About Slides?

[Linda Brandon]

Kim,

My studio is separate from my house and I come to paint here almost every day. I'm in Heaven (see Moon in photo).

[Mike McCarty]

Linda,

Apparently you haven't noticed that someone has hurled a dead cat against the wall of your studio. Or, it has been speared into the canvas on your easel, I can't tell which.

Personally I can see how something like this might happen, but I would think that after admiring it for a while you would want to have it removed.

Sincerely, Mike

[Timothy C. Tyler]

Shoot slides full size in full sun direct-no digital-don't copy or get dupes. 50mm lens

[Chris Saper]

Harley Brown says he shoots slides of his paintings in full sun. (Very different here in Arizona, where he lives) Regardless, you still have to match your Kelvin temperatures.

I used to shoot my slides this way until North Light Books sent me the "highly recommended booklet" on Tungsten lights and film. The results are uniformly excellent. I would never go back to the "guess at Kelvin" exercise with daylight slide film. Slide film is expensive to buy and to process.

Last year I spent over $6K on film/processing. I have already saved half of that with my digital camera, purchased in March. However, all digital cameras are not equal. There is, I am sure a crossover point where slide film becomes obsolescent, but I am sure it depends on the megapixel capacity of your digital camera, as well as the focal end of your shot ( e.g. web page or 8X10 ad)

I will absolutely try Linda's approach with the painting now on my easel.

[Michele Rushworth]

Linda, how many megapixels does your camera shoot?
I am debating moving up from my 3.4 megapixel camera. (One with a cable release, as you described, would be nice too.)

[Linda Brandon]

Michele, my Minolta has about 5 megapixels. If I were you I'd skip this model and save up for one of the $2,000 or so cameras that are out now. But you really ought to buy a cable release, I think mine was around $20 and it's made a big difference in how well my camera focuses on a painting. I'm not the best photographer and I need all the help I can get.

Mike, you must have an amazing monitor to be able to identify the quavering old quadruped in the painting on the wall. Not a dead cat, but very close: my 12 year old English Pointer. The title of this painting, in fact, is "Not Dead, Just Resting."

[Mike McCarty]

Oh my gosh Linda, now I really feel bad. To suggest that your dog looked like a hurled dead cat stuck to the wall, this is inexcusable.

When I got the multiple auto e-mails referring to the tossed kitty I should have suspected the recent computer glitches. Please forgive me, I should have double checked before going off like that.

It is however even more impressive to think that a fairly large dog, probably twice the size of a cat, would just stick there like that.

But seriously, that seems like a very fine studio environment. Mr. Moon looking down on you is a nice touch.

Sincerely

[Michele Rushworth]

My camera has no attachment for a cable release, unfortunately. What I do to compensate for that is put my camera on a tripod and use the self timer. (That way my finger on the shutter doesn't shake the camera, for those of you not familiar with what a cable release is for.)

[Linda Brandon]

I'm posting a heartfelt testimonial to the wonderful people at www.slides.com .

Due to sloth, gluttony, and who knows what else of the Seven Deadly Sins, I was recently late in getting slides out and making a deadline. To make matters worse I didn't opt for the super-fast shipment. (That one would have been 'greed'.)

The compassionate slides.com people stepped in and saved my neck. I received a duplicate order so quickly it made my head spin. They are fantastic!

Not expensive, either. Each original slide is $4.00; an extra one is $2.00 and I think the price eventually drops to $1.00 for multiples.

I upload my tifs and I'll never go back to shooting film for slides again. (I see they also offer a Powerpoint service, though I haven't tried this yet.)

[Linda Brandon]

It has come to my attention that there is some confusion about what consitutes the Seven Deadly Sins. (Personally, I think they should be the Seven Naughty Misdemeanors, but it's not up to me.)

Not in any particular order, they are: Pride; Anger; Lust; Envy; Gluttony; Avarice; Sloth.

****************

Wilt thou forgive that sin, where I begun,
which is my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive those sins through which I run,
and do run still, though still I do deplore?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
for I have more.

Wilt thou forgive that sin, by which I won
others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
a year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
for I have more.

I have a sin of fear that when I've spun
my last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son
shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore.
And having done that, thou hast done,
I fear no more.

John Donne (1573 - 1631)