Hello.

I have had a very fast introduction to Lightroom 3. Less than two weeks after purchasing/installing it, I got a job to edit ~250 photos from someone's wedding. That's why I have been well behind on this blog.

Stephen is moving a mile a minute. I find myself constantly saying things I should never have to say, such as "Stephen, do not lick the bottom of Mommy's sneaker!" He can do a lot of the standard baby tricks like clap, dance, wave, give five. He's been able to climb the stairs for almost seven months, but he is just now learning to climb back down. Still no words besides "dada" (and "mama" sometimes on command).

He is quite willful and throws bigger fits every day, but I have adapted by now. When I say he was "good" on a given day, I mean that he only threw maybe... 4 five-minute tantrums that day. Usually over something like me closing the baby gate or getting him off the stairs.

I have a picture of him eating spaghetti, cottage cheese, and toast that I plan to post today.

Squinting into the sun
June 03, 2010

When you are outdoors on a sunny day, you never want your camera's ISO setting to be on "auto." When there is plenty of bright light, you want to set your ISO (film speed) to its lowest possible setting. The general rule is this: the higher the ISO setting, the more noise/grain your image will have. When the sun is out, you do not have to put up with that at all. My Canon 40D's lowest ISO setting is 100. My brother's Canon goes down to ISO 80.

Also, when outdoors, you can afford to set a very fast shutter speed. This allows you to "stop time" and nearly eliminate motion blur. This shot was taken at 1/800s, nearly fast enough to stop the splashing water droplets in their tracks (the ones above Stephen's head, for example). I should have set it to 1/1000 or 1/1200s exposure time, probably. The easiest way to control shutter speed is to move the mode selection wheel on your camera to shutter priority mode, typically labeled Tv. Once the wheel is on Tv, set your camera's exposure time. On my camera, a reading of "1000" means 1/1000s, a very fast exposure time. If you walk inside with your camera set to 1/1000s with ISO 100 or less, you will not be able to take any pictures. Everything will be dark because there is not nearly enough light indoors for that.

Good luck, and happy summer shooting.

There is a lot of talk recently about enacting new "Financial Literacy" requirements in order for students to finish High School in this area. A lot of schools have pushed back the launch of the program for another year because of budget problems. So, the states who mismanaged their money are teaching our children about financial literacy? Am I the only one bothered by this? To quote Bill Hicks, "It's irony on a base level, but I like it. It's still a hoot."

I got this link off fazed.org: The 100 best free science documentaries online. This is my kind of thing. Documentaries. Free. Online. The list loses a great deal of credibility when Super Size Me is the first "science documentary" on the list, though. Just saying.

Michał Jacaszek finally came to America. Just come do D.C. and I'm there! A partial clip from his concert in NY on Feb 11:

I like to say how much I love Lightroom and that I don't miss Photoshop at all. This is only partially true. I sort of have to say that because I spent $299 on Lightroom version 1. With that money, you get all 1.xx upgrades until version 2 comes out, then you have to pay $99 to get all version 2.xx upgrades. I saved my $99 and did not get version 2, but version 3 is coming out this April, and I will spend the 99 bucks on it. They have put some Photoshop-like features in that will make me miss Photoshop even less, such as the ability to make selections, the ability to combine photos into HDR images, and improved features all-around, notably sharpening and noise reduction.

I have been wearing Acuvue 2 contacts for about ten years. These are now considered the "old style." They have advanced several generations since then. Now the contact lenses are made of different material and they allow your eyes to "breathe" more. When I got an eye exam two weekends ago, the optometrist gave me one pair of Acuvue Oasys and one pair of my good old standbys, Acuvue 2. I put on the Oasys contacts at the doctors office, and at first my vision wasn't as clear as it should have been. I think that after I got used to them, they were fine, since I do not notice a major difference right now (I just switched to the Acuvue 2 pair about ten minutes ago). The side of the story that I did not tell my optometrist is that I never take proper care of my contacts/eyes. I leave them in for 2-3 weeks without ever taking them out before bed. This is why I am leaning towards the newer, more expensive contacts that allow oxygen transfer through the lens. Another notable thing from my exam: I haven't needed a stronger prescription in the last two years, so that's a good thing.

I finally figured out what makes my desktop PC freeze. It's µTorrent, which is supposed to be the bittorrent client that is more streamlined. Before I had µTorrent, I was using Vuze, but that was too bloated and so forth. Anyone have any suggestions of torrent management software (preferably one with a smaller footprint than Vuze or BitComet)?

I take 3mg of melatonin before bed every night. Well, every night that I don't forget. I have been doing it for about a year now, and I really like it as a sleep aid. It is a naturally occurring biochemical, so it doesn't have the same effect as a "drug" would. The purpose is not to make you really sleepy or groggy; it just makes you feel naturally tired. Around 20-40minutes after taking it, I just sort of yawn and say "I think I should go to bed now. That would be good." It has other advantages, too, like the fact that it allows me to get up feeling completely normal if Stephen starts crying at 2am (where 99% of sleep aids make it much harder to get up before you have gotten 8hrs of rest). It is safe, has no side effects, and has no chance of addiction. The problem is that an overwhelming majority of the population says that melatonin has no effect on them. I will say that it took two weeks of me taking it every night before it had an effect on me. Maybe I wasn't noticing the subtleties before that, or maybe my body had not gotten adjusted to 3mg of melatonin at roughly the same time every day. No idea, but I like it.

And finally, How Tough are NES Games? Answer: really, really tough. Like, getting-run-over-by-a-car-and-still-working tough. Like, getting-dropped-thirty-feet-onto-concrete-and-still-working tough. (Note: usually when I find out about a YouTube video via another blog, I don't actually link to the blog post, but this is my friend Martha's blog, so I didn't take the credit this time)

Edit: fazed.org copied me for once (not really), and put up a link to the 60 Minutes story about the Bloom Box. Nice try, copycats! I was first!