Kayak Fishing

My wife said, “You said you would never get in a kayak, what changed”? Read more

Coastal Waters

My son and I took a trip to Newport, Oregon today. Here a few shots from the day. I was very amazed at how quickly our time flew by. From this trip I have learned the difference between shooting with a point and shoot…and using a profesional grade dSLR. I like the dSLR myself…what do you think?

How to shoot fireworks

I thought it to be a good idea to repost this “how to shoot fireworks” post from last year.

How to unscramble DVD chapters on your DVD backups

So if you have ever used Handbrake to back up your DVD collection, you really want to read this. This post helped me with one of the most frustrating issues of backup…the chapters being scrambled on the backup.

This post Here, tells how to overcome it. Just make sure you log in to see all the example screenshots.

Towers Of Love

My dog was running through very tall grass. I wondered what it must be like to him, getting hit in the face by it all. I got down to see what he sees and took this…

Seeds Of The valley

I was supposed to have band practice the other night. It turned out that everyone cancelled on me. So I went fishing. I needed the relaxation. At one point I could only focus on capturing images with my phone. This is one of them. This area of the valley is the grass seed capital of the world.

Band Practice

Wednesday night we had band practice, just like any other wed. This time we actually started working on an original.

Jon had a song on guitar and we all went over it a few times. We recorded the whole night and then recorded just the main guitar to put online so we could practice and come up with parts for next practice.

All in all, it was a good time…nice to be playing music again outside the walls. :0)

Protected: Practice-100609

For Sale | CyberSync Flash Trigger Set

I have a Paul C. Buff CyberSyncs which includes the Transmitter CSRB and Receiver CST. I am selling them as a set only. These units have actually only been used for about 3-4 shoots. They are excellent units that never failed…ever. I moved to TTL transmitters and need to sell these.  I am asking $110 but will take the best offer.
Read more

For Sale: Pro Tools Mbox 2 mini

I am selling an Digidesign Mbox2 mini I purchased for a job and never used again. The unit is in mint condition and comes with the original packaging and all its included items. I am asking $200, but will take the best offer. Read more

Migrating from Lightroom to Aperture 3

So I have decided to switch to Aperture 3 for all my imaging library and adjustment needs (those not requiring “deep” editing in Photoshop). There seems to be a lot of debate over this kind of thing. There are a lot of irrational claims to fames and all sorts of jim crackery, however, I went with what makes my workflow not only fun, but easier and faster. I will begin with some issues I had with Lightroom, then things I like about Aperture and finally on to the HOW. Take the jump to find out more… Read more

Printing only the events you want in iCal

For as long as I can remember I have been keeping track of things in iCal. iCal’s printing function simply put…it sucks. One problem I have always had is being able to print ONLY the topics that came up from an iCal search.

Lets say I have an iCal group called “Photography”. now lets say that within that group I want to print all Events with a keywords “initial client meeting”. You simply cannot do it in iCal, so I created an action, which I offer here ( iCal Print select events (44)  ).

When you first open the action, it asks what iCal “group” you wish to choose from. It then asks for a filter such as a keyword, date, or whatever you want to use for your criteria, just enter the criteria. Next it compiles the results and slaps those results into a TextEdit document for you to print or save.

You should play around with the various workflow items to get EXACTLY what you want.

Hope this helps someone.

Firsts | Backpacking and Hammocks

I was typing a post over at the Hammock Forums when I started to get lost in nostalgia. It was my first official backpacking trip out in the Mojave Desert and my pack was 60+ pounds… OUCH! Read more

Flash the double-edged sword | How to remove Flash pop-up ads

Are you like the rest of the population and sick-n-tired of all the popup ads when you are browsing? Do you wonder why you still get popup ads even though you have set your browser, Safari, Firefox or Chrome to “Block Popup Ads”?

So…double-edged sword huh? Yes, There are a lot of nice things flash has done to the web experience, however there are also some bad things as well. Ads and security issues versus pretty.

All ads are annoying, however, animated or pop-up ads are the equivalent of someone ramming a dead, dry and golden christmas tree branch into your eye. You know what I am talking about. You thought you took control of this blinding experience and chose to “Block pop-up ads” only to find that your browsing experience is more and more riddled by pop-up ads. Let me let you in on a secret… it is Adobe Flash. that’s right. the ads are added into the ad (he he). let’s look at an example shall we…

The annoying popup

http://backpacker.com and a reason I hated the site until now. When you load their page you are greeted with what seems a normal magazine theme website and then all of a sudden… BAM!… your hit with a “subscribe to our magazine”ad. This is a slap in the face to those of us who already subscribe, and the reason I stopped visiting the site. The following screen shot shows what I mean (There are also non-pop-up ads that are Flash animations as well out there).

There may be hope. There is a program I found out about on the TUAW blog called “ClickToFlash”. Basically, this is actually a plug-in for your browser… and if I am not mistaken, only for Safari. You can turn this little sucker on and CHOOSE, yes YOU choose whether or not you want the Flash to display. The settings page and an example of how a page will be viewed are shown below.

All you have to do is click the little gear icon in the corner of the Flash content and you will get an options menu similar to the on in the image titled What it will look like.

I also wondered if this would stop the stupid pop-ups within the YouTube videos themselves. Since I have my settings set to view the H.264 versions, that is the choice I am given to open. So I clicked on the little “H.264″ text (as opposed to the “Flash” text) in the middle of the RANDOM video I chose. Low and behold, the pop-up ad that played in the Flash version of the video did not show up in the H.264 version. That is sweat!

So, where do you get this tasty morsel filter? Right HERE.

As a side note, I am told there is also a healthy dose of security risks through Flash

Aperture 3 Feature for Backpackers and Photography

Here is a feature in Apple’s Aperture 3 that I ALWAYS wished I had…visual map reference of all my outdoor and backpacking adventures tied to all my images and GPS tracks for cataloging my adventures. I take Landscapes as part of my love for backpacking in the wild. Not only that, but as I journey around the backcountry I come across places I really want to remember AND find again. Aperture 3 makes that possible. Read more

Photographer on top of the Empire State Building

I am always amazed at the great heights and lengths photographers will go to to create that image they see in their minds eye… their art. I found this video on Syl’s site, Pixsylated.com. This crazy guy, Joe McNally, working for National Geographic, climes up the needle on top of the Empire State Building. See joe’s AMAZING pictures and story on his blog here.

Aperture 3.0.1 Update Available

Today Apple came out with an update to Aperture 3 via Software Update that fixes a lot of items. Note that if you are currently testing Aperture 3 in Demo mode, the update will not show up in Software Update, or at least it did not for me. I used the method below to get the download, however it will not work. It says, “Aperture 3.0 or later is required to install this update.”

demo users are outa luck

Standalone Installer

• Apple Downloads offers a standalone installer that you can use instead, if you wish.

More information is available here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2518

What I had to do was remove the demo version of Aperture 3 and install the demo version Aperture 3.0.1 in its place. What a headache.

UPDATE 2/25/2010:I was over at the Flick Aperture group and found a very simple way to do the upgrade, I haven’t tried it, but user Theoden said, “Go to Library > Preferences and delete “com.apple.AECT.plist” then re-run the installer.” This is WAY easier!

Changing The Oil

I was heading home after dropping my son off and needed to add some oil to my thirsty International Scout. I pulled over and while I was waiting for the oil to pour in I saw this image. It was as if the the oak tree had a magnetic field drawing the lightrays down from the sky.

Will the iPad be useful for photographers

The looooong awaited Apple tablet has been announced. The iPad. So, what will this device mean to photographers if anything? Read more

Easiest Way To Download YouTube videos

For all you Mac users out there, here is the simplest way to download videos from YouTube. All you need is Safari, a YouTube video and a double click of the mouse. Lets check it out.

Open YouTube and pick a video. Once your video has started playing,

1. open the Activity window (Command-Option-A, which shows the Activity window), it is under “Window” in the pull down menus.
2. Now look for the YouTube website listed. When you find it you may need to expand it by clicking the flyout triangle next to it.
3. Look through the listings under the YouTube website and find the largest file size. The file size should be larger than 5MB.
4. Double click that link and Safari will download the file, probably called Video.flv.

Now you can play it with VLC or with QuickTime (only if you have Perian installed).

Spotify

Have you heard of Spotify? You have had to of by now if you listen to music at all and aren’t an oldster.  Spotify is the bomb! Have you ever wanted to listen to a song by an artist you never heard? how about listening to an entire album? How about listening to over 6 million songs in there entirety? Spotify rocks! Read more

Apple Updates Logic Pro and Mainstage

Apple has just updated Logic Pro to version 9.1 and Mainstage to version 2.1. There are a number of numerous fixes and updates to the programs. Finally Apple has added 64-bit support. Not only has it fixed and updated, but there are also a number of things that are no longer working due to the 64-bit.

According to user “shivermetimbers”, at the Logic Pro Help forum, the following features are not currently available when using Logic Pro 9.1 in 64-bit mode.

Firewire streaming of video
Digital Cinema Desktop
AAF import and export
EuCon control surface support
Automap of parameters with control surfaces
OMF import and export
Conversion to MP3
Recycle (REX) file support
ReWire support
Vienna Symphonic Library Tool
Logic Node processing
AKAI format sample import

Interesting, to say the least.

Not sure how this is going to work for me, since Mainstage 2 had already doubled the resource usage on my Macbook Pro. Hopefully all goes well. I will keep you up to date in the comment section on what I find in my use of the new release.

The Eponymous Album Update #6 | A Blessing

My prayers for a miracle have been answered!

Well, as you may know from recent posts, I had a hard drive crash. The hard drive circuit board fried and it caused some damage to the physical disc. I sent the drive to DriveSavers because I get a discount for being a Professional Photographers of America member and they offered free shipping both ways as well as a free estimate.

Once DriveSavers had gone over the drive, they called and gave me a quote. My oh my, I could not afford the cost they quoted me…$1700. That is a lot of clams for me. So, how important is the data on the drive? That data was irreplaceable. The hard drive was full (320GB) of images and audio. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money, so I told them to send it back. Some one from DriveSavers called me back later and said they will not ship it back until I call PPA. The guy said that PPA may have a program for me. So, I called PPA.

It turns out that as part of your membership to PPA you are covered for hard drive failure. You are allowed a certain amount per year (contact PPA for details). All you have to do is come up with the $200 deductible and they cover the rest, up to PPA’s specified amount. I had no idea I had this coverage. My data was saved! I was instructed to call PPA’s lawyers, who told me this was an indemnification case, and they dealt with all the issues.

I finally received my hard drive, as well as the backup drive I sent. Everything all intact. If there is ever a lesson to be learned, it is backup, backup, backup. With Apples Time Machine, there is absolutely no excuse for loss of data. You can seamlessly and effortlessly backup your main drive and any connected drive without even having to think about anything. I have found nothing like it anywhere.

The only challenge is finding a large enough reliable storage configuration. That is a topic all its own, however, I am eyeing the Drobo product line.

Happy New Years 2010

Tomorrow is the new year and I wanted to wish every one a Happy New Year. May your year be blessed and full of increase.

I have many things to do this new year. I need to redesign some of our website, design a few Album layouts for the purpose of offering wedding albums, offer a more focused Senior Portraits package, find a space for studio work, utilize social media more efficiently and more.

Once again, thank you to all of you,

Heath

The Eponymous Album Update #6 | The Verdict

I thought I would offer an update on the situation since I just received word on my drive situation.

Well, I just got word back from DriveSavers. The hard drive had electrical failures and damaged some of the disk. They said they were confident that they could retrieve all of the data for $1500-$2160. Unfortunately I am an artist and can’t afford such a price at the moment.

I guess my only option is to RE-record everything I have ever done…Every track, every EQ, every plugin setting, every crossfade, every automation, every master, every spontaneous song, everything. It really changes the importance of data management and backups in particular.

Looks like I will NOT have the album out by December 31st.

I am now thinking of recording this album live if I can find some “work for pizza and liner note attribution” musicians… any takers?