Thursday, August 31, 2006

Still scannng even though I should be downtown, or somewhere, making new photos. I know once winter hits I will be wishing for nice weather; like we're having right now! But I can't help myself, I must scan! I need to scan.

Photo: London
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Took a few days off and climbed some mountain passes with my bicycle. 30 miles up to Chinook Pass and then over and up to Sunrise on Mount Rainier. Beautiful late summer weather, did some blueberry picking ontop of Chinook Pass even.

Today it was back to the studio and more scanning. The time always flies past there and before I know it I have to leave to go home. I'm starting to plan my next trip, to New York City, at the end of September. I've driven through NYC and taken photos ( I have some of those photos online but not many) but to go by foot will be a new experience.

Photo: Lisbon
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Saturday, August 26, 2006

As I scanned this photo I had to laugh. You see, I'm married to a German and every time we go for a visit to Germany it never fails that people we meet have these crazy ideas (stated as fact) about America that I get to listen to. There are only Mcdonald's for restaurants, all people are fat, we drive everywhere (that may actually be true for parts of the U.S (like San Fernando Valley.), and crazy questions like "can one walk in big cities (or just drive)?". These statements are, of course, made by "experts" who have never been to America. Here is proof it's not only Americans that can get fat. As for Mcdonald's, I think Dresden, a city 1/3rd as big as Seattle, has as many if not more Mcdonald's outlets.

Photo: Kassel (Germany)
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Friday, August 25, 2006

A world record was set today. I scanned something like 32 images (all can be seen at my site, www.rongreer.com). I've never scanned even half that many in a day! I keep this up I will be caught up and need to get busy and shoot more.

I heard my new computer laughing at me today; it's true. As I was scanning in Photoshop, building a html gallery in Iview, and uploading in Dreamweaver, all at the same time, I heard my computer laughing "is that all you can throw at me?". All that number-crunching only slightly slowed down this beast; a tiny bit! I couldn't be happier with my new computer (in case you can't tell).

Ok, time to run, need to get ready for the Critical Mass bike ride tonight, and I'll be stopping off at the Pike Street Market for a King Salmon to BBQ later. Oh boy.

Photo: Puyallup
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Wednesday, August 23, 2006




I've said it already but I'll say it again, wow, wow! is my new computer fast! Fast and powerful in fact. It just plows through scans, sharpening, html gallery builiding all seemingly without effort. One reason I was in a hurry to divide my galleries into year periods was to cut the processing time each time I added images to a gallery. it simply isn't an issue any more. Even a 100 image gallery takes less than 8 minutes.

Photo: Seattle Hempfest
Camera: Mamiya 6

Monday, August 21, 2006





Spent the morning getting my new computer operational, like adding Dreamweaver, Photoshop CR2, Iview Mediapro, Quickbooks, and all my files. Had to download a new plug-in before PS would recognize my Minolta scanner but here are the first scans using my new Mac Pro.

Wow, is it ever fast. Before, with my old G3 PowerBook, while waiting for an image to, say, sharpen I could go down and make a Latte. Not any more! It will sharpen a 68mb file in under 10 seconds!!! It will make a html gallery in Iview in under 8 minutes, something that use to take almost an hour. nice. So, how much quicker will photoshop be once it is running native? too fast? is that possible. I may need to hire a barista!

Photos: Seattle Hempfest, taken on Saturday
Camera: Mamiya 6

Friday, August 18, 2006

So! It's here! My shiny new Mac Pro: 2.66ghz, 3 gb memory, 1.25 terabyes of storage. I had just ridden a very fast 10 miles so I don't look the freshest in the photo but doesn't my new baby look great! It looks beautiful inside too, like a work of art. The interior is amazingly clean and well thought out. I added two 500gb additional hard drives and 2 additional Gbs of memory in about 5 minutes. Now for the task of creating the RAID1 configuration and loading all my software and files. Then the fun begins.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Friday, August 11, 2006

Took the day off and drove down to my favorite Bar, The Olympic Club, in logger-chic Centrailia. A "must stop" for anyone driving between Portland and Seattle. Wonderfully preserved 1902 interior, a dozen pools table, big big big pot belly stove, good food, and of course good beer. Kids welcome!

Photo: Hollywood, Ca
Camera: D200

Tuesday, August 08, 2006


So! I placed my order today for the just released Mac Pro 2.66ghz dual processor computer! It should ship this coming Friday. This ought to be one powerful computer, to help me speed through scans and processng of my images. I can hardly wait. Yes, photoshop won't be native until, I'm told, the beginning of the new year but until then I don't think it will be slower than my 1ghz powerbook G4 I'm using now. First addition will be a pair of 500gb hard drives in a RAID 1 configuration as the main storage; then more ram.

Photo: New Jersey
Camera: Hasselblad 500cm

Thursday, August 03, 2006

The universal Trabant, or Trabbi. In its time one had to wait upward of 10 years and fork over a years pay (and prove one had a garage to keep it in). In 1992 I bought one for $110 and drove it three times to Paris and thousands of miles through Germany and the Czech Republic. It's air cooled 2 cylinder 2 stroke engine put out something like 30 horsepower and had a top speed of about 70 mph (at that speed one needed nerves of steel and a steady hand on the wheel or you would find the "car" on its roof!). The body was made of a formica-like material. Sadly most of them ended up like this one and it is now quite rare to see one of the road.

Photo: Dresden
Camera: 500cm

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Had a productive day of scanning and a very nice BBQ of wild Sockeye salmon this evening. While most of the nation bakes in record temperatures while the NW temperatues were perfect. Soft defused light during breakfast this morning, just right sun in the afternoon and a rosy sunset over the Olympics this evening.

This is one of my images I scanned today, taken in Prague in 1992.
Camera: 500cm