BushChang Family Web Site

Home of Steve, Christine, Katherine, Ally, Rosebud, and Rex

You are here: Home / Archives for Hobbies

Hobbies

Katherine in Her High Chair

Now that Katherine has strong neck and head control, we felt it was time to try her in her high chair so we wouldn’t have to hold her while eating. As you can see, she had a fun time in her chair. She generally tolerates it for about 10 minutes or so, after which she starts to scream and squeal! We try not to respond right away, so not to encourage this behavior. That’s easier than done though.

Katherine Goes to See Michael Jordan

On March 26, we took Katherine to our the last game that we have tickets to this season – Sonics vs. Wizards. It turned out to be Michael Jordan’s last game at Key Arena before he retired this year. We managed to get several OK pictures of Michael. We also tried to put earplugs in Katherine’s ears since it gets kind of loud. She was quite the sight with bright orange ear plugs sticking out of her ears. They also lasted a total of 10 minutes. She would swivel her head around, and the plugs would just fall out! Anyway, she lasted a full quarter and halftime. We left during the third quarter when Katherine started to melt down.

Color Management on the Epson 2200

The key challenge in viewing and displaying digital photos in color management. Color management is the process by which different digital devices can alter a digital image for display on that device. The CCD in a digital camera converts light into a binary image. This binary image can be RAW (exactly what the senSors see) or compressed into a format like JPEG. Most people output JPEG format from their digital cameras. Not all devices render the binary values in a JPEG as the image as seen through the lens of the digital camera. Different printer papers (glossy, matte, luster, flat) combined with ink produce different variations of color. Color management provides a mapping mechanism between the device and the digital image. On Windows these are called ICC profiles.

I print most of my “keepsake” images using Adobe Photoshop. I use Adobe’s RGB (1998) working space for manipulating my images. Often I have to convert the image’s color space to my “working color space” within Adobe Photoshop. I turn off color management on the printers and use Epson’s ICC profiles for the different papers I’m printing on. I use the “SP2200 Premium Glossy_PK” profile when I’m printing on Epson’s Premium Glossy photo paper. Adobe Photoshop 7.0 has a Print with Preview option that allows me to scale pictures to fit the paper and set the “Print Space” to be the “SP2200 Premium Glossy_PK” profile. When Printing Adobe will map the image from the Adobe RGB 1998 working space to the printer’s ICC profile (“SP2200 Premium Glossy_PK”).

If you have Adobe Photoshop, I recommend downloading the P.I.M. II plug-in from the Epson web site. It automatically installs the Epson 2200 ICC profiles for their most common paper types. The P.I.M. plug-in also supports EXIF image header information. This gives Adobe additional clues as to what image was captured by your digital camera.

Switching to Digital

Switching to Digital

I consider myself a serious 35mm amateur photographer. Christine and I lugged a whole bunch of Nikon gear to Africa and shot nearly 80 roles of slide film. I had always preferred film or slide photography because I could reproduce my favorite photos, frame them or give them to relatives. My early digital camera didn’t have the color saturation and variations in tone that could be produced with the chemical development process used for film.

A couple of months ago, I purchased the Nikon D100 digital camera. This is an SLR camera that basically is a digital version of Nikon’s F100 camera but with a plastic body instead of metal. The D100 takes amazing pictures and I’m very happy with it’s color reproduction for everyday pictures. I will continue to use my Nikon F100 for portraits, special events, and some travel photography. For everything else, I’m switching to digital. It was just too much of a pain to scan in negatives and slides to display them on my web site. By shooting digital, I can post the photos directly to my web site.

I didn’t feel like I could switch primarily to digital until I could find a reasonably priced photo printer that produced near photo lab quality results. I purchased the Epson 2200 photo printer and I’m completely happy with the results. If I print on Epson premium glossy photo paper and look at the print from a distance (framed photo distance) I cannot tell it from a photo lab print. With the Epson 2200, I’m able to make enlargements and copies of my digital photos for framing and for giving to relatives. Each print costs more than a photo lab equivalent but I find that I print only the photos that I want to give away. Most of my digital photos end up hosted on my web site. My web site is now the primary tool for me to communicate and share photos with family and friends.

Epson 2200

The best feature about the Epson 2200 is the roll paper and cutter option. Using the Windows XP printer wizard (I had to configure everything first), Christine can select a digital image from a file share and print a 4×5 photo using the wizard. A roll of 4″ paper is feed through the printer and the printer automatically cuts the photo to size.

The inks and color matching software in the Epson 2200 are much improved. From B&H Photo: “By using Epson’s seven-color UltraChrome inks, the Stylus Photo 2200 is able to print images at fast speeds with a larger color gamut than the previous generation. These unique pigment-based archival inks reproduce the color range, density and saturation of dye-based inks more than ever before, making this printer the best in its class with its photo and color quality, and superior fade-resistance.” When using Epson paper, prints are expected to last 80 years or more.

I’m a happy digital photographer.

BushChang.com Reorg

I did a Google link search on bushchang.com yesterday and found quite a few non-family links to my home page. I’ve decided to use the home page as my weblog and move all of the family stuff under the “Family” section. Our weblog on Katherine will be accessible under the family section. Some time when I have a free weekend, I will make the family section private to family members.

Back Dating a WebLog

I have to admit that I got behind on posting to my weblog and wanted to catch up. After posting all of my weblogs, I thought I would go fix up the weblog entries to have the right dates (back-posting). It turns out this is a harder problem than I thought as you need to trick Radio into generating the archive pages. After much tinkering, I came up with the following reproducible steps:

  • Write your web logs in reverse order as you want them to appear. Write the oldest first and so on until you’re current. Radio numbers all of the logs sequentially and expects them to be in order.
  • Post each web log to category. I created a temporary category called Temp. This will force Radio to add the web log to it’s database.
  • Open Radio, the application. From the Window menu, select weblogData.root
  • Using the Radio outliner, open the last X entries where X is the number of entries you want to back date. Double click on the entry (eg. 000000064).
  • Change the when field to the correct date
  • File->Save to save weblogData.root
  • Now you need to force Radio to regenerate the pages. Go back to each weblog and move it from the Temp category to the category you want it to be in. This forces Radio to rewrite the calendar, archive, and home page for that category.
  • Go back to Radio. Select Radio->Publish->Entire Website (forces entire web site to be regenerated)

If the steps worked correctly, you should have been able to backdate your posts.

Katherine is Almost Sitting…

Katherine is on the verge of the next stage of babyhood. Today she sat up in a tripod position with her hands supporting herself for several minutes. How did we find out? This past Christmas, Katherine received a Tiny Love circular play mat from her Aunt Sharon and Uncle Jamey. Now that she is four months old, we figured it was time to take it out and see how she liked it. We found it to be a perfect toy for tummy time. Between the animal noises, sunny mirror and floating fish, she stayed distracted for over 5 minutes on her belly, pushing herself up to get a better look at it. I (Christine) then propped her up in the center of the mat, where she leaned over her arms and sat like a little tripod. Not captured in the picture is Katherine losing her balance and toppling face first into the mat – a very funny moment.

She’s also developing her sense of balance – standing up! With a little bit of help, she can stand and put almost all her weight on her feet. Katherine is a bit wobbly still, but it’s just a matter of time until she can sit on her own and stand up without one of us holding her.

Katherine and the Convertible Car Seat

We stretched Katherine out today next to a paper tape measure. She measured a whopping 25.5 inches. We shouldn’t have been surprised given that she was 23.5 inches at two months. That prompted us to go purchase a couple convertible car seats. This is likely her last week in her infant car seat. She also weighed in at 15.5 lbs; we’ll get confirmation this Friday at her four month appointment.

Katherine spends the day in Seattle

Every 6 or 8 weeks we trek into Seattle to get our hair cut. This Saturday turned out to be the perfect sunny day for a visit to Seattle. We spend the entire afternoon pushing Katherine around in her stroller past Pike Place Market to Pacific Place and back. We ended the day with a dinner at the 5 Spot cafรฉ.

Katherine attends the Sonics vs. Lakers game

Steve and I subscribed to several Sonics games this season. We decided to take Katherine to her first game this past Friday, and despite initial concerns, she loved the game. We got there at the end of the first quarter. She sat thru the entire second quarter, gazing at the scoreboard TV and people around her. When the fans clapped their sticks during the free throws, she would turn her head and watch them. During half time and the third quarter we walked in the concourse. Katherine dozed on and off. We left for home and she fell promptly asleep in the car.

Nikon Cameras

Nikon Cameras

In response to Rich’s blog on which camera to buy. I own both the Nikon N90 and F100. The N80 is newer so I don’t know exactly how it compares to the F100. Christine and I took both the N90 and F100 to Africa. The F100 took better pictures hands down. It performed faster and better than the N90 in awkward lighting and focusing situations. It’s a bit heavier than the N90 (metal vs plastic body) but definitely worth the extra weight.

I own both the SB-28 and SB-80DX flashes. I had to buy the SB-80DX flash to work with my Nikon D100 digital camer which I love. I can reuse all of my 35mm lens and accessories with my D100.

Advice on buying a 35mm camera:

  • Invest the most money in quality lens. The quality of the lens is your best investment as it determines the clarity, distortion, and amount of light your camera has to work with. All of the features of your camera body are designed to adjust focus and determine the right exposure (amount of light ) for your picture. You can do these tasks manually with some experience but you cannot compensate for a poor quality lens.
  • Flashes are cheap. Buy a good flash. I like the SB-80DX myself. The flashes that come with the camera work only OK for “fill-in” flash situations. Often the best lighting is achieved by bouncing the flash off of the ceiling. The D100 has a built-in flash that I use for snapshots but when I want to take the “only happens once” pictures, I use the SB-80DX.
  • Film matters. In most cases, the slower the film speed, the less grain you will see in the prints which results in better pictures. Most professional films are better than their consumer cousins. You first must decide whether you want to shoot slides or pictures. In general slides have better color saturation but the photo lab cannot correct over or under exposed slides. Prints are better for passing out to friends and family and negative film is much more forgiving of over/under exposed images. I invest in professional film because it makes a noticeable difference in the quality of the images. I shoot Fuji Velvia 64 and Kodak E200 for slides. I shoot Kodak Porta for print. Porta comes in two flavors: natural and vivid color. Natural is better for portraits of fair-skinned people. I use mostly Kodak Porta 100 and 400 vivid color. I use 100 for outdoors and 400 for indoors.
  • Buy a quality clear or UV filter for all of your lens. You often clean your lens and it’s much cheaper to buy a new filter than a new lens when scratched. Remember, that expensive lens is worthy unless you also buy a quality filter. Also buy a blower bulb.
  • Replace your camera strap with a neoprene strap. It distributes the weight better and makes carrying the camera more comfortable. I own an optech pro strap.
  • Buy a plastic mini-tripod with a Velcro strap. They’re a little taller than my hand and are great for taking timer portraits. They easily fit into a camera bag. I own an Ultrapod II and use it all of the time.
  • Buy your photo gear from B&H Photo. They tell you explicitly when you’re buying import vs usa components. Most advertised “cheap” prices are for “gray” or import versions of Nikon products that don’t have the USA warranty. B&H Photo has the best prices for the quality of products and service they offer. Glazers is the best local camera shop.
  • Choose your camera vendor wisely. In a amateur/pro camera category, the market leaders are Canon and Nikon. You need to essentially commit to one product line unless you want to repurchase your lens and accessories. The grass always looks greener on the other side. My only regret with Nikon is that Canon has a wider selection of image stabilization lens.

Rich, good luck on your camera purchase. Let me know if I can help in any way.