The Home of the Hybrid Photographer

In short, my week sucked. I had absolutely no time to work on LifeInDigitalFilm whatsoever, my real job and photo work saw to that. Luckily, I though things might go wrong, so I prepped enough material to get through the week with out posting, to get me through the weekend. That didn’t work out as hoped, as I had no content on Saturday, but I still made a post, so my current streak is still intact.

So, if you haven’t been by in a while, this week was pretty uneventful here. The only upside was that I got four new presets out the door.

Tuesday : Fuji Fujicolor Press 800
Thursday : Maco PO
Friday : Maco IR
Sunday : Foma Fomapan Classic

Saturday was a wash, as all I got up was an excuse for not posting, however on Wednesday I did get a couple words out as I covered a few topics that I felt I needed to address, read more on that HERE.

I was planning on doing more today, but again I am time limited, but all my current commitments have been met, so I have some time to dedicate to LifeInDigitalFilm in the coming days. The next two days will see some new presets released, and later in the week I will have a review of the canvas print service from Zaza Gallery and a little tutorial piece I have been working on. Hopefully I can find some time to get some details hammered out on my upcoming switch to WordPress and let you know when those changes will arrive.

Also, be sure to check out X-Equals, as Brandon has some great information over there. This week he threw down his review of Alien Skin’s Bokeh and gave an introduction to Dripbook, a new spin on online portfolios.

Well, I will be back tomorrow with another new preset for you to play with.

Until then,

Michael

Well, it is Monday, My busiest day of the week in the “real” world, so I am going to continue with my Monday Update reviews. Don’t expect new contents often on Mondays, but something may sneak in from time to time.

Well, although it was difficult to do, I succeeded in getting a new post out every day again this week. However, I did not get any new articles out as I had hoped to…that just rolled into a new project. More on that when the time comes.

Still working on my new WordPress redesign for LifeInDigitalFilm. I am not going to migrate until I have everything ready to rock, so it should still be a while. When it happens you will know.

It was a good week for presets this past week, with a series of releases. The big focus on presets this week was on the Agfa RSX II family of slide film. I hope you all enjoyed it, as I was not planning on releasing them all at once, but lack of creativity preculded me from writing actual content, so they all got rolled out way too fast. A day by day breakdown….

Tuesday: Rollei Ortho
Wednesday: Agfa RSX 100
Thursday: Agfa RSX 200
Friday: Agfa RSX 50
Sunday: Maco Cube

Only article written was Saturday’s rant about me and why I still shoot film. That is not counting shooting it to emulate it, but to explain why I have 50 rolls of file in the freezer waiting to be shot and another 15 waiting to be developed, while 3 rolls currently reside inside three different cameras. All being used whilst my DSLR rests in it’s camera bag. To read on my retro-photo life click HERE.

This week I started a new mini-feature in my release posts… As I have encountered photoblogs using my presets, I have been featuring them on LifeInDigitalFilm. Sometimes it’s good to see other people use my presets, actually it is always good, since I see my own photos too often and only can use my personal snap-shots to demo my presets…I don’t like using client or project photos for this purpose. So here are the phot-blogs featured this past week on LIDF.

Wednesday: 365photosin2009 – Julie McLeod

A fun photoblog, depicteing Julie’s progress through her 365 photo challenge. Every photo has to meet a theme that is listed on the blog, and every photo is a different theme. Quite a challenge and it is fun to see how she meets the themes with her photos. She had frequently used LIDF presets in her project and I ask you to take a look.

Thursday: Beau A.C. Harbin Photography Blog – Beau A.C. Harbin – Twitter: @bacharbin

Beau has a knock for creative composition and processing, and most of his images include a small snippet of text describing the image itself, so you can understand it in the context of how it was shot and processed. He has used LIDF presets occasionally on his images, most recently on a stunning HDR image of a bridge over the Chittenango Falls. His images will take you somewhere, if only for a moment.

Friday: Phototerium & The Photog Formula – Nate Lawson – Twitter: @nate_lawson

Phototerium is simply an amazing presentation. It is the home to Nate Lawson’s 365 photo project, and he is putting up some simply stunning images. And as if that was not enough, he has frequently been posting the outtakes and seconds to his other blog, The Photog Formula. He has been on a kick of late using alot of LIDF presets in his work…Hop over, have a look, get some inspiration for finding the art in an everyday moment.

Saturday: profiPhotos – Markus Griebling – Twitter: @profiphotos

While not a photoblog in the same sense of the previous three, Markus’ profiPhotos is an excellent resource for Lightroom tips. He recently posted a video on creating High Dynamic Range (HDR) images in Lightroom via HDRSoft’s Photomatix Pro, check it out if HDR is an interest of yours or may someday be.

Markus is also a fellow Admin over at the Presetting Lightroom group on Flickr. Both of us want to invite you to join in on the conversation and to join in on the current photo contest. Less than a week to enter a phot for a chance to win HDRSoft’s Photomatix Pro or a copy of my Cold Storage Collection. Join in the contest HERE.

Bonus Blog: x-equals blog – Brandon Oelling – Twitter: @xequals

Finally, even though I did not make mention of this site in the past week, please hop over to the X-Equals blog, in fact you should make this a frequent stop. Brandon brings you some of the best tip, trick and presets for Lightroom and also features alot of information on workflow, file-maintenance and often does in-depth features on some great photographers.

Recently Brandon put the spotlight on Tom Hoops, who is a great portrait photographer. The article is an interesting and informative read, giving insight into the mind of a great photographer.

In all Brandon’s site is a great resource for Lightroom users and photographers in general. Take some time and visit his site. You might even find a few articles n me in his archives.

Well that is all for today, a rather quick post, given it’s length. That’s what recaps are good for, making you look prolific whilst not having to produce any new content. Come back tomorrow for a new color preset.

Until then,

Michael

Alright, it is Sunday morning here in the middle of Missouri, not much going on; I’ve came off a fairly productive week here on LifeInDigitalFilm and my LifeInRealWorld has been going pretty good of late also. So I figured I would take it easy today and just point you toward some of the Flickr groups I frequent, even if I don’t partake in the discussions much at most of them.

Okay, so I am a serial lurker. I like to read what others have to say, only interjecting my opinion when I feel it is absolutely needed. Before I got back into photography, I was solidly in the tech scene and spend hours a day scouring the thread over at Slashdot and Digg. As I slowly fell back into photography I migrated my daily thread searching from those two sites to a few photo-related forums. The best of which I have found is the discussions inside multiple groups in Flickr. So, I am going to list off a few here that I love, and read daily.

Presetting Lightroom :

Rightoff the bat I will get this group out of the way. It is one in which I admin and I have been pushing it pretty hard here on LIDF. I push it hard because it is a growing group, with a great vibe, focused on Lightroom and using presets to your advantage therein. There is a number of skilled preset designers in the group and an even larger number of people affluent in Lightroom. If you run into problems with presets, using or designing, come on over. I ask anyone who frequents LIDF to hop over and join up and join in.

While I have you on the subject of the Presetting Lightoom group, I wanted to push our photo-contest we have going on. Our contest is simple, process a photo in Lightroom using a preset…Name the preset and why you used it. You have until February 28 to enter, at that point entries cease and voting begins. Voting on the winners will be done by the group its self. Currently we have a few prizes up for grabs, and new ones will be posted in the group. As of now we have a copy of my Cold Storage collection for the top 3 photos and a copy of HDR Soft’s Photomatix w/ Lightroom Plug-in for the overall winner. You have just under two weeks to get involved, the more entries the more prizes we might be able to line up for this and future photo competitions in the group.

Now back to my Flickr list….Next up

Adobe Lightroom:

A group devoted to Adobe Lightroom, obviously. Also one of the best resources to get a Lightroom problem resolved. Most problems you encounter can be solved simply by searching the group discussions. If it is not answered in the discussions or the groups FAQ pages, then feel free to post your question. With the size of the group and their general level of knowledge, you will not go long without an answer.

It is a very active group, and quite a few members names you will notice from across the rest of the Lightroom world on the internet.

This Week In Photography:

The official Flickr group of the TWIP podcast. A very diverse and knowledgable group, with many active members. Awesome group to go to for general phtography issues, and the grouop often has some very lively discussions. In all the group is not too connected to the TWIP show or blog and is very accessible even if you don’t listen to TWIP.

TWIP Critique:

Another TWIP group, however do not go here asking general questions. Bring a photo you want critiqued, and the others will bring on the honesty. Be prepared for honest critiques, you will get multiple opinions and you will learn from your own work in a way that forces you to look at you own work critically.

Some really awsome people over there; bbusschots and kentgoldings are some names that really stand out as consistant participants with good advice. You will really know you are doing good when you get kind words from BruceHP!

Do It Yourself Black & White:

Although this may not interest you unless you are into film (I am obviously); this group is an exellent resource when you decide to step back into the darkroom. Alot of knowledge here, and I utilized this group a lot when I decided I was walking back into the darkroom after 10 years outside of it.

Well I hope this list gives you some places that you may desire to visit, albeit just a few. If you are on these groups, look for me by my Flickr ID of grayimaging. I will be through each group at least once a day to catch up, and I am on Presetting Lightroom quite a few times a day since I admin there. I will periodicall update the list, and once I get my WordPress site up I will have a dedicated Fliker list up.

Please do consider entering in the Presetting Lightroom group photo contest. We have some gret entries already, but not many. Enter soon at the entries will be locked on Feb 28th and voting commences. Right now if you enter you will come off with a really good shot of winning a prize. I mean, there are 3 copies of my own preset collection up for grabs…but don’t let that stop you from buying your own copy of Cold Storage! (((please…)))

Later,
Michael

Ok, so tonight I was tweeted about my downloads not working. I had just made an upload, and tested the download, so it through me off. So I check on another PC and found out that indeed NONE of my download links were working. Google Sites had failed me. I guess I can’t expect much, it is free (although I paid for the Google Apps suite and domain hosting…but anyway). But considering how disillusioned I already was with Blogger/Blogspot content management and hosting in comparision to WordPress content management….

So tonight I started to migrate away. Now all my downloads are hosted on Amazon S3. Brandon of X-equals, gave me a tip to check out this article on using S3 for file hosting. So I made that switch. Now I pay a little for alot of reliability. Thanks go out to both X-equals and Nettuts.com.

I am ferverently working on a good WordPress template on my private server, and migrating all current content to my new WordPress setup. As soon as I get some good hosting (aka get some money to buy hosting) I will bring the new version live. Hopefully it shant be long. I can’t handle Blogger much longer.

Also, I have removed the link for my download page. I am not going to use Google sites at all. I will get a new download page set up over this weekend.

Michael