My first DSLR

I feel like a kid again! I bought my first DSLR; it's a Nikon D3100. WOW! What a camera. I have always loved taking pictures of family, friends and just anything that seems interesting to me. I first started back in the 70's with a Kodak 110. Then came the Kodak instant camera. Later I bought a Kodak 35mm fixed lens camera which I loved and kept for many years. I actually used that camera to shoot pictures on my honey moon with my wonderful wife. After a hiatus from photography, I bought a Nikon L18 point and shoot. And now I'm here. Nikon D3100. Since I bought it (last Friday May 13th 2011), I've been shooting pics like crazy. I've posted a fraction of a fraction on Flickr.com. To view those pics click on this link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdeanda67/

So now I'm enjoying a passion of mine. I'm learning how to take better pictures and learning all about photography jargon and techniques. And, I'm loving every moment. This is as close to reliving my childhood as I'm probably going to get. My thanks to Leo Laporte and Lisa Bettany from Mostly Photo on http://www.twit.tv/photo as well as Jared "froknowsphoto" Polin from http://froknowsphoto.com/ for helping me sooooooooooooooo much to learn terminology and tips. Thanks!

Coliseum site

On a whim, I took some pictures of where the Memorial Coliseum used to stand. It is, fort the moment, a flattened area. Construction has started on something, not sure what they are going to build there. I just wanted to document the site with the coliseum, after the coliseum, before the new structure and after the new structure.

New notebook

It was one day, about 3 weeks ago. I was having a great time on my computer: watching twit, reading e-mail, tweeting, and reading articles. I felt like watching a movie on Netflix so I clicked on Child's Play, I missed Chucky. The movie got through the first 5 minutes and my computer locked-up. The screen froze up and I was hearing a fuzzy sound coming from the speakers. I thought to myself, well its just a crash, let me restart. Well, my machine would not shut down. Even hitting the power button wasn't shutting it down. I finally removed the battery and that finally did the job. However, when I tried turning the machine back on, ya, it wouldn't turn on. My laptop would go through a strange cycle of coming on for about 2 seconds and shut off. And, I could not get it to stop this cycle any other way except by taking the battery out. Needless to say, I was pissed. I have many ideas as to way my computer went down, but my overwhelming suspicion is that I over heated my CPU. Just a guess.

I am now back up and running with a new notebook. This time a Gateway. Should not have bought it when I did, but here it is. First impression, its pretty cool. Very light, very fast and has a great display. No review right now, will have one later. Bottom line, right now I'm getting acquainted with it but I really like it right now. It's great to be back in the saddle again. I thought I could access the WEB via my phone (which I love) for a month or so but no, no cigar. You can do a lot of things with your phone but it doesn't compare to a full fledged computer

web DMC is a downer

Thus far I have no idea what anyone else's experience has been with the new WEB DMC, but I simply hate it. This is the absolute worst website I have ever used. It took me 2 hours to register online using this ridiculous site. It took too long to load pages and I had to read a tutorial in order to get registered. I have nothing against tutorials, however I have never had to read a tutorial in order to purchase something on Amazon or Best Buy. Are you kidding? If that were the case, I don't think they would attract very many customers. On those, and other websites, things are so simple and easy to use. A customer browses through categories, makes selections and hits the check out tab. Your done. My God, but not the WEB DMC. First of all you have to wait until they allow you to register then you have to wait (what seems like forever) for the pages to load, follow specific steps (enter the tutorial) and then maybe you can finalize your registration, if you haven't missed any steps, in which case you have to start again or go back to the tutorial.

I try very hard to stay away from this site. I only go there when I absolutely have to.