Thanks.

Forgive my ignorance, but I'm from Utah (born 30 mi from Zion), and I've never heard of a place called Kodachrome. Where is it located?

Another vote for the Architectural Boat Tour. The Chicago River runs right through downtown Chicago, and after the city burned down (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow), many of the greatest architects in the world designed the new buildings. So, the boat tour is really stunning. You don't want to miss Millennium Park, which, among other things, is home of the Art Institute. If you like street photography, few places are better than Chicago. Also, yes, downtown parking is unbelievably expensive—so be prepared for that—but it's worth it.

"You do not have to work on line all the time, that is a myth."

This is correct. You download Photoshop CC onto your desktop just as with CS6. I got the entire CC suite for $20 per month (educator price), but I use only Photoshop. So far, Adobe has kept their word about updates, which have been coming fast and furious (if you have the whole suite). By the way, I read that the Creative Cloud idea has been a big success, even more than anticipated. I can only assume that Adobe calls it "Cloud" because that may be a future step in their plan for world domination. In any case, I have my trusty CS6 if Adobe starts charging too much.

I might also add that you can download a free 30-day trial of any CC application. You might want to compare it with an earlier version that you may own and decide whether it's worth the upgrade.

I wonder if it's an operating system issue. I just bought a new computer, but VP 2 worked fine on my 2010 iMac, which was running the latest Mac OS. The graphics card in the iMac is no doubt older than the one you're using. You might try searching for a DXO forum specifically about VP2 problems.

By the way, I really like your avatar photo. I enjoy b&w anyway, and this one looks uncannily like some sort of animal. It appears to be a photo of the armature that drives a train wheel.

Also, I assume 1943 is your birth year? Mine is 1942.

Jack, I'm assuming you have Viewpoint 2? Are you using it as a stand alone application? I use it as a Photoshop plugin, and it works perfectly. I've had other DXO apps, and I've always used them as Photoshop plugins, so I'm not sure if they work as stand alones. You may want to do some investigation at the DXO site and see if it can be used as a stand alone (if that's how you're using it).

I bought a Lumix LX5 and a Canon S95 at the same time. An obvious redundancy, so I had the S95 converted to infrared, which I can carry along with my SLR. Then I sort of gave my LX5 to my sister-in-law, complete with a nice little viewfinder. So, when Adorama came out with the S100 refurbs for a couple of hundred, I bought one. Of the two cameras (the S95 and LX5), I liked the LX5 a little better, mainly because it doesn't have as long a shutter lag, plus the zoom extends farther. The S100 does have a long shutter lag writing RAW images, so it's not such a hot street machine, but it takes beautiful photos and is very reasonable at $200. Mine arrived brand-new, so it may be a new over-stock camera selling as a refurb. Also, it has a built-in thumb rest, which saved me from buying and installing one as with the S95.

Since you're new to photo-editing, Lightroom may be a little steep in the learning curve. Personally, I use Photoshop CC, but it's difficult to teach in three days! I looked around for a software that my students could learn easily and also would do an excellent job on the photos. I read all the UHH forums on the subject and followed many of the suggestions. In my opinion the free ones are too limited. GIMP can do a lot, but it's a mean one to learn, touchy and idiosyncratic. I finally downloaded Photoshop Elements 12, and it was perfect. It can do many of the things Photoshop CC can, but is simple to use and learn. I liked it so well I bought my own copy ($59 at B&H). It has three different skill levels, which you can work through, and there's a ton of online tutorials for it. You can download a one-month free trial and see if it's right for you.

I just checked to see if there are any Preferences, but since it's a plug-in, I couldn't find any. However at the bottom left, right under the presets, are two buttons that might be helpful: Settings and Help. If nothing else, Help provides a way for you to contact Google about the software.

Another way of looking at it is that Google saved the software when NIK went out of business. It's also much cheaper now than when NIK had it. (Otherwise, I agree with you about the omnivorousness of Google.)

Mine works exactly the same as it did before Google purchased it. Could be an operating system issue. Second to Photoshop CC, it's my favorite software. I use it practically every day.

Excellent advice!!

In my opinion, simply desaturating a color photo file or one-clicking the file produces flat, uninteresting photos with poor contrast and no pizazz.

Google recently bought out the NIK Complete Collection, including Silver Efex Pro, and is now selling it for $150, a huge savings. I confess I use only Silver Efex, a fantastic software, but the other apps in the suite look very good, too, if ever I had time to fool with them. You can use Silver Efex as a stand-alone application or a plugin for Photoshop, Light Room, Aperture, and Elements—or all of them if you own them! If you're serious about producing fine art b&w prints, Silver Efex has dozens of presets, such as High Structure (harsh or smooth), Push Process, High Contrast, Grad ND and many others. It has an almost unlimited number of tones, such as Sepia, Silenium, etc. with sliders; it emulates many classic films, offers a host of frames and other filter effects, such as vignetting, etc.

Another good b&w software for much cheaper is DXO's FilmPack Pro, which I used religiously until I discovered NIK Silver Efex Pro. You can get FilmPack Pro 4 at B&H for $42.95.

I, too, already had CS6 on my computer when I went for Photoshop CC. After my hard drive crashed, taking all my software with it, I thought I'd lost the farm. However, I went to my account on the Adobe site and easily recovered it. In fact, I retrieved all the software I'd lost with the crash by going to my account on each of the various software sites. Regarding CS 6, I still receive updates! I know for a fact that Adobe has not abandoned this software. At first, I was wary of downloading software instead of getting the disks, but I can now see that it's win-win for both the companies and the consumers. If my experience is any gauge, you shouldn't have a problem recovering CS6.

I second this recommendation. I have the X100 (previous version), and it takes astonishing pictures. Large sensor, beautiful bokeh, sharp, fixed 33mm APC-sized lens (about 50mm), great build quality — and it even looks like a Leica! It has an eye-level finder, but you can also use it in screen mode. When I put it up to my eye, it automatically changes from screen mode to the eye-level finder.