Saturday, Day 2

Didnt make the dunes. A few setbacks early on and hard rain toward the end slowed me down. Pulled into Merrillville around 9pm. Woke up Sunday to more heavy skies. No Dunes this trip, I'm afraid.

I decided to try to find a Starbucks for my breakfast of Oatmeal. This is where trusty Yelp took me:

Lesson learned. When the GPS tells you that location is really 4 hours east, believe it. By that time I really needed fuel. Since I was out on the boonies, I turned to the GPS to get me to the closest gas station. This is where the GPS took me:

It is about the journey, and I find whether you're flying or driving, you just always have to go with the flow. Be patient, flexible, and enjoy the ride. Much less stress that way!

I began listening to one of the audio books I downloaded on the current water crisis. Elixir was, well, somewhat pedantic. Written by an anthropologist, it's a history of humankind and it's relation to water. by the fourth story of tribal relations, restrictions, and customs about water --which were identical to the first three stories --- I admittedly lost interest and turned to the next book, When The Rivers Run Dry. This is written by a journalist and is nicely paced and fascinating. I'm feeling quite disappointed in the overall greed and lack of forward thinking in our species, but that just might mean the guy is getting his point across.

My ambitious goal for Sunday is to drive 12 hours to North Platte, Nebraska. Why stay in Omaha when you can stay in North Platte? Along the way I need to find a light magenta cartridge for my Epson 2400 ....

The Journey's the Thing ...

Last night I packed up my '99 Land Rover and headed West. I'm on my way to Brush Creek Ranch in Saratoga Wyoming, just outside Medicine Bow National Forest for part 1 of an Artist in Residence program. My goal is to get the foundation started on a book of my photo series, "Change is the Constant: Reflections on a Malleable Society." Although, if all goes well, the title may likely change (ha! how appropriate!) to reflect a new direction the work seems to be taking.

I'm also looking forward to doing some early morning / late afternoon shooting around the ranch. The topography there is so rich and varied: wide vistas, quiet streams, graceful stands of aspens, rocky outcroppings.

I made it to Hagerstown, MD, last night despite a dense fog at the very end of the leg — a good 4-hour start on my journey. My goal today is to get to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Park. Fingers crossed!

It's getting busy!

There's a lot in the works I'll be blogging about in the next few days.
1. I'm preparing to leave for Nicaragua next week, photographing for the medical group, La Merced. I will cover the new dental clinic, a few key surgeries, the social welfare efforts of part of the group, and hopefully some follow up with subjects photographed last year. Donations are welcome and tax deductible. Email me if you're interested in more information!

2. I've been approved to lead Salisbury, Maryland's first ever worldwide Photo Walk organized by Scott Kelby and the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. The link to sign up is here: http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/salisbury-md-united-states/

3. I've just finished a couple of architectural projects for Becker Morgan and will be uploading some images from those shoots.

4. I've been invited to join the Board of Directors of The Art Institute and Gallery in Salisbury, Maryland. I'm hoping to help expand their social outreach via Facebook and Twitter, as well as work on offering some photography workshops.

Stay tuned!

Lightroom 3 Final

Yay! Lightroom 3 has finally been released. I've become so dependent on the beta version, longing for the time when older catalogues could all be updated.

Tonight I went through all of my catalogs (general, client, event, wedding, family) upgrading, naming, converting to dng, saving metadata, organizing folders. One problem I encountered right away involved reattaching files to photos lightroom couldn't 'find.'

With my asset management, I only keep enough files in a folder which will fit on a dvd, so about 4.3 gigs. When I import a large quantity of files into lightroom, I have to split them up after import. This means I go to my finder (on Mac OS 6), create additional folders and move the requisite number of files there.

With lightroom 3, I could not get the menu command photo>show in finder to re-attach the missing photo or all the other nearby photos in the same folder. Frustrating to say the least. I quit the application and restarted. Still would not work. I restarted my Mac to no avail.

Finally, I clicked right on the question mark in the top right corner of the orphaned photo. That also took me to the 'show in finder' menu. I found the image, clicked okay, and voilà! It worked. I'm not sure if this is a program bug or not. But at least the back door method worked in this case!

Making the most of weather

Valentine's Day. My preferred way to spend the afternoon/evening was to make the most of a sunny day, unusual snow accumulations for our area, and a unique location.


It's no secret work has been slow, lately. Marketing is the first thing cut from businesses' budgets, and that means a lot less money for photos. So, I've been using my time to supplement my local portfolio. With a generally hectic travel schedule, time for capturing the beauty of our location between ocean and bay is rare. So today, I asked my Sherpa if we could spend the afternoon finding a great location for some sunset beauty shots. Preferable with snow and water.


Wanting to keep things simple while maintaining the ability to get in and out of the car quickly, I brought along my monopod instead of my tripod. I hadn't used it in awhile, but it worked so well, I think it will be coming along on a lot more outdoor shoots.


I wasn't sure about our first stop: a cemetery overlooking a power plant. However, as we drew close, I saw several charming statues which seemed promising for striking images. I also made use of the initially-thought-undesireable background for a few compelling compositions.

After the cemetery, we headed down to Elliott's Island for a lot of snow and water. Having a driver for these expeditions is important, so you can be constantly scouting ahead, either side, as well as behind to see what the varying light and elevations (the occasional mini-bridge over the marsh in my case today) will serve up. One benefit of the hardened snow piles along the road: an extra boost of height for a different angle. 


I try everything when out shooting landscapes: lying down, standing, stooping, shooting into the sun, away from the sun, in the shadows ... and often I am surprised by what I find back in the studio.


A few additional images from my time today are on view at my companion blog, [click]. Also, check out my flickr photostream (at the right) for even more!

iPhoto '08 Angst in Snow Leopard

Since upgrading to Snow Leopard, I have not been able to double-click on movies to view them from within iPhoto '08 like I could under Leopard. When I clicked, nothing would happen. Tonight I found the solution.

In Apple's discussions forum, I learned that Snow Leopard installed a newer version of QuickTime called QuickTime X. Older movie formats on most point and shoot cameras are not compatible with that. Therefore, it's necessary to install QuickTime 7.

Here's the catch. Supposedly on some Snow Leopard Install CDs you can find the QuickTime 7 app in the 'Extras' folder. However, not in mine.

Fortunately, the discussion thread referenced above provided a link to a Snow Leopard version of QuickTime 7 [click here]. You must use this download link to install QuickTime 7 for it to work with iPhoto '08.

I downloaded, installed, and within minutes (and without restarting anything), my movies are once again opening automatically in QuickTime when I double-click from within iPhoto '08.

Huzzah!

Succeeding as a photographer

I came across this review of a panel from 2009 DC PhotoWeek. Very informative and hands-on for photographers busy adapting to the current climate.

http://slides.sitewelder.com/users/LarryLevin3660/docs/ASPP%20panel%20discussion%20final.pdf