Stone Mountain Lake

I'll be visiting my brother, who lives north of Atlanta, next week. While I'm there we'll be taking a little trip up to The Great Smokey Mountain National Park for a couple of days. I'm so looking forward to getting outdoors and into some real woods and photographing away!

This post is also a test post, I'm using my iPad with my new Bluetooth Keyboard for the first time to post to the website (via the Squarespace App), Facebook and Google+, so we'll see how it all flows.

Stone Mountain Lake, GA.  Infrared Converted Canon 20D w/10-22mm. Processed in Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6.

Off to Photoshop World!

​I'm off to Photoshop World in Orlando, FL in the morning!  Even though it's only about an hour and a half away, I'm excited to get going.  I wasn't able to attend last years conference in DC, so I'm really looking forward to this one.  Looks like there's a lot of great classes to select from (more than you can physically attend in a day) and it's always fun to cruise the expo floor. 

Lake Eola in Downtown Orlando.  Canon 7D, 24mm, 15sec @f/20.

Lightroom 5 Beta Now Available

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 public beta is now available from Adobe Labs.  Here's some of the main features for the new version:

  • Advanced Healing Brush – Easily remove objects and fix defects—even those with irregular shapes such as threads or lint—with a single brush stroke. Take precise control over what's being removed as you make unwanted objects just disappear.

  • Upright – Straighten tilted images with a single click. Upright analyzes images and detects skewed horizontal or vertical lines. You choose one of four correction methods, and Upright can even straighten images where the horizon is hidden.

  • Radial Gradient – Lead your viewer's eye through your images with more flexibility and control. The radial gradient tool lets you create off-center vignette effects, or multiple vignette areas within a single image.

  • Offline editing with Smart Previews – Easily work with images without bringing your entire library with you. Just generate smaller stand-in files called Smart Previews. Make adjustments or metadata additions to Smart Previews and your changes will be automatically applied to the full-size originals later.

  • Video slideshow sharing – Easily share your work in elegant video slideshows. Combine still images, video clips, and music in creative HD videos that can be viewed on almost any computer or device.

  • Improved photo book creation – Create beautiful photo books from your images. Lightroom includes a variety of easy-to-use book templates, and now you can edit them to create a customized look. Upload your book for printing with just a few clicks.

To download ​Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 public beta, click here.

Melbourne Beach

I thought I’d take a break from my current project and post something.  My parents’ 50th wedding anniversary is coming up in July and I’m putting together a photo book and DVD as a surprise gift.  So I’ve been spending every spare minute scanning 70+ years of photographs and 8mm home movies.  It’s fun, but tedious work and I’m getting good experience doing basic photo restoration.   

The photo below was taken on Melbourne Beach, FL a few of months ago.  Canon 7D w/ 16-35mm @16mm, 60sec @f/16, with a LEE Big Stopper.  Processed in Lightroom 4.

Lightroom 4.4, Camera Raw 7.4 and DNG Converter 7.4 Now Available

lightroom4.4.jpg

Lightroom 4.4 is now available as a final release on Adobe.com and through the update mechanism in Lightroom 4.  The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom.

Camera Raw 7.4 is now available as a final release through the update mechanism in Photoshop CS6.  The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Camera Raw.  Customers of previous versions of Photoshop can utilize DNG Converter 7.4 for raw file support for newly added cameras.​

Click here to read the full Lightroom article from Adobe. ​
Click here to read the full Camera Raw & DNG article from Adobe.​

Airshow

On Sunday we attended the Tico Warbird Airshow in Titusville and what might be the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds last show.  We had a great time despite the poor weather.  With very cloudy skies, 30+mph winds and a mostly dirt field, lets just say our skin changed colors by the time we left and we had sand in places you wouldn’t think sand could get to.

Note: The fireball picture is not a plane crashing, it was just part of the show.​

lens rental