Brandon Seidel

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

Canon has announced a firmware update for its EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR enabling manual exposure when shooting videos. With the updated version, users will be able to manually adjust the shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings in the video mode. The new firmware will be available for download on 2 June 2009 from Canon’s website.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=MultiMiscPageAct&key=EOS_5DMKII_Firmware&fcategoryid=139

I made this mini planet of downtown Austin Texas while playing around in Photoshop. They are simple to do if you have the right image. This was a panoramic picture of downtown Austin with a clear blue sky. I will try some other pictures of different cities and post them later.

Mini Planet of Downtown Austin Texas

I was reading an article on forbes.com and was surprised to find not one, but two of my stock photos used.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/30/americans-moving-cities-lifestyle-real-estate-relocating_slide_6.html?thisSpeed=30000

http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/30/americans-moving-cities-lifestyle-real-estate-relocating_slide_10.html?thisSpeed=30000

Well, I have had enough with my old web host NoDaddy, so I did my research and found a host I like better.  So far its been great.  My old host was fine with domain names, but poor when it came to hosting.  When switching to the new host, I decided to make a new site.  I wanted to freshen it up and change this a bit.  I will be adding more information to this site as I have time.  Thank for stopping by.