Some Useful Links

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  • Quilting Links
    • Connie Silber Quilting Page
      • My wife is a quilt maker, quilting instructor, and certified quilt judge. Her page details these various quilting activities.
  • Photography Links
    • Photography hosting and examples
      • Flickr Photos
        • This is pictures from our 'Retirement Vacation' to Alaska and Canada, sorted in a number of albums. These were all taken with an Olympus 'point and shoot' and led to the desire for better camera equipment to get more control over the pictures.
      • Chicky
        • This is a SmugMug photo site from my friend Chicky in San Antonio. His interests are in landscapes and night sky photography (and golf!).
      • Dave Morrow
        • Dave Morrow is a professional photographer, specializing in landscapes and night sky photography. His site includes a variety of tutorials and instructional information as well as a photo gallery.
      • Michael Frye
        • Michael Frye is another professional photographer, also specializing in landscapes. He lives in California, close to Yosemite National Park where he shoots many of his pictures. His site has a variety of tips and tutorials, along with a portfolio of his work.
    • Photography advise and instruction
        • Dave Morrow and Michael Frye above also have instructional components on their websites.
      • Ugly Hedgehog - Photography Forum
        • This is a general photography discussion group, and can be a good place to ask questions. As in most such groups there is a broad range of talent and knowledge available as well as a variety of personalities, from gracious to some who can be rather biting as acerbic. If you ask questions, read the responses with a thick skin.
      • Lightroom Forum
        • This is a discussion forum dedicated to issues and advise using Adobe's Lightroom photo processing software. If you use Lightroom for post processing photos, this can be a useful resource. It complements Adobe's online resources very well.
      • Juice Box Web Galleries
        • Juice Box is the plugin package I am using with Lightroom to generate photo galleries for the web page. It is a very clean, simple, reliable package that works well. In addition to running as a plug in to Lightroom, it can also be run stand alone to generate galleries independent of LightRoom. There is free version that clickable logo embedded in the lower right corner and restricted options. The purchased version that I am now using removes that advertising and adds a large number of additional options, including provision for an autoplay slide shows. These really kick the galleries up a notch, at least in my opinion.....
      • Digital Photography Resource Guide from Review Lab.
        • This is a very nice summary of photography resources - reviews, blogs, podcasts, guides, etc. - most of which are free. They also have shopping reviews for a variety of household items by category (Kitchen, bath, cleaning.....) - Click on the 'See All Products' in their menu bar. Finally, they also have a variety of other resource lists (Beer education, audiophile, baking....) Click on the 'Resources' in their menu bar. Generally a lot of interesting information to browse.
      • Car Spotting and Photography
        • This site is another summary of photography resources, this one devoted to spotting and photographing automobiles. It was brought to my attention by the leader of a summer digital photography workshop geared toward middle-school students, and one participant in particular who is thinking about art school someday - A big THANK YOU to Delia and Noah!
      • Photographer's Saving Guide
        • This is a broad general advise page with tips and resources for beginning photographers, with an emphasis on being frugal (not cheap!) in getting started. THANK YOU to Hannah and her Girl Scout Troop Leader Ms. Reed for passing this along!
      • Photoshop Tools and Terms
        • This is a very nice guide to many of the tools available in Photoshop with some tutorials on using them. Many thanks to Lauren and Anita in Knox County, Maine for this link they found will preparing a Photography Workshop there!
    • Photography Planning Aides
      • The Photographers' Ephemeris
        • The Photographer's Ephemeris is a nice program that helps you plan landscape photo shoots by showing the position of the sun and moon, including elevation, direction, rising and setting times, and the 'golden hour.' It runs as a web app (free), but is more useful on a smartphone (iOS or Android, purchase) that you can take in the field with you. A companion app, Photographer's Transit shows your field of view, with elevation information, to help plan landscape photo shoots. It is only available as an iOS app.
      • PhotoHound
        • PhotoHound is primarily intended as a photo expedition planning guide. It shows photo sites from around the world and has sample photos from those sites, along with information on the site and advise on what to see, when to see it, equipment to include in you kit, etc. The interesting thing about this resource is that the site information comes from users - you can submit your favorite site description and photos for inclusion on the site. Submitted sites are reviewed before inclusion on the site, so that you know that the information is reliable. A free membership is required to access the site.
  • Woodworking Links
    • Lee Valley Tools
      • Lee Valley is my favorite, number one site for any sort of hand tools, supplies, hardware, etc. They set the standard for customer service and are just fantastic to deal with. Quality tools, many from Veritas which is their own manufacturing arm, are a joy to use. And they always make good on any problem.
    • Wood Net Forums
      • The Woodnet forums have been around awhile and there are a number of contributors there with much helpful advise. The have both power and handtool discussions, along with general topics and finishing topics.