I love shooting with a DSLR.  The flexibility, control, and image quality are really hard to beat.  There is a problem though with having a camera system that weighs 4 pounds and is the size of a brick.  It can sometimes be burdensome on occasions to carry a big camera rig, especially if you are just doing some simple sightseeing.  This was my problem.  I have all the DSLR cameras and accessories that I need for most of my photo excursions but when it came time to make a quick trip or visit a market I would opt for leaving the camera behind because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of carrying all that weight around my neck.  The problem is that I would always see something that I would have loved to photograph but then didn’t have a camera.  So I decided to find something small that I could carry in my pocket and still hopefully get the shot.

I didn’t want to get just any point and shoot camera though.  My main criteria was that it have most of the controls that were available in a DSLR.  There were several cameras that were in that ball park but in the end it came down to just two, the Canon G11 and the Panasonic DMC-LX3K.  I did a lot of research on the two cameras but in the end, I decided on the Panasonic for a few of reasons.  First was the actual size.  At about 8 oz. it’s a bit smaller than the G11, second, it has a larger LCD screen, and third, the Leica DC VARIO-SUMMICRON lens is very wide at 24mm and has a maximum aperture of f/2.0.

There are some other features that really helped sell me on this camera like the RAW file format (yes, they can be opened by Lightroom and Camera RAW), The three different image size formats (4:3, 3:2, and the very wide 16×9) that are changeable by a simple switch on the top of the lens, and the hi-def video.  There are actually a ton of other features built into this little camera and I am just beginning to explore the possibilities but from everything I have seen, we are going to be the best of travel companions.

Here’s a sample of what the 16×9 image format looks like.  Unfortunately I didn’t have this camera with me in Malaysia but the cropping of this pano gives you an idea of why I like the wide format so much.  I’m going to have a lot of fun.  If it ever stops raining here, I will take some sample shots and post them next week.  Until then I will have to settle for cozying up with my owners manual.

Related posts:

1. I want to buy a DSLR, which camera should I buy?
2. Tulips and Camera Profiles
3. A Family Affair

Adobe Lightroom Update -

Adobe has released a new update for Lightroom over at the Adobe Labs.  The latest update, version 2.6, addresses a fix for PowerPC users in ver. 2.5 as well as a ton of new RAW updates for new cameras including the Canon 7D, G11, Nikon D3s, and several others.  You can grab your update at the Adobe Labs site.  Remember though that this is a release candidate, not a final version so there might be a bug or two lurking beneath the surface.  There is also a new Camera Raw update that handles the same new cameras and fixes.  You can find it here.

Fix for Snow Leopard Users -

Some of you that took the Mac Snow Leopard plunge found that you had some issues using your Adobe Photoshop.  It seems that there were several issues popping up and the only one that could fix the problem was Apple.  Adobe has been working closely with them on this issue and there is now a new update to Snow Leopard, which should solve most of the issues that folks have been having.  The latest update, version 10.6.2, is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.  The update also fixes the bug that prevented the opening of multiple photos from Lightroom to Photoshop for editing. Previously, selecting 3 or more photos in Lightroom and trying to send them to Photoshop for panorama stitching, HDR merging or opening as layers would open Photoshop but no photos would appear.

Getting to Know Photoshop -

My friend Julianne Kost, The Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop Evangelist, has a great instructional video on how Lightroom and Photoshop work together.  Also included in this video is a great tutorial on using Photoshop Action Droplets in Lightroom to really automate your processing workflow.  Julianne is awesome and her videos are jam packed with useful info.  You can find this and other training videos at GetToKnowPhotoshopCS4 website.

Epson Interviews the Pros -

This isn’t really educational but I did find it pretty interesting.  Epson has a new series of large format printers, the Stylus Pro 900.  To help kick off their new product line, Epson has conducted a series of short interviews with some of the biggest names in the photo industry including Jay Maisel, John Paul Caponigro, Steve McCurry, Douglas Dubler, to name a few.  The interviews are only about 3 or 4 minutes long but they do give some insights into the artists and their thoughts on printing and photography.  I started watching one of them and before I knew it I had watched the entire series.  If you have some time, give them a look see. (Here’s the link)

That’s all for today, have a great Thursday!

Related posts:

1. Late Breaking News
2. Thursday Odds & Ends
3. Lightroom Resources

A few days back I ran a tutorial on correcting perspective by using the Lens Correction filter.  I failed to do one thing after applying the filter that would have made the perspective correction look much more realistic.  See, the only problem with correcting perspective is that it can sometimes give tall objects in the image a slightly stretched look.

The easiest way to fix that is to use the free transform tool after performing the lens correction filter.  Just press CMD or CTRL – T to bring up the Free Transform tool (if you have multiple layers, make sure you have the main image layer targeted) and then simply grab the top of the image and pull down a little.

This will squish the image back down and make all the objects look more natural.  Just re-crop the image and life is good.  Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference.

Related posts:

1. Shifting Perspective with the Lens Correction Filter
2. Anatomy of a Lightroom Beta 2 Image Correction
3. Quick Tip Tuesday

I know, this is a bit self-promotional but I figure, what the heck.  The holidays are just around the corner and you or someone you know might be in the market for a new digital SLR camera.  Well, as luck would have it, I have written books for 3 of the most popular models around.  My latest offering, Canon T1i/500D: From Snapshots to Great Shots, was just released a couple of weeks ago and I am thrilled with the response that I have received from folks that have already purchased it.

I tried to take a different path when writing these books from others that I had seen on the market.  I didn’t want to just put out a re-hash of the owners manual, especially since you get one of those when you buy the camera.  Instead I concentrated on covering the camera features that would help the reader get the most from their camera, and hopefully learn some sound photographic principles and techniques along the way.

All three book are available from your favorite booksellers (Barnes&Noble, Borders, and Amazon).  If you like your books in downloadable fashion, check out the PDF versions available for purchase at Peachpit.  Believe it or not, there’s even a Kindle version available from Amazon.

Related posts:

1. Nikon D5000: From Snapshots to Great Shots
2. My Canon 50D Book
3. New Nikon for dSLR Video Shooters – The D5000

Last week I posted a quick tutorial on watermarking images in Photoshop using a simple action.  There is another option for creating dynamic watermarks for your images.  There are two caveats though, the first is that you need to be a NAPP member and secondly, you have to be using Photoshop CS4.  Here’s the deal, a few months ago the great folks at NAPP created a new Watermark Creator that will allow you to place a watermark image on your image or you can apply it to a folder full of images.  The reason that you need to be using CS4 is due to the fact that the Watermark Creator is actually a custom panel that was made using the Adobe Configurator.

The next thing that you will need to do is create the file that you want to use for your watermark and save it to your hard drive.  Then you can select that file as your source for making the watermark (step 1).

The next step is to select the images that you want to apply it to. This can be a folder of images or an image that is already open in Photoshop (step 2).

The third step in the process is selecting the location for your new watermarked images (step 3).

Next you will need to select your watermark position and style.  For my thin banner watermark I have selected to have it position in the bottom-left corner with no offsets so that it positions right in the corner of the image (step 4).

The last steps include setting the export options (step 5) and then running the creator (step 6).  There is also an option to preview the watermark prior to running it so that you can tweak your settings.

It’s a great way to quickly put your mark on your images and help protect your brand.  If you are a NAPP member you can find the Watermark Creator download file here.  Once you have it set up, make sure you watch the video for a step-by-step tutorial on how to use it.  If you aren’t already a NAPP member, head to the main NAPP page and see how you can join and start getting some seriously excellent Photoshop resources.

Related posts:

1. Time to Update my NAPP Member Gallery
2. Protecting Your Images with a Watermark
3. Get a Little Action In With Droplets

I just returned from the first meeting of the Northern VA / Washington DC Help-Portrait group.  The group has been growing in the past few days with about 50 volunteers signed up to help.  There were a couple of things that were clear from this first meeting. First is that there are some really great people involved in this project.  Second is that there is a lot of logistics involved in setting up something like this.  Our meeting tonight focused on finding a group(s) to work with on Dec. 12th.  We had some really great suggestions that included shelters, senior homes, military families, and a few others.  Since we have so many great volunteers, it’s not out of the question for us to actually set up 2 or 3 shoots for the day.

I am very excited to be a part of this project and look forward to giving back to my community by doing something that I love.  And it’s apparent from all of the other groups being organized world-wide that I am not the only one that feels this way.  If you are interested, it’s not too late for you to become involved.  Simply head over to the Help-Portrait website and search for a group in your area (here’s the link to the group page).  If you want more info on this project, watch the video below.

And just in case you want to get a taste for what a Help-Portrait event looks like, check out this video from a dry-run event held in Nashville in September.

Related posts:

1. Portraits of Love – Bringing a Piece of Home to Our Soldiers
2. Happy Veteran’s Day
3. It’s Photowalk Day

I got a call yesterday from a buddy who was asking if I knew of a way to protect jpeg images on a disc so that they couldn’t be printed.  I knew where he was going with this.  He wanted to deliver proofs to a client but didn’t want to give the client the ability to just use the images to make their own prints or even copy them without compensation.

The truth is, I really didn’t know of any method except to make an auto-playing slideshow.  My other suggestion was to put a transparent watermark on the images before handing them off to the client.  The transparent watermark is not so obtrusive that it gets in the way of viewing the image, but it does supply enough of a deterrent that you wouldn’t want to make prints from the image.  To make things even better, a simple action can be made to create the watermark and then turned into a droplet.  The droplet can be placed on the desktop and all you have to do is drag and drop a folder onto it and it will automatically run the action on all of the images in the folder.  You could also use the droplet in Lightroom as part of your export process (check out this video from my friend Julianne Kost to see how to use droplets in Lightroom).

Here’s a quick video that will run you through the process.  This isn’t the only way to do this, it’s just the way that I found works best for me.  If you have a different method, please share it in the comment section.

By the way, this video looks even better when played full screen.

Here’s what the final image looks like after the watermark is applied.  Make sure you click on it to see a larger version.

Related posts:

1. Another Watermark Option for NAPP Members
2. Get a Little Action In With Droplets
3. Bridge your way to organized images

Help Portrait

Just a few quick items for your consideration today.  First is a little follow-up from Scott Kelby’s post yesterday about Help-Portrait.  I had heard about the project some time ago but today I followed up and actually took some time to visit the Help-Portrait site and found a group of for Northern VA.  I have registered for the group and hopefully will be able to attend the meeting that is scheduled for this Thursday night at 7:30pm at Ballston Common Mall in the Food Court (by the Chick-fil-A) in Arlington.  On the agenda is discussion about what organization(s) to work with for the event on Dec. 12.  I was pleased to see a couple of photographers in the group that I already know and I encourage my other photog friends in the area to join in and help out in this very worthwhile cause.  Here’s the link to the Northern VA / Washington DC page.

Another Photographer’s Rights Dust Up

I saw this last night and I have mixed views on the incident.  The photographer who runs the blog Discarted had a little bit of a run in with some LA Sheriffs Deputies last week in the metro station as he photographed some turnstiles.  On the one hand, the deputy in the video (yes, the whole thing is on video) was a little full of himself and seemed to be trying to flex his terrorism crimefighter muscles.  On the other hand, I have a ton of respect for anyone that puts on a uniform and will put themselves in harms way to protect me.  I understand the importance of standing up for photographer’s rights but there also needs to be an understanding that law enforcement officers have to deal with more stress and danger in a single day than many folks face in a lifetime.  Somewhere in the middle is the way this should have been handled by both parties.  But that’s just my opinion.  Check out the video to decide for yourself.

FotoWeekDC

This weekend marked the start of FotoWeekDC, a festival founded in 2008 to celebrate the power of photography.  Last year’s festival drew in about 20,000 people and this year’s promises to be even bigger.  There are tons of events planned for the week including exhibitions, lectures, workshops, gallery showings, a tech pavilion, and more.  To find out all the details on this weeks events make sure you head to the official website.  But hurry, FotoWeek ends on November 17th.

Thanks

Finally today I would like to take a moment to say thank you to all of the men and women who have formerly or are currently serving in my nation’s armed forces.  You sacrifice and service for your country is greatly appreciated.  Bless you and your families!

Related posts:

1. Happy President’s Day
2. More on the Kelby 7-Point System book
3. Bringing the Help-Portrait Movement to the DC Area

After writing about my desire to add a second line in my ID Plate in Lightroom I received a suggestion from blog reader Andy Klafter.  He wondered if I had tried pressing Option-Return to get a new line of text in the edit box.  The truth is that I hadn’t but as soon as I got back to my Mac I quickly fired up Lightroom and pulled up the edit window for the Identity Plate and then tried Andy’s suggestion.  To my surprise and delight, the cursor moved underneath the current line of text and allowed me to type another line.  I just love learning new stuff!

ID Plate with one line of text

The ID Plate Editor

After moving the text to a 2nd line with Option-Return

After moving the text to a 2nd line

Sadly though, my delight turned to a bit of disappointment when I found that I really wasn’t any better off than before for the following reason.  Although I was able to add the second line, there is no way to format the text beyond changing the size and font style of the second line.  The big problem is that Adobe has not included any way to actually edit the attributes of the text.  There is no way to center justify the text or adjust the spacing between the lines of text or the kerning (the space between the letters).

The lack of these controls really makes having the ability to add the second line of text a little anticlimactic.  I’m sure I will find a use for it but it won’t truly be useful as an ID plate until I can exert a little more control over the actual styling of the text used for the plate. I still want to give props to Andy though for dropping the Option-Return nugget on me and giving me another option to play with in Lightroom.  Of course if someone knows a way to solve my kerning or justify problem I would love to hear about it.

Related posts:

1. Lightroom Before and After
2. Saving the Shot with Lightroom 2
3. Shooting in your Backyard

Birthday Thank You -

Before I get into today’s post I wanted to give my thanks to each and every one of you that took the time to wish me a happy birthday on Friday and throughout the weekend.  I was overwhelmed by all the well wishes that people made either in the comments for Friday’s “No Blog” post, Facebook, and Twitter.  It wasn’t one of those monumental birthdays but it was a good one.  Thanks again for making it so special.  Now on to some random thoughts from this past weekend.

Lightroom Beta 3 -

I finally had some time to sit down and spend a little time with the new Lightroom 3 Beta and I thought I would share some random thoughts on Adobe’s newest offering.  First, I know it’s beta, and maybe it’s just me but I find that it is running slower on my Mac than Ver. 2.5.  I have loaded about 650 images into the catalog and it just seems to me that the response time for browsing thumbnails and moving between modules is a little slow.

One thing that I do really like, although it took a little getting used to, is the new import interface.  A lot of the things that I was used to have been moved to panels on the side, like adding keywords, but overall it does seem to be a great improvement.  I would like to see a way to add photos to a collection during import instead of having to wait until they are loaded in the Library.  It would save a lot of time if I could make my collections as I import my images.

The Develop module is still the best way I know to quickly improve the look of my images and I really like the improved vignetting.  I find it interesting that they now see it as an effect instead of just a bi-product of Lens Correction.  I’m not completely sold on the new noise reduction but I think it will get even better once the luminance option is activated (it is grayed out at present).

I have yet to do much work in the other modules but I do know that the one thing that I wanted in the Print Module is still not there… multi-line identity plates.  Yup, I really want to add more than one line of text in the identity plate but I still have to live with the single line of text that has been around since the first version of Lightroom.  It would also be nice if there were centering buttons for the plate like the newly added watermark feature. It is just a beta so maybe they can squeeze that in before it goes to final.  As for the rest of the program, I will continue to explore the features and compare and contrast to see if it will warrant my hard earned money once the official version is finally shipped.  More on this in the months to come.

Trek-Tech and Black Rapid -

I’m not sure if you caught the comment from Scott Niesen of Trek-Tech the other day on my post about modifying my Rapid-R Strap but he dropped an interesting little nugget.  According to Scott, Trek-Tech is currently working with Black Rapid, makers of the Rapid-R Trap, on “a killer combo for Trekpods and the R-Strap”.  He also said that he would keep us posted so I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

The Big Picture Shows Us The Days of the Dead -

One of my favorite news websites is the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture.  It is a truly visual delivery of current news stories delivered in a “picture is worth a thousand words” format.  This weekend I spent some time catching up on some of the latest feature stories and I just loved the Days of the Dead story from November 2nd.  The collection of photographs covered the multitude of celebrations that celebrate and remember the dead, from Halloween to All Souls Day to Day of the Dead.  I especially enjoyed the White House Halloween photos with the first lady dressed as a cat with Chewbacca and the Storm Trooper in the background.  I’m sure there is a good caption in there somewhere.   Check it out and see what you think.

That’s all for today.  I hope you have a great start to your work week.

Related posts:

1. Georgetown Photowalk Weekend
2. On the Road With My Acer Netbook
3. A Weekend Quicky

Photo by Jessica N. Diamond

Hi Everyone.  Today is my birthday so I am giving myself a no blog birthday present.  I have lots of stuff planned for next week so I hope you enjoy your weekend and check back Monday for a full week of bloginess.

-Peace

Related posts:

1. Same Blog, Different Name
2. No Blog Friday
3. Weekend Thoughts Reviewed

I really like this photo of the Petronas Towers except for the fact that my wide angle lens and camera angle made for some really bad perspective shifting.  It’s not easy to photograph one of the World’s tallest buildings from a fairly close distance so I had to tilt my camera up to get all of the towers in.  This tilting of the camera makes the tops of the buildings look as if they get smaller and are tilting in towards the middle.  Normally I would try and use the perspective adjustment in the Free Transform tool but today I tried using the Lens Correction Filter.  It offers some different ways of fixing perspective shift and I like the grid overlay for getting everything lined up just right.  Check out the video to see how I transformed the shot above into the one you see below.

Related posts:

1. Finishing Off the Perspective Correction
2. A Processed Image Using Viveza Filter
3. Adding a Little Flare in Photoshop

I was reading an email that I had received from someone that had purchased my Canon 50D: From Snapshots to Great Shots book and they asked me a great question.  How do you know what F-Stop to start with? This is actually a pretty common question and it’s one that I heard several times over the past couple of weeks while teaching a photography class in Malaysia.  The truth is that there is no simple answer.  A lot of the decision depends on other factors that go in to determining an appropriate exposure setting like; What is the best ISO for the scene? Do I need to use a fast shutter speed because I am going to be hand-holding my camera? How much light do I have to work with? and on and on.

Depending on the subject you are shooting, you will want to vary the amount of depth of field in your image.  Remember that there is only one plane of focus but the depth of field will render a range of acceptable focus depending on the selection of the aperture.  This also has a lot to do with your distance to the subject and the length of the lens.  Wide angle lenses have a greater apparent depth of field due to the wide angle of view, which makes everything look smaller and thus sharper.  Remember that everything looks sharper and more in focus when it’s smaller, which is why I always tell people to zoom in on their LCD screens.  Everything looks great on a 3″ screen.  A longer lens will offer a more narrow field of view and make everything look larger.  Long lenses can also produce a more narrow depth of field than wide angle lenses.

So with all of these things to consider, where does one start?  Well, you could start with your sharpest aperture setting.  This will usually be one of the f-stops in the middle of the range of available f-stops for your lens.  It is also referred to as the sweet spot and it’s usually somewhere around f/8 or f/11.  This doesn’t mean that you should always shoot at f/8.  For example, if I am shooting a landscape or panorama, I will try to use a smaller f-stop (f/16 or 22) to get a greater apparent depth of field from near to infinity.

If I’m shooting a portrait, I will tend to go the other direction by selecting a larger aperture opening (f/4 or 5.6) so I can narrow the depth of field and place more emphasis on my subject while blurring distracting background objects.

It’s possible to see the effects of your aperture setting as it relates to depth of field by using your camera’s Depth of Field Preview button.  Most lenses do not close their aperture down until the moment the photo is captured.  This is done so that you have the brightest possible view in your viewfinder.  When pressed, the DOF Preview button will close the lens down to the selected f-stop and will allow you to actually see how much depth of field you are getting at the chosen f-stop.  It also makes the image in the viewfinder appear darker at smaller f-stops due to the lower amount of light coming in through the lens when it is stopped down.  Note that not all cameras have a DOF Preview button so consult your owner’s manual.

While the DOF Preview is a good starting point, the only way to really determine just what the proper f-stop should be is through experience.  Sometimes it’s a good idea to shoot at multiple f-stops just to see which one you like the best.  Over time you will develop an eye for what will look good with a lot of depth of field and what would look better with just a little.  From that point you will be able to adjust the other camera settings to get just the look you are after.

See, I told you it wasn’t simple,  but with practice, it will get easier.

For a little more on Depth Of Field, check out my post on Hyper Focal Distance.

Related posts:

1. Do you know what Hyperfocal Distance is?
2. Some HDR Camera Options
3. Proper Equipment for Shooting Landscapes

I really love my Black Rapid R-Strap.  It’s the perfect accessory for shooting on the go.  The strap offers much more comfort when walking around with my camera and makes it super accessible when I want to grab a quick shot.  There is one problem that I have found when using it though and that is when I want to transition between using the strap and setting my camera up on a tripod for some late-night or HDR shooting.  See, normally the Rapid-R has a great little attachment for clipping the strap to the camera called the Fasten-R2.  It’s a d-ring with a rubber spacer that keeps it snugly mounted to the camera by the tripod mounting socket.  This also means that I have to remove the Fasten-R2 whenever I want to mount the camera to the tripod.  It’s not a big thing but it does sort of interrupt the flow of things.

I solved that problem by using a quick-release tripod head.  The quick-release mount attaches to the camera on the bottom via the tripod mounting screw.  The trick is that my quick-release plate uses a d-ring to tighten the mounting screw into the camera base.

Now, I simply keep the plate attached all the time and attach it to the Rapid-R Strap with R-Strap’s clip. Then, when I want to use my tripod, I simply un-clip the strap and lock the plate into the tripod head and I’m all set for stable shooting.

It’s not a big mod but it makes all the difference when I want to quickly transition from hand-holding to tripod and back again.  Sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference.

Related posts:

1. New Gear For This Weekend’s Photowalk
2. Review – The Trek-Tech TrekPod Go! Pro
3. Shooting for Black and White

I’ve been home for about 24 hours now but my body is so confused that it might take 24 more to get me back on track.  What with the 12 hour time difference, 21 hours in the air, and a little Daylight Savings Time to boot and I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.  I’ll probably crash hard sometime this afternoon but since I was up early I took the opportunity to process one of the HDR images I shot while visiting Putra Jaya in Malaysia.  Putra Jaya is the home to most of the national government buildings in Malaysia.  There is some controversy over how much money was spent to build everything, including a big lake and seven bridges (which wouldn’t have been needed if they hadn’t built the lake).  But all that aside, it really is an amazing place with spectacular bridges, wonderful architecture, and a big, wide boulevard for national parades.

This particular image shows a view of Masjid Tuanku Zainal Abidin, otherwise known as the Steel Mosque.  The view is from the main boulevard, through a giant archway.  I wanted to get a direct, head-on view but there was an Indian video crew making some sort of music video or something just off to my left so I settled for this view.

So here’s the technical info on the image above.  I shot a 5-image bracket with my camera set to high-speed continuous.  I didn’t have my tripod with me so I just made sure that my shutter speeds were going to be fast enough to hand-hold.  One thing I like to do when shooting hand-held brackets, besides having fast shutter speeds, is to set my focus point on a specific spot in the image.  This helps me from drifting the camera during the exposure sequence.

Once captured, I imported the images into Lightroom and did some minor adjustments to the white balance and a little image spotting (my sensor really needs a good cleaning).  From Lightroom, I exported the five images into Photoshop using the Merge to HDR command in Lightroom.  I still prefer the image alignment in Photoshop over Photomatix so once the HDR image was created I saved the file as an EXR and then opened it in Photomatix Pro for some tonemapping.  I tried to stay fairly light with the tonemapping settings and then saved the image as a 16-bit TIFF file.  From there I imported the tonemapped image back into Lightroom where I could do the rest of my image processing (clarity, black point, vibrance, saturation, etc.) and then back to Photoshop one last time for some perspective correction and a little noise reduction in the sky areas using Nik Dfine 2.0.

It sounds like a lot of work but it really only took about 20 minutes total for the whole process.  I have a lot of other images that I am looking forward to processing, like some panoramas and more HDR images.  I’ll be sure to share my processing and the final images with you in the days to come.

Related posts:

1. My First Experience With Photomatix Pro 3.1 (beta)
2. Photoshop vs. Photomatix Pro
3. Photomatix Pro 3.0 beta 5 for OSX

I’m sitting here in a Kentucky Fried Chicken resturant in Petaling Jaya at about 2:15 in the afternoon, passing the time with a quick bite to eat and enjoying the free Internet access as I wait for my driver to pick me up at 4:00 for my trip to the airport.  I can’t believe that 2 weeks have already come and gone since I got here.  Probably because I had such a great time and met so many wonderful people.  Malaysia is a wonderful mix of cultures and the Malay people that I have been working with were such gracious and kind hosts that it makes it even harder to leave.  Of course I am even more excited to get back home to my family and friends to share my stories and images.  One thing that always makes my trips special is being able to share them with my family and, of course you, my readers.  Although I didn’t get to shoot as much as I would have wanted to, I still have a ton of images that I have not even begun to process and I look forward to sharing them with you when I begin my regular blogging schedule next week.

Before I go I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of the wonderful people here in Malaysia that made my trip so memorable.  I have made many new friends and I look forward to keeping in touch in the future.  I can honestly say that I have never met a more wonderful group of people and it was an honor for me to work with each and every one of you.  Your generousity and friendship will be with me always.

Now that I have finished my cheezy fries and colonel burger, I can head back to the hotel and get ready for my short 24 hour trip back home.  Have a great weekend and I’ll see you next week.

Related posts:

1. The Steel Mosque – Masjid Tuanku Zainal Abidin
2. Knocking Off My Wedding Shooter Rust
3. Portraits of Love – Bringing a Piece of Home to Our Soldiers

My weekdays have been very busy teaching a photography class but I did get out this weekend with some of my students to take in some of the sites in and around Kuala Lumpur.  Friday Night was spent taking photos of the Petronas Towers in downtown KL.  There is a beautiful park near the towers and even though it rained a little and the humidity was through the roof, I still managed to get some nice shots of the towers and surrounding buildings.

The next day was spent in the city of Melaka.  This is an old port with a lengthy history.  It has been occupied by the Dutch, Portugese, Chinese, and Arabs, dating back to the early 16th century.  Now it is a popular tourist spot with many historic buildings and museums.  One of my favorite spots was a mosque situated over the water on the coast.  I felt bad because I made our group stay there until just after sunset but it was well worth it.

Sunday was spent touring around KL with a visit to Chinatown, the Central Market, and a few other locations around town.  Mix in some good company and great food and you have the makings of a fantastic weekend.  I have one more week here and will be pretty busy with my class but hopefully I will get a little more site seeing and shopping in before I make the long trip back home.

Related posts:

1. Greetings From Kuala Lumpur
2. Wrapping up a busy week
3. 7-Point System Flickr Group

The orchid garden in the Singapore airport

I mentioned in a previous post that I had purchased a Netbook computer to use in my travels in place of my trusty MacBook Pro.  I am happy to report that I am really pleased that I made the purchase.  Before I left home, I loaded my new Netbook with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom so that I could process images from my travels.  I also threw a bunch of movies on the hard drive to get me through some of the longer flight segments and layovers (like the 6 hours I spent in Singapore).  Although I would probably have preferred to have my Netbook loaded with Windows XP instead of Vista, I am pretty happy with the performance so far.  The movie playback has been very smooth using VLC as my viewer of choice.  It’s a free program that will show almost any format out there.  I really didn’t have a choice since the Windows Media Player doesn’t come with many Codecs and some of my video files are in DVD format so I would have had to pay for a codec to watch them (way to go, Microsoft).

The wi-fi has been great whenever I have been in range of a free connection.  The built in antennae has been getting decent reception and my only limitation is the speed of the connection.  It really is perfect for email and web surfing.  Speaking of web surfing, I passed over the clumsy Internet Explorer 8 for Vista and opted to use Google Chrome.  It was fairly new to me since it is not yet available for the Mac but I have to say that I am very pleased with the speed and user interface.  It doesn’t have all of the add-ons that I am used to in Firefox but it is satisfying my need for quick web browsing.

I’m sure that the big question that most of you have is, how does my Netbook handle Lightroom.  Frankly I was a bit skeptical when I installed it, especially since my Netbook, like most Netbooks, uses the Intel Atom processor.  I am happy to report that, after importing a couple of hundred images, the Lightroom performance is actually much better than I had hoped for.  Sure, it’s no where near as fast as my Mac, but I didn’t expect it to be.  It does however allow me to upload with relative speed and moving between the different modules is pretty painless.  I think it does help that I purchased the Acer with 2GB of RAM instead of the standard 1GB that most Netbooks have.  I am also pleased that I opted for the 250 GB hard drive so that I can store a ton of RAW images without concern.  I will transfer these to my Drobo when I get back home and then import them into my Lightroom catalog on my Mac for regular use.  I probably should have brought along my Epson P5000 or a small back-up drive but I was really trying to cut down on my carry-on equipment.  I did bring lots of CF cards so I probably won’t have to delete any of them before my trip is over.

Speaking of Lightroom, I was reading my buddy Scott Kelby’s blog and saw that Adobe has released the Beta for Lightroom 3.  As soon as I finish writing this post I am going to head over to Adobe and download a copy for my Acer.  I have heard that the import process has been upgraded and that imports are even faster now so I will be looking to this speed boost, especially since I will be doing a lot of shooting this weekend, starting with a night shoot in downtown Kuala Lumpur and the Petronas Towers tomorrow night.  I will hopefully have a lot of images to post for you next week.  Until then, check out the NAPP Lightroom 3 Beta Learning Center and then download your copy of the Lightroom 3 Beta over at the Adobe Labs.

Have a great weekend!

Related posts:

1. Mobile Computing
2. Bridge vs. Lightroom
3. Saving the Shot with Lightroom 2

Yes, it’s true, I am half way around the world in Malaysia.  I have been here for a couple of days and just now got hooked up with some Internet access (I simply refused to pay the $20 a day that my hotel was charging for wi-fi access).  I’m actually staying just a little West of Kuala Lumpur in Petaling Jaya but I can see the Petronas Towers from my hotel window.  Yesterday I took a train ride and a bus out to the Batu Caves.  Batu Caves is part geologic wonder and part Hindu temple.  To enter the temple you have to climb the 272 steps up the staircase past the gilded statue of Murugan (it’s hard to miss at 142′ in height).  While I was there I had the pleasure of being blessed by a holy man and watching a monkey steal a baby bottle and drink it dry.  I did manage to take a couple of photos as well.

I am going to be here for a couple of weeks, which is why my blog posts will probably be a little sporadic but I will do the best I can. So to kick things off, here’s a few photos from my trip to the Batu Caves and a couple from China Town as well.

Related posts:

1. A Busy Weekend In Kuala Lumpur
2. HDRSoft releases New Photomatix Pro 3.0 Beta for Windows

Are you putting all of your back-ups in the Optical Storage basket?

I read an interesting article the other day at ZD-Net that basically was predicting the coming demise of optical storage.  This was in reference to the newly displayed 320GB, 10-layer Blue-ray disc that was being showcased by TDK.  It was a very interesting article that took me back to my days as a Zip Disk and Jaz Drive user.  I can remember how psyched I was when I used my first 1GB Jaz Drive and thought to myself “I will never run out of storage again!”.  So here I sit with a small stack of Jaz Drives that will never be accessed again.  That’s the problem with new and better storage solutions, they never seem to be viable for that long.  I think this is the problem with new optical storage solutions.  People don’t want to invest in a storage medium that will not make it into the next decade, at least not for the price it would command.  And who can blame them when a 500GB external drive can be had for less than $80.  I know that I wouldn’t want to sink $250 into a Blue-ray burner just so I could get 20GB of optical storage.  I think the lessen here is to plan ahead for your storage needs and be prepared to move your archival images before your present method is obsolete.  Here’s the link to the ZD-Net story .

Nikon releases another camera make-over with video

Maybe it’s just me but is anyone really that excited about the new D3s?  I mean we all saw it coming, right?  Sure, there are some very cool enhancements to an already great camera like improved ISO performance (ISO 102,400, are you kidding me?), then there is the much needed built in sensor cleaner that just missed getting into the D3.  And then there are the old standards like the full frame FX sensor, the magnesium alloy body, the long lasting shutter, and the dual card slot (a personal favorite of mine).  So I guess if they wanted to beef up the camera the least they could do was to throw in some 720P video capture.  I mean it is the logical next step… that is unless you are a photographer.

Let’s face it, how many of you out there are going to be making the jump to cinematographer?  I mean, I like to capture some video segments from time to time, and yes, they do look better when shot with professional lenses that can control the depth of field.  But is that going to be my deciding factor in buying a $5000 camera?  Here’s what I want.  Give me a camera that will shoot three frames and internally process the images for an expanded dynamic range image.  That’s right, I want HDR in my camera!  If they can make a point-and-shoot that will combine three images into a seamless pano, why can’t I get better dynamic range in my “out-of-camera” images?  By the way, has anyone seen how long the video capture sequence limit is?  Seriously, I couldn’t find it in any of the literature so I’m not sure if they have expanded it beyond the 5 minute HD barrier that is the norm for the D5000 and the D90.  Not that it matters because who has an attention span longer than 30 seconds anymore.

A New Trek-Pod Hits the Streets

Here’s another new item that was announced yesterday.  My friends over at Trek-Tech have just released an all new TrekPod II.  It’s kind of like the Swiss army knife for outdoor photographers.  It’s part walking staff, part monopod, and part tripod.  You may remember a few months ago I reviewed the Trek-Tech TrekPod Go! Pro.  Well now there is a more economical version with many of the same features that made the TrekPod Go such a great device.  For the low cost of $99, you get the TrekPod along with the MagMount Star-ball head (which is just awesome) and the travel case.  It looks like the folks at Trek-Tech have another winner on their hands.  You can find out more info at the official Trek-Tech web page or click here to see the official press release along with more photos and a video demonstration.

Sporadic Blogging

I am going to be really busy for the next few days so my blogging may be a bit more sporadic that you are used to.  I don’t want to give anything away at the moment but I will share with you the reason a little later down the road.  I will however post whenever I am able, which might include some rare weekend blog appearances so stay tuned.

That’s it for today, have a great Thursday!

Related posts:

1. Thursday News – I Want My iPod Touch Camera!
2. Review – The Trek-Tech TrekPod Go! Pro
3. New Gear For This Weekend’s Photowalk