Most popular posts of 2011

As the first calendar year of the Prairie Rim Images blog winds to a close, it seemed appropriate to look back at which posts made the biggest splash with our readers.  If you're a new reader, this will hopefully turn you on to a few of the gems that you may have missed.  I'm not surprised at which posts top the list, but I am, somewhat, at the degree to which they blew past their competition.  The top ten most popular posts, in reverse order, are...

A few of my LEAST favorite things

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about a few of my favorite pieces of photographic equipment.  Those were items that I'd recommend to a friend without any reservation.  Of course, I'm not in love with all of my gear.  There are some items that I must use frequently, but curse them all the while.  While these pieces may work well enough for some, they don't meet my ever-increasing standards, and I'll be replacing them soon.

Small scale DIY light tent

I wrote a while back about photographing some camera lenses using a DIY light tent that I made from a plastic storage tub and some printer paper.  This time, I demonstrate that the smaller the subject is, the simpler the lighting gets.  In this case, the subject is the SD memory card that I bent in two a few days ago.

Why I prefer CompactFlash cards

The card reader in my computer has had trouble lately reading the SecureDigital card from our P&S camera unless the card was seated very securely in the slot. I've gotten in the habit of giving it a firm press when inserting it. A few nights ago, I guess I must have been pushing in at a slight angle, because I heard a crunch as I taco'd my SD card. I apparently seated it sufficiently, because despite the damage, I was still able to pull all the data off the card. This is not the first time I've heard of the data on SanDisk cards surviving catastrophic physical damage.

A few of my favorite things

With Christmas almost here, many of us are compiling lists of equipment that we'd like to own.  To that end, I wanted to mention a few of my own pieces that I've come to really love.  I tend to collect older equipment from various non-retail sources, so I've got a lot of gear piling up.  Some of it works well for me, and some of it doesn't.  The gear listed below is some of my best-loved equipment that I'd highly recommend to friends.

First snow of the season

Today brought the first significant snow of the season to Lincoln.  There wasn't a lot -- only about an inch -- but it was enough to turn everything pretty.  As luck would have it, this is Saturday, so I was home & available to spend some time outside enjoying it with my camera.  It was even relatively warm and calm, which made shooting rather enjoyable despite the continuing precipitation.  Read on for a few pointers on cold weather photography.