The final batch of photos from my trip to Arizona are now up. They include some desert wildlife and a page devoted to scorpions. I had an amazing time in Arizona—the scenery and environment fascinated me immensely. Again, I want to publicly thanking my friend Rich Boucher for helping fund the trip.

In other news, I had the opportunity to spend a day with John Dalmas recently. Dalmas is a well known science-fiction writer whose titles include, among others, The Second Coming, The Yngling, and The Regiment: A Trilogy. Dalmas was both kind and witty, and I look forward to spending some more time with him. As there are fans of Dalmas on this newsletter subscription list, I will probably provide an interview and photos of John if he feels up to it in the next few months.

In music news, I wanted to point techno-rock fans to my brother Eric Olson’s latest musical composition called Coming Back. Eric has been producing a lot of electronic music in the last few months, and a lot of it is very complex and moving. I expect he will grow in popularity as time goes on.

A version of Coming Back is going into my newest Counter-Strike map which will probably be published on my site sometime in the next week.

Finally, in photography news, I recently purchased the Canon 30D camera as well as a new Canon Macro lens. I have already fallen in love with the new equipment—and I wish I had gotten the camera before I went off to Arizona. I will possibly write a review of it soon. Most photos on my site will now come from the new camera.

There will also be some new tips on an issue with my older Minolta Dimage 7 camera that I was able to solve. My Dimage (now around five years old) kept shutting off without warning—which I have now fixed. So Dimage users will want to see that info linked in next week’s newsletter.

And the e-book on concert photography I promised last year will be out soon too. I have not done much concert photography lately, and I expect to do less in the coming years. So it’s time to pass on tips to the incoming crowd of young photographers. While I will shoot special occasions and big shows from time to time, I just don’t have the time and energy for shows like I used to.

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