Laughing Frog Images Archives - Page 14 of 15

2014 Holiday Sale!

Posted on November 2, 2014November 1, 2014 by Kurt

Laughing Frog Images is based upon two simple premises: (1) photographic art should be affordable, and (2) you should be able to get the image that you want the way that you want it.

The Frog recognizes that everyone appreciates a sale, so now through December 25th – everything at Laughing Frog Images is 10% off!

It’s the Laughing Frog Images 2014 Holiday Sale!

Nothing is excluded, and there’s no limit to your savings. Spoil yourself or get someone a unique gift from Laughing Frog Images.

Use Coupon Code LFIholidays14 to get 10% off everything at Laughing Frog Images.

Happy shopping, and Happy Holidays to you and yours from Laughing Frog Images.

Scanning Prints

Posted on October 27, 2014October 26, 2014 by Kurt

Well, if scanning prints is something you want to do, or need to do, there’s a bright side to it all. You only have one choice for equipment, and that is a flatbed document scanner.

Flatbed scanners come in a wide range of prices from a variety of manufacturers. Many come with some sort of photo editing software. Some are tailored towards folks like you, and have one-button shortcuts for scanning prints. Others offer software that will help restore old faded prints in one step.

You can get good results for around $100 or so. Prices go up from there to a top of the line Epson that will set you back around $750. Consider your objective before you set out to buy your scanner. A scanner can always do, less that its’ ultimate capability – but it can never do more.

If all you want to do is scan the family snapshots for viewing on your phone or computer, or to post on Facebook, you don’t need to spend a fortune.

If you’re looking to be able to reproduce a print that’s in focus and well exposed, you don’t need to spend a fortune, either.

Sounds pretty good so far, doesn’t it?

If your originals aren’t in focus, no scanner is going to be able to fix that.

If your original prints are underexposed (dark, muddy), a scanner might be able to help – but don’t get your hopes up. The same goes for prints that are overexposed (washed out). In either case, your best bet is to work from the original slide or negative if you have it. And, at that point, the $99 scanner is probably not your best choice.

If you’re wanting to take that 4×6 inch print, scan it, and create a great 20×30 inch print to cover that empty space on your wall – it’s not going to happen. The only way that’s going to happen in an acceptable manner is if you’ve got the original slide or negative to work from, and a scanner capable of providing output of at least 4800 dpi. Sorry if you were hoping to hear something different.

If you’re working from prints that are old, faded, torn, or wrinkled, they can probably be saved. “Saved” might be a great result, and it might not be. All it takes is decent software, a good mouse and mouse pad, and time. And patience. And time. Did I mention patience and time? I spent about 11 hours restoring and repairing a print of my Grandfather on his wedding day. I found it behind two other prints of my Grandparent’ wedding in a frame, and time wasn’t at all kind to it. I used Ulead PhotoImpact software to repair it (the software is now found in Corel’s PaintShop Pro X5 software). If you don’t believe me about having a good mouse – wait until you work on restoring your first print!

For the record, my current flatbed scanner is a HP OfficeJet 4630 all-in-one.

So, if scanning prints is your primary objective – start at your Local Camera Shop and go from there. Check the reviews on B&H, Adorama and Samy’s. And, enjoy!

We’ll wrap the scanning conversation up in one final post soon.

Scanning 35mm Slides, Part 2

Posted on October 16, 2014October 12, 2014 by Kurt

Scanning 35mm slides – Part 2.

In Part 1, we talked about scanning a lot of slides. Thousands of them.

So, what if you don’t have thousands to scan?

You’ve got more options!

For one-off scanning 35mm slides, the Frog has a PrimeFilm 7200 from B&H (information at http://www.scanace.com). The PrimeFilm 7200 uses the same software as the Powerslide 5000 – so that was a major factor the purchase of this unit. I’m very happy with this unit – it’s got 7200 dpi resolution and can pull a little more detail out of the dark areas than the Powerslide 5000. It also scans negatives – but that’s another post.

Scans using CyberView or Vuescan software can take as little as five (5) minutes if they are run without the noise reduction and cleaning functions – but I’ve come to terms with waiting a little longer for the slide to be scanned and spending a lot less time cleaning up the final product. As much as you clean your slides before scanning, and as much as you think you do – it’s more amazing what shows up at 7200 dpi than what shows up at 5000 dpi!

The rest of this post is a review from Part 1. I was going to stop here, but since we’re talking about scanning slides from two different perspectives, I figured I’d leave it be. Consider it a review or reiteration of things to consider.

As discussed in Part 1, there are flatbed scanners out there on the market that can scan up to 20 slides at a time, as well as having the capability to scan documents, negatives and photographic prints. Some of these units can produce very high quality scans – and some simply can’t. These units range in price from $100 to $800. The main makers of these scanners are Espon, Canon, and Hewlett-Packard. Check out the reviews at places like Shutterbug magazine, B&H and Adorama for more information on these units.

There are also lower resolution units that, for lack of better words, take a picture of your slide and convert it to a jpeg image. They’re not scanners in the traditional sense, but converters. They’re inexpensive and fast to use, and they have their limitations. These units can be had from $50 to $150.

What’s right for you?

Well, the first question to ask yourself is “what do I want to do with my scans?” Your answer dictates what you need. Remember, you can always downsize your image, but you can never upsize your scan…

If you want to make 20″x30″ prints – think dpi, lots of dpi – 4800 dpi or more.

If you’re wanting to make 8″x12″ prints – 2400 dpi can work.

Just want to show them on your tablet, laptop, phone or TV? a converter type unit can work for you.

There are also slide scanning services that will scan your slides at varying resolutions for varying prices. They’re an option for you if you don’t have the time or don’t want to do it yourself.

Don’t forget to consult with your local camera store along the way!

Happy deliberating!

If you’ve got questions, post them in a comment and we’ll talk…

Scanning 35mm Slides, Part 1

Posted on October 13, 2014October 12, 2014 by Kurt

As I write this, I’m scanning 35mm slides from 1982. There are a several thousand 35mm slides awaiting their turn. It’s not a fast process – it could be faster, but let’s talk about it since I was asked about it a couple of weeks ago.

If you’ve got a few hundred slides to scan, or less, that’s not so bad – we’ll talk about that situation in Part 2.

Before launching Laughing Frog Images, I did a lot of research on 35mm slide scanners and slide scanning services. My goal is archival scans – 5000 dpi (dots per inch) or better per scan, and having the original scan in a lossless format such as .dng or .tif. Anything less wouldn’t give you the ability to get the image you want the way you want it.

The easy way to get all of my slides converted would have been to send them out to a scanning service, pay them over $1.00 per slide, as well as shipping both ways, tax, etc. As you know, the Frog is a small, small enterprise – and spending $20,000+ to build the image galleries at Laughing Frog Images just wasn’t going to happen. Granted, it would have been nice, but that wasn’t going to happen.

So, it was on to Plan B, and the search for a professional quality scanner capable of batch scanning slides.

I ended up purchasing a Pacific Image Powerslide 5000 35 mm slide scanner from B&H (information at http://www.scanace.com). With this unit, I can scan one slide at a time, or trays of 50 or 100 slides. I have to admit that I’m still working out the bugs of using the 100 slide carousel tray, but there’s a tray of 50 being scanned right beside me as I write this.

I am scanning Kodachrome(R) slides at 5000 dpi with automatic noise reduction and cleaning being done in the CyberView software – it takes about 11 minutes per scan and produces a tif file of more than 300MB. I’m doing a basic crop and auto-level adjustments using ACDSee Pro 6. And I’m a very happy camper!

Scans using CyberView or Vuescan software can take as little as five (5) minutes if they are run without the noise reduction and cleaning functions – but I’ve come to terms with waiting a little longer for the slide to be scanned and spending a lot less time cleaning up the final product. As much as you clean your slides before scanning, and as much as you think you do – it’s amazing what shows up at 5000 dpi!

There aren’t a lot of other bulk-scanning options out there right now, and there may never be. It seems like the scanner market may now be what it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. The Powerslide 5000 is a dedicated slide scanner – it won’t scan negatives unless they are in slide mounts, so negatives are possible, but not without some prep work.

There are also flatbed scanners out there on the market that can scan up to 20 slides at a time, as well as having the capability to scan documents, negatives and photographic prints. Some of these units can produce very high quality scans – and some simply can’t. These units range in price from $100 to $800. The main makers of these scanners are Espon, Canon, and Hewlett-Packard. Check out the reviews at places like Shutterbug magazine, B&H and Adorama for more information on these units.

There are also lower resolution units that, for lack of better words, take a picture of your slide and convert it to a jpeg image. They’re not scanners in the traditional sense, but converters. They’re inexpensive and fast to use, and they have their limitations. These units can be had from $50 to $150.

What’s right for you?

Well, the first question to ask yourself is “what do I want to do with my scans?” Your answer dictates what you need. Remember, you can always downsize your image, but you can never upsize your scan…

If you want to make 20″x30″ prints – think dpi, lots of dpi – 4800 dpi or more.

If you’re wanting to make 8″x12″ prints – 2400 dpi can work.

Just want to show them on your tablet, laptop, phone or TV? a converter type unit can work for you.

There are also slide scanning services that will scan your slides at varying resolutions for varying prices. They’re an option for you if you don’t have the time or don’t want to do it yourself.

Don’t forget to visit your local camera store as part of the process!

Happy deliberating!

If you’ve got questions, post them in a comment and we’ll talk…

Searching the Galleries

Posted on September 25, 2014September 21, 2014 by Kurt

Some of you may have looked at the Galleries on Laughing Frog Images, and said “wow, that’s a lot of really super / great / awesome stuff!”, but then wondered how you might find something you want (or don’t know that you want until you find it).

Some of you simply enjoy browsing the galleries and letting your mind go somewhere else for a while.

Some of you enjoy searching the galleries for something that works for you.

And, some of you want to search for specific things. This post is for you!

There’s something that’s been lurking up at the top right corner of the site. But it lurks quietly. And, you might not notice it. So, here’s a little help to make searching the galleries for that special image a little easier.

The best way to do this is with some screen shots from the site:

First, the search function is activated by clicking on the magnifying glass icon up in the top right corner.

Clicking on the icon opens up the search field. Type in what you’re looking for, and click on the icon once again.

In this example, I typed in BNSF to find some train pictures. The results page is shown below, and it tells me that there are two (2) galleries with 34 pictures in them tagged BNSF.

The search function works off of keywords that I’ve assigned to every image (at least I hope so…!). So, as long as our minds think alike, this is going to work just fine…

Seriously, I did try to be practical with the keywords to make things easier for everyone who might be searching the galleries. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated!

We hope this adds to your viewing and shopping experience on Laughing Frog Images.

Our Silent Partner

Posted on September 16, 2014September 6, 2014 by Kurt

As some of you might have wondered or figured out, there’s no way that those of us at Laughing Frog Images could make all of the products that we offer for purchase.

We’re good, but just not that good.

When Laughing Frog Images was in it’s fantasy / planning stage, several different fulfillment partners were explored. Some offered things that others didn’t. Pricing varied. Terms varied. Background services varied. So, the search and discovery went on. And off. And on again for a couple of years.

When it came time to get real and launch Laughing Frog Images, Zenfolio was chosen as our Silent Partner.

Laughing Frog Images is based upon two simple premises:

Photographic art should be affordable to everyone who wants it.
You should be able to get the image that you want the way that you want it.

Product offerings, pricing, and background services were key factors in the decision, but ultimately quality and services to the customer were the final factors. For example – it you want a print, but the source image isn’t capable of making that size print, the website tells you that and won’t let you order it. I’d rather have that happen than someone ordering a print that looks like was the by-product of a six pack for lunch.

And there you have it, the story behind how a teeny, tiny, small, little enterprise can offer you so many ways to make an image yours.

Check Laughing Frog Images out if you haven’t been there in a while. You can get something for yourself or beat the stress of holiday shopping by getting something for everyone on your list!

A Week in New Hampshire

Posted on September 8, 2014September 20, 2014 by Kurt

Following on the Weekend in New Hampshire post, here’s an actual itinerary from an October trip in which Mrs. Frog was introduced to what a “real” fall is. We were very fortunate and timed the fall foliage almost perfectly. This was even more remarkable given that the airline tickets were purchased in June.

This was a very busy week, and this itinerary was actually covered a couple of years before the weekend trip. I’m not going to go into deep details about every thing and every place, rather I’m just going to lay out what we did so that you can take it for what it is and use it as your own itinerary, or for ideas to create your own trip. This starts in Boston, MA late in the afternoon.

We tend not to stay at the high-dollar hotels/motels/inns as we’d rather put that money towards fine dining and meals we wouldn’t normally get or eat back home.

If you think that New Hampshire is a small state and there’s not a lot to do, this itinerary proves otherwise.

Images from this trip can be found on Laughing Frog Images here and here and here…

DAY 1:

Dinner: Warren’s Lobster House, Kittery, ME. Just because it’s been there forever and a day, and I first ate there back in 1971 or 1972. It hasn’t changed much…

Stay: Your choice. We based ourselves in the Fairfield Inn in Portsmouth for the first three nights. Day 2 is backtracking, but at least we weren’t packing and unpacking…

DAY 2:

Tourist Day: Salem, MA. The drive on Route 1 and detours along the coast are a journey of their own. Witches. Peabody Essex Museum. House of Seven Gables.

Lunch: Red’s Sandwich Shop, Salem.

Dinner: Go to a lobstah pound. Markey’s Lobster Pool or Brown’s Lobster Pound in Seabrook, NH. Which one might be dictated by which line is the shortest…

Stay: See Day 1.

DAY 3:

Photo Stop: Cape Neddick Light / Nubble Light. York, ME.

Photo Stop & Walk: The Marginal Way. Ogunquit, ME.

Lunch: Barnacle Billy’s. Ogunquit, ME.

Cruise: Portsmouth Harbor Cruises. Portsmouth, NH.

Dinner: Jumpin’ Jay’s Fish Cafe. Portsmouth, NH. If the mustard-crusted cod is on the menu that night….!

Stay: See Day 1.

DAY 4: Hit the road! Early!

Drive to Conway, NH and make a left on the Kancamangus Highway (Route 112). Photo stops as you wish. Might want to get some snacks before you make that left, because once you do, there’s nothing ’til Lincoln.

Lunch (could be a late one): Gordi’s.

Train stop: The Hobo Railroad is in Lincoln.

Take I-93 north. Consider the following along the way: Clark’s Trading Post, The Flume Gorge, and the Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway if the weather is cooperating.

Stay on I-93 North to Littleton, NH.

Stay: Thayer’s Inn. Littleton, NH.

Dinner and a Martini: Baliwick’s Fine Restaurant. Littleton, NH.

DAY 5:

Breakfast: Littleton Diner.

Wander ’round Littleton: Chutters (world’s longest candy counter) or Fresh Salon and Day Spa for a (couples) massage. Littleton is a great, friendly small town, and a reminder that there is life outside the city.

Train Ride: Just outside of Bretton Woods, NH is the Mount Washington Cog Railway. You have to once in your life! They still run one trip a day with a steam engine!

Dinner: Libby’s Bistro (check days and hours first!) Gorham, NH.

Stay: Somewhere in Gorham – just don’t drive back to Littleton like we did! It’s too long of a drive after a fantastic meal.

DAY 6:

Train Ride: The Notch Train on the Conway Scenic Railroad. If you can make it happen, get seats in the Dome Car.

Dinner: Bernerhof Inn (it was a German restaurant at that time, but still looks interesting). Glen, NH.

Stay: Where we stayed has changed, so you could stay at the Bernerhof. It looks like the Golden Apple Inn is within walking distance…

DAY 7:

Free-form day. We spent it in Crawford Notch and along Route 16 on the east side of Mount Washington.

Dinner: Red Parka Steakhouse & Pub. Glen, NH.

DAY 8:

Breakfast: Glen Junction Family Restaurant. Glen, NH

Next stop: We drove east to Portland, ME and checked out Portland Head Light and the surrounding parks.

Lunch: Don’t remember where we ate at back then, but now Eventide Oyster Company in Portland is a must!

Dinner: Kelly’s Roast beef on Route 1 in Saugus, MA, just north of Boston and Logan Airport. Yes, we slept on the flight home…

We hope you find this helpful in planning your travels, now or whenever the time comes.

The Feather River Express

Posted on August 17, 2014August 17, 2014 by Kurt

Last weekend, The Frog rode the Feather River Express IV, a private train chartered by Trains and Travel International and operated by Amtrak over the Union Pacific Railroad. The train ran from Emeryville, CA to Sacramento over the rails of the former Southern Pacific Railroad, and from Sacramento to Portola, CA over the rails of the former Western Pacific Railroad. The timing of the trip coincided with Railroad Days in Portola, complete with a parade!

The Western Pacific Railroad (“WP”) operated the famed California Zephyr (“CZ”, “Silver Lady”) in conjunction with the Denver and Rio Grande Western (“Rio Grande”) and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (“CB&Q”, Burlington, or, simply, the “Q”). The train ran between Chicago, IL and Oakland, CA. The Q took the train from Chicago to Denver, CO. The Rio Grande took her west to Salt Lake City, UT. The WP carried her from Salt Lake to Oakland. The Silver Lady was the first train with regularly scheduled Vista Dome service. You can read more about the past and present CZ operated by Amtrak here.

Our train was made up of private vintage railroad cards from several owners. The Frog elected to do the trip “old school”. When the CZ was new back in 1949, most cameras had exactly one lens, used film, and most folks photographed in black and white simply because it was cheaper than shooting in color. So, out came the D-90 and the 35mm lens. And that’s how the trip was documented – one camera and one lens. No all-in-one zoom, no mega-zoom, no wide-angle. Strictly old school.

As the trip ended last Sunday, the images have just been uploaded to the hard drive and the real work is beginning – selection, straightening, conversion and preparation for uploading to the galleries. Look for three new galleries to be added – Eastbound, Westbound, and the Western Pacific Railroad Museum, which is located in Portola, CA.

Stay tuned for the new posts and galleries, and don’t forget to subscribe to new posts by clicking the link below so you don’t miss a thing!

Thanks for visiting, and remember, Christmas is just four months and 8 days away. Don’t forget Laughing Frog Images when you’re looking for that unique gift for someone (or yourself!)

Growing the Image Galleries

Posted on August 4, 2014July 27, 2014 by Kurt

Growing the image galleries at Laughing Frog Images isn’t happening quite as fast as was hoped. There are two good reasons for that. First, this isn’t my day job. The second is explained in this post.

There are slides and negatives that go back longer that I care to admit, because I can’t be that old! Over 30,000 of them, as a matter of fact. There are planes, scenic views, parks and places, trains, and things I probably don’t remember that are waiting to be rediscovered.

We’re scanning slides at 5000dpi and negatives at 7200dpi, and quite frankly, it’s a slow process. These are archival scan settings to give you the widest range of product choices when you shop at Laughing Frog Images. If you decide you want that killer shot from the Colorado National Monument as a 30″x40″ print and you found out it was scanned at 2400dpi, you wouldn’t be too happy with us. (You’re going to have to wait for that gallery, by the way.)

To give you an idea of what’s behind growing the image galleries, here’s a snapshot of the process:

Get the scanner going.
Cat-proof the work area. This is perhaps the most important step.
Proof the slide or negative and make sure it’s worthy of steps 4-11.
Clean the slide or negative. While this sounds obvious and simple, we’re looking at them through a loupe and using a fine brush and blown air because it’s absolutely amazing how big that speck you can’t see with the naked eye is once it’s scanned!
Load the slide tray or negative holder.
Each image scan takes 4 to 5 minutes for each slide or negative.
Wait for the software and computer to process the image file ( we’re scanning to .dng format).
Image data is added to the file before the slide or negative is returned to storage.
The image goes into a temporary folder to await the next step.
The image is proofed. Any final cleaning takes place here, as well as any adjustments or corrections.
The image is then filed awaiting use.

As we intend to post image galleries and sub-galleries that are related to each other as opposed to posting random images here and there throughout the site, you can start to see that it takes a while to make all of this happen.

This image is part of a gallery that will feature the former Western Pacific Railroad lines from Reno, Nevada to Sacramento, CA.

Obviously, it’s a lot easier when the starting point is a digital image file!

We’re hoping to get some additional galleries up of steam engines that ran in the 1980’s in time for the holidays, because if you don’t love steam engines – you probably know someone who does. And they have walls. Or drink coffee. Or tea. They might even have an iPhone or an iPad. And we might have just the image for them!

Be patient with us as we grow the image galleries! It is happening…

iPhone Case Photos!

Posted on August 2, 2014 by Kurt

I purchased some iPhone cases for gifts and thought I’d share photos of them with y’all, especially since there’s a sale on.

Of all of the photographic stuff I have, none of that stuff includes a copy stand, so these photos were taken with my Lumia Icon phone (more on that someday). They’re not anywhere close to perfect – but they do give you an idea of what could be wrapped around your iPhone (or Galaxy S4 or iPad). They also make great gifts!

Somewhere out there, someone is saying “Why doesn’t he have a copy stand?” Well, unless you do miniature photography or similar small subjects, there’s not a need for one. It would be a toy for me at this point. But… I do have some other samples to share, so… maybe…

Anyway, back to the subject at hand.

From top to bottom, here are the iPhone case photos:

BNSF Pasadena Subdivision Local Freight. Glendora, CA. This was taken in 2013 – Santa Fe merged into BNSF almost 20 years ago!
Union Pacific westbound doublestack train on the former Western Pacific Railroad crossing the famous Keddie Wye in Plumas County, CA. This one is not yet in the galleries.
The view across Kauai’s Nawiliwili Harbor.
Cape Neddick Light (a.k.a. Nubble Light) in York, ME. And yes, if you are wondering, I did get wet just after I clicked the shutter.

If you’ve found that image that you’ve been wanting, and have needed an excuse to buy it, now you have it (at least if we have a case for it)!

There’s a video on the Laughing Frog Images YouTube Channel that shows you how to create your own case, or how to create a gift for someone who deserves something special.

Think of the conversations you can have about your case! The stories you can tell about where you were and how you took the photo! (I won’t pretend it doesn’t happen – just remember to tell them you got it from Laughing Frog Images at some point!)

Or, just think of the smile you can bring to someone’s face when they unwrap their case.

Thanks for looking!

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