Mac360 On Maui: Photos To Fill Your Hard Drive.

Of course, that’s a subjective view of photography in Hawaii. The same could be said of Oahu (too many people, concrete and steel), the Big Island of Hawaii (beaches are not as good), Kauai (more lush, more green, more costly), and the neighbor islands.

This trip to Maui was purely for the get away experience. Not so far as to not need to be connected, though. Truly, the Mac is a digital hub, whether on the desktop with a PowerMac or with a PowerBook on the run.

To make life easier, I keep most of the same applications and files on the PowerBook as on the desktop PowerMac. To travel, all that’s needed is to copy Mail’s files and preferences to the PowerBook (which also keeps backed up copies of all iTunes music, and iPhoto photographs).

Since we’re stuck with Dial Up at the Maui Prince Hotel, Earthlink and LavaNet were the preferred ISPs. I tried 15 minutes of the high speed connection to download a dozen or so new files (iCal’s recent update came out early in the week-- if it’s above 500k I don’t bother to use dial up).

Earthlink service has been decent in my travels; both Hawaii and elsewhere on the US mainland. Most cities, even smaller ones, have local access numbers. I’ve seldom been able to get connected at much more than 33k, though.

Earthlink is set up in such a way that you have to use their email service to send mail (receiving mail from any service is OK) or use a .Mac account. I chose the latter.

The Canon 20D digital camera is my first SLR digital. Try it once and you won’t go back. Eight megapixels render a very true-to-life photograph. And for some, me included, that’s a problem.

I was photographically raised on Pentax SLRs and Kodachrome so I love those slightly saturated colors. You won’t get that look with today’s good quality digital SLR cameras.

The photos produced by the Canon 20D look pretty much like whatever you shot-- real. To give the photograph that “Kodachrome” look, I’ve resorted to a little touchup before sending the photos to family and friends via email, or printing for album inclusion.

Frankly, all that post photographic extra effort used to be a pain. Now, with two excellent utiilities, it’s a snap; rather, a couple of clicks.

For more involved photographic post-processing work I’m using Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 3.0. Lots of professional effects are now combined into a few tools and fewer clicks. Mac users will love Elements 3.0.

Personally, I’m getting lots of quick mileage out of the less expensive, less daunting Portraits & Prints. This is a sweet photographic enhancement application that works well on the road.

Not only does PnP give more printing options than iPhoto or Elements, you can get faster enhancements than the latter and easier use than the former. PnP gives you one click access to a combination of formerly professional options such as saturation (enhance) and sharpness (crisp).

Photo album pages (multiple sizes and styles) are simply a Template choice. You can also print to disk and print to email. The latter launches Apple’s Mail application with the photo already embedded and ready to go.

The only thing missing is complete integration with iPhoto.

I’m about ready to graduate from iPhoto so I’m scouring the Mac world for a better “media” application. iView Media Pro is on the list but I’m balking at the price tag.

What’s your experience with handling photographs without iPhoto or Photoshop? Share your comments with others and click the Comments link below.

Oh, one more thing before calling it a week-- the photograph above is of the original Cheeseburgers in Paradise in Lahaina, Maui. Alas, the restaurant owners were required to change the name after hearing from Jimmy Buffett’s lawyers. The photo below is of the pool at the Maui Prince.

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In the future I’ll publish a gallery of photographs from other places in the islands.

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