Author Archives: Chuck_Maas

Fruit of the Land

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

One of the pleasures of living in a part of the world where you’re never far from wild places is the opportunity to harvest some of nature’s abundance.  There are many varieties of berries in Alaska, but my favorite is … Continue reading →

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Disk Drives for File Storage

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

Digital photographers have to process and store image files somewhere, either locally or in the cloud.  The demand for space increases with file size, especially when shooting RAW with high-MP sensors, and designing the best array of devices to process, … Continue reading →

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Change of Seasons

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

Seasons in the far north are on a different schedule from the temperate parts of the globe.  Days are getting shorter at a rapid rate now and yellow leaves are already carpeting the ground.  Anchorage had its first snowfall a … Continue reading →

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New Creative Cloud package from Adobe

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

Looks like “crowd-voicing”—as in large numbers of people complaining very pointedly and loudly—can sometimes have an effect, even on really big companies. If you use an Adobe photo editing product, you’ve probably followed the mini-firestorm of debate that ensued after … Continue reading →

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New Backlights for Top-end Monitors

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

There’s a change underway in the technology for certain high-end color-critical monitors.  Until recently, cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) were the backlight choice for NEC’s best professional graphics IPS displays, such as the PA271W and PA301W.  Just recently they announced their … Continue reading →

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Food Gathering

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

Summer’s a busy time for collared pikas in Alaska as they gather a variety of vegetation and let it dry in the sun in protected piles and then put it away for a supply of food during the winter.  Their … Continue reading →

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Unusual Style

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

There are lots of ways to catch fish, even for bears, but this grizzly at Funnel Creek in the Katmai National Preserve is using a style I hadn’t seen before.  Snorkeling isn’t that unusual, but to start from a near-90 … Continue reading →

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Monitors for Imaging

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

The lynchpin of the digital darkroom is the monitor or display used to optimize image files.  Without a monitor that accurately shows a wide range of colors precisely the same way session to session, all your visual adjustments are arbitrary … Continue reading →

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New Canon EOS Body

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

Yesterday Canon announced the latest evolution to their midrange APS-C EOS DSLR line—the 70D.  While it won’t be available until September, by all accounts it looks to be an important upgrade with a host of desirable features. The most significant … Continue reading →

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Green Again!

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Chuck_Maas

It happens every year.  When winter finally decides to give up for a few months and the days actually get a bit warmer, you start to see leaf buds forming on the skeletal branches of birches and cottonwoods.  At first … Continue reading →

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