Places to find more information

Here are some resources that I've found helpful.

For reviews of cameras, accessories, news, etc., I highly recommend the Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) site. I've found this site to be an amazing source of information - including information on cameras, full reviews of cameras (with apples to apples comparisons), links to camera manufacturer's sites, and links to other digital photography sites.

Other review sites that looks interesting are photozone and Imaging Resources.

Michelle Tomasko recommends the Digital Camera Resource review site. Also, see Michelle's Glacier Waterton Loop journal for her review of the Nikon Coolpix 3100.

If you have questions that you'd like to discuss with experienced photographers, I'd recommend that you visit Digital Grin. It's a photography forum that is hosted by the folks who own SmugMug; the forum is open to anyone, and it's a great place to discuss photography and digital cameras.

Digital photo processing is available at many local photo shops - but if you'd like to upload your files and have the pictures printed on photo paper and returned to you, here are three online vendors:

• EZPrints. I tried this site directly, and it wins my vote. I like the color better (I had one picture printed by both EZPrints and Shutterfly, and I really liked the EZPrints print better), and I was finally able to print the panoramic (stitched) shot of the Grand Tetons that I took on my tour in 2002. Very cool. SmugMug uses EZPrints for their photo processing. They switched to EZPrints after doing a 30-month test of a number of processors. EZPrints won from a quality standpoint. But there are two more factors that I think are interesting - they have digital print formats (as noted above for Photo Access), and they print panoramic prints. Sometimes I stitch photos together, and this is the first photo processor that I've been able to find who will print these very long photos. EZPrints will produce prints that are 6 inches high and between 12 and 30 inches long, or prints that are 12 inches high and between 12 and 45.5 inches long. The price on these long prints is based on 6 inch increments, which turns out to be pretty reasonable.
  
  EZPrints recently (in 2008) switched from Fuji to Kodak paper. I ordered some sample prints to check the quality, and the Kodak paper produced a very nice end product.
  
  
• Shutterfly. I used this service many times before I hosted my photo galleries at SmugMug, and I was happy with both with their service and with the finished photos. They use Fuji paper. (Keep in mind my use of this service is pretty dated; I probably last used it in a 2002 timeframe.
  
  
• Kodak Gallery. This site was previously called Ofoto. A friend of mine has used this service and is happy with his results. Prints are on Kodak paper.

Folded cards and postcards from your photos: while most of the photo processing sites include the ability to create cards from your photos, I was introduced to NetPost Services from the US Postal Service. You can upload your image, order either cards or postcards, specify a message, and have them mailed directly to your recipients. I initially ordered a card to be sent to myself to check the quality - and it's good. I have been using this service since 2004 (and it's now 2007...) and I have been very happy with it. In fact, I haven't sent a card other than a card made from my own photos in a very long time. You can share pictures that you've uploaded for processing with friends and family - but the photo processing sites usually only show very small versions of the pictures. I've started using a service from SmugMug to share photos. This is a fee service; click http://www.smugmug.com/photos/best-photo-sharing/ for a description of the services available. I started with a standard account but upgraded to a professional account in 2006. There are no limits to the number of pictures you can store in a SmugMug account. Click here to view a link to all of my travel stores - many of which are about my cycling tours. The nice thing here is that people can order prints from your SmugMug albums.

You're in control as to whether people can order prints from your galleries. You can set up some galleries with printing, some without. You can also set passwords, and determine whether your galleries are indexed by search engines. But the point really is that it's under your control.

If you decide to open a SmugMug account for yourself, you can get a $5 discount on your first year's subscription by placing my personal coupon ( llX8NBuQ4l6uQ ) in the 'Referred by' field on the signup form. If you want to upload pictures from foreign computers - that is computers that aren't yours and that don't have the drivers it needs to understand your camera, you may find it helpful to buy a card reader for your camera's media. I have a Zio Dazzle reader that I bought several years ago - but due to the usual craziness and pace of acquisitions in the digital marketplace, that manufacturer no longer exists. If you're looking for a card reader, I recommend doing a search on the web using the search terms "card readers". I just tried that search on March 15, 2007 and came up with quite a list of choices. It might seem like a funny place to look, but if you're pricing digital media for your camera or if you're pricing cameras, take a look on the Dell Computer site. Look under software and peripherals for both media and cameras (and then look under memory for the media). I've found that software and peripherals often have a 10% discount, there are sometimes additional rebates, and at times ground shipping is free.