More photos:
Outside the Zoo on International Children's Day, Chonching, China 2005
Brant Point lighthouse on Nantucket, February 2006
Book store window, Barcelona Spain, 2003
November 18, 2006
Thumbnails:
For several months I've been playing around with Adobe's Lightroom and Apple's Aperture, both powerful Mac photo management applications. (I believe that free trials are available. Lightroom also does Windows.) Since the learning curve for each is steep, I had, at some point, to decide which way to go and then devote the time to learning one program.
Lightroom's strong point is it's outstanding image processing ability and it's weak point is its very confusing (but presumably capable) cataloging. Aperture on the other hand does cataloging and organizing simply and powerfully. Its image processing, although not as good as Lightroom, is still very good. With over 40,000 images spread across multiple computers, I need more than anything --organization. So Aperture is was.
The first step then was to soup up my system to handle the requirements with room to spare. That included an added 400 gigs of storage, another gig of RAM and a video card update to my old G5 dual 2.0.
Then I spent a week consolidating and importing images into Aperture. Even with the hardware upgrades, managing that many images and sorting/displaying thousands of thumbnails at a time strains the system. But now I can sort my original un-edited digital negatives from the many second, third and fourth generation edits. That's huge for me.
Image processing in Aperture is non-destructive. The original image remains untouched even if you crop, remove red-eye, or change the tone. The program records and stores a log of the steps you took, and at any time you can go back to the original or to any point in the process, picking and choosing which changes you want to keep. This is important in that you always have the digital negative to go back to and because you don't have to store multiple versions of the same photo on the hard drive for every change you make (which is how I came to have over 40,000 images.)
And if you need to do some destructive editing, the program is well integrated with Photoshop (strangely better than Lightroom from my experience) sending an image off for editing and then bringing it back in with the changes.
So, here are a few images I found this morning while browsing. I'll be learning more about the program as I go. I don't think it will make me a better photographer but at least I'll be an organized one.
Christian Science Center, Spring 06
Sari shop in Singapore, Spring 06
Antique Savannah GA police car, Spring 06
October 13, 2006
Tropical holiday:
I understand that there's a frost warning for the Boston area. Not so much here, although I'll be back in time for that cold blast.
August 27, 2006
Festival:
The Caribbean festival went off well yesterday. The weather was good and the crowds big. Most importantly, there was no violence.
A dancer takes it easy after coming down from a float.
All the politicians were out. Did anyone else see Gabreli's tricked out ride?
This float was a little too high for traffic light poles and had to be taken down in Grove Hall.
Groups of kids wandering into alien turf have to be vigilant.
Everyone gets into the act.
There are more Festival photos over at Third Decade.
August 13, 2006
Falmouth Road Race:
A beautiful day for a race, and for watching from the sidelines.
Everyone gets a round of applause. Is that?... no it couldn't be.
July 25, 2006
No vacancy:
The former, famous, Ritz Motel in Quincy.
July 23, 2006
When the rain comes:
The rain is good for some things, I suppose.
July 05, 2006
An afternoon on the Esplanade:
Two sets of photos today. This one is from possibly the last Hatch Shell event for a few years. The rain held off for the most part and it was a great evening.
More after the jump...
Germany's out:
And Hanover Street goes wild!
June 28, 2006
Sign of the season:
It's official, summer's here. The big inflated lock is back up along the expressway in Dorchester. It's late. Last year it went up a little earlier, in mid may. Then again, this year's April showers lasted straight through June.
June 17, 2006
Thursday afternoon in Singapore:
Singapore has been criticized for being a nanny state, among other things, but one thing that was apparent to me in my visit was that, in addition to being modern, clean and prosperous, it is vibrantly multi-cultural, at least in Asian terms. Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Malaysian, and more, all seem to coalesce into a single working society. Of course, that's based on my limited outsider's experience.
I had a free afternoon to get out and about for some photos -in and around the city, and into the ethnic enclaves. I wish I'd had more time, if anything to try even more local food.
A woman tends to a flower stand in Little India.
As in many places in Asia, clothes dryers are rare in apartment complexes.
Just a degree north of the Equator, the sun beats down hard in Singapore. Umbrellas are common even on sunny days.
American chains abound, from Borders Books to Hooters. McDonalds are outnumbered only by Starbucks.
A sleepy magazine stand caters to a segment of the market that Borders Books misses.
Sari city.
The shopping district on Orchard Road is a monument to Asian consumerism.
Mall after mall after mall after mall, most populated by Western outlets, line the street. It's Chestnut Hill writ large.
Back in Chinatown, a cobbler works outside.
Women return from a shopping excursion at the Tekka shopping center.
A neighborhood shopping center near Bugis Village. No Starbucks or Borders here.
Do these colors match?
May 29, 2006
Memorial Day:
First the parade down Main Street.
Then the names of the town's war dead are recited in Marshfield's Veterans' Memorial park, in a ceremony that Jules Crittenden wrote about yesterday.
Originally the site of a 17th century grist mill, the park is maintained by volunteers and it was in great shape today despite being flooded out just a few weeks ago.
The waterwheel still turns.
May 12, 2006
Boston fog:
A man panhandles at a red light in Roxbury on a foggy Friday afternoon.
April 23, 2006
Overcast:
It's a black and white afternoon at Brant Rock in Marshfield.
April 17, 2006
Marathon Monday:
Last year I grabbed a bird's eye view. This year I stayed at ground level.
Everyone was jostling for a view.
I missed the leads but here's the third woman runner to come down Boylston.
And there was no shortage of strange sights in the crowd.
April 02, 2006
All good things...
A short vacation ended last evening at Quinn's bar on Marco Island beach, rightfully famous for its sunsets. Today is a traveling day.
(The conversion to jpg increased the color saturation slightly, but this is pretty much as it appeared!)
March 29, 2006
City of Palms:
Manny being Manny (in a good way) during Wednesday's game with the Pirates in Ft. Myers, which the Sox won 3-2...
March 16, 2006
Seasonal drama:
Last night, the sunset was accompanied by snow squalls, wind and clouds parting just in time for this shot of the Mission Church on Tremont Street.