Fish Health in Hot Summer HeatWritten by Brett Fogle
Summer is over, but for many of us - heat remains. Here a couple of things to do to keep your fish healthy and your pond clear going into winter. First, remember to keep your pond well aerated. This is very important to your fish because pond water actually holds less oxygen at higher pond temperatures. So if it's still hot in your part of country, keep those waterfalls and fountains running! This will keep your pond water full of oxygen, and reduce stress on your fish. If you see your goldfish or KOI gasping at surface, it's a good sign that you don't have enough dissolved oxygen in water, and this can be dangerous. Especially if you have a lot of green water algae in pond. This algae can absorb much of oxygen in pond water at night and cause very low dissolved oxygen levels during day - which can be deadly to fish!
| | NEW WAYS TO USE YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA FOR FUN AND PROFITWritten by Valerie Goettsch
If you’re only using your digital camera for vacation and family photos, you’ve just scratched surface of your camera’s uses. Digital photography has opened a new world of possibilities. Here are some fun, practical, and maybe even profitable, ways to use your digital camera.Enhance your photo before uploading to an online dating service As online dating services become more and more popular, you may be considering this option to meet Mr. or Ms. Right. You’ll want to look your best to capture attention of your potential mate, so how about brighter eyes and whiter teeth? It’s pretty easy to enhance your digital photo using inexpensive photo editing software such as Foto Finish or Jasc Paint Shop Pro. You can adjust overall brightness and contrast to generally brighten image. Zoom in on your eyes and using software’s polygon or magic wand tool, select just whites of your eyes. Then use ‘adjust color’ or ‘adjust exposure’ tool to make your eyes brighter and less red. Similarly, you can zoom in and select your teeth, then adjust color and exposure. And voila! A fresher, more alert and attractive-looking you. Selling goods on eBay Research shows that merchandise with attractive photos sell at better prices. People are naturally drawn to appealing images. To show your items at best advantage, you can rig an inexpensive tabletop “studio” using a sheet of non-glare white plastic and a PVC pipe for support. The important points to remember are having a uniform background behind and below object and even lighting, either with shop lights or natural sunlight (through a window—it’s best to shoot indoors). You may need to adjust white balance on your digital camera, which is easy to do on most new cameras. Then you can watch auction bids rise on that antique clock you’re trying to sell.
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