Ah, reader mail. We just love reader mail. Some days, we’re told we’re living gods. On other days, we’re told to do better. No matter what, opening the Connected Photographer mailbag each day is an adventure. In the spirit of the week between Christmas and New Years, with all of you opening brand-spankin’ new cameras, we present another installment of our fabulous Letters to the Editor series.

Every once in awhile John Roling happens upon a piece of software that he didn’t even know he needed, but after using, can’t imagine ever being without it. Hamrick Software’s VueScan is one of those programs. What does it do and why should you get it? Well, you’ll have to read this article to find out.

A few weeks ago, we responded to a question about bit depth. A reader wrote in with a far more comprehensive reply, which we’re publishing here.

Contributing Editor Bill Man think’s he’s getting lazy. He’s got an excellent digital camera, but can never bring himself to carry the thing, preferring instead to snap pictures on the fly with his Treo 650. The trick is getting the pictures online quickly in a form that people can easily view. Enter SplashBlog, an easy-to-use photoblogging application for smartphones and other wireless devices. With SplashBlog on his phone, Bill can shoot, caption, and post pictures almost instantly from anywhere he has a connection. Is it something you should consider? Read this review to find out.

Connected Photographer regularly gets a ton of reader questions. We try to answer them, but with thousands of messages a day coming in, I’m sure we miss a bunch. We’ve had a long list of backlogged Letters to the Editor, so we decided we’d knock out two of them today. They may answer your questions as well.

There is an untapped market of millions of individuals who require quality digital photography. If you’re a professional photographer and want to expand your services or you’re interested in taking the best and most effective dating photos, this is the article for you.

Jason Broekhuizen is an avid photographer. In this entertaining article, he shows how his photo style has evolved and helps us understand the important phases of a photographer’s style and life, going from the "In front of" years into the "friends-doing-stupid-stuff" period.

As many of you know, high-end digital cameras shoot in a format called RAW, but in order to make any use of them, you need a RAW converter. In this article, Senior Editor James Booth takes a look at DxO Optics Pro, a third party RAW converter image correction suite. Is it worth it to go Pro, or not? Read on to find out.

Nowhere does photography help you connect more than in online dating. Posting the right sort of picture can lead to meeting Mr. or Ms. Right. If you want to learn about how to put your best pic forward, read this article.

Digital technology is advancing photography by letting people capture moments and share memories instantly, anywhere, and across every medium. In this interesting perspective by Glenn Paul, founder of dotPhoto, we look at how the changes in digital photography are changing the very art of storytelling.