Another camera contest

pictureline inc. is giving away a Canon EOS 6D 24 - 105 f/4 kit.  Enter here http://bit.ly/TO4VxR and good luck!  Let me know if you are the lucky winner!

Cool photography giveaway!

There's a great giveaway going on.    pictureline.inc. is giving away lots of cool prizes  - today's was (I was too late) I believe a Nikon D3200.  Not bad.  Enter through this link http://bit.ly/PjiB2p  - it's a Facebook contest, if that matters to you.

Bargain alert

I understand that you can get a 5x7" softcover 20 page photo book for free (pay $1.99 shipping) from snapfish by using the code HPREWARD.  The code may be good until January 31, 2013; however, it can always be pulled before then.  I would also presume it's one use per person. www.snapfish.com   Have fun!

Deal time!

Here's a fast post for you - at Picaboo, you can buy one get one free with code.  Great for all the wedding, graduation, Father's Day, Mother's Day. and other family pictures you have hanging around and meant to get to the in-laws.  Use the code SUMMERTIME for BOGO on classic books and calendars, and 15% off other products.  http://www.picaboo.com/web/  expires June 27, at midnight, PST.

I received nothing for this - picaboo does not even know that I am passing the offer on.  Just helping out with spreading the news about good deals!  :-)

Have a great, picturesque, day!

Product review

Every so often, I think it's a good idea to let you know about products that are tangentially related to photography.  Now, given that we have all mostly moved over to digital photography, sometimes we like to take our laptops with us.  To protect my laptop, which is white and has a nice diamond shaped pattern, I decided to order a laptop sleeve from Slappa, a company that  recently sent me an email that indicated a clearance sale on laptop sleeves.

I checked out the email and, much to my surprise, they had, what they advertised as a white, diamond pattern sleeve for 15.4 inch laptops.  Score!  or so I thought.  I ordered  it this past Monday or Tuesday (I forget) and I received it yesterday with regular shipping.  Nice, speedy delivery.  But then you add in the fact that the box was open because when they taped it shut, they didn't seal both flaps of the box to keep it closed.  Add to it that FedEx threw the box at my open front door (beautiful weather here yesterday).

Okay, so the arrival was mixed.  I thought the box was rather large for a 15.4" laptop sleeve, but maybe they put packing material in there.  No.  I grab the sleeve and pull it out of this black bag (like the reusable grocery bag material) and I see this huge laptop sleeve.  At best you could call the color ivory - it really is closer to a light tan.  I attempt to put my laptop in it and it is just swimming in the sleeve - the corner elastics, meant to hold the laptop don't reach (oh, sure, you could apply them to one corner, but not the other four for the top/bottom).  Interestingly enough, I have an ancient 17 inch laptop and the sleeve fits it!  Now, I don't want to lug the 17 inch lappy around, so, no, not usable for that purpose.  Not usable for the smaller laptop either, for two reasons - one the fit 9or lack thereof) and two, the aesthetics - the ivory/tan color looks horrible against the white of my laptop.  Finally, it has a black mark right by their logo button on the front which mars it at well.

Due to their return policies and the fact that this was a clearance item (wit surprisingly glowing reviews), it's not worth it for me to return it.  This was my first experience with the company.  If you've shopped with Slappa, let us know your experience.  I don't think that I will be doing business again, given the packaging, color, size, mark issues.

UPDATE:  yesterday, I wrote a review of the product at the product website, and at this time, 24 hours later, the review has not been posted - only the two prior ones, giving the product 10/10 rating have been.  Makes me question the company even more.  Also, company did not respond to my feedback email in 24 hours (in my business, we always return emails within 24 hours, weekends/holidays excluded).


Second Update:  It's now weeks later.  Slappa NEVER answered my email to them about the product and the problems, never posted my review (only positive reviews are posted for the product I bought), and in fact, sent me a survey to fill out, including asking me to write a review of the product.  That second, negative review has not been posted, nor has Slappa contacted me with regards to my request for contact in the survey.  In my eyes, and experience, this is a poor way to treat customers, and I will not be shopping with them again - no doubt about it at this point.

What a beautiful weekend for beautiful pictures!

It's been a while, I know.  Life catches up on you sometimes, you know?  I actually dusted off my two Sony cameras (the alpha DSLR and the DSC-H20) and took lots of pictures with both.  Things are really blooming around here.

I also learned a wonderful trick.  You see, we have well water, so I have not allowed my hubby to use pesticides or herbicides on out lawn.  Well, after years of that, dandelions and lamb's ear (?) have taken over a good portion of our lawn (if we can still call it a lawn).  Earlier last week I heard that you could kill weeds by taking white vinegar + spray bottle + sunshine, and when sprayed directly on weeds, dead weeds!  Well, I had to try it.  Well, guess what?  It works (don't do a mass spraying, just directly on weeds themselves as it will kill other plants.).  And, it provides almost instant gratification.  Take a look at these once live dandelions a few hours after spraying:

The grass was already sunburned in this area - so the vinegar did not hurt the grass - it was already in that condition.  I am just so happy to have a natural way to kill the weeds in my yard.  And my husband is thrilled to see way fewer dandelion seeds blowing in the wind.

I also managed to catch a few pictures or a beautiful hawk that appears to have made a nest in my yard somewhere - in a few days you may be able to catch a few pictures of it o my zazzle site.

So, what did you take pictures of this weekend?

Kodak and Polaroid

Raise your hands - was anyone really surprised that Kodak filed for bankruptcy this week?  A company must really be mismanaged if it can't manage to sell its patents. . . .

On the flip side, here's a company that's done a remarkable job adapting - Polaroid.  During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, it showed off the Polaroid Z340.  Yes, it gives you instant photos with no ink.  But, it stores the photos in memory, so if you lose the instant photo, you can print it again.  According to the description, it's a full function digital camera and an integrated printer.   http://store.polaroid.com/product/9/356223/Z340/_/Instant_Digital_Camera  It retails for $299 although I would expect deals should be coming down the pike.  Zink paper, with 30 pages per pack, presently runs at $19.99 at the Polaroid site - again shop around for deals.  14.0 MP camera, add borders to your photos before you print, and SD expandable.  I have not seen or tried this camera out, but it does look cool!

Have fun!

So, how were the holidays?

Hope everyone got what they wanted?  Any good holiday pictures?

We went out for a drive to see the holiday lights.  We live on the state border, so we went to the next state and drove past one of those places where the entire house must look like Christmas land inside, or else they rent multiple storage facilities to store their display.  It was awesome, and yes, I took pictures.  But, I have been tired and lazy and haven't uploaded to my computer yet.  The folks were truly in the holiday spirit - they even piped in music and had a radio station coordinate the music.  Well worth the 20 minute drive.  :-)

On to photo news.  I'm sure everyone has heard about Kodak's and Olympus' woes.  There are even some reports that Kodak will not survive the year.  I agree that might be the case, but during a bankruptcy sale, I'm sure certain products, such as paper and printing, and, to some extent, even film (yes, some photographers shoot with film still), will survive even if owned by other companies - and the Kodak name will probably be part of the sale of the products.  Given their behavior at the PDN show in October, I can see why Kodak is failing - the employees there were certainly not interested in showing off or promoting their product - they were surly at best.

Now, Olympus, that I will really miss if it goes under.  I haven't paid too much attention, but there seems to be some sort of scandal brewing and accounting problems.  Olympus put out great products, and, if I weren't such a Sony/Minolta fan, Olympus would be my next brand of choice.  Would love to try the Olympus PEN camera - there's an ad that shows Olympus was giving them away on city streets to people to try - why, or why was I not lucky enough to snag one?  :-)  Unfortunately, although there were signs up at PDN 2011 showing Olympus as a sponsor, we didn't see a booth there - perhaps because of the company turmoil.  Hopefully, Olympus can recover.

I even hope Kodak can recover, but it needs better management that will look to the future and not to the past.  Innovation, Kodak.  Seriously!