Many of the museums require that backpacks be worn in front of you, not on your back to prevent bumping into things and people.

If you really want to use a mono- or tripod at the US Capitol you can apply in advance for a permit. Here is a link showing how to get a permit: http://www.uscp.gov/visiting-capitol-hill/activities-requiring-permits. The Web page only mentions commercial photography but the Capitol police asked me to stop using mine and described the permit process.

That said, I used my tripod on the Capitol grounds on the lawn and plaza area (not near the mall). It was only in the area near the building on the Mall side that I was asked not to use a tripod.

I was in Columbia, SC at the South Carolina State Museum to watch the eclipse and they have an interesting replica of this submarine.

Also, if I remember correctly, Carbonite charges more if you have a NAS drive under the assumption that only businesses use NAS technology. That is the reason I chose Crashplan in the first place.

I am sorry to hear about your loss. In a similar time, I was comforted by a poem called "The House Dog's Grave". Here is an excerpt, but the whole poem moved me:

You, man and woman, live so long, it is hard

To think of you ever dying
A little dog would get tired, living so long.
I hope that when you are lying
Under the ground like me your lives will appear

As good and joyful as mine.
No, dear, that's too much hope: you are not so well cared for
As I have been.
And never have known the passionate undivided

Fidelities that I knew.
Your minds are perhaps too active, too many-sided. . . .
But to me you were true.
You were never masters, but friends. I was your friend.

I loved you well, and was loved. Deep love endures
To the end and far past the end. If this is my end,
I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.

Robinson Jeffers, 1941

I use the wacom intuos 5 medium and have two recommendations. First, as others have said, give up your mouse for a couple of days and only use the tablet. This will get you used to one of the major mouse/tablet differences, absolute versus relative mapping of the input device to the monitor. I played a lot of solitaire, which has lots of movement and clicking. Honestly, it helped to get used to the pen and tablet.

Second, and this was discussed in another wacom posting, I think the medium tablet is too big and would suggest exploring the smaller version. Why? It requires bigger hand/pen movements to reach all areas displayed on the screen. Unlike a mouse, you cannot move the mouse, raise your hand, move the mouse again, to cover big differences. You have to move your hand/pen the entire distance of the large tablet. This takes some getting used to and is a bit tiring and requires more space for your hands to move.

That said, it is possible to remap the medium tablet to use a smaller part of the tablet to be mapped to the screen. The active area of the medium tablet is 8.8 x 5.5 in, but you could shrink this by any amount (say 50%) to reduce your hand movements.

The small version of this tablet has an active area of 6.2 x 3.9 in which I believe would be more comfortable but you would have two less programmable tablet buttons.

I also own a bamboo and agree with others that this is a good entre to tablets. I use mine at work and when traveling. But, it is not as sensitive nor as programmable as the intuos, but still with many advantages of control compared to a mouse.

Finally, there are may excellent videos online that can help you see how to use a tablet. I suggest beginning with this one from wacom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D4AyTF-6D8) and I found the tip about how to change brush size and feathering in this video to be invaluable (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTBjcuyhmq0&t=384s).

Best,
Alan



https://us-store.wacom.com/Product/intuos-pro-s01#/undefined1

Great photographs! This takes me back. Stan Kenton was my father's favorite musician and pretty much what I grew up listening to. I moved on to rock and roll, but I still see the stack of 78's my father had.

And, crashplan also allows you to backup NAS drives. Other services either do not allow this or charge extra. So, my 4TB NAS-raid drive is safely backed up off-site to the crashplan cloud.

Best,
Alan

I used to live on a hillside overlooking the Quabbin and enjoyed living in that area quite a bit. There is an interesting documentary on the flooding of the Quabbin and the village under water? You can find it here: http://video.wgby.org/video/2365046325/

Best,
Alan

It is approximately a 4-mile walk from the British Embassy down to Dupont Circle and then to Scott Circle and back, along Embassy Row. Lots to photograph and you can stop for food and drink in Dupont. This walk is mostly flat. BTW, the British Embassy is near the Washington Cathedral if you decide to go there

I also recommend the Georgetown waterfront and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal towpath and Theodore Roosevelt Island. The waterfront area is self-explanatory. Roosevelt Island is a hidden beauty in the city. You can walk around the entire island and get some terrific views of Georgetown, Georgetown University, and the Key Bridge. The memorial itself in the middle of the island is very nice as well.

If you get into Georgetown, think about supporting the Dog Tag Bakery (3206 Grace St NW, Washington, DC 20007
dogtagbakery). This is a business run by veterans, supported by Georgetown University, to train vets about running small businesses. Great sandwiches and nice atmosphere.

Best,
Alan

an interesting video describing how a NY Times reporter found a trash bag full of slides on a NYC street and tracked down the story behind the slides and how they got there.

http://petapixel.com/2016/07/15/mystery-abandoned-bag-kodachrome-slides-nyc/

I agree. I calibrated my monitor before processing, but I think the monitor must be a little bright and needs some more adjustment. I am looking at the photograph on another monitor and it is darker than the computer I used for processing.

I was moving a sailboat the other day and took this photograph, my first, with a new camera. It is pretty unusual to have cloud formations like thin on the Chesapeake Bay.

Spring time on the Chesapeake Bay

(Download)

This video explains how Ansel Adams grew from a casual photographer into a legendary one. It also has a nice visual explanation of the zone system.

http://youtu.be/7zxancgfDVg

"The photograph above shows a Scottish landscape shot from a moving train on Super 8mm film in 1999, or at least one part of 1/18th of a second in the film. Head spinning from those last 10 words? Okay, let’s back up."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2016/03/14/one-corrupt-file-a-colorful-brilliant-exhibition/?hpid=hp_no-name_photo-story-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory