pierces

No, but I still bear the scars of converting all my useful docs written in it to Word with the only available method...ctrl+A - ctrl+C - alt+tab - ctrl+V. Sort of like converting slides, prints or negatives to digital. 🙂 To my knowledge, no camera company that offers a RAW option has orphaned a format and I doubt any will. Digital photography has come a long way since I switched back in 2001 and with amazing things like full-frame global shutter, R&D departments still have a purpose. Fun discussion! Dave

Yeah, yeah...real photographers only shoot RAW. 🙂 I will shoot RAW when it is applicable, but with near magical exposure analysis and incredible dynamic range along with Camera Raw in Lightroom and Photoshop able to perform all the same corrective functions on a jpeg file, the need is just not there like it used to be (unless one really, really screws up the exposure somehow). Especially with the excellent jpeg engine in the Sony cameras. I wrote an article on the subject a few years ago if you're interested: https://pierce324.com/raw-vs-jpeg/ Dave

Each of the JPEGs from the new camera are 35mb - 43mb. Once decoded and loaded, they take up a lot of room when loaded as layers in Photoshop. Add undo history while processing and the memory usage can get ugly fast. Could probably get by with 32GB if I had to. That's what scratch disks and virtual memory are for, right? Thrashing a spinny drive with endless reads and writes to virtual memory was ok back in the day but using up the TBW limits on an SSD rather than spend a few dollars on more RAM doesn't make sense with memory being as relatively cheap as it is. I set the limit pretty high in the preferences and it makes complex adjustments and content-aware edits pretty perky. To me it's like buying a couple extra 2x4s for a project. Better to have and not need...etc. Computers are such fun and so very much cheaper than building fast cars. Dave

I actually copied the wrong line from Amazon... I had intended to do 48GB (down from the 64GB I have on the current build). A 12-image stack of files from the A7rV will drive usage up to 36GB-38GB, so 48 isn't out of the question. I once upon a time needed vast amounts of memory for SQL projects and am stuck in the more-is-better mindset for RAM, but I'm getting over it. Then again...I may want to try my hand at video and rendering takes a ton of RAM, so maybe I'll just leave that 96 number there for now. 😉 Dave

Teleconverter? I did Alaska last summer with a 70-200 f/2.8 and a 1.4x converter. Didn't feel I was missing anything and my memory of our Panama Canal transit, most of Central America is covered in jungle without a lot of open expanses. If you want to take a look: https://pptphoto.com/galleries/Travel/Cruising/2023 Alaska/index.html Dave

Preliminary componentry. Subject to change, but I have a good idea of where I'm going. Still waffling about the i9 vs. i7, but I still have a couple of months to work that out. Feels like 3-4 years of future-proofing. Still working out a choice for network attached storage. I want reliable remote access, so there's still some research needed. Dave

You may want to consider a smaller lightweight laptop. If you don't need discrete graphics and a lot of processing power, you can pick up a 14" unit with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for $600 - $700 at Costco or Amazon. Add a 4TB external SSD for $250 or so and you have a light, portable package you can use with the larger screens and keyboards at the houses or directly wherever you are. Dave

I have over 200k images from 20+ years of digital photography. 40+ cruises since going digital, a dozen family weddings and countless family events. I have used PS and Lightroom since the early 2000s to satisfy my image quality related OCD and can say that the additional real estate of the 43" monitors is a real boon. Not so much for editing, but for scanning thumbnails. It also makes Starfield seem more like a documentary than a game. 🙂 Dave

Fantastic monitor. Lightroom and Photoshop colors are rich and accurate. My Xbox Series X thinks it was a personal gift. My current favorite case is the Thermaltake P3. Open, wall mounted, with a glass front. No case fans needed. It is 100% silent, even with a 360mm AIO radiator and an RTX 2070 Super with three fans each. Ok. It is mounted on the wall of a storage closet behind my desk with all the connections fed through a 2" tube. Makes for a very tidy setup on the desk and sound isn't an issue. Since it is in a closed space, it stays perfectly clean. A real blessing since we live in a dry climate with what seems like half the State's dust delivered regularly from the High Desert by the Santa Ana winds. Dave

2023 was a weird year for our house plants and trees. The avocado tree was almost two months late producing ripe fruit. The Blood Orange tree produced a bumper crop of oranges as usual, but they were the size of tangerines, and the tangerine tree did a passable imitation of a cumquat tree with tiny little Barbie tangerines. The grapes were pretty close to normal but were also later than usual. The Christmas Amaryllis pictured here is supposed to bloom by Christmas but has joined all the others in whatever is inspiring their procrastination. I’m sure there’s a perfectly ordinary reason for the across-the-board variance in our flora. I’m also sure that the government chose this year to announce that not all those UFO sightings were weather balloons. Hmmmm... Running Late Dave

I have the Rokinon 12mm f/2 for APS-C and it is very nice for the price. Sharp and very solid. Dave

If you do any photo/video editing or gaming, consider a dedicated monitor rather than a TV. The Gigabyte AORUS I mentioned above. The color is incredible and didn't need to be recalibrated out of the box (came with a calibration results sheet). Dave

Both draw less that the Gen13 equivalents and only hit about 250w at max. I have an 850w uranium pellet bed reactor now and won't likely move to fusion until they solve the magnetic field failure issues. 😉 Dave

I'm about ready to start publishing my detailed what/why choices for the chosen components for the new computer to be assembled this spring. A lot of the new component tech has matured. Prices have come down and availability actually exists. The 14th generation Intel chips offer a major performance increase but exhibit the same difference between the i7 and i9 series as they have before with the 25% price variance for a 10% performance bump. It's not impossible that I would choose the i9 "just because", but I still can't really justify it in a price/performance argument. Generation 5 SSDs are pretty remarkable (4x as fast) but still pricey, so the mix of Gen 5 for operating system and Gen 4 for working storage (catalogs, imported image files, etc.) seems to be the best answer for now. DDR5 memory has dropped in price and is now a viable option. An internal rotational hard drive may be replaced by network attached storage, but the jury is still out on that. It looks like I will be replacing everything except the case and the old components will live on as a PC in a new case and be bequeathed to my eldest granddaughter who is graduating college this year with a computer science degree. Seems like a good fit. Upgrades are usually fun. You get new stuff and everything runs faster. Not every upgrade is as fun as it could be. My monitor started flickering about a week ago and the flickering soon became that diagonal mishmash that you used to see in old cartoons when a TV went on the fritz. Scrambled display. Turn it off. Turn it on. It would work for an hour. Turn it off. Turn it on. It would work for another hour. Not conducive to a stable work environment and since I work from home, the 2-day delivery of a new monitor was a real sanity saver. I ended up with 43" Gigabyte AORUS FV43U. It's the same size as the one it's replacing, but the color and refresh rate are significantly better (pretty fantastic, actually) and that served to lessen the pain of a sudden replacement becoming necessary during Christmas season. The increased demand/availability of large monitors and general tech maturity brought it home for about $200 less than the old one, which was nice. If you are looking for more real estate to edit photos on or want to replace a dual monitor system, this model is amazing. If for some reason you also wanted to run games on your PC or use it as a monitor for a game console, it is especially amazing. Do I absolutely need to upgrade my computer this year? Probably not. However, the four-year rule for replacing hardware due to probable lifespan limits and general increases in performance across the industry is past due. The old PC is entering its fifth year and while it's running fine and the potential for a sudden catastrophic change in that status is still low, it increases with every year. I should also mention that the godzilla-sized files from the a7rV are having an impact and tilting the decision scale. My choice, and while it's worth every extra second it takes to process them, I want those seconds back! Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, January 1 and Sunday, January 7. Here we are starting the 13th year of Picture-A-Week. It has been a long road (I have several pictures of it as proof). I can't force any of you to go out and take pictures to share but I can almost guarantee that if you do, it will add a little happiness to your life. Have a great year folks! Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

Pictures taken between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve 2023. Use your photographic skills to bring Joy to the World so we can start the New Year happy! Thanks for playing along for another year, folks. Wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year full of travel and, of course, photos to share! Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

Amazon has a plethora of cheap to not cheap tripods like this one. If you don't intend to carry one on every trip, there are dozens under $100 that will suffice for your trip without breaking the bank or your back. I have a Velbon Ultra Maxi Compact that I bought for the same reason. Sadly, it is no longer available but it fell into the cheap, but effective category like the one above and is still used occasionally. Dave

Sometimes nature gives you a gift. Late Friday afternoon, Kim and I were driving up to our favorite Mexican restaurant for an early dinner when I glimpsed a splash of color through the trees. It was a rainbow but appeared as a colored spike due to the rain falling from a very low cloud cover near the mountains and the low angle of the sun shining from a clear western horizon. There was nowhere to pull off to get a better view and the glimpses we got showed it fading away. As we neared the small airport on our route, the rain ahead of us started up again and the colors came back brighter than before. I pulled into the airport parking lot, jumped out and caught this odd example of nature’s beauty before it had a chance to fade away again. Rainspike Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, December 18 and Sunday, December 24. Week 51. The end is near...er! (Again, the end of 2023. No asteroids expected.) Holiday madness is everywhere! Be a journalist! Show us what's going on around you! Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

Back in the spring, we floated (pun intended) the idea of taking Matthew and Jackie on their first cruise for their birthdays. Their mom was all for it and we added her birthday to the mix and booked a 4-day on the Navigator of the Seas for the second week of December. As the time neared, the kids had a lot of questions about the trip. Mostly revolving around past tragedies at sea and what there was to do while not in port. All the trepidations evaporated as we crossed the bridge, and the ship came into view. We boarded, got settled and treated everyone to cocktails and mocktails in the Sky Lounge for sailaway. The rest of the trip was a whirlwind of fun, food, non-stop activity and the vicarious treat of experiencing a first cruise through the kid’s eyes. Sailaway Dave

She's 7, so the triple is a ways off. 🙂 She can, however, do a nice axel and is doing very well with her spins and the other compulsory moves required at her freestyle level. She doesn't enjoy skating. She LOVES skating. She would be on the ice for hours every day if her parents wanted to stop eating and live in their car to pay for it. Music? I have no idea. it was Christmassy and pretty and her finish timing was nearly perfect. Dave

Pictures taken between Monday, December 11 and Sunday, December 17. Week 50. The end is near (2023, that is). I know we are all busy with pre-holiday stuff. How about sharing pictures that show just how busy you are? Rules: See above That's it. This isn't a contest. All photos taken this week are welcome (not just cruising). Prizes will not be awarded. Discovering the joy of photography is the prize. The idea is to get folks out using their cameras for more than vacations and toddler birthdays. Post one. Post many. Up to you. Have fun with your camera and share your fun with others!

This week was the annual in-house Christmas show at Jackie's skating rink. All the skaters got to perform alone, in groups or both and Jackie did it all. She loves the ice and truly has a talent for the sport. Because of the limited seating at full competitions, we seldom watch all the locals compete and it was good to see that the local coaches are turning out some really accomplished skaters. Including Jackie. The Picture-A-Week project is supposed to feature pictures representing something notable that happened during that week, and this was no exception. We got to see that hard work and perseverance pays off even when that work is fun, and you have a natural talent for it. Congratulations on a great performance, Jackie (especially the previous absent smile!) Taaaaa-Daaaaa! Dave

Scheduling conflicts forced our Christmas party to be held last Saturday. The decision to throw the party was an actual decision this year. It may surprise some of you, but there's quite a bit of work involved in planning and executing a gathering for 30+ people. We had more people we wanted to invite, but our backyard entertainment area will only hold about 35 or so comfortably. The menu that featured Pasta a Fagioli soup and my Mother’s Barbeque beef sandwiches. There were salads, appetizers and desserts aplenty. The heaters worked out perfectly and kept the crowd comfortable despite temps in the mid to low 50°s. All-in-all, it was a smashing success and even the seemingly endless cleanup couldn’t dim our warm, fuzzy feeling of a job well done. We Did It Again Dave

Enclosing it in a bag does more to limit the amount of ambient moisture available to condense than actually speeding up the temperature stabilization. If you aren't going to go back out soon, just letting the camera warm up naturally works. If you need to speed it up, a hair dryer held at a gentle distance (hold the camera in your hand while warming it so you can tell if the air stream is too warm) will speed things up. When in a tropical environment, I use a small, low-power terrarium heating pad in the drawer or camera bag to keep the camera warm enough overnight to prevent condensation when leaving the air-conditioned cabin. (The hair-dryer trick works in a pinch as well). Link to the heating pad: https://a.co/d/h5uXgZK Dave