My Buck Family of Virginia Book

Over the years, a number of people asked if I planned to write a genealogy book about the Buck family.  For a long time, I always said “No, that would be too much work”.  But I continued in my genealogy hobby and even wrote a bit.  I made a blog, “The Buck Family of Virginia”, http://buckfamilyofvirginia.blogspot.com/2007/01/first-posting.html (begun 13 years ago!) and posted to it irregularly.  Not too long ago, I realized that I actually had written a book – it just wasn’t in book form and was not organized very well.  At that point I decided to not attempt to write about the entire Buck family but to write a book about my direct ancestors and a few other interesting family members.  I did this by cutting and pasting from various articles, posts and emails I had written.  The result is “My Buck Family of Virginia:  The Family Tree of Gordon Sandlin Buck” which was accepted today by Amazon and is available as a Kindle eBook now at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0847R7WG8/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=my+buck+family+of+virginia&qid=1580155175&sr=8-2 .

In a few days, the paperback version should be available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0842MZMSG/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=my+buck+family+of+virginia&qid=1580155355&sr=8-3 . 

OK, so this is “self-publishing” but it is also “print on demand” so I don’t have to order hundreds of books at a time, keep copies on hand and mail them out.  I’m taking the easy way out and letting Amazon do all the work.  Anyone that wants a copy can order directly from Amazon.

But you don’t have to have a copy of the book to get to the information.  Almost all of the information in the book is available on my Buck Family of Virginia blog.

Michael Reichmann (1945 - 2016)

The internationally renowned photographer, writer and founder of the website Luminous-Landscape, Michael Reichmann, has died at the age of 71.  More information, condolences and remembrances can be seen at the following sites:




https://luminous-landscape.com/sad-day-luminous-landscape/




http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/blog_index.html




http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2016/05/20/photography-world-loses-an-artist-visionary-and-mentor-michael-reichmann-di

Videos, Creative Cloud, Camtasia …

Over the past several months, I’ve become more interested and more involved in videography.  I signed up for Adobe’s Creative Cloud and have been overwhelmed with all of the Adobe software goodies.  It’s really too much all at once.  To learn about using the Adobe software, I watched many instructional videos from YouTube – which made me interested in making instructional videos so I signed up for for Camtasia Studio.  Here’s my first attempt at video combining the Canon 7D, edits in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, voice over and final edits and uploaded from Camtasia. 

Sliding

Slider Practice

Video is sort of intimidating but I’m working with and on it.  Most recently, I got a “slider” and have been practicing.  As if having a new gadget weren’t enough, I added a second camera (G1X) and hacked away at editing the dual camera video in Adobe Premiere Pro.  Then I couldn’t resist trying a voice over and editing that audio in Adobe Audition.  So lots of techniques and software to learn.

Now, this video may be terrible but I’m enjoying the learning process.

Meyin RF-604

The Meyin RF-604, a wireless flash trigger, first got my attention because of its name.  I assumed that this was a new product evolved from the Yongnuo RF-603.  I’m probably not the only person mislead by the name.  The “RF-604” is not a Yongnuo product but it sure appears to be an evolved version of the Yongnuo RF-603.

Although it was the product name that caught my attention, it was the locking wheel that caught my eye and convinced me to buy one.  (The Yongnuo RF-603 does not have a locking wheel and fits loosely to the camera hot shoe.)

The Meyin RF-604 is somewhat larger than the Yongnuo RF-603 and 602.  So, far the RF-604 appears to be compatible with both.

I’ll have more to say about the RF-604 after I’ve exercised it a bit.  So far, so good.

Going Pro

No, not that kind of Pro.  I just got a GoPro Hero 3 “Black” – the famous “Point of View” (POV) action camera.  Don’t even know how to use it yet.  The Hero 3 just seemed like a good idea; especially as I’m about to go on vacation at the beach.  (Don’t expect action videos of me – those will be of my granddaughter!).

No, I haven’t thrown my G series cameras away.  In fact, the G1X is still my carry around camera and was used to get these pictures of the GoPro Hero 3.  I’ll have the G1X with me on the beach vacation as well (plus the 7D).

The GoPro (should probably call it the Hero 3 but I think they are all the same size) is a very small camera.  On the other hand, except for rare instances of hand holding, it will always be in some kind of case because the GoPro does not have a tripod mount.  Here it is compared to a quarter.

 

Here’s the GoPro in its waterproof case as coming out of the packaging.

 

I also got a case for the GoPro and accessories

The GoPro Hero 3 Black should be a lot of fun.  I hope to report many more excellent adventures with it.

Branches

This scene caught my eye a few mornings ago. The bare branches in bright sunlight really stood out against the pattern and dark roof in shadow. I grabbed my G1X to record the scene before the light changed. A simple snapshot, right?

Unfortunately, from my only vantage point, the G1X did not quite have the zoom for the composition that I wanted. OK, I’ll just crop it. But what if I couldn’t crop or didn’t want to deal with editing? I then remembered the digital tele-converter feature of the G1X.

Changing to 1.5X digital tele-converter was all that was needed to get this composition. Of course, the image file is JPEG only. If I’d wanted to make a large print I would have shot in RAW then edited and cropped to taste but this snapshot is just what I wanted.