Some quick tips to take better 4th of July pictures!

It is that time of year again, fireworks, family, and BBQ’s. Hopefully you will be on your way to see some fireworks this year and here are some helpful tips to get some better pictures of the amazing light shows.

1. Stabilize your camera - This is probably the most important. When taking photographs of fireworks, any movement at all will give you a blurry image. Use a tripod, if you don’t have one you can pick up mini ones from any major retailer for $10-$30. If you really want to ensure your camera is stable during the whole picture, buy a remote trigger. If you have a point and shoot that does not offer this attachment, you can use the auto timer. Set it for the minimum time available and go for it. Timing will be difficult, but I am sure you will have plenty of opportunities.

2. Turn off Auto Focus and set your camera to infinity. The auto focus will have a difficult time giving you the correct focus. If you don’t trust this or don’t know how to, try setting your camera to the landscape or night mode. This may help your camera determine the correct focus. Most importantly, try a few settings during the show incase you don’t have the settings right.

3. Use long exposures. You want the camera to capture the light leaving the ground and exploding in the air. A good time is usually four to six seconds. Again, experiment as you will get many different results. To long and you will get a giant color ball, to short and you will get a non-impressive dot.

4. Don’t use a flash. Forget about it. A flash will only wash out the foreground or interfere with the lights of the fireworks.

That’s it. These won’t guarantee you a perfect shot, but it may help your pictures look a bit more impressive when you send them to your friends and family. Have fun and don’t be afraid to try different settings.

Happy 4th!

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

Interesting numbers from a CNN report for the top auto manufactures:

GM sales down 18.2% (-16% SUVS, -21% cars)
Toyota sales down 21.4%
Ford sales down 28% (SUVS off more than 50%)
Chrysler sales down 36%
Nissan sales down 18%
Honda sales up 1%

It is interesting to see these results as each manufacture had different circumstances.

Toyota, with the Prius, feel short in sales because they could not meet demand for their fuel efficient cars.
Ford, wanted to capture the SUV market and as a result they are paying the price with no real good non-suv cars in their lineup to compete with others.
GM, similar to Ford, however, their crossovers are desirable but GM underestimated demand.
Chrysler, they just don’t have any competitive cars in their lineup.
Honda, the one auto manufacture that has it right.

Even with these differences, one thing does seem in common, they all did not want to change production to more fuel efficient cars. For many years now, it would seem everything was pointing to higher oil prices and greater demand for fuel efficiency except for one thing. You-the consumer. You can claim conspiracy theories all day long, but what truly drives these companies is demand and the dollar you spend.

Think about, if you are Ford, why would you experiment with a hybrid when you have a very large share of the SUV market? You know for every factory, every employee, and every marketing dollar you spend you will sell x-number of cars (pending any unforeseen event). If you devote more resources to Hybrids, you in effect reduce your earnings. The market will penalize the company in the short term (long term may work out, but that is a hard sacrifice at times). It does not mean they can’t experiment or have small production runs, it just means they will not shift major resources to develop an unknown product. This happens everyday in many corporations, development moves forward but will always be second to what is tried and true.

Now, oil has hit unseen levels and consumers are, in mass, changing their buying habits. No longer is the SUV the car of choice and as a result you will see a very quick technology improvement in fuel efficiency from all auto manufactures as well as factories lowering SUV production in exchange for non-suv cars.

For all the executives in Toyota, GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Nissan that pushed for larger production in fuel efficient lines but were denied resources or funding, they can finally all say I told you so.

But let this also be a lesson to consumers. You direct how the companies proceed! If Americans wanted a car that gets 100MPG 10-years ago and everyone pushed, we would have them. However, when everyone says “oh that would be nice to have a car that gets 100MPG” as they buy their escalade or hummer, change will not occur or at least at a rapid pace.

I was glancing through the the paper this weekend and noticed the excellent deals on cars and trucks. With spending down, consumers hurt by gas and housing, and inflation, auto manufactures are becoming desperate. Great rebates, low APR, and extended terms. If you have been holding off to buy a new car, this may be the time.

Some of the deals I saw:

Chevy - 0% for 72 months on most models
Dodge - Large rebates (Up to 8K on trucks)
BMW - 3.9% for 60-months on select models
Ford - 0% for 72-months.
and many more.

There are lots of great deals, but beware of the many deals mixed in that are horrible. When you see an add for a $15K car at $250 a month, you might think it is a good deal until you read that it is a 60-month closed end lease. Not a good deal.

If you are going car shopping and looking at the ads remember these key things:

- Don’t buy based on monthly payment. The teaser rates are not always the best deals. Creative financing can give the appearance of a good deal, but in the end you will pay more. Know what your payment should be based on the price of the car. There are several posts to tell you how to figure this out.

- Do not lease now! Why, because car values are horrible right now. In prior posts, I explain how lease payments are calculated in detail, but in short, your payment is largely dependent on how well the car holds its value. If the car is anticipated to lose value fast, your monthly payment will be higher. Since leasing is basically like renting, anything that gives you a higher payment makes a bad deal. To add to the problem, in the next few years you will see a host of manufactures coming out with more efficient models, the banks know this and as a result have assigned lower residual values to the cars. If you do have to lease, make sure you understand every point (residual, term, down payment, lease factor, mileage penalty, and rebates) so that you can compare a buy Vs. lease.

- Don’t trade in your car. I am always amazed on this one. People will spend hours negotiating a $500 option, but then have no problems losing several thousand on a trade. Dealers have always been bad, but in today’s market you car is almost worth nothing as a trade in. Be patient and sell it. If you get something in between the market price and what the dealer would offer you win.

- Take your time. The market is in your favor. If you have to leave, don’t think you will not ever get the deal you have been offered. More often than not, the sales person will call back with a better offer.

It is a sunny day, the windows rolled down, and no one on the highway. You can’t help but step on the gas cruise a little faster, or perhaps your a few minutes late and want to make up some speed, whatever the reason many Americans find themselves speeding on the highways.

It is no surprise that speeding does consume more gas and in return increases your fuel consumption sending you to the pump more often, but how fast is to fast? What is the optimal speed? How can you go further on the same tank of gas? And, most importantly, how much does your speeding cost you?

What is the optimal speed?

I found a study called the Transportation Energy Data Book that has some very useful information regarding this topic. Unfortunately the data only goes through 2000, but nonetheless it still gives a good picture as to what an estimated optimal speed should be.

First of all, the optimal speed should be defined as the speed at which the least amount of fuel is used to achieve the greatest MPG. Since the engine burns some gas no matter what speed you drive, low speeds will not give you a good MPG. On the flip side, as you increase speed the momentum works to improve efficiency up to a certain point. At that point, the resistance and drag of the car start to work against you and require more and more fuel for just to maintain your speed.

In the study, they sampled 9-cars from 1997 and found that the optimal efficiency occurred at 55 MPH. This increased from an optimal speed of 40 Mph for cars between 1973-1984 (a 37% improvement from car design). It is probably safe to say that the optimal speed in today’s new car designs have inched up a bit. With that assumption the optimal speed of today’s cars probably lies somewhere between 55-65Mph.

So how much does my speeding cost?

In the cars tested, roughly you lose 3% in the first increase of 5mph, and then 7% for every 5 MPH thereafter.

55 = 0%
60 = -3%
65 = -7%
70 = -7%
75 = -7%

The difference between 55 MPH and 75 MPH is -24%. So, if your car gets 30 MPG, your MPG will be reduced to 22.8 MPG driving at 75 Vs. 55. Based on the current gas in my area ($4.79), if I drive 100 miles in a car that gets 30MPG here are the comparisons:

So you save 30-minutes in driving time for $5.03 in fuel cost.

One thing to keep in mind, these numbers are based on an average of several types of cars. Depending on your car, you may have to slide the scale left or right. A very aerodynamic car might have an optimal speed of 65 MPH, whereas your H2 Hummer might be 50 MPH. Unfortunately, I could not find any data on specific car models to send you to, but use common sense based on the size and shape of the car.

How can you make your tank go further?

Even if you still do speed, you can make a large difference in your overall MPG by knowing a few facts.

The more you stop the more fuel you burn. Obviously, when you are idling you are getting 0 MPG, but the larger problem comes when you start again. The initial fuel required to move your car is much higher than the fuel required to keep your car moving. Avoid frequent stops if you can.

Similarly, acceleration to quick de-acceleration reduces your MPG. When you are inconsistent with your speeds, your car becomes less efficient since efficiency is achieved when you hold a speed long enough to offset the acceleration.

Some tips:

-Accelerate slower in the city and try to maintain a consistent speed between signals. Speeding to the next light will cause your MPG to decrease.
-On the freeway, try to maintain a consistent speed.
-Avoid roads with lots of stops if possible.
-Don’t prove how fast your car can go from 0-60.
-Remove any objects on your roof.

With any luck, you can achieve 3-15% improvement in your MPG without slowing down.

The 600+ bill is aimed at helping distressed homeowners. I am sure we all don’t have time to read the full document (housing act), so here is a great summary of what the bill is going to do provided by Votesmart.Org:

-Establishes the Refinance Program Oversight Board, which is responsible for coordinating a program that insures “homeownership retention mortgages,” which are refinance loans designed for borrowers who are at risk of foreclosure (Sec. 112).

-Specifies that the aggregate original principal mortgages insured under the “homeownership retention mortgage” program may not exceed $300 billion (Sec. 112).

-Expands eligibility for FHA mortgage insurance to include borrowers who have been deemed “high risk” due to having a credit score equivalent to a Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) score of less than 560 (Sec. 206).

-Provides incentives for “high risk” borrowers who have consistently paid their premiums on time that would reduce the amount of annual premium payments to payment levels equal to that of individuals who are not deemed “high risk” borrowers (Sec. 208).

-Mandates the establishment of underwriting standards which allow the FHA to insure mortgage loans for qualified borrowers who have existing mortgages with adverse terms or rates, qualified borrowers who do not have access to mortgages “at reasonable rates and terms for such refinancings due to adverse market conditions”, and qualified borrowers who are in default or at imminent risk of being in default (Sec. 210).

-Outlines the following eligibility requirements for receiving insurance for a “homeownership retention mortgage”:

-The insured residence shall be the sole residence in which the mortgagor has a full ownership interest,

-The mortgagor shall be verifiably unable to pay the existing mortgage(s) and, as of March 1, 2008, the mortgagor shall have had a mortgage debt-to-income ratio of greater than 35 percent,

-The new loans shall not exceed 90 percent of the property’s value,

-Prepayment, default, and delinquency penalties on existing mortgages shall be waived,

-Indebtedness under the existing senior mortgage shall have been reduced by such percentage as the Refinance Program Oversight Board may require, and holders of liens on property securing a mortgage to be insured under the program shall agree to accept the proceeds of the insured loan as payment in full for all indebtedness under all existing mortgages,

-The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall hold and retain a lien on the residence which will be subordinate to the mortgage insured under the program but will be senior to all other mortgages,

-The mortgage insured under the program shall bear a single rate which will be fixed for the entire mortgage term,

-The mortgagor shall undergo a criminal history check to ensure that he or she has not been convicted of mortgage fraud in the past seven years (Sec. 112).

-Requires the implementation of the following underwriting standards for the “homeownership retention mortgage” program: the mortgagor insured under the program shall have “a reasonable expectation” of repaying the mortgage, there shall be no denial of insurance based on credit scores, based on previous delinquency or default, or based on bankruptcy, and a total debt-to-income ratio of up to 50 percent shall be allowed (Sec. 112).

-Terminates “homeownership retention mortgages” two years after the enactment of this amendment, in the absence of any approved extensions (Sec. 112).

-Increases the allowed levels of principal obligations for mortgages insured by the FHA (Sec. 203).

-Extends the term of mortgages insured by the FHA from thirty-five to forty years (Sec. 204).

-Establishes the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which shall supervise and regulate Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Home Loan Banks (Sec. 311).

-Raises limits on loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can purchase from $93,750 to $417,000 for a single-family residence, from $120,000 to $533,850 for a two-family residence, from $145,000 to $645,300 for a three-family residence, and from $180,000 to $801,950 for a four-family residence (Sec. 333).

As it stands today, the bill as passed the Senate 84-12.
Bill Sponsor: Nancy Pelosi 

Key attention should be noted that this bill will reduce loan balances for troubled homeowners and transition the debt carried by the banks to the Federal Government (taxpayers).

One should also pay attention that this bill has roots to the banking industry. While the stated goal is to help troubled homeowners, it is a bank bailout. You can read an internal document from Bank of America posted by the bigpicture and help but not see how similar the bill is to the ideal plan outlined by BofA.

My favorite quote in the document “we believe that any intervention by the federal government will be acceptable only if it is not perceived as a bail-out of the bond market”