It’s got tabs, like Firefox.    I assume the RAW processing is better, but can’t comment yet.

GPU!

Better filters in Bridge.  Only want to see ISO 100 photos?  Done.  Navigations like Vista.  Good touches.

Count tool is very handy and useful!  I love it very much.

That’s a butterfly.

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I like photos better.  Much more detail in a picture.  Can sort of see the head and its wings in the emoticon, but it’s not the same.  Still its a creative one!

A butterfly and a flower

These can be a difficult thing.  Normally a person is too big for them to notice to much, but if you move quick, they don’t like it.  You have to wait for them to show up, can’t walk up to them.  And they don’t let you get too close.  You need a big telephoto lens.  I kind of like the 100-400 L with IS, but not so much the push and pull.  The 400 DO lens can’t focus that close.  It’s hard call.  I like 300 mm f/4 with IS.

Here’s another butterfly picture.

For me, wildlife is better photos than portraits.  Nature is more interesting than man made stuff like cities and buildings.  More intruige and mystery that way.

I really think this is just a clever fake.  Can you tell?  There are no edges.  Such a weird picture!  It looks like the kind of guy who rides a motorbike.  He’s got armor on over his clothes, can’t even see the person inside.  And look how mean the dog is!

Somebody emailed this to me, it’s how to cheat for better pictures.  Asked what I think if it.  Seems like a great resource for beginners, like portrait tutorial.  But another thing is it’s good for everyone to remember.  Sometimes I think a photo I take is bad, and nothing to do with it.  If not perfect, try again with another one.  Usually it works pretty good.  Drives me crazy, but gives better pictures.

Been reading lots of tutorials lately on pictures.  Some of them are just crazy, like how to bring your camera in a small boat and try not to drown it!  I never do that!!  But this one is better, how to discover your passion of photography.  Even when you never forgot, it makes it easy to stay inspired.

There are all kinds of Photoshop tricks.  I’m already using CS 4!  Has new features, like rotating the canvas, all the blending, better RAW, and plus I really love how you can get all the adjustments together like that.

And so anyway this is how to make portraits that don’t look so good better.

I’m not very good with portrait pictures, but Photoshop won’t help me.

Wish I was better at Portraits

Now look how good these are.  Mine, devoid of art vision, but those have soul.

So I realized a lot of people don’t have very much time to go hiking with digital SLRs and take pictures.  These people can’t be experts in everything, and if you aren’t photo nerd, taking pictures might be like nuclear physics to you.  So here’s a list of some of my favorite things to help me when I take camera out.

• This jacket keeps me super warm!
• Garmin Oregon is my favorite GPS, but very expensive!
• Here’s tips on how to keep your camera dry.
• I have Lowepro backpack, because it takes big lens and tripod.  Think a camelback would have been better.

What are your favorite tips and gear for hiking?

Ferns & Redwood Trees

Pine Needles

The Tide Pool

Clean is what I thankful for this year.  Not clean indoors, I’m very messy person.  It’s clean air.  And water.  Pristine wilderness.  Without this we have no real home.  I live in city of San Francisco (very nice place) and I spend lots of time in Marin Headlands (last picture on the page) and Yosemite.  Places make me feel more relaxed.

If we lose these places, the world changes.  Imagine a city that stretches over all the land in the world.  Now imagine if all the wilderness is just wasteland, like Nevada desert.  Need more variety in life.

So this year here’s what I’m thankful for:

The Enchanted Forest

Need water and shade to live.

Very nice too. No off shore drills here.

Yosemite is special treat:

Vernal Fall, Yosemite

And finally this one:

Clouds of Yosemite Snow

These are what I’m thankful for.

Chinese people are very proud.  I learned an example of this from the Wedding Photography Blog (I’m very big fan!), which has New York Times story of two people so in love, even violent earthquake can’t stop their ceremony.

Wedding Crashed

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The Church

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But Love Survives

Golden Gate Bridge is wonderful but it costs too much.  Wonderful red bridge over Pacific Ocean with cliffs.  But Golden Gate is more than that.    Whole region of California!

Planes Over Marin County

Wish I took that one! Someday need to be in small plane, but I’m worried it will crash!  Presidio is right across the bridge, then it’s Golden Gate Park, dividing rows of houses in Sunset and Richmond districts.

Here is bridge at night:

Lights on Golden Gate Bridge

My favorite part is water reflecting on the lights below.

Finally lets have the panorama. Mountains are smaller than Sierras Nevadas.

Sailboats under the Golden Gate

Nikon pretty good too, but Canon is the best.  When I started many years ago, Canon had the best lenses.  And that’s important!  But now it’s more.  The world is digital, and Canon make the best chips.  Nikon buy from Sony, admirable company, but CCD not as good as CMOS.

Most digital cameras have lot of noise.  Very ugly pictures.  Can look good if you have talent and skill, and frame good, with right color or a good black and white, but up close, pictures have ugly grain.  I can’t stand this!  That’s why I love CMOS.  Even at very high ISO, is very clean.  Has many benefits like pictures are more sharp because detail not lost to noise, and because anti-noise code not needed to blur your image.  Colors are better.  But most of all, nobody see grain when you look at the world, so it shouldn’t be in photos!

Friends ask me “what kind of camera should I buy?” and I say I have a very nice point and shoot.  Never use it.  Was a waste of money – very good, but gather dust.

Has to be quality

I just hate to regret if I get a picture that’s almost perfect, that’s all.