Marc Adamus has surely managed to create some of the most breathtaking images ever to grace a computer screen, and you can check them out at http://www.marcadamus.com.

Here are a few tips for shooting outdoors when the thermometer dips below the freezing mark:

1 - Carry your camera inside a zip-lock bag in an inside coat pocket where it will stay warm from your body heat.

2 - Remove the camera from the pocket and bag for just long enough to fire off a few shots, then return it to its safe haven.

3 - Carry a spare battery or two, and keep them tucked inside an inside coat pocket as well. Battery life is greatly reduced when subjected to cold temperatures.

4 - If your camera does happen to get quite cold, allow it to warm up slowly by placing it inside your garage or some other low to mid-temperature room for a while. This will prevent condensation from forming on - and inside - the camera.

Also, be sure to leave the camera inside the plastic bag so that if condensation does form, it will collect on the outside of the bag instead of on - or inside - the camera.

If this is one of the few times of the year when most of your family members will be together, it will be a great time to take some family portraits. These photos can be elaborately planned and taken using advanced lighting equipment and festive backgrounds, or simply a series of candid snapshots.

However you decide to use your camera, the main thing to concentrate on is taking plenty of pictures. The “film” used in modern digital cameras is cheap, and you can be very selective in choosing which pictures to actually print. After all, it sure is nice having hundreds (or even thousands) of images from which to choose!

With prices this low, I believe it makes little sense to buy a less reliable “generic” memory card just to save a buck or two. If you’re like most photographers, amateur or pro, your images are probably worth a lot more than that to you.

1 - Make a backup copy of the image you plan to work on because it is always best to makes changes to a copy of an image, not the original.

2 - Load a photo into Elements that features enough beautiful sky to cover the blown-out sky in your target image.

3 - Using the “Crop” tool, crop out everything in the image except for the portion of sky that you’ll be using to replace the blown-out sky in your target image.

4 - Press CTRL A (the CTRL and A keys on the keyboard) to select the entire sky.

5 - Press CTRL C to copy the sky to the clipboard.

6 - Load the target image into Elements.

7 - Use the “Magic Wand” tool to select the blown-out sky. (You might need to right-click to bring up the context menu and then click “Similar” a time or two in order to select the entire sky.)

8 - Double click the Background layer in the Layer Palette and give the new layer the name “sky”.

9 - Press the Del key to remove the blown-out sky from the target image.

10 - Press CTRL V to paste the new sky into the target image.

11 - Use the “Move” tool to position the new sky into the proper place in the image.

12 - In the Layer Palette, click and drag the “sky” layer underneath the other layer to place the new sky in the background of the target image.

There you have it. Your otherwise wonderful photo with the blown-out sky now has a beautiful blue sky in its place. You might need to make a few adjustments for brightness, contrast, color, etc., but hopefully when you’re done you’ll be well-pleased with the effort. By the way, this might seem like a long, tedious process, but once you’ve done it a few times you’ll be able to complete the entire process in just a couple of minutes or so.

The entry regarding memory cards caught my eye, and I thought I’d send this info along in case your readers want a good site to purchase memory from. While I’ve bought photo gear from eBay, it is, as you mentioned, a somewhat risky proposition, as there are unscrupulous sellers who will advertise counterfeit items as the real thing, or sell used or “seconds” merchandise. Most actual flash memory chips are all made by the same handful of electronics manufacturers, but the packaging - the external “card” you and I see and plug into our cameras - is supplied by various distributors such as A-Data, PNY, Transcend, etc., and as long as those packages meet the industry standard form factors for SD or CF or whatever, they can use as high or low-quality materials as they want.

One place I have purchased many memory cards from with great success is www.newegg.com. Newegg is a highly reputable dealer that carries many brands, and offers very good prices as well as excellent service and fast shipping. I have consistently used them for several years, and my son has purchased from them (computer parts) on numerous occasions. In every case, they have delivered promptly, with reasonable shipping costs and excellent prices for the items they sell. Online ordering is fast and easy, and if an item is out of stock temporarily, they will notify you when stock comes in so you can place an order. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a good, honest source for memory chips, computer parts, or other consumer electronics.

There are sellers who are advertising new, genuine memory cards from Sandisk and other manufacturers for sale on Ebay at unbelievably low prices, but the cards are actually knock-offs. The problem with buying fake memory cards is they are typically of low quality which places your hard-earned images at risk of loss or corruption. Even worse, a poorly designed card could even cause your expensive digital camera to malfunction.

I recommend that you carefully consider purchasing your memory cards from an established, well-respected local or online retailer. After all, memory cards are dirt cheap these days so why take a chance on losing your precious work and/or damaging your camera just to save a buck or two?

Simply make your best-guess adjustment with the “Rotate Image” tool, then click on the “Crop” tool and use one of the horizontal dotted or dashed edges of the crop box as a guide. This will let you know instantly if the horizon is now level or not. If not, click cancel and try another “Rotate” setting, then check the horizon again using the crop line. When the horizon and the horizontal crop line are more or less parallel, you’ll know you have a level horizon! (Note: Don’t forget to cancel the “Crop” function.)