I’ve heard some photographers say that using a flash is for people that don’t understand how to use available light.  I’ve heard other photographers say that a flash is an available light.  Some photographers think that people that haven’t mastered using a flash is exactly because of that – they haven’t mastered using a flash.

I personally think that extremism is, in nearly all cases, a lack of openness.  Particularly in photography, there is no ‘always’ correct answer.  There are so many photography best practices that literally hundreds and thousands of books have been written.  However, the best photographers that keep evolving with their science are constantly changing and reinventing their art form.  A strong tree will break in a windstorm, but the blade of grass that will bend with the wind will survive the strongest of wind.  

Photography without a flash is one such example.  Many photographers use a flash when there is a lack of ambient light, and don’t use a flash if there is plenty of light available.  There are perfect reasons to use a flash on the brightest and sunniest of days, and there are perfect reasons to put the flash back in the bag when it is dark.  Some venues won’t allow a flash.  If you are photographing a friends wedding, you may be asked to shoot without a flash.  Plays, dance or music recitals, concerts, museums, aquariums, and many other facilities may not allow flashes. 

So how do you take a great photo without the flash in low light?  It’s simple – practice.  Shoot.  Evaluate.  Adjust.  Shoot.  Evaluate.  Adjust.  Shoot.  If you have an event that you are shooting and can practice ahead of time, take the opportunity to go practice and determine what settings you will use for the event.  If you can’t practice in advance, then shoot a few photos and review carefully.  Adjust quickly and keep shooting.  With memory cards cheaper than every, you can just keep shooting, evaluating, and adjusting.

Photography is part science and part art. Photos are taken in wildly varying scenarios with equally varying equipment.  While it’s very easy to replicate the equipment (you and I both have the same lens and the same camera body), the scenario in which we’ll be taking photos will be very different.  Regardless of whether you are taking photos indoors or outside, if you can’t use your flash then you may be looking for some tips to help take better photos in low light. 

1. Buy a new lens.  It’s funny to me, but the top list on most professional photography site recommendations is to use a faster lens.  Simple, right?  While you can get relatively inexpensive faster lenses (like a 1.4, 1.8, 2.0 etc.), it is beyond the budget for most casual photographers to purchase a variety of lenses.  It is also beyond convenient to carry around 4 lenses everywhere.
2. Try SPORTS mode.  Most modern cameras have a variety of settings, some automatic and some manual.  The SPORTS mode on most cameras does a couple of things very well.  SPORTS mode may set the shutter to a continuous shooting mode, opens the aperture wide open (which will allow more light in), and set the ISO to auto (which will help in low light scenarios).  Most cameras do not use the flash in SPORTS mode.  If you aren’t yet familiar with the manual or creative modes on your camera, then SPORTS mode may give you good results.  You can also try NO FLASH mode – another automatic camera mode that may get you good results.
3. Don’t zoom in.  While a professional lens may have a consistent f-stop across the entire zoom range, most consumer lenses have smaller apertures as you zoom in.  To allow the widest aperture, stay zoomed out.
4. Switch to Aperture Value or Aperture Priority mode.  The priority creative modes will generally let you manually set one or two variable and then adjust the other values appropriately.  Setting the camera in Aperture Value mode will allow you to open the aperture wide open (lowest number possible).
5. Increase the ISO.  Cameras are very good at determining the appropriate ISO, but in very low light conditions you will likely need to increase the ISO as high as possible.  This includes 1600, 3200, 6400, beyond.  While you’ll read that higher ISO settings will introduce noise, most of this noise won’t be an issue if you are resizing for smaller files being shared on the web.  Also, there are some great software tools for post processing noise reduction (many of which are free).  Some cameras, like my Canon T1i, allow you to turn on High ISO Speed Noise Reduction feature.  If yours has it, turn it on.
6. Use a tripod.  Manually setting the ISO and Aperture Value will likely result in longer shutter speeds.  Image stabilization will help tremendously with slower shutter speeds, but if you are anything like me you will not be able to hold the camera still much beyond 1/30 of a second.  Tripods may not be useable everywhere, so try a monopod for a more usable camera stabilizer.  If using a tripod – turn off the image stabilization.  It can (and will) introduce movement – particularly in longer exposures.  I typically also recommend using the timer or a shutter release (cable or remote) so you don’t introduce unncessary vibration by pushing the shutter release button as well.
7. Shoot RAW.  This one really only makes sense if you are going to do post capture processing.  If you are looking to shoot and share – then shooting RAW may not provide any further use.  Otherwise, you can definitely use post processing to do more with a RAW file than a JPG.

There are many other things you can do, such as moving closer.  If you are in a concert or recital where flashes are not allowed, you may be able to work your way up to the stage or get backstage and shoot from there.  You can set exposure compensation down a stop.  You can shoot video and then pull stills out of it.  Use a manual focus instead of the AF.  You can shoot in full manual and control the shutter speed, the ISO, the aperture, the exposure compensation, and fully control what your camera is capturing. 

I have a relative getting of prison after serving quite a few years.  While he’s had occasional access to computers, he has not had access to the Internet.  No email, no web, no video, no social networking.  No connection.  He has never used the Internet.  He’s heard about, talked about, and has a general concept of what the Internet is.  He is familiar with computers, just not the Internet.  He has used older versions of Office and older versions of Windows.  In fact, he qualified to be a Microsoft Certified Trainer for the Office platform (though I think it was on 2003 version).  He started teaching the courses to other inmates and employees.  He does have computer skills – just no Internet experience.  So the question that I’m posing is a simple one: How do you teach someone the Internet?

I know that I live in a bubble.  I have a great job, and I have worked with computers and worked online in one fashion or another for my entire life (starting with a 300 baud modem).  I literally have trouble comprehending a life without connectivity, though I know that most of the world is still without Internet access.  According to http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm, nearly 3 out of 4 people on the planet do NOT have Internet access.   In the bubble I live in, everyone has Internet access.  Between my desktop, laptops, iPhone, and iPad, I am always connected.

I know quite a bit about the Internet, but this scenario got me thinking: how do you teach someone the Internet?  Where do you start?  Do you just point someone to Bing and walk away?  What is the ‘learn the Internet’ syllabus?  In typical ‘seven steps’ fashion, below is my basic list of acclimation to the insanity that is the web of 2010…

1. Get an email account.  Go to http://www.gmail.com or http://www.hotmail.com.  Click the link that says, “Create an account”.  You cannot exist online without an email address.  Sure you can lurk, but you can’t contribute.  You can’t join a site, place an order, or create an account for any site that I can think of.  I even considered just creating an email account for him but decided that it would be best to go through every miniscule step to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible.

2. Send me an email.  I provided my email address.  Having an email address without an understanding of the process of sending and receiving an email is like having a Ferrari without knowing how to start a car, or maybe not even understanding what a car is.  Once he understands how to send an email and check his email and read my response, he at least has remote tech support.

3. Google.  Enough said.  http://www.google.com.  Most of us take Google and Bing for granted, but it truly is a magical assistant.  Searching for content is a millennia-old task that individuals have dedicated their entire lives around.  Do you even remember having to learn the Dewey Decimal System?  Google has spoiled me.  I expect to type a single word or phrase into a text box and get back EXACTLY what I am looking for.  No Boolean operators.  No complex searches.  No.  Find what I am thinking about by looking at a single set of words.

4. Facebook.  Create a Facebook profile and reconnect with a variety of TRUSTED individuals.  Do not connect with the people that you don’t want to.  Be VERY selective of who you connect with.  Facebook has gone through a series of peaks and valleys of acceptance from most of the people that I know.  Initially, everyone was very skeptical and only accepted friend requests from people that they knew very well.  After this initial skepticism there was a period where everyone was trying to make anyone and everyone they have ever met in a grocery store checkout line a friend.  Based on the fact that everyone was everyone’s friend, most people were extremely modest in what they shared on FB.  That may be a good thing, that may be a bad thing.  Now Facebook has kind of stabilized.  I think that most people are more selective in choosing who they invite and accept as friends.  This allows a little more transparency and honesty in what is shared…  Facebook is one of the game changers on the web and has transformed how we connect.  It’s a must.

5. YouTube.  This one I was skeptical of…  Based upon the fact that 24 full hours of video are uploaded every 60 seconds, you can literally waste your entire life watching what is uploaded and NEVER catch up.  However, is there really a faster way to truly experience the full human condition of 2010 than to spend 1 hour clicking through today’s most popular vids on YouTube?

6. Amazon.  Product consumption has changed.  I don’t have to go to Kmart, Hills Department Store, Wal-mart, Sears, or even the grocery store.  I can order groceries, shoes (since they acquired Zappos), clothing, electronics, and books.  Books.  Funny that Books is the last thing I think of when I think of Amazon.  Books were the backbone of Amazon.  I’m a Kindle fanatic, yet Amazon to me means commerce and, oh yeah, books.  That said, I would recommend the Kindle Application on the laptop so that you have a reader and access to hundreds of FREE books.  Sure, purchase any books you want, but look through the free books before you start spending money on new books.

7.  Netflix.  For less than $10 a month, I can watch as many movies as I want.  YouTube is entertaining, but produced movies can be life changing and even inspiring.  Keep in mind, my relative has not seen any form of modern media for years.  Netflix doesn’t even require a laptop.  I can wait for the latest, greatest DVDs to cycle through the mail (which I do), but I can also watch hundreds of movies right now – directly on my laptop.  Even better, I can watch them on my iPad, but more about that later…

Of course, the millions of sites out there could be prioritized in any order, but other ones that I would at least highlight would be (in random order):

• Pandora
• MSN
• Wikipedia
• ebay
• Craigslist
• Twitter
• CNN

I’m curious to hear your thoughts and feedback.  What would you recommend?  What steps are missing?

Hills Department Store, Morgantown, WV.
Photo from http://www.hillsstores.com/hills_images.htm

I actually purchased a white KeelShield last summer, knowing that I wanted to apply it to the keel of my Crownline 19SS.  I finally took the time this evening to apply it.  It took almost three hours to apply, but I think the final result looks great and will definitely help protect the keel when pulling the boat up on the beach here at the lake.  I followed the instructions to the letter, which included actually drawing an outline of the entire shield on the hull of the boat, thoroughly cleaning the area, applying the 3M chemicals, and the slowly and accurately applying the 7’ KeelShield.  Since I’m sure that most folks don’t even know what a keel even is, here is a link to the KeelShield.

The Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 Template Pack for SharePoint 2010 contains a fully-featured and functional contemporary shopping Web site for use with Commerce Server 2009 that uses SharePoint 2010 as the presentation front-end. The contemporary site offers a contemporary presentation skin on the default site included with Commerce Server 2009. It offers a production quality site design, in a default green and gray color scheme, that you can quickly and easily customize to suit the needs of your organization. It also supports rendering on mobile devices, specifically Windows Mobile and iPhone devices. It can be deployed in both Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 environments.

This part is key:   Microsoft Commerce Server 2009 Template Pack for SharePoint 2010 includes the source code for the associated Web Parts in an extensibility kit. You can use either Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2010 to develop with the extensibility kit and customize the contemporary shopping Web site.

Download the Template Pack from the Microsoft Download Center.

The above text is directly pulled from the Microsoft Download Center site at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=cfd0c459-5a11-4de6-9085-52d59e8d38e6

I think that anyone that has even seen a SharePoint demo knows that SharePoint offers robust document collaboration features with the ability for exclusive Check-In and Check-out.  Exclusive Check-In and Check-Out is optional and configurable individually within each library.  Some of the organizations that I work with have ‘less than savvy’ end users who are constantly plagued by this concept of Check-Out.  One of the questions that I frequently hear is what happens if we opt not to use this feature?  And if we opt to not use it, what if two or more people are editing the same document at the same time, and they both save it to the Document Library?

The answer is doom and gloom!  Not really.  Actually, the Microsoft Office tools are designed to appropriately hand just such cases.  For example, Word will notify the user that is saving the document that changes were made by other authors and give the author the option to view the changes or just overwrite the changes.

If you opt for viewing the changes, Microsoft Word 2010 will automatically merge the changes with change tracking turned on so the author can selectively determine which change to keep. 

Word has refreshed you document with changes made by other authors.  To compare the document with a previous version click the File tab.

Clicking the File tab in Word 2010 will show an option to manage versions at the bottom of the screen:

Clicking Manage Versions gives quite a few options as well.