photo credit: shaire productions

Black and white photography is a number of monochrome forms in visual art. Monochrome comes from the Greek monochromos meaning “of one colour”, which is a combination of monos, meaning “alone” or “solitary” and chroma meaning “colour”. Quite basic when you break it down!

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photo credit: hoyasmeg

First smile, first yawn, going on her first trip to the doctor or wearing her first shoes. Nothing can give new moms and dads so much joy then having all these baby firsts captured in great photos.

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photo credit: chinmay22

Are you planning to go on a trip or just want to have fun in your own backyard? Wouldn’t it be nice if you can capture all those funny, exciting, and beautiful moments? Grab a camera! And start taking those lovely life scenes to cherish forever.

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photo credit: dimastrakovsky

For people, it is almost second nature to want to document events. It is not surprising that some people will not go anywhere without a camera, since taking pictures is one of the best ways (if not the best way) to capture a moment’s feeling.

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Remember when we shared photos of our summer vacation by loading up a slide tray — or pulling out a bunch of photo print envelopes? Now we simply E-mail a photo slide show to a friend in an instant.

Photo sharing via computer is all the rage. And that’s because nothing is faster, easier or more convenient. All you have to do is upload your photos. You get the pick of the litter and you get to send only those you’re most proud of.

photo credit: *PaysImaginaire*

But what happens when you have thousands of photos? That just happened to a friend of mine who came back from her honeymoon. The last thing she wanted was to leave all these precious memories on her computer. What would happen if it crashed?

Well, I told her about these fantastic photo sharing sites. So we checked out a few and chose one that had a mass uploader. Talk about quick! All her photos were uploaded in a matter of minutes. It was incredible! But, best of all, she now knew that they were all safe and secure, and she and her husband would have those precious memories to share for a lifetime.

I can understand my friend’s concern. When I send my photos to family and friends, there are some that I want to share with only a select group of people – not the whole world.

But then I started thinking, what about easy photo printing. Capturing a special moment with a digital camera is fairly easy. Transferring the photo to your computer is a snap. But what if you’re looking for easy photo printing?

When I was a kid, I remember how excited I was when I picked up the photos from the store. It was a real thrill to open the envelope and, there in big, bold colors was a picture of me and my brothers at he ballpark or the zoo, or on vacation with my parents. The only problem was I had to wait a full week to get to see them. And sometimes, well, I’d feel a twinge of disappointment when my favorites came out a little blurry.

The new online photo sharing sites deliver prints right to you, so you don’t have to hassle with going to drug store to pick them up. And you can choose whatever size prints you like. And, of course, the quality is first-rate, as good or better than you’d get anywhere else. As for price, you’re going to be pleasantly surprised. All the sites are very competitive and very reasonable.

When you come right down to it, with easy photo printing you get the best of everything, with none of the drawbacks. You don’t even have to be tech savvy; I’m certainly not. The easy photo sharing and printing sites walk you through it step-by-step.

I have six brothers and sisters and now we email each other all the time. Easy photo sharing keeps us close and keeps us connected, and keeps us laughing.

CJ Carroll writes for a variety of clients, including Hoorray, a photo sharing website that offers a free online photo album to new members and is the easiest place to create a digital photo album, calendar, and more.

There have only been a few digital SLR camera problems reported in the last few years. The major problem is hot and cold temperatures. Each digital camera has its own recommendations for what type of temperatures the camera should be used in and not.  Digital photos.

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photo credit: the other Martin Taylor   

If you’re like most of us you actually have to answer yes. Those special photos that bring back such wonderful memories. Just to think of them would bring such beautiful smiles to our faces. Where are they now?

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photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Who says you need to pay thousands for a surveillance system? Get an IP camera and get your house wired up and secured against intruders.

An IP camera is an excellent, yet inexpensive camera for your home surveillance system. It can be installed in anywhere in your house for home monitoring and intruder protection. Set up one in your bedroom, living room, garage, or doorstep, and you will get the status of your home in video.

All IP cameras come with a built in web server, so you don’t have to worry about special hardware or software. You just set up the camera and you’re ready to access real time images anytime and anywhere there is Internet connection.

Setting Up You IP Camera

Installing the camera doesn’t require special knowledge about computers. It is practically designed for homeowners, not techies. All you have to do is plug in the Ethernet cable to the IP camera, connect it to your existing network, assign an IP address, and follow the user’s manual to set up your PC.

The Works

Most IP cameras support password protection, so that access to the camera is strictly confined to the defined user who has a user name and user password. You need not worry about hackers logging into your system and getting videos of your home, given that you don’t give out your user name and password to anyone.

The IP camera comes with a motion detector so that when it senses movement from anywhere within its range, it will automatically take a video clip of that movement and alert you by sending the video clip to your email or your security personnel. Other IP cameras may be set up so that it alerts two or three other individuals aside from your. This is useful so that when you’re away from your computer during a break in or something, someone else is informed. You can also program it so that the alarm beep will be sent out from your computer and scare off the intruders.

Hard Disk, Hard Evidence

When you use an IP camera, the recorded video can be stored into the hard disk of any computer. This way you can be sure that you have evidence you can use when you need it.

The video will be stored into your hard drives or uploaded to your FTP server. This makes it easy for you to find the video records you need - you don’t have to constantly change video tapes, as you would when using VCR or other types of surveillance systems.

The camera can go on recording surveillance videos 24/7. Just make sure you have enough free space on your computer. To do this, you must constantly check the recordings and delete those that are of no use. Or, you can program it so that it follows schedule.

There a lot of different IP cameras out in the market offering different features. If you want to get the most for your dollar, make sure you choose one that has all the above-mentioned features. It’s your best bet for home protection without worrying too much about you bank account. But when you can afford to, it won’t hurt to get one that offers more.

Get an IP camera and secure your house without compromising your budget. Check out Linksys WVC200 and the latest webcam surveillance software for your home. Visit Video-Surveillance-Guide.com today.

photo credit: kennylouie

Lighting a picture safely and effectively is just as much a work of art as a painting itself. It requires a professional understanding of the many nuances that characterizes specific artistic genres. Choosing the correct method and intensity of lighting appropriate to the work constitutes the line of demarcation between amateur art lighting designers and professional picture lighting consultants. This is of critical importance to the serious art collector. Because the value of art continues to increase annually, the importance of protecting works of art has become an equivalent priority to their proper viewing. Picture lighting differs significantly from the illumination of more durable subject matter such as bronze sculptures, crystal, and woodwork. Watercolors and oils, as well as textiles, historical documents, and ancient, painted artifacts will degrade, if not completely disintegrate altogether, if they are exposed to ultraviolet light and infrared heat. The intensity of lighting itself plays a factor in the safe lighting of pictures, documents, and museum pieces. Lumens per annum, a term referring to the cumulative intensity of light over long periods of exposure, can have deleterious effects on colors and canvases. For this reason, museums such as the Smithsonian institute configure their low voltage lighting systems with occupancy sensors that turn off the lights when special works are not being viewed. This specialized method of regulating both the exposure to light and its intensity are used to preserve documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

Often, the sophisticated lighting systems go beyond the demands of the home collector. Generally speaking, highly popular, self-installing, over the picture lights are not recommended. In spite of their ability to evenly distribute illumination over the surface of a painting, the type of lighting they produce will severely damage or destroy the painting over time. This is because over the picture lights utilize incandescent or halogen lamps that generate infrared heat. This raises the surface temperature of the piece and causes the oil to crack. Since moisture content is a critical factor to the integrity of oil paint, constant heating and cooling of oil will result in moisture loss and disintegration of the oil’s constituency. One way to combat this is to minimize the wattage of picture lighting lamps and to extend the arm away from the surface of the painting to reduce radiant, forward heat. Some artwork lights even come designed this way, having long arms that extend the light out from the canvas and more evenly distribute it from top to bottom without creating a hot spot near the source.

An much more effective method of picture lighting uses recessed low voltage halogen accent lights mounted in the ceiling above the painting. The housing traps the majority of the heat, allowing only the beam spread to reach the canvas. Sophisticated fixtures such as the MR16 light source use dichroic reflectors that send the heat out of the back of the lamp. This creates a completely heatless form of home picture lighting and is well worth the additional equipment costs when one considers the preservative value it brings in return. Additionally, these lamps are designed with small aperture trims that minimize glare and eliminate distracting “white spots” that over the picture lighting is notorious for creating. Our professional consultants precisely adjust these lights to dispel frame shadows that often result from angle of incidence. This is a problem that many people who attempt picture lighting on their own often have difficulty solving. It requires professional science to correctly aim angles to avoid casting a shadow when beam spread contacts the surface of a traditional frame. Likewise, glare is caused by glass, varnish, or other reflective surfaces from that originates from often-indeterminable sources above eye level. Lighting designers know how to pinpoint these problem areas and make the necessary adjustments to resolve the issue.

For those interested in the most superb technology and least obtrusive form of picture lighting, the Art Projector is by far the best method of illuminating art. Art projectors install in the ceiling, assuming a position above eye level and normally remaining unnoticed by visitors to the room. An Art Projector lights a picture by casting a finely tuned spread of light over the surface of the painting. The beam itself remains invisible until it reaches the subject, where it shapes itself to meet the exact contour of the artwork and creates a “lighted from within” effect. Most professional art galleries prefer to use Art Projectors for picture lighting because of their near invisible presence and the special lighting effects they create that no other technology is able to duplicate.

Illuminations Lighting and Design multi-specializes in all forms of art lighting and maintains an outstanding reputation among residential, corporate and professional galleries throughout Houston and Greater Texas. Visit http://www.illuminationslighting.com/picture_lighting.htm and http://www.illuminationslighting.com

photo credit: tkramer

Cameras today are a streamlined version of their forerunners. Cameras of yesterday were large and clunky. Cameras now can be so small you can fit them on your keychain.

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