I’ve been traveling again, and that means I have a backlog of work that needs attention. Furthermore, I have a couple of scheduled shoots to prep for in the next few days, so I’ll have some new work to post soon.

The print I have for sale on Photoshelter Prints (discussed a few days ago here) has been selling well.

Now is your chance to get one of my most popular images printed nice and big for a good price.

Finally, here is a picture of my goofy kid being...uh...goofy.

Have a great Labor Day weekend! Honestly, I’m not sure where summer went...

We were at a Soccer Tournament all this weekend in Bellingham. It was our last tournament of the season before the fall season starts. Egads, I hate saying fall until October.

The boys did OK and we had a nice time at our beach cabins in Birch Bay. Here are a few images from the weekend...

Have a great Sunday.

Tags:Personal Work

Today is simple. Just a few photographs taken last week or two.

First up is Southern Alberta, including wheat fields, my old elementary school, the view from Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and a couple from Fort MacLeod. And of course, my goofy kid playing in the gravel.

I spent summers on my grandpa’s ranch near Mackay, Idaho. The Lost River Valley. I and went back a few weeks ago to see what had become of the place. Its changed - it has been 20 years mind you - but somethings were as I expected. A few things at least.

My favorite is the bridge, stamped with a big 1977, which was the year I started going down. I vividly remember this bridge and the land just beyond it that was part of the ranch.

Have a great weekend.

Tags:Personal Work

Photoshelter recently contacted me and asked if I’d like to participate in a new program they were launching. Called Photoshelter Prints, they are selling a tightly (ahem) curated group of images in archival print editions.

Here is your chance to own one of my prints printed nice and big.

About a month ago we took the kids to the Marymoor Velodrome to see some track bike action. It was a fun night to spread out the blanket, setup the folding chairs and have a picnic while crazy people on brake-less bikes wizz by us on a goofy racetrack.

Here are some images from the racing that night...

As to the Lightroom 2 world, I’m hearing a few rumblings about Lightroom 2 having some issues. Here is my take, given my expereince:

1. It seems to me that importing takes more time than it used to. Nothing scientific, but its bugging me.
2. Day to day catalog use seems about the same.
3. I’ve seen more crashing using Lightroom - sometimes it just goes down and reports “Hey, I crashed”. I always write XMP to the file, so I’m never losing anything, but its still a pain.
4. I experienced no catalog upgrade issues.
5. I’ve seen a few small bugs either stick around from 1.x (Command-Delete sometimes says there are no files to delete when there are) or new ones (Edit in Photoshop never shows a dialog for me). I’ve noted that some third party web galleries don’t work right or are having drawing issues in the right hand track.
6. Some say that turning the Local Corrections on/off takes way to long. Have not really seen this.

Overall, Lightroom 2.0 performs about as well as 1.4 on my machine (which admittedly is a fast one with lots of ram). I’m looking forward to some bug fixes and I realize that the angst this stuff is causing people is a pain, so stick in there. My advice is to make sure you have a good machine, treat it well and be conscientious about your work and you’ll be happy.

Here are a few tips on boosting Lightroom performance.

Got any LR bugs? Put a comment and I’ll forward it to the team.

Also, here is a great link to some new Lightroom 2.0 tutorials on the Photoshop Cafe (via the Imaging Buffet).

Tags:Personal Work

Ars Technica - a great technology site - has reviewed Lightroom 2.

A fair review - but I’d like to take issue with the Mask issues he brings up. Its more than serviceable for its intended purpose. It does not have Photoshop’s array of tools for mask creation, but it serves well for brushing on effects, which is what the 80% ask for. Any more, and I know this great compositing application...

Lightroom is a great tool for organizing, editing and developing your images. I’ve already covered the basics of an Import workflow a few weeks ago, and now its time to look at the next logical step: the photo editing process.

First off, it must be reinforced that photo editing is a learned skill that takes years to develop. Going thru your photo shoots and picking out the ones that work is something that must be focused on, worked on and developed just like any other part of the photographic process. Good photographers are good editors, and there is no way around that. You can shoot some great images, but if they end up in the dustbin ignored, they are worthless. And for the noobs, photo editing isn’t the process of screwing up your images in Photoshop. That comes later.

The following is my personal editing process using Lightroom that works well for me and the types of shoots I do. I suspect it will work great for you as well, and luckily Lightroom is more than adept at providing additional tools if you need them.

So, now that you’ve Imported your files properly (and by following Import my tutorial you are ahead a few steps in the game vs. the noobs) its time to go thru them and look for the selects.

For many photographers, looking at a grid of a few thousand images is daunting. But for experience photographers who have honed their editing skills, this process can move quickly with the salient stuff quickly rising to the top.

So, as you look at that grid, there are several keyboard shortcuts you should know:

• P - Pick
• X- Reject
• U - Remove Flag
• L - Lights out
• N- Survey Mode
• G - Grid Mode
• [ and ] - Decrease/Increase Rating

There are menu equivalents, but editing is about speed, so learn them.

1. First off, double click the first image to open it in Loupe view. You’ll need to see the big preview to accurately make a judgement on the photograph.

Tip: I generally press the L key twice to get into Lights Out mode. This will dim the entire Lightroom interface with the exception of the preview and I find that this helps you to accurately judge the tonality and color of the image and removes any competing UI.

Editing in Lights Out Mode is Less Distracting, More Filling

2. Look at the image and evaluate first for the desired sharpness and exposure. Normally I’ll trash anything that does not meet my desires for the intended photograph. Make sure the subject you are interested has the focus treatment you want (usually sharp, without blur, but not always). If its an obvious misfire, out of focus, or poorly exposed, then reject it by pressing the X key.

Note: Lightroom 2 dims any rejected photos in the grid/filmstrip for added visibility - this is a nice addition.

3. Next is the really subjective part: evaluate it for composition and subject. This is really up to your tastes, likes and desires. Ask yourself: Does it tell the story you want? Does it focus on the right things. Do things in the periphery compete? The list of what makes a good or bad photograph is long and not really the intent of this tutorial. You know what you like, so quickly respond to the photograph based on your feelings and interpretation of the scene and make a call - press the P key if it has potential and move on. You should learn to make this judgement quickly and don’t be afraid to Pick more than the final set will contain, as you’ll make more than one pass.

Tip: Press the Caps Lock key to automatically advance to the next image when editing images with the flag keys. This is a real time saver. You pick something, it moves to the next, etc. Don’t forget its on though (the danger of Caps Lock UI).

Tip: Make a mistake and flag something Rejected or Picked in error? Press the U key to clear all flags.

4. If you have several similar images from a scene, which is very common, you can use the Survey mode to evaluate them quickly side by side. Select the desired images and press the N key. This will bring up an N-up display of the selected images with previews maximized to fit the available screen real estate. You can then evaluate the three and make your picks - remove any image from consideration by clicking on the little close box (X) that shows when you hover the cursor over the image. This removes it from the selection and then you can flag it using your P,X and U workflow.

The Survey Mode in Action

Tip: Using a big monitor? If not, you’re really impacting your efficiency. A 30” monitor isn’t that expensive and will save you boat loads of time. Any professional trying to work on a dinky monitor deserves to be shamed. Unless you have a penchant for scrolling and wasting time, get something big. Think of it like a big lens that shows you what you shot.

5. Step thru the entire sequence of images once, quickly making a judgement and moving on. If it strikes me as a potential, I pick it by pressing the P key. If it sucks, I reject it. Learn this skill and you’ll be able to go thru thousands of images quite quickly and get the best images ready for processing.

6. Now that you are done going thru all the images, press Command-Delete (Control-Delete on a PC) and this will ask if you want to delete all the rejected pictures. The goal is to reject only the images that are grossly out of whack with what you want and have no value.

Deleting Rejected Photos

I caution you: be careful when rejecting images and you’ll save space and remove clutter from your workflow while at the same time preserving an important historical photo trail for future generations. Well, if you know how to migrate and backup that is. You never know when you’ll go back thru images later and find some gems you missed the first time thru. This happens to everyone and can actually be a very cool thing, so respect the X.

Note: Lightroom gives you the option to move them to the trash or just remove them from the catalog. The first moves them to the trash, the second leaves them in the folder, but removes the thumbnail and metadata - they are dead to Lightroom. I move them to the trash 99.99 percent of the time.

7. Now that you’ve gone thru the image set, and found the first set of candidates, filter the view to show only the picks. This is done by pressing the “Show Flagged” button above the filmstrip. If you are in Lights Out mode, press L to show the UI again. The Show Flag button is the first diagonal flag next to the Filter: label.

The Filter Bar

8. Now you are looking at only the Picks. Don’t be discouraged if your pick to hit ratio is pretty lopsided. That is the way of it. A few good images per roll was spectacular in the film days and it should be lower if you shoot a bit more digitally. Now go thru them again. This time add a star for each one you think is really good by pressing the ] key. This will add a star to each image that really stands out.

9. Break time. Editing should never be done in one sitting. Just like writing, you need some space between editing sessions to make sure you are evaluating fairly. Don’t be discouraged. Extreme examples are photographers who would put shot rolls of film in a drawer or big garbage bag and wait years to even develop them so that he was completely divorced from the emotion of taking it. I’m not asking you to do that, but do give yourself some time.

10. Put some time between sessions? Good, now go thru again and do step 8 again. You can filter by Rating if you like (i.e. show only those with one star) by pressing the appropriate star button above the filmstrip (just like you did for flag). This time, add another star to the really, really good ones. You should be winnowing ruthlessly now. Ask yourself: is this the best picture I’ve ever taken? If you have any doubts, move on. You can do this step 2 or 3 times and you’ll get there.

Tip: Often I’ll add the final selects to an appropriately named Collection for easy access. No need to wade *ahem* thru all the stuff to find the gems. Collections are a must-use feature that I’ll be covering in the next few weeks.

11. When you’re happy, you’ll have a great subset of images ready to move into the Develop module. This way, you spend the quality time with just those images that deserve it.

Look at you, the editing pro. Go get ‘em!

Tags:Tutorial, Lightroom

Here are a few pictures of my little nephew Curtis - he’s a cutie even if he keeps my sister up all night with his surly ways.

These were from our family’s mini-reunion to Canada this past week. Cheers!

Tags:Family, Personal Work

Here is a selection of images I printed today for a Mady, a young dancer at EBT.

Tags:Emerald Ballet Theatre

Ah, it is nice to be back home. We’re having a series of extended family emergencies, so its nice to be back on home turff to deal with them.

I have a bunch of stuff to do today, and it can’t wait. Gotta mail an old camera I sold recently. I have to print out a bunch of pictures for a client. I have to prep an image for upload to Photoshelter for a special fine-art promo they will be doing (details forthcoming). This is the image, one of my all time favorites and one that sells quite well.

I also have to work on some images for another client and cull thru the collective work of the last two weeks - I shot several thousand images and have some real good stuff in there.

Work. Work. Work.

We had a friend from AZ visit last night as well. She was in town doing a wedding photography workshop downtown - we know her and her family from the Bay Area when we lived there. It was fun to sit and chat about old acquaintances and such.

I’ve got several mini-tutorials for Lightroom ready to roll in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Ride Report: Road. 30 miles in the Snoqualmie Valley area. It was cool and a bit humid but wonderful road biking weather.

Tags:Personal Work

We’re on the last leg of our vacation. Its been 2 weeks and we’ve had a ball.

Yesterday I rode up to my old elementary school to snap a few pictures and ran into a friend of mine who is the IT director for the school district. He gratiously let me go inside and tour the bulding - somewhere I have not been since I graduated to Jr. High in the early 1980s. I hear they are going to tear it down soon - accessiblity wasn’t as big an issue in 1970 as it is today - and I’m told it just can’t be retrofitted. It will be a sad day for those of us who went to the odd round pod-school on the southern Alberta prairie.

It was pretty cool to be back inside after so many years. I was suprised at how much had not changed. Here is a selection of images...

Here are a few other images from the last few days.

We left Cardston yesterday at noon and drove down to my brother’s place in Poulson, MT. He just graduated from optometry school and has been working at his new practice in town for a bit over a year. Its a nice little place on Flathead Lake and close to our old stomping grounds around Echo Lake and Kalispell. A bit of nostalgia all round.

Now back to Seattle today...

Tags:Personal Work

Sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been remiss. We’re still on vacation and my wife is keeping me quite busy. Add to that the big frown I get when I go near the computer and you get our current situation.

We’ve been in Canada for a few days - I had my 20 year high school reunion this past weekend. It was just as you’d expect, filled with faces I have not seen for 20 years. The “highlight” was getting to ride on a CHS 88 float in the town parade,which my kids loved. They showed up with signs for the “Wade Heninger Fan Club” and made me a proud pappa. They loved the parade because its a tradition to throw candy from the floats - my oldest was even throwing some of his collection back onto the street for the younger ones to gather up. Such a wonderful young man.

Yesterday we went to Waterton National Park. The boys went early and did some mountain bike riding (you can ride in National Parks in Canada, you know) and then we met up for lunch at our favorite little place - Kilmorey Lodge. They have a great little menu and lunch was really good, if a bit slow in the coming.

A few pictures from the prairie...

Have a great day. We’re off to do more touristy things.

We spent the day in Yellowstone, and let me tell you, its a real trick getting 10 familes somewhere at the same time and with the same intention.

We all managed to get to Mammoth Hot Springs by lunch time, which isn’t bad considering how far we had to drive. I think the kids will revolt if we make them drive much more. This park was apparently created for the car-tourist in mind and its just massive. I keep looking out the window longingly, wanting to ride my bike.

Here are a few picts:

Tomorrow I’m taking a side trip to Mackay, Idaho to visit my grandpa’s old ranch. They sold it off in the late 80’s and I still miss the place. I would love to buy that little plot of land. Anyhow, its about a 2 hour drive, across the desert, past the nuclear test facility and up the Lost River Valley. Should be fun.

Tags:Vacation

We’re in Montana/Wyoming this week at a family reunion.

We’re camped about 20 miles from Yellowstone with about 80 members of my wife’s extended family. Its safe to say we’re overrun with kids. The boys have already formed small roving gangs of stick-weilding neer-do-wells and the girls have stetup elaborate ruses on how to “get back” at the boys for their alleged predetations...

Yes, its family runion time. I remember my family reunions when I was a kid - the heninger family was big and even produced a few notables including the actor behind Napoleon Dynamite. I kid you not. I remember him as a twin with shirts claiming they were the other one. Funny.

Today we went into Yellowstone and did the typical tourist stuff - drive, drive, drive and see Old Faithful. The kids were suitibly impressed with Old Faithful’s height for about 10 seconds and then went on to dig in the dirt near the boardwalk.

Here are a few images from the past two days.

Tags:Personal Work