CO / SD Slideshow - Now with data

[MarkBarbieri]

Our summer vacation this year was a two week trip to Colorado and South Dakota. The Colorado portion was spent primarily in Estes Park at my parent's house. We did include a visit to Elitch Gardens and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. On the way to South Dakota, we stopped at Fort Laramie. In South Dakota, we spent our time in the Black Hills, visiting Mount Rushmore, Reptile Gardens, a wax museum, and a few other touristy places.

Our trip was delayed by a day and a half while my oldest son recovered from what we thought was strep. It turns out that it was mono, which explains we he was pretty run down during the trip.

As usual for our vacations, I compiled a bunch of pictures (90) into a slideshow set to music. The slideshow is about three and a half minutes long. At the moment, I only have a downloadable version that plays on Windows computers. I'll make a streaming video version in the next few days. You can view the slideshow by going to our Vacation Slideshows page. I hope that you enjoy it.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I should add that you'll see more pictures of me in this slideshow than is typical. We brought two DSLRs (5DM2 and 7D) and my wife carried one much of the time. A lot of the pictures in the show were taken by her.

Here's a rough equipment list for the trip. Keep in mind that we drove our van rather than fly, so it was easy to haul lots and lots of stuff.

• Cameras - Canon 5DM2 and 7D for my wife and I. Canon G9 for some time lapse experiments. Canon D10 for my youngest son.
• Lenses - 300mm f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8, 24-105 f/4, 85mm f/1.2, 17-40mm f/4, 24 f/3.5 TS-E, 15mm f/2.8 fisheye. Carried but not used - 1.4x extender, 2x extender
• RRS TVC-33 tripod w/ BH-55 ballhead, Gitzo GT2540 tripod w/ Acratech ultimate ballhead, Wimberly sidekick
• 2 Canon 580EXII flashes, two small shoot thru umbrellas, warming gels, 1 normal lightstand, 1 small lightstand
• Close up filter, polarizer, VariND filter, 8 stop ND filter, blue-gold polarizer
• Wired remote, wireless remote

 

[plyeng2ff]

Nice job on the slideshow and pictures

 

[klmall]

I tried to download your slideshow twice around 9:55 pm EST and got a Trojan.Backdoor blocked message from Norton so I can't open it!

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Nice job on the slide show!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[klmall]

Mark - I really enjoyed your animal scenes and the beautiful mountain and lake shots. I've backpacked through some of those same places in RMNP many years ago and they still hold wonderful memories.

Your camping photos with the family are the best though; can't replace the moments outside with each other and the stars!

Thank you so much for posting this.....like a mini-vacation!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I tried to download your slideshow twice around 9:55 pm EST and got a Trojan.Backdoor blocked message from Norton so I can't open it!

I get the same message using AVG

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

McAfee says the file is fine.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I get the same message using AVG

That's annoying. I'm assuming (although I could be wrong) that it is a false positive. I plan to recrop the pictures in 16:9 and make a new version. Hopefully that won't have the issue.

For anyone that does not want to download the executable slideshow, I now have a streaming video version of it. To see it, go to my Vacation Slideshows page and click on the August, 2010 - Colorado/South Dakota Streaming Video link.

 

[Amy]

Thanks for sharing, Mark! We spent a week in the Black Hills and Badlands in June and your slideshow brought back a lot of memories. The camping photos are precious!

BTW....Kapersky also gave me the trojan warning when I tried to download the Windows version. Video streaming was fine.

 

[ssanders79]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I completely rebuilt the downloadable version. I changed the aspect ratio and the picture quality. I suspect that the virus warning is a false positive with the virus signature coincidentally matching part of the old file. I would appreciate it if someone that was getting a virus warning before would try the new version and let me know if they are still getting the warning.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Same thing still. It says Trojan horse BackDoor.hupigon5.BBHN in the AVG report.

 

[Twigs]

I was finally able to see them and they were great! I need to go and see that part of the country!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Same thing still. It says Trojan horse BackDoor.hupigon5.BBHN in the AVG report.

This is frustrating. I just downloaded and installed the free version of AVG. I usually use Avast at home and McAfee at work. I checked my entire PC, I checked my slideshows folder, and I checked a downloaded version of the slideshow and they all report clean.

I uploaded a few more file versions for testing if you are still willing to help.

Slideshow with no music
Reloaded slideshow
Old slideshow

 

[WDWFigment]

Do you get much use out of that blue-gold polarizer? What about the close-up filter?

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

Great photo's and video mark!!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Do you get much use out of that blue-gold polarizer? What about the close-up filter?

blue-gold - Very little. It is easily my lowest value/dollar filter. Maybe I'm just not very good with it.

Close-up - I didn't use it much on this trip. Just a few shots in the reptile house. On other trips it has seen much more use. It is not as good as using a true macro lens, but it allowed me to travel with one fewer lens (and my macro is on loan anyway).

I much prefer shooting with a close-up filter over a set of extension tubes. Here's a good quote from Bob Atkins on the subject:

Unlike extenders, which multiply the focal length of the original lens and are placed between the camera body and lens, close-up lenses attach to the front of the lens, like a filter. Like an extension tube, close-up lenses eliminate infinity focusing in favor of reducing the close-focusing limit of the original lens. Unlike an extension tube, they do not cause any light loss. And, when used with a zoom lens, they maintain focus as the lens is zoomed. (Zooming the lens with an extension tube attached changes the focusing distance drastically.) These characteristics, added to the fact that close-up lenses often provide greater magnification factors than tubes* and plenty of working distance at the same time, make close-up lenses far more convenient to use than extension tubes for close-up photography with zoom lenses. High-quality double-element close-up lenses, like Canon's 250D and 500D series, provide superb image quality from corner to corner if you stop down to the optimum aperture of the lens, which is usually around f/11 to f/16. Settings like these are easily attainable with high-quality medium speed transparency films (ISO 50~100) by using electronic flash.
Nikon also make excellent double-element filters like the 6T, though you will require a step down adapter for 58mm thread lenses since they come in a 62mm thread size.
You can achieve marginally better image quality by using a true macro lens, but you have to work a lot harder for it, because unlike a zoom lens/CU lens combo, the macro lens forces you to move closer or further from the subject to adjust magnification.
For many folks, the image quality produced by a high quality close-up lens in combination with a decent telephoto zoom like Canon's EF100-300mm f/5.6L or f/4.5-5.6 USM represents a better value overall, especially when you consider how much use you get from the zoom for your conventional photography.

Incidentally, close-up filters are like any other filters in that they aren't mount specific. You need to worry about the thread diameter, but a Canon filter will work on a Nikon lens and vice versa. Just about everyone I know that uses close-up filters uses the Canon 500D. They also make a 250D designed for shorter focal lengths, but I haven't use it. I lost my 500D for a while and purchased another just before finding it, so now I have a pair. I'm ready for 3D macro.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

This is frustrating. I just downloaded and installed the free version of AVG. I usually use Avast at home and McAfee at work. I checked my entire PC, I checked my slideshows folder, and I checked a downloaded version of the slideshow and they all report clean.

I uploaded a few more file versions for testing if you are still willing to help.

Slideshow with no music
Reloaded slideshow
Old slideshow

Absolutely 100% whatever you need. That being said, I was thinking about this whole thing today while out on my boat fishing (I'm still a computer nerd at heart.) A while back when I did the whole computer thing to pay the bills, I remember someone else going through the same problem. This person, like yourself, would not (to the best of my knowledge) do anything like this and goes to great lengths to make sure everything is perfect. Back then, the problem wasn't the file he/she/it sent out to over 1/2 the legal department, it was the definition file. Back then I pushed out new definitions every morning, the newer file came out that afternoon. The old file gave a false positive. The new one was put in place a few minutes after we figured it out and everything was right with the world.

Just came home and ran an update. I did have a definition and security update. I downloaded all files you put up and all are working with no problems at all. Just before the update they all gave a false positive and said they were infected when I downloaded them. Sorry to make you pull your hair out, but when I saw that I wasn't the only one getting it (and using a different AV) I thought I should speak up.

If you want me to go back to the old definitions, I can do that if you need to know anything else.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

That's good to hear. You weren't the only one. I also got a message from someone on Facebook. I think I'm going to write it off as a false positive and be done with it.

I'm not that worried about this for future stuff. I think I'm going to move to strictly video based slideshows. I like the higher quality of the downloadable slideshows, but they are too much of a pain. The Full HD versions as streaming video are good enough.

Thanks for your help.