Canvastic News

Canvastic is listed on the new Mac App Store that is available to all Mac users running Mac OS X 10.6.6. Check it out.

New installers are available for Mac and Windows at the website:

Mac: http://www.canvastic.com/support/download/files/canosx36i.dmg
Windows: http://www.canvastic.com/support/download/files/canwin35i.zip

The latest Canvastic version is still a free upgrade for all paid users.

An interesting story from the Apple Store

A friend and tech. support client recently purchased a new iPod Touch. She went home and was quickly disappointed when her black MacBook running 10.4.11 couldn't communicate with it. The new iPod needs the new Mac OS of course! She asked me about it and I lamented that this is a common occurrence for Apple users. The latest and greatest requires the latest and greatest... And so, I got ready to upgrade her RAM and install Snow Leopard. While she was at the Apple Store buying her system software for the upgrade she mentioned her surprise and disappointment that her iPod wouldn't work with her Mac to the clerk. No one at the store had even asked her about her computer when she purchased the iPod. She felt a bit victimized. I don't blame her. The new clerk consulted with the manager and they are updating her system to Snow Leopard at no cost. We upgraded her memory in a pretty affordable fashion. Happy ending, but why?

I find this interesting. Is the typical Apple "force-a-sale" strategy starting to backfire with upset customers? Are the Apple stores trying to upgrade anyone/everyone in anticipation of the upcoming Mac App Store opening soon? Just a sympathetic manager?

Shoot Color and Develop Your Eye for Black and White

It is a given that shooting RAW files and converting to grayscale is the way to have your black and white photography come out the best. There are lots of tutorials, lessons, and software to help with that. I'm currently pretty excited about the results I'm seeing from Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro. I have heard and read plenty about it but only recently gave it a try. I'll be buying it.

But my post is about developing your eye. When I'm shooting, color is all around me. I see the color but have a hard time "picturing" the grayscale image sometimes. If I set the camera to capture grayscale jpeg's I get to see the image in black and white and it helps me develop my eye but I don't get all the RAW data I want later during post processing. 

So, my solution is to set the camera to capture RAW and JPEGs. Then I set the JPEGs to be captured in grayscale. The best of both worlds! I can edit the RAW later but develop my eye in the field. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

About Nature Photography Guides

New Web site just launched: http://naturephotographyguides.com

Find a companion photographer to Guide you or become one yourself...

Are you tired of photography workshops? You probably don't need them anymore and they are expensive. You are an accomplished nature photographer already (or on your way!). Wouldn't it be great to know a local Guide that would take you to great shooting locations when you visit a new area of the world? Someone that shoots like you do. Someone that shoots the same camera brand that you do. Someone you have come to know via email, chat and phone calls before the shoot. Someone that can really help you get the shots you want to get in the time that you have to get them.
All of that, is what Nature Photography Guides is all about. Started by photographers that don't want to pay for instruction when it isn't needed but need guidance in new exciting locations. Guides, companions, fixers, local talent, fellow photographers, drivers ... whatever you want to call them, that's what we have here. Here's how it works.

Safe Updating on Mac OS

Before running any software updates...wait a fews days to a week. If there are any problems with the updates you will hear from me if you are one of my clients.

Then when you are sure there are no problems follow the directions below. Updates do best on a “quiet system” ... no applications running, nothing printing etc.

1. Restart
2. Run Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility - select the disk on the left, Click Repair Permissions
3. If there are issues, call Steve, if not continue
4. Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility - select the disk on the left, Click Verify
5. If there are issues, call Steve, if not continue
6. Do the software update or installation or whatever

Anthem Triathlon, Broomfield, CO Photos are posted

Photos of the bikers at today's ( 7/31/2010) Anthem  Triathlon in Broomfield, CO are posted at EventPictures.com

Use http://teachtech.eventpictures.com for a more direct link. Many bib numbers were obscured so participants may want to search for "unknown" as well as their number and partial numbers.

The Anthem Triathlon is a production of Redline Races. 

Photos are all © Steve Gandy Photography.

Nikon settings for tracking a bird in flight...

I'm certainly not the final expert on this subject. Bird photography is not really my "focus" at all. But I always try to follow a bird in flight when I can just for the skill enhancement, eye/hand coordination, and practice on resetting my controls quickly. These images are current on my Nikon D3, might be slightly different on other models.

First, you want the Focus Mode (front of camera near lens) set to Continuous not single or manual. This allows the camera to keep following the subject once the system has "locked onto" the subject. You want Auto on the lens switch as well.

Then you want the Auto Focus Settings (rear of camera near the Multi-Selector) set to Auto Area. This will let the camera use the entire central portion of the frame and all the focus points to try and acquire (and keep) the the subject...which is hard to do! This makes it easier.

Note the picture shows Single point selected not the Auto Area.

Finally, the Release Mode, should be on CL or CH (Continuous Low or Continuous High) (on top left of the camera) to allow for quick exposures. The CH can be as high as 11 frames a second.

Then fire away. If you lose focus try again. Practice makes perfect. Well, "perfect" probably isn't a great word for this but it will make you faster and better.

Great Blue Heron

Apple Mail application preferences corruption issue solution

I had an interesting problem with a client's Mail today. After migrating to a new i7 iMac Mail worked but crashed and had to forced to quit whenever you tried to edit the preferences.

After searching the web and Apple's support site with no luck I devised a plan to trash the ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist file and then manually rebuild the accounts. The mail in folders is unaffected by doing this but I made a backup just in case.

Before going to all this trouble we called AppleCare and we were bumped up to a Mail engineer that approved of my plan. But while talking we decided it was worth seeing if we could get the old iMac to re-write the prefs, then copy them to the new iMac.

I created a new email account on the old system. Closed Mail, which apparently did force Mail to re-write the preferences file, and copied the prefs over and it worked! The file's corruption was fixed.

Since this wasn't documented anywhere I decided to blog it myself.

Digital Photography Intro classes

I have 2 upcoming classes on the calendar:

1. Saturday, Feb. 20 and/or Mar. 6 at Mojo Coffeehouse in Lafayette: Just 4 seats available $90. To hold a spot on this one I need a check. I will hold that until class day. There is a 50% cancellation fee.
2. Thursday, April 22 at the Boulder Digital Arts classroom in Boulder: Lots of seats available $125. Registration is handled by BDA on their website. See the site for cancellation details.
3. Landscape Photography Tour in Utah: I'm also leading a landscape photography tour to southeastern Utah, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef National Parks, May 2-6. Let me know if you want more info on that. Limit 6. $500 plus food/lodging/transportation costs.

Here are some links to info on the classes:
http://www.boulderdigitalarts.com/training/details.asp?offering=21
http://www.stevegandy.com/photography/classes.html


The class is always well received is great for beginning to intermediate levels of expertise. About half of the day is spent on photography with hands-on time and half on the computer with the image software, again hands-on.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'll be traveling 1/28 - 2/5 on a photography tour to Costa Rica so my responses may be delayed.

New Top Ten Images Post

Haiti Earthquake Tragedy : http://top10images.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

New Bumper Sticker Spotted

There is a new bumper sticker spotting post: http://bumperstickerspotting.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

Apple USB Modem is Discontinued?

I know that everyone should have broadband networkconnection but discontinuing Apple USB Modem, a  $49 item that could be so essential for a traveler or rural resident seems short-sighted and annoying. They don't even offer a choice for any modem in the Apple Store anymore.

Sorry for all the links, I'm experimenting with the new Amazon Associates/Blogger.com integration for bloggers.

Clean Install Windows 7 from an Upgrade Disc

I was fully ready to "upgrade" from an old copy of Windows XP Professional to Windows 7 today when I found out the XP or Vista license isn't really required.

Using a Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade disc I re-formatted the Bootcamp partition on my MacBook and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7. All went well until it restarted and asked for my product key. I entered it but it refused to use the code stating that it was not "valid."

I knew it was a valid key so I called Microsoft support toll free (866-234-6020) and reached a very helpful individual working in the call center in India. He spoke English very well and was very helpful. He inquired about the circumstances and I told him all that I had done. Apparently, the product key will not work from an upgrade disc on a "clean install" without some help from Microsoft. He instructed me to remove the product key from the field and proceed without it.

Once the computer restarted again he had me run a program called msdt. You can find it by entering it in the search box in the Start Menu and pressing Enter. It asks for a passkey from the support personnel. I entered it and Windows activated and the installation was complete....no need of the XP product key. I asked about entering the XP key and he indicated it would not be needed. I asked about replicating the process later if need be and he indicated that the passkey he gave me should work if the hardware was the same. However, he said they would gladly re-issue the passkey if needed.

So, do you want to install Windows 7 on a budget? Buy the upgrade disc and call support. I'm assuming the Microsoft is just glad I paid for a disc...it couldn't be that much trouble to program in a request for the XP product key, could it?

Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint will crash if your saving path is too long

One of my clients kept having problems with Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac crashing when he was using copy/paste functions. Nothing we did seemed to fix it and we could not find any info. about the problem on the net.

After upgrading to Office 2008 we were hoping for better performance but it immediately began crashing when saving. Not every time but often. We have worked on this issue for quite awhile and finally discovered that if we moved the file that crashed to the Desktop it did not crash.

That led us to looking at the enclosing folder more carefully. We finally discovered that the path to the document was quite long, over 300 characters. If we shortened the path below 256 it would save. If not it crashed.

Mystery solved but my client (because his folder structure is huge and well thought out) has to move working documents to the Desktop then manually move them back into his archives.

I tested Apple's Pages (an older version) and Sun's OpenOffice. Neither of these programs had the issue.

One other point on Office 2008 for Home and Students. Entourage no longer supports Exchange servers. But you can run the old Entourage if you don't delete it during the 2008 install process.

Snow Leopard 10.6 has a Problem!

That could be serious. If you have Guest access allowed on your Mac and you update to Snow Leopard you could ***lose access to your own data***! It happens when some uses the Guest login.

If you do have Guest access enabled:
-Backup up everything now
-Turn off Guest access ( It is in the System Preferences in the Accounts area )
-Use a limited user account for guests


See this page for more info: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10373212-263.html?tag=mncol;title

Call me if you have questions.

Gandy_2006-0926_0016_WEB

Gandy_2006-0926_0016_WEB, originally uploaded by sgandy.

Just entered this in CNET's Indecent Exposure podcast's weekly contest. The theme was BLUE.

http://reviews.cnet.com/indecent-exposure-podcast/?tag=rb_content;overviewHead

Gandy_2009-0420_0535-2_COMBO_WEB

Gandy_2009-0420_0535-2_COMBO_WEB, originally uploaded by sgandy.

This was done using the blend-if mode of combining exposures. I have been playing with it, using a blurred mask, and the HDR functions in Photoshop on images. It appears that the method depends totally on the image.

iPhone 3.0

The newest update to iPhone software is out and it is worth the effort for sure. Go get it. But...

I'm pretty much underwhelmed..
-syncing notes - about time, should have been in 1.0
-copy/paste - about time, should have been in 2.0
-voice memos - nice but aren't there a bunch of those already?
-some other stuff doesn't work on my original iPhone

Universal search is nice and again wasn’t it expected in 2.0? The version of search they put into the address book then was pretty lame.

Don’t get me wrong the iPhone is the best cell phone I’ve had but the hype is amazing.

Water Photos

Test of the Animoto.com site
This looks pretty good. Note the logos and messages that are inserted for a non-paid account.

Press Release: Canvastic Supports the Stimulus Package with Large Discounts

Lafayette, CO April 14, 2009 – Canvastic LLC announces support for the educational technology funding included in the nation’s current stimulus legislation. Canvastic will apply a 50% discount to any purchases made, in any part, with the stimulus package funding. According to eSchool News, April 2009, the stimulus funding is being delivered to school districts nationwide this month. IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) will receive $12.5 billion. EETT (Enhancing Education Through Technology) will receive $270 million. There is other money included for education in the bill however Canvastic is educational software that uniquely supports the vision behind these two specific initiatives.

IDEA is all about supporting individuals with disabilities. Students with different needs require tools that are flexible and adaptive. Canvastic was designed from the ground up to support the idea of Universal Design as an assistive tool in the area of the school publishing process. That is, it can be configured to work with students at all levels of abilities from a pre-school level to advanced. Called “Grows with the user”, this is the signature feature Canvastic. Students and teachers from pre-K to grade 12 use it in an unlimited number of configurations.

EETT is all about integrating 21st century technical tools into educational activities and learning styles today. Technology of all types can enhance any learning process but it is especially well suited for writing, presenting, illustrating, and documenting that learning. Too often our children are forced to use 20th or even 19th century tools in the creation process in school. The stimulus funding could be the catapult for creating a new paradigm in creative activities at school. Canvastic is a publishing powerhouse for students. Learners use it to write, draw, present, and publish. They incorporate images, photographs, and audio into authentic modern documents that enhance and support the learning journey. Content created is printed, posted online, and experienced as multi-media presentations.

The 50% discount on any purchases made, in any part, with the stimulus package funding translates into a school being able to install it on every computer for less than $500. The cost to license it for the school and the students’ homes is less than $1000. States, districts, and other educational support organizations are welcome to apply.

Steve Gandy, a Canvastic LLC, principal said, “We are very pleased to announce this program. Many, many schools have no idea that there are other choices for publishing with their students. They gave up looking years ago because the powers that be never really adapted the toy-like applications for real school use. Schools that are going to use this funding to change how technology is used in the classroom will need tools like Canvastic to do it. Ubiquitous computing is coming to our students and I don’t believe that we want them publishing with office suites designed for business or toys created for entertainment.”

The application process for this funding is simple and quick. Contact Canvastic LLC for details.
Canvastic LLC
12635 Flagg Drive
Suite 101
Lafayette, CO 80026
info@canvastic.com
877-579-8207

Canvastic is the graphics and text publishing software for students and teachers in K-8. It features a clear on-screen display making it easy to use for everyone. It can be customized for users of different ages. It really grows with the user. Canvastic is a real tool for school, not a toy. There are no time wasting features or excessive options. You can download a demonstration copy at www.canvastic.com. Canvastic also hosts the new Canvastic DOT NET, a free, online version that requires no installation.

About Canvastic LLC
Canvastic LLC is the coming together of two companies to develop and market the software Canvastic. FlatTop Technology, Inc. (FlatTopTechnology.com ) builds custom software applications for businesses in a wide variety of industries and was the lead technical developer of the Canvastic software. TeachTech Inc. (TeachTechColorado.com ) is a consulting firm founded by Steve Gandy.Full product information is available at: Canvastic.com.


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