Well…we been doing a lot of that lately…upgrading tech. As I discussed a month or two back…Neil had to get a new higher capacity RAID array for the photo processing machine back in the office but then we needed to do some more.

It started with Connie’s laptop…a 4+ year old M1 MacBook Air…the drive was getting pretty close to full and it’s not upgradeable internally so it was time for a new one. So…he ordered her a new M4 MacBook Air which is about the same size and weight but he got her a much bigger drive. She was sort of bummed that the Rose Gold color she had is no longer available but opted for the silver blue color option.

But ya know…the IT guy can’t let anybody have the best computer in the house…no sireee…that just can’t be allowed to happen. So…he did some thinking and his original idea was to get a new high end laptop for himself and photo processing on it instead of the desktop back in the office…he would carry it back there and use the big display of course. But then he figgered out a couple issues with that plan. First off…the desktop would need to stay around since it does other stuff; it’s the home file server, print server, scanner server and laptop backup destination. And besides that…he would have to carry his laptop back and forth every time he wanted to do something photo wise. So…idea one was out of the running; but then we got into that whole tariff thing from the clown car circus in DC and that’s gonna make prices go up when they’re fully implemented. Now we don’t need new iPhones, iPads, or watches as they’re still fairly new…but the photo processing machine and his laptop are both again 4 years old and while still reasonably quick they’re no longer the speed demons on the block. 

So he ended up ordering a new Studio desktop with the M4 Max chip which is quite an upgrade to the M1 Max in the old one and got the all setup and running. He adde a new multifunction mouse to make it easier to cull photos and pick the keepers for processing as well. The only thing left to upgrade his laptop and he’s picked out what he wants and will get it on order this week.

When he was ordering Connie’s new laptop he looked at the trade in value of the old one and it was just under 200 bucks…so they got to thinking and he ended up repurposing her old one as the travel laptop. Yeah…the drive isn’t big but since he doesn’t really do photo processing when they’re traveling but just needs it to run the camera memory card backups to a couple of small external SSDs anyway…and since it is a couple pounds lighter than his higher end laptop it will be much easier to schlep around on traveling excursions. He went ahead and set up both of their email accounts on it and they’ll be happy to have a lighter electronics bag on future trips.

Lemme see…what else is going on. It’s getting into summer down here and we are running the A/C most of the time. For the next month or so we will be able to open up for a few hours most mornings as long as temp and humidity outside allows but probably by June we’ll be closed up for the summer. 

And the idiots up in DC on both sides are just continuing to be…idiots. Looks like Connie and Neil were right back before the election last year…we were screwed no matter who won.

Neil hasn’t been on any photo trips lately…but he did want to test out the new image processing hardware as well as some notable improvements in the Lightroom software he uses to manage and edit photos…so I had him put together a few edits on some of last year and early this year’s outings.

These first two are a pair that he printed up and donated to Connie’s Florida Ladies of Elks Chance Auction at the upcoming convention in Orlando…they printed up nicely on our Epson EcoTank 8550 printer at 13 by 19 inches. First is the Richibucto Lighthouse up in Canuckistan just after dawn from their trip up there in the RV and the second is a Bull Elk in the Madison River that parallels the road coming in from West Yellowstone where they parked their RV when they were up there several times. Again…taken right after dawn so wonderful morning light…and hey, it’s an Elk so it will likely go down well at an Elks function.

Kildeer from out back of the lanai.

A few from Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive this year.

Male Redwinged Blackbird

Golden slippered Snow Egret in his breeding finest to…ahem…attract the ladies.

He converted this one to B&W and heightened up the contrast…there isn’t much color in it anyway but the tones and shapes appeal to him.

Great Blue Heron with breakfast…one of Connie’s shots.

Reddish Egret using his patented sunshade fishing technique…and again in breeding plumage.

Goshawk in Serengeti.

Lilac Breasted Roller.

Giraffe…one in color and the second in what’s known as High Key.

Northern Shrike.

Prototypical African safari image…acacia tree with a storm in the background early in the morning he thinks (although it could be late in the afternoon, he can’t remember)

And a few from the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica last summer.

Connie got the one from their room in the resort.

Capuchin monkey…note the use of the prehensile tail in the second as they crawl through the trees.

Interesting things found on the net…and you have to be a geek for this one.

For the non geeks…Schrödinger was the physicist that came up with the quantum mechanics theory that if you put a cat in the box and could not observe it then it could be either alive or dead and you could only know by observing it which would possibly change it’s alive/dead state…he did this as an illustration of one of those quantum mechanics things. Heisenberg was another quantum mechanics physicist who came with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Theory which says you can either know the precise location of the quantum particle or its velocity but that it is impossible to know both.

Like I said…ya gotta be a geek for it to make sense. Both of those theories have been proven correct as quantum mechanics physics advanced.

Cyas.