Camera Owners of the Bay Area

The July 2009 meeting of the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held this Wednesday, July 8, 2009, at SmugMug headquarters in Mountain View from 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm.

Note: This meeting was originally scheduled to happen in June, 2009 but had to be postponed until this month.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Richard Ressman takes photos as a volunteer for an infant bereavement organization, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. Parents of stillborn or dying infants need only call Dr. Ressman and he will drive to a local hospital, set up a small studio in a hospital room, take photos and produce prints as well as a CD and DVD that the parents can treasure. At the June 10 COBA meeting, Dr.Ressman, an Area Coordinator and Certified Trainer for NILMDTS, will present information and photos highlighting his experience with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep. Attendees will be given information should they be interested in joining and working with the organization. (www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org/)

Richard Ressman bought his first Nikon camera in 1969 as a Surgical Intern in Chicago and has been taking photographs since. He developed and printed his first photos in his eleven by seven foot Intern’s call room. In 2002, he changed careers from that of orthopaedic surgeon to full-time photographer. Exhibits include three photos in the eMotion Pictures Exhibit sponsored by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons which traveled to San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, and Madrid, Spain. He had a photo of Bo Diddley in the 2008 eMotion Pictures Exhibit in San Francisco.

He practiced orthopaedic surgery for thirty years before becoming a full-time photographer. He did everything from operating on fractures to replacing arthritic knees and hips. Dr. Ressman recently traveled to Viet Nam to donate all his unused surgical equipment. He got two companies to donate thousands of dollars of equipment, and as a volunteer taught surgical techniques to surgeons in Ho Chi Minh City. His reason: The Vietnamese people suffered enough during the Viet Nam-American war and he wanted to give something back to the Vietnamese people. It was a rewarding experience for everyone involved. He now calls himself a Photosurgeon: that’s an orthopaedic surgeon who aspires to do photography on the cutting edge. Some of his work can be seen on his website www.photosurgeon.net.

How Accurate Are Your Prints?

How happy are you with printouts from your printer or from your favorite print provider? At the last COBA meeting, we had a long discussion about various printers and printing providers. Now’s the time to test and compare them with your fellow COBA members!

1. Go and download the 60MB COBA Test Print Photo from Sam Linville
2. Print an 8×10 photo. Either do it yourself at home or take it to your favorite print shop. Do not perform any color correction yourself in Photoshop.
3. If you are having this printed out, try to get two copies done at different times.
4. Compare with your fellow COBA members, who will be doing the same!

Perhaps after this meeting, you’ll change print providers!

Meeting Location

COBA is now meeting at SmugMug offices in Mountain View.

SmugMug
67 E. Evelyn Ave, Suite 200
Mountain View, CA 94041
http://tinyurl.com/apnhvz

RED has taken off the wraps of its new Epic and Scarlet lines. Contained within the products is RED’s response to the 5D Mark II. Instead of buying a new camera every few years, you just replace the sensor modules and keep all of the remaining components — batteries, grips, viewfinders, input/output modules, etc. Very impressive if they can pull this off in the timeframe they specified (Spring 2009). It’s a great time to be a still photographer and videographer!

Two months ago, we had a “>presentation on Canon Professional Services (CPS). Well, it looks like new submissions are not being accepted, as Canon has announced massive changes to the CPS program. Read all about the details here, or the short summary below.

There will be a tiered service plan for CPS members: Silver, Gold, and Platinum:

CPS Silver level membership will be offered free-of-charge to qualifying photographers. This level of membership includes a welcome kit, access to the CPS phone hotline and a 20 percent discount on repairs[i]. For professional photographers requiring a higher level of Canon support, CPS Gold level membership additionally includes access to loan equipment for a two-week trial period and an expedited three-day turnaround on service items.[ii] Along with a 30 percent service discount, CPS Gold level membership includes two free Check & Clean vouchers. CPS Gold level membership will have an annual fee of $100*.

The CPS Platinum membership level will include priority access to loan equipment for two-week trial periods, 60 percent discount on repairs[iii], expedited two-day turnaround on equipment service and backup equipment loans if service is longer than two days.[iv] CPS Platinum level membership will have an annual fee of $500*.

Here are the slides from Edward Casati’s presentation on Windows Home Server.

The November 2006 meeting of the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held this Wednesday, November 8, 2006 in Cordura Hall 100 at Stanford University from 7:30-10:00 pm.

Around the World in 60 Minutes

COBA members have been traveling around the world and have the photos to prove it!

Matt Drown recently went on his first safari, in Tanzania. He’ll talk about the things that worked, the things that didn’t, and the things that he wished he had done while on the trip. Additionally, Matt will talk about this other travels and his experience with shooting in different cities. Matt has been interested in photography all his life, as a child his parents encouraged him to take a camera on vacations. This started a habit that has turned into a hobby. Matt now carries the camera on all his trips and enjoys finding new ways to take pictures in different locations.

Alvin Wong and David Blanchard both went on separate trips to the Far East. They will show and discuss their photo experiences in China.

If you would like to share some photos from a recent trip away from the Bay Area, bring your stories, photos, and prints to the meeting this Wednesday!

Geotagging Your Photos

Chris Pedersen will demonstrate how to use RoboGeo to geocode large numbers of travel photos from England, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Estonia. Chris is a life-time photo-enthusiast, electical engineer, serial entrepreneur. Interesting photo-fact: took Ansel Adams picture at his home in 1982 on the occasion of him receiving an honorary doctors degree from Santa Clara University. Recently, HP’s Strategy Manager for Digital Entertainment Services. Currently enthusiastically exploring new opportunities to help create new consumer technology product and services businesses.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and a happy new year!

This is a reminder that there will be no January 2006 meeting of the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group.

The next meeting will be held on February 8, 2006. We will be discussing new RAW processing applications such as Adobe Lightroom and Apple’s Aperture. Other topics to be announced.