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!

So, what do you think?

Will smart phones put point and shoot digital cameras in the dustbin of history?  That's the scuttlebutt lately.  It seems the iPhone 4S has a 8 MP camera that takes decent pictures (hoping to get an iPhone later next year when my contract is up for renewal - who knows, but then ,we may be up to the iPhone 5!).

I can say this - I have three Sony digital cameras:  a point & shoot (12.2 MP); a "medium level" camera, as I like to call them (DSC-H20 - 10.1 MP) and a Sony Alpha (10.2 MP).  In my previous reviews, I believe I indicated that, although it has more megapixels, the quality of the pictures taken by the point & shoot just does not compare favorably with the H20 or the Alpha - they latter are still my "go to" cameras (that's why hubby has been "gifted" the point & shoot!).  The point & shoot is mainly for banging around (when we are hiking or going to sporting events and we don't care what happens to the camera); the others are for more sedate/important times - travel, sightseeing, parties, etc.  But, once you have 8MP and up cameras in cell phones, do you need a point & shoot, or is a point & shoot something you would just rather not carry around anymore?

What do you think?

Sorry for the delay!

As you may have heard, my part of the country was hit by the crazy pre-Halloween snowstorm!  We got 20 inches of snow in my city and we lost power for ~6 days.  Brr was it cold trying to sleep in 20 degree weather with no heat.  Add to that no telephones, no cell phones, no water, no Internet!  It was stir-crazy-ville!

We have been busy cleaning up (lots of tree damage), and so no time to tell you yet about the PDN photo show in NYC.  Good thing I had already planned to go that Friday, because had we gone Saturday, we would have been snowed in in NYC for a couple of days as the trains were not running to CT for a day or two.

I will tell you about it as soon as I have some real time to write.  I'll give you a preview though - although it was bigger - with the addition of the Wedding Professional photographers hall to the expo, it was disappointing.  Olympus chose not to have a booth (although it was a sponsor of the show!); Pentax's booth was so small we missed it - didn't see a Panasonic booth.  And the folks at the Kodak booth were just downright nasty - no wonder they are struggling in the market - if you are nasty to your biggest customers, why should we buy from you?

Anyway, after those tidbits, I'll be back soon with more info.

PDN New York City

The big photo show is coming up in less than two weeks in NYC and I'm planning to go to the EXPO (if they ever send my passes!).  I last attended in 2009, and there was lots of interesting information on new products,  cameras, techniques, printing, etc.  Very exciting!  And, this year they are combining the regular photo show with the wedding professionals photo show - two shows in one!


Unfortunately, I am not allowed to take photos in the exhibition hall (boo!), but I'll be sure to share with you what I saw and found to be of interests, and any products I was able to try.  


On a personal note, I finally started selling my photos online through zazzle - please give a look, and if you feel like  it, let me know what you like, or if there is anything you's lime to see.  Thanks!   zazzle.com/ABAllenPhotography*

Steve Jobs

Few people have had such a profound effect upon the world.  Although Apple wasn't known much for photography (okay, it had some cameras on its iPhones and iPads), Apple revolutionized what we could DO with our digital photos and videos.

I've said I was a Sony girl once Sony bought Minolta from Konica (it allowed me to use my Minolta lenses - very expensive - on my new Sony alpha camera without having to shell out for new lenses).  In fact, I am now typing this on my new Sony Vaio (replacing an HP that died a premature and apparently HP-the-company couldn't care less death), but don't think I didn't consider Macs.

My first computer was a Mac SE - wish I had kept it - some enterprising people turned theirs into aquariums - very cute.  But, I traded it in (yes Apple had a trade-in program then) for an Apple LC II in 1992.  That I still have and it still works - but it can't connect to the internet and I have to use the old dot-matrix printer with it!  LOL!  Then, I met and married a Windows guy, and, for family harmony (although he reluctantly looked at Apples with me a few months ago), I have been a Windows person.  Let me tell you though, I win the lottery, and I will be buying myself the most souped-up Apple that I can find.

Thanks for all the innovation, Steve.  I'm sorry you had to go via pancreatic cancer - my family lost two women to that dreaded disease.  They, unfortunately, went very quickly (5-6 weeks from diagnosis).  I'm glad that you were able to be treated (although I can only imagine how painful and grueling it must have been).  I hope what the medical professionals learned from your case can be used to help others.  RIP, Steve.