Tobasco

I'm currently getting all the logistics taken care of to buy a large (50-100 gallon) freshwater tropical aquarium. I've read about the benefits of having a live planted aquarium over plastic, and frankly, seeing some well-done aquascapes I'm convinced. The aquarium just looks a heck of a lot better, and the fish seem calmer and healthier. I'm going to hire a guy at my local pet store who specializes in setting up planted aquariums to help me get on the right track so I don't do things wrong.

I know that to some extent, live plants can help process the nitrates in the aquarium. As weekly water changes on a 100-gallon aquarium could end up being a huge inconvenience, my question is whether it's theoretically possible to achieve some kind of equilibrium in the ammonia/nitrogen cycle. Or in layman's terms, can I get an ideal plant setup that will completely eliminate the need for regular water changes?

If not... how do those of you who own large aquariums go about maintaining your water quality?

I made a little jig to cut actual 2.75x3.75 sheets that fit into my old Crown Graphic press camera, but it's a pretty big hassle to make your own film formats in the dark. I don't suppose anyone still produces it? Everything I've seen says that the last film to be made in this format was FP4+, and they stopped production around 2008. Is this true?

Assuming it's impossible to find, what would be the easiest way to convert 120 roll film to this format... preferably in bulk?

I have a 30 gallon tank with a couple different types of tetras, some danios, and two Boesman's rainbowfish.

Everything has been going well for quite some time now, but out of my six Lemon Tetras, one of them is starting to show some kind of white stuff around his mouth. It is not ick. I'm getting very worried, because last time this happened, I lost every single one of my original six lemon tetras to this strange disease. They get white stuff around their mouth and gill areas (patches of it rather than dots, like ich). It kind of looks like it's eating away at the areas it affects. They get lethargic and their breathing gets shallow and rapid. Then within a few days of showing the white stuff, they're floating on the top of the tank. What is this disease and how do I treat it? It picked off six Lemons one by one a few months ago, though it didn't affect anything else in the tank.

All personal pet peeves about people calling DSLRs "photography cameras" or "professional cameras" aside, I'm genuinely curious as to why people think a gear upgrade will automatically turn them into a great photographer.

If I buy a really nice, high-end set of paintbrushes, can I suddenly paint amazing murals? If I buy the best potter's wheel on the market, can I instantaneously create beautiful ceramic art pieces? Nobody makes these kinds of assumptions about other forms of visual art (to my knowledge anyway). Why is this belief so widespread, particularly among teenagers?

I can't sustain exhaling long enough to accurately clock my pulse, but it is noticeably slower. I would guess it's around 65 baseline, and when I exhale slowly it drops below 60 by my best estimation. Is this normal?

I've done eggs, cards, crayons, and lightbulbs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturesmugshots/53448...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturesmugshots/53793...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturesmugshots/53793...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturesmugshots/53470...

What else should I shoot? I'm using a .177 cal pellet rifle that fires 625 FPS, so I don't have a huge amount of destructive potential.

I have a well-established 10-gallon freshwater aquarium as well as a well-established 30-gallon freshwater aquarium. I keep both of them at 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I currently have 6 green fire tetras in the 10-gallon that have been there for a number of months. They are totally healthy. I want to get 6 neon tetras to put in one of the aquariums. There is room in the 30-gallon. Would it be best to move the green fire tetras to the 30-gallon and put the neons into the 10-gallon? I have historically been pretty unlucky with neons... whatever I do, they usually get ick and die despite medication, etc. So I feel like it might be safer to put them in the 10 gallon where they will be easier to medicate, etc. if they do get ick. But would it stress my green fire tetras a lot to move them to the 30-gallon after they have been in the 10-gallon for so long?

I have a good understanding of PPI vs Pixel Dimensions vs Print Dimensions, as I work at a print shop.

However, something occurred to me that piqued my interest.

I'm kind of a perfectionist about printing sharpness. I use only the sharpest lenses when I plan on printing, and I like having the extra megapixels whenever possible.

My question is, what would produce a higher quality print when blowing up an image past what is "technically" possible with the resolution of the file?

For example. I have a camera that takes 12 megapixel images. At 300 DPI, a 4240x2824 (12MP) image will print at 14.1x9.4 inches. Say I wanted to blow it up to a 16x24 though. I know it's possible to just open it in Photoshop, crop it to 16x24 @ 300 DPI and print it, and I've even been very happy with the results I've gotten with that method, printing that size.

The other approach would be to lower the DPI. At 177 DPI, the print dimensions of a digital image that is 12MP go out to almost exactly 16x24 inches. So I guess I'm asking about the merits of having a print that is lower in pixel density but composed entirely of real, original pixels, and having a print the same size at a higher pixel density, but also a much higher ratio of interpolated pixels vs original pixels.

And, now that I think about it, is it better still to find a middle ground? At 177 DPI, I have 0% interpolated pixels. At 300 DPI, I have around 65% interpolated pixels. So would somewhere in between, like maybe 225 DPI, give me an optimal percentage for an absolute highest-quality print?

I'm building a smallish cube to contain the messy explosions created when I do high-speed photography (freezing bullets through fruit and things like that).

I was thinking for dimensions, I would just use four panels that were 18x18" square (two sides of the "cube" will be open, the bottom, and the side facing the camera).

Because the forces generated aren't particularly strong, I don't need bulletproof plexiglass or anything like that. I was planning on buying 1/10th inch thick plexi or lexan, but found it to be rather expensive in the sizes I want. Furthermore, Home Depot and the like don't carry it in those thicknesses. I want to avoid shipping it from somewhere online.

Anyone have any ideas of material that would work instead? Ideally it would be clear, stiff enough to wipe down between shots, and easy to drill/screw through without cracking.

I recently started doing some high-speed photography with a trigger and a flash to freeze the action. I use my digital SLR because of the instant feedback, but it recently occurred to me that maybe film would be a better option in some regards?

Here's my question. I know that reciprocity failure affects long exposures with film, causing additional required exposure times past what the meter indicates. I wonder if the opposite is also true? I'm getting roughly 1/40,000th of a second effective shutter speed when I use my flash on 1/128th power. Most film starts seeing reciprocity failure at around 1/1000th of a second. Does this mean it will require LESS light to properly expose the film, allowing me to stop down for better depth-of-field?

My little brother just got a 1-gallon aquarium. I know it's too small to put a betta or goldfish in, and pretty much any other fish I could think of won't work (i.e. tetras for obvious reasons, etc.). I have a 10-gallon and a 30-gallon aquarium, so I know the basics, but what would be a good pet for a 1-gallon? There is a filter but no heater, although that could be arranged if necessary.

I was thinking maybe an African Dwarf Frog? Ghost shrimp are a little boring all on their own. Ideas?

I bought something online, and when I hit check out, the only payment option that appeared was PayPal. I do have a PayPal account, but I only put money in it as needed, usually for eBay purchases. I didn't want to wait 3-5 days for a bank transfer to go through to my account though, so I just hit continue to see if there was a way I could pay instantly with my card.

So there was a way to do it. I put in my card info, etc. and it came up with a screen that said "Did you know you have a PayPal account?" There was an option to "Continue without logging in," and I clicked that. The order completed and a note came up that said "This will appear on your bill as 'WEBSTORE.' " So is PayPal going to send me a bill, or was it just billed to my card like a regular online transaction?

A friend approached me the other day telling me she was entering a photo contest for a possible prize of $6500. Here's the link:

http://www.boulevardofphotographers.com/upload/

Something seems a little fishy, but I can't tell if it's sketchy or not. Does anyone know (or is someone out there better at figuring out things like this)? I feel like I should be able to tell, but I can't.

Thanks in advance.

I started using iPhoto back in early 2009, and have kept all my regular JPEG snapshots cataloged in there ever since. I went back today to dig up some old pictures from summer of '09, but found that every single picture that was taken before 2010 is gone. The "rolls" and "albums" I made are still there, but when I expand them to see the contents, it just lists filenames with the "broken photo" symbol. I can't get the actual pictures to show up. The weird part is that the thumbnails are still there in some views. I went into the iPhoto Library folder in Home>Pictures>iPhoto, but the folders in there start at 2010.

Anyone know what's going on?

I'm going in and getting them this week. Are either of them particularly unpleasant (large needles; thick consistency, etc.)? None of the Hepatitis shots were bad, and the Flu shot was basically a joke. So there's something to base what "bad" is off of.

I've been developing a lot of my own film lately. While I'm not new to photography, I am fairly new to black & white film processing. My developer of choice has been HC-110. I've been shooting various types of film, doing Pepsi challenges between similar films like Tri-X vs HP5+, Delta vs T-Max, etc.

Anyway, I've been scanning the film after it's developed, and there are some pretty bad scratches on some of my frames. Here's my process:

1. Developer for whatever amount of time is appropriate for the film (leaving the E.I. at the manufacturer's rating for the moment).

2. Stop bath for 1 minute.

3. Fixer for 5 minutes.

4. Rinse with water.

5. Orbit for 1 minute.

6. Rinse with water for 10-15 minutes.

7. Photo-Flo for 30 seconds.

8. Squeegee and hang up to dry for several hours.

I read that rubber squeegees can scratch the film, but I'm being as gentle as I can with them without leaving a lot of water/Photo-Flo on the film. I'm still convinced this is what is causing my scratches.

Help?

During the summer I bought a couple of slack lines and got pretty into the sport. I was having a lot of fun with it, but now that it's cold and snowy outside, I'm afraid I'll get out of practice. Does anyone know if there are places that allow indoor slack lining (and have somewhere to anchor the lines that won't break or move)?

I just cleaned out my dad's darkroom and found tons of old expired film. I'm looking forward to playing with it/various developers and techniques, etc. But I was curious to know which B&W films other photographers preferred? So far I'm a big fan of the Ilford PanF+ 50, but I have yet to try the Kodak T-Max 100 (I may process that as positives for fun) and the FP4+ 125.

What are your preferred brands/types?

I finally got around to scanning a roll of Provia I shot this last July. I'm kind of OCD about having all my pertinent EXIF data entered before I upload, but Photoshop is not letting me change any of it. As it lists the "camera" for the image in question as the Noritsu scanner I used to digitize the film, there is no data listed for f-stop, shutter speed, ISO, etc. Unfortunately, when I use the "Image Info" panel in Photoshop CS, I cannot enter any information in the empty boxes for the f-stop, shutter speed, etc. Furthermore, the "Camera Make" is just listed, and doesn't appear to be edit-able.

Is there a freeware program for Mac that will allow me to fix this?

Thanks in advance.

I shot this photo with the following gear at the following settings:

-Canon Rebel XSi

-Canon EF 100mm Macro lens (The non-L, non-IS version)

-f/2.8

-1/400

-ISO 100

http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturesmugshots/51120...

I'm fairly certain the glass I had can out-resolve my 12.3 MP sensor. I'm entering this photo into a wildlife photography contest at a museum in January, and I wanted to get a few opinions on the size. I realize most large prints don't have to be tack sharp when viewed from an inch away, but assuming I wanted this one to be displaying 100% of its detail at any viewing distance, what is the largest size you would recommend going at 300 DPI?