Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Celebrating the Autumnal Equinox

Celebrating The Autumnal Equinox By Garry T. Stasiuk
An Equinox occurs when the Sun is directly over Earth’s Equator. Even though an equinox occurs at Precise Moment in Time — 2:29 AM Universal Time on September 23, of this year. The time that event occurs around the world varies, depending upon what time zone you located in on the Earth!
For the west coast of North America, the time of the Autumnal equinox is September 22, 7:29 PM PDT.
If you live in Edmonton, Calgary or Denver the time will be September 22, 8:29 PM MDT
Chicago is in the Central Time zone so the time the equinox happens will be September 22, 9:29 PM CDT, For New York it’s September 22, 10:29 PM EDT
For other locations around the world the time is:
For London, September 23, 03:29 AM BST -British Summer Time
For Dubai, September 23, 06:29 AM
For Tokyo, September 23, 11:29 AM
For Melbourne, Australia Tuesday, September 23 at 12:29 PM —which is actually the First Day of Spring in the southern hemisphere.
Take A GeoChron Selfie
So, what can we do to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox? Take a selfie with your GeoChron in the background at the moment of equinox! And, send it to us via Facebook! Post the picture here,
https://www.facebook.com/GeochronUSA

If you need to look up the time of the equinox for your city, the “Time and Date” Website, has a handy chart
 http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20140923T0229&msg=Sep- tember%20Equinox%202014

A Sunset or Sunrise Photograph (selfie)!
Image1 15If you really want to celebrate the Equinox you can also take a photo (or a selfie) of a sunset on the 22nd or a sunrise on the 23rd. On those days the sun will rise directly out of the east and set directly in the west! Because the sun is at or near the Celestial Equator, the Earth’s Equator drawn in the sky... The sun will be really close the the East and West cardinal points for 3 or 4 days. So, if the weather isn’t coop- erating you have a three or four day window to take the photograph. This is a way for you to fix in your mind, the direction of East and West for your location. We’d love to see those pictures too!


Places to Visit for the ultimate Sunrise selfie!

Other Solar Observatories around the world include, The Pyramids in Egypt, Teotihuacan in Mexico... the list is quite impressive. You can learn
more at this NASA websiteThe day of the Equinoxes was so important to our all ancient cultures, they builtsolar observatories to mark the date when the sun rose directly out of the east. The most famous monument is Stonehenge in England. In North America there are Medicine Wheels at Big Horn Mountain, Wyoming, Cahokia in Clair County, Illinois, and the Moose Mountain Medicine Wheel in Saskatchewan, Canada.
http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/ 2005/locations/gaocheng.htm

Post your photos at GeoChron’s Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/GeochronUSA

Other Celebrations?
Eat moon cakes. The Chinese celebrate the autumn harvest and one of the popular “Foods” is the Moon cake, usually filled with fruit, duck eggs, Lotus and sesame seeds. !
If you live in Japan, The day of the Autumnal Equinox is a holiday to celebrate their ancestors having reached the other shore, nirvana. The celebration is called Higan or Higan-e, and is part of the Buddhist tradition is to visit, clean and decorate your ancestors grave site.
The Autumnal Equinox In Mythology

Image1 17In 2014, behind the Sun, with the aid of a Planetarium Program (Starry Night Pro), we can see that the Sun and the Celestial Equator is located between the constellations of Leo and Aquarius. No where near the Milky Way.
 




If we go far enough back in time, to around 4400 BC, (image below created by Starry Night Pro V 6), we see the Sun, the Celestial Equator (Earth) and the Milky Way aligned at an Autumnal Equinox. Many cultures including the Greeks, the Polynesian, the Sumo of Nicaragua and Honduras, the Pawnee and Cherokee, and yes the Egyptians and the Mayan all spoke of a time when our ancestors souls could cross 

Image2 19
from the mythical Earth into Heaven, the Milky Way. Perhaps this alignment was the first celebrated Autumnal Equinox so long ago! 

Monday, June 9, 2014

It's Your Turn

The Oil Trains

This is my rendition of the “Oil Train” 

The Challenge: Use Lightroom to “Develop” your version of the image.

\NewImage

You can download the image by clicking or right clicking and save as… Oil Train

The Link is a 36 megapixel NEF File.  Have Fun!

Friday, May 30, 2014

Slideshows, Movies, Music and Books

Homework

In the June 9th class we’ll focus on making a Book/Slideshow ( a requested topic) 

If you actually want to work along in class with your own images, You’ll need to do some prep work! Homework!

OUTPUT Prep:  Things you need to do First

    1. In the Library Module
      1. Put all your book/slideshow etc image files into a collection.
    2. At a bare Minimum, fill in he Metadata  information for each image with: Title, Caption, and Headline.
    3. This is the IPTC definitions for:
  • IPTC Core Content section

    Headline

    A headline is a brief publishable synopsis or summary of the contents of the photograph. Like a news story, the Headline should grab attention, and telegraph the content of the image to the audience. Headlines need to be succinct. Leave the supporting narrative for the Description field. Do not, however, confuse the Headline term with the Title term.

    IPTC Core Status section

    Title

    This field can be used as a shorthand reference for the image or “photograph” — primarily for identification. The title of an image should be a short, human-readable name — text and/or numeric reference —and may take several forms; for photographers this might be the filename of their original scan or digital camera file, for news organizations it might be the name of the story for which it’s to be used. (Note that there are new terms in the IPTC Extension which can also be used as image ID’s, if you are concerned about this field being overwritten later in the workflow). The Title term should not be confused with the Headline term, which is a short synopsis of the content of the photograph. There is a button in the panel which can be used to add the current file name to the Title field; however this will not work with a selection of images.

    Description

    The Description field, often referred to as a “caption” is used to describe the who, what (and possibly where and when) and why of what is happening in the photograph. If there is a person or people in the image, this caption might include their names, and/or their role in the action that is taking place. If the image is of a location, then it should give information regarding the location. Don’t forget to also include this same “geographical” information in the Image panel (location, city, state/province, country) of the IPTC Core. The amount of detail you include will depend on the image and whether the image is documentary or conceptual. Typically, editorial images come with complete caption text, while advertising images may not.

     

  1. In the Library module Sort (drag and drop) the images in your collection in the order you want them to appear in the book or slideshow
    1. You can sort image order in the Film Strip, but it is MUCH easier to do In the Library.
When you have done the above
If just want to bring the “collection” to class, “Right (Control) click the Collection in the collection panel and choose “Export this Collection as a Catalog…” and save it to a flash drive.
NewImage

If you want to try and follow my notes go a head and  Open your collection in the Book Module, click the Book Module Button 

If you have been working on any of the “output” Modules, you can bring the work from that module as a collection.  When you click Create Saved Slideshow  or Book, Print or Web Collection, Lightroom will save your work as a  special collection: 

Bring your exported specialty module to class!
 
I’ve written out some additional notes on using the Slide show and Book Module.

The Book Module Notes

Click on the Book Tab Book Module Notes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Slideshow Module Notes

Click on the Slideshow Tab Slideshow Module Tab

Here’s a sample slideshow saved as a video.

 

 

USE of Music in your Productions.

“Royalty Free” Music
Just do a Google search for Video production music… Most of the “Pay For” companies offer some “free” samples for your use… However, Average price for an unlimited license for a single tune is generally $9.00 or less… 

Music with “Creative Commons” Licensing
It’s music that is “Royalty Free” and at no cost, because the Artist wants to share their music with you, it’s a way for them to get some “exposure” with a wider audience. The music is protected with a  “Creative Commons” License or a similar type of agreement, which spells out how you can use the composition.

Free Music Archive
Music ranges from Classical to just plain weird.

http://freemusicarchive.org

The music in video/slideshow in this article is from the website MP3 2000
http://www.mp3-2000.net/song/canton-136-71-1-schvisen-633988

 

See you in class! 

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Importing and Merging catalogues in Lightroom

Importing and Merging catalogues in Lightroom

The Menu item is:

File  > Import From Another Catalogue…

How you Import and Sync Images and Metadata from different catalogues will depend on your “setup”.

  • A:  Merging catalogues on your system or external drive(s)
  • B: Importing from another computer, either a laptop or desktop (e.g.: when shooting in the field)

Here are the main steps to do an import from another catalogue…

Step A:  

Determine the location of the catalogues on the COMPUTER(s).  

PC default Location        c:\users\my pictures\Lightroom\

Mac Default Location:      //Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom/

This just helps you find them for the next step…

Step 1.

Start Lightroom loading your Master or Main Catalogue.    

(Hold down the alt/option key when you startup Lightroom) Note that, Lightroom defaults to loading the last loaded catalogue…

LR CatLoadpng

Step 2: 

The Menu item is:

File  > Importing From Another Catalogue.Use

Use the Mac’s Finder or the PC’s Windows Explorer to locate the “Other” catalogue.

Lightroom002

A double click on the .lrcat file will open the dialogue box below…

Step 3:

Check √ the Show Preview box lower left to see the thumbnails in the Import Catalogue.

Layout002png

Number 1 in image above…  

The 3 bars and the exclamation point indicates that there is “new” data

Number 2 in image above…  

If you want, you may choose to preserve “Old” setting in your CURRENT catalogue, LR will make a virtual copy for you.

Lightroom002png

Number 3 in image above…  

Choice #1:
Add New Photos to Catalogue without moving…

Use this option if you are happy with where the files are located, and you just want to tell LR where they are…

 

 

Choice #2:
Copy new photos to a new location and import… 

Your photos are on a Laptop or another computer, or you are adding or consolidating your photos into a single catalogue…

Choice #3:
Don’t Import new photos, You just want the metadata

Number 4 in Image Above… Replace:

LR 02png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4  Click Import…

Other Hints… (Working in the field)

If you are using a second copy of LR on a Laptop and you are using LR’s default location to store the photos, when you get back to your desktop you will have to do the following.

1. Using your laptop, plug-in an external drive.

2.  Export your “Shoot" as a Catalogue to the external Drive.  

Menu:

File > Export as Catalogue…  To the External Drive.

3.  Eject the External drive from the laptop and plug it into your desktop

4. Load your master Catalogue in LR and use the Menu:

File > Import from another Catalogue

Follow the above import steps…

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Keyboard Shortcut on-line app for Lightroom

Learning Aid 

by Waldo  Bronchart
http://www.waldobronchart.be

He only asks for a "donation" via GitHub

For Lightroom, Photoshop and Blender… available for Windows, Apple and Linux keyboards

It’ s interactive and online keyboard shortcut app! Try it out at 

http://waldobronchart.github.io/ShortcutMapper/

Application Shortcut Mapper

A visual shortcuts explorer for popular applications. This is a work in progress. More applications can be added by contributing on GitHub.

 

 

 

Lr keyboard

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Perfect Effects 8 Offer – onOne Software

Perfect Effects 8 Offer – onOne Software: For FREE! Offer Ends May 12th

Perfect Effects 8 is a plug-in for Lightroom, and other Image editing Software.

Catch? There are seven other modules that they want you to purchase. OnOne Software is located in Portland.

The other plug-in that I’d want is Perfect Resize…