JRR

Thanks Maureen Despite the rain, you went further a field than we did, but maybe we went slower as the weather was so nice for us. I find it very interesting how I can go with a group to one spot, we all take pictures and then when we look at them as a group, we sometimes wonder if we were at the same place.

Bill Hines just kindly put up my Estonia AV. This is one of the 10 AVs that followed from the Baltic Introduction presentation that Beechbrook commenced hosting several weeks ago. If the subject sounds familiar, Maureen Platt uploaded an excellent AV on Tallinn several months ago. (And is still on Beechbrook for you to enjoy) Comments on my show are always welcome. Preferably constructive ones :)

gotcha !!! As I say I am kind of slow this morning

Dave: Thanks for the comments and sorry "she" is only available to me on a private contract :) Guess my brain is not working well this morning as I am not sure I "get" your second comment.

Thanks Moturn. I tend not to over-process my images as a rule, especially for a travelogue AV. The "rules" of composition are in my mind when and if I crop, but I don't always fllow them if there are elements in the picture that I want to retain. Appreciate the feedback.

Thanks Lennart I did try to contact you, but the e-mails were returned. I wasn't smart enough to try contacting you through PTE.

Hi Al Glad you enjoyed it. Did Liz have anything about how we treated her homeland ?

Thanks Ken You have a great memory

Hi Mickp My wife did the voice overs for the AVs. I have been putting images up on www.fototime.com for a few years (mainly family ones, some for a nature area nearby and some related to a photoclub I belong too, but am now putting more up travel related shots with greater descriptions. The other route I am using is Google Plus. I have posted some travel pictures, some misc bird images as well as doing a daily bird posting. In G+, I have 4000 people following me (where they all came from I don't know !!). Usually 150-300 people will look at the image full screen, but one I posted the other day has had 14,800 open it fully !! (I am having problem believing that number...) People also give pictures a "+1" (equivalent to FACEBOOK's "LIKE") and provide comments.

Rick: Thanks for taking the time to watch the AV and providing comments

Thanks Mickp. Appreciate your thoughts. I wouldn't mind selling it to the cruise industry, but there is the slight matter of copyrighted music. I have sold 4 shows in the past that used royalty free music. Unfortunately finding appropriate royalty free music is next to impossible, especially for 10 shows. Now if I were a composer like Andrew Lloyd Weber or John Williams... The other 10 shows are finished, there is some minor duplication with the introductory show, but not much. In all but one case I managed to find music that was tied into the country and appropriate to the presentation (images, pacing etc etc) The whole process however took over 6 months of full time work, and because of that, after 15 years of doing AV shows, I have now turned to other ways of presenting my images. I still would prefer AV, but the work involved vs the "payback" is just not there especially when there are other demands on one's time.

I have not posted a presentation on Beechbrook for a long time, but a few days ago Bill kindly hosted my Baltic Introductory show. Introductory in that it is a summary of 10 AVs produced from a 10 country, 16 city cruise in the Baltic (plus two stops in the UK). Comments are always welcome. (preferably constructive ones :) )

As I was in favour of this, I appreciate your bringing the email addresses back. Thank you !! Jim

Another reason for displaying the addresses on Cottage is that some people who Bill hosts may not be members of the forum, and there are some members of the forum whose ID's are not their name and good luck finding them using the forum search. I ran into both cases recently.

Sounds good to me Bring on the pole........

Maureen: My 2¢ on the music. I know how very hard it is to find music that works with a presentation, and music makes a large impact on the show. As I mentioned above I liked the music of the version on Bill Hines' "Cottage". When I watched the original I found it quite slow and the synching with the images did not seem to work nearly as well. Yes I might have gone looking for Vivaldi, or similar, and might well still be looking.....

Just getting into the discussion now.... I too appreciate Bill's site very much. (I do hope users are supporting Bill with more than just words) It gives us access to great work and ideas for more shows, and just appreciate the many wonders of the world. I too, like Ken, do contact some of the creators (but I admit not as a high a presentation as Ken) and I would like to see an ongoing option. If removing the address generates more shows to the Cottage, then in some ways I might be in support of it, but overall I think there is a need for us to have contact info.

Maureen: Just enjoyed your Venice Show. Very nice as all your shows have been. The music worked well, you arranged for the weather to behave itself and to provide nice lighting for you. I especially like the few early evening shots. The canals seemed to be well below their high water marks which was good to see given some of the stories we are hearing about flooding in Venice. Thx for the show

Well I did... :rolleyes: I went with MicroSoft Security Essentials. No issues so far, of course the computer is VERY young and I am still setting it up. Now I have to get around to setting PTE on it and digging out the old versions.... Thanks to all

Thx Barry

Thanks for the quick replies from everyone !! Sounds like Ken and I have somewhat similar issues with AVG on XP system.I am going to Win7, so maybe it will be OK there. My techie uses Kaspersky, and in some ways I am leaning there only to be on the same wavelength with him...... But I am still intrigued by MSE... I know I have to s**t or get off the pot...

I hope I am not repeating anything here, but I did a search for "Microsoft Security Essentials" (MSE) and came up blank. I am in the throes of getting a new computer and have several authoritative sources recommending going with MSE as the anti-virus software. I am interested in hearing any comments from people you are using it. I currently use AVG, but have to steer it away (via Resident Shield) from my PTE .exe files as I seem to get false positives. So I am thinking of switching. I have used Kaspersky in the past. I also used to use Norton but won't go near it anymore due to other issues with it. Thanks

Hi JR, Sorry to hear that - it does sound like a resource issue. Video can be more demanding for sure.... Best regards, Lin It worked fine on my more up-to-date laptop. Very good !! Thx Lin: Sounds like it went really well. Unfortunately all I get is the music track and a graduated blue screen Guess maybe the desktop finally needs to be replaced ? I'll have to try it on my laptop tomorrow that is quite new and better spec'ed

Hi JR, Sorry to hear that - it does sound like a resource issue. Video can be more demanding for sure.... Best regards, Lin Lynn: Sounds like it went really well. Unfortunately all I get is the music track and a graduated blue screen Guess maybe the desktop finally needs to be replaced ? I'll have to try it on my laptop tomorrow that is quite new and better spec'ed

Thanks Barry