But no shots of water.
I had a nice little stroll down by the river today. Shot some details on buildings and bridges.
and remember, they will get bigger if you click on them.
I had a “George Barr” moment (1) when I crawled under a bridge, which resulted in this shot of a bridge foundation.
(1) The urge to shoot rusty metal structures.
In my previous web galleries, I wanted to do things a tiny bit different than than the tools I used supported. This added more steps to the flow of getting images out of the library and on to the web page. Not much work for each individual image, but still enough to make it a hassle. And it didn’t really matter. Take for instance the frame I used around my published photos. I had to record an action in Photoshop to create it, so that in itself became a just a matter of running that action, but I also had to export the photo to pdf first, convert to jpg afterwards and move the jpg to the right location. Now I just drag the image into the right LightRoom collection and push publish. The watermark looks perfectly fine.
So, I have completed the first step in my new gallery publishing flow, and I’m quite happy. I had to do some work on the Lightroom template I used to make it more consistent with the rest of my web page, but that was mostly a matter of copying various parts of the RapidWeaver template into the LightRoom template. I had to break the menu system in the gallery section. It requires a lot more work than I am willing to do before LR and RW starts to talk.
Still have a some work to do on the look of the main gallery page, but that will probably fall into place during the holiday.
So, now I have more or less achieved my goal of being able to publish images directly from LR. It took me 5-6 hours of template fiddling, but will probably pay of in the long run. In the process, I found a gallery viewing scripts that works a bit better than the one I used, and I increased the size of my gallery photos to fit within 1000px*800px.
So, here you can see how the galleries looks. Not that much different but much easier for me.
I went out last night with my camera thinking I should do some more night shots, but it turned out that what I needed was a fast walk. Lately, my wife and I have worked on her getting her drivers license, which she did yesterday. This has consumed a lot of time driving around the last couple of months, and we both noticed the tension prior to her exam. It went really well, so we’re both happy, but I certainly did not have the right state of mind to do any shooting. Hopefully this will change now that things are calming down.
I was about to write a post on how I adjust the input sharpening in LightRoom2, but while I wrote, I started to rethink the method I was using. I need to experiment some more.
I was just trying to get through the back log of old Lenswork podcasts when I ran accross one where Brooks Jensen told about his passion for baking bread. That is at least one thing I share with him. My photographs may have a way to go before their up to his standard, but I’m pretty confident that my breads are pretty good.
It’s a pretty relaxing activity, and enjoyable both in the doing and in the consuming. It can be turned into an obsession as well. A friend of mine is cultivating his own yeast and sour dough, and has avery broad range of techniques for mixing, kneading and raising the dough. Well, I’m not going to turn this into a bread baking blog, but it is always fun when you find someone with common interests, so I thought I’d just mention it.
I just tried the color test mentioned at TOP. Much to my amusement, I got this score.
I actually didn’t think I was able to separate colors that well. The problem then is to make good use of it, which is much harder.
I think this test is much like telling musical notes apart when you get a reference “A” to listen to first. Not that hard, and quite many people can do it. Much harder is it to know which note is played without any reference. The same with colors. Arranging these colors on a line isn’t that difficult, but to spot an unnatural skin tone in a photo without proper references for comparison is much more difficult.
No surprise that Canon announced this camera now since the replacement was long overdue. just a few thoughts on this new camera.
The name: 5D mkII
I think thsi was the right choice for Canon. If they had gone for 6D or 3D or something, they would soon run out of names, and it would be confusing for the customers to place the different models in the lineup. Now everyone knows that the most recent 5D is the model just below the most recent 1D
The sensor:
Everything indicates that they have used the exact same sensor as the 1Ds mkIII, at least if you look at resolution. And why not, Nikon just matched they top model sensor in the D700 so it would be stupid of Canon to not do the same. Now both brands offer top notch IQ in a smaller and more affordable package. Also this is a good thing for Canon as they now have a much larger market for their 21MP sensor, which eventually will drive the price down as the production is ramped up.
Weather sealing:
This is a no brainer these days, even at the mid range models thanks to the competition.
HD Video:
What is this?? Buy yourself a video camera for christ sakes. Again, thanks to competition… ??
Mirror lock up:
Canon still think direct print is more important.
Do I want one: Yes! I just have to rob a bank first.
Will I buy one: No! Not worth going to jail for, and my old 5D still produces excellent pictures.
