Thanksgiving!
This year we packed up Wednesday and went to Montana to hang out with my family (well most of it, one of my sisters was AWOL). Its mostly a tradition at this point. Its a few days of eating good food, hanging around and playing way to much Wii.
Not to be outdone from last year's festival of lazy, we threw in a movie marathon to seal the overdone media blitz and watched all 16 hours of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (in their extended version glory). It involved late nights and sleeping in too. Fun.
We also generally take the time to all go down to my brother's office (he’s an eye doctor) and get a few eye exams taken care of. Apart from doing some shots for my brother's practice, we also do a fair amount of goofing around, as evidenced by the following pictures. It kinda goes like this: find the goofiest frames, equipment etc. and ham it up.
Ok, we also always do the
Turkey Trot 5K, so it isn't like we just sat around
and vegged.
PS. My son finally beat me in the race. By almost 2
minutes. I guess my "don't over train by not training
at all" theory is shot to pieces.
Rain and the Summer Remembered
Actually, I’m not kvetching so much as making a statement of fact; its been quite a soggy November.
Summer is long gone. And I love summer. This summer was particularly cool, with a big backpack trip in the Goat Rocks Wilderness that really defied all expectations and was even more majestic and beautiful than I imagined it to be. I still get goosebumps thinking of how cool that place was.
A friend who went on the trip recently handed me a CD of jpegs from the trip, so I grabbed them off today and had a look. I’m usually behind the camera, so its kinda funny to see myself thru someone else’s lens. But there I am. Mr. Kilt in full hiking outdoorseiness. And I love outdoorseiness.
Here I am cresting one of the passes enroute to our first camp spot.
You’ll notice a few things:
- My cool hiking kilt. Coolest hiking invention after the trail itself.
- That big volcano in the back. Meet Mt. Adams. Awesome.
- My tiny backpack (made by Gossamer Gear)
That backpack has all my gear, including food and water for 5 days. And it comes in at less than 14 lbs starting (meaning, it got better as I hiked). That weight is Ignoring my big 5DMKII of course. Funny thing is, this is my heavy duty pack - I could get a kit down to about 10 lbs total if I was solo or not being the one adult responsible for 14 other guys.
In fact, here is a comparison with me vs. a traditional backpacker. Note his knee supports. Poor guy. He really struggled.
Here are a few more...
That last one is only to emphasize how tough I am.
Mentally and physically.
That is what I’m talking about.
Lightroom Mardi. Terça-feira. Etc.
Welcome to Lightroom
Tuesday. W00t!
This weekly post is aptly named, as each Tuesday I
gather together the best presets, tips, tricks,
tutorials from the Lightroom-o-sphere and post them
for you, meus queridos.
- Alltop Lightroom page. Lots of great info there.
- BlogPhoto brings you a few tips for Lightroom users...
- Kinda cool - Colorchecker Passport has a Lightroom preset that builds an ICC profile for your camera’s color response. Basically, you take a picture with the Passport in it and run this preset and Lightroom will figure the rest up. Really cool. Mark Wallace demoed this last weekend at his Seattle Lighting Meetup.
- Lightroom 3 Beta Help is online.
- Understanding the Histogram in Lightroom.
- The RC version of Lightroom 2.6 and Camera Raw somethingorother is now available. Support for new camera models, a few bug fixes. The normal stuff. Note: I usually wait for the final release.
- Good luck with that.
- Matt K discusses Lightroom sharpening. A popular topic to be sure.
- If you’re into online tutorials to learn, there is a new Lightroom Beta 3 online course from Lynda.com available.
- Using Smart Collections for finding photos without location. I do this to find images I have not yet converted to DNG.
- Follow LR_Tom, he’s a LR Tweetin Maniac.
- Some good tips on Workflow. And when I say tips I mean a great resource on every aspect of digital imaging.
- A video tutorial on creating filter presets.
- X-Equals takes a look at Lightroom Collections. Their care and feeding. You know...
- There is a new slideshow plugin for Lightroom hitting the, uh, intertubz. BragIt HTML slideshow looks kinda cool in a “I don’t have SmugMug to do this for me” kinda way.
- Not sure if I missed this a few weeks ago, but Presetsheaven has a good tutorial on saving directly to FTP from Lightroom.
- Inverting your images in Lightroom. Laura Shoe gets here Invert on! Speaking of Laura, she also has a great discussion on bit depth.
- The LightroomBlog looks at panel management. Oh you panels!
- Fading a Preset effect... Because sometimes too much of a good thing is too much.
- Rejection. Its hard to handle. Lighroom Secrets covers the ins and outs of not getting asked to the dance. Uh, I mean, rejecting images.
- John Beardsworth has another “top ten things I’d tell” list focused for the slightly less new Lightroom user.
- PhotoFocus has a look at improving Lightroom performance.
- Jeffery Friedl has a new “limited interest” (his term) Lightroom plugin available - Focal-Length Plot - which lets you sort by Focal Length (and Focal Length in 35mm) in the Grid Filter. Jeffery has around 19 plugins now for our favorite little workflow app.
- Backup. It isn’t just for Crockett anymore (oh man, that dates me)
- Having weird Lightroom problems. Try this...
Not Lightroom-related, but worth a look.
- Drobo has released some new products.
- Scott Kelby’s Gear Guide 2009
- Backblaze - $50 a year for unlimited online backup. Install and forget. It backs everything up behind the scenes, lets you get at it via the web and is cheap as cheap. Its even backing up my Drobo.
Thats it for this week. Its Thanksgiving week in the US, so I’m sure I’ll be less bloggy...
Lighting Workshop
This was a workshop only in the broadest sense - it was more of a get together - Mark spend a bit of time covering some lighting basics and then opened the stations for live shooting and discussion.
The workshop was sponsored by PocketWizard, and I got to talk with one of the main PocketWizard guys about my iffy experiences with the TTL features of their latest Mini/Flex products. I picked up a few tricks that will hopefully change my tactics for using off camera TTL flash - which can be a real timesaver if you can get it to work.
I was quite happy to see the images pop up looking quite good in Lightroom, and here is one of the first that struck me...
I’m sure I’ll have some
more to say (and pictures to share) over the next few
days.
P.S Yes that is a TTL off camera flash picture.
Sweet.
The Tranny
The bike is quite interesting. It can be both a single speed and a geared hard tail bike, due to its adjustable-length chain stay. Kinda cool. Here are a few pictures...
Great Big Sea!
Great Big Sea is a folk band
hailing from St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. They
play a combination of folk tunes (mainly focused
on the island’s heritage), sea shanties and some
original rock and roll. Funny enough, I heard of
them from a Southerner - they formed in 1993 when
I was already living in the US. Their live shows
are quite fun, and the combination of ballads, sea
songs and rock & roll really works.
For a guy used to seeing punk and industrial shows,
the audience is always a bit of a change - people
sitting politely in their seats or awkwardly dancing
in a way that only those unaccustomed to such moves
are apt to do. These are not the crowds seeing
Fugazi, Skinny Puppy or the Dead Kennedys.
Still, I’ve always loved fun music and GBS is all
about fun. Here is an iTunes playlist of some samples
for you to consider adding to your iPhone/iPod.
Here are a few pictures before I got shut down by
security...
They’re highly
recommended, especially if you like songs about
drinking, horses falling thru the ice, the sea and/or
abusive wives 
. Trust me, they’re a handsful
these guys. And who does not like songs about
horses falling thru ice?
Lightroom Tuesday!
Welcome to Lightroom
Tuesday. W00t!
This weekly post is aptly named, as each Tuesday I
gather together the best presets, tips, tricks,
tutorials from the Lightroom-o-sphere and post them
for you, meus queridos.
- Speed tip - increase raw cache for faster processing.
- A look at color from Lightroom and other raw processors.
- Great eyes in Lightroom.
- A before and after video from Matt K.
- Adding a virtual photo frame in Lightroom (PS. need a mike baffle there Yanik)
- Cuba Gallery is offering a Lightroom tutorial package (ebook, practice images, preset) for a few bucks.
- Lightroom processing video tutorial.
- So you spend all that time keywording your photos (wish I could say I reliably do this, but no matter). Here is how to use those keywords to greater effect when searching.
- Lightroom 3 Beta printing improvements are detailed here.
- Instructables has a nice tutorial on popping color in Lightroom.
- Solo Mode is cool - keeping the clutter down.
- Top 10 Lightroom Tweets of the week - lots of good stuff here I won’t have to cover.
- Lightroom Killer Tips covers some, ahem, killer modifier keys for the graduated filter.
- A look at skin softening techniques in Portraiture, Lightroom and Nik Color Efex Pro.
- Refine photos. I’ve never really wrapped my head around the Refine Photos command. Here is a look at it.
- Edit in Photoshop bug fixed for Snow Leopard users.
- How to display EXIF data in Lightroom.
- A photographer sees the light and switches from Photoshop to Lightroom for post processing. Hey, I know you like your actions and all that. I know its comfortable. But Lightroom will save you so much time...
- A discussion with Tom Hogarty of Adobe on Lightroom Beta 3.
- For the Noobs - DPS asks “What is Lightroom and why should I consider it.”
- Collections are very cool. Here is Scott K talking about them. In my workflow, after the initial edit, all photos go into a collection for further editing and processing.
- Lightroom Killer Tips has a link to someone elses’ tip on how to fade a preset. PS. that is how its done - you link to people with the ideas. I always run across at least one cut/paste rip off of someone else’s Lightroom content a week. Seriously?
- Lightroom Secrets has a Q&A day.
- LightroomLab.com has a look at how metadata adds value.
- Sean McCormack has a column in Photoshop User about Lightroom sharpening. He even links to a pdf if you don’t subscribe. What a nice guy.
Not Lightroom related, but interesting/cool/necessary:
- X-Equals has a look at The Business of Doing Business. They also have a nice gear review up...
- SmugMug has some awesome features coming in the next few weeks. Last week we shipped the ability for our Pro users to price and sell cards.
Nutcracker Rehearsals
Rememberance Day
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae in uniform,
circa 1914 (from wikipedia)
Have a good Remembrance Day. Wear your
poppy. I miss these here in the US.
Lightroom Tuesday!
Welcome to Lightroom
Tuesday. W00t!
This weekly post is aptly named, as each Tuesday I
gather together the best presets, tips, tricks,
tutorials from the Lightroom-o-sphere and post them
for you, meus queridos.
- Printing from Lightroom 2 - a few tips from Terry White on how to get the best out of your printer.
- Photos to the iPhone - those in the know use their iPhone as their portfolio. You always have it with you, and photos look quite good on the screen. So here is a few tips on how to manage them...
- Mr. T says “I pitty the poor foo who don’t know about no snapshots”. Don’t be a fool and make Mr. T pitty you.
- Nat Coalson, author of a great Lightroom 2 book, points out that George Jardine (former Adobeite and Lightroom team member) is holding a hands on Lightroom workshop in Denver. George is a great guy and gives a good show...
- Doing collections, but backward. Finding out what collections a photo is in.
- Scott Kelby has 10 tips he’s share with new Lightroom users. Rob Sylvan does likewise. Matt K wants in on this action too..
- My tip: learn to edit your photos properly. No tip here, just take alot and learn to be brutal when you go thru them. P and X are your friends.
- A review of Seth & Jamie’s great D-65 workshop. Its Lightroom heavy, but focuses on alot more than that. I’ve been to several of these and loved it. Seth and Jamie are great people, photogs and instructors. Highly recommended.
- Still wondering what is new with the Lightroom 3 beta? Wonder no more...
- Save to the cloud with Lightroom 3 (details Dropbox, a very cool service)...
- Speaking of backup - I’d highly recommend BackBlaze. $50 for unlimited storage. Very cool.
- Sharpen up! Tips on how to use the sharpen features...
- A look at the collection feature in Lightroom. Seriously, I couldn’t live without it.
- Identity places are cool. Learn a few new Identity plate tricks.
- Wanna learn Photoshop or Lightroom? There’s an app for that.
- X-Equals has posted an interesting panorama on digital workflow...
Well, thats it for this week. Cheers!
Ruby Visits
Window LIght Rocks
My oldest had a soccer game out there (don’t ask - it wasn’t pretty) and so we took advantage of the fact that Yakima is often sunny while its pouring on our side of the mountains. We headed out early and stayed the night in a local hotel. We’ve done this before and it always turns out well - slide into our room, hit the pool, watch a movie and eat the “free” continental breakfast downstairs.
It was indeed beautiful, and I noticed as we got ready to head out that the window light was gorgeous, so I made each of the kids sit down and pose for an informal portraiture session.
Yup. I gots me some cute
kids.
Camera Calibration in Lightroom
What is Camera Calibration? Camera Calibration is a panel in Lightroom’s develop module that lets you adjust, tweak or otherwise modify the color you get from your camera. Have a yellow tint in the skin tones? Use the CC panel to fine-tune that color to show what you really want.
Lightroom interprets color based on evaluations by Adobe (Thomas Knoll, co-inventor of photoshop does the grunt work) of how supported camera’s respond to light (both daylight and tungsten). The results are then saved by codifying that in a color profile that Lightroom uses when you import images from your camera.
Why bother then, when Thomas is pretty good at doing this? Because there are variations in every camera (yes, even yours) and/or you might just like your work to look a bit different.
Where do you get them? Lightroom comes with some pre-installed, and you can download third party calibration profiles as well. Here are my Camera Calibration pane’s options:
See something you don’t
have? Its because I’ve either downloaded some third
party calibrations or created my own. So lets look
into this a bit (a bit of a nerd-alert here though,
this can get a bit technical):
- Adobe Help talks about the basics.
- Martin Evening has some great Camera Calibration tips here.
- Scott Kelby has a basic tutorial on Peachpit’s website.
- Ian Lyons has a great article on customizing your default settings, including camera calibration.
- Inside-Lightroom.com has some great custom presets made for different camera models. Just download and install them.
- Adobe has a profile editor you can tweak profiles. This is for the real geeks among us.
Camera Calibration is a bit advanced, but it can really yield some results if you dig in a bit and get your hands (I mean pixels) dirty.
PS. Camera profiles are stored here:
On Mac OS X:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/CameraProfiles
On Windows 2000 / XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles
On Windows Vista:
C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles
Cheers!
Good Morning
Lightroom Tuesday!
Welcome to Lightroom
Tuesday. W00t!
This weekly post is aptly named, as each Tuesday I
gather together the best presets, tips, tricks,
tutorials from the Lightroom-o-sphere and post them
for you, meus queridos.
- Lightroom 3 beta still seems to be tearing up the interwebz: New Features, Sharpening Tip, Q&A with Matt, Another Review, The Import Experience
- X-Equals talks about the Beta and the future.
- Tom Hogarty, product manager for LR, is interviewed on EXIF and Beyond. Not surprisingly, they talk mostly about Beta 3.
- A grain preset for Lightroom 3 from Matt K.
- Timothy Armes released a new plugin for Lightroom to embed PLUS usage rights into images exported from Lightroom 2. PLUS is a standardized way to define rights for digital works. Read more on PLUS here.
- Another “I’m switching from Aperture to Lightroom” blog post. PS. Its sad to see Aperture wither on the vine.
- Adobe provides a SDK (software development kit) for those interested in creating nifty additions to Lightroom’s abilities.
- Sean McCormack has a great tutorial on doing timelapse from Lightroom.
- Dig this Lightroom Shortcut Cheat Sheet.
- Sherri Meyer has posted her Lightroom Tweets of the week.
- A tutorial on printing from Lightroom.
- YATVTLR - Yet another Tethering Video Tutorial for Lightroom.
- David Ziser talks about the Canon 7D and Lightroom Beta 3.
- Scott Kelby on a fix in Lightroom: Backup. Yes its slightly better than before...
- DPS covers how to control Before and After in Lightroom.
- Publish your photos to the cloud. Ok, its not as nebulous as that. A great look at publishing services in action.
- Advice on Tiff or PSD for archiving...
- Meet Julie. She works on Lightroom. She’s good people.
A few things worth looking at:
Thats it (so far today) - have a good one.
Halloween: Kids Edition
After my day of zombification, Chloe wanted to get in on the undead action and went likewise. No princesses. No cutesy costumes for my girl. Just plain, old fashioned scary stuff. You know, like Halloween used to be all about before the cute-police invaded.
The two boys just wanted to bring some ninja stealth.
They brung’ed it.
Aidan just wanted some
easy to don/remove gore.
Ok, we had one cutie.
Leyla, my niece came down to show us her
“minimininimouse” costume.
Kristin? She just wanted me to be done with my costume...