You must bow to me! I am the Nerd King!

As I sit here in a Cisco Boot Camp this week, I visited another bloggers site (Thanks, Lee!) and saw that she took this great nerd test. I knew right away that I had to take the test to see how I would score.

My result is:



If you take the test, please stop back and let me know how you did. I love these kind of tests.

Photo Friday: Comfort

Photo Friday: Comfort
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This is probably more like the opposite of comfort based on her facial expression. Alice has a necklace and hat on, as well as being hugged. Her overall look is like "Help, get me out of here." All I can say is that she is well loved.

Photo Friday: The Beach

Photo Friday -- The Beach
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Took this from a pier on Waikiki Beach near my hotel.

Photo Friday: Fantasy

Photo Friday -- Fantasy
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Played around with Split Toning in Lightroom to come up with this one.

You can see more pictures for the topic 'Fantasy' at Photo Friday.

Photo Friday: Insignificant

Photo Friday: Insignificant
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

What is more insignificant than garbage?

Here are some paint cans that are ready for trash night.

Photo Friday: Unfinished

Photo Friday: Unfinished
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This was the last week of summer for the boys before school starts next week. They were very invested in their Fisher Price GeoTrax train set this week. They called me out of my office to look at the "huge mountain" that they built out of the tracks.

As I was editing the picture, I saw this weeks Photo Friday topic was "unfinished." It all fell together and here is my entry this week.

Photo Friday: Old

Deserted
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This is a house in my neighborhood that people really do live in. They obviously do not use the front door often.

The house is circa 1870.

Breakfast time

Yellowjacket and unknown bug
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

This morning, we had a bunch of ants and a yellowjacket eating some unknown bug on one of our sidewalk pavers in our backyard.

I thought it was very cool seeing a bee in action while eating. I cannot remember ever seeing this. Although I only got a few shots off that came out, I enjoyed the experience.

First Published Photo

Well, not much has happened since my last post.

We've been installing some new kitchen cabinets, waiting for new kitchen countertops, studying for my Cisco certification exam, getting ready for school to start, and got a photo published in an online travel guide.

WHAT! Did I just say that? Yup! I was contacted by Schmap Baltimore for a photo that I had on my Flickr photostream. It was taken at the Holocaust Memorial at the Inner Harbor. The direct link to the website where it is located is:
http://www.schmap.com/baltimore/activities_innerharbor/p=209989/i=209989_2.jpg.

Hopefully, I'll be posting more frequently once things calm down here in the next month.

Photo Friday: Vacation

Edinboro Landscape
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

We went to Edinboro, PA for a few days as part of our vacation. We dropped the boys off at Cathie's parents for about a week and a half. The boys loved the country and all the adventures they experienced with Granny and Poppa. While there, we were able to visit our all time favorite diner, Taki's. As well as get a ride on Cathie's dad's new Honda Goldwing trike. Cathie was also able to visit the Edinboro University book store and get some swag to wear. She loves her new Boro baseball cap.

While the boys were away and we were back in Maryland, Cathie and I had our hardwood floors refinished. We also got a chance to slip away to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC and many, many places to eat. Our last day allowed us to visit the Johns Hopkins book store to get some JHU things. All this in preparation of her finishing her Autism certificate in just 9 more classes. YEAH! Go Cathie!

If you get a chance, you must try The Melting Pot. The experience is awesome! From the Cheese fondue appetizer, to the salad, to the entree, and finally the chocolate fondue dessert, nothing was disappointing. It is our new favorite place to go and cannot wait for the next occasion to go back.

The boys came back today with Cathie's parents. So, we are all happy to be back together.

07_07_07

Well, this is a day that only occurs once every 100 years.

So, what did I do to celebrate it. I walked around downtown with my boys and took some pictures to upload to the Flickr group dedicated to this day. The group is hoping to put together a book of photographs where all proceeds will go to UNICEF. Looks like a good cause. I'm excited.

It was a great day. We started with a mid-morning snack at the local bagel shop and them went to the library. We relaxed in the pool and finished the day with a nice dinner out. Tomorrow will be more relaxation by the pool and not much more.

What did you do today?

Da Blimp

Goodyear Blimp
Originally uploaded by louhamilton23.

Well, I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is that I am loving Adobe Lightroom. What used to take me quite a while in multiple programs to get just right, now takes me a few minutes. I did learn something very frustrating about Lightroom this week, however. It doesn't like compressed folders. I was not able to save any of my changes until I uncompressed my folders with my pictures. No big deal (for now).
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The blimp was seen a few times by us tonight. We first saw the blimp as we were heading home from Party City and Pizzeria Uno's. Later, while we were at home playing in our back yard, it flew over our house. That was when I took his picture. It was surprisingly low to the ground it was.

Now, for the bad news. The Cavaliers lost the NBA Finals by a sweep no less. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for Tim Duncan and team, but Lebron James was AWESOME this year. It only makes me excited to see what they will do next year after another year under their belts as a team.

My Lightroom Software is Here!

I know how much you all have been waiting in anticipation since my last post for my copy of Adobe Lightroom 1.0 to arrive. Well, you'll be happy to know that it arrived in the mail yesterday. I was so excited about its arrival that I almost couldn't wait to open it and install it. But alas, we had other plans that kept me from playing with it until later in the evening.

Along with the software, I purchased Scott Kelby's "Lightroom book for digital photographers." This book was an addition to "Adobe Lightroom Workflow" by Tim Grey that I already purchased a week ago. From what I have read so far, I would recommend both books. Grey's book helps you get familiar with the different sections of Lightoom. While Kelby's book is more focused on "how to" tips for different projects that you can do in Lightroom.

Now, to the meat of why I did this post.

The Adobe Lightroom package comes with a CD in a jewel case. The Users Guide, and a coupon for Adobe Photoshop Users magazine subscription.

Okay, enough with all the pictures. I think we have all seen what comes in a box of software. Can we get to the software discussion already?

Boy, your testy this morning.

No, your just irritating me with this nonsense. We want to hear your thoughts of Lightroom.

HMMPH!

Adobe Lightroom falls under the new Photoshop family. The difference is that it is far easier to work with for usual photography changes. If more elaborate modifications or major customization is required, it interfaces nicely with Photoshop CS2 (I know because the books say so and I own CS2 and have tried it).

Lightroom takes a new approach to handling photos which is different than any other software I have used on a Windows machine. (I have never worked on or owned a Mac since I started getting into digital photograhy.) The workflow is to have a library of photos that you can work with, makes changes to, and output them to some format. The five stages, or modules as Adobe calls them, of the Lightroom workflow are: Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print, and Web.

Library

As you can guess by its name, the Library module collects all of your photos into a single place. You can view your photos as thumbnails in a grid or a single image at a time. This is the file management module and how you Import your files into the program. Once the photos are imported, you can work on photos directly in your Library module for simple changes.

The one issue that I have found with Lightroom is a feature that I have come to like with Picasa is the "Watched Folder" feature where is recognizes changes to files in a given folder and adjusts the library accordingly. In this version, Lightroom cannot do that since it works off its own database and not the actual folders and files. This seems to be a common gripe among users on the Internet. I see this as minor and only requires some rethinking in my workflow process.

Another issue that I have found is that I cannot use my network server as the Library. Adobe chose not to support networked drives with Lightroom. I see this issue as my way of keeping a backup. I have all my photos local on my laptop and then use Karen's Replicator to backup the files to my network server. No big deal.

Develop

The Develop module is where all the magic happens. You can make all of your heavy duty changes to your photos in this module. What I really liked about Lightroom is that it supports changes to both RAW files as well as JPEG files in a non-destructive manner. This means that it saves changes to it database without actually modifying the original RAW or JPEG files. Once you are happy with the changes, you can export the changed image to either en external editor such as Photoshop CS2 (or CS3), or select a third-part editor for additional rework, such as airbrush touch-ups. The exported images are separate files from the original so you still have a copy of the original in addition to the new copy. Another gripe I have seen on the Internet has been that Lightroom does not allow multiple copies of the same file even if they have different extensions, i.e. JPG, DNG, NEF, TIFF. I can see where this can be confusing or an issue, but right now, I don't have this gripe.

Slideshow

I have not used this module, so I don't know what it does. Therefore, I cannot write anything about it.

So, off to the next module.

Print

I have only used this feature once and I must say it was pretty cool and fairly easy. I added a watermark to my photo and looked really good, even though Cathie was not please with the picture of her that I chose to print for my office desk.

I haven't tried it but I thought that I read that Lightroom can interface directly with online developing companies. This would be cool if it can happen. I'll have to update when I play with that module more.

Web

I have only played with this feature once as well. I found a trick that allows me to upload pictures directly to flickr using their flicker uploader program from within Lightroom. Very cool, although I found some of the limitations of the uploader tool, but that is a different discussion.

Conclusion

All in all, I am still very pleased with this program. I know as I get more accustomed to its features and understand its capabilities more, I will love it more and more. If anyone makes changes to their photographs and is looking for a great program to both manage photographs AND edit them, this is the program.

New Desktop Wallpaper

I haven't been doing much lately besides work and studying. Well, that's not entirely true. We had James' birthday at Chuck E. Cheese with Cathie's parents and some friends from school. They had a blast and really enjoyed meeting Chuck E. Cheese.

I also created this desktop wallpaper from a photo I took during our trip to the Baltimore National Aquarium in March. Since the screen on my laptop is 1920x1200, the original is that size. I submitted it to InterfaceLIFT, a website who posts widescreen high resolution wallpapers and it was accepted. They have it offered for dowload in other screen sizes as well.

I'm off to finishing the kids breakfast and waiting for my new software, Adobe Lightroom. I REALLY liked the beta and 30-day trial, so I'm excited. More to come on that once I have it installed and have played a little more with it.

Photo Friday: Purity

I'm not really sure if this is purity, but when I downloaded it from my camera, I just felt that it fit this weeks Photo Friday theme.



This is the new stone bridge along Carroll Creek in Frederick, MD. It was taken on our way to get some Ben & Jerry's in celebration of James' birthday. The whole evening just seemed perfect.