Birthday Thank You -
Before I get into today’s post I wanted to give my thanks to each and every one of you that took the time to wish me a happy birthday on Friday and throughout the weekend. I was overwhelmed by all the well wishes that people made either in the comments for Friday’s “No Blog” post, Facebook, and Twitter. It wasn’t one of those monumental birthdays but it was a good one. Thanks again for making it so special. Now on to some random thoughts from this past weekend.
Lightroom Beta 3 -
I finally had some time to sit down and spend a little time with the new Lightroom 3 Beta and I thought I would share some random thoughts on Adobe’s newest offering. First, I know it’s beta, and maybe it’s just me but I find that it is running slower on my Mac than Ver. 2.5. I have loaded about 650 images into the catalog and it just seems to me that the response time for browsing thumbnails and moving between modules is a little slow.
One thing that I do really like, although it took a little getting used to, is the new import interface. A lot of the things that I was used to have been moved to panels on the side, like adding keywords, but overall it does seem to be a great improvement. I would like to see a way to add photos to a collection during import instead of having to wait until they are loaded in the Library. It would save a lot of time if I could make my collections as I import my images.
The Develop module is still the best way I know to quickly improve the look of my images and I really like the improved vignetting. I find it interesting that they now see it as an effect instead of just a bi-product of Lens Correction. I’m not completely sold on the new noise reduction but I think it will get even better once the luminance option is activated (it is grayed out at present).
I have yet to do much work in the other modules but I do know that the one thing that I wanted in the Print Module is still not there… multi-line identity plates. Yup, I really want to add more than one line of text in the identity plate but I still have to live with the single line of text that has been around since the first version of Lightroom. It would also be nice if there were centering buttons for the plate like the newly added watermark feature. It is just a beta so maybe they can squeeze that in before it goes to final. As for the rest of the program, I will continue to explore the features and compare and contrast to see if it will warrant my hard earned money once the official version is finally shipped. More on this in the months to come.
Trek-Tech and Black Rapid -
I’m not sure if you caught the comment from Scott Niesen of Trek-Tech the other day on my post about modifying my Rapid-R Strap but he dropped an interesting little nugget. According to Scott, Trek-Tech is currently working with Black Rapid, makers of the Rapid-R Trap, on “a killer combo for Trekpods and the R-Strap”. He also said that he would keep us posted so I can’t wait to see what they come up with.
The Big Picture Shows Us The Days of the Dead -
One of my favorite news websites is the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture. It is a truly visual delivery of current news stories delivered in a “picture is worth a thousand words” format. This weekend I spent some time catching up on some of the latest feature stories and I just loved the Days of the Dead story from November 2nd. The collection of photographs covered the multitude of celebrations that celebrate and remember the dead, from Halloween to All Souls Day to Day of the Dead. I especially enjoyed the White House Halloween photos with the first lady dressed as a cat with Chewbacca and the Storm Trooper in the background. I’m sure there is a good caption in there somewhere. 
Check it out and see what you think.
That’s all for today. I hope you have a great start to your work week.
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Andy Klafter 
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