Brandon Seidel

There was this useful tool I had installed in Windows XP that allowed me to quickly resize images by right clicking them. It was a Microsoft PowerToy that you could get free from the Microsoft website. I found myself using it all the time when sending photos in email or uploading.

When I moved to Windows 7 (which I am very happy with so far), I did not think about losing it. The XP powertoy is not available for Windows 7 (that I could find), so I looked for an alternative. Here it is: Image Resizer Powertoy Clone for Windows.

This tool is a “clone” of the XP powertoy and works pretty much exactly like the original. Oh, and its free to use. It supports x32 and x64, so you Vista and 7 x64 users (that includes me and pretty much everyone with a newer Windows computer) are not left out.

A thank you goes out to the developer of this great little app.

If you have not already heard of this site, now you have. Groupon.com is a site that works with local businesses to get you a “Daily Deal” for services or products in your area. I started using it for the Austin area and have found some great deals. If you have not visited it yet, give it a try: Groupon.com.

Have you used Groupon.com before? What do you think? Let us know.

I have been asked this question a few times recently, so I figured I would post it for anyone that needs it.

Remote Desktop in Windows 7 is disabled by default. This is good really. Why have any open ports that you are not using? Windows has been bad about this in the past, so maybe this is a step in the right direction. So, how do you enable it you ask?

First, once you are logged into Windows 7, open the start menu (by clicking the start button) and right click on Computer then select Properties.

When the new window comes up, select Remote Settings in the left column. This will bring up the Remote tab under System Properties.

Now you are presented with the options you need to enable Remote Desktop. Select the “(more secure)” option if you are running a newer version of the remote desktop client. If this does not work for you, you may need to either update your client or choose the other “(less secure)” option.

Of course, there is another tool I use alot that I can recommend: http://www.LogMeIn.com

Hope this helps.

JMCP (Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy) September 2009

It was nice to see the finished product.  Sheila Macho, Cover Editor, was nice enough to send me some copies of the journal.  One of my San Antonio photos was featured on the cover and on page 522 is an article about the artist.

The image used can be seen here in my stock portfolio. You can view all issues online as PDFs here.  A direct link to the Sept 09 PDF file is here.

Thanks again Sheila for the interview and using my image.

I had heard of ClusterShot before, but they were still working on “must have” features of the site.  I don’t mind supporting new “agents” as long as it’s not a huge waste of time for me.  So with that, the upload process has to be easy.  When I looked at them before, they still had a long way to go on the upload process.

I checked them out again a few days ago after reading they recently added a lot of new features.  I was happy to find most of the new features focused on ease of use for the artist.  I created an account and started uploading.  Yes, it was easy.  I tried out many of the upload tools to finally decide on using WebDAV.  Once I had that going, I just left it running in the background; easy.

ClusterShot’s approach is different.  Most stock photo agencies take your images and they do the rest.  That’s great and all, except you get stuck with the short end of the stick with profit (and the short end can be really short!).  At ClusterShot, they create and run the site; you create, upload, and market your images.  That’s not to say you will not get sales other ways, but the focus is to allow YOU to sell your images.  In turn, you get to keep 88% of the sale.

So the question is, with the rise and fall of almost all new stock photo agencies, will they make it?  Will 12% be enough to keep everything running and the people on top happy?  Time will tell.  Personally, I hope they do.  They do have a PRO subscription for $20 a year that adds a lot of extra features.  That may help their survival.  I like the clean layout, the to the point navigation, and of course the low 12% commission.

I will keep them on the upload list for a while and see what happens.  I will also use them as my main portfolio site for sells from my website(s) and stock clients.  I will update everyone on my progress when/if there is any.  Currently I have about 750 images uploaded.

Anyone else using ClusterShot?  If so, what do you think?  Any experiences?

Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas

A recent trip to San Antonio, Texas yielded some great new stock photos.  I walked the Riverwalk from one end to the other.  San Antonio is always fun; no matter what day it is, there is something going on.  The picture above is probably the most photographed section of the Riverwalk.

Lion at the Fort Worth Zoo

My kids love the zoo. If we go to a city that has a zoo, you can bet it’s on the to-do list.  We have driven through Fort Worth many times, but never really stopped to do anything there.  It’s usually just a city we drive through to get somewhere else.  Honestly, I can’t think of anything we have went to Fort Worth for.  I stopped once to get some cityscape photos, but even those I was not very happy with.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not have an issue with Fort Worth; I just can’t think of anything I would go there for.  Well, this time we put the Fort Worth Zoo on the list.  It was recommended by a few friends who thought it was a great zoo.  After hearing the hype, we were kind of looking forward to it.  The kids love animals.  They get all excited at new zoos.

We stayed the night before in Arlington so we could bring the kids to Six Flags over Texas.  That was nice.  The kids also love Six Flags.  I guess our kids love everything.  The night before we were at Great Wolf Lodge.  They loved that also (although Dianna and I was not happy with the stay).  Anyway, back to the zoo.  We woke up, checked out and went to the Fort Worth Zoo.

We were very happy to find out it was half price admission day, until we were squeezed into the crowd.  I think that was the most crowded zoo we had ever been to.  It could have been the price, but I think the layout had some to do with that also.  It was fairly clean, had most of the usual animals, and was decent size.

Overall, it was not all that exciting.  Maybe we have just been to some great zoos.  If you have been to them all, then maybe I would say go check it out.  If not, there are many other zoos I would recommend in Texas before I would the Fort Worth Zoo.  Personally, I like the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas for my young children.  The San Antonio Zoo has a lot of new sights.  The Dallas Zoo is also nice.  The Houston Zoo is large and has a lot of animals, but seems old.

I don’t see myself back at the Fort Worth Zoo anytime soon.  Even the kids did not care too much about it.  They did have a train, which my 3 year old loved, but I will take him to Zilker Park to get his train fix.

What zoo do you like best?

Since Canon does not seem to want to support 64 bit versions of Windows, many Canon/Windows users are having to hit the net for a codec solution.  I being one of them, found this nice free program @ http://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm.  The FastStone Image Viewer supports most new RAW formats.  What I was really looking for was a way to view thumbnails in Windows Explorer, which you can find here: http://www.ardfry.com/cr2-codec/.  It’s $30 for CR2 support, which is pricey since it’s only CR2 support.  DNG and NEF are also $30 each.  If you can not live without thumbnails in Windows Explorer, it seems to work fine.  I downloaded the trial version and it worked as stated.  But for the price, FastStone Image Viewer can’t be beat.

I updated my blog to add a new tweet for each blog post I make on this site. I do not use Twitter much to tweet, its mainly to follow others. This will at least put some info on my tweet-less page.

While in Houston the other day I stopped in downtown to get some photos.  It was a nice, hot Texas day with some great cloud cover for pictures.  Here is one of the panoramic images I took of downtown.  I will clean these up and make them available for sale as stock.  If you are looking for some great pictures of Houston Texas, see my Stock Photography page.

Downtown Houston Texas