Lightroom Tuesday

Its Lightroom Tuesday!

Today I’ve got some links gleaned from the web about my favorite workflow application:

In other news:


That is it.

Im on my way home today, and things should get back to normal (well, until I head to Moab next week).
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OnPoint Tactical

Sorry for the delay in updates. I’m on a multi-day photo shoot for a client in Colorado. I have friends who run a wilderness survival school and I was asked to come out and spend a few days taking pictures of several classes for a group of students in the Denver area.

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!

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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.

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Lots of fun for a bunch of grown-up boys digging in the dirt.

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More from Ivy

I’ve finished going thru a large set of images from a photo shoot from a week ago. Here are some of my favorites of Ivy...

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Weekend Fun

A very busy weekend.

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.

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Lightroom Update on Adobe Labs

Well, it looks like Adobe has a little present for us all - the 2.1 update was released to Labs tonight. A bit odd, really, as this is a beta release, but ok.

Info here

I have not grabbed it yet. Not sure if I will, or if I’ll wait for the final release.

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And, from this afternoon. Another of my youngest. He’s on a roll this week.

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Have a great weekend.

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SmugMug on Top

Someone did a pretty exhaustive comparison of your Photo Sharing options and SmugMug came out shining...

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Note the matrix of features - note the lack of RED in the SmugMug column.

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M8 Firmware Update 2.0

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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

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Emerald Ballet - New Season Begins!

Emerald Ballet Theatre began its second season this week. Huzzah!

I managed to get into the studio this week for a bit of shooting on Tuesday evening. Here are a few from that session...

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Here is to another season of dance!

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Micro Soccer Begins

Micro soccer began last Friday for my middlesque son. Micro soccer, as you might guess, is small-format soccer for the young’uns. Three players and a postage stamp-sized field. No goalies, just one meet a week with practice and games rolled in to one. It works for teaching the basics, and the boys love it. Last year I coached this team, but with all my work travel, I decided to let someone else handle it this year.

Here are a few pictures from Friday’s meet-up...

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Not to be outdone, my youngest was in fine form as well...

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Such a proud moment. I have no idea what he was up to...

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Smattering of Stuff

Been pretty busy lately with the work change and a rush of client work. Here are a few things from the past week or so that might be of interest:

  1. A Message from Hilary and Sarah
  2. New Leica M8.2 and lenses. More here.
  3. Zeiss lenses for Canon EOS Cameras
  4. iPhone photo-app compendium
  5. McCain vs. Greenberg - woah. More here. And here.
  6. New 5D speculation
  7. New Lightroom 2 book from Scott Kelby
  8. 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...

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What a crack up.

Onto better things. Cheers!

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Photo Shoot: Pirate Party

As promised, here is a link to a large gallery of images from Saturday’s Pirate Party, hosted by the most excellent Jeanine and attended by quite a few youngsters and their parents.

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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.

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Photo Shoot: Ivy

The second shoot of the weekend was with Ivy, daughter of a good friend. She was up for all kinds of antics and we got along great.

Here are a few pictures...

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More to come shortly from this shoot as well.

Have a great day...

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Photo Shoot: Pirate Party

Had several photo shoots this past weekend, keeping me quite busy. The first was a birthday “Pirate” party for a large group of pre-schoolers.

Here are a few pictures...

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More to come shortly from this shoot.

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The Crimson Ghost


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A company tradition. My turn...

Many went for tailings of their nerdy comic book past. I went for something a bit different.

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New Job!

Today is an exciting day. Today I start work for a new company.

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.

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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...

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Zion National Park

Well, it has been a busy week.

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.

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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.

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Anniversary!

As mentioned yesterday, I’m off to Zion National Park to celebrate my 15 year anniversary. Just me and the wife - no kids, no computers, no nothing. Just hiking and a few photos.

A few things gathered over the past week or so to keep you entertained:
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Skoolz In! Skoolz in!

Well, the kids headed back to school today. Summers go by so fast, and before you know it, our front room is piled high with looseleaf paper, binders and lots of pink erasers.

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.

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Have fun kids! Its quiet around the home office today...

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Photo Shoot

I’ve got a bit of a backlog of work to do, given the last few weeks of insanity, travel and more travel. It looks like things really won’t calm down until mid October, when my crazy calendar starts to open back up. I might actually be looking forward to a quiet fall. Sure, that will happen.

I was in the studio Saturday with a lovely young lady and here are a few of the excerpts from that shoot:

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Hope you had a great Labor Day - we spent the entire time getting the house clean for the impending parental visit. My wife and I will be going to Zions National Park for a long weekend away from the kids to commemorate 15 years of marriage.

My wife rocks. And to celebrate, we’ll go climb thru oodles of giant red sandstone in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

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