A Pound Of Reese's Cups

I first spotted this while Christmas shopping in late 2013 and apparently wouldn't shut up about it. Last month Sylvia put it under our tree for me, and tonight I finally got up the nerve to open it. 

                                     

The text on the side is the important part--2 HALF POUND CUPS! 
I love Reese's, but this is crazy.

 I'm glad they put them in plastic cups. Still in surprisingly good shape.

 An 8 oz monster dwarfs the standard size.

The chocolate/peanut butter ratio seems about right. Freaking delicious!
You just have to stop after a small fraction.
Half of the wedge I cut out is tomorrow's ration.
And careful study has shown that the choco/PB ratio is measurably different depending on the size of the cup. Rob Cockerham over at Cockeyed conducted this test a few years ago. Looks like it needs an update.

These monsters are available year 'round at Rocket Fizz stores, but their $24 price is a joke.
(They also stock the giant Snickers, York's Peppermint Patty, etc.)

Sear and Target sell it for $10 during the holiday shopping season, which represents a few $$$ saved over a comparable weight of the smaller sizes at non-sale prices.
Mainly it's about the novelty.
I'm thinking of bringing one to a SuperBowl party this weekend.

Memphis Bonus

Our cousin Bruce in Memphis is an extraordinary man--something we've always known.
We were shocked and delighted that time in the '70s when he showed up at our door with no warning just before Christmas, having hitched rides from Tennessee to upstate New York during a blizzard.


When he had a kidney removed, our mom sent him this plant:
That was 40 years ago, and he's kept it alive and well since then. Our mom was as special to him as his mom is to us, but I was amazed at his dedication and got a little misty eyed.



Then he brought out some treasures that left all three of us choked-up:
The shotgun on the left is a Browning Auto-5 12 gauge semi-auto made in 1950. On the right is a commercial German Mauser 98K that was re-barrelled for the .22-250 varmint cartridge in the early 1960s.

These were my father's guns.
Just...Oh My.

Dad had left them with our uncle Jim so they would be there whenever he might find himself near that part of Tennessee and have a day to spare for hunting. One of the perks of being a pilot in the USAF back then is a certain amount of flight time under your own control if you knew how to massage the paperwork.
When uncle Jim died Bruce took it upon himself to safeguard these pieces of our heritage and return them to us.

As we took the shotgun apart a few days ago there was another misty-eyed moment when we found our father's initials engraved upon a hidden piece of steel by his own hand.
I'm not taking apart the rifle any time soon, but when I do it will be with an eye peeled for fingerprints because I'm pretty sure the last person to handle what's hidden inside the walnut stock was dear old dad.

Three or 4 years after he went missing in action in 1966, my mom got rid of his guns. The collection of firearms, ammo, and reloading gear was so heavy it collapsed the legs on the pool table in our garage.
Only one, a military surplus Springfield M1903A3 that he was in the process of turning into a Texas-style deer rifle survived, stashed deep inside a trunk in the basement--but I pretty much finished that project back in the 1990s. It was something, but the loss the rest of the collection was one of those things that has always chewed on my guts every time I thought about it.

Having these fine pieces suddenly show up again is beyond my wildest dreams--it's hard to find the words to express how much it means to me.




Back in 2008 I shot this photo called "The Duck Hunter" while testing some then-new flash gear, and really liked it:
The bird book was the oldest thing in the picture, from 1936 I think, but it had a satisfyingly vintage feel overall.


A few days ago I re-shot it with my father's shotgun, and even managed to find the same page:

Just Learnin'...

Every once in a while I like to try new things, even when they they don't appeal to me at first.
A good example is when I first tried to shoot dripping water into a bucket.
I suppose some day I'll have to try smoke photos (when there aren't fans and AC blowing all over the house).

This time it's drops of food coloring in a vase full of water.
I'm just trying to get a handle on the techniques involved, in case they are someday needed to tell a story or make money.
Plus, it's fun to play around with my cameras and lighting gear.

What I didn't expect was liking the results.

When I see food coloring/smoke photos from other people (and they are usually better-quality than mine) the results just don't do much for me.
I've even questioned people as to the possible audience for them.
Abstract prints? Maybe, I guess.


Perhaps it is the random nature of the results that bothers me?
I'm used to having total control over the scene whenever I set up the lights indoors. (Portraits not included)


On the other hand, a few clicks in PhotoShop and there's all kinds of things you can do should the need arise.
I didn't even begin to explore those possibilities, because for me most of the fun, work, and decision making when taking pictures happens before the shutter button gets pressed.

I guess the main thing is that it didn't feel like a waste of time, because learning is a worthy pursuit even if the possible future application of that knowledge is hazy and undefined.
Maybe that's why I read so much?

Flash Modifiers

This is what I've been doing lately, besides yardwork

Last week I built a new grid for my main flash.
My last one was a great first attempt, but over time I found that the straws I had used to focus the flash into a smaller circle (instead of blasting the whole room) were too long, resulting in too much of a good thing by far. Full-choked light wasn't as useful sometimes, so I wanted a wider pattern.
I had my brother run it through his bandsaw to shorten the whole thing, and it pretty much exploded into tiny pieces all over the driveway. This was a surprise, since the same modification had worked fairly well on a grid for my smaller accent flashes.
I made a new one with 1/2" straws (vs 1") and it works much better for me. Also used balsa wood instead of frame mat-board since it's much easier to cut and sand, saving mucho time in construction. Balsa is fragile, but in this box form with all the straws filling space (and glued together) it's very strong, yet light.


I used the grid to light the main petunia and a minimum of surrounding foliage:
I like it when the light starts to dim just outside of the main subject, so surrounding items don't compete for attention. Grids are great for that.
In this case, after a few exposures I added my other two accent flashes to the foliage and white blooms to add some spice.



After that project got me back where I was before, I jumped right into the next one.

A softbox is a light modifier that, much like using a white umbrella with your flash, spreads the light out and therefore softens it. Shadows have less of a hard edge to them. Like the difference between direct sunlight and overcast.
Unlike umbrellas, there isn't any stray light spilling into the rest of your "studio", and they are also easier to get into difficult angles like straight up or down.
I started by going through my stockpile of old microphone stands and booms and came up with the perfect setup.
Then I found a sheet of new black foamcore for a dollar.
Cutcutcut, glueglueglue.
(Using a self-healing cutting mat really helps--Thanks Lisa!)

The inside walls are reflective (using foil) and for now I have some material from a white linen napkin to spread the light:
As with all of my DIY light modifiers, this has a good friction-fit when mounted to the flash.
No velcro or rubber bands for me, if I can help it.


Finally found some feeder mice locally today, so Candy got to come out of her habitat and socialize before dinner:
The softbox was around 15" away, and you can hopefully see how all of the "specular highlights" ( = relections of the light source) are long and smooth instead of being pinpoints of over-bright ugliness like you can get with bare naked flash.

I used a 2nd flash unit behind a blue gel to hit the wall behind this scene, and appreciated the quick artistic freedom that small flashes can furnish when I decided to make the right side fade a bit darker.


Candy was her usual twisty/grabby/snakey self, so I ended up having to partially disassemble the 8-string bass's stand to pry her loose.
I should have been ready for this, since right before her last feeding she somehow managed to get Sylvia's car keys stuck on her tail.

The Stolen Chair Project

This is inspired by those silly Brits who had a fad a few years back where they would borrow someone's garden gnome, take it on vacation, then return it with a packet of prints showing his amazing adventures.
(The reason Travelocity uses a garden gnome as it's spokesman, by the way.)

There's one club we play in SA that is cramped for space, so I have no room for light tripods--I have to hang them all from the rafters. Thankfully, the seating in this club is these really sturdy and tall wooden chairs that make excellent improvised ladders.
I have yet to fall from one and break a rib, unlike real ladders (twice) and swiveling stools (once).

Last Saturday, one of the chairs in question ended up in the back of our truck somehow, and has been getting all kinds of late night action.
The plan is to leave it on their doorstep right before opening, with prints of all these pics. Not really sure how we can witness the reaction/payoff without getting busted, though.

On With The Show!
(in chronological order)






















What I did was shoot 2-4 pics every night this week.
And since it's also an exercise designed to get me back into taking pictures regularly I decided to handicap myself by working very quickly and also keep PhotoChopping to the bare minimum.
And to only use the 50mm lens, which isn't a problem since my other two have been gathering dust since I bought it.

It was very hard to come up with so many locations indoors, and I fell back on my usual props thus far, but I still have plenty of future photo-ops when I start taking the chair around town next week.
Any suggestions gratefully considered!

Taking Pride In My Tools

To continue the tale started here and then here:

The new Mackie Onyx 24-4 mixing board now has a very nice and rugged road case.
Lots of foam and aluminum with steel corners and latches.
The best part is smart design--I can put it on the stand, then remove one lid and have complete access to all connections without any fuss.
Some case manufacturers don't think this is important, but they would be wrong.
In fact, they would be written-off as idiots and never see another sale from me.

When I'm given old and dirty gear to work with, it's hard to take much pride.
Human nature.
It's already trashed, so while I will take enough care of it to keep things working, I won't feel any affection or really give a crap what it looks like.
A strip of masking tape with some Sharpie™ markings is fine, and will last beyond it's 2nd Craig'sList appearance or longer.
(Some of the gear I have used in the past still sport my markings decades later!)

In this case, I felt that some class was in order so I borrowed a label maker and spent an evening learning to use it properly. New boards deserve this--especially ones that I love.

Might as well label the "Aux Sends" too, on both sides of the mixer.
It's been years since I had more than 3 that actually worked, and I wouldn't want to get confused...
In fact, this was the main reason we bought the new Mackie!

To protect our investment, today I cut into a nice piece of black vinyl upholstery to serve as a beer/barf-shield for those rare minutes when I'm away from my station.


It's probably obvious by now that I love my new mixing board.
Most sound engineers seem to treat the audience worse than they treat their gear, but that's counter-productive.
Crowd-First is my priority.

On the other hand, when the perfect tools are given to you in brand new condition, it only makes sense to take extreme pride in them and to configure each item to the best of your abilities.

Wood And Smoke

This large ashtray was hand-carved in the Phillipines from a single piece of mahogany sometime in the late '60s or so.
A recent gift that I really like; expect to see it again.

Around The Web

I find it interesting that the owner of Daily Gun Pictures blog asks for contributions but doesn't give credit or provide a link to his source's website.
Just "These were emailed to me...."
(FYI the text above those photos is mine, too).

I have access to many more interesting and rare guns for his site plus the skills to create nice photos and descriptions, but will have to gently remind him of Netiquette when I send the next ones.

Nobody should get blog content handed to them without a little consideration these days.
Am I right?

Champagne And Caviar?

It's finally Thursday, which means we'll be attending a private reception at the San Antonio Museum of Art.
Those of us featured in this weekend's "Museum Reach" RiverWalk Photography Show are being honored in a little after-hours event.
Two of my camera club friends are in the show and two more are on the guest list, so it should be a good time.

Of course I'll be taking pictures and will post them here along with a food and drink review.

In other news, Loud Nine will be at Oasis on Saturday night, so come out and watch me forget a few bass notes.
At tonight's rehearsal we managed to find a few minutes for a portrait session:

Instead of champagne and caviar Loud Nine is more into beer and tacos, but we'll settle for lipstick and bruises...


Don't forget that BLISS will be at Rebar on Broadway Friday night.

Gardening (And Cameras) In 2009

Because the drought causes brown stunted grass I haven't been able to cut the lawn since early spring despite watering as much as I dare. Stage II watering restrictions have substantial fines attached to watering outside your assigned day and times.
The allowed hours don't make sense--the perfect time for me to be moving the sprinkler around is from 10pm to 3 am, but for some dumb reason that's against the law. 3 am to 8 am is when I'm asleep, and I can't even finish the front yard between 8 and 10pm, let alone the huge expanse out back.
So I do what I have to do.
My grass sucks even though there's 200 years worth of water underground, but we can't let the springs run dry during the tourist season, although for some reason our lovely fountains are shut off.
Bah!


All of that sets up the fact that I've been getting my yard fun from an explosion of potted plants. I can move them around for optimal sunlight/shade ratios, water the hell out of them, and take pictures.

And eat some of the stuff I'm growing.
Like banana peppers:

This is the first one that turned colors before being eaten, and only because it was a shorty that I expected to grow some more.
Thought these stayed yellowish-green.

Like this much bigger one.
Almost zero heat, and not much flavor--no wonder they usually get sliced and pickled. Great on pizza--learned this at Rome's.


This pothos vine (or is it a philodendron?) was a house-warming gift that used to be several feet long but has declined over the last few years.
In May I replaced the soil and it perked-up within hours, tripling in size since then.

Sylvia filled 3 pots with petunias that cheered her up.
Got the variegated bougainvillea on the right track again.
Just started some jalapenos for late fall fire.
The margarita sweet potato vine will get it's own story.


Camera/Flash Details:
Skip this part if you don't care.

The pepper photos are proof of why I missed my Sony F717 and welcomed Matthew's F828 with open arms.
The first one I shot using my old technique for small items (arrived at through years of trial and error) of jamming the lens up close and hand-holding an automatic flash about 6-8 inches over the subject. Took 2 minutes.
With Sony F-Series cameras (and MANY others of all brands) all you have to do is push the button with the flower icon to tell it that you're trying to focus close to the lens, and it will. 2cm away from the lens is about as close as the F828 will focus, and that's fine.
As soon as you move the camera a bit further away the magnification drops-off dramatically so you might try to add some zoom, but in most cases you're still too close for the minimum-focus distance of that particular zoom setting which equals blurry junk.
The 2nd photo was at the very edge of minimum-focus distance because I was trying out the Strobist's angled food lightbox design. No matter how I positioned everything, once I moved the camera away I was forced into WAY more croppping with less resolution remaining. And despite using a tripod it simply wasn't as sharp as handholding the camera and flash right up close as I did for the 1st photo.
This picture was also a test of using my cheap Cactus radio triggers to fire remote flashes from the F828. Worked 100%.

What about depth of focus?
Almost the same--the longer pepper in #2 is the deciding factor because if I hadn't eaten pepper #1 the night before there would have been a better comparison.
At the extreme wide-angle setting this zoom lens has much more DOF.
In fact, I probably could have opened up the aperture on #1 some more without a significant DOF penalty.

Then there's the apparent size of the light source, which boils down to bigger = better, but much closer = bigger.
Here I still have to give the edge to #1.
When an external flash is within a few inches it's size compared to a small subject is suitably huge and therefore softer.
Move it a few feet away to light an umbrella or in this case a sheet of paper on the side of a cardboard box and you not only lose a ton of output, you also sacrifice the flexibility to move it a few degrees in any direction or a couple inches closer/further without having to stop shooting and adjust stands and modifiers.
Just watch the replay on your LCD and compensate accordingly by hand in seconds.

I could easily spend $500+ on a macro lens for my main A300 DSLR camera that might give me the results I've always been able to get with "obsolete" Sony F-Series cameras and their incredible German Zeiss lenses and a relatively cheap external flash.
It's a shame that regaining a specific "niche" capability can cost as much as the original camera that got you hooked.
When it comes to digital cameras, the manufacturer's response to consumer demands is often along the lines of "one step forward, two steps back".
Marketing departments have been in control for far too long.
Photographer's needs are at least 5 steps below BS specs and buzzwords.

I Had The Most Amazing Day

One year and 3 days ago my first digital camera died for the last time.
I was heartbroken, panicked, sick to my stomach, devastated, etc.

As usual, Sylvia came to my rescue and within two weeks I had my beloved Sony Alpha300. It's a great camera, and is so much more advanced than the Sony F717 I was using that it took over a month to feel comfortable taking pictures again--so much to learn!

But my Alpha300 is a fairly standard consumer-grade camera, while my late F717 was state-of-the-art when it was introduced and had some features that aren't popular enough today to have been retained.
Mainly, the ability to take photos in the infrared spectrum instead of visible light with the addition of a few filters that screw onto the end of the lens.
I was just getting good at IR photography when my F717 crapped-out, and it was a major blow to my mood and sales.

For some strange reason I woke up at 9am (noon is more my style) and it's a good thing I did!
The US Postal Service truck in the street convinced me to put on pants and answer the doorbell.
I signed for a box from Toronto

On the right is my dead-meat F717.
On the left is it's improved successor, the F828, sent to me by my internet friend Matthew Robertson.

In addition to being able to shoot IR (again) this camera also takes much higher quality video, has a wider range of lens focal lengths, is built studlier than my older version. It's been improved in many areas and was pretty much the best digital camera in 2003.

How do you thank someone for sending you an awesome camera that gets you back in the infrared game?

Might as well send the flash, too?
You can see that the flash for my old camera had but a single power switch, while the HVL-F32X flash Matthew sent me has an LCD sceen and lots of buttons for more control.
I missed being able to shoot flashed macros of small animals (my Alpha300 system won't support this unless I buy an expensive new macro lens) so I'm also excited to renew this ability!

This level of kindness is not unknown to me, but is the exception rather than the rule for so-called 'internet friends', meaning people you have never met but get along with on the www.
My IR filter was a gift from Bruce, and my older Sony flash was shipped down to Texas from WA by C.Moore--also gratis.

The only way I know how to thank such kind people is to make the best use of their gifts as possible.
Let them see that what they gave to me is being used to produce better photos.
It's a challenge, but I'm ready to accept it.

Thank You, Matthew!!!

Spanish Mauser FR-7

Take a look at this first photo closely.
(Click on it)
Looks like an early type of military assault rifle, complete with flash hider at the muzzle, a protected front sight that's adjustable for both windage and elevation, and a bayonet lug underneath.

Not at all the kinds of features typically found on a bolt rifle using a Mauser action designed in 1893!
I bought this oddball at a gun show in the mid-'90s for $65. I was looking for the more desireable FR-8 model ($150 at the time) but other collectors had already beat me to them and the supply had dried up, so I settled for this FR-7.
The seller had probably taken it in a trade since he didn't know anything about it, and apparently neither did the dozens of chumps who had handled it before me.
There was serious damage to most of the moving parts from assclowns trying to work the bolt as if it were a modern Ruger or Browning or Remington.
In fact, the bolt was fully retracted when I found it and the dealer told me he didn't know how to close it!
I did, but played dumb and spent a few minutes looking over the condition while pretending to try and figure it out.
Then I stuck my finger in it and pushed down the badly gouged magazine follower so I could close the bolt.
I told him it was kind of interesting but couldn't possibly be a serious rifle.
And that it had damage here and here and especially here.
Offered half of what he wanted and let him think he got the extra $15 through his shrewd bargaining skills.

Here you can see that the rear sight is a rotating disk with apertures at various heights above the bore.
This was designed to emulate then-recently adopted CETME assault rifle that Spain had chosen in the early 1950s. The German H&K G-series are more recent CETME-types.
Since their economy and political situation was very bad after WWII it was difficult to aquire enough of the new rifles to outfit the Army, Air Force and Navy with sufficient numbers as it was, let alone divert a bunch for training purposes, so Spanish armories modified existing M1916 (FR-7) and M43 (FR-8) Mausers to a configuration that was similar enough, and these rifles also found use in the Guardia Civil which would be a close approximation of our National Guard.
They modified the original wood stocks (some of which are very nice pieces of wood like mine) and put on new barrels chambered for the then-new 7.62mm NATO cartridge still in use today for machine guns and special purpose rifles half a century later.
The popular commercial .308 cartridge is very similar but has slight dimensional and pressure differences that make it a bad choice for the FR-7, but is considered safe for the FR-8.
I've put 20 rounds of .308 through this rifle without blowing myself up, but am planning to work a trade using some 1955-vintage Lake City Arsenal M2 ammo (.30-06) I have for some true 7.62 NATO.

There is also the problem of the parts I had to replace.
The bolt was heavily damaged, as was the magazine follower, and the safety, bolt shroud, cocking piece, ejector, extractor, firing pin...hell, I had to replace everything that moves.
Now that I have my hands on this rifle again I'm trying to get it back to shooting condition.
It kicks like a mule but is one of the truly unique guns of the last century and I want to contribute to the knowledge base so others can benefit from my research and testing.
Fusil Reformado 7

Antique Agua

Around 15 or so years ago the band I was in got an unusual booking: to be the opening act for The Village People at whatever Tiffany Billiards on San Pedro was calling itself back then.
We played rock and pop hits and original Texas blues/rock, so the whole idea was pretty silly but money is money.
All I remember about that night was that as soon as our last note died I was unplugging my sound gear and hauling it out as fast as I could.
My goal was to be drinking a Bud at Rocky's by the time the Villagers hit the stage, and I made it, too!

Was informed later that one of our members was lingering in the dressing room and during their set, stole one mineral water and one towel for each of the six VPs.
He made a little shrine with his treasure, displaying the 6 bottles with a white sweat towel wrapped around it.
A funny band story that I have told many times over the years.

Fast-forward to July 2009:
Through the unpredictable twists of fate and circumstance I am suddenly in possession of five bottles of Topo Chico™ mineral water, a product of Monterrey Mexico. Ingredients: Water, Carbon Dioxide.
Inside the same carton are photos of the band member who raided the Village People's backstage supplies, as well as tapes of him playing and writing songs at home and in the studio if the labels are accurate.

I'll be passing these items along to him eventually, but at the moment I'm laughing my ass off. The story I've been telling has come full-circle and I now have some of the evidence in-hand.
Sure, I always believed the tale but never saw any part of it for myself.
Now, I know!

In my mind I always pictured it being Perrier™.
I'm curious if this water still has any fizz after 15 years.

For $100 cash I'll drink one.

LG EnV2 Problem Pictures Won't Display FullScreen

My new phone is a hand-me-down LG EnV2 on the Verizon Network.
I'm really happy to finally have a qwerty keyboard for easier texting during my loud rock shows, and the main LCD screen is pretty freaking sweet.
320 x 240 pixels inside a roughly 2" x 1.5" display--nowhere near my new camera's LCD by orders of magnitude, but it beats my previous phone all to hell.
For one thing, viewing angle isn't critical.
It's big and bright and the colors closely match what I'm used to seeing on my computer's Dell CRT.

A problem the previous owner had was that .jpgs of my pictures which were transferred to the phone via Micro SD card would only display really small, as seen in the photo below.

A rare few older pictures would go full-screen just fine, but the vast majority were tiny no matter what I tried.
Being clever, this phone's previous owner discovered that using the phone's cropping function would fix the problem. I don't normally approve of anyone altering my work, but at least the pics I took could be shown at a decent size even though cropped a little.
It was a functional solution, and Google searches never turned up a fix.
Of course it goes without saying that the owner's manual was no help.
Ask a Verizon or LG rep for advice?
Don't make me laugh.

*****Fast forward to yesterday*****

I like being able to whip out a few of my photos on a device that's already with me. Sometimes the conversation (or job opportunity) requires it.
You can make a sale or at the very least share some laughs.
I've been doing this with my old phone for years, but it's smaller vertical screen meant that most of my pics looked little and had to be viewed from a precise angle to match my original.
So I was highly motivated to make this LG EnV2 submit to my wishes.
And for once I had an entire day to sit at the computer with several graphic programs running so I could try every possible idea as soon as it came to me, while also learning how to navigate the phone better.

The EnV2's 2mp camera delivers 1600x1200 resolution, so I started there.
Then I tried going all the way down to the screen's native 320x240 pixels, with every possible size in-between.
Nope.
They all looked the same--tiny.
After that I used programs other than Photoshop to re-size my files.
Still nothing works.

I knew from looking online that 500kb was the file size limit, or else you have to crop in-phone, but I was using the exact files that have been displayed here at Views Of Texas which are usually around 200kb or less.
Hmmm...so what else is the phone's crop function doing?
And I kept going back to the random older photos of mine that would always display nice and big like I wanted.
What was different about them?

Then a little fact hit me--I started using the free version of Neat Image noise reduction many years ago to fix my old camera's high-iso and long-exposure noise problems, but after a little while started using it as a PhotoShop plug-in instead of a stand-alone program for more control over the final product.
And the random pics that displayed full-screen were all old enough to have been run through Neat Image after they had been through PhotoShop, instead of as a plug-in.

So, what else does the free version of Neat Image do to a .jpg besides tame ugly digital noise artifacts?
Well......it strips the camera settings file (exif data) that is automatically embedded inside every digital photo by the camera!

And that was the fix!


Seriously, this is a HUGE difference in view-ability.
I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one who cared enough about seeing their pictures as big as possible and also managed to find a way to make it happen on these popular phones.
What a dumbass thing, for always-embedded .jpg exif data to force the display to go all tiny unless you actually took the pic with the phone.
I'm still: Shocked. Pissed. Amazed.


Rather than run all of my photos through NI whether they needed it or not, I chose to keep them as close to the original as possible by simply opening them in PhotoShop and then using the 'Save For Web' protocol that I already knew would strip the exif data from the files.
Now there are a buttload of my pics looking good on the LG EnV2.

Even after a huge number of web searches I was only able to solve this problem through trial and error.
That's why this blog post's title reads like a Google search query--hopefully someone gets relief by stumbling into View's Of Texas.
It's a stupid design mistake on LG's part, especially since they didn't bother to pass it along to the owner's manual people.

I feel sorry for all the folks who want to carry around some snapshots and can't make their expensive phone do what it should without some big secret pain in the ass.


Did you know that there are moisture-sensitive stickers inside your cellphone's battery compartment?
They use them to diagnose problems and void your warranty whenever possible.
A small white circle around 1/8" in diameter with red crosses is how Verizon/LG do it.
The closer the circle gets to plain red/pink, the more excessive moisture you have exposed your phone to.
Before you take it in to be "fixed" (replaced at your cost) take my advice and remove the battery, open the charger and MicroSD card hatches, and place the phone in an open position in front of a fan for 24-48 hours to dry it's guts out.
If you're lucky, it didn't really sustain permanent damage.


***** UPDATE *****
While getting the EnV2 activated a few days ago I shared these findings with my Verizon dude, Ray.
He got a little excited because he's had the same problem and also has customers ask him about it periodically.
From his reaction I can assume that LG and Verizon either haven't figured out that there's an issue (hard to believe) or haven't figured out a solution (easier to believe).
Or if they know as much as I do, maybe they just don't care enough to pass this tip along because it makes their programmers look like idiots.
Seriously, this was a dumbass design flaw that makes absolutely no sense, which was why it was so hard for me to solve--I tried all the stuff that made sense first.

I would LOVE to know if this has been fixed on the new EnV3.
Guess I'll be visiting my buddy Ray soon so we can test one.

Drip...Drip...Drip...Bang...Bang

I never had any interest in water drop photos before.
Didn't see the point--good ones are cool and all, but does anyone buy prints of them to hang on their walls?
Can they be used to report an event of some kind?

All that changed when I actually tried it myself, due to seeing a good tutorial on how it's done at The Strobist blog.

The Strobist has taught me and a few million other people how to use flash units in the quickest and most effective way, and what I've learned there over the years has really taken my photography to another level.


I think this one should be called Balanced


Kangaroo


Crater

It took more time to fill my bucket than it did to take the pictures, even though for stuff like this you have to "spray and pray"--I took 85 shots in a few minutes to get these three.
And it turns out that I really enjoyed the process and the results.
It was fun, and I like looking at them.
Pics like this make nice desktop wallpapers.

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Speaking of the Strobist, David Hobby: As a mentor to millions around the world, he's a pretty famous guy in photography.
Making DVDs on how to light, flying to Dubai and Seattle and Paris etc to give hands-on workshops, and just operating his incredible blog, this fellow is busy!.
So it's always a thrill when he takes the time to personally comment on photos of mine over at Flickr.
Apparently he's a fan of my pictures of guns and katydids, with the bugs having the edge since he actually added them to his "Favorites" listing.
With the guns, I get the impression he likes the guns themselves more than my photos.



Here's the full photo of my brother's hunting pistol:

It was my favorite photo from our second session shooting pics for his website, ZZakk's Lab.
(Link on the right side of this page)