Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 15:47:57 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Marcia E. Balestri" Subject: Re: [DE-BIRDS] Bird Photos Comments: To: Delaware Birding In-Reply-To: <067b01c1694c$b9ed4450$9865fea9@DGNS4K01> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit According to my sources, Bird-pix is one of the larger groups who send in pictures of birds and discuss identification. There is no other group that is so diverse in it's world postings. Check it out at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/birds-pix You will have to join to be able to see the postings. -- Marcia E. Balestri Frederick, MD > From: Greg Downing > Reply-To: Delaware Birding > Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 13:31:18 -0500 > To: de-birds@Princeton.EDU > Subject: Re: [DE-BIRDS] Bird Photos > > Thanks for the info, Marcia. > > Being a bird photographer myself I certainly appreciate it. > > I have passed the info on to a friend of mine, Arthur Morris, who puts out a > bulletin to 2500 subscribers and has been recently discussing the issue of > shipping film and x-ray issues . FWIW I have always avoided the use of the > US postal service when shipping film because of the sporadic use of x-ray > machines in the past. I have never heard of Bird-Pix. Can you give me more > info? > > Thanks again, > > ________________ > Greg Downing > Manchester, MD > NPN Field Editor/Avian Gallery Moderator > www.naturephotographers.net > gregdowning@mindspring.com > http://gregdowning.imageculture.com (portfolio) > www.gdphotography.com > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Marcia E. Balestri" > To: > Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 12:56 PM > Subject: [DE-BIRDS] Bird Photos > > > Hi Birders and others > > Just recently a well known bird photographer posted this message to > Bird-Pix group, I think it is well worth taking note. > > Marcia Balestri > > > Since photography is such an important part of these lists and, > therefore, to > their members, I thought I'd better draw > this to your > attention, especially > those who live in, visit, or do business > (such as buying > film or getting it > processed) in the U.S. > > A hot discussion on several of the pro p > hotography lists I > susbcribe to > concerns steps being taken by the U.S. P > ostal Service to > deal with the anthrax > problem and other potential cases of bio > -terrorism. > > They are now installing "sanitizing" mac > hines that will > irradiate mail with > enough power to kill anthrax spores and > other pathogens. > The amount of ionizing > radiation required to do this will *comp > letely fog* > unprocessed film. If you > were concerned about airport x-ray machi > nes before, then > you should be > extremely concerned about these. One pas > s will ruin your > film. It's that > powerful. > > Film sent through the mail, either when > purchased new by > mail order or when > sent to labs by photographers, is all at > great risk. Some > of the machines have > already been installed and put into use > and many more will > be added all the > time. People on the other lists have bee > n trying to get > definitive answers from > the post office, film manufacturers, lab > s, and the makers > of the irradiating > machines regarding how to protect film, > how to arrange for > it to by inspected > and bypass the machines, etc and there a > re no clear > answers for any of it from > anyone at all. > > They're also trying to find out what cou > rier companies > such as UPS, FedEx, etc > plan to do and they can't even get strai > ght answers about > whether they x-ray > anything now or not, let alone whether t > hey plan to as a > result of September 11 > and the anthrax problem, so switching to > couriers may not > be the automatic > choice. No one seems to know if the cour > ier companies will > start irradiating > everything, too. > > To pick just one of them, calls to vario > us FedEx offices, > marketing reps, etc > to ask for the "Do Not X-ray" labels tha > t some people had > obtained in the past > resulted in replies ranging from "we've > never had those" > to "how many do you > want". However, as one photography list > subscriber who > once worked for a > courier pointed out, such labels are fre > quently ignored > due to the volume of > packages that each employee handles, so > they're no > guarantee that a package > plastered with "Do Not X-ray" labels won > 't get nuked. > > If you have mail ordered film in the pas > t few weeks, be > sure to shoot a test > roll and get it processed before using t > he rest of it on > anything important. > Better to find out ahead of a base visit > or air show that > all your film is > ruined than after you shoot it all. > > -- > Marcia E. Balestri > Frederick, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================