Pro-bono: Our local Science Fair

   

For the past three years we have been providing photography for our regional science fair. This involves individual project photos taken during the day of judging (about 280), and taking the award presentation photos during the ceremony the following evening. This is a big fund raiser for the fair, and usually nets around $1400. Usually the fair lasts 3 days, with setup on Sunday afternoon, judging on Monday, and awards ceremony on Tuesday night. During the judging, Dorian and I visit each student to take their project photo. This year I used my small 12x18 softbox on a lightstand. Overall I liked the softer light rather than on-camera flash with the Gary Fong diffuser. Problem is the aisles were very tight and things were crowded. I also had some problem with the white balance and I should have gelled the flash and set to fluorescent. The mixed lighting made the backgrounds look a pukey mustard color. The most complex task is coordinating the image with the student. We printed individual address labels with project numbers, student names, and project names, and as we took a photo, we recorded a sequence number on each label. You cannot take all the students sequentially as some of them are being judged and you have to come back. After we insured ourselves that we got everyone, I did the post processing, color adjustments, and cropping to 5x7. Then I added the text for the event name. These files I uploaded to Costco for processing. Expect to spend a few hours doing this.

When you get your prints back then you have to affix the right label to the back of the photo. If you can get the sequence right, it is a matter of finding the next label in your sequence and placing it on the next photo in the stack. When all is complete your are ready to sell. We set up right in front of the entrance to the awards ceremony. We price the 5x7 print at $10, which nets about $9 to the fair. Most parents are good about their donations, and we manage to get most of the people that come to the ceremony to buy their child's photo. While the sales are going on I am taking photos of all the awards being presented. There are Special awards presented by individual groups and then Place awards (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). And then group shots of the State and International teams. There are usually around 200 individual shots. I process these and upload to Printroom.com so that parents can purchase these online. We make about $5 from each print or download through Printroom. 

My children were very active in the Science Fair, and so was I. I don't think most people realize what a big asset the Science Fair is to our future engineers and scientists. It is the only way they have to be recognized and the only venue they can come together to interact with each other and other adults in the scientific community. While a majority of America spends countless hours at the ballfields, this small group of incredibly bright kids are building their interests and skills in academic pursuit. I think that is an honorable direction, something that we all should encourage and support, especially in light of our current economic situation and our inability to produce anything of value to the world. Engineering, manufacturing, science, medicine? No, we are obsessed with professional sports, Hollywood, and American Idol. Most American cities have a regional science fair. Intel is the biggest sponsor of the International Science and Engineering Fair, the "Olympics" of science fair competition. Most people have never heard of it.  If you are interested, try to find your local fair and volunteer some time. You will be inspired by the children and feel hopeful that someone is taking care of our future.

A tour of South Florida

You would figure since I was born in FL that I would know this state like the back of my hand, especially as a photographer. Well, you know how the saying goes...something about green grass? After attending FotoFusion we headed south to Homestead FL, the city closest to the Everglades park entrance. We stayed in the trusty Best Western. I've been having a lot of luck with the BW hotels recently, they seem to be cheaper than the Hampton Inns (my "gold" standard) and each hotel is a little different. At $105 a night, queen bed, fridge, microwave, breakfast, it's a good deal. Our plans for the week were 3 days here in the Everglades, a quick trip to Key Biscayne, then driving through Big Cypress and up to Sanibel, then back to Jacksonville.

I'm not a wildlife photographer, and when you say Everglades you say birds and wildlife. This being the height of the birding season gets some people really excited. Lots of shorebirds, egrets, herons, etc. and plenty of gators. I was looking to produce some interesting landscapes and found this to be challenging. Clyde Butcher has the corner on the classic FL landscape, and you can't help but be completely in awe of his work. Finding my own interpretation of the nature of FL would certainly take me more than 3 days. I've grown to appreciate the fact that you need to be in an area for a long time in order to fully capture the sense of place. You can't just show up in your car on a random day and expect to walk away with a great image. Clyde Butcher lives right in the middle of the Big Cypress swamp and has been photographing there for half of his life. That is one reason why his images are so incredible.

So I set out with modest expectations and hopes of seeing and experiencing new things. We left my brother's house in Boca Raton and headed to the American Orchid Society Botanical Gardens in Delray Beach. Included is a landscaped garden area and a 45oo sf greenhouse filled with orchids. Best of all they allowed tripods. I was challenged finding compositions with so many flowers. The facility itself contains many resources for orchid growers and is a must see if you are an orchid lover.

  

American Orchid Society greenhouse gallery.

From Delray we took the Florida Turnpike to Florida City, which is at the south end of the highway. We checked into our hotel and headed to the Everglades visitor center to grab maps. It is about 15 miles from Florida City to the park. Our sunset location was the Pa-hay-okee Overlook  (river of grass) which is an elevated boardwalk in the middle of an area of dwarf cypress trees. There were many clouds as the front was coming in and we managed to see some color. As soon as the sun went down the mosquitoes came out...they were brutal!

 

The next day we headed out to the end of the main road which is at the Flamingo Visitor Center. Along the way we stopped at an overlook right before Pa-hay-okee. Then we headed to the Mahogany Hammock.  From here there was an area where there had recently been a fire, and the palmettos were just beginning to grow back, creating an interesting scene of green shoots. From Flamingo we headed back to the Christian Point Trail. We hiked about 1 mile in and turned back, then we stopped at the West Lake boardwalk and stayed until sunset. Unfortunately the clouds had taken over and there was no color.

  

 

Everglades and Big Cypress gallery.

Our next destination was Key Biscayne NP which is due east of Florida City. At the visitor center we found out that no boats were leaving due to the weather. By now the front had moved in with high winds and cold temperatures. We walked along the boardwalk and out to the jetty. Next time we will take a glass bottom boat tour which is a great way to see the reef if you want to keep dry.

 

Key Biscayne gallery.

From here we headed back into the park and stopped at Royal Palm which is the start of the Anhinga Trail and Gumbo Limbo Trail. The Anhinga is famous for wildlife, especially gators along the bank of the canal that follows the trail. It was very crowded with people and bus loads of kids, so we opted for the Gumbo Limbo trail and from there we headed for Long Pine Key, which is primarily a campground in the middle of a pine forest. I enjoyed a cloudless sunset in the pine forest.

While visiting all these locations I became aware of the devestation caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Basically Andrew, a Category 5 hurricane had winds of over 169 mph when it hit FL, ripped through this area destroying practically all the vegetation, trees, buildings, and most if not all of the growth is new since 1992. The signs along the trail told of many of the massive oak trees which were lost, and the buttonwood trees that were felled by the storm. You can still see many of the remains of the destruction.

From here we headed back to the Tamiami Trail to Big Cyress National Preserve. We stopped at a boat slip near the Miccosukee Reserve and talked to a local guide about all the big changes going on in the area. Lots of new development everywhere until the economy tanked. Lots of people from the north moving in. We took the Loop Road Scenic Drive on recommendation from one of the rangers. Lots of gators along the roadside and great views of the cypress trees. This road is unpaved but suitable for all types of cars. It's a slow drive but well worth it to see a "real" view of the old Florida. It was back to the highway on onto I-75 to Ft Meyers, where we checked into the Best Western (of course!). The weather report said early morning lows of 28 degrees with 20-25 mph winds...are you kidding?

 

We made a quick stop at Sanibel Island. It had been many years since we were here with the children. We stopped at Bowman's Beach hoping to find a good shelling spot. Looks like we missed the low tide so the shells were disappointing. It was cold on the beach so after about 2 hours we headed back to Jacksonville.

 

Sanibel gallery.

Landscapes of the Spirit

I just purchased and downloaded Willian Neill's e-book, Landscapes of the Spirit. It is an inspirational piece of work both for its photography and writing. I am a great fan of Neill's column in Outdoor Photographer and his blog. Following the work of photographers whose work you love is an important part of finding your own art. There's nothing wrong with imitating, copying, and cloning the masters, just don't fool yourself into thinking that this is your own. When the time comes I'm sure you will find your own path. We are indeed fortunate that today we are surrounded with the technology, resources, examples, and teachers of such a high caliber in photography, in fact in almost any subject matter. Have you looked at Lynda.com to see what is currently being offered in terms of online education? Over 31,000 courses, for one flat rate ($25 a month). You spend more at Starbucks in a week. Check out the site, as there is a lot of free content, like a great interview with Douglas Kirkland in an area called Creative Inspirations. I'm personally a fan of Italian designer and illustrator Simone Legno, creator of Tokidoki. There is a great interview with the designer, videos of his studio and projects.  

What a great time it is!

The Nature of nature photographers

This poem by Moshe Safdie has been widely circulated but I found it pertinent to nature photography (and photographers) and thought it was worth posting again: He who seeks truth shall find beauty. He who seeks beauty shall find vanity. He who seeks order shall find gratification. He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed. He who considers himself the servant of his fellow being will find the joy of self expression. He who seeks self expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance. Arrogance is incompatible with nature, Through nature and the nature of the universe and the nature of man we shall seek truth. If we seek truth, we shall find beauty.

Mr. Safdie is an architect who presented this at a TED conference in a talk on the uniqueness of buildings. The TED site contains hundreds of videos from leading thinkers that are presented at an annual conference. Some very thought provoking topics and well worth bookmarking for future study.

Blogging marathon over!

That was tough...13 posts in 4 days plus all the gallery updates. What a lot of activity since late August, I guess I've been busy. I think you will find some interesting stuff from August 20 onwards. Been to some interesting places. Never again do we fall behind... I'm looking forward to an exciting 2009 with lots of possibilities, opportunities, and changes ahead. You will see my plans mature as I seek to find a way through this new career. My proposed calendar for the next few months:

FotoFusion- Delray Bch FL, Jan 27-31 Doug's Photo Tour of South FL, Feb 1-5 Black & White Workshop with John Paul Caponigro, March 2-6 Doug's Winter Photo Tour of Maine, Mar 7-12 AIPAD - NYC. Mar 26 Photoshop World - Boston, Mar 25-27 (so how can I be in NY and Boston at the same time?) Look3 - Charlottesville VA, Jun 11-13 ?

Now it's on to updating the website, captioning and keywording, and backing up. Have you backed up your HDD recently? No? Call me guilty. I will have something on my PhotoShelter adventure soon. See you on the road!

First shoot of 2009

I am happy to report that I got my lazy butt out of the house to go shoot at one of my favorite locations in FL, Big Talbot Island SP. We have been having some really strange weather with record highs and cool nights. When the ambient temperature and dew points collide there's FOG! We don't have very many foggy mornings here in Jacksonville, so I was excited. Yesterday the fog lasted well past 10 AM...could I be so lucky again? Well......the alarm rang at 5 AM and I was on the road by 6, things looked promising. As I crossed the Dames Point Bridge and headed out Hecksher Drive, I could see that I was going to be disappointed. Boo. It was cloudy but no fog, it did not get cold enough. But the morning was peaceful on the beach. Please be aware that the main beach entrance is blocked so you have to find your own way to the beach.

I felt a little strange in that I had a lot of trouble "seeing" anything. I was listening the previous night to a podcast by Brooks Jenson on creativity, or the lack thereof, and how he sometimes suffers from a creative block, so he just sits in his car and reads and drinks coffee while his friend photographs. (click here and navigate to LW0463: The Rhythm of Creativity). Well that story stuck in my brain and I kept asking myself, "maybe this is going to be one of those mornings..." Bad idea. I was convinced that I got nothing, I'll let you be the judge of that. I did let the images "age" on the memory cards for a few days before processing.

On the lookout for the next foggy morning in Jacksonville.

Big Talbot not so foggy morning gallery.

12 Days in California: Days 5-9

Five days with Joe McNally can change your life. Joe is one of those charismatic people who can radiate his passion for photography, and the fact that he is willing to teach all willing subjects his craft is, well, quite a privilege for me. If you have never heard Joe speak, get yourself to one of his presentations or seminars right away. He is entertaining, inspiring, and his self-deprecating humor shows what a genuine down-to-earth person he really is. Joe is the "real thing." Day one of the workshop Joe presents his work and a bit of his own philosophy. In fact each morning we got a small dose of Joe's inner workings. You walk away in complete disbelief that this guy is in the same room with you teaching you how to set your white balance, the same guy who worked with celebrities, presidents, who has been everywhere and shot everything.

  

I attended this workshop to demystify lighting. If you are going to learn, learn from the best. Did I achieve my goal?  Was I ready for this? Probably not. But the experience was worth it. The class was large (16 people) and we divided into teams of 4 to shoot, each team had one model and we rotated shooting locations (2 locations per day). This was good and bad. I'm not so big on these "team" things not that I'm not a team player but at this point in my life I don't want to put up with people who are difficult (especially when I'm paying). Overall it worked out ok but certainly more hands on, more shooting, more iterations, would have helped me out. Did I master lighting? Far from that. Did I learn enough to keep going? Yes, now I at least know the basics and can keep working on it.

Lighting is definitely one of those "learn by doing" skills. Joe was a big supporter of "add enough light to taste" and like a master chef, he knew what to add and how to add it. I need formulas and stuff. Heck, I don't know enough about what looks good in a glamour shot to even know what to do to make it better. Duh. So maybe I needed a more basic class to build up my confidence and nail some basic setups. There still seemed to be too much trial and error for me...to many options, too many ways to do the same things. That's what makes it an art.

So here are some results for the week. Never worked so hard to get so few so-so images. That's when you know you are breaking new ground.

   

Gallery of all images for the week.

12 Days in California: Days 10-12

With the workshop over, I had 3 days of making my way back to San Francisco. Time to retrace my journey north on Hiway 1 with a stop at Big Sur. Wouldn't you know they closed Pfeiffer State Park for the rest of the season because of the fires and road repair. This is the big area directly around Big Sur...major disappointment. I decided to stay at the Big Sur Lodge which is at the entrance to the park and figured I would find something interesting on the 2 trails that were still open.

Montana de Oro gallery.

From Los Osos I woke up early (hooray!) to head up to Montana de Oro and Morro Bay State Parks. The wind was blowing hard and it was cold (well cold for me) but I was determined to finally get some morning light. Montana de Oro had a eucalyptus grove and a great coastal area but honestly the weather was pretty bad. After some shots here I headed out of town through Morro Bay SP which was very small. Got lost finding gas and finally got onto Hiway 1. Stopped at a few turnouts for some pics. The coast is incredible. I also saw in the light what I drove through in pitch blackness. You know why they put a 25 mph limit on those curves...because it you run off the road you literally go off a cliff into the sea. Yes, has-ta la vista, you are a gonner.

The rain started up and by 4:30 I checked into the Big Sur Lodge and got a nice cabin for $135. Most of Big Sur is a major tourist trap because it is in the middle of nowhere and the choices are slim. Dinner plans? Got a burrito and apple at the local gas station...cost me $12, ouch, but I was good for the night. Rain meant no sunset so I was relieved not to have to chase a location for that. From the weather report it looked like the front was locked onto the coast with crummy weather all weekend, so the plans for the morning were in the air. I think I'll sleep in. The next morning the rain let up and I rushed to the window to make sure that I didn't miss a gorgeous sunrise. Why can't we let it go? So we miss the most fantastic sunrise ever to happen at Big Sur...what's the big deal? It was a late breakfast at the lodge restaurant and then onto the Buzzard's Roost Trail right across the street. How convenient. The rain had let up, it was cloudy, and the wind died down, lovely conditions for a hike and some pictures. I had a great time and ended up taking 4 hours covering 1/3 of the trail (never did the portion that climbed to the top of the ridge).

  

Big Sur gallery.

From Big Sur I drove to Monterey and stayed again at the Best Western. Best $65 deal in town. The rain came down in sheets and I settled in. My thoughts surely were continued rain throughout the next day. Sleep in!! The next morning I was awakened by the pink sky of a gorgeous sunrise...OMG, the rain stopped. So what is the plan for the day? I happened to glance at one of those hotel books on Monterey and noticed that Michael Kenna was exhibiting at the Monterey Museum of Art...keep reading...exhibition Feb 9 - July 13...missed it. The title: The Elkhorn Slough and Moss Landing. I remembered that Moss Landing was a city nearby. Hmmm, good enough for Michael Kenna, good enough for me. Onwards to Moss Landing.

As I started driving north the sun was going in and out and to my surprise a huge rainbow appeared on the ocean. I was approaching Sand City (appropriately named) and wanted to find an exit that would take me to the shore. I got off but found myself in the wrong lane to loop to the shore, and ended up back on 1 going north. I was driving like mad to get to the next exit and then backtrack. All this was happening while I had the rainbow in clear sight. Finally when I found the backroad to get to the ocean the rainbow had all but disappeared. So much for that. Moss Landing was ahead and I could not wait to see what Michael Kenna found there.

As I approached the main entrance I could see a car stopped near the gate. A closed gate? What was this? There seemed to be cars in the parking lot, but the gate was locked. I read the sign: Parked closed on Mondays. WTF? Of all the stupid things...who decided this? There was only 1 other location open, a boat ramp. What a disappointment. Just couldn't believe it. I wasted my morning shoot for a boat ramp? Well, I headed for the boat ramp hoping for a happy ending. By this time all traces of any clouds had disappeared, the sun was in full force in a blue sky. Just a lovely time for landscape photography. Well the boat ramp confirmed my complete and utter disappointment. After now seeing Kenna's portfolio, I should have made the best of it to photograph the fence posts, sea gull droppings, and power plant smokestacks, but I just called it a day and decided to move on to San Francisco. I had a great 12 days, lots of great shooting, and some days you just enjoy driving around in Castroville - the artichoke capital of the world!

Do something nice with your photography

We just finished a shoot with a good friend whose daughter has autism. Some families have it tough and sometimes a few good photos can help out in a difficult situation. The daughter was leaving for school and being separated for the first time. When you can help out your friends or those in need it brings back many rewards to you. We get tied up in the economics of every decision, and with all this talk of recession and crashes, it's easy to retreat into your safe harbor. Do take your gift and share it with others in need. You will be glad you did.

My most productive day?

I am returning from a week in NYC attending the PDN Photo Expo and then staying on to visit with my daughter and playing tourist. PDN (as usual) was awesome and it reminded me of attending the computer shows back in the late 70's, full of excitement. I fell in love with the new 5D MkII...I actually had one reserved at Hunt's Photo and turned it down. Just doing a little proactive recession proofing. Boy this market is crazy and I'm taking a major hit.

  

After the Expo we visited the New York Botanical Garden, did Central Park, and then the Metropolitan. On the last day it was rainy and I was beat, but I still wanted to get out to the Financial District with a possible visit to the Statue of Liberty while everyone else was shopping. Now I get lost just going to the store at home so navigating the subways and streets of NYC is a major challenge for me. In the rain hauling camera gear in the cold, wind...well you get the picture. I decided to go with one body and my 24-70 and 70-200, with a Think Tank Change-up bag. I was still pretty obvious walking around in my bright red ski jacket with this big camera -- tourist alert! I started out around 9 am and took the Green line to Wall Street. As I popped out of the ground Trinity Church was on my right...I was there!

 

So I found the famous Wall Street which to be honest was not all that impressive. The New York Stock Exchange building was obviously closed to the public and had an enormous flag draped across the front of the building. I guess they wanted to demonstrate the patriotism of losing trillions of dollars in this holy institution. Across the street was the famous statue of George Washington at the Federal Hall Building, witnessing the mess this country has created. Security was very tight and despite the rain, there were many tourists wandering around, primarily from Europe and Japan. 

From Wall Street I made my way to Ground Zero. I did not know what to expect. I walked north on Trinity Place up to Liberty and headed west. As I approached the site I could see that everything was boarded up at street level, again very tight security and lots of construction equipment. I passed the 9/11 memorial musem and had intended to come back but never did...next time. It was around lunch time and very crowded. I was hanging around one of the construction entrances taking some shots when this huge construction worker starts walking towards me. I expected him to start telling me to get lost but I smiled and waved and he then asked me if I was getting some good shots. He told me to go to the Winter Garden Court in the World Financial Center for the best overall view of the site.

At this point I really needed to find a restroom so my potty radar was on high alert as I entered the World Financial Center complex hoping that I would blend in with all the suits walking around. This building is huge and I spotted a sign to the Winter Garden. This is actually a huge food court within a bunch of high end shops. I found the viewing area and just stood there, looking at the site through the windows. I started to get quite emotional as I saw all the American flags on the cranes and the enormity of the site. And then I started thinking about what it was like when it happened, and the clean up, and the lives that were affected. I just stood there and looked.

 

Then I remembered that I really do need to use the toilet and I really do need to make some images so it was images first (of course!) and then on to find the public restroom. I grabbed a sandwich and planned my next stop...the Statue of Liberty. I decided to walk on the Esplanade at Battery Park City, so I could fully experience the wind chill coming off the Hudson River. Judging from the total lack of people I was convinced that it was too cold for any rational human being to be walking around.

The ferry to the Statue and Ellis Island leaves from Battery Park, and as I walked up to the ticket booth they were telling everyone to hurry up as this was the last ferry of the day, and that it was too late to go to Ellis Island. So I think I got the last ticket (my style) and I ran to catch the ferry. Of course they had the airport security set up and I had to strip off the camera gear, shoes, etc. while I could see the boat waiting to leave. Oh those tourists! The ride on the ferry was fun as it allowed me to reach another level of coldness as the spray added some moisture to the air. Curious there was no one on the back railing of the boat taking pictures...everyone was huddled inside as any sane person would do. I was hanging off the back hoping the spray would keep off the lens.

Before you knew it Lady Liberty was right in front of us. We docked and I headed to the park visitor center to get my National Park Passport stamped. You approach the statue from the back, walking around the base you can get a sense of the scale, and then the impact hits you when you walk around to see the face. Brilliant. As I was shooting the light was changing and the conditions were just perfect for what I consider a great day to be out in the cold. These clouds are not Photoshopped! At 5:00 the last ferry was leaving so I made sure I wasn't the last one. On the ferry the sun came out for a brief moment to illuminate the city with the light of liberty.

In retropect this was one of my best days for images. What made it special? The locations, the weather, my frame of mind? Special days are to be cherished because they don't happen very often. When they do we celebrate and give thanks.

Week in NYC gallery.

FCTM Fashion Show

My daughter Diana Eng never ceases to amaze. She just presented a keynote and fashion show at the annual FCTM (FL Council Teachers of Mathematics) conference in Jacksonville held Oct 16-18 at the Hyatt. Diana's presentation "A Mathematical Fashion Show" covered the use of mathematics in fashion design, followed by a runway show of her recent designs. Diana Middleton of the Florida Times Union produced a great article for the paper.

Diana is a very focused and determined individual willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill her vision. I take a lot of inspiration from that. Is learning from your children a return on investment? I'm enjoying it.

The final roadtrip home: Montréal to Jax - Part 1

We received an offer on our condo within 3 weeks of listing it. So the time has come, time to pack and time to say goodbye. Moving is tough both emotionally and physically. I did not want to ship anything back, so the furniture was sold with the condo and everything that would not fit into the SUV got tossed or was given away. I also had 3 bikes, tons of books, and clothes. My decision was that after closing, we would make our way west along HW 17 through Ottawa, Pembroke, North Bay, Sudbury, through Sault Ste-Marie to Munising  MI. This would allow us to see some peak foliage in the Michigan UP. Then we would drive south through Columbus to visit with relatives, with a quick stop in West Virginia and then back to Florida. I had spent the week previously packing and visiting with friends. The execs at my office invited me to a farewell dinner which was very touching. I received gifts and well wishes from everyone. This made it all the more difficult to leave. As we turned in our condo keys and headed out of town Dorian and I were in tears. It was very sad and both of us knew that we were closing out a very special time in our lives. The weather matched our feelings as it was drizzling cold rain. I met my close friend Ed outside the city to give him my phones and router. We hugged and said goodbye.

Québec/Ontario Autumn gallery.

Soon we crossed into Ontario and we noticed the foliage was brilliant. Although the rain continued the trees were in their peak transition. We managed to stop at several parks and turnouts along the way. First night was in Pembroke at the Econo Lodge. I made reservations on line at various places. You never know what you are going to get but we were please with the accommodations. Night number 2 was in Sudbury at the Parker House Inn (a B&B). I would highly recommend this place, great restaurant and very nice people. After 2 days of driving we crossed back into the US at Sault Ste-Marie into Michigan and headed to Munising . When we crossed the border I had another moment of sadness as I said goodbye to Canada. The Soo locks were very interesting and we did not allow time to photograph there (next time) as we wanted to make it to Munising before dark.

We arrived at the Sunset Motel on the Bay and Lake Superior greeted us with rain and gale force winds. Forcast? Rain and wind for the next 3 days. Lovely.

Far above Cayuga's waters...

Yes I graduated from Cornell in 1976 and getting back to campus is always somewhat of a rejuvenating journey back to the past. Our son's girfriend's brother is attending the engineering school so we made a trip over to visit with all of them. Cornell has a beautiful campus, and there were a lot of changes (hadn't been back there in almost 10 years). But some things never change...like the clock tower, the Straight, and the gorges. We explored the Cornell Plantations for the first time. For the 5 years I was there I never went. And we made it out to Treman State Park one of our favorites.

 

Cornell University gallery.

  

Robert H. Treman Park gallery.

We took a side trip to Corning NY home of Corning glass and the museum. Again this is a place we never visited in our time up here. The exploring and discovery never stops, nor should it.

 

Corning Museum of Glass gallery.

Lightroom Catalogs

The organization of my LR Catalogs has put me in a quandary. Too many questions, not many answers. Do I put everything in one catalog?, do I have one catalog for each year?, should a catalog contain images not on the physical drive that it is saved on?, what happens when my catalog gets corrupted?, how many catalogs should I be managing?, can I search across catalogs?, how many images can a catalog hold...how many images should a catalog hold? I was trying to do a search on strategies for setting up and organizing catalogs and came up short. I know when Adobe designed this concept, they had something in mind, but they failed to give some good examples of catalog organization for different scenarios. Like giving you a box of Legos without instructions. Ok, so I came up with my own organizing thoughts, some of which may be based on false assumptions (please tell me if you know otherwise).

Point 1: Only a single catalog can be searched/filtered at one time. The software can point to only a single catalog, there is no facility to search multiple catalogs simultaneously (a great feature to have), at least I haven't found a way to do that yet.

Point 2: Based on Point 1, a catalog should contain all the images that you want to be able to filter and search on in one operation. So, you should not have a separate catalog for 2008 and 2007 if you want to have a collection that contains images from both years.

So, the strategy is to define a catalog based on a type or category of photos that you want to be able to search. In other words, it may not make sense to store your family snapshots and your flower abstracts in the same catalog. Thinking about this, I set up 4 main "categories" of photos I am producing:

1) Stock images (nature, buildings, objects, people, abstracts) that I feel may have some value to be sold as stock or something I may want to someday hang on my wall. A majority of my images are in this category

2) Snaps (family, friends, personal travel photos, ebay shots) are images that have no commercial or art value but satisfy the need to document trips, the kids, or other personal things - like my messy garage before and after...never got to the after image yet.

3) Events (science fair, reunions, weddings, communions, etc.) are images for a specific event that I get involved with (can you take some pictures of Joey's graduation since you have a nice camera??) and has little or nothing to do with my main body of work.

4) Projects, like Photographers for Freedom, which are composed of multiple shoots, but may need to be referenced collectively.

I will define catalogs based on these categories. This seems to make sense to me at this time in my appreciation of LR Catalogs. At least it is a step to avoid keeping all images in one Catalog. As for the answers to all the questions I posed above, I still don't have clear answers. But we have to go with something and I'll let you know what I end up putting together.

Lightroom 2.0 upgrade

Today I upgraded my Lightroom to 2.0 and re-confirmed my commitment to the software with my wallet. I promised myself to work through my internal resistance to change workflow, and now I am narrowing my excuses. Adobe is doing a great job of hyping the new release, and I am always a sucker for a good sales pitch (bought a few Magic Bullets a while back). I've started going down the Lightroom path at least 3 times, and now I am going again. There are several big mental obstacles to overcome and it means just setting one's mind to the task and doing it. Old habits are hard to break and this old dog needs to learn some new tricks. The first big rock to overcome is convincing yourself that your existing tools and ways just cannot accommodate what you want to do. Here is my situation:

I have been shooting digitally since 2004 and have amassed around 280 GB of photos, mostly RAW, numbering in the neighborhood of 28,000 images. These are all organized on several external HDDs, my 1 TB drive has everything as a master archive, a 250 GB has 2007/2008 and is my "working" drive, and an additional 160 GB drive has 2006-2004.

I am tired of looking for images based on memory of when and where they were taken. As I venture into selling stock, I need to be able to not only find images but keywording is essential. If I take the time to title, caption, and keyword an image I only want to do this one time for all eternity, and I need a place where this can be done efficiently and in an organized way. I'm not going to re-enter the same title for my pBase site, Zenfolio site, PhotoShelter, etc.

Although Canon DPP has served me well, it is time to move on. The editing tools in LR are far superior, and the integration with Photoshop is designed to help your workflow.  I'm looking forward to the upgrade.

To shoot or not to shoot

That is the question we answer each day. Do you feel guilty when the answer is NO? Like an athelete training for an event, we feel the need to exercise our craft everyday. So is it acceptable to "think" about photography, or do we need to actually pick up the camera to do something meaningful? For me the guilt is there, especially when I know the external conditions are right (availability of time, location, light, wind conditions, temperature, etc.). But there are things we must do, to manage the rest of our lives, and the rest of our photography. I think each of us must resolve this question for ourselves. There is comfort and solace being behind the camera. But there are also realities of life that ask for our time and attention.

I surrender...Lightroom is in

You can say I’ve gone to great lengths to avoid using Lightroom and Photoshop in my work. Possible reasons:1. Learning to use software in a royal pain 2. I am hooked on DPP for 95% of the work I need to do 3. I’ve been producing primarily for the Web, when I make prints I’m definitely in PS 4. I’ve never had to keyword or title my stuff

As I get more serious into management of my “assets” (funny, I never considered my snaps as assets before because I never felt they were of much use to anyone) I know I need to get into some professional tools. Honestly if they added the following two features to DPP, I would be a happy camper and would continue to use it for most of my workflow: 1. Add/modify EXIF data and keywords 2. Free Transform the image (for straightening and perspective correction)

DPP is FAST and it writes all non-destructive changes within the CR2 file itself, no sidecars, no major databases to sync and haul around. My other choice is to convert everything to DNG and have the same idea, but this means I am into Bridge or Lightroom and still leaves the chore of archiving the original CR2s (which I probably should be doing anyway).

From what I can see if I am going to get into stock I need to keyword, and the best way to do and manage that seems to be Lightroom. I’m sure I will get over my cold feet with this program, but honestly I have tried to get going with this on three separate occasions and each time I gave up because it just seemed too hard. The concept of the “database” holding everything is different. I should know better as this is the basic architecture of any version control or content management system used in my work. I think in Adobe’s attempt to hide this complexity from the end users, it leaves most of what is going on with the file a complete mystery, which disturbs me. Yes it’s time for an old dog (Doug) to learn some new tricks. Adobe spent millions of $$s on this program and spoke to hundreds of pros, so it’s not like the program was developed by some guy in a closet. Who is to say I cannot adopt to a new workflow designed to make me more productive? You cannot resist the Force!

So I am going to start Importing my Tuscany images into Lightroom, and expect that ALL of my edits, cloning, crops, and color corrections with DPP will be lost. I’m crying now…I’ll keep you updated on the progress.

PC and 5D together in perfect USB harmony

I've always wanted to control my camera from my computer and decided it was time to see if I could get this to work. I knew that Canon had some utility to do this, but didn't have an idea where to start. Looking at my Start menu under Canon Utilities I saw an item called EOS Capture 1.5...hmm, looks promising. Upon expanding that item it had two choices, Readme or Uninstall. That stinks. So I went to the Canon website and navigated to the download section for my 5D. There was an Updater for a program called EOS Utility 2.4 (not very descriptive) so I tried to download this. I received an error message that since I didn't have the previous version, I could not install it. That stinks. So how does one get an old version? I am up here in Montréal and do not have all my regular CDs and stuff but luckily I had an older EOS Solution CD. It had software for ZoomBrowser, DPP, EOS Capture, PhotoStitch, PhotoRecord, etc. but no EOS Utility. So I decided to try to install the EOS Capture again since the version on my machine was impotent.

I loaded the CD and went through the install for EOS Capture and it told me the software was already installed so it didn't do anything. That stinks. So I exited the install and uninstalled EOS Capture, went back and loaded the CD and tried to install it again. So it managed to install some files, I rebooted my computer (no small task as it take 5 minutes to go through everything). Went back to the Start menu to EOS Capture and crap, same two items: Readme and Uninstall. That stinks. Obviously I was doing something wrong. I read in the Software Guide (I was getting desperate) that the camera needed to be attached and switched to Communication: PC Connect. Aah...was this my problem? Didn't make much sense to me so I repeated my steps and ended up with the same result. At this point I was ready to call it quits.

I uninstalled EOS Capture again, went back to the Install CD and decided to install ZoomBrowserEX 5.5, what the heck, this was the only utility I didn't have and I figured someone may be assuming I need this to get the EOS Capture to work. This was a big program. After rebooting my computer (third time) I went looking for EOS Capture and no luck. So in desperation I fired off ZoomBrowser and saw that it had an Acquire and Camera Settings "task" so I started clicking in there, finding a Remote Capture feature. I was able to change the camera settings and click the shutter all from this little dialog box. How cool is that? But wait, where were the images going. I set the location of the captured files to a folder but nothing was coming in. Nothing was being written to the memory card. That stinks.

I went back to the download page and decided to get the updated version of ZoomBrowser. The version I had was 5.5, and the new one was 6.0.1c. So I did the download, went through the install and fired up the new version. Under the Acquire & Camera Settings, I selected Connect to Camera and received this new message:

 

WTF!! Ok, I was getting quite upset with this whole ordeal. Out of complete desperation I went to grab the EOS Utility again. Under the description for the file it confirmed that this was the program I should be using for remote capture. I downloaded the install, fired it off and it got safely through, no message telling me a previous version was not installed. I rebooted one more time, and kept my fingers crossed (not really...I knew this would work!). After clicking on the shortcut I was able to see again the Remote dialog box, and able to set the images to go directly to DPP (Canon's RAW file utility). So I was able from the laptop to change aperture, ISO, click the shutter, and see the image appear in DPP for immediate review. How COOL is that? Redemption at last.

BTW, EOS Capture never did intall correctly. Which goes to show how utterly sick, cruel, sadistic, and idiotic all of this is on us poor techno-phobes, who only want to get something simple to work.

 PC and 5D, together at last!

Inspiration from LensWork #75

Yesterday I went through my LensWork #75 Extended DVD and found lots of inspiration within. I've mentioned LensWork before and it continues to be one of my favorite and useful photography publications. The Extended DVD has the benefit of delivering LOTS of images, audio, and video interviews, and other goodies. I never fail to find something useful and relevant to my work. The highlight of the issue was an interview with Bruce Barnbaum, who is a very well known fine art photographer in Washnigton. The portfolio shows Barnbaum's latest exhibition called Stone and contrasts the natural and built environments. It is fantastic. There is also a video interview (32 mins) that is enlightening. What is good about the videos is that you get to see and hear the artist, which adds to our ability to relate to the artist's work. Also on Barnbaum's web site there is an excellent essay on digital photography, a must read for everyone.

The other very interesting portfolio was by Larry Blackwood entitled Elevations: Grain Elevators. This was my kind of stuff, details of these huge structures in Montana. There are several grain elevators in Montréal near the Old Port that I pass each time I ride my bike to Ile Notre Dame (the Formula 1 track). I've contemplated photographing them and now I am highly motivated to do so.

One last item, a very valuable interview with Bill Jay, whom I would have never know about should it not be for Lenswork. Bill Jay is one if not the most prolific photographer of photographers. He is also an author and educator. His web site contains hundreds of downloadable essays and also scans of the magazine Album. Very significant reading for anyone interested in both contemporary and the history of photography. He is very critical of the current state of fine art photography today.

Photomerge magic in Photoshop

You know I am so techno phobic about things. Being a former technology/computer guy you wouldn’t think I would be but I’m going to have to confess. I don’t know if I’m just too lazy to learn anything new, or I’m just a techno-dufus. Anyway I used the Photomerge feature for the first time tonight and WOW, this feature is way cool. It stitched together a panorama I did in Tuscany in 3 clicks. Smart stuff. So what if it's a 150MB PSD...I can make a BIG print. It’s actually encouraging for me to know that I can do this…I mean I’m not going to tell everyone that it’s so simple even Doug can do it. Try it for yourself.

I was inspired to try this by Jeremey Woodhouse, one of the instructors on my Tuscany trip.

1) Level the tripod, head, and camera. You must first level your tripod. It you have a ball head, then you need to remove it to level the base, then re-attach the head, then level the head. If your camera is not level then as you swing it around the image will tilt up or down...not good. Take the time to do this right or it isn't worth the effort.

2) Determine exposure and set to Manual. Use some judgement here especially if one of your shots will have a lot of sky. You need pick an exposure that considers all of the shots you will be taking.

3) Manually focus, again with consideration of each shot, but set the focus and don't touch it.

4) Overlap 50%. You can get by with less, but this is a safe bet to ensure that there will be no problem with the merge

5) Process all the single images with the same recipe. This may seem obvious but it's worth mentioning.

6) Once you have all the images, in Photoshop go to File/Automate/Photomerge. Click Browse, select your files, and Voila!, it works. Amazing stuff. I'm sure there are plenty of tutorials on this, but I wanted to give the steps here so you can see how simple it is. Now if I can only find that Autoremovedustspecs function...

Some shots are more conducive to panoramas than others. I did a few others and they didn't seem to jump. Sometime a wide angle does the trick, but it's nice to have one more technique in the arsenal.