mortimer which adds where you came from to get to this photo and add it to the end of your comment. The other Flickr 'Commented On' puts a little red colored call-out style icon on the right of the others to show if you have already made a comment on that photo or not - and if you click it, it will take you to the comment. With some of them with a couple of hundred comments it might be hard to see if you have commented on it already – but with this – there it is in red showing that you have.
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