BurningbirdTwo photos from the hike today. I have others and a hiking story, but I don’t have the writing itch tonight. Maybe tomorrow.
It was a tough hike, but beautiful. Limestone carvings and cliffs and ferns and lots and lots of boulders to climb over. Supposedly there are orchids around this area in the summer.
Yesterday I spent a considerable amount of time at CompUSA exploring the differences between the Canon i990D and the Epson 2200. What I didn’t know is that many manufacturers send representatives to this store at certain times in the week to answer customer questions, and the Epson representative was there. The Canon person was not, but the store personnel went out of their way to demonstrate the i990D, including taking it into the back to find a computer that had the drivers installed.
The Epson was a very nice printer, and did beautiful work and the Epson rep even went so far as to have me talk with someone who had purchased one several months ago. And of course, there were the reviews of Epson printers in my comments in the previous post on this subject, and several people who I respect have used this company’s printers, including Jerry with the 2200 itself, and have positive things to say about them. Of course, there are those in my comments, who, like in the other reviews I’ve read, have negative things to say about Epson printers, or positive things to say about Canon.
In the end, both printers would seem to be the top of the line for high-end inkjet photo printers and I most likely wouldn’t go wrong with either choice. It really did come down to what I wanted from a printer. And to that end, I decided to go with the Canon.
Though the Epson has ability to handle rollpaper and larger prints, including a cutter for photos, I did not like having to swap the matte black ink out for glossy when switching from matte paper to glossy paper. The 2200 is also an older printer, and doesn’t come with the Pictbridge interface that would allow me to print directly from my camera. In addition, the ink is more expensive and the machine considerably slower.
Now, the Epson does have more flexibility when it comes to paper sizes, the ink is supposedly less susceptible to fading, and it has more options as to types of paper. But it was also $200.00US more than the Canon, and most of the advantages it had were ones that weren’t particularly important to me.
My main use for the printer is to create portfolios to send out to various magazine publishers in hope of fanning the barest embers of a photo career, particularly since I am now faced with the fact that I might have to find a new career (i.e. see last post, bring hankies, your eyes will tear). I also want to print out photos for myself, family, and friends, but the largest I’m interested in creating would be 8 x 10 (or I should say, 8 x 11 1/2). I might do a 13 x 9 for curiosity, but anything larger I would have my favorite photo lab create for me, using their professional equipment. I trust my lab, and I know when to do something myself, and when to invest the money and have it do the work for me.
I brought my Canon home last night, and set it up this morning. I also bought a bluetooth USB adapter and new wireless Apple keyboard for my PowerBook, and then proceeded to break the bluetooth adapter by following Apple’s blanket instruction to upgrade the firmware (not when it’s already at the version needed, I learned — kiss one adapter good-bye).
Luckily, the Canon setup went flawlessly, and after I did my first ‘lucky’ initiation print with the paper in backwards, I was able to create several 4 x 6 prints that literally had my jaw dropping because of the color and detail this printer can manage. And this was without using any specialized ICC profiles, of which I have much to learn.
After several years of taking photos and getting such good advice and encouragement from folks in the weblogging community; to getting a really decent camera (again with the help and advice from people online); to using the best software (ditto), and now using an exceptionally good printer (ditto about folks and good advice)–it’s all starting to come together and I’m overjoyed and filled with buckets full of droplets
Recovered from the Wayback Machine.
…babble, let me tell you about the new toys I’m thinking of buying.
I’ve decided that if I am going to seriously pursue photography, then I need to invest in the equipment to hopefully build some decent portfolios. One such is to get a Wacom tablet to use for both drawing and work on photography; another is to get a decent photo printer.
I started looking at the Epson Stylus 300, but ended up drawn to the higher end products: the Epson Stylus 2200, and the Canon i9900. The two seem to be the top contenders, from comparison reviews I found online.
I think I’m going with the Canon, not the least of which it’s cheaper, and the 2200 is being replaced. And the Epson print heads are a problem. Canon paper isn’t as cheap and available, but I gather that Epson paper can work for the most part.
I have to be careful with this expenditure, and make the best choices. Whatever printer I go with will have to last a good long while.
I had finally gone through all of Dad’s books and decided which to keep, and which to give away. I called the library, but they weren’t accepted any new book donations until April.
The lady I talked to asked what kind of books they were. I said they were mainly mystery and detective novels. She suggested I call the local Veterans hospital and see if they could use them.
The hospital said they’d be grateful for the donation, and I went down to drop them off at the Jefferson Barracks Medical Clinic. The weather was fine today, and the place was very pretty with the old barracks buildings and their peeling paint. I asked the person who helped me unload the books if I could take pictures, but she I better not — the place is also the local Homeland Security office.
The hospital is right next to the National Cemetary and I stopped by it to take photos. There were several funerals underway in various places and I could, from time to time, hear the faint echo of shots being fired.
It never fails to move me to see the row after row of white gravestones, especially so soon after my own father’s death. I was grateful for the camera, because through it I could view everything dispassionately. I managed fine up until I heard the single trumpet playing Taps.
I have been experimenting around with my new copy of Photoshop CS, and realize that I’ve never really utilized my previous copies, as much as I could. The new version has added a whole lot more to the tool and I estimate it will now take a couple of months to really understand how to use my Nikon D70 and Photoshop CS to best advantage.
For instance, I was looking at the File Folder option, and am amazed at what I can do: preview images, automatically package or create photo slide shows, annotate the photos with metadata in XMP format (nice, that), and a host of other activities. I’ve never used the File Folder option before, and can’t figure out how I did without it.
(In fact, I created a photo show and a slide show of several Air Show photos from last year — easy as selecting photos and clicking a few buttons.)
I’m running with 512MB of RAM, but I accidentally opened 25 large photos at once in Photoshop, and it managed. It took a bit, and wasn’t fast — but it worked. But I have so much to learn now. Thanks to O’Reilly, I have several books on Adobe Photoshop CS to help.
It used to be that good photography was more a matter of lighting and composition and filters and darkroom techniques. Now, one has to understand histograms and curves, 16 versus 8 bits, as much as filters and lens. But the composition and the inspiration, not to mention the love and delight, is still between you and your camera, and whatever happens to find itself if your viewfinder.