Holding a Grouper in Bermuda

This a a photo from my recent trip to Bermuda. It was great fun holding a live fish!

Photoshop - Making 4x6 Proofs

After (finally) processing the 1000+ NEF files from my Bermuda trip into large finished JPEGs, I struggled with a quick and easy way to make 4x6 proof files in Photoshop CS2. I figured that there really was a way to do it, and came up with several ways that would get me close. The final piece of the puzzle arrived in the form of a suggestion from my tech adviser (my DH)!

Here is the way to do it:

Open the files in Bridge
Go to Tools> Photoshop> Image Processor
Under #2 - (Location) - Choose your file folder locations.
Under #3 - Click on "Save as JPEG" or whatever file types you want.
Click "Resize to Fit"
Type "1800"for BOTH height AND width. (A square crop!)

I don't know how long it would have taken me to figure out the square crop! How simple and elegant a solution, but how elusive! Thank you DH!!

Pie

I finally processed and uploaded the photos of the pie we ate last week.

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend. The weather was great here in Maryland.

Rhubarb & Strawberry Pie

New Software

I just purchased an exciting new plug-in for Photoshop! Noise Ninja by PictureCode was recommended to me by fellow photographers Javier Diazgranados and Tiffany KB. It works great and I used it to process the Buckley Portraits before sending in the lab order to WHCC. I anticipate that the prints will look fabulous!

Butterflies at Brookside

Friend Lynn and I went to Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring, Maryland today to see their annual butterfly exhibit. Unsurprisingly, several butterflies landed on Lynn and were happy to hang out on her. In addition to being able to walk around in a greenhouse full of butterflies, Brookside Gardens also provides educational ops in the form of a live egg & caterpillar display, a hatchery, a touch and see table, an identification display and an outdoor garden with examples of butterfly-friendly plants. During the season they may have up to 600-700 live specimens in the greenhouse. You can even purchase your own butterfly identification chart when you buy your tickets.

I will definitely return with camera in hand.
Some info for my fellow photographers:
The butterflies are less active on cool, cloudy days than on warm, sunny ones. Normally the butterflies spend much of their time in the air, so a tripod will not be very useful.
Weekdays may be less crowded than weekends. The winged critters like to hang out on the plates that are filled with ugly rotting fruit and on the less-than beautiful greenhouse walls and ceiling. They do hang out on the plants, but they are usually busy feeding and wiggle around quite a bit. Volunteers move the newly hatched critters out of the hatchery and onto the nearby flowers. We were told that this is normally completed at around noon or 1pm, but today they moved them at about 4pm or 5pm due to the cool temperature and moist conditions. The new butterflies tend to remain very still and will be much easier to shoot.

Also, be aware that last tickets are sold at 4pm and you need to leave the greenhouse by 5pm.

Buttercup Buckley

The current proofs from the Buckley portrait session are up at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sanctuaryphoto/sets/72157603983755540/

New Efficiency

I placed an order today for an additional hard drive and additional memory for the main office computer. They will help me to finish processing the photos from my recent Bermuda trip. I took about 1100 photos (RAW, of course!) and they have really slowed down the system. Hopefully my technical advisor (hubby) will be able to install the new hardware soon. I am very excited about this improvement to the system.