Hobbies

Forty-nine years is a long time to wait for anything. But that was how long loyal Chicago Blackhawks fans had to wait before they could witness their hockey heroes once again hoist Lord Stanleys Cup above their heads in celebration of a National Hockey League Championship.
The last time the Stanley Cup came to Chicago was in 1961.
The heroes then were Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, now two of the proudest members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Friends are always asking me for advice about what kind of digital camera to buy. These are normal people, not photographers or techies, and they just want a reasonably priced camera thats easy to use and takes good pictures. This digital camera buyers guide is for regular people like them.

These days, its hard to go completely wrong when buying a digital camera. The quality is constantly improving, and prices just keep coming down. All the major manufacturers like Kodak, Sony, Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Panasonic make good cameras. Its entirely possible to buy a good point-and-shoot for less than $200. You can even spend as little as $100 and get a decent camera. And of course, the more you spend, the more features and performance you get.

This week, Panasonic added two new cameras, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G10 and the Lumix DMC-G2, and one lens, to their Micro Four Thirds System lineup.
The Micro Four Thirds System offers DSLR-comparable performance in a smaller, lighter, interchangeable lens system camera. Panasonic was the first to introduce a Micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix G1, a little over a year ago, with Olympus introducing their first, the E-P1, about 7 months later.
The G2 takes the original G1 platform and adds a touchscreen display and HD video.

Canon has updated their venerable 70-200mm f/2.8 professional zoom lens making one of Canons best even better.
The new Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM zoom lens has improved optics, increased durability, enhanced image stabilization, a shorter minimum focus distance and faster auto focus.

Hard drives gone bad dont always have to end up in the trash. Miguel Rivera, a systems administrator, took a pile of used drives, gutted some and turned them into beautiful sculptures.

The overall concept was to make something out of just hard drive parts and pieces, says Rivera. I wanted it to look solid and heavy so I leaned towards just using metal no plastic or gluing things together.

Six segments of digital photographers exist according to a new Consumer Electronics Association analysis. The study, The Digital Photographer - Segmenting the Market to Gain Deeper Understanding, shows the segments are the Frustrated Photogs making up 25 percent of the market, Digital Curators (23 percent), One-Click Wonders (15%), Feature-Focused Photogs (16%), Picture Happy Socialites (10%) and Digital Mavericks (10%).
Understanding how digital photographers are naturally grouped together, based on similar thoughts, behaviors, attitudes, interests, etc., will help companies in the consumer electronics industry better serve these consumers needs, said Chris Ely, CEA senior research analyst.

Wedding photographers often face lighting and weather challenges when photographing bridal events on location. This lesson demonstrates how to use Photoflex StarFlash strobes with silver umbrellas to produce beautiful indoor bridal portraits on location. The following techniques are very useful when shooting outdoors is not an option due to weather, lack of areas to shoot, or problematic lighting conditions.

Chances are, if you're handy with a camera, you've been asked the following question: "I need a photo for my passport. Can you take it for me?" And there's a good chance that you, in response to this question, quickly racked your brain for plausible reasons as to why you can't oblige them.

But as tedious and boring as such a task might seem, producing passport photos for friends or relatives can be fun and take less than a half an hour from start to finish. And if you've got your equipment already set up, then you can have results in just a few minutes.

Sporting events can be some of the most difficult events to photograph, but there are some techniques and tricks to getting it done. Here are six tips to taking better sports pictures.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Juggling needn't be just for medieval court jesters, street performers and circus clowns.

The ancient skill of keeping two or more objects aloft by alternately tossing and catching them can boost your hand-eye coordination, improve your alignment, and even pump up your heart. Your perseverance, patience and focus will also get workouts.