Patricia and Pete’s Engagement

Posted on January 31, 2008

Patricia and Pete were great to shoot. It was freezing that day, but Patricia insisted on getting at least a few shots in her black dress so she had some pictures that felt summer-y. So we saved those til the end. Then we went to this great little Italian restaurant right of the rail Downtown.

This might hurt a little….

Posted on January 25, 2008

I am going to be updating my blog with a whole new look over the next week or so, and it might get a little ugly. It’s one of those “It’s going to get worse before it gets better” sort of things, so please bare with me. The blog will hop back and forth from this blue template to the custom one that I’m working on, and then back to the blue template. I’ll let you know when it is all finished. So if you come to my blog and text is all out of alignment, pictures are strewn around randomly, and things just generally look ugly, then you know why.

Harmony 1000 Universal Remote Review

Posted on January 20, 2008

Street price: $399-499
Overview: An affordable, intelligent, entry-level touch-screen remote that doesn’t need to be programmed by a professional installer.

Pros: Excellent physical design and ergonomics for a touch screen remote. Sits in your hand just right. Easy to use activity-based interface. Bright color LCD. Lightweight. Pretty decent battery life. Relatively simple setup considering the complexity of the remote. “Smart state” technology let’s the remote remember how it has set your components so it doesn’t actually turn the TV off when you go from “Watch DVD” to “Play Xbox”, for example.

Cons: Setup software doesn’t work well on macs. IR blaster a little too weak (remedied with use of the RF extender). Some devices react a tad slow to commands (may be fixable).

FULL REVIEW:

Before we get started:
Let me say that I was hesitant to buy this remote because of some very negative reviews on sites like Amazon, Circuit City, et al. The consensus was the remote is a good idea, but poorly executed, and not a mature product. In other words, it was very buggy. I noticed that the dates on these negative reviews were BEFORE Logitech released a major firmware update in October 2007. If you look at the reviews AFTER October 2007 there is a much higher percentage of satisfied users. I also found out there was ANOTHER major firmware update in December 2007. With these updates I can say that I have experienced none of the problems some of the early adopters complained of. The good news is the first time you hook your remote up to your computer and run the software it will update it with the most recent firmware.

Set up:
This remote comes with setup software that stores all of your remote info online. I’ve heard mixed reviews about it working on macs. I decided to give it a try, and wish I didn’t. When I attempted to install and run the software I couldn’t even get the software to load up without crashing. Additionally, the installer totally hosed my disk permissions, meaning it screwed up a bunch of other stuff on my computer. If this happens to you, just open disk utility and run the “repair disk permissions” tool, and you should be OK. I am running Leopard, so maybe that is the problem. I ended up using parallels to set up the installer using windows.

To begin setup the software asks you to enter in the model numbers of the equipment you have. The database is enormous and surprisingly complete. It even found my Comcast DVR. After that, it asks you to set up “activities”. For example, “Watch TV”, “Watch DVD”, etc. Then it asks you some questions about how your devices are connected/set-up. After a 5-10 minute setup process you’re done. When you hook up the remote for the first time it will update it with the latest firmware and then load your device settings onto it. After you start to use it you’ll find there are ways you want to tweak it. The software gives you tremendous flexibility for this. You can rename your devices, program custom buttons that may not be in the remotes database, teach it new IR commands, adjust the timing of the signals, and much more. It took me about 10 minutes for the initial setup and cumulative 2 hours of tweaking and re-tweaking to get it just the way I want. I consider this a huge success considering the complexity of the remote. The only kinks I ran into were the Mac software issue, and after the initial setup some of my devices weren’t being controlled at all. I removed and re-added them and they worked just fine.

Ergonomics:
My first impression of the remote was how comfortable it felt in your hand. It’s LCD is on the left side of the remote, for use with your left fingers, and the physical buttons (volume, channel, directional pad, etc.) is on the right edge. The grooves on the back are placed perfectly so that when you hold the remote with one hand, your thumb is in just the right spot to use the controls. Keep in mind with any touch screen remote it is easiest to use it with two hands, and you usually have to look down to see which button you are pressing. This takes some getting used to if you are used to “stick” style remotes.

Performance:
Using the remote is a breeze. You start by selecting an activity from the Activity Menu. For example, when everything is off and I press “Watch TV”, my receiver, TV, and Cable Box/DVR all turn on. The TV switches to HDMI input 1, the receiver switches to the TV input, and the remote changes to control the cable box. If i then want to watch a Blu Ray, I press the activity button, and then I select my “Watch Blu-ray/DVD” activity. The TV stays on and on HDMI input 1, the receiver switches to the DVD input, the cable box turns off and the Blu Ray player turns on. You get the point. The remote remembers the state of every device so that it doesn’t accidentally turn the TV off when it is already on, for example. For this reason it is important that you ONLY use the remote to control your devices, or it will lose track. For this same reason you have to make sure you keep the remote pointed at you devices while it is performing it’s commands because if a component misses a command the remote won’t know. If it does lose track, there is a help button that will ask you a series of questions so the remote can re-orient itself.

One of my gripes about this remote is the IR blaster on the unit is not very powerful, so if you don’t have it pointed right at your components they won’t receive all the commands. It also makes it difficult to use the remote when you are in other parts of the room where you may be far away or at a steep angle relative to your entertainment center. I fixed this by purchasing the RF extender, which I’ll discuss below.

Battery life is as good as I can ask for. I keep the unit on the cradle when I’m not using it and I’ve never run out of juice. It will easily last at least half a day off the charger while I watch TV/listen to music and work around the house.

Customer Service:
Before I bought the RF Extender I called customer service to ask a question about it. Logitech has a dedicated line for Harmony remotes and I got to speak to a human very quickly. He didn’t have a good answer to my somewhat-obscure question, but I won’t dock them for that.

RF Extender:
The Harmony 1000 is capable of sending RF signals. For you to control your components, you’ll need to buy the Harmony RF Extender. I got one new for $65 on ebay. For the price of the remote however, I think this should have been included. The RF extender is a little device that receives the RF commands from the remote and converts them to IR which it blasts out to your components. You can either place the unit near your components, or it has 8 small IR transmitters that will adhere directly to the front of each component. This allows you to place your components in a cabinet, or even allow you to be in another room controlling your home theater. Setup was a breeze. You connect it to you computer, run the setup software for the remote, allow it update the firmware, and then you tell it which components will be controlled by the extender. I’m loving this so far because now I don’t have to worry about where I point the remote when I use it, and I don’t have to worry about my components missing commands and the remote losing track of what’s going on. An added bonus: My Marantz receiver has an “IR Flasher” input on the back. It is a 1/8″ phono jack (like a headphone jack). Incidentally the little IR transmitters connect to the extender by a mono 1/8″ cable. So I bought a mono male-to-male 1/8″ cable and hooked it up from the extender to the back of the receiver. Works like a champ– and I don’t have to have the little diode stuck to the front of my unit.

Conclusion:
I am very glad I bought this remote, but I think the RF Extender is almost necessary to really make it a great experience. I give it 4 out of 5 stars because it is not perfect, but very, very good for the price.

I’m such a baby…

Posted on January 16, 2008

Well, this week I’m experiencing my yearly cold. Starts off with a sore throat one day. Horrible sinus pressure the next. Then sneezing and dripping for a day or so after that. I’m on day 2 now. Should be done soon and then I can enjoy myself until this time next year. I know, I know… other people have it WAY worse. Like I said. I’m a baby.

Good thing I rarely get sick. That’s bad for business in this line of work.

New Dynamo stadium around the corner… and across the street from me.

Posted on January 9, 2008

In a press conference today, Mayor White announced the signing of a letter of intent by the city to purchase a 6-block parcel of land southeast of minute maid park for the Dynamo’s new soccer stadium. This isn’t a done deal yet, but is very close.

The coolest thing is that the complex will be directly next to my house. And, depending on the type of stadium and where it is exactly, I may even be able to look into it from my fourth story balcony. Sweet!

Somehow I missed this one…

Posted on January 8, 2008

I was looking through the Mark and Stephanie’s wedding photos again and came across this little gem. Don’t know how I missed it the first time. Stephanie had this awesome ability to casually glance at the camera at just the right time. I love the emotion of this shot.

(click to enlarge)

More shots from BES

Posted on January 7, 2008

Here are some more shots from the Bridal Extravaganza Show this weekend. I brought my camera but forgot to take many pictures. Clint came over on Sunday and grabbed a few, mainly so he could lust over my D3.

 

Krista, another “Adam’s Ex”

A whole bunch of my current brides stopped by. It was great to see them all. Here’s Patricia in front of her engagement portrait.

Clint looks lost……

And now he looks scary….

I’m not sure what I was smirking about.

Bridal Extravaganza

Posted on January 5, 2008

Hey! I haven’t been posting much lately. With Christmas, my sister-in-law’s wedding, and the bridal show this weekend I have been sooo busy. Anyway, the first day of the bridal show is behind me, and it was great. I got to meet a lot of really cool couples. If any of you are considering hiring me (or any other photographer for that matter) and have a summer wedding, book soon! From this show, in the next few weeks, I’ll book up the rest of my summer and most of the fall. I’ve even started booking early ’09s.

Anyway, here is a shot of my booth setup. We enlarged the wall so it’s now 12 feet tall, and bought all new 30×40″ prints. I also had my “booth babes” there to help My wife Kacie, and three former brides of mine– Lauren, Barbie, and Stephanie.

We had a great spot. You can see my glowing “A” and the top of my wall from the opposite end of the hall.

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