Wednesday, August 27, 2008

San Francisco City Hall


Canon A570IS
This is one of the first shots that I made with the A570IS. I took it out with me at lunch time and took a few quick snapshots with it. My office is just a block away from City Hall.
The gold trim on the dome really stands out on a cloudy day.
Hey, we're coming up on our 4th(!!!) anniversary of the forum! Where is everyone?
On one hand, I'm glad that the forum is still alive and that there are still a handful of us that keep it that way, but on the other hand I'm a little disappointed that even though we have a large roster, many on the roster seem to have lost interest, perhaps permanently it seems.
--Warren

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1 Comments:

Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

wow, it's really 4 years??!!

Maybe an end-of-summer photo outing/brunch in the Bay Area will bring out some of the gang who haven't posted for a while?

Lea, Dolph & I will have to participate long-distance ;-)

I can tell you that the Meetup.com group I've joined here has been great - it's been like a shot of adrenelin to whatever part of my brain controls the desire to go out and take photos.

I certainly understand photo-slumps, but a "meetup" is a great way to bust out of one.

Best regards,
SteveR

Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 6:03:00 AM PDT  

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Hand Art

Version 2:




Original:



Canon A570IS


This was seen at last Saturday's Pakistan Independence Day Festival at Civic Center Plaza.
edit: Added a version with the left cropped a bit per SteveR's suggestion.


--Warren

4 Comments:

Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

Really nice!

I was playing around with this one, and a close crop of just the hands seemed to look good, too. Looks like there is enough resolution and plenty of detail even when more than 1/2 of the image is cropped out.

Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 6:08:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

Another suggestion from the Peanut Gallery... I was playing some more and tried just cropping a very little off of the left side. Basically leaving only a little room to the left of the fingernail of the artist's pinkie.

It seemed to emphasize the very nice element you created by your framing of the artist's head, shoulder, upper arm, and forearm. If you could darken the remaining piece of the customer's sleeve, it might also empasize those compositional elements.

Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 6:13:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

Steve, thanks for the suggestions. I already cropped out 2/3 of the image to arrive at the original version! I don't think it would stand up to further cropping. This was a quick grab shot in very bright light, so LCD visibility was a problem for composition. I didn't want to fuss around too much with my composition at the risk of disturbing the scene. At any rate, your 2nd suggestion was more in line with my original idea anyway. Personally, I prefer the additional leading line from the customer's hand in my original version. I wonder if anyone would jump in here with their opinion?

--Warren

Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 10:29:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

Hi Warren - I see what you mean - now that you've posted both, I don't think my cropping idea is necessarily better. They both look good, in fact, now I like your originally-posted image better ;-)

Monday, September 8, 2008 at 9:11:00 PM PDT  

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Monday, August 25, 2008

Gail at a North Beach Coffee Shop


Canon A570IS (!!!), 1/25 f4, ISO 200

Hi Folks, are you paying attention? I bought a Canon!!! It's my first Canon camera. This is historic!

Here's what prompted this. I was actually looking for a digicam with excellent video capability. As you recall, I borrowed Eric's old DSC-H1 mega-zoom for a weekend to see if that would fit the bill.

That camera did have great video, and the 10x zoom was certainly useful and handy, but I decided that the camera was on the bulky side and somewhat oddly shaped, and some of the controls were not very intuitive. As you saw, it was capable of great pictures, but I decided to search for a smaller camera with some other features that I was interested in.

So after reviewing tons of cameras, I decided to get this one because it had the best combination of price, features, and form factor for my current needs.

A quick review of the pertinent features:

- 7MP, optical viewfinder, 2.5" LCD, full manual mode, Image Stabilization, 4x zoom (35mm - 140mm equivalent), Powered by 2 AA sized batteries, 640x480 30fps video, face recognition AF, compact form factor (jacket pocket sized) and a few other things that I probably forgot to mention.

- I bought a 4gb SDHC card for it that is good for over 1250 pictures or 38 minutes of max quality video.

As for this picture of Gail, I am very happy with the camera's IS performance. This shot was recorded at 1/25, f4 at ISO 200, with available window light. Even though I can see compression artifacts and other pixel-level irregularities at full magnification after my post-processing, I am still very pleased with the resulting image.

--Warren

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4 Comments:

Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Welcome to the Dark Side! ;-)

Seriously, I think the Canon Digicams are amazing for such small, carry-everywhere things.

This picture of Gail is really beautiful!

Also, now you can try out the Photo-Stitch software. I don't see why it wouldn't work on images from your Nikon DSLR - worth a try anyway.

Monday, August 25, 2008 at 3:51:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

Thanks Steve.

Ever since the digicam era exploded, I've been hoping for an interesting P&S from Nikon, but none have been good enough to make me want to try one.

I was hoping that one of you guys who already has a Canon can make me a copy of the software CD because even though my camera was advertised as coming with all the in-the-box stuff, it was missing the software CD. Maybe you or Benson can do this for me?

My A570IS also has the "stich assist" feature, so maybe I'll give it a try one of these days.

--Warren

Monday, August 25, 2008 at 4:01:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

BTW Steve, I'm also doing a "SteveR" by having my A570IS with me every day in my briefcase. Of course, it doesn't mean that I use it every day, but it's there with me in case I feel like taking it out sometime.

--WT

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 8:21:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

"BTW Steve, I'm also doing a "SteveR"...."

:-) :-) - I'm truly flattered that someone would use the expression "doing a SteveR" for something other than belching :-) :-)

Yeah, looks like you've put it to good use already - I like the photo of City Hall!

One problem with my Canon A620 is that when you go beyond ISO 100 (or even ISO 50 for some scenes) the noise can get noticeable... and lighting conditions often make ISO 50 impractical. But with the IS built into your A507IS, you're able to use ISO 50 in much less light.

Note to Eric: I just posted some photos on my blog that I think you'll like!

BTW, Warren - you're right - I've started to recycle some of the better posts from my old, "frozen" blog to 2nd Exposure.

Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 5:58:00 AM PDT  

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Saturday, August 23, 2008

My New 28 Megapixel Superwide Camera...

I don't know why I haven't tried this before... here's a panorama of the Charles River from the Back Bay in Boston.

This 180-degree photo is actually made up of five "normal" images I took with my 18-55mm zoom at it's widest setting. Equivalent to a 28mm lens on a 35mm camera, it's not a superwide by any means. But coupled with the PhotoStitch software that came with my Canon DSLR, I was able to create this panorama in a few minutes. The resulting image was 13,530 x 2142 pixels, or about 28.6 megapixels.

I did this on the spur of the moment last weekend while in Boston for a wedding, without giving it much thought, but here is a good article by Ken Rockwell on using PhotoStitch. Ken notes that even the least expensive Canon digicams made in the last two years, come with this software. The digicams even come with a special "stitch assist" mode to make life easier still.

I see this as a good technique for making some dramatic panoramas in Annapolis and Baltimore. Look for some soon.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

That pano shot looks great, Steve!

--Warren

Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 4:12:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

Steve, did you shoot this one using the "stitch assist" feature on your camera? Was it handheld?

--WT

Monday, August 25, 2008 at 4:29:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

Hi Warren - I hand-held my Canon XSi, sort of pivoting my body bit by bit over a set of 5 exposures, making sure I overlapped each one.

The DSLRs don't have the stich-assist, only the digicams ;-)

Did you get a chance to ready Ken Rockwell's article that I linked to in my post- that tells a bit more.

Monday, August 25, 2008 at 6:33:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

i read the article...it was interesting.

--WT

Monday, August 25, 2008 at 7:53:00 PM PDT  

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Camaro Racer


Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm
I made my annual trek to the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca Raceway last weekend. Aside from enjoying the racing, I always like to wander the pit area to view the historic race cars up close. Here is a particularly handsome example of a Trans Am era, early-70's Camaro.
I decided to keep it simple this year so I only brought my D100 and one lens.
--Warren

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Sunday, August 10, 2008

Otakon 2008 Photos

Otakon 2008 - Baltimore, MD
Final Fantasy Four: Otakon 2008 - Baltimore, MD

These kids all fell into poses on their own. They're great models. I posed the "Final Fantasy Four against a blank white wall inside the food pavillion at the Inner Harbor - it ended up looking like seamless paper. Lighting came mostly from a skylight above and in front of the group. A little too much "butterfly" lighting, but all in all not bad.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Eric said...

Hi Steve. I esp like the group photo. Good lighting and interesting subjects. It's really interesting how much people go for the Japanese comics stuff.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 7:59:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

Nice shots, Steve.

For the two girls in the group shot, it would have been great to have them pose with arms extended to show off their costumes more. I'm not a big fan of the genre (i've never seen the actual Final Fantasy game), but I happen to like how the character "Yuna" is drawn. Yuna's costume is very elaborate and ornate (the girl on the right). She should be showing it off instead of hiding it behind her arms.

Did you attend the convention?

--Warren

Monday, August 11, 2008 at 4:42:00 PM PDT  

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Empathy


Nikon D100, Tamron 24-135mm


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3 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

Hi Folks, I was going to write about how I came to take this picture, but I accidentally hit the "enter" key before I had a chance to type anything! Well, maybe it's better to just show it without any words for now. If you're interested, I can tell you about it later.

--WT

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 1:40:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

I decided to edit out the spotlight on the top part of the image.

--WT

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 2:48:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Eric said...

The contrast is interesting - and it looks like The Thinker is going to get a nasty surprise from The Thing with Eight Arms.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 7:57:00 PM PDT  

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Friday, August 08, 2008

Restaurant Sign


Here's a sign outside a restaurant and I think it stands for 850 Montgomery St. Any of you out there skilled in Rorschach tests?
-- Eric

2 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

Interesting graphic feel. Did you intend to include the empty space at the bottom of the image?

--WT

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 12:03:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Eric said...

Yes, I did.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 7:52:00 PM PDT  

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SF Street Scene


Ok, denizens of SF. Can you tell where I took this street scene?
-- Eric

2 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

Battery St. at Clay?

The b&w gives it a vintage feel.

--WT

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 12:00:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Eric said...

Correct! You win $100. Don't hold your breath though. After I took the photo, I felt it had a vintage feel also. The lack of autos helped harken back to less street clogged days.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 7:54:00 PM PDT  

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Bike in Chinatown Alley

I was walking around SF today running errands and I caught a photo of this alley photo. It's a little gritty and a little lonely and I liked the colors.

-- Eric

2 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

Interesting how such a crowded neighborhood still has these little pockets of loneliness (as shown by our pictures).

--WT

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 12:02:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Eric said...

That place was packed on Friday, but this alley was the total opposite. It was gritty and lonely.

Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 7:55:00 PM PDT  

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Thursday, August 07, 2008

Otakon Preview

Otakon 2008 BaltimoreI'm chargin' up my battery and formatin' my card so I'll be ready for the lively scene tomorrow at this year's Otakon at the Baltimore Convention Center.

I'll let Wikipedia tell you what Otakon is all about:

Otakon is a fan convention in the United States focusing on East Asian popular culture (primarily animé, manga, music, and cinema) and its fandom. The name is a portmanteau derived from convention and the Japanese word otaku. Otakon is traditionally held on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in late summer at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland's Inner Harbor district. It is considered the second largest and one of the longest-running Anime conventions in the United States.

There was a line, which had been there since morning, wrapped around the Center, with people waiting to pre-register. I saw this young man tonight on my way back to the Light Rail station, just across the street from the Convention Center, and he was gracious enough to pose for me.

Now to badly paraphrase Justice Potter Stewart,I don't know much about animé or manga, but I know a great costume when I see one.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

I like how the black part of the costume blends into the dark background. The design really jumps out at you.

--WT

Friday, August 8, 2008 at 10:25:00 AM PDT  

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Roxy Swings

"Roxy" (Lynn Roxanne Gambrill Green) of The Fabulous Hubcaps lets loose with a riff on the saxaphone.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

Interesting observation: I find this composition strangely uncomfortable. I'm not sure why :).

--WT

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 9:07:00 PM PDT  

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Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Elvis Sighted In Maryland!

Elvis!I saw and heard him myself! In Pikesville, no less.

Tom Connelly, aka The Elvis Man, is a pretty convincing Elvis. Along with The Fabulous Hubcaps, he was one of the acts this past Sunday at the Dancing in the Street event in Pikesville. In addition to great live music, there was an impressive display of vintage cars and various food and services booths. Sandy and I each had a foot reflexology treatment - pretty nice!

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1 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

Vivid colors and a classic "Elvis" pose! :)

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 at 9:06:00 PM PDT  

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Monday, August 04, 2008

Self Portrait at SF Art Institute


Voigtlander Bessa R, 35mm f2.5 Skopar, Fuji 400 Print Film
This image was suggested by my wife, Gail, who has a very good "eye" for interesting scenes. We have done some good collaborations together where she would suggest an idea, then I would complete the thought photographically.
--Warren

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Shutterbug Excursions

ShootingUp_0734
Originally uploaded by Steve Rosenbach



I just copied this from my blog - I found this group a few weeks ago on meetup.com, and we had our first "meetup" last Saturday.



If you live in the Baltimore-Washington metro area and are looking for a lively group of fellow photo-enthusiasts, you couldn't do better than the Shutterbug Excursions Meetup Group.

Our fearless leader, Lyn, organized the group on Meetup.com just a few weeks ago, and yesterday, we had our very first meetup in Annapolis.

We met at City Dock Café and headed out along Ego Alley, then over the the Naval Academy. From there we walked over to one of the many old street that have picturesque houses along the way, like this one.

By then, we had been out and about for over two hours, and most of the gang bid each other goodbye for the day. Three of us, Lyn, Tracey, and I, decided to soldier on, and we walked back to City Dock. After a few minutes of snapping photos around the Alex Haley memorial, we were treated to a full-scale hailstorm.

No problem, we just ran across the street and took shelter in Market Place. By then, we were hungry anyway and took advantage of the food concessions inside. Once the storm passed by, we had the best lighting of the day; by then it was getting on towards 7pm, and sunset, I knew, would be around 7:15.

We took more photos on the Spa Creek Bridge and around the Eastport end of the bridge, continuing well past sunset. Here's photographic proof of our steadfastness; the picture of Lyn and Tacey is timestamped just before 8 pm.

For a bunch of people who had never met before, we all got along really well and had a lot of laughs.

as you can see, I was outgunned by all the Nikonians, most with high-end cameras. Fortunately, they all accepted me despite me being Nikon-challenged

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3 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

Steve, I like the picture of "Steve being suspicious" that was posted on the meetup group's page. :)

Those two in the last photo are packing some serious Nikon gear!

--Warren

Monday, August 4, 2008 at 10:08:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

hahaha! Yeah, I loved that caption :-)

Lyn (left) has a D200, and Tracey was packing a D2-series. As I say, carrying my comparatively petite Canon XSi, I was seriously outgunned ;-)

But not to worry, this was a very diverse group, Nikons and Canons happily playing side by side.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 6:01:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Eric said...

Steve, that shot with the yellow house is wonderful! I love the colors and composition.

Eric

Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 8:39:00 PM PDT  

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WWSD (What Would SteveR Do?) Pyramid Shot


Sony DSC-H1
Okay, maybe this will the last shot the of the Pyramid that I'll post for a while. Does it (sort of) remind you of the kind of image that SteveR would make, maybe with a little bit of my own flavor in there? Hmmm.
--Warren

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2 Comments:

Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

Yes - the shapes and colors remind me of me ;-) but it certainly is also your own style. I would have been proud to have taken this one! :-)

I like the negative shape - the two blue triangles!

Monday, August 4, 2008 at 9:36:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Eric said...

Nice shot. I like those lines and angles.

Eric

Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 8:40:00 PM PDT  

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Sunday, August 03, 2008

More Fun with Sidewalks


Sony DSC-H1
While walking down a very steep hill, I noticed the interesting razor pattern on the sidewalk due to the new cement vs. older cement.
--Warren

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Foliage Framed Pyramid


Sony DSC-H1
We went for another of our usual long City walks today. The fog was just starting to creep back into the heart of the City. It was beginning to partially obscure the Pyramid.
--Warren

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1 Comments:

Blogger Lea said...

I really like this one Warren. Nice point of view :)

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 2:45:00 PM PDT  

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Saturday, August 02, 2008

Lamp Post Framed Pyramid


Sony DSC-H1
A little classic and modern interaction going on here...
--Warren

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1 Comments:

Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

oh, man!... I missed this one - now I'm really jealous! ;-)

Monday, August 4, 2008 at 9:37:00 PM PDT  

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Classic S


Sony DSC-H1
I found this sidewalk design in an alley in San Francisco.
--Warren

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3 Comments:

Blogger Eric said...

Great shot.

Monday, August 4, 2008 at 5:23:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

Beautiful shape - it's an "S" for "SteveR", btw ;-)

Monday, August 4, 2008 at 9:38:00 PM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice shot. I like the little grains of color in the grey backdrop.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 3:11:00 AM PDT  

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Micro Ducati


Sony DSC-H1
Hey folks, I took this test shot while getting familiar with Eric's Sony DSC-H1 this morning. I've always been impressed by this camera. Now that Eric has his new D40 to play with, I get to borrow his DSC-H1 to try out. I have it this weekend.
This shot was taken handheld, available light, in full-auto mode (auto-ISO set at ISO 125), at maximum zoom (12x, 400mm+ 35mm equivalent) at 1/20, f3.7. That's incredible image stabilization performance for the given focal length and shutter speed. I'm blown away by this performance.
For reference, the model Ducati is about 5 inches long, and the miniature little red corvette under it is one inch in length.
The image was cropped and processed a bit in Photoshop.
--Warren

1 Comments:

Blogger Eric said...

Nice photo. I thought it was a full-sized motorcycle for a second. That Sony of mine is a good little camera that's for sure.

Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 6:46:00 PM PDT  

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Friday, August 01, 2008

Self-Publishing with MyPublisher

Thanks once again to Dave Beckerman for showing the way! In his blog, Dave has chronicled his adventures with publish-on-demand photo books. He tried several and found that MyPublisher did a very good job. You can see an online version of his very fine new book, Central Park Portrait, via MyPublisher's preview facility.


I just placed my order with MyPublisher late last night, so I haven't seen the physical results yet, but you can take a peek by clicking on the photo below.



If it comes out looking anything like this online preview, I'll be very happy indeed!

I encourage all of you to try this out. MyPublisher gives you free software to help you layout your masterpiece. There are several templates and other options. It doesn't even have to be for a collection of artsy-fartsy photos - this would make a great souvenir of a family vacation. In fact, MyPublisher right now is offering a two-for-one deal; for the price of one, you'll get two copies of your first book. The website explains it all - check it out at http://www.mypublisher.com

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4 Comments:

Blogger Warren T. said...

Steve, that will be a nice book. It's a nice set of images (I remember seeing some of them here). I also heard good things about MyPublisher, lots of satisfied customers.

--Warren

Friday, August 1, 2008 at 8:35:00 AM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

Maybe we should do a "Friendly Photo Forum" Book! It would be very hard to pick the photos though!

--WT

Friday, August 1, 2008 at 4:53:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Steve Rosenbach said...

I like the idea of a book by all our forum members!

Monday, August 4, 2008 at 9:39:00 PM PDT  
Blogger Warren T. said...

Steve, how did your book turn out?

Just curious...

--WT

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 at 3:01:00 PM PDT  

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