An HDR Photo of the Downtown Houston Texas Cityscape on a Bright Day with Clouds Ok, this was my first HDR that I have played with. I like the image, but it’s very noisy because of the HDR process (and because I am a noob). So, either I need much more practice with HDR (which I do) or that is just what I have to live with when creating HDR images. I am sure someone who knows what they are doing could have rendered a much nicer and less noisy HDR image. I have seen some outstanding HDR images online, just none of them are mine. This do.

A shot of Downtown Austin Texas at Night I recently cleaned up some photos I took of downtown Austin Texas at night. The one here is a panoramic stitch from about 6 photos. The downtown Austin skyline is changing a lot right now. I will take some more to update the cityscape after we have less cranes in the skyline. If you would like to use this image, see my stock photography page for details.

Remains of the Echelon building in Austin Texas after the plane crash I was in the area of the plane crash so I pulled over to take a few photos. There were still news vans and reporters in the area. What a sad day in Austin Texas history. “On February 18, 2010 around 10 AM a small single engine plane owned by Andrew Joseph Stack intentionally crashed into the Echelon 1 building at the 9400 block of Research Boulevard.”

Downtown Austin Texas Cityscape across Lake Austin (Now Lady Bird Lake) I finally got some time to clean up and merge some photos I took of downtown Austin. I stitched together a few to make some panoramic photos which came out pretty good I think. Of course I have 1000s of photos still waiting for me to work on. This photo of downtown Austin Texas was taken from across Lady Bird Lake. I like this view of downtown. I like it better without the cranes, but it will be a while before we have a cityscape without them. We also have a new talle.

If you have been interested in stock photography but have not been able to get in, you should check out DepositPhotos. They are currently running a new photographer promotion that pays you to upload your stock photos. This is payment just to upload, so it does not affect your sales. You will also get their standard royalties offered when your photos sell. So if you want to sell your photos online, this site is paying you to get started. Check it out.

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.

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 S.

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 crea.