I knew it would be difficult, if not impossible...

Greetings Collectors,

Several days ago I made a promise in a post that I would refrain from further purchases (coins) 'til I was ready to post a pic along with the announcment of a coin purchase. I have been trying very hard to get my photo skills to the point, I could post a pic with each and every jounal I posted. My plea for help has been received by over a dozen fellow collectors. I thank each and every one of you for the quick and helpful responces along with the "well intended" tips.

A couple of days ago I briefly stepped away from my photo school studies to take a look at my watched lots on Teletrades Sunday night auction. While there were fifteen lots I was interested in, when "hammer time" came at 10 PM, I was the proud new owner of a couple more Walker halves to fill two additional slots in my Walker "middle set". (1934-1947) Both coins were very well struck and for the life of me, I can't see the differance between these two coins and "gems" (ms65) I currently own. Both are beautiful. Also both are NGC and both are "untoned" with the MS grade of 64. I picked up a 1936-D and a 1937-S. This is a set that I want to fill with MS 64 coins with the exception of "65's" moved from my Walker "short set" (1941-1947) as upgrades to "MS66" make themselves available. Eventually I want to finish that set with all MS 66 specimens. Anyway, so much for my try at refraining from further buys before my photo skills were mastered.

I am having a very hard time at achieving shots of my "slabbed" coins without a very bad "glare" from the holder. I may have to invest in more equipment to get a satisfactory end result. Several have said to use natural light and others have excelent pics in their sets that were achieved with halogen lamps with the camera on a tripod utilizing a timer. I just picked up another camera yesterday and will experiment further this eve. Wow, I just wish there were an easier way. (still open for more suggestions from you all) With the abundance of remodel work I have scheduled at present, getting home early enough to use natural light is pretty much out of the question, so I am stuck with trying this light and that. All of my attempts thus far have netted very poor results. All of my past photos of coins were of "raw" unslabbed ones and they all turned out great. These shots were coins I put on e-bay and every one of them I did with the coin laying on the back of a blue/black checkbook under a low wattage light bulb in a lamp located on an end table in my den. I can't figure why there is so much differance in the quality of these shots I am taking now, but there is.

So anyway again, I am off to photo school in various rooms of my home for the remainder of the eve. I thought that the reducing the photos down to size so that they would fit here was going to be my biggest problem. The more I try differant "angles" on the shots, the cropping or reduction may end up being the easier of the two. ( I was told by one that if you set the dig. camera on the lowest "pixel" setting, the need to reduce the size of the pic would be unnessary. by doing this, would it not sacrifice the clarity/quality of the shot?) I am only wanting to take some pictures, I just don't see why it has to be this hard. But I am determined to stick with it no matter how long it takes. I "WILL NOT" be defeated on this project. Hope the rest of you are having fun with your coins, right now I'm not sure that the word "fun" is the word I would use for my coins and I at present. Happy and "patient" Collecting to all! WKF