I tweeted a few days ago about what I’ve observed over the past year of owning a Kindle.

In a nutshell, I buy more books. Quite a few more, actually.

I’m a big reader, and my standard goal is to read 50 books a year, and I’ve found that I’m pretty good at meeting that milestone each year.

The big problem is that we’ve got limited book shelf space. And I don’t say that because we have one bookshelf. Over the past few years, I built several wall-length, floor to ceiling bookshelves for at least 15 horizontal feet of shelving. And they are all full. Which leads to stacks of books in my office, which really bugs my wife.

So when I got a Kindle, I was really excited to start putting some books there instead of our straining shelves. My thinking was that I’d put all the stuff I’d only read once on the device and continue to buy the important stuff in paper form. I’ve since noted that convenience, ease and price, has mostly pushed most book purchases to the Kindle. While I’ve bought several in both formats so I can have it in paper as well, it is only after I read it on the Kindle and decide its great. And I generally do it on Kindle.

Furthermore, I really like that the Kindle lets you download a sample of a book and get a few chapters in before you pull the rip cord. I’ve only once not purchased the book from that sample. I love this feature.

I also like having 60 books with me at any one time. Remember, I can get all the Kindle books on my iPhone as well so I tend to have my library with me always. I *love* this. I even take them backpacking with me; gone are the days when I had to ration myself.

I really like the $9.99 price point, and I buy more books because of it. I noticed this week that there was a dust up with Amazon and a major book publisher who wants to raise prices. Crazy talk. I realize that a hardback runs from $18 to $24, but ebooks don’t have the production and transportation issues that the paper books do, so I expect them to be cheaper. And $10 is a real sweet spot. Just like $1 songs on itunes, and that worked well. I have not bought a CD in ages.

I did see some arguments online for the market to take its course - let publishers decide the price and the market will eventually settle at a good price. This certainly makes sense, but I’ve also seen what corporations can do to marketplaces and frankly I don’t mind Amazon being the heavy here.

And in the mean time, I’m happily buying more books than I did before and there are less stacks of books in my office for my wife to trip over.

Book FTW!

Tags:Family

Sunday.

Alias: The best day of the week.

I love Sundays. We set them apart to be the family day. We go to church, we have dinner with the extended family and then generally we play games for a few hours before bed. Sprinkle in some reading/nap time and you’ve got yourself a real winner.

Tonight was game night, and my youngest was inordinately excited about the devastating effect of a Skip card...

Tags:Family

Well, that didn’t go as well as planned.

I’d made a bunch of modifications to Steen’s car to make it faster, and I’d hate to have seen what it was like without them, because it came in a solid 4th place in every heat.

Out of 4.

You could tell my boy was a bit put off by the whole thing, but he kept a stiff upper lip and had fun anyhow. Poor guy. I guess next year.

Here are a few picts:

I think the highlight of the evening is when one boy, distraught at an even poorer performance than ours sat *on* the track and then proceeded to stick his arm out and block cars as they headed down the runway. I kid you not.

Sometimes I wonder about parents who sit idly by and let their kids act out in such an egregious fashion. I’m told he has “anger management” issues.

No kidding?

Tags:Family

My second youngest has his first Pinewood Derby tonight.

In the past, with my oldest son, we’ve done it all in the ramp up to this hallowed race of races. We’ve worked on the car weeks in advance. We’ve worked on it the night before. A few years ago, we even did some internet research and came up with some best practices for speed inducement. It worked.

So this week, while working on the latest iteration of our car, we applied all the know-how acquired in hopes of making a splash tonight.

He’s certainly excited, and he even claims his hand is a bit sore from sanding.

So here is our entry, all glossed up and ready to roll. Well I say glossed up, even though we forgot to actually lacquer it in our race to get the wheels on. Ooops.

I wanted to play around with a new product lighting trick, and it seemed to work quite nicely - this is one light, product left with a reflector resting on the top of the soft box and angling down to the seamless. Worked pretty good. I was looking to blow out some of the silver paint and it did exactly what I wanted. Nice.

Off to the races...

Tags:Lightroom

Its Lightroom Tuesday! Huzzah!

Each week I gather the best of the Lightroom-o-sphere into one place for your edification, perusal and gain.

• A nice discussion on sharpening in Lightroom vs. Unsharp Mask in Photoshop.
• Creating Pseudo HDR images in Lightroom 2
• For the geeky ones among us, here is an article on creating your own engine for Lightroom galleries using the SDK.
• Lightroomsecrets.com looks at organizing your images.
• Not that I recommend it due to spotty quality control, but here is a discussion on Lightroom and ICC profiles for book printing. Man, I really want to like Blurb, but experience teaches me otherwise.
• A video tutorial from Sean Duggan on moving your files in Lightroom. Sometimes we’re messy house guests and need to reorganize stuff.
• Ok, more for the nerdy mcnerdisons: Common IPTC entries for that metadata goodness.
• Thomas Hawk looks at how to improve Lightroom...
• Lightroom vs. Aperture - a photog looks at the two. Aperture? I remember hearing about that...
• While we’re at it, here is a comparison between Lightroom and Capture NX 2. Is that what those CD’s had on them?
• Adjustment Brush tip...
• Blemish removal tips...
• A look at some black and white presets from Silver Efex Pro and DxO Film Pack.
• Foto-Biz.com looks at cropping to fixed sizes. And Monitor Calibration.
• The power of Lightroom. A photographer mulls it over.
• Geotagging made easy...
• Build & ship - X-equals looks at export presets.
• X-Equals also takes a look at the right panel track...
• Matt K has some good advice for naming your presets.
• Laura Shoe of the Digital Daily Dose has a nice article on curves. Speaking of which, Laura is holding a Lightroom workshop in Seattle and there are a few spaces left.
• Process Version - its something new in LR3 and you should probably learn about it.
• LRSaver has a new Mac version of its LR to Screensaver utility out. (Psst. it uses a collection and your LR cache - very slick).

That is it for this week. Have a great Tuesday.


PS. Did you miss my tweet yesterday about the Amazon deal on Lightroom 2? If you were following me on twitter this woulda never happened.

Tags:Haiti, Fundraiser, Emerald Ballet Theatre

Heninger Fotographik and Viktoria Titova of Emerald Ballet Theatre are proud to offer a special edition print from EBT’s 2009 Nutcracker performance as a fundraiser for the relief efforts now going on in Haiti.

The image is being offered in 3 sizes at a special discount, and can be ordered directly by clicking on the image above.

If you have the means, please consider purchasing this special edition print of Ms. Viktoria for a good cause. One hundred percent of the proceeds from this print purchase will go directly to The Red Cross to help in their humanitarian efforts.

Thanks.

PS. I was inspired by several other photographers doing likewise. Thanks for the inspiration and your generosity.

Tags:Lightroom

Its Lightroom Tuesday! Huzzah!

Each week I gather the best of the Lightroom-o-sphere into one place for your edification, perusal and gain.

• Four presets from photographer Kenji Angelo
• A tutorial on fixing importing errors.
• A keywording tutorial from This Digital Life.
• Foto Care in New York will be presenting two sessions on Lightroom 2 & 3 on the 21st of January. More info here...
• Foto-Biz looks at the reasons for DNG.
• Terry White has 30,000 images in his catalog and is pruning back for the new year. That is being frugal with the shutter button in my world
• X-Equals wants you to be faster fixing those exposure errors.
• Matt K covers DNG and Auto Saving Changes in this tutorial.
• X-Equals has some resolution tips for the new year.’
• Timothy Armes, author of some great Lightroom plugins, has redone his website...
• Sean McCormack of the Lightroom-blog.com has an interesting post on Practical Presets.

Not Lightroom related, but interesting...

• Mark Wallace from Snapfactory will be doing a new series of Adorama-sponsored flash tutorials this year...

So I found an SD card in my Leica M8 that had photos from this past year’s Nutcracker. How fun.

Here is my favorite from the 100 images found thereon...

Lovely dancers make great subjects, as my boss reminds me. Indeed.

PS. the special glow in this shot is from an old 50’s Canon f1.2 rangefinder lens I picked up years ago and remains mostly wedded to the M8 for the peculiar look it gives.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States.

In his honor, here is a link to a great photo essay entitled “In his own words” with photographs by Flip Schulke...

And its also time to brush up on the reason we have chosen to celebrate this man every January, so watch this...

Amen, brother...

A prescient quote:

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life," he said. "Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!"

It just occurred to me that this year I’m the same age as he when his life was ended by a coward with a rifle.

A few more I’m happy with...

Tags:Dance, Oly's Dance

I shot some spectacular dancing last weekend at Oly’s Dance Studio in Everett, WA. Here are a few of my favorites from the editing so far...

Oh yeah, you saw belly dancing in there. You never know what you’re going to see when you visit Oly’s. Awesome.

Tags:Family

Our elementary school has Crazy Hair Day once a year.

We love crazy hair day in our house, becasue we know how to do it seriously. While some kids will tease up some area and apply a bit of hairspray or spray sparkles on it, their “crazy” is limited by a) boring parental background and b) risk taking adverseness.

My kids? Not so much.

After all, my wife and are children of the PUNK ROK generation. We are no strangers to shaving hair off in goofy ways, coloring it inappropriately (before that became socially acceptable)and in general doing anything that many would consider horrifically permanent. And to some, the day after Crazy Hair Day would be traumatic.

But not for our kids. Because we’ve done monstrous things to our hair growing up and realize it grows back.

So Steen hit me up this AM for something new and radical. Last year was pretty damn cool, so it was time to come up with something new. Luckily, we had a bit more hair to work with than last year.

So here is this year’s edition...

We actually trimmed in between each spike - so its like a straight line of checkerboard spikes. ha ha. Awesome. He can impale things with those spikes. Some parents just don’t have gravity defying skillz like I have. Having a 12” tall mohawk teaches you all kinds of things...

As a counterpoint to this, Chloe didn’t feel so crazy this year (she has a ballet competition in a few weeks) so we quickly did only a bit of silly with some random pony tails and some blue dye. Turns out my kids are more responsible than their parents.

Its Lightroom Tuesday! A day to reflect on a week’s worth of Lightroom mumbo-jumbo.

Each week I gather the best of the Lightroom-o-sphere into one place for your edification, perusal and gain. You can thank me later.

• X-Equals looks at the relationship between the histogram and the tone curve.
• Foto-Biz talks about “the keepers” and a methodology for taming the motor drive. PS. Its you.
• FrederickVan.com covers retouching models in Lightroom 3 Beta.
• Crop in camera. It makes life so much easier. But sometimes you don’t. So here is how to use Lightroom’s to make up for it.
• To DNG. LightroomKillerTips.com looks at this oft-asked question. Short answer: yes. And here is a followup.
• Photofocus covers Importing photos to Lightroom 3 Beta.
• Tyson Williams covers how to backup your Lightroom presets.
• Julianne Kost of Adobe has a Lightroom Overview, Tips and Quick Reference Guide PDF available.
• Its 2010. Does your copyright statement know that?
• Top 10 Lightroom tweets of the week from Sherri Meyer.
• Printing with Virtual Copies from LightroomLab.com
• DPE has a look at HDR plugins for Lightroom.
• Photoshop or LIghtroom. What is right for you? Blue Sky Photography has a look at this never ending question.
• Eye retouching in Lightroom.
• Sean McCormack covers the gestalt of presets.
• Preset Heaven has a preset purported to give you a CSI MIami look. I don’t watch alot of TV, so I’m a bit curious as to what the CSI look is...
• Laura Shoe looks at shortcuts worth knowing...

Not Lightroom related, but worth a look-see...

• Extended interview with Chase Jarvis on Photoshop User TV

Tags:Personal Work

So we have been going thru the tooth-fairy dance regularly for years.

And by dance I mean this:

Child X looses a tooth and excitedly places it under their pillow in the expectation of the tooth fairies visit and the rich profits from such.

We, in our busy world, forget all about it and when morning comes, the child immediately forms us that they were stiffed.

Kristin and I look at each other and mentally draw straws. The loser (always me for some reason - my mental straws apparently suck) sneaks up stairs and hides a dollar or two under the mattress. Yes, under the mattress. I realize convention is the pillow, but we’ve overshot that.

We then I come back downstairs and as child X is talking about the oversight to my wife, I mention that sometimes the tooth fairy likes to “hide the loot really well as a game”. They excitedly head back up stairs to look.

And to our surprise, it always works. I guess they’re just so excited about having the buck or two that they don’t realize that a) the tooth is still there and b) hiding money under a mattress seems a bit odd.

But it works, and we smile and move on.

PS. We don’t always do this. There is the random time where we remember the tooth and execute to convention. But not often.

Ok, so I’m going to divert your attention away from photography today.

Just FYI, I turn 40 this year, and I just decided its in my best interest to have a mid-life crisis.

To be completely honest, I’m not really having an involuntary one like most - because I’m pretty much happy with everything. I’ve got an awesome wife, 4 wonderful, challenging kids, a good job, some mad skillz and I’m in great shape physically. I still feel about 22 years old, which is awesome, but I certainly see the difference in my mental state from when I was 22. i.e. much more patient, much more willing to let you have your dumb ideas. Maturity is creeping in, despite my best efforts.

But @##@$, I’m turning 40!

I was happy to note recently that they officially changed midlife to 43 or 45 recently, but regardless, its time to celebrate the fact that I’m near mid-life.

I don’t need a fancy car (I have a new Civic which is cool enough for me) and my wife is a hotty so what next?

Why it’s an excuse for another backpack trip! Each year I do several extended backpack trips and I do love me some backpacking. I love going out with my sons, with my scouts, friends or anyone stupid enough to follow me. I also really like going alone. I’ve found what many report: I’m super good company

So each year I plan a short trip just for me. Time to get out by myself and take some time to ponder life and recharge my batteries independent of the demands of life. When all you carry is 8 lbs of gear on your back and the only decision you make are a) go b) stop c) sleep here, it is refreshing in a way that some just don’t get. This year I get to make it a bit longer because, uh, I’m turning 40. 4-0! For-Ty! F-o-r-t-y!

So where am I going with this? As part of the planning process I’m working on the gear lists.

I love gear lists. I’m fanatical about what I carry and how much it weighs. I’m an ultralight freak, to be honest, and the subject of no small amount of wonder and derision from guys carrying 70 lbs on their back. Not content to be a pack mule, I’d prefer to enjoy the outdoors, see more of it and not be weight down by ridiculous crap the “adventure retailers” foist on you. Kinda like they do in photography. Sometimes a Lecia and a 50mm lens is what you need.

So in my research this year, I found a few new items that I think are awesome new additions to my minimalist kit:

First up is the Bushcooker LT. Cooking while backpacking can involve beacoup weight. Outside the tent/pack/sleeping bag (the big 3) your kitchen setup can be a real space/weight hog. I’ve seriously seen guys carrying 3-4 lbs of just cooking gear/fuel. The lightest I’ve done is about 3 oz. But until now I’ve always been dependent on carrying fuel (be it esbit tablets, alcohol or butane canisters). I just found this new wood burning stove that looks to be awesome for extended trips. It weighs in at about 2.5 oz and with the addition of my pot, will weigh in at 3.5 oz for an unlimited cook time. No fuel to carry, spill or carry out. Sweet. Here’s a review of the stove by Jason Klass.

Some awesome cooking flameness

Next up is the Stick-pic. Normally I carry a big camera, but I’ve got my eye on a point/shoot this year to replace my aging Panasonic LX2 camera. This handy little unit lets you mount your camera on your trekking pole for survivorman goodness - very cool. Tripods are heavy, and I’m not a nature photographer.

I still want to find a cuben fiber poncho tarp that isn’t extremely expensive though...

Tags:Lightroom

For the New Year, I’m happy to debut a new feature at heninger.org that lets you, my cherished readers, easily ask me a question about Lightroom.

In a fit of creative genius I’m calling it “Lightroom Q&A” and I’ve added it to the Navigation bar above.

So, feel free to ask me a question and I’ll answer it as soon as I have time.

Note: Please consider not posting anonymously so I know who I’m talking with - right now I’ve allowed anonymous posters and am hoping that the spammers stay away.

Tags:Lightroom