Just joined the forum and wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Phil, I live in the DFW area of Texas and I have developed an interest in living my life in a little more prepared fashion. I'm told having a kid will make you lean that way.
Anyway, I have some experience with camping and firearms (just enough to be a danger to myself and others...), though I doubt I'll be able to contribute much toward the conversations. I read the posts in awe because there are just so many folks with so much experience and knowledge here. If anyone should have questions about design or photography I'm sure I can help with that. (I'm not sure how being a Photoshop whiz will help me if there's no electricity, so I'm trying to think/plan ahead.)
I've been lurking for a little while, just joined and thought I'd say hello.
So, hello!

-phil

Welcome to the group.

Pete

Phil,

Welcome to the fire and thank you very much for introducing yourself! You'll find there's a lot of us Texans here including several in the DFW area.

As for photoshop skills, what do you know about making Raster images from gif and jpg files? My understanding is a Raster image can be resized without losing any image quality. I'm thinking that could be handy for making custom maps and other useful pictures.

-Blast

I believe you are thinking of vector images. Raster refers to there being individual pixels to create an image (which gets "jaggy" when it is enlarged). Vector images use math (ohhh, scary) to define curves, so they don't change as they are redrawn. The math just makes everything proportionally larger as it is scaled.
-phil

Ah yes, vector images, that's the stuff.
What I want to do is take detailed images from yahoo maps or google earth, mark specific areas & paths, then print them out on big sheets of waterproof material. Need to price the paper first, though.

To continue to hijack this thread, is there an cheap/easy way of stitching together a bunch of jpegs downloaded from yahoo maps? Doing it by hand is a pain.

-Blast

Unfortunately, none that I know of. Everything I know about would require some sort of hand work. What software are you using? I'll ask some of the folks I work with, too.

-phil

Welcome, Phil. Don't worry about being new to preparedness. You may be surprised to learn that you already know more than you think. Even personal experiences about camping or being in severe weather, etc. can add a lot to a discussion, so don't be shy about sharing if you think it'll add to the discussion. Of course, questions are always welcome.

He's three, but it seems like it was just yesterday...

-phil

Welcome! I have no questions about Photoshop, sadly. My brother is my go-to guy. With a major of "media/graphics design" he jokes that he did a 4-year degree IN Photoshop!

Yours, too?

-phil