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On Patience
I just wanted to thank Jim for his thoughts on waiting for the right moment. I took sunrise pics one morning at the beach and was disappointed. Now I realize I probably should have been out there every morning and I might have had a chance for the image I had envisioned. Love the web site!
Vivian C. Dibrell

Macro Photography
Enjoyed this issue; esp. the "close up" article 
Hal Hamm

Please tell Chuck McKern to keep writing articles on lighting and especially on macro photography.  It's something I'm really interested in but I rarely see articles on it.
David Silva

Ummm, We're Not Sure
Its nice, but it hurts your eyes because your like is it clouds or fog
Tasha

Could you pass that this way when you're done?

Acting Sensibly in Our National Parks
Great articles! I especially liked the pet photography and Moose Peterson pieces. I couldn't agree more with Moose! It only takes a few bad eggs to spoil things for everyone.
Scott A. Soucy

I agree with Moose.  When people see wild animals they stop thinking.  But then again maybe Darwin had a point...
David

Enjoyed the articles, especially liked the article by Moose. I look forward to the next issue.
Jerry

I've just discovered your "webazine", it's great! Thank God for the Moose Petersons of the world. His article was really "on target", and having witnessed some of the same, I couldn't agree more. Keep up the great work!
Dennis J. Palazzolo 

Pet Photography
I loved the dogs!  Please do more articles on pets!
Amanda Friedman

OK you did dogs when is the article on cats?
Rose Ranzenhofer

God the PC police are even into cats and dogs!  Rose it seems that pets are a popular subject so we'll probably do another article on pet photography at some point.  We'll even try and work in a cat.

Black & White Prints from Color
Color pictures are no more then snapshots and any idiot can take a snapshot.  It takes thought to create a black and white image.  It takes an intimate knowledge of your equipment, your film, of darkroom technique, and of printing.  All true photographic art has been done in black and white.  Each film, each paper has a personality that, with experience can be coaxed out to create a final image.  That image is unique.  Not some file on a computer that can be reproduced any time you want.  You do your readers a great disservice to even suggest that a quality black and white print could come from a color original via a computer.
Yves

You need only look at the work of folks like Moose Peterson and Galen Rowell to see how good color images can be, or to look at the great body of work of a publication like National Geographic to see the impact that photos can have on the world.  By the way the article didn't suggest that color photography was better then black and white.  Rather it showed how black and white images can sometimes have an advantage of color and how you can use that to your advantage.  Now could someone please pass Yves some Prozac?

Outstanding Review and black and white film.
Genovise

God when I was in college did I hate black and white!  But it seemed that was all we were allowed to shoot.  The really funny thing is that as much as I hated it then I like to shoot it sometimes now but I never have black and white film when the mood hits me.  Your article makes it easier to do.  After reading your article I tried it with a portrait of my daughter and I loved the results.  
Please keep the good ideas coming,
Annie

The example in "Never buy Black & White Film Again" is simply too bad and all that is written there has no value, I think. Even the digi image has no light in the face, eyes are empty, no light, nothing. To change such a sadness into b&w is a waste of time. You could compare it only with a similar shot on b&w film and the difference would be visible for everybody at once!!! A photographer would have focused only on the face for better contrast to the useless background, e.g. f 2,8 with a 85 or 100 mm lens. To mention Photoshop is another error, with IrfanView (Freeware) this could be done within 5-6 seconds, incl. the second it needs to load. What I saw here was an example how NOT to do it! 
Peter 
Frankfurt, Germany

The example image shown was cropped out of a larger image to deliberately create an photo where the background would detract from the subject (we pointed this out).  The idea was to show that color can itself become the focal point and that a black and white version of the image would therefore allow the viewer to focus on the subject without a distracting background.  There are no catch lights in the eyes because the subject is looking away from the camera - a subject does not have to be staring into the camera for an image to have impact.  The fact that he is looking away helps to convey a mood in and of itself.

As noted in the article the image was shot with a 28-105mm zoom lens.  If my foggy memory serves me this image was shot at the 105mm end of the zoom.  100mm is considered a standard portrait length.

I wouldn't consider using PhotoShop an error.  I have found it to be an amazingly powerful package, as have hundreds of thousands of graphics professionals worldwide.  I have no experience with IrfanView so I can't comment on it's abilities.

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