Camera Woes and Wows

Those of you who either know me or have ready my previous photography blog entries know that I have recently purchased a very nice DSLR camera. After using this camera for about three weeks, I began noticing some issues that were somewhat disconcerting. I realized that from time to time, I would fire up the camera, frame my shot, focus and listen to the camera and lens make a strange clicking and whirring sound, almost as if the gears of the body and lens weren’t focusing properly. Then, when I would shoot the picture, the camera would error out on me (yes, I mean actually blank out the user display panel with -Err- and screech at me), and I would have to shut everything down, remount the battery to get things to fully reset and fire it back up again.

After this type of treatment, things would usually go back into place and work for a while, so I didn’t think much of the issue, but when you spend this much on a tool, you don’t want to have to “make do” with it. So, when a friend informed me that another retail store had the exact same camera kit I had purchased with an added 75-200mm lens and a bag to boot for only $100 more, I saw my signal to return the one that was having a few issues and try again. Since I was still well within my 60 day return time, I simply took the kit back to the store and purchased the nicer kit from the other store, and boy, am I ever glad that I did.
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Reading SDHC Memory Cards Over 2GB

So, I’ve been struggling with getting my laptop (a custom Dell Inspiron 9400) to read my new SDHC card that I picked up for my camera. It’s nothing fancy: just a 4GB SanDisk card. During my fitful attempts and multiple reboots, I seemed to recall a friend having the same issue with her computer reading her new card as well. I thought that surely since she was using an older reader and I had a fairly new integrated reader that I wouldn’t run into the same issue. After spending a good bit of time researching and looking for firmware updates for my reader, I began to get hints that it may not be the reader itself at all, but rather it was good ol’ Microsoft Windows XP Pro rearing it’s incompatibility head again.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of MS, and I don’t know what I would do without them, but when my system doesn’t support what seems to be a common thing, I get a bit testy. Thankfully, though, this story has an ending — and a solution — that was both complete and easy. If you follow this link, you will find a Microsoft hotfix just waiting to be installed. Apparently, typical card readers simply care about the physical size of the card and rely on the OS to interpret the file structure and formatting of the data, so I suppose it makes sense that the OS has to be upgraded in order to read the larger cards.

Hope this fix will help a few others out there as well!

Finally Some Real Photography


Those of you who have known me for a while are also aware that I have had an interest in photography for some time. My dad sparked the interest in me as a child, and I have never really had the capacity to pursue anything in that field. I have expressed some interest in really pursuing some photography in order to get some nice shots of the kids since they have been coming along, and last week, my wife surprised me with an early Christmas present: a brand new Nikon D90 DSLR with a Nikkor 18-105mm zoom lens. Needless to say, in the last 5 days, I have spent a good bit of time behind it, and of the 350+ pictures I have already taken, I have come up with a small collection of images of which I am very proud. Continue reading

Paint the Town Blue

Or, at least that is what my son seemed to be set on completing with his most recent artistic endeavor this weekend. I was roused from my work by my wife’s stern voice instructing my son to tell — no, to show — me what he had done. Those of you who have had a three year old in your house at any time are probably already beginning to chuckle, and I assure you that your foreshadowing of enjoyment at my expense will not be disappointed.
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Back in the Saddle… Again

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on us. Since my last post several months ago, many things have changed in the world; thankfully, only a handful of those changes have actually been in my personal world. I have moved across the country with my family, gotten settled in what is perhaps the most beautiful area of our great nation, transitioned to working from home and even made several new contacts in both the gaming and internet industries. One of my only regrets through all that is that I have not had time to make even a single blog entry.

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Happy New Year!

Well, I suppose it is high time to write my next entry. I never intended to take a two month lapse in writing, but then again, when does anyone plan to leave their blog unmanned for that length of time? Holidays, children and work all combined over the new year to make for a rather hectic time. I’ll address each of these throughout this post, so if it gets to be a rather lengthy read, I apologize in advance.
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Wii-tastic Birthdays this Year

Samus Aran ~ Smash Bros. BrawlThis year has proved to be the year of birthdays in our family. Not only is our third child’s due date on the same day as our son’s third birthday, but we have also had a rush of ideal gifts given. Starting out the year, my wife surprised me with the gift of a Nintendo Wii in February when most stores were still struggling to keep even one unit stocked on their shelves. While not the most expensive of birthday presents available out there, it has definitely been one of the most entertaining ones. Continue reading