Monthly Archives: February 2014

Lightroom, Photography

Lightroom Basics #1

In this series of Lightroom articles, I will be looking at the “Why” more than the “How”. So many tutorials show you how to work with Lightroom but they leave off the reasoning behind the actions. I have always been one of those who wanted to know the “Why” things work the way they do.  This dissertation is not a  “how to” manual. You will probably need a book or tutorial to actually follow along and do the action. The purpose of this series is to give you the background information so you can make intelligent decisions when you use Lightroom.

Lightroom #5  is divided into 7 Modules. Each Module or section allows you to work on your picture files for different purposes.  If you ask yourself, “What do I want to do in Lightroom?”, the answer will be one of the modules.  Today, I will talk about the Library Module.

Let me start out by saying, “Lightroom does NOT have a folder for storing your picture files!” It has a CATALOG file for keeping track of your picture files. STOP. Think about that a minute.  Lightroom DOES NOT make a second copy of your pictures when you add pictures to the Lightroom Catalog.  If you have a folder for pictures on your Hard Drive in your computer, perhaps called “My Pictures”, you can tell Lightroom to catalog those pictures. Lightroom, called LR from now on, does not move those pictures into a special LR picture folder; nor does it make a new copy of those pictures; rather, it just makes a notation where the picture is and stores information about that picture file in the LR catalog.  That was a long sentence, you might want to read it again and think about it. It is very much like an old card catalog in the Library; where each book has a card that tells where the book is on the shelf.  This analogy is so close that I will use it may times during this explanation of LR.

When you first start up LR, you will be telling it to look for picture files in a folder on your computer or on an external hard drive. Then, you tell it that you want it to add information about those pictures into its catalog.

You will use the IMPORT button, while in the Library mode, to bring up the import screen.  First, You will tell LR where the files are stored. You do this by pointing out the location in the left column where drive folders are listed. By going to the location of your picture files you want to add to the catalog you are telling LR the current location of the pictures.  Then you will choose the ADD button at the top to to perform this action.  At that point, LR will go through all the picture files you have stored at the given location and create cards for the LR card catalog for each picture (file).  The file will not contain the actual picture file but it will save a small preview picture and meta data (date of picture, camera settings and other information added later) but most importantly, it will store the location of the picture file.

Let’s go back to the library analogy. When the books are stored on the shelf in the library, they are stored by subjects.  If you know your way around the library, you can skip the card catalog (now on computers) and go directly to the stacks because you know that the photography books are  all together in a specific place in the library. You can go there and look through all the books on the shelf and find a title you want to read.  Imagine now, what it would be like if the books were just stacked randomly without any groupings. What if the books were just added to the shelves in order of when they were purchased.  At this point, you would HAVE TO go to the catalog first to see where your book might be.  When you went to the shelves to find the book you looked up, you would not find any other books similar in nature close by for comparison. This process would be very unproductive.  What if you went in and the computers were down? The library, full of information would be worthless! The more books the library had the more worthless they would be without proper organization and a card catalog.

Lightroom is the same way. To make LR as useful as possible, your pictures should be stored in an organized way.  My pictures are stored by subject matter.  The first thing to do is have one folder with  ALL other picture folders in it. If you are on a Windows PC, the “MY PICTURES” folder is an example. That works just fine. Inside that folder, you don’t want to just  dump the pictures randomly. That would be like storing snapshots in a garbage bag. Sure, they are all there together but how can you find Uncle Bill’s wedding picture?

I have my pictures divided into  19 sub folders inside “my Pictures”. Mine start with “FAMILY” then “FRIENDS” followed by “TRAVEL” and 16 other folders.  The “FAMILY” folder contains more folders; like a folder for my wife and I along with our kids (“Our Family”). Then there is a folder for my wife’s family. In the “OUR FAMILY”, you will find folders for each of us and each of our kids.  While LR makes it easy to find pictures with the various search methods, I can find pictures even without LR.  This means, if I lost the LR catalog and just had my original picture files, I would still have the access of all my pictures.

If you are just planning to install LR, I recommend organizing your pictures first in groupings of folders nested inside larger folders. I know some people who sort their pictures by date.  With a small quantity of pictures, this might be workable but as you collect more and more pictures, dates are hard to remember. Remember Uncle Jim’s wedding picture? When was that?  Sure, you can call someone or look in your date book to determine the date but for me it is easier to go to: Family > Pat’s family> Bill> Bill’s wedding> wife #4.

Once you install LR and have the catalog set up, it is VERY important to make all future changes to the organization from within LR. As long as you do this, LR will keep track of the new locations. If you just go to “MY PICTURES” and move files around, LR will not know where they have gone.

Most of the Hype about LR revolves around the Develop Module because that is the part that makes pictures look good but the real value of LR is the cataloging.  When you have tens of thousands of pictures, being able to locate them is of primary importance.  LR makes it easy to organize them.

Next Lightroom post will talk about keywords and other importing options.

General observations

Moonlight Marathon Registration is OPEN

 Moonlight Marathon at Oak Ridge Cemetery

 Looking for something different?

How about running through an historic, century old cemetery at night on a fully supported, closed road course that you can run solo or with your friends and family and with the goal of finishing your adventure closest to midnight.

The evening of May 3rd 2014 will be the inaugural running of the Moonlight Marathon at Oak Ridge Cemetery.  On that night, you will have the option to run a full marathon, marathon relay, 6.55 mile or 5k courses under a crescent moon and in the shadow of Lincoln’s Tomb.

While final details are being worked out, organizers want to let the public know about this exciting, first ever event occurring in 2014, 2015 and beyond.

Runners embark on their adventure from the lagoon bridge near the Lincoln Park Pavilion after 5:45 p.m. and enter the cemetery through the currently closed Original Entrance on 3rd Street where almost 150 years ago President Lincoln’s body passed en route to his final resting place in Oak Ridge Cemetery.

Participants will then navigate the course while passing through the beautiful yet haunting statuary and among the astounding history of the nation’s second most visited cemetery.  Racers must wind their way back to the finish/exchange area using the moon, a headlamp, a flashlight, route reflectors and course volunteers.

While the 5k and 6.55-mile racers start at 5:45pm and run the courses for the fastest time, the full marathon and marathon relay runners can choose to begin any time after 6pm with the goal of finishing closest to midnight but without the use of any GPS, phone or timing device.

These unique night time road runs are being hosted as a fundraiser for the Oak Ridge Cemetery Foundation to renovate the “Original Entrance and Gates “ on 3rd Street and to provide a never before chance to run at night in the cemetery in a controlled, safe environment with safety and race personnel on site.

On-line registration is open at the website www.triharderpromotions.com. 

Stuff We All Get (SWAG)

So Far……

Each participant in the 5k fun/run receives on-course support, a gender specific race shirt and food and drink in the Lincoln Park Pavilion after the race with live music.

All 6.55 mile, Marathon Relay (up to 4 runners) and Marathon participants will each receive on-course support, a gender specific race shirt and food and drink in the Lincoln Park Pavilion after the race with live music and a Finisher Medal.

The Moonlight Marathon Course is a chip timed 6.55 mile loop (4 loops) lined with reflectors and cones to guide you along the roads of Oak Ridge Cemetery.   The course will open at 6pm for individuals and relay teams with a finish goal of 12 midnight.  The latest time a runner can begin the marathon is 9pm.  PLEASE NOTE: As this is a loop course, no participant will be allowed to start a new loop after 11:20pm.

Beware: this may be the most challenging marathon course in the nation!  But, take whatever time you need to cover the distance because your time on this race does not matter!  Slower runners and even walkers have a chance of winning this event because all that matters is finishing closest to midnight without going over.  The majority of the race is on paved roads that wind, meander, climb and descend in one of the most beautiful venues you can imagine. However, please keep in mind that runners will be immersed in total darkness with only their headlamp, course reflectors, cones and volunteers to guide them through the cemetery.  The only traffic on the course will be course monitors and bike safety patrol.

Prediction Marathon/Relay

Marathon participants choose their own starting time based on the predicted pace with a finish time goal of midnight on May 3rd.  Teams of 2,3 or 4 people choose their own starting time based on the predicted pace with a finish of midnight.  The course will be open at 6pm for individuals and relay teams but the latest time a relay or marathoner can begin is 9:30pm.  Relay participants will run with a baton containing the timing chip, which will be handed to the next runner at the lagoon bridge exchange area.  The loss of the baton means no time is recorded.

The course closes at 1:00am and anyone still on the course at that time will be escorted back to the finish area.  If a marathoner or relay member has not started their last loop by 11:20pm, they will be stopped from starting it.

6.55 mile and 5k Fun/Run Walkers and Runners

The 6.55 mile race is one loop of the marathon course and is chip timed. The 5k course consists of a flat route that is beginner friendly; it is not chip timed.  For safety reasons, any walkers are asked to line up behind the runners.

PLEASE NOTE: All kids under the age of 12 are free to participate in the 5k but if they do not pay they will not receive a bib, shirt or post race meal.  However, food and drink can be purchased at the park pavilion.

The Course

“On May 14, 1856, an ordinance was passed forbidding the further establishment of burying grounds within the city of Springfield. A tract of land containing twenty-eight and one half acres, lying two miles north of the Capitol, was purchased by the City, for the establishment of a Cemetery, adequate to the necessities of the growing city, and sufficiently remote from the business center and every – day life to render a fitting abode to the dead.”  (Oak Ridge Cemetery Records)
Since 1865, the cemetery has grown to be the largest Municipal cemetery in the state of Illinois, encompassing 365 acres of beautiful rolling prairie land, thousands of hardwoods and conifers, and over 75,000 interments. Oak Ridge Cemetery has the distinction of being the second most visited cemetery in the nation, second only to Arlington National Cemetery.  Almost one million visitors enter these gates annually not only to pay respects to their deceased families and ancestors, but to also visit the final resting place and pay homage to our distinguished sixteenth President, Abraham Lincoln.  However, none of them have the opportunity to visit the cemetery at night…

Awards:

Overall Awards will be given to the top 3 male and female individuals and teams in the marathon and relay to those finishing closest to – but not after – midnight.  A finishers medal will be provided to all those in the Marathon, Marathon Relay and 6.55 mile run.  The top 3 male and female finishers in the 6.55 mile run will receive Overall Awards. No medals will be provided for the 5k participants.

Contact:

Email triharderpromotions@gmail.com with any additional questions.  Bring chairs, pop up tents and games to set up near the lagoon to pass the time and serve as your headquarters and cheering station during the race.

On line registration is now open for the May 3rd Moonlight Marathon at Oak Ridge Cemetery at http://www.active.com/springfield-il/running/distance-running-races/moonlight-marathon-at-oak-ridge-cemetery-2014Or visit the triharderpromotions.com website for the link and latest news. After spreading the word about these events in St. Louis, Chicago and all over central Illinois, I would not delay in registering. The response has been over whelming and interest very high. Don’t delay, sign up today for the most unique runs in the most unique venue in central Illinois at night.

General observations

FaceBook friend or foe?

Since my first website many years ago, the face of the web has changed many times.  Many of these changes have been good and make internet presentation much easier. You no longer have to learn code to produce a very nice web presence.  You can build a site just by filling the blanks on a website development tool. You tell the software what you want and almost instantly, the website appears.

Then there are the social media. They have the website set up for you. All you need to do is post notes. In the case of Twitter, the notes are short. For FaceBook, you determine how much you want to post and who can see it.  FaceBook is a free service; or is it?  Do you think it was designed to make you happy?  It was designed to provide a broad sampling of consumers for advertisers.  Not only can they provide an audience for advertisers, they can look at what you are posting and use that information to offer you specific goods and services based on your interests.  In other words, they read your postings and if you start talking about a baby, you will be flooded with baby items.  We complain that the government  snooping  and then turn around and open our innermost thoughts to the corporate world.  I don’t trust the government but I trust the big business even less.  The way I see it, as long as you understand the rules, and go in with your eyes open, FaceBook can be an enjoyable experience.

There is a saying, ” never point a gun at anyone” and most people are familiar with it.  That one thought has probably saved countless lives.  Another saying that everyone should be taught is, “Never post anything you don’t want the world to read”  You can not expect security measures to always protect you.  If you don’t post it, nobody can steal it.  Use some common sense.  That guy who is a friend of a friend of a friend of yours and wants to be your friend might really want to con you out of some money or perhaps he likes to look at cute little girl’s pictures.  Know who you friend.

I like FB and enjoy the friendships it has expanded,  If someone really wants your information, it is available. I won’t let that fear stop me from communicating with friends.  But  I also keep private information in e-mail. It isn’t perfectly secure but it is more secure than social media.

I plan to talk more about how to use FB in the future. Watch for it.

General observations

About Record breaking temperatures

At daybreak today, the thermometer hit a record low for the date. It was 13 degrees below zero.  That’s 83 degrees colder than enjoyable.  The way I see it, at about 25 degrees, it is cold! After that it is just degrees of misery.  When I was a kid, we didn’t have the wind chill factor or if we did, nobody talked about it. I think it is just an invention of the news media to sensationalize the weather. “Tomorrow morning’s wind chill will be -35 degrees below zero! At that temperature, your nose can freeze and fall off in less than a minute”  Yes, I know it is either -35 degrees or 35 degrees below zero but -35 degrees below zero sounds so much colder.   What ever happened to , “It will be cold and windy in the morning, bundle up.”

For those of you who live below the Mason-Dixon Line, I will try to describe what these temperatures feel like.  I know, I know, wind chill is the “feels like” temperature but that is like saying the sweetness factor tells you how sweet something is. If you have never had sugar, you have no comparison.

The first thing you will notice when you step out into the sub-zero cold is that your nose hairs freeze. Perhaps we need a nose freeze factor measured in seconds to replace the wind-chill.  We will be having a 3 second nose freeze factor in the morning. That means on the second breath, you will notice the inside of your nose is getting sticky as the moisture on your nose hairs starts to freeze and stick to the other freezing hairs.  The next observation will be the squeaking snow or ice under-foot.  Your footsteps are no longer silent. They squeak.  It is a sound unlike any other but once you have experienced it, you never forget the sound. It is higher pitched than a squeaking old floor and the colder it is, the higher the pitch.  After the squeak factor, you notice the hardness of the surface on which you walk. While it is true the density of the surface increases with the cold (you know, heat expands; cold contracts) the real difference is the freezing of the soles and inner-soles of your shoes. Even the padding between your joints loses  its compression factor. This is why the cold is described as bone jarring cold.  The last feeling you get in these arctic temperatures is the the lack of feeling in extremities. This is the numbness factor. It is determined by the insulation  in your clothing.  If you go out without a coat, you might have a 3 minute numbness factor.  This factor would be actually two numbers because there is also a time factor for warming up when you return inside.  So a 3-5 numbness factor would result in numbness after just 3 minutes outside without a coat and a 5 minute warm up time when you return inside.

Now that you know the standards, I can describe the weather I experienced this morning.

This morning, when taking out the recycling, the temperature was 13 degrees below zero; there was a .75 sec. nose freeze factor and a  +5 octave  squeak.  There was a zero compression factor along with a numbness rating of .2-27.  In short it was FRIGGIN FREEZING!

Have a great day. I’m not taking out the garbage any time soon!

General observations

On this cold winter’s day

Had we gone on our planned vacation, we would have been settled in down around Orlando for this week. We would have been just down the road from our long time friends the Dershimers, I don’t know what the weather is there now but it is certainly cold up here. I make that statement because I am assuming we would have made it through the winter mess that blossomed between here and there during our planned travel. We both felt uneasy about the trip and cancelled it a while back. Perhaps, had we gone, that winter mess might have caused us great discomfort. We will never know but we have learned to follow that inner guidance. Is it the soft whispers of God or some spiritual guides giving us advice? Is it relatives past, concerned about or well being? I don’t know but I pay attention. I think it stayed in the single digits here today and it sure would be nice to be in sunny Florida right now.

I have started the long process of converting some of the old VHS tapes into DVD’s. Some of those tapes contained old movie footage from before I was born. I have reels of tape taken by my grandmother. Many minutes can go by without one head in the shot. The only way to to besure your head was not cut off was to bend over! It was still fun to see the old degraded movies of my Mom and her family. There were lots of picture of my Grandfather in his garden or with his daughters. With grandparents back then, being no different than they are now, there were LOTS of grandkid pictures! I saw me as a toddler along with my siblings. Good medicine for a cold afternoon.  I was amused to see me at age 4-5 years drinking a bottle of Coke. So, I was a Coke drinker for over 60 years!

I watched Krystal in a production of the Christmas Bunny at school (she was the bunny). I could not understand the words any more now than I could then but it was still fun to watch.

There are many cassettes to copy and I am sure I will enjoy them all even though those early VCR cameras were certainly poor quality. Or was it me? In any case the auto focus was not very auto and even less focus. But I still can remember those good times with the kids. Do we really realize how lucky we are with the ability to capture the present so we can watch it when it is just a memory of the past. Not only can we watch it, we can also share it  instantly on a friends computers or big screens half way around the world. With this many changes in my lifetime, I can’t even imagine what it will be like in 20 years. Dick Tracy and Buck Rodgers technology will be old hat. I guess it is already but then , so am I.

That’s what I was thinking.