Technical advances for members of Outdoor Writers Association of America

Making the Most of Your Chunk of the Web

By Russell A. Graves
www.russellgraves.com

I’ve learned a lot about Web sites in the past year. I am not new to the Web, but it’s just been in the past several months that I’ve put a lot more thought into my site. Since I put up my first site in 1998, visitors to www.russellgraves.com remained fairly stagnant and never showed any appreciable bumps in visitation.

About a year ago, a veiled tip from a friend in a casual conversation revealed my problem. "I like going to your site," he said. "But when are you going to put on something new?"

Although he’s no Web expert, he nailed the problem.

Since last summer, I’ve made it a point to keep fresh content on my Web site, and the result is that visitation has jumped some 3,000 percent. The time people spend on the site has grown equally. Most importantly, Web-based sales have followed the trend.

Web Presence?

Should a writer or photographer have a Web presence? I think it’s important but not critical. However, if you do have a site, you should have a plan for what you’ll do you with it. How do you plan on marketing the site? What kind of content will you have? How often will the content be updated? These are fundamental questions that you’ll need to answer before you even build your site.

Your Site’s Function

Every creative content provider must answer one fundamental question: "What is the function of my Web site?"

Will your site serve strictly as an online portfolio, meant only for industry people to see, or would you like it to be a place where both the general public and industry professionals can view your skills? By determining exactly what your site’s purpose will be, you can better plan the site’s content and how often you’ll update it. I want my site to be a place that industry pros and the general public find useful, so I update my site at least once a month.

Your Design

What do Wal-Mart, General Motors, Ford Motor Company and any other Fortune 500 Web site have in common? They all contain lots of content, are simple to navigate and sport basic yet functional design schemes.

Borrowing lessons from companies who spend millions for a Web presence, I set out to design my own site. What I discovered from looking at big corporate Web sites is that these sites lack background music or sounds, are fairly neutral in their color schemes and don’t sport cluttered background images or artwork. Instead, they use what works best: a clean background that makes text easy to read.

Corporate America’s design schemes might seem basic in a high-tech world where you can put music, swirling graphics and complicated backgrounds on a site. The absence of fancy Web elements on corporate sites ought to speak volumes to the wannabe Web designer: You don’t need complicated elements to have an effective site.

On the World Wide Web, simple designs, uncomplicated backgrounds and neutral colors never go out of style.

To Watermark or Not

This is a tricky question for photographers and one I’m asked about continually: Should photographers watermark their Web images? If you want to that’s fine, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Here’s why: Some 10 years or more after the proliferation of the Internet, virtually all industry people know that lifting images off Web sites is a no-no and comes with hefty penalties. I am not too worried about unauthorized use of my images by people in the outdoors industry. Moreover, the images on my site are low-resolution, so their use for commercial purposes is limited.

Therefore, it’s the home user or school kid who might take images off my site without permission. If a dad wants to use one of my deer pictures as a background for his home computer, I don’t have a problem with that. If a college student needs a prairie dog image to help with a PowerPoint presentation, I don’t mind that, either. Who knows? That college student may be a photo buyer in a couple of years.

Russell A. Graves is a freelance photographer and writer, a book author, an agricultural science instructor and a speaker. He lives in Childress, Texas, and joined OWAA in 2003. This article originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Outdoors Unlimited.

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Optimizing Photoshop
Tips for the Everyday User

By Michael Furtman
www.michaelfurtman.com

Photoshop is your darkroom. It can be slow or fast, depending upon many factors, including your PC’s processor and how much random-access memory (RAM) you have.

But you can do things to ensure that whatever computer system you have runs Photoshop as efficiently as possible. Adobe’s technical paper covers these steps in detail, but here are a few of their recommendations that I find most important:

Setting Scratch Disks
The Photoshop scratch disk is similar to virtual memory. For the best performance, you should set the scratch disk to a defragmented hard disk that has plenty of unused space and fast read/write speeds (rather than to a network drive or removable media such as a Zip drive). Photoshop requires at least 650 MB of free hard-disk space, but more is recommended. If you have more than one hard disk volume, you should specify additional scratch disks.

Adjusting the Image Cache
Photoshop uses image caching to redraw high-resolution images faster. With image caching, Photoshop uses low-resolution versions of an image to quickly update the image on-screen as you work. To enable the Image Cache option, specify the number (1 to 8) of low-resolution versions you want Photoshop to store (cache). The more versions of an image you have Photoshop cache, however, the slower it opens image files. In Photoshop, the default Image Cache setting is 6. Setting the Image Cache option to 1 disables image caching; only the current screen image is cached. Setting the Image Cache higher than 4 improves Photoshop’s performance when working on larger images by redrawing them faster. If you have performance issues in Photoshop CS2, set the Image Cache to 2, then test your performance.

Purge Undo, Clipboard or Histories
Undo, Clipboard and Histories all hold image data. To release RAM, choose Edit > Purge to purge the Undo and Clipboard. Purging Histories can release RAM or scratch disk, depending on how recent your history data is. To reduce disk space usage, reduce the number of History States available in the General preference.

Allocating More Memory to Photoshop
Photoshop uses RAM to process image information. The more RAM available to Photoshop, the faster Photoshop can process image information. Other open applications and startup programs decrease the amount of memory available to Photoshop. Quitting applications or startup items you are not using increases the amount of memory available to Photoshop.

To allocate more memory to Photoshop:
1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Memory & Image Cache.
2. In the Memory Usage section, increase the Maximum Used by Photoshop percentage, and click OK.
3. Restart Photoshop.

Optimizing and Defragmenting Hard Disks
Over time, the computer's hard disk can be damaged or fragmented (unavailable in a large contiguous block). If there is not enough contiguous space for the system to save a file, it saves pieces of the file to different locations on the disk. It takes an application longer to read a fragmented file if pieces are saved in several locations.

Although there are much better defragging tools than the one built in to Windows (such as Diskeeper), you should use the Windows defragging tool weekly, at least.

To optimize and defragment the hard disk using Windows Disk Defragmenter, Choose Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter (Windows 2000) or Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter (Windows XP).

Diskeeper and some other defragging tools can run in the background while you’re working. However, if using the Windows defragmenter, run it at night or any other time you don’t need the computer.

Michael Furtman chairs OWAA’s Technology Committee. He lives in Duluth, Minn., where he is a book author, freelance writer and still photographer. Visit his Web site to learn more.

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Smartening Upwards, Continued ...
A New Englander Investigates Digital Cameras

By Norman Jolliffe

Given my senior status, forcing myself into any kind of learning curve is an annoyance. After all, already I know everything I need to function and get a passing grade. I don't have to be excellent – just, well, good enough.

It's simple. I am an artist, of a sort – a poet, a writer, a creative person. I know how to hunt bear, moose and deer. And if my mercury content becomes low enough, I can fish and eat a trout – or, without embarrassment, catch and release a trout.

However, when Olympus sent me one of their Stylus 500 digital cameras for testing, I eagerly ripped open the box and fished out the Quick Start Guide (QSG) and Basic Manual (BM). (It's not prudent to rip open shipping boxes like that because you could get a paper cut – which is what happened to me once when I received a rifle scope for testing. My blood squirted over everything. This later became an issue with the company that sent it.)

In the case of this particular device, both QSG and BM are masterfully composed. That is, I didn't see or read anything I couldn't understand. For me, that boded well.

I waited two hours for the camera battery to charge.

But because I had a literary project in mind, this wasn't a problem. In five minutes, I wrote a haiku – which is, in case you don't remember, "a Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons." Here it is:

Smiles a sunflower:
Cheerful, fruitful, asking grace,
Summer's happy face.

But the battery was still charging.

So I went to a bookcase and opened a volume titled Manual of Technical Writing, published in 1957 and written by a team of university professors. In chapter one, they wrote, “Language is one of the most important tools of the technical man. The term ‘technical man’ will ordinarily be used in this text to refer to those engaged in engineering, agriculture, forestry or science. And good technical writing for these people must be [appropriately] expository, intelligible, objective and considerate.”

I think I may have failed this course. I don't remember.

The camera battery-charger indicated to me the camera-battery was finally charged.

The battery clicked right into the Stylus 500 where it was supposed to go, as did the Olympus card. I formatted the card – an xD-Picture Card. (Non-Olympus cards may not work in this camera, Olympus says. But I didn't bother testing other cards.)

I set the time and date. This process was only slightly annoying, as I got it right the first time.

I attached the strap. Olympus wanted me to do that. Otherwise they would worry, in my clumsiness, that I might drop their camera on a rock.

I quickly read the other directions, most of them reminiscent of digital cameras I have played with before.

This camera, though, has a larger-than-usual monitor – very handy for eyeglass-wearers and picture-taking at difficult angles or for taking arm-length mug shots of yourself.

But one problem I had: The Olympus software that comes with the camera is not compatible with my computers that run Windows ME. So if you are thinking of smartening upwards from your old SLR system to a new digital – they mostly come with software – you would be better off as well with a new PC with Windows XP.    

In any case, I brought the Stylus 500 to my garden and took pictures of sunflowers. Later, viewing the images on my PC, I was truly impressed.

I always suspected I was a good photographer. But after looking at my sunflowers – their stems quite pixel-hairy – I was convinced.

An OWAA member since 1978, Norman Jolliffe is a magazine freelancer and a book author. His specialties include hunting, fishing, natural history and bicycling. For more information on this article, e-mail him.

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Keeping the Bean-Counters Happy
Demise of L.A. Times' Outdoors Section Causes Newspaper Writers to Evaluate Job Security

By Mark Freeman

Newspaper outdoor writers shuddered from coast to coast last month with word that the Los Angeles Times chose beans over meat with its outdoor coverage.

The newspaper killed its beefy outdoors section and not because it wasn’t good. It died because the bean-counters believed it didn’t pencil out for a paper struggling to meet high profit margins.

In what the newspaper categorized as a decision made "solely for financial reasons," Times editor Dean Baquet discontinued the paper’s Outdoors section, offering buy-outs or reassignments to its 10 full-time staffers. In announcing the decision, Baquet called the section "one of the most inventive sections in any major newspaper." However, he also said the section failed to attract advertisers and sported a regular readership of just 28 percent of Times readers. Baquet also cited higher newsprint costs, flat revenue in the newspaper in general, competition from the Internet and other "pressures" newspapers face these days.

Being good simply wasn’t good enough in L.A.

Are we that vulnerable in the newspaper business, in general – and particularly in the outdoors niche – that we need to be as concerned about what the ad reps are doing as we are about our leads? Is outdoors coverage worth less than the paper it’s printed on? Are bean-counters across the country going to follow the cost-cutting suit by taking the fish out of the fish wrap?

Thom Gabrukiewicz, outdoors editor of the Record-Searchlight in Redding, Calif., says he was shocked by the Times’ actions. Gabrukiewicz couched it as a grim message to subscribers that what they read can disappear, seemingly on a whim, in the world of "market-driven journalism."

Outdoor writers need to diversify our coverage and make sure we remain some of the best storytellers on our staffs, but Gabrukiewicz warns us that the ad reps and bean-counters cannot be the lone voices editors hear when it comes to thumbs-up or thumbs-down in coverage decisions.

"If they are telling their bosses that outdoors doesn’t sell, call bullshit fast," Gabrukiewicz says. "Look at the research. ... Billions of dollars are being spent to lure people outdoors."

Terry Tomalin of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times did more than call bull. He called meetings with editors and even the advertising staff when he spearheaded an expansion of outdoors coverage in his newspaper more than two years ago. Tomalin put together a business plan that laid the blueprints for a dramatic expansion of St. Pete’s outdoors coverage. It included teaching the bosses how influential the boating industry was there and getting ads like boat-sale classifieds placed in his section.

"I had to sell it to them, they went for it and it’s proven to be a success," Tomalin says. "You have to take an active role. You can’t sit back and complain."

Mark Taylor of the Roanoke (Va.) Times says he believes the Los Angeles Times unfairly measures its outdoors section against an unreal standard. In the newspaper world, sports sections are notorious money-losers when measured strictly in advertising revenue. But real newspapers never would consider ditching their sports coverage based on that criteria alone.

"If you use that criteria, no one would have a sports section," Taylor says.

Newspapers sport some of the best profit margins for investors, with 20-plus percent profit the industry standard. Publishers are bombarded with pressure to keep profits up, even though ad lineage has flattened, readership has dipped and costs have risen. Hatchet-proofing ourselves isn’t easy, particularly when our core readership – hunters and anglers – is decreasing nationwide.

This poses a unique problem to part-timers and others who sell weekly columns, particularly to smaller regional papers always looking to shave costs. Some outdoors writers believe the best way to keep the checks flowing is to keep their heads down.

"I never write about declining numbers of hunters and/or anglers in my column unless it’s related to a positive new program to entice kids, etc., into the outdoor life," e-mails Rick Methot, a Sunday outdoors columnist in New Jersey. "Any non-hunting editor (almost all of them) would no doubt look at such a thing and say, ‘What the hell do we need an outdoor column for?’

"Sometimes the less said about a problem, the better," he writes.

Tomalin says his section’s expansion, which includes a monthly magazine, includes an increase in the coverage’s breadth. Just like his diverse readers, his coverage is not all hook and bullet. And it’s paying off.

"My attitude is, don’t stick to the traditional," Tomalin says. "We run lots of adventure stories.

"I don’t know what happened in L.A.," Tomalin says. "My guess is, I don’t think they marketed it right."

Tom Stienstra from the San Francisco Chronicle says the L.A. Times’ section appeared to suffer more from bad decisions on coverage and failing to connect to core outdoors readers.

"Editors ruined the section by often emphasizing pedestrian-level stuff, like dogs catching Frisbees in Griffith Park," says Stienstra, who believes the section would have thrived under different leadership that put quality over profitability.

What the Times decision and its fallout shows is that our niche is not immune to financial pressures – pressures that have nothing to do with how well we do our jobs. But veterans like Tomalin demonstrate how writers must sell their sections to editors just like they sell them stories – by being proactive, not reactive. That approach improves the product, secures the section’s standing and stokes company coffers.

The message here is stick to the meat and show how there’s plenty of beans in there, too.

Mark Freeman chronicles the demise of society from Medford, Ore. Along with Mark Taylor of the Roanoke (Va.) Times, he co-chairs OWAA’s Newspaper Section. If there’s a topic you’d like to see covered in a future column or if you would like to write a newspaper-related column for Outdoors Unlimited, contact Freeman or Taylor. This article originally appeared in the January 2006 issue of Outdoors Unlimited.

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Keeping It Dry
Videographers Who Work in the Outdoors
Face Special Challenges

By Paul Lepisto

Revolutionary War soldiers were instructed by their commanding officers to "keep your powder dry" on days with inclement weather. In those days, wet powder meant a gun that wouldn’t fire, and that would mean trouble on the battle lines.

The stakes aren’t nearly so high for a videographer shooting an outdoor TV show, but the advice to "keep it dry" still should be followed. The nature of our job means that we are trying to shoot in an environment in which cameras and recorders aren’t designed to function. Wet, cold, hot, humid, dry and dusty all will be encountered throughout the year and sometimes on the same shoot – extreme conditions, to say the least! We’ve shot in temperatures that have ranged from 112 to minus 35 degrees and in every form of precipitation known.

It’s complicated by the fact that camcorders have a built-in sensor that will shut down in situations where the humidity level gets too high or the recording heads get dirty or fouled. There are some ways to avoid this. Most cameras either come with or can be fitted with a rain cover for protection from moisture. As good as they are, I have learned (the hard way) not to rely on them entirely for protection from the elements.

I have found several other ways to protect the camcorder and the wireless microphones at the same time.

One easy way is simply to insert the camcorder into an oversize garbage bag – one designed for grass and leaves. I found some that are more than six feet long and very wide. The entire camcorder with receivers slides inside and stays remarkably dry, yet it’s still readily available to pull out quickly to tape the next fish or decoying flock of birds. Plus, it’s compact enough that when you don’t need it, you can roll it up and put it in your equipment box.

Here’s another tip for protecting your camcorder – in this case, when traveling on the lake. If it fits, put it inside the side rod lockers of the boat. This not only protects it from spray and rain but also, in rough water, prevents it from bouncing around in the boat.

Don’t forget to get some lens cleaning fluid and lens cleaning cloths. Keep them handy. The sleeve of your shirt is not a good substitute for getting drops off the lens! I place my cloths and bottle of lens cleaner in a plastic bag and have it nearby on every shoot. Most times I don’t have to use them, but having them ready when needed is a comfort. When they’re close, it takes only a few seconds to clean the lens the right way.

One way to make your batteries last longer in cold weather – and this applies to the batteries for your camcorder or wireless systems – is to keep them warm. Placing them inside a hard-sided cooler with a heat source like GRABBER’s hand warmers enables them to run a lot longer then those that are exposed to the cold prior to their use.

Plenty of other things can go wrong on a shoot – things beyond your control. However, you can control the condition of your camcorder. Keeping it dry not only will keep your equipment running longer but, some days, it might mean the difference between getting a segment shot or just having a tough, wet and cold day.

A member of OWAA since 1992, Paul Lepisto is an award-winning videographer and producer of "Tony Dean Outdoors" TV show. He lives in Pierre, S.D. This article, which originally appeared in the November issue of Outdoors Unlimited, is a contribution on behalf of OWAA’s TV/Video Section. Section members are encouraged to send newsworthy items such as job changes, awards and new shows, as well as craft-improvement tips and articles, to Section Head Dave Carlson or OU Editor Katie McKalip.

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Have a tech question? OWAA’s Technology Committee will answer it.

Snowshoeing Trails

Looking for a snowshoeing trail near you? Simply go to this Web site, hosted by award-winning snowshoe maker Tubbs, a division of K2 Snowshoes, and click the "Find a Trail" link. From there, you can find snowshoeing trails all over the world befitting your skill level.

Are you itching to try a new sport? Find all the information you need on mushing and sled dog racing at this Web site. To find out what breeds of dogs race, click the "Dogs that Do It" link. The Web page also has a sidebar that features articles, photos, frequently asked questions and more.

Snowmobile, Away!

For snowmobile trail conditions in the United States and Canada, check out this Web site. In addition to trail reports, it features live chats, message boards, a photo gallery, online auctions, snow surveys and more.

Skiing Trips

Want to locate the perfect ski resort? Go to this Web site, where the top resort picks for this season are organized by category. Variables include family skiing, beginner to expert skiing, lack of crowds and proximity to airports.

compiled by Kristin Knight

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Lost as an infant in an old-growth forest, Dr. P.C. Woodknot (a.k.a. John Hong) was raised by a vegetarian wolf commune until age 10. Discovered by a band of barefoot hikers and returned to the awkward bosom of humankind, he grew up in an organic, high-tech household, and the rest, as we all know, is histrionic. If you have a question for Dr. Woodknot, submit it via the Tech-E-Letter feedback form. 

Learning about Linux

Dear Dr WoodKnot,

Quite some time ago, you mentioned that you would tell us about that lovely, low-cost, capable and progressive software environment called Linux. I really want to get started with Linux and stop catching so many computer diseases. So are you ever going to talk or are you a “liar liar pants on fire”?

Indicatively,
Litmus Papel

Dr. WoodKnot replies:

Dear Testy Litmus,

I apologize for the delay. My story (and I am sticking to it) is that I was concerned how people could try Linux but also not irreversibly screw up their existing computer setups. After months of head scratching (well actually just a couple of minutes after I got your pushy letter) I figured the concept of "live disk" would save the day. 

Basically a "live disk" is a CD or DVD that contains software that can be run directly on the CD or DVD without being installed on the host computer. Many of these live disks are compact and can run quickly on older, less-powerful computers and give them a second lease on life.

Even if your computer is brand new, if you have grown weary of the cost and bloat of Windows XP, Linux is an operating system that will give you much faster performance, take up less disk space and not be affected by most of the computer viruses out there. Also, there is an ever-expanding universe of free and low-cost software that runs on Linux.

Here are four live-disk Linux versions, or "distros" (short for distribution), you may want to try. I've listed them from the smallest download to largest.

Puppy, 60 meg
Slax, 177 meg
Beatrix, 190 meg
Knoppix, ~700 meg

You can see a longer list of Linux live disks at distrowatch.com.

Basically, you download a big file, transfer or "burn" it to a CD and then restart your computer with the CD in the CD drive. Linux will load and run instead of your normal software environment. When you decide if you like the particular "distro" you can load it on to the computer hard drive and have quicker operation. If you decide you don't like a distro, just shelve or discard the CD.

Live disks are just the ticket to try Linux with low risk.

Be careful out there!
Dr. WoodKnot

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