The Good

Plasma TV’s have come down so much in price over the last few years, if you haven’t made the switch over to widescreen or HD yet, now is the time.  The Samsung 51″ PN51D450 Plasma TV is not a full 1080p set, but you might be fooled into thinking it was.  The actual resolution is 1360 x 768, so you’re really only losing 300 or so pixels in height as compared to the 1080 model (which costs about $150-200 more).  I decided that instead of a 42″ for around $450-500 this 51″ was way more television for the money, at the price I paid.  I couldn’t be happier with this plasma TV.  It seems just as crisp and sharp, with vivid colors as the 42″ model.  There doesn’t seem to be any loss of quality do to the increased size. Even DVD’s playing via the component cable hookup on my old 480p dvd player look amazing.  Once I pick up a blu-ray player or PS3 that will upconvert them to 1080, they should look even better.  The digital tuner in this TV, and in all Samsung televisions is incredibly strong.  I don’t even Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a great gift idea for yourself, or the photographer in your life?  Here are some cool gift ideas I’ve spotted that are sure to make any photographer smile wide.

#1.  Camera Lens Mugs Cups and Thermoses $15-25

Whether you’re Canon or Nikon, there are all sorts of mugs and thermoses made out of retired or dummy lens shells!  How cool are these?  Very.  And at $15-25 at focalprice (with free shipping) you can’t go wrong.  With stainless steel lining they won’t be drinking out of plastic or anything else that is toxic either. You can usually find them in the 24-70mm and 70-200 focal ranges.

#2. I Shoot People T-Shirt – $17.95

Do you get it?  Hardy harr harr.  It’s still hilarious.  And yes, I actually do own one of these   I’m just mad that my size Medium shrunk in the dryer (should’ve gotten L or XL).

I just stumbled upon these crazy inventions and had a chuckle – but I just had to share these.  A treadmill desk, and an exercise bike with a laptop stand… genius!  These products are funny, but if you’ve got a job where you’re glued to a computer 8-10 hours per day, then they make a lot of sense.  I’m not so sure they’re as practical as they are intended, or ergonomic, but for an hour or two I am sure they would be a nice break to your normal “BIC” (Butt In Chair) routine.(Butt In Chair) routine.

It’s funny – there’s another way you can easily make a setup like this, on the cheap.  I used to use our ironing board as a laptop table, and it fit just across my legs on my recumbent cycle.  Those are the types of exercise bikes where you are seated in a chair, and the pedals are just in front of you.  I had picked the exercise bike up for $100 second hand on craigslist, so I’d have something that would work for when I didn’t feel like going to the gym (I feel that way a lot).  It looks ridiculous, but don’t knock it until you try it!

Ah, Mondays.  Waking up in the morning is not on the top of everyone’s “favorite things to do” list.  Fortunately, there are some really creative product designers out there making alarm clocks and the act of rising and shining “fun” again.  Take a look at these top 10 coolest alarm clock designs and let us know what your favorites are in the comments section below! By now we all probably have seen those certain projector digital clock radio alarms with the projection features, where the time gets projected onto the wall or the ceiling.  Some of these alarm clocks move off the night stand, roll around your floor and raise ruckus so that you have to get up to turn them off.  Another one actually flies!  Here are 10 of the most fun, creatively designed, and feature rich alarm clocks on the web. Usefulness is debatable on some of these alarm clocks, but overall they all have at least good novelty use.  They are all pretty cheap, as well – so they’re also definitely a great gift idea for the techie geek in your life.

1. Gun Target Alarm Clock

It’s cool because you have to shoot the target in order to turn it off.  Will you be able to do this from across the room, half asleep?  I don’t know.  It might not get you out of bed that easily, if you’re within shooting range.

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A while ago, I realized that I really liked shooting with a monopod for added stabilization in certain lighting conditions.  Monopods are just one legged tripods, just like they sound (mono meaning one).  You might think to yourself, what good is having just one leg?  It’s interesting to note that 90% of camera shake is vertical, for obvious reasons.  There’s this thing called gravity, which is keeping you from floating around the room or cafe you’re currently sitting in. The monopod braces all vertical movement, also making it a very easy to use tool for photographic techniques such as panning, where you use a slower shutter speed and move with your subject as it moves past you.  I love panning in sports photos, as well as with cars.  You can pan anything that is moving, but it takes a lot of tries and practice to nail panned images.  Your subject will be in full or in part tack sharp, with some motion blur at the edges, and the entire background will show motion blur.  Tripods are also useful in panning and landscape photography, but a bit more cumbersome to me.  My lightweight monopod is a lot more portable, and easy to carry along with me on the outside of my camera bag. The biggest advantage of a tripod is the ability to shoot while not holding the camera, or even being anywhere near it.

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