Bogle Photo Blog

The 2012 Beauty of the Mid Hudson Valley Desk Calendar

2011-12-04T18:54:00.000-08:00

For 2012 I have a new desk calendar. It is a Calendar in a CD case, that opens to sit on your desk. Each page is a separate month, with a new photograph from the Mid Hudson Valley. See Locust Grove, Marist College, Walkway over the Hudson, and the Hudson River images. The CD case is easily mailed (it can be shipped with a cardboard mailer) and takes up little room on the desk. It is not for your computer, but next to your computer. It is approximately 6" high by 5" wide on your desk opened.

Only $12.02, plus $0.98 NYS Sales Tax and $2.45 for shipping. Total $15.45

It makes a wonderful Holiday gift. It shows off the beauty for those who live in the Mid Hudson Valley, or it brings back memories for those who have moved from the Mid Hudson Valley.

Locally, you can find it at the Gift Shop at Adams Fairacre Farms on Route 44 in the Town of Poughkeepsie, or at the Locust Grove/Morse Estate Gift Shop on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie.

$15.45 includes Sales Tax and shipping in a cardboard mailer.

You can also order direct from me. I accept PayPal. You can click on the pay now and purchase it directly. New York State Sales Tax applies, as well as $2.45 for shipping and handling. Get one for yourself, and one to give to your friends.

Buy it here!

If you have purchased it in the past and still have the CD case, and only need the pages, e-mail me Bill@Boglephoto.com for a reduced price!

Its that time of year again!

2011-11-04T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well, we had our first snow, and massive power outages, but we will not be deterred! The Craft Shows are upon us, and I will be at the Hudson Valley Artisan's Guild Fall Colors Show this weekend, Saturday November 5, 2011 at Spackenkill High School, 112 Spackenkill Road, Poughkeepsie, NY. Admission is $4.00, but there are $1.00 off coupons available. E-mail me at Bill@Boglephoto.com and I can send you the coupons.

Come by and see my photographs, and buy a framed or matted print. I will also be selling two calendars. My annual desktop calendar, which again highlights the Beauty of the Mid-Hudson Valley, is available for $13.00, which includes NYS sales tax. It has 12 separate pages and images, and is in a CD case, which opens to be the desk stand. Here is the cover and one month.

I also have a wall calendar this year to benefit the Dutchess County SPCA. It is 11" by 17" open, with a different shelter animal featured each month. Many have been adopted, but there is the need to support and help those who still need to be adopted. It is a $15.00 donation to the DC SPCA. All proceeds of the sale of this Calendar go directly to the DC SPCA. You can write the check out directly to the DC SPCA.

I will have many framed images displayed, all for sale. You can buy framed photographs wired and ready for hanging, or if you want to frame it yourself or have it framed, matted prints. Several favorites, such as Bridge in Fog, are available in many sizes, or if you want a special size, I can print and image up to 16" by 24" and mat it to 20" by 30", or go even larger. These are archival pigment inkjet prints, matted with archival materials. Here is one of my most popular images, Morning Row, from the Isle of Shoals, NH.

Come by and say hello. Talk Photography. I am working on Digital Asset Management, which I think will benefit all photographers (even family photos), and have a number of ideas and tips on the same. I hope to see you there.

Bill Bogle, Jr.
Bogle Photography
www.BoglePhoto.com

PS, I will be at the DCAC 19th Annual Fine Art & Craft Market Show on November 19 and 20th, 2011 at the Clarion Hotel, 2170 South Road, Poughkeepsie, NY. More information to follow.

What to do when water starts coming in

2011-09-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

I live in the Northeast and before the last several weeks I have only had water in my house once in twenty years. We had a very wet summer, and when Hurricane Irene started up the coast, there was already saturated ground to flood. We got hit hard by Irene. In preparation for the storm I shut down all of my computers, unplugged all of my printers and peripherals, and thought I was prepared. What I prepared for, in part, was wind and tree damage, loss of power or surges, but not water.

I was in my studio on Sunday morning, watching TV on an old set, tracking the weather on the Weather Channel. I turned around and saw water, about half covering my area rug, and advancing fast. I immediately thought to get the battery backup boxes off the floor, and started to think what to do. I had an old shop vac that my father in law had bought. It has a 3" hose and is the width of a trash can. I searched for the surge protected outlet strip I bought several years back. Although many of the outlets in the basement are GFCI protected, I did not take my chances. Years ago I bought this outlet strip which has its own GFCI breaker in it. My outlets are up high - it is a raised ranch with a 4' poured concrete wall in the basement. I would not have gone in to shop vac the water if I did not have a GFCI connection. SAFETY FIRST!

The shop vac worked great. I filled it up and emptied it so many times over the next three hours, but kept the water contained in two rooms, one being my studio, the other the laundry. The carpet was trashed, and I pulled that out. I found bits and pieces of carpet, and water in spots where I did not think it could seep. I dried it all out, ran my dehumidfiers, and washed down the floor with a bleach solution. I thought about a new rug, but did not go out and get one. Good thing. Started to hook my computers back up, and just in case I made small wooden trays for the battery back ups to keep them elevated off the floor. Almost lost a large box of fine art paper, but got it before the paper got wet.

Over the next several days it was recovery. We fared pretty well, as other places had over 4 feet of water, and no power. It kept raining, but no water seeped in, so we felt it was a once in 20 year thing. I worked late into the night on my DC SPCA Calendar Wednesday to get the CD of pages to the printer. We felt we had gotten past it.

Until Lee. My wife woke me up Thursday morning at 6:00 a.m. with the words "we have water, again." The uncarpeted floor had little resistance to the incoming water. Got the battery back ups out of there. Hooked up the GFCI power strip. Got the shop vac. Three and half hours later, we saw the water going down. We had not put everything back, so there was a little less to get off the floor. We knew where to look. No further damage, and the clean up begins again.

So why the story, other than to go on about our water woes. First, have a plan. Run your back ups. Consider elevating any electric item that can be affected. I moved my computers to the desktop years ago as I am in them more often, there is less dust than on the floor, and the cables reach better to the desktop. I am grateful I did this. Second, unplug. Shut down computers when there is a threat of weather, as a crash can affect your hard drives and computers. Have back ups off site. If I had everything in my basement, and got 4 feet of water, I would have lost everything. And if you rely on a sump pump, consider a generator, as if the electric goes out, a sump pump will not help.

When I was in New Orleans, LA in November, 2008 doing post Katrina rehabilitation work, we went to the Lower Ninth Ward. There, a husband and wife photography team, Keith Calhoon and Chandra McCormick, had rehabilitated their double shotgun as a gallery. One side had the current work, the other the work they rescued from Katrina. Prints had the emulsion washed off or damaged, mats and frames were wavy and water stained. We learned they were shooting film in 2005. A freezer full of shot but unprocessed film gave some hope that the water damage could be minimized so that some images could be rescued. People lost all of the images of their lives, their families, their events in Katrina.

Here is one of the images rescued.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/boglephoto/3099501248/

Here is more on them:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14076198/ns/nightly_news-making_a_difference/t/photographing-present-past-n-orleans/

I want to make it clear, Irene and Lee combined had nothing on Katrina. But when you think that it cannot happen to you, it can. It is so vey important to back up and have a plan. I work on my Digital Asset Management (DAM). Hardware and software have to be included in any plan. And you have to do it regularly and consistently.

Be back soon. Got to clean up!

Dutchess County Rail Trail

2011-06-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

This is something Dutchess County has done right.

We have the Walkway, which is to be part of this, but the newly opened Hopewell Junction part of the trail is really great. First, there is ample parking at Gold's Gym (thank you for providing this) as well as quick access. Once on the trail, there is a 12 to 15 foot wide paved bike path and a dirt walking path that is easy to navigate. You roll along some of the higher sections of the trail, past streams, lakes (I never saw Lake Walton before and I have lived here all my 53 years). You can go for about 8 miles from Page Lumber in LaGrange off Route 55 to Route 82 in Hopewell Junction. Hear and see the airplanes as they come in or take off from the County Airport.

The view down the trail. Tree lined and some really nice rock cuts from early last Century. Like the Walkway, the grade is gentle, so riding along is really easy. Pass on the left after you announce your intentions.

There are crossings over 376, and a grade crossing at Didell Rd., that test your hill climbing speeds and downhills.

Spout Creek

Swans and young

Much beauty along the way. Swans and their young at Lake Walton. The Whortekill Creek, Sprout Creek.

You end at Hopewell Depot. We did 14 or so miles on our bikes. Families, kids learning to ride, people walking, dogs, friends, exercise.

Lake Walton

Big thanks to the people who were behind this. Easy access to getting outdoors and exercising. Yes, it took me 53 years to get interested in this, but spending two hours with my wife on bikes is one of the best things. No cell phone, no laptop, no TV. Feeling much better.

When the County gets the CSX piece, it will be truly groundbreaking. Hopewell Junction to New Paltz, and maybe connections to the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. Find your way across the County quietly, simply, and beautifully.

It is kind of like Field of Dreams. They built it. Now they will come. Get out and enjoy.

Check back often for random thoughts on Photography, Digital Asset Management, or other things that catch my eye. Thanks.

To SSD or not to SSD, that is the question

2011-06-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

As I started to do more in Photography, I also started to work on my computers. I was frustrated with the pre-packaged set up of most windows computers. There was so much bloat in terms of programs, and not enough power or space in the cases on with the boards to add in what I needed. So I made my own, and have never looked back. Micro Center has a great T Shirt with a hand and a screwdriver where it says "I void warranties." I will try new things, and have added blu ray burners, memory, hard drives, port multipliers, and the list goes on.

SSD's are interesting. Basically flash memory like a CF card, and a concern on how many times you write and erase on the same card. It is too expensive to replace a C drive completely for me for the size I want. I have separated out my programs from my data files for the most part (all photos are on a separate hard drive, backed up in two places). One person keeps all of the Lightroom catalogs in the SSD (John Beardsworth suggests this for speed). I would like to speed up my boot time, and have thought about putting Windows 7 Pro and Lightroom3 and Photoshop CS5 on the SSD, and the rest of the programs on the old C drive. May test this out with a Vertez 2 from OCZ, 120 gb at a cost of about $200.00.

Anyone trying this or have any thoughts? I would love to hear from you. E-mail me at Bill@Boglephoto.com

New website under construction, with more images and easier navigation (I hope), so check back at www.Boglephoto.com. Thanks.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

Spring Cleaning

2011-04-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Just the sound of that sends shivers down my spine. But it is time to take some time and take stock of space, and what to do with it. The computer room is getting quite full with cameras, computer parts, tables and printers. When you don't change the volume, but try to reconfigure it, you can get some more efficient use, but it still is the same square footage. Improving the electrical service and outlet locations has been a great help. I am starting to look into relocating Ethernet lines so hard wired computers can be located elsewhere.

It is time to look at what is used on a regular basis, and to find a convenient space for the same, and put away the other stuff. I need more workspace. I am trying to box up the older stuff and put it away. I can't get myself to part with some of the older stuff, so I need to find a place for it. George Carlin used to talk about a place for my stuff. That is all that we are after. I heard that thirty years ago we had no "self storage" facilities, and now the storage space rented to house all of the extra stuff is larger than the total square footage of the houses we used to occupy.

So it is off to the garage, going through boxes, making decisions, and making sorted piles. Maybe a garage sale is in the offing, but I will not part with my cameras or darkroom equipment.

Enough said, Amen

2011-02-01T11:07:00.000-08:00

I love snow shoeing and the snow we have gotten this winter, but for many people, this might be the feeling they have. January was one of the snowiest on record for our area. Get out in and play, or if you were the one, tone it down a little.

It is the First Baptist Church in Poughkeepsie, NY at the corner of Mill and Market Streets. It always has the best signs. The foreground is a low wall that adjoins the sidewalk, but the clearing of the sidewalk has created this mound. The background shows the Poughkeepsie Journal Building and spire.

This is going viral. Put it up on Facebook this morning, and it has been making the rounds. Let's see where it ends up. If you got this picture from a different source, e-mail me, as I would be interested on how it got around. A future topic here will be posting, copyright, and other practices.

But get out in the snow and enjoy it while we have it.

Bill

PS: I emailed Spencer Ainsley of the Poughkeepsie Journal with this Photo. He shot it from the other side and it is in the Poughkeepsie Journal on February 2, 2011, and it was picked up on AP and featured in the NY Times article on 2/2/11 on line. The Church's message is getting around.

Bill

Winter Photography

2011-01-23T21:01:00.000-08:00

We have had much more snow this year than usual. It has let us get out on the weekends and take snow pictures. There are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, be prepared. Have your batteries fully charged, as they dissipate quickly. Don't keep cameras or lenses in the warm moist areas and then go out in the cold, as they will fog or ice up. Keep your camera out, not inside a parka. Dress appropriately. Too many people overdress. Figure out if you are going to be stationary or moving for the most part. I try to wear layers of wicking fabric, either base layers and then fleece, but not cotton. Cotton traps water and sweat and makes you colder. I try to dress in layers, and use a parka as a shell. I like a hood so that If I get cold I can pull it on. I have snow pants over fleece long underwear, and wool or poly socks. I wear base layer gloves of poly under fleece mittens. I found convertible mittens at EMS which have half fingers, and the mitten and thumb covers pull back and lock with magnets. Warm and you can use your fingers. I wear medium weight boots (Columbia) which are big enough to wear with socks. I had a pair that were too small, and got a touch of frostbite on a small toe.

I love to snowshoe. I have not had much opportunity in the past two years, but this year has been great. You can get on trails or off trails. It is as easy as walking, and I don't take poles. I carry my tripod over my shoulder, and have used it extended a few times to balance me or push me out of deep snow. I use a carbon fiber Gitzo tripod, and it is nice to carry and hold in the cold. When you snowshoe, don't over dress. You will build up sweat. My parka and my pants both have zippers to vent out sweat, and I often leave it a bit open when exerting. When I stop to shoot, I zip up and pull the hood over if I am going to stand to wait for a shot.

Here are some pictures from this weekend. I love going to the Morse Estate in Poughkeepsie, as the trails are left ungroomed, or just packed by a snowmobile for the cross country skiers. You can leave the path and go in powder, or stay on the packed trails. Great streams, ice, ponds, and light.

2011 has arrived

2011-01-02T10:34:00.000-08:00

As the New Year is ushered in, we face an extended College Bowl Season (what happened to New Year's Day?), a Winter Classic (a great idea for the NHL) and a series of resolutions. I think at this time of year it is necessary to plan for the coming year. We had snow, but it has gotten warm, so there are not a lot of great shooting opportunities now. So here is a plan.

First, edit the meta data template and make it 2011. I found with Windows 7 the copyright symbol can cause issues. Instead of alt 0169 © to create the symbol, use (c) if it causes problems. Found this to be a major issue with Image Ingester, and now it works fine for a preset. If you haven't looked at this piece of software, it is great. You can download all of you images, make two backups, convert to DNG, add place location, make buckets for archiving, add keywords, and include all of your own information. I know many use a preset in Lightroom, but this organizes your files, backups and information in a much tidier fashion. Check out http://imageingester.com/.

Second, backups. I know, no one wants to do this, but you have to get control over your backups. This is more than just adding an external drive. If you can, move your image collection off the hard drive with your OS on it. Separately back up the OS and make an image so you can restore from that point. Back up your OS. Use a scheduled backup program. This applies to a Mac or Windows rig. I let Windows back up my OS, but also image with Acronis for bare metal restoration. I tested that on a laptop I wiped clean it is amazing how it saves all of your settings and updates. Dedicate an external drive for the OS backups, and store a copy of the image of your computer there. Make an optical restore disk so you can boot your OS when you have a crash.

Third, plan a back up system for your photos. Note, I do not include this in the other backup for a reason. Planning will help you figure this out without getting disorganized. It is too easy to get multiple copies of the same images, and then your hard drives bloat to an huge size where you are not sure what is useful. Look at Peter Krogh's DAM System Book, updated in 2008, which is a great road map on how to set up your archives. Make one drive your working drive, and have a daily back up of that drive (a mirror is a good idea for this backup as it follows your changes). Keep a second external for a weekly backup, and power that down and take it off site. If you can, have two such weekly off site drives, and hook one up when needed, make a backup, then swap it with the other. Remember, these are just temporary backups of your working files. They should include your catalogs for lightroom or expressions media.

Fourth, plan an archive system for your photos. Peter Krogh does a great job of describing the worth of this organization. You can find your files, and save time from searching. You can manage backups, know what is backed up, and have some assurance that it is safe. This includes a 3-2-1 backup plan. This is three backups, in two different medias, and at least one off site. It is not as difficult as it sounds. One hard drive can be the archive, make a copy of that and update it as you move files to it, and take that drive off site. Taking it off site has two benefits. It is not subject to power failures, viruses, or other on line threats when powered up. It is off site, so it cannot be lost in a fire, a flood or a theft. We all do not want to experience that, but like insurance, we do it to prevent against such catastrophes, I use a small fire safe by Sentry to put my drives in and take it to work, where the building has a fire sprinkler. Lastly, make optical back ups. They won't have issues with viruses or hard drive failures. That clicking sound can be the end of your files. I went to Blu Ray to save space on making disks. These are my fail safe backup, if everything else fails. Make sure they are good copies, and you may want to add validation to your plan.

This is daunting to start and implement, but go methodically. Get extra drives. I like external drives in multiple drive bays, and set them up as individual drives in a JBOD set up. I have set up a small server network, with each computer having its own job. A photoshop desktop with lots of speed and memory, a calibrated wide gamut monitor, and many hard drives. A server computer to keep the archive active. A laptop to take on trips or shoots, which can serve as an ingestion computer. You can use old computers to do the backup and server tasks. It is easier, however, if all are on the same OS.

Go to http://www.dpbestflow.org/ for more information and recommendations. emember, a plan is best to start with, and plan your additions such as drives or computers.

The Beauty of the Mid Hudson Valley

2010-12-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

For the past two years I have done a calendar. It started with an idea when I saw a CD calendar in Cape May, and thought the size was great, and it was self contained. I tried to find a template to make the calendar, but there were none for Windows (I know, few photographers are PC people, but I started there). So I still wanted to do this, and made a sample in Photoshop. With multiple layers of text and an image, I started page by page. The first year I even printed every page, finding the right sheet size, and then trimming each page by hand.

My first calendar was on of mostly local images. Last year I was out West, and used images of Yellowstone and Colorado for the calendar. I had it printed at Grey Printing in Cold Spring, and they did a great job. The best was that they were all cut and sorted. I learned a bit more using flattened tiffs in CMYK.

This year I decided to do one for the Mid Hudson Valley. I started with some scenes in the fall, and liked the fall colors, but decided to do it to coincide with the seasons/months. It was great fun to pick each image and fit it in the calendar. I learned how to better prepare the file for printing in CMYK. Grey Printing did it again, and they even caught the proof mis-size before final, saving me a great headache. They are really professional and reasonable.

The calendars have been a great seller. I started with the Hudson Valley Artisan's Guild Fall Colors Show, and then sold a lot to people who bought one last year. I have had a number of repeat purchasers, where they bought one or two and then ordered more.

Not many left. I have some set aside for gifts, and refills for the people who purchased last year.

Go to my website at www.BoglePhoto.com to purchase a calendar. You can use a credit card or PayPal. Get one before they sell out. They make a great holiday gift.

Thank you.

Thank you all for coming by to see me at the HVAG Fall Colors show

2010-11-08T06:39:00.000-08:00

I had a great time Saturday. It was my first Craft Show as a participant, and it was fun! I was able to display my work and get it out there. A busy day, with set up, trying to get the right look, and then sales. The traffic was steady, and I enjoyed talking to people about my work. The calendars proved to be a big seller. It was great to be able to show the larger framed prints of the images in the calendar. I will put up images of my booth. A huge thank you to Mary Ann Glass who not only lent me her Propanels, but brought them and picked them up from the show, as my car would not have held them. I learned a great deal on what it takes to be in a Craft Show, and the work to get ready and make sales. It is not just printing images. For all of you who took the time to look at my work, and stop by, I would appreciate any comments you have. You can e-mail me at Bill@Boglephoto.com.

The calendars will be featured on my Blog and my Website shortly. They are for sale, and are $12.02, plus NYS Sales Tax a total of $13.00. Please contact me about shipping and handling if applicable. If you are local (Dutchess County, NY) you can contact me to either have me drop them off or pick them up. They are all local Mid Hudson Valley images, and they are going quickly. I have a limited number available, and they make great Holiday gifts. Check back here for more information.

Again, thanks for the support and nice comments.

HVAG Fall Colors Craft Show on Saturday, November 6, 2010

2010-10-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

I will be at the Hudson Valley Artisan's Guild 2010 Fall Colors Craft Show on Saturday, November 6, 2010 at the Spackenkill High School, 115 Spackenkill Road, Poughkeepsie, NY. The hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Come see me and my photography. I will have many images that highlight the theme of fall colors.

I will have many framed images of local scenes, such as the Mid Hudson Bridge in Fog, as well as some favorite images such as Morning Row, Isle of Shoals, NH, Yellowstone Pool, Yellowstone National Park, and many recent images from my visit this October to Acadia National Park. There will be matted prints available for purchase in different sizes, and my 2011 calendar will be on display and for sale.

This year my calendar highlights the beauty of the Mid Hudson Valley. There are several images from the Walkway over the Hudson, as well as other landscapes. It is a CD case calendar, which opens to a desk calendar with twelve separate pages of images. It has been very popular for the past two years, and I hope that you will consider purchasing it as a great Holiday gift. I will be able to take credit card payments at the Craft Show, and will feature it here and on my website soon, with secure ordering on my website. Stop by to talk about photography, equipment, digital imaging, and one of my favorite topics, Digital Asset Management.

Support local artists who are making their crafts by hand at the HVAG Fall Colors Craft Show. There is so much beauty and talent in the Hudson Valley.

Thank you.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

Protect your images and computers

2010-08-10T19:48:00.000-07:00

I am still working on getting my archive and current photos in order. A recent request for one image from 2007 started me on a search that found way too many copies of the same image saved in too many places. Cataloging them with Expressions Media 2 is my way of keeping track, as I have them on multiple computers. Lightroom really does not do well once you take the images off the main drive in your computer and put them elsewhere. And date and place finder in Expressions Media 2 is so great for finding images.

Keeping old computers and hard drives operating can be a bit of a time vampire. All of a sudden the simple updates or changes become hours on end. Vista does not play well with XP, and although Windows 7 is a great improvement, it still has issues with network sharing over older computers running different OS. I just wish that Microsoft would keep how networking or sharing is done consistent, rather than "improving it" each time to sell newer OS.

So one of those older computers was a four year old Dell with XP. It was my home server on a wired network, and on all the time. It had a number of hard drives in it and hanging off it, and it was pretty stable. That was until the summer heat hit. I have got to believe the combination of the window air conditioner and the dehumidifier, along with a lot of other electrical equipment, did it in. Kept getting Blue Screens of Death (BSODs to those Mac people who laugh at PC users). Tried a new hard drive, wiping the system with a clean install, but it was not stable and then crashed. I have all of my computers on surge protectors, as well as battery UPS for the desktops. But this old computer is too far gone. Too bad, as I had worked on it hard, with additional internal hard drives, removable bays, and added cards. Guess four hard years of reliable service is good. So I pulled out all salvageable equipment, and will reuse or keep it as backups.

Ordered a pretty robust computer with Windows 7 Home as a replacement, and took a gamble on a refurbished model. But then that replacement computer had a BSOD the first full day of use. It would not reboot. That got returned. RMAs are not fun. So it is again time to build my own. I can't get the setup I want from most manufacturers. I want many card slots for PCI-e x16 and x1 and PCI for expansion. I want multiple internal bays for hard drives, and lots of sata connectors. Building your own does permit you to find something to meet your needs. A trip to Micro Center to look at and choose a case and a processor (the lowest prices on processors) and a couple of Newegg orders will get me everything I need for now.

I will post why and what I have done on this build, and how I am protecting the computers and the images.

Until then, keep cool and protected.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

Thanks for a great Photowalk

2010-07-26T18:23:00.000-07:00

I want to thank everyone who joined me on the Photowalk for the Walkway over the Hudson. We all made it through the blazing heat and no breeze. Good thing we started early, and Mahoney's had the air conditioning cranked.

Here is the group shot.

I have posted some images on the Flickr group site. Click here to view.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/2010photowalk-walkwayoverthehudson-pok-ny/

Please be sure to join the group (request an invitation) and post the image you want to submit through the Kelby Worldwide Photowalk website for me to consider for the best of the group. The winner gets a new Scott Kelby book, either Lightroom 3 or Photoshop CS5 for Digital Photographers.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

Photowalk on the Walkway Tomorrow!

2010-07-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

FELLOW PHOTOWALKERS

It is less than 24 hours away. We meet up at the Poughkeepsie Train Station at 9:00 AM (NOTE THIS IS A REVISED TIME). We will meet near the Elevator at the Parking Garage. Just look for people with lots of cameras. I will have on my Leader T-shirt, and a big green Tilley Hat. We will see if we can car pool up to the Walkway Parking Lot or Pulaski Pool. The Walkway lot now charges $5.00 per car for 4 hours, and there are 80 spots there, so car pooling makes sense. The Walkway is 1.25 miles long, so if we car pool, we will have more time on the Walkway and be less tired. I will go over safety and other issues, and then we will be off! Plan to meet back at the parking area (if we all park there) about 12:00, and we can make our way back to Mahoney's, where we have told them about 12:30. If people want to go to Mt. Carmel area for more walking we can see if we do that before or after lunch. Please e-mail me at Bill@Boglephoto.com to confirm attendance and so I can send you further updates. I will bring a handout. We should have between 15 to 20 people, unless we get more sign ups today, which should be a nice number. I am really looking forward to meeting you.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

What to bring (or not to bring) to the Photowalk

2010-07-19T20:47:00.000-07:00

I did a Photowalk in New York City and we walked a good deal across the Village. This got me thinking about the upcoming Walkway over the Hudson Photowalk. The walk will not be about instruction, but some tips here might help you have a great time shooting.

It looks like it is going to be very hot. So first thing, a water bottle, with ice if possible. A good pair of shoes, either sneakers, hiking shoes or the like. It is really flat so no climbing is required. Light colored clothes help. A hat that covers the neck and ears is helpful. I have a Tilley hat that has a big brim, and I like it as I bring the camera up to shoot the brim folds out of the way.Sunscreen, and a power bar are great, and a small towel. It can be used to keep you dry or if wet, it can cool you down. An extra memory card is a must, and a back up battery is great. You don't want to run out of space when you want the shot.

Pack light. A fanny pack or belt pack can distribute the load well. A shoulder bag or a back pack can get heavy and clumsy to access. Don't bring too much. A wide angle lens is great, and a long lens might help, but don't over do it. Too much equipment will be too heavy. (I violate this rule regularly). You can bring a tripod, but the railing of the walkway is chest high, so any tripod will probably not get above the railing. Tripods block traffic and you can get bumped if you are not looking at traffic. If you bring a bag, you will need a place to put it down while you photograph. It is extremely important to be careful on the Walkway. Don't drop a lens cap, kick your bag over, or drop anything off the walkway. It is busy up there. Simplier is better, where you can stroll and shoot without having to change lenses.

Clean your sensors, lenses and filters before you go on Saturday. Make sure your battery is charged.

I am going to bring a light tripod and a panoramic head for cameras to shoot panoramics. If I can fit your camera you can try it out.

I also will try to bring a laptop and card reader so we can download images if you want at Mahoneys. It is completely optional, as you can post to the group Flickr site for your best shots.

E-mail me at Bill@Boglephoto.com with any questions. Thanks.

Photowalk on the Walkway over the Hudson is less than ten days away

2010-07-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

The Photowalk on the Walkway over the Hudson is less than ten days away. It is on Saturday, July 24, 2010 at 10:00 AM, meeting at the Poughkeepsie Train Station near the parking deck elevator. We will see how we look to get to the Walkway either by walking or car pools (it is about a mile).

Remember to bring sunscreen, water, memory cards, have a charged battery (and a spare if possible), a hat, and good walking shoes.

We have room for more. Please tell your friends. I hope to have something run in the Poughkeepsie Journal about this as well.

Click this link to sign up.

http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/poughkeepsie-ny-united-states/#

For more information, and check out my prior blog posts as well. I will do an e-mail to all registered participants as we get closer.

See you there.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

What is a PhotoWalk?

2010-07-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

Many people wonder what makes up a Photo Walk. Jeff Revell has been doing this for years, and was the launching pad for Scott Kelby to start his annual Photowalk. See this link. http://www.revellphotography.com/blog/2008/02/a-guide-to-photowalking/ Here is a Guest Blog that Jeff did before the first Kelby Photowalk. http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2008/archives/1753.

A Photowalk is basically a gathering of people interested in photography, to take a similar subject and be with each other for a period of time. It could be at a zoo, around a town or city, or a specific area. The subject often is less important than the gathering. When I shot years ago with a camera club, we would go on a field trip somewhere where we would meet up, and shoot. Once we got there there often we would go off in different directions, and we would always come back with different pictures. Each person sees things differently, so even though you are together, it does not mean you get the same images.

I took part in the First Photowalk in Greenwich Village, NYC. My daughter and I joined 48 other people, on the Literary Pub Crawl that that Shawn King lead. We had a great tim learning about the Village, and coming back with some interesting pictures. Here is a link to my Flickr site for images I posted of the walk. http://www.flickr.com/photos/boglephoto/sets/72157610984663846/ I like the picture of all of us walking down an alley to get shots.

Often it is easier to describe something on what it is not. It is not a photography lesson, workshop, or instruction. You can ask other people for help, but no one is going to drone on about the inverse square law of the flash, or which f stop is better. It is meant to meander and experiment. Clearly it is not the Disney "Photo Opportunity" tour, where each person stands in one spot and takes the same picture. Walk, stroll, look, and then shoot, or put it on High Speed Continous and take everything. You can bring film, but then we can't see it afterwards. It is not just for professionals or serious amateurs. Got a camera, come and walk. Some people only take one or two images, some fill cards. It is completely up to you. Do you have to finish it? No, but it would be nice. If you get tired, stop, and you can leave.

We will gather afterwards for some food and drink, with each person paying their own tab. Mahoney's is near the train station, so you don't even need a car. They have a decent menu, and lots to drink. At that time, with the beauty of digital photography, we can share some images of what we think we got. The back of the camera is not the same as a finished print, but it will give you a starting point. Then people will upload photos to the Flickr site, and I will choose one of those photos to be the winner of a new Scott Kelby book - either Photoshop CS5 for Digital Photographers, or Lightroom 3 for Digital Photographers. This is a great opportunity to spend some time with people who think like you, and are your "Camera Buddies."

This can grow. We can Tweet about our walk as it is going on on Twitter, and this can even be a Tweet up. Come join us on the Walkway over the Hudson, for a great time. Bring good walking shoes or sneakers, sunscreen, a hat, and some water. If the weather gets bad, we will postpone, but I will be in touch with everyone. Let's have a great time. Check my older posts out for more information about the walkway.

Bill

E-mail me at Bill@Boglephoto.com
www.BoglePhoto.com

Pictures of the Walkway before construction

2010-07-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

I was one of the many that Fred Schaeffer brought up to the Walkway before the construction. At that time, you had to approach from the Highland side, and you could only get out to the second pier in the Hudson. The walkway was over the old railroad tracks and ties, and you could see straight down to the land and the water.

It was a bit more interesting to traverse, as the metal grates were secured by tie downs, and the railings were original, or non-existent.

It gave you a very shaky feel initially, but you acclimated to it. The views down of the bridge infrastructure were quite interesting. Almost everyone who went up there agreed in the vision of what it could become, and has become.

The concrete slabs and railings give you the feel of a long road, rather than perched up on top of the bridge. Unlike the Mid Hudson Bridge, there is no rumble or shake from the cars or trucks as they go by.

Remember, sign up for the Photowalk now. It is less than a month away.

A big wish is that the Poughkeepsie Regatta gets reinvigorated. It would be a great vantage point to view the race. We were along the Merrimac River last weekend, and the number of people, young and old, in clubs racing on the river was great. Let's support a new race, and develop boathouse row in Poughkeepsie.

2010 Third Annual Photowalk

2010-06-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

I am leading a Photowalk on July 24, 2010 as part of Scott Kelby's Third Annual Photowalk. I will be leading a walk over the Walkway over the Hudson. It is a New York Historic State Park above
the Hudson River.

Below is an image of the Railroad Bridge under construction as the slabs were put in place by a crane.

Check out http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/poughkeepsie-ny-united-states/# for more details. For the Walkway, the world's longest pedestrian bridge, go to http://walkway.org/ for more information.

Join me and others as we shoot from and on the Walkway, tour Poughkeepsie's Little Italy, and end up at Mahoney's Irish Pub for food and drink. You can take the Metro North Train to Poughkeepsie and meet us at the Station. No need for a car.

I did the Greenwich Village walk before and it was great. At the end, we will post our pictures to a Flickr account, and a winner will be chosen. That winner will receive a copy of Scott Kelby's brand new CS5 for Digital Photographers or Lightroom 3 for Digital Photographers.

It should be a great day. The Walkway has a constant stream of walkers, bikeriders, roller bladers, and unique people. The dogs are big and small, and there are many photo oppportunites to shoot the happenings on the Walkway. The views from the Walkway are breath taking. I will bring my panoramic tripod head and people can try that out. I will post some images here and on my flickr site of the Walkway shots I have taken.

Fun with Panoramics: both sides of the banks of the Hudson, with the Mid Hudson Bridge to the South in the distance.

Join me and others for a great day of photos, fun, food and drink.

The 2010 Western Beauty Desktop Calendar - buy yours now!

2009-12-11T18:48:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Desktop Calendar is now available for sale for only $13.00, which includes New York State Sales Tax. It is packaged in a clear CD case, which keeps all 14 pages in place when closed, and opens up to become the holder at a convenient angle to view.

Just put the cover and the last month in the back, and each month you have a new picture. You can see how small a footprint it has in this picture.

This year I traveled out West with my family to Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. We stayed near Yellowstone National Park for four days, and we covered most of the Park. I came away with several thousand images, and have put some favorites in my calendar. There are shots from the top of a fire station at Devil's Head in Colorado, the Tetons and the Snake River and plains from the plane coming into Jackson Hole, the pools and thermal areas, terraces, and other amazing features of Yellowstone National Park, and some animals, including a big bison and a curious chipmunk.

Each calendar page is printed on glossy cardstock. The calendars can be shipped easily. Shipping by USPS First Class Mail is $1.56. Local pick up is available. Call me at (845) 452-9711 to arrange for pick up.

If you received any of my calendars as gifts last year, you can purchase the calendar pages for $10.00, NYS sales tax included, and reuse the CD case. Shipping will be $1.39 by USPS First Class Mail.

The calendar is a great present. It takes up very little desk space, but has the month and dates in large numbers. Have the excitement of seeing a new picture each month.

Archival matte or framed copies of each of the images are also available for purchase in various image sizes. Please contact me if you want to order any prints.

Here is a link to my website:

www.Boglephoto.com

Please check it out and tell me what you think.

Friend me on Facebook: Bill Bogle Jr.

Follow me on Twitter: @Boglephoto

Until next time, have a very Happy Holidays!

Bill Bogle, Jr.
http://www.boglephoto.com/
e-mail me at Bill@Boglephoto.com

It's been a year (and quite a year)

2009-11-23T18:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, I know it has been over a year from my last blog. Too many things to do. Let's take a short inventory:

Went to New Orleans and did Katrina Disaster Relief work over last Thanksgiving. Some of the most rewarding work and time (joining my daughter and others from Oakwood Friends School).

Grew a beard (my first) during the New Orleans trip, and kept it until Christmas. Found out that my family, and especially my wife, did not like the beard.

Attended several workshops:

Joe McNally in Dobbs Ferry - incredible energy and information.

ASMP on Digital Asset Management with Peter Krogh

Expression Media 2 day long workshop with Peter Krogh

Wedding Workshop with Mary Ann Glass

Shot two weddings for relatives. Did it for fun, and liked the results. Got to meet Clay Blackmore at the first wedding and share thoughts. Not bad for the first attempt to really shoot a wedding.

Went out west to Colorado (one of the weddings) and climbed Devils' Head near Sedalia, CO. Flew into Jackson Hole, First Class for the first time (thanks Captain David!) and got some incredible shots on the way in from the plane (thanks United).

Went to Yellowstone National Park, stayed in West Yellowstone, MT, and covered all of the north part of the park. Great images of amazing landscapes and animals. Bison, black bears, bald eagles, and lots of elk. Geysers!

Shot some great fall foliage at the Morse Estate at Locust Grove, one of my favorite spots.

Went to Mohonk three times in one year. Great food.

Saw my daughter intern as a photojournalist for the Poughkeepsie Journal, with front page photos and a wonderful experience for her career.

Saw the opening of the Walkway over the Hudson, and been up and across several times. Great fall images still need to be processed.

And with this all, started to get better organized. The next post will detail what I have done, why I have done it, and where I am going with my photo archive and workflow.

Check out http://www.dpbestflow.org/. A wonderful site to help with all of this,

Follow me on Twitter @BoglePhoto
I know I can update that more frequently than my Blog. It won't be another year until my next blog post.

Thanks. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Take some time to to spend some quite worship thinking about all of the blessings and reasons we have to give thanks.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

Welcome to Bogle Photo Blog

2008-11-18T06:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Bogle Photo Blog.

I know, everyone is blogging, but I thought this might be a way to share some information and thoughts that I am working on, and see what happens. My biggest obstacle right now is time. I need to work smarter in my photography, as I cannot seem to work longer, unless I forgo sleep. I am trying to embrace new technology and ideas to work more efficiently, but this does not always work. As many people know, the learning curve can be very steep, and as you sit at the bottom looking up, the daunting climb is questionable as to whether you can make it to the finish.

I am struggling with what should be fairly simple tasks, or even basic habits or practices. Coming from a film based world, I had many of the same issues, but all of them now center around the computer. Space, filing, locating prints or negatives, processing, and print aesthetics all now reside within my computer. There are hundreds of programs,websites and blogs offering help, and few seem to be helpful. As I work through my transition and organization, I will try to share with people what I find that works, from a non-computer geek perspective (Okay, I can be really dangerous when I open that computer case, or even worse yet, get into the Registry to edit. I will go there, but often the results are not pretty. Many hours with support techs may follow).

TODAY: ORGANIZATION AND DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT

I have been shooting digital since 2004. I came late with a D100, and resisted it, feeling that my passion was in traditional black and white photography in a wet chemical darkroom. I love the time and the process making a print from a negative gives you, on fiber based selenium toned silver prints. I still have my darkroom with two enlargers, but it has been over a year since I processed a roll of film, or flipped a print in the fixer.

I noticed that my digital color prints were as good as my color slides and prints, even with the D100. The more I used it, the more I made good images, and pretty soon my digital color work was overtaking any black and white work.

The problem is that I have files in at least four computers, hard drives that are filing up, and when I need to find a file, memory (not the computers, but mine) is challenged on where to look first. Even worse, I have multiple images of the same or slightly different file, and no clue as to why so many copies exist. Lightroom shows me that I have over 10,000 images that I have not really done much organizational work on, other than some keywording. Ranking and rating have not been done. Editing and selecting is very tough, and I am trying to be as conservative as possible in my ranking.

Last year I decided to shoot RAW most of the time, once I started using Lightroom as my primary workflow. Photoshop has so many options that I felt I was doing very little with my files there. I still try to do as much "in camera" to avoid heavy post production, such as doing critical framing and exposure, but often there is a need to tweak the files. Lightroom really does the heavy workload for many files. If you shoot a lot, and I do take a lot of images, it can really cut your processing time.

I attended some seminars, and one with Katrin Eismann really struck home as to management before anything else. It is really hard to pick a starting point, and work on the existing files, as you continue to shoot. But organization issues compound the more you shoot. So I got Peter Krogh's book. Digital Asset Management. I have read and reread his book. It is wonderful for so many things. It gives a work flow and best practices.

So first step, add space. I have taken an older computer, which two years ago was my primary photo computer, and made it a file server. I cleaned out some old hard drives by backing up my messy files to work in progress folders, and now have two internal hard drives, with two back up hard drives, ready to take my sorted files. I am organizing my work in progress, starting with new files and using the best practices, and working backwards with files when time permits.

Keywording is essential. Right now, I have pulled all the files I can find into Lightroom 2 to catalog them. At worst, date is my primary search tool. I now know where all of my images from 2004 are, even if they are on different drives or computers. I am backing up on at least two hard drives, one being an external that can be removed, and making DVD copies as I go. My plan is to do this for all the files, so I can do it once, and not have to save and save over again.

What is working for me is a written plan of attack. A checklist, such as Peter suggests, on each shoot, as it is ingested, cataloged, keyworded, rated, backed up and saved. A written workflow practice. I don't know if mine will be robust enough, or if Lightroom alone can be my cataloging or DAM tool. There are too many software "solutions" offering different results. I am hoping that either Adobe builds more DAM power into Lightroom, or Microsoft improves Expression Media, from everyone's prior favorite, IView Media Pro. I will post blogs on what works for me, and what doesn't, and why, with the hope that this might be helpful to others.

So, this is my task for the next several months. Check in with me to see how it is going, and what I am doing. Thanks. Please bookmark my blog. Be patient with me. It cannot be a daily blog, and it will be done when I can, or when I have information.

Check my website out at http://www.boglephoto.com/. New things will be coming there, as I also plan to overhaul my website. For beginners like me, perhaps my experience, faults and successes may be helpful.

Thanks for reading. Be back soon.

Bill Bogle, Jr.