Welcome to October.

And what is on tap for this fine first day of October? I’m finally getting around to restoring my Drobo after a few weeks of limbo. Previously I’d talked about how my Snow Leopard install went Tango Uniform (yes, with capitals) and mucked up the permissions on all my drives. Yes, all of them. As in, no access for me. Not even if I said please.

The only way to get back was to back everything up and reformat each drive. Harrowing to say the least. Thank goodness ChronoSync was up to the job of getting stuff off the permissions-hobbled drives.

Last to get this treatment was my Drobo (which I often extoll in posts here) and it was mostly because its hard to find 4 TB of random space to backup onto. Well I finally did the shuffling necessary and now its restoring to its previous state. The one upside is that I could reformat the Drobo for 16 TB of potential storage instead of 2 TB (the previous limit) which was a real pain in the rear when adding bigger drives.

Whew. ChronoSync back on the job as we speak...

PS. Just took delivery of a new Macbook 15”. MobileMe and Time Machine sure take the chore out of introducing a new machine into your computo-ecosystem.

Tags:Lightroom

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.

• Phototuts has an “Ultimate Guide to Lightroom 2” online. Its only been a year, so they’ve really been thorough .
• Neutralday has links to a variety of free presets for you to peruse...
• Is your world a bit blurry? Can’t afford that great Leica lens you really want? DPS teaches you how LR can help by sharpening things up a bit...
• Photoshelter has a nice tutorial on workflow...
• Timothy Armes released a new web gallery in the past few weeks...
• Danette Chappell has a tutorial on editing in Lightroom. And by Edit she means developing. Its always interesting to see how others use those sliders...
• LR Engineer extrordinaireTroy Gual gave a talk on Lightroom development at C4[2] awhile back (whatever that is).
• Free preset from LightroomLibrary.com. Meow!
• More from the Texas Chicks Blogs & Pics! What has to be my favorite blog title has posted a short tip on editing multiple photos in LR.
• More for-pay presets from Rebecca Lily.
• Snapshots - versioning made easy from X-Equals.
• Luminance. It ain’t just for geeks anymore.
• John Shaw (yes, you saw his books at Barnes & Noble) has a new eBook on Lightroom development.
• A convert. Well, kinda.

That is it. Sorry about the late post, its been a busy day...

Tags:Personal Work, Family

So my wife announced to me Tuesday that she was taking the kids to the Puyallup Fair.

This is *the* fair in the Seattle area. Or so I’ve heard, because we’ve never been. It is hardly our kinda thing.

Its big, its popular and crowded. Reason enough to stay away.

However, last year my sis-in-law took her kids to the fair and they came back with tales of “mutton bustin” which I soon learned was analogous to bull riding, only for kids. And on sheep. They even had a video of his triumphal ride. It was hilarious in a slightly disturbing way...

So this year, as they rolled in, my two younger boys wanted to give it a go. And since we’re all about providing opportunities, K hustled them off to the attraction, got em suited up and ready to roll.

Steen did fine, although he hit the ground pretty quick. No records there...

Liam was getting settled, when his sheep reared up and got half way out of the cage. That freaked him out. So we spent the next few minutes letting him think about it.

He decided not to, which was fine by us. What a weird ritual...

Here are a few other shots from the fair...

Tags:Lightroom

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.

• So hows Lightroom doing against its competition? And by competition I actually mean two things: 1) Apterture and 2) Bridge/ACR. Turns out pretty good. PS. Yes, I lump Bridge/ACR as a competitor. This was the de-facto standard before the enlightening. Back when Adobe didn’t get the whole Raw thing yet. Back when we cobbled together workflows with all kinds of tools based on expediency, company politics and shrugs from the poor users who had to suffer because of the former two. I do not miss those days.
• The Library module has lots of cool views besides grid. You should know them. As the ghost of christmas present said: get to know me better man!
• Matt K does a demo of shooting tethered (ahem) with a WiFI card from Eye-Fi. At least with SD based cameras. PS. I’ve seen CF card adapters that I’m told work in Pro bodies. P.S.S If you’re a smugger, look here. Eye-Fi is a few doors down from SmugMug.
• Frederick Van has posted an interview with Katrin Eismann, author, educator and author. She’s been a godsend to Adobe and helped me meet several good friends.
• Its update season for Lightroom, so here is a tutorial for those of you who’ve never updated before... Hey, there might be a few of you.
• Matt K’s tip for this week is about updating presets with new settings. Read up!
• Tablets. Love em or hate em (I’m in the latter camp - and I’ve sure tried to like em), there are many who swear by them. Here is a fun little discussion from some Wacom guy on imaging and tablets.
• Smart Objects in Photoshop. I’ve never bothered to figure them out. Oh, I know there are lots of cool stuff you can do with them. All those fuzzy promises are rattling around somewhere in the back of my head. X-Equals sure tries to convince me to give them a try again...
• Laura Shoe still has some spots in her Seattle Lightroom workshops.
• How to use a gray card with Lightroom. I actually get asked this a lot.
• Well that is it for today. So time to stand up, go outside and press that shutter button some. Do that enough, it will come unstuck.
• Cheers!

Tags:Personal Work

Liam was quite pleased with his photo from last week. So he came in again, this time in a more traditional mode of attire.

I have a roll of 5’ paper mounted in my office for quick shots like this, so down it came...

Cute kid, if I do say so myself...

Tags:Personal Work

Steen had his weekly bagpipe lesson today, so I went with him and shot some video/stills.

Here are a few that stood out...

PS. Thanks Neil!

Tags:Emerald Ballet Theatre, Dance

So my youngest son comes in this AM and wants me to take his portrait.

I agreed without quite paying attention to the reality of what was being asked - I have this email to finish you see and my attention hadn’t quite focused his direction yet.

And when I turn around, this is what I see.

My wife wants you all to know that this is my fault...

Tags:Bagpipe

I’ve been a bit burnt out on shooting lately, so I’ve been limiting my bookings and focusing on other things. Sometimes you need some space from the camera.

Mmm. Space.

However, I got out the 5D MK II and shot some dance stuff yesterday at EBT. Here are a few that stood out in the first edit...

Tags:Dance, Nerdy

I finished up a book tonight for a client. It looks fantastic. I really love the way MyCanvas does these - great quality, decent software and great options. This was a leather bound volume of a dancer - pictures from 2006-2009 - a really nice anthology to remind her of her early teen years dancing at EBT.

Parents, these are fantastic ways to preserve memories.

I’m also working on another ballroom dance book this week. Have four separate versions to do. Lots of design going on.

With regards to my Snow Leopard melt down, I’m mostly recovered.

I installed it on my Macbook Air and had zero problems. After a week, i decided to put a new drive in my Mac Pro and install it there. Luckily, I just pulled the old drive and kept it safe. The install went fine, and everything seemed on the up and up.

And then it melted down in front of me.

I started getting these “Extension blah blah has failed” messages. I literally counted 30 of them before I forced a reboot.

Bzzt. Nothing. It wouldn’t boot.

So back I went to Leopard on the old drive. Whew, being paranoid can save you.

But then I noticed manny of my drives were locked. Somehow my permissions all got futzed and I couldn’t get at my data. Try that on for size. 6 TB of stuff, all locked.

Luckily, I’ve figured out a workaround and got most everything back. Except the Drobo. Yes, the 4 TB of data on the Drobo is currently off limits. I’ve gotta figure out a way to reset the permissions, but so far, no go.

The workaround? Using ChronoSync to dupe all the stuff to a new drive and then reformatting the goofed up drive. I’ve now done that for all but one partition on the Drobo - I just don’t have anything physically big enough to dupe to. So while I can get out of this, I’m still trying to think thru it. Slowly. As one should proceed when all your data is at stake.

Geez, thanks Apple.

BTW, the tech support people at Apple were useless this time. All the uber Unix weenies at work are stumped as the normal Terminal stuff for this also failed.

Ugh. Time to hit Frederick @ Drobo for another favor

PS. ChronoSync has been a godsend! Best sync app out there for the Mac.

So, as mentioned yesterday, I gots me this Lightroom team shirt to give away today...

I don’t think I’ve ever worn it, and its just taking up space. Size L mens. Beefy T, 100% cotton beauty (Void where prohibited. Awesome rug not included.)

So I’m going to give it to one of you’se lucky readers.

Heres the dealio:

1. You gotta be following me on Twitter and you gotta retweet my announcement I’ll send at 8:30 AM PST
2. You gotta tell me the coolest trick you’ve found in Lightroom. And I gotta believe it.
3. You gotta know the codename for Lightroom 1.

I’ll take the 15th person who retweets.

Hey, it ain’t a cakewalk because there’s only so many of these shirts in existance. Its a collectors item I swear. Maybe get one of those very cool frames and put it under glass and tell the grandkids about how you have a GEN-U-INE Lightroom 1 shirt. Imagine the looks you’ll get at next month’s photo walk or geek-fest camera club.

So, go!

PS. Bribes barely work...

Tags:Lightroom

My wife kept frowning at me.

I knew exactly what it was for. But I manage to stall for a few weeks.

It was the closet. The master one. Specifically my side.

I’m a bit of a pack rat. Nothing neurotic or anything, there are no piles of newspapers stacked to the ceiling or empty rolls of paper towels. No, I just have stuff that needs putting somewhere.

I’m an outdoor fanatic, so I have a variety of sleeping bags. 20 degree, 30 degree, 40 degree. And a few of each. I camp in different seasons, and one needs a bit of variety. Plus I have kids, so they get used. But they also need a place to rest when not on some adventure at the bottom of my pack.

I also have lots of shirts. Short sleeve t-shirts when I’m displaying my awesome coolness. Short sleeve t-shirts when I’m biking or hiking. Short sleeve t-shirts when I’m digging in the back yard. And the worst? Company t-shirts. I’ve got Apple t’s, Adobe t’s and now SmugMug t’s littering the closet. There is even a few band t-shirts from when I was much more punk rock than most of you. Misfits, Exploited and The Dead Kennedys. Yup. I suppose I can lump those in with the awesome coolness part above, but I’m trying to make a point...

So the closet gets full. And it was. You know when you gotta jump over sleeping bags and the like that time is limited...

So I cleaned it out tonight. And that meant more than just putting stuff back where it goes. It meant getting rid of stuff. Those dress shirts I don’t wear much anymore. A few pairs of pants and shorts that are just too worn out to matter. Those shoes that just sit there. You get the point.

So why am I telling you this? Well, because I have a few Lightroom shirts that I never wear, so I figured I’d give them away to my voracious readers who love all things Lightroom.

I have the shipping shirt for Lightroom 1 and Lightroom 2.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when I give away the first...

Tags:Lightroom

Welcome to Lightroom Tuesday. Huzzah!

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.

• A few weeks ago I reviewed Nathaniel Coalson’s Lightroom book, entitled , entitled Adobe Photoshop LIghtroom 2: Streamlining your Digital Photography Process. I recommend it. This week, Chris Shepherd reviews Inside Lightroom 2, another LIghtroom2 book seeking for your attention. Read up!
• Lightroom guru and friend Eric Scouten has just posted an updated article on how he manages his Lightroom world.
• Lightroom 2.5 is now out. Huzzah! I just installed it, and its mostly a bug fix/camera support release
• Lightroom Secrets has a new feature introducing members of the Lightroom community for your edification. Read on...
• AdobeTV, an Adobe website focused on free training and tutorials, has been updated...
• Cropping with a fixed aspect ratio. Sometimes you gotta fit that paper and frames made for 18th century photographers...
• Calibrate your monitors - sometimes what you see on screen isn’t what prints. That person you shot a portrait of shouldn’t look like a smurf (yes, I’ve seen that one more than a few times at SmugMug.)
• Speaking of cropping, here are some Standard Print Size presets for the Print module from Matt K.
• Matt also has a tip on how to zoom to a specific point using a little known preference...
• Did you have troubles getting Jeffrey Friedl’s plugins? His website seems like its back up now...
• PhotoshopWorld is a good place to learn about Lightroom. And that other photo editing app from Adobe.
• Snow Leopard issues with Lightroom detailed here. PS. I had a fantastic failure with Snow Leopard on my main machine. Lucky I’m a backup madman.
• Moving folders in Lightroom. Yes, you’ll mess up your perfect organization at some point and need to clean up. And some of you are not that organized to begin with (yes, I know), so this is a good thing to know.
• Adjustment Brush finesse. Yes you can increase your technique...
• TTG’s Pages 3.0 web gallery was released. Cost is $25, but is worth it if you need said functionality.
• Comparing before/after views in Lightroom. You did make it better, didn’t you?
• BTW, the new Leica cameras come with LIghtroom. And they shot native DNG.
• Selective color. Please no! Ok, maybe a bit, but don’t overdo it. PS. Texaschicksblogandpicts.com? I know!
• Free online Lightroom Webinar. Read more.
• Smart Collections are like playlists for your photos. And smart people use them. Be smart.

Not Lightroom related, but worth a look

• SEO and SmugMug. Its about getting da word out.

• For you point/shooters who like expensive things, here is a hands on with the new Leica X1. I’d love to, but the Oly is less than 1/2 as much.
• A hands on with the M9.

Ok, that is it for this week. I gotta go dig myself from under a Snow Leopard mess...

Have a great Tuesday.

Tags:Lightroom

Welcome to Lightroom Tuesday. Huzzah!

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.

• Top Ten Lightroom Tweets. Lots here I don’t need to duplicate...
• Scrapbooking and Lightroom? Frick on a Stick. I love that.
• Timothy Armes has a new Web Gallery out. Elegance. Hat tip to LRN.
• Plugins Galore - X-equals looks at all the greeeet Lightroom plugins you should consider...
• Jarvie kicks it with the Utah Photo Editing Showdown @Pictureline - see pros in action using Lightroom. Keep track of their future dates if you’re in the Wasatch Front area...
• David Saffir’s ongoing look at File management in Lightroom.
• Creating HDR images in Lightroom. Don’t do it. I kid. Kind of.
• Cleaning out your Catalog. Its like Spring or Fall cleaning, only with photos and involves less dust.
• I always yak on about how important keyboard shortcuts are in Lightroom. G, V, D, N, L, etc. Here is a nice video tutorial on using KBSCs to speed yourself. Think of it like a supercharger on the ends of your arms.
• Snow Leopard and Lightroom? I’ve personally not taken the plunge to SL until today and have not launched Lightroom on the lappy yet to see myself. Matt K covers it on his blog today. Note Tom Hogarty’s comments last week...
• Rebecca Lily offers some inexpensive preset variations for Lightroom. Some deep stuff there

• The Navigator and Rating video tutorial. I always hide the Navigator to get more left panel track space, but hey, thats just me.

Not Lightroom related, but worth a look

• Leica M9. Mmmmmm.

This past spring at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Seattle, my son Steen became enamored with the idea of learning the bag pipes. He saw all the pipers and just decided it was for him.

Apparently the piano is too pedestrian. Amen Steeny.

So he started asking if he could take lessons, and after a bit of googling, we found a local instructor who fit us in and recommended a practice chanter. The chanter is for newbies to learn on before buying the whole shebang (I shudder to think how much the whole shebang is going to cost me, btw).

His first lesson was yesterday. It was mainly how to hold your hands on the holes and get it to make a sound.

Or a sort of drawn out whine anyhow...

Go Steen! A kilt is next, young man!

Tags:Personal Work

Can you hear that?





That, my friends, is the sound of silence. Not in the Simon/Garfunkel way. In a good way.


School started today, and my kids are all out the door at 8:45 AM. This summer was a blur, with lots of travel, excitement and adventure. But I was ready to have some quite time. My youngest is now in 4 days a week pre-school and will hit Kindergarten next year. That gives my wife at least 12 hours a week with no kids around. Whoop! Its taken us 12 years to get to this point, and it was hard won.

So I’m going to relax, play some calm piano music and veg a bit while my wife reads a book.

Noon will come too quickly.


PS. Took a couple of portraits of my kids for back-to-school. Here is Chloe. She then went and got 11 inches of hair trimmed off after school.

Tags:Lightroom