Lightroom Tuesday
A few times a year we get to travel to interesting places and photograph them with a group of our customers. It is co-sponsored by Dgrin, a SmugMug affiliated photographic forum. Fun!
This fall we’re in Moab, Utah. I’m here several times a year for mountain biking or backpacking, so it was a natural to head back for this event.
I had a marathon driving session Monday to Tuesday to get here, and today I setup, scouted some locations and shot a few night pictures from the top of Sand Flat Road looking over the Moab valley.
Here is one of my favorites...
There is plenty more to come. Stay tuned.
OnPoint Tactical
Today I’ve got some links gleaned from the web about my favorite workflow application:
- Hitchhikers Guide to Lightroom (via Paxton Prints)
- Lightroom 2 Learning Center (via JP Caponigro)
- More on Camera Profiles in Lightroom
- Bridge still sucks for Digital Workflow
- LRMogrify is updated - this is a “must have” tool for Lightroom
- More workflow suggestions for fashion photographers
- Lost a folder of images in Lightroom? It happens. What to do...
- How to use the Luminance Slider in Lightroom
- Lightroom at Photokina
That is it.
Im on my way home today, and things should get back to normal (well, until I head to Moab next week).
More from Ivy
This class covered basic scouting techniques, including the art of camouflage, which is a real hoot to play around with. Here are a few pictures of Pontus, a swell guy from Sweden who flew all the way here to take this class, being the guinea pig for camo experimentation. Cheers Pontus!
Here are a couple of the
pictures show the class building a body-sized scout
pit, which is a small hide you can dig under ground
to cache food and water. This was a technique used
successfully by the Apache in the 19th century to
evade the US army in the southwest United States.
Lots of fun for a bunch of grown-up boys digging in the dirt.
Weekend Fun
Lightroom Update on Adobe Labs
I rode my mountain bike for 25 or so miles, we went to a soccer game in Yakima and then down to Seattle for a cancer benefit called “Light the Night” in Greenlake Park. Everyone walked the 2.5 miles around the lake with red/white balloons to raise money for cancer research. Team Hans raised over $3000 I hear. Right on.
Here is a short visual chronicle of that day.
SmugMug on Top
Info here
I have not grabbed it yet. Not sure if I will, or if I’ll wait for the final release.
And, from this afternoon.
Another of my youngest. He’s on a roll this week.
Have a great weekend.
M8 Firmware Update 2.0
Note the matrix of features - note the lack of RED in the SmugMug column.
Emerald Ballet - New Season Begins!
It looks like Leica has also posted a new
firmware update for the M8. And it looks to be a
groundbreaking update, including:
1. Auto ISO (!)
2. Slightly better noise at high ISO
3. SDHC compatibility (this is a huge deal)
The firmware update is here
Leica has done wonders with
this camera over the last two years. They’ve
consistently improved the camera every quarter
with a new and improved firmware and they’ve even
added significant new features to an already
wonderful camera. Nobody else even comes close to
supporting their cameras in this regard.
Kudos to Leica.
PS. Check out the cool take on accessories for
your M8
Micro Soccer Begins
I managed to get into the studio this week for a bit of shooting on Tuesday evening. Here are a few from that session...
Here is to another season
of dance!
Smattering of Stuff
Here are a few pictures from Friday’s meet-up...
Not to be outdone, my
youngest was in fine form as well...
Such a proud moment. I
have no idea what he was up to...
Photo Shoot: Pirate Party
- A Message from Hilary and Sarah
- New Leica M8.2 and lenses. More here.
- Zeiss lenses for Canon EOS Cameras
- iPhone photo-app compendium
- McCain vs. Greenberg - woah. More here. And here.
- New 5D speculation
- New Lightroom 2 book from Scott Kelby
- Rachel Hulin has a new blog post Photoshelter Collection Collapse (say that fast!)
Finally, my oldest went crazy with his magazine fund raiser for school and came home with a boat-load of crappy plastic stuff from China. However, one of the cooler items was this thing called the “Airzooka” that shoots a concentrated puff of air an amazing distance.
Of course, I immediately made him and his friend test it out for the camera...
What a crack up.
Onto better things. Cheers!
Photo Shoot: Ivy
There are 207 images in total and you can purchase
prints, canvas wraps and a smattering of
photo-novelties directly from the gallery page by
clicking the “Buy Photo” button on the top right of
the image preview. I hope you enjoy them, and feel
free to share the gallery with friends and family.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Photo Shoot: Pirate Party
The Crimson Ghost
New Job!
A company tradition. My
turn...
Many went for tailings of their nerdy comic book
past. I went for something a bit different.
Zion National Park
I worked for Adobe Systems, Inc. for 9 wonderful years - they have always been a great company to work for (always land high on the best to work for list) and I’ll always have a big soft spot for them in my heart. The last few years working on Lightroom was just incredible - the team was very dedicated to creating a new class of software for photographers and we’ve really succeeded. Working with my design cohort Phil Clevenger was the best partnership I could have ever asked for, so it was a very hard decision to move on.
But I finally did. And its time to get working...
Today I begin work as the new Director of Experience Design at SmugMug. SmugMug is a small Silicon Valley startup, privately funded and run by a lovable group of people who care tremendously about what they are doing. They worked hard at recruiting me away from what I’d often called my “Dream Job” on Lightroom. In the end, I wanted a new challenge and I’ll have it in spades going forward.
So what is SmugMug thing?
SmugMug is a photo sharing site that has been around
for several years. It is famous for having defied the
commonly held wisdom of photo sharing. When they
started, everyone told them that being a pay-only
site for sharing photos was just a silly business
model. But they persevered, and gained a loyal
following. It is their focus making “your photos look
better here” and delivering stellar customer service
that has really worked for them. Even more
interesting, they have put many competitors out of
business, including some industry heavyweights,
including those from Adobe, Sony and others.
So why Smugmug?
SmugMug is a bit dated visually and has some real
challenges with its experience model. It will be my
job to bring world class design to this successful
little company. I’ve got the support of the
management and we’re going to shake it up.
If you have not checked it out, please do...
Anniversary!
I was on vacation over the weekend with my wife in Zion National Park. We had a ball. Hiked the Narrows, hiked Angel’s Landing, and rode a tandem from Springdale to the Temple of Sinawava and back. We ate well, slept in and just enjoyed ourselves. Its been along time since we spent an extended amount of time sans children, and it was nice.
Here are a couple of images from our hike up to Angel’s Landing.
I’m still going thru the rest. I promised not to do more than download images at night and stuck to my word, so now I have to sort thru the rest.
Skoolz In! Skoolz in!
A few things gathered over the past week or so to keep you entertained:
- Photoshelter Plugin for Lightroom
- Backup on the go
- Lightroom Preset Bonanza
- Using the Profile Editor, More on the profile editor from the guy who worked on it.
- An interesting interview with Tom Hogarty, Product Manager for Lightroom.
- A few tips/tricks for using Lightroom
- Lightroom 2’s Smart Collections are very cool.
- See you next week.
Photo Shoot
The kids were in fine form this morning, new clothes on and ready to roll, so I threw my gray backdrop up and shot a few pictures.
Have fun kids! Its quiet around the home office today...