Laszloimage

It is actually a very good flying performace from the kid according with his very low jump numbers. " I also noticed that your TI never really waves off when he deploys" But what can you expect from the TM/I letting some one jumping with him with a such a low expirince level....? Yes Jarett proved himself (even if he still needs to take some advices, and do it even better) but from the TM/I's stand point I would NOT give this extremly risky chance to somebody with only 80 some jumps. That dude should have some more common sence while his doing tandems at least. It could have gone very bad very easily... -Laszlo-

They??? More than one person? Awesome! Obviously the second guy must have been more stupid than the first because he must have seen the first guy's fuck-up. -Laszlo-

Thank you Arvel!

Here it is... My home made modification on my Flat Top Pro -Laszlo- wwww.laszloimage.com

I totally agree with that point he (Steve) asked before he was taking a tandem passenger w. one arm. But the answer is one missing arm isn't that big of the deal like for example a disabled person from waist down or some other extreme odd body shape or size. If the person has an avarage body built other than the missing arm it shouldn't be an extra safety issue period. As I said the student harness should (and must) stay on the student's shoulder, the arms shouldn't even come into the picture as a safety issue (like preventing the passenger falling out). -Laszlo-

Twisted ripcords, thick pack job-all the material is in the center, twisted-shortenedclosing loop, and the two ripcords pinched between the straight pin and the groumet. All these combined together can significantly increase the pull force. I've been there I done it. Now I pack for my self, never happaned again. -Laszlo-

...so if you're putting out a 1,000 students a year (which is a lot and you have to be there full time) then you make 15K a year. McDonnalds pays more than that! I would find a different DZ to work for. -Laszlo-

Those tandem accidents happaned because of the improper adjustment of the tandem harnesess. Even those extreme cases like the handy cap guy w. the very thin legs or a person with a huge butt (up to certain limit...) the harness can be adjusted properly. In the case of the one armed passenger it shouldn't be any more difficult than in the case of an avarage student since the harness suppose to sit on the person's shoulder not on his/her arms. If the passenger arm is the factor to prevent him/her falling out of the harness, then is really f#$&-ed up!!! I took a student before with one arm and it wasn't a problem at all. -Laszlo- www.laszloimage.com

I normally send 8bit/color channel TIFF's. The reason is I noticed some computers and softwares can't handle the 16bit. But the 8bit TIFF is still uncompressed vs. JPEGs so if they make any changes it can still preserve a better quality. But you never know... if you check out the Jump Shack Fire Bolt ad in Parachutist you'll see a lot of JPEG degradation in the picture. I sent that file in TIFF. But I assume when Jump Shack (or whoever) made the changes like putting text in it they re-saved it in a smaller res. and well compressed JPEG so it's easier to send it out in e-mail (but this is only my guess based on looking at the Parachutist print and comparing to mine...) -Laszlo-

Thank you for the link, it deffinetley explains everything in very good details. -Laszlo-

Yes the full frame gives me the flexibility to use my 24 or even longer lenses, and of course I get the full 180 degree view with 15mm. Thank you very much for the compliment about my published photos. So far I had only one (Skydiving Jan 07) taken with 5D. All the rest of them were taken with the 300 and 350D. The info about the DOF coming from the web site I posted earlier. I gives you a calculation chart about the "hyper focal point". On the full frame camera the range is more (and it worked for me too) -Laszlo-

You're absolutely right about the price Gary. Also the weight and the size issue... I still jump and use my XT as well. That's still an amazing camera for the price. -Laszlo-

I shoot in RAW so I have to post process. Normally I make them just a little lighter than I would use, due to the printing technology they use. I noticed the pictures are normally darker in the magazines. The colors... sometimes you just lucky sometimes not... The whole 2007 USPA calendar is purple instead of blue. I also send TIFF files in most cases. -Laszlo- www.laszloimage.com

That's right Gary. The whole point is if I use the 15mm lens on the 5D beside the lot wider view I'll still get more DOF for any given settings. http://photoinf.com/Tools/Don_Fleming/Depth_Of_Filed_Calculator.html please check this link-it really works...(there's no 5D on the list but they have Ds1 which also has a full frame sensor) Yes I prefer that curviture on the horizon too, I think it gives a very nice "touch" to the photo. Thank you very much for the compliment. -Laszlo-

Thank you!

very close. Normally I practice on the ground to figure out the distance from the planned skydive. And lot of the cases I just use my 24mm or longer... The other big advantage of the full frame is for any given focal lenght and f stop you'll get more depth of field (1.6 more than the other DSLRs). This means you can use manual focus lot easier. -Laszlo-

Some of my 5D shots with Sigma 15mm -Laszlo- www.laszloimage.com

Hi all, Recently we had a few discussions about how much should we charge for camera work. How much should we charge to dub a video, how much is the value of a camera jump, or the price for an 8x10 photo print. Friend of mine just sent me this link from the UK about freelancing rates. http://www.londonfreelance.org/feesguide/index.html I have to tell you we skydivers are kind of under paid. So if someone is bitching about the price of your work just please direct them to this site for an “eye opener. ” It will actually let them know they've been offered a very good deal... ( 1 British Pound is aprox. 1.9 US $ these days) Blue skies! -Laszlo- www.laszloimage.com

Lou, There's a switch on the market which works with 20D, 30D, and 5D. I making them. It's distributed by the Rannch ProShop, but it should be available at major gear dealers. Here's the link for the ProShop: http://ranchproshop.com/accessories.php?brand=26 ...the 5D is a bad ass camera. -Laszlo-

...that's a big and heavy camera. Yes this guy Wes can do it for sure, he built a mount for Tony Hathaway's Kodak PRO (similar size as the Ds-1). Here is his web link: http://www.rimworldvideo.com/ -Laszlo- www.laszloimage.com

Here're some landings. -Laszlo-

Doug, Thank you for the compliment about my posting. It's really good to hear from someone who actually writes books about stuff like this... I should have mentioned the TIFF files too. So if anyone interested to make more research on the subject here are the keywords: 8-bit and 16-bit per color channel uncompressed image files. Further more printing with ICC color profile.... Good luck and studying to everybody who interested! -Laszlo-

You just answerd to your question. "even when a packer who is a friend packs my gear I pay him but then he wants my photos" So what makes your photography less valuable than a pack job? Nothig!!! It requires more time, expirince, and skills in the sport than being a packer. And of course lot more financial investment to buy the equipment. To dub the video to DVD is at least $10, to make an 8x10 photo print is at least $15. If some one is asking for the digital file that's even lot more, imagine how many prints they can make at home, or even worst the image is used for advertisement and cutting you off totaly not even receiving a credit for the photo(happened to me). So if someone asking me for digital they either get an e-mail size picture with a watermark (max 640x480 pixels no more than 85% quality) or they have to pay lot more and sign an AGREEMENT!!! There was another discussion thread about this here on DZ.com, please go back about 2weeks and check that one out too. Laszlo www.laszloimage.com

Unfortunately there's no time and space to let you know all the important details about digital photography and within that resizeing and printing images. The most important thing is the "DPI" term is very confusing and personally I don't even see the reason to use it these days. So you always want to keep the highest possible resolution of your image to get the best quality of print. This max. res. is coming from your camera (in case of the XT is 3456x2304 pixels) and it only suppose to be smaller if you have to crop your image. So even if you want print only a 6x4 you don't need to resize your picture since the native 3:2 aspect ratio of your camera's image sensor>>> 6x4 inches= 6:4 aspect ratio = 3:2 aspect ratio. Based on this if you're using Windows XP you can just open up your 3456x2304 pixels picture in Win. File&Fax Viewer Utility> click on print >make another click if you don't need to select other pics to print>click on printing preferences if you need to change quality, paper size, and other options on your printer , or just click on next if you don't need any changes (in this case your printer will go with the setting you determined on control panel's Printers&Faxes setting)>select the one of the options (read what it says and also it gives you a small preview for each possible selection)>click next and you should be able to get the desired size of print in the desired size of quality. Another example, if you want an 8x10print that image will be cropped. So the maximum resolution if was taken with the XT will be 2880x2304 pixels because the longer side of the image ( the 3456 pixels) needs to be cut down to get the 10:8 (5:4) aspect ratio. Normally softwares like Photo Shop, Ulead's Photoimpact, or Canon's Digital Photo Professional (this one is free from Canon's web site) will allow you to set your cropping tool for the desired aspect ratio. So make the long lecture short, to preserve the best quality you just crop your image to the desired aspect ratio and save it in the resulted pixel numbers. If you crop out something small like 800x600 from the 3456x2304 that will be your remainig maximum resolution, and won't allow you to print a nice quality photo. More pixel=More detail. Also softwares allow you to "upsize" images but you won't gain any more detail just the existing pixels will be multiplied, that picture still will look pixelated on the print. Resizing (make it smaller) is for the Internet or for applications when you don't need large files, the picture doesn't need to be displayed in a large physical size (lrager print or full screen on a WUXGA monitor) There’s another factor which can effect on the picture quality if you are using JPEG files. At any given resolution you still need to determine the compression ratio. On simpler softwares you just normally select the quality on the jog bar’s scale between 1 and 10 (higher is the better). But more sophisticated ones will give you lot more options like determinate sub sampling (YUV411, YUV422), progressive or optimized, and etc. To understand these require further studies, but normally if just choose 100% on any photo application will give you a good quality. And finally make sure your monitor is set properly too. Good luck! -Laszlo- www.laszloimage.com

Hi, I've got these two samples. Or please check out my web site www.laszloimage.com We can negotiate price and license terms in PM -Laszlo-