There is a place …
on the corner of Red Vulcan and Stubb where the grass has been allowed to go to seed. No, this is not a famous corner that you should know about, it’s just an, as yet, undeveloped street near my neighborhood. Formally, it had no name. It was simply a place deep in the woods on some farmer’s land.
It’s a place of wonder and magic where each day the sun comes up to start the day alerting all of its inhabitants that it’s time to get started for the day; However, it is a sad place, too, as I know that by the end of summer, perhaps sooner, it will be nothing but a memory aided by the few pictures that I can take between now and then. Soon it will be replaced by a manicured lawn and a $400,000, 3,500 square foot house in which two people will probably live.
Since the 1970s, the average square footage of a house has increased by 50% to its current level of about 2,650 SF. No longer is the house a place to live, it’s a lifestyle. Also, the average size of a family is shrinking. The funny thing is that even though we are buying these larger homes, were spending less time in them because we are working to pay for them! That does not sound sane at all!
I thought these thoughts as I was taking pictures in the cool morning air wondering why it is so hard for us, as humans, to share the land with the other inhabitants of this big blue marble. It’s probably and unanswerable question, but maybe it’s a simple answer, hubris, or perhaps we still believe that the planet is ours to conquer! Either way, I enjoyed the outing, but sometimes I get disturbed by the rampant building that is going on all over the place.
We have to have a place to live, but do they have to be so large and do we need to consume so many resources? I wonder.
Old blogger posts rescued.
I had a lot of posts over on blogger, but just found a way to import them! So, now they are ‘home’ all 215 of my ‘children’ made it over! It kind of screwed up the ‘latest comments’ counter, but that will be OK once I get some more posts. I still am missing those between January 2007 and April 2007, but they are gone for good.
So, browse around if you will. It sure was fun looking through them, at least for me. Some of you have been posting for a while! Thanks!!!
Special thanks to Micki, Michael Brown, and Mark Graf who have been around since about April of 2006, when I first started blogging!
About the photo: It’s one of the oldest digital photos that I have, taken back in January of 2004, when I first started using digital.
Lightroom and compressed files
I’ve not seen this mentioned anywhere prominently, so hopefully if someone is in a similar predicament as I was, this small write up will help them on their way. This applies to the Windows version of Lightroom.
When I first installed Lightroom, I tried to get it to import all of my files from my removable drive, labeled ‘G:’. Lightroom didn’t see drive G. I tried everything that I could think of: Reboot the computer, disconnect/reconnect the drive, check for the latest drivers, check the Adobe forums. Nothing helped.
Finally, I right-clicked on the drive and selected the properties entry from the menu. The drive compression box was checked. I never use drive compression because it slows down the throughput of the drive, sometimes drastically. The drive was delivered that way and I had no reason to check the properties. I now have a reason for any future drives that I may purchase! Anyway, I unchecked the box, waited for the drive to decompress, then started Lightroom again. Lo and behold, there was my drive.
I’ve since found out, in the forums, that the Adobe engineers decided to ignore compressed drives. I don’t know the reason behind this, but I think that it is something that they should have made painfully clear!
So, I thought that everything was right as rain; however, I found that when I tried to import directly from my CF card, Lightroom would not allow me to import into an existing directory in my ‘images’ directory. I could select the top level directory and then a subdirectory, but that was as far as I could go. I sometimes got an error message saying that the import could not be done with the selected directory, but it never said why. If I allowed Lightroom to create the directory structure, it would work, but I didn’t want Lightroom to organize my photos the way that it wanted to.
So, more experiments, more failures. I gave up. I created the directory manually and copied the files to the directory, then used an in-place import in Lightroom and everything worked. Sure, it was an extra step or two, but it worked.
This morning, I had an idea: I tried to import to drive C:. Everything worked fine. I then created a new directory on drive G: and tried to import. Again, it worked fine! Then I checked the properties on my existing directory: G:\images and guess what?! It has a property saying that the directory and subdirectories are compressed. So, the drive decompression didn’t decompress everything, only the root level and all ‘future’ directories. The old directories remained compressed. Sigh …
Right now I’m in the middle of a long decompression, which will probably take several hours after which Lightroom should be fully functional! Finally!
In short, before using Lightroom:
1. Make sure any drive on which you plan to store images is not compressed.
2. If it was compressed, decompress it.
3. Decompress all existing directories and subdirectories for those directories where you plan to use Lightroom.
Pesky Papparatzi
I finally got around to cutting and trimming the grass. No, I didn’t mow down those pretty flowers that were featured a few days ago. They are safe and sound!
When I went to remove one of the guides from under the downspout, this fellow and a bluish colored skink were hanging out under it. The skink sped off, however this guy hopped onto the patio and tried to hide in the corner. After I finished my chores, he was still there, so naturally, I had to get my camera. I had the macro lens on and got all in his face, as you can see. Not only did I disturb him from his home, I had to shove my lens in his face!
After the ‘voluntary’ photo shoot, I shooed him away into the tall grass and let him go on home. As you can see, there are pieces of cut grass on his head. My bad! 
A real treat
For the last few days, during my morning walks, I have been treated to several Mockingbirds doing their thing. They sing from above me on the telephone wires; they sing in the trees; they sing from the mailboxes. It’s great to stand and watch them go through their repertoire and it seems to vary each time. I’ve got to say that this is probably one of my favorite songbirds. Maybe because it is a combination of all of the songbirds!
One of my wife’s friends calls it ‘The Devil Bird’ because of its habit of singing on nights with a full moon. One could say that she is not fond of the late night shows that this bird tends to give. She wants it, and the crickets, to be quiet and sleep when it is dark! I sincerely doubt that she’ll get her wish!
How do you improve yourself?
I’m curious. I’ve been reading other blogs and see that some photographers subscribe to multiple magazines, read, look at other photographer’s works, go to art galleries or museums, etc. I just consistently go out and take photographs and attend a workshop or two.
A long time ago I took a New York Institute of Photography ‘class’ where I had to mail in my assignments, they were critiqued,etc. I thought that it was worthwhile, but after a point, doesn’t it come down to the individual to get out, get after it, and click the shutter?
I used to subscribe to Lenswork, which I found pretty interesting, but let my subscription lapse because I found that quite a bit of the work therein wasn’t the particular style that I liked, but it was good nonetheless.
Just wondering what the rest of you folks do …
Embracing uncertainty
Today’s topic, as it applies to photography, comes from The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success:
In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty … in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning.
And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.
This rather hit home with regards to my photography. Sometimes I have trouble dealing with uncertainty. Not in my career, or potential career as a photographer, but in the act of taking pictures, or more to the point, of which subjects to choose. Sometimes, I play it safe and go for what I know; however, in reading this and thinking about the times when I have stepped away from the safety net, it was exhilarating.
When we adhere strictly to that which we already know, we close off opportunities for growth. I would say that historically, I like to deal with landscapes, macros, etc; however, after stepping into the land of ‘people’, a place that was flooded with uncertainty, I feel that I have grown as a photographer and as a person.
This is certainly not to say that one should not hone ones skill through repetition, but that we should not limit ourselves, in anything, because of uncertainty of the outcome. We should be detached from the outcome and simply enjoy the moments of uncertainty which are surely to come along.
At first, this may seem like it is against goal setting, but it is not. It is tightly meshed with goal setting, but having its primary focus on the moment at hand, but not on the outcome. It’s believing that the outcome will manifest itself, if we pay attention to the moment at hand. We are executing the plan and believing in the outcome. We are not attached to the outcome, though.
Detaching from the outcome in photography, for me, means detaching from the expectation of what I will get when I go out to shoot. I just go out and try to enjoy those precious few moments and shot whatever happens to catch my eye, whether it be plant, animal, building, or person. It allows me to be more free. I’m still learning.