danmassefrance

Hello ! Our photoclub (in France) just received a communication from the official in charge of organizing competitions on the national level. Translating the whole message would be a bit lengthy, so I'll try and make an abstract : "Intel has integrated a graphic card in its latest processors. But this card is not very performing, and should be bypassed. But not all processors will allow the integrated graphic card to be disconnected : the I7xxxxH type is recommended. Now, if your exe file has been generated before Window 8 (any exe file) no bypass is possible : the integrated graphic card will be used - and the quality may be poor. The exe files generated with older versions of P2E will not function properly with Win 10, as P2E is not capable of using the "external" graphic card : the only solution is to convert the file to mp4." The author says he has encountered the problem. Yet, I tried and played several of my older P2E shows, dating back to 2009 (I don't know which version of P2E I was using then), and they all worked fine on my small Surface computer ( Win10 x64, Atom ™ x 7 – Z8700 @1.60 GHZ processor. RAM 2.00 Go : the smallest model in the Surface line). Does all that make any sense ? It is a bit disturbing to see such an information being circulated... Thanks for your comments...

Merci !

Oups ! I forgot to mention the illustration I made of a country song : "Phantom 309".

I am very late on this topic... sorry... The way I see it, and to make it simple : we make slide shows to catch the attention of the audience - trying to let them have a good time. To reach that goal, you need three components (like a stool !) : good images, a soundtrack and a story line (to catch and hold the attention of the audience). None of the components is less important than the others. - The images : this is usually the easiest part, as most of us are primarily photographers. - The story line : could be very simple, but it must be there, to guide the spectator along, to prevent him from hitting the Esc key (as I very often do...). The best is to have a punch line... but you can do without, as long as the spectator wants to see the next slide. If possible, try to avoid obvious stories (like "My trip to Honolulu"). For most people, this is the most difficult part. If you have fantastic images of a place nobody has ever seen, you may dispense with a story line, but this would be exceptional... - The sound track. It may be music, recorded sounds, comments, or a mix of the three... If music, avoid at all cost a music which is too well known (most people already have a representation of images on that music.). Recorded sounds are nice - but better if used sparingly. Comments are difficult for many people : they should be said (and not read). And of course they should be recorded with great care : recording a voice is very similar to taking a picture : the recording technique is important, and the post-processing is just as important - except it is much more complicated than the post-processing of images... And then of course there is the last step, which takes the most time : putting it all together... transitions between images should be adapted to the images, and synchronized with the music. They should be varied, but they should not be "gratuitous". A transition effect with no purpose has a negative impact, and distracts from the show. Simple transitions are very often best. Finally, take your time... As a rule of thumb, I figure that it takes me a week to code one minute of show (and sometimes much longer...). Show your show to friends (in a forum !) and take note of their reactions - but you don't have to follow all their suggestions : you are the author ! You will be surprised at the number of small details you have overlooked, when you have your nose on the computer screen. And you will be surprised at the improvement you will see after changing just a little detail. "The devil is in the details". Let your show on the side for a few days, and come back to it. When you reach the point where you see that everything fits together nicely, then you may seat back and enjoy : your job is finished ! And you may be proud of it ! Have fun !

I just realized that I had forgotten to let you all know about the english translation I made of two of my shows : "Anna (English)", and "Lyngen - A true Love". They are both on my Vimeo channel : Vimeo Channel Also, you will find a show I made with interviews of american workers, in 1975 : "Lynchburg, Virginia - 1975". Have things changed much ? Enjoy !

Thanks Lin. It works - but it takes quite a while for the connection. Do you have a link for the second tutorial on the same subject ? Actually, that's the one I used. Thanks again ! Dan

Hi Lin ! In the first place, I wanted to thank you for your fantastic tutorials ! Of course, I used them to create the water ripple effect in "Secret Colorado". One of the members of the "Objectif Diaporama" forum asked me the link to your tutorials - but there is no way I could connect... I used the link http://www.learntomakeslideshows.net/lakeeffects/waterreflecttutorial.zip Is there anything wrong with it ? Is there any other address I could get the tutorial from ? Thanks ! Dan

I went back to the Cimarron road, in Colorado, this last October. And I just finished a show, which I put up on Vimeo. You'll find it here : https://vimeo.com/channels/danmasse Sorry... The comments are still in French... But the pictures are quite nice, I think : the aspen are in full fall colors ! Please let me know, if you find anything I could improve on...

Of course, I don't need to use an external soundcard : I use a USB sound card because the sound is much better than the buit-in sound card...

As I have spent quite a few hours (days, I should say) a few months ago, trying to improve the quality of sound recording, I thought it might be of interest to share my conclusions : I needed a way to record comments (at home) and occasionnally in the field. Since my shows are sometimes shown in theaters, where the audio system is generally very good, I need good quality recording. But I did not want to spend a fortune on an equipment which I am only going to use a few times a year... So, I made a number of tests with the equipment I could put my hands on : a H4n, a H2, and my own SONY MZ-R35 minidisc, which I have been using for several years. The choice of the microphone is said to be very important. The problem is that there are so many models on the market that it becomes very difficult to make a choice. Also, the microphone needs to be small, as I want to carry it with me in the field, on occasions. I made tests with several microphones, and found that the small SONY ECM-MS907 gave adequate results, better than either the H2 or the H4, and better than the larger microphones I tried.. Then, there is the problem of the sound card : most computers now come with the sound card integrated to the mother board, and the quality may not be the best. The solution I finally decided on : purchase an external USB sound card. I choosed the SoundBlaster X-Fi HD. The improvement is dramatic... For home recording, I connect my small SONY microphone directly to the external sound card, and I record directly on the computer : the fan noise is very low on recent machines, and is absolutely not audible on the recording. Of course, I try to stand as far as possible from the computer, and the SONY is directional (60°). And for the occasional field recording, I use the SONY minidisc, and the same small SONY microphone. The only drawback with the minidisc is that I have to use the external audio input to the computer to save the soundtrack. But, as I enter the computer through the external sound card, the quality is quite good. For my last show, "En quête du Rio Cochamo", https://vimeo.com/89424418 , I recorded my voice using the system described above. If my experience could be of help...

Hello Denis ! I had already seen your show, probably on Diaporama Forum, but I could not resist the temptation to watch again your excellent pictures of a place I particularly love ! Indeed, as Lin mentionned, it would have been good - I think - if you had included a few comments - or titles - to indicate the locations where the pictures were taken. And a technical comment : the music does not end at the end of the show... Thanks again for sharing these excellent pictures !

Thank you Judy !

Hi Lin ! Yes, Cimarron is a beautiful place... A few years ago, we rented a cabin for our vacations, close to the Wilderness area on Cimarron road. I have wanted to go back, and I am considering going in the fall : I unterstand the foliage is beautiful ! No, my ancestors are not Basque (Western part of the Pyrénées mountains, on the border of France and Spain), but from the Southern Alps, between Gap and Barcelonnette. Many people from that area emigrated to the Americas during the XIX th century, mostly to Mexico (many houses in the little town of Barcelonnette are built to the Mexican style : it looks a bit odd...). It is interesting that you should mention Bakersfield : according to the story which was transmitted orally (I found absolutely no document...), my grandfather Joseph went to San Francisco in 1879, to live with a relative (an uncle ?) who had an hotel in SF. I could find no trace of that relative, and I don't even know his last name... A few years later, he met some French people - probably Basque - , who were based in Bakersfield, where they were tending sheep. He went with them, and stayed for a while in Bakersfield. He called for his three brothers to come from France to join him (yes, three more brothers came from France. Gabriel was the youngest, and came later), and they moved to the State of Washington, and then to Poccatello (Idaho) also to raise sheep. Joseph was based in Poccatello until he went back to France in 1910. And presently, by coincidence, my daughter lives in Fresno, Ca, a short distance from Bakersfield... She married an american, and they have two daughters, whom I visit regularly... When Gabriel went to Cimarron, he had a Basque working for him. I believe his name was Chouchour. Anna had a brother, Louis Matheron - whom I knew well - whose story would also be worth telling - if I only had more information... Louis went to Montrose in 1919 to help his sister to tend the ranch. He went to the US through Mexico, and walked (!!) all the way to Montrose... Later, he also walked from Spain all the way to the Alps... I also have inherited the taste for tents (or just sleeping under the stars, which we frequently do) : we are just coming back from a two week camping trip in northern Norway, where free camping is permitted - as long as you pitch your tent at least 150 meters from the next house. There, we camped most of the time, and it was great ! (no sleeping under the sky : it rains too frequently !) I will write a review on my site, where you can see reports of a few of our trips (in english !). It's here : http://www.masse-fr.com/HomePage.html (look for the English Menu at the top of the page). All the best ! Dan

Hi Lin ! Well, I guess I should translate the comments : even for those who speak french, the story is not easy to follow. It must be quite impossible to understand for an english-speaking person... Here we are : 1 - Thursday, October 25, 1917, 5:43 am. The liner "La Touraine" arrives in New York. She left Bordeaux on October 15. 2 - She used to be the most beautiful liner of the french fleet, but she was converted to personnel carrier in 1914. Her rich interior fittings are only a memory... 3 - Then, on this day of October 1917, she transported many french immigrants. Among them, Anna 4 - She came from a little village located between Gap and Barcelonnette, La Bréole, in the Alpes de Haute Provence 5 - More precisely, she came from a very small hamlet, which still exists : Les Goérands 6 - Things have not changed much, except the few houses have been refurbished 7 - Only one thing changed : the Serre Ponçon lake did not exist then... 8 - Joseph left for the US in 1879, when he was 17. He came from the family farm in Les Fillys, not very far from La Bréole 9 - For more than 20 years, he tends sheep in the West, moving the flock with the seasons. Little by little, he builds up his own flock. 10 - In 1900, his brother Gabriel, 21 years old, joins Joseph. Both continue to tend their flock 11 - They have no house, no family, and sleep in a tent 12 - Anna only stays a few days in New York 13 - She leaves immediately for a long trip (by train !) : Colorado, via Chicago. More than 3000 kilometers 14 - She arrives in Chicago after 2 days 15 - She then boards a West-going train, maybe the "Colorado Express", and arrives in Pueblo, Colorado, two days later. She changes train, and arrives in Salida, from where she goes to Montrose by road 16 - Montrose... a tiny little town... what is she going to do there ? 17 - She probably did not come to visit the Black Canyon of the Gunnisson 18 - Her arrival does not go unnoticed 19 - In 1910, Joseph, the elder of the two brothers tending sheep, goes back to France. He is 47. He buys a farm in Gap, marries Marie, and starts a family. 20 - In 1912, his young brother Gabriel, who is also tired of his nomadic life, looks for a ranch where he could quietly take care of his sheep. 21 - He finds a suitable place in Cimarron, not far from Montrose. A nice ranch : it takes one full day to ride around the place. But this was not too small, to house several thousands sheep... 22 - But how could he start a family ? Women are scarce... He writes his brother Joseph : would he know of somebody who might be interested, by chance ? Joseph does not have to look very far : his sister-in-law, Anna, is interested... She hesitates a little, then takes the decision... 23 - Anna and Gabriel meet then in Montrose. They had never met before ! By chance, they like each other - and marry immédiately ! 24 - Unfortunately, Gabriel dies 3 years later, from pneumonia Anna never remarried : she stayed in Colorado, and hired a keeper to take care of the sheep Eventually, she sold the ranch and the sheep, and invested the money, from which she lived until 89, leaving a fair heritage 25 (written on last slide) Anna was my grand mother's sister. She married Gabriel, brother of my granfather Joseph. I knew her well : she regularly came to visit us in France. Quite a woman... As you see, this is a bit complicated... But it is a wonderful story ! All the best ! Dan