Random Panderings

Since the release of LRB Portfolio, you might think I had a break after the development time? Well no actually. It was straight into 1.01 bug fixing and feature requests. The main bug was the menu going over too far in IE, but that’s now fixed. There was also some instant update issues with some of the menu items. I replaced the variable to solve that. Images Per Gallery had a px after it. Now removed.
As to features, I’ve a basic Flash music player added. I also made a little music loop in Reason to demo it. Because it’s Flash, it won’t preview on PC in Lua galleries. That’s an IE limitation due to the way it handles plugins like flash. It does show with Preview in Browser though.
Other feature requests done are: Option to remove the Home page link. Done, but you have to start on the home page.
Page Title: you can have a different title on the title bar, rather than Site title, which is used on the main page.
Logo Top Gap: Those worried that the gallery was too far down now have the option of setting this height from 0-200px (default is still 100px).
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In Site Info I’ve added headers to each section for clarity.
My latest is in the hands of testers and the file will be updated when all the new bugs introduced with the features are sorted out. Previous purchasers will be able to redownload. Those that used up the quota can email in for a refill.
I don’t have a time on this, because I don’t know what they might find!

Photowise, I’ve shot Sub Rosa for Red Track Music and some documentary and promo shots for The Weightless Astronauts. That involved one of guitar players standing on my sync cable and breaking something. I’m just not sure what.. I’ll post copies when approval is had.

While it’s not a huge image, Red Track Music are using a photo from the recent RSAG gig(part of a live radio broadcast from Roisin Dubh).
I thought I throw in a few from the gig here. Lighting was dismal, by artist preference.

It’s been so hectic recently. With the late nights coding, I’ve been too tired to be productive over the weekend. I’d much rather do it during the day, but there’s not enough peace and quiet to get it done then. Anyhow, LRB Portfolio will be released soon, and that will allow me to get more normal hours in (well, normal for me!).
Here’s my favourite image from the recent Maximo Park gig, that of Paul Smith, the lead singer. He’s very active, so I’m delighted to have caught this one. I deleted quite a lot due to motion blur!

I met with Maria yesterday to make selections of the photos from our recent shoot. In the spirit of cutting it tight, we shot on Sunday and she moves to the US tomorrow.

I’ve just finished the User Guide for LRB Portfolio, and have converted the entire file to V2.0 code. The file works fine with a mix of V1.0 and V2.0 code, but I changed as a matter of best practice. Once the testers come back with the thumbs up, I’ll release it to the world on Lightroom-blog.com.

Later today I meet with The Conquerors for a shoot for new promo material. With a new member recently added in the form of bassist James Blennerhassett, they’ll be keen to get word out there. James is truly a world class addition to the band. Just Google him and you’ll see.

I should also be at Maximo Park tomorrow night and should get to squeeze in some shots for the Roisin Dubh.

Well it’s been an interesting few days. Both Matt Kloskowski and John Nack gave me a mention on their blogs, bringing extras visitors my way. Thanks lads!
I did sort out my teething issues relating to how Mac zips up files and got a Mac zipper that’s PC compatible (BetterZip). I’ve also knocked up a new version of the HSW website in a gallery, which is way more customisable. I’ll publish that over at Lightroom-Blog and E-Junkie.com soon.

I’m also continuing with the large batch of general presets, including cross processing and special fx looks.

Photowise, I had a shoot cancelled this evening, rescheduled for Sat. I also had a shoot with Nicola on Monday, more glamour oriented than the stuff I normally shoot. It was great fun in fairness!

I’ve sent RSAG photos into Red Track Music to go with a review from Yvonne from An Taobh Tuathail’s Live radio broadcast in the Roisin Dubh last Friday. I’ll post a link if and when it goes up.

Anyway, I found the gap and squeezed something into the blog.

After a lot of tooing and froing with Victoria Bampton via email, and by phone, I was finally able to set up shop for to sell presets for Lightroom. My first set are a large collection of Graduated Filter presets, aimed at landscapers. Rather than go into it, check them out here. It’s my first foray into such a thing. I do have another more general set including Vignettes, FX, tones, presence and other types to sell also. Obviously I’ll be throwing in the free ones that are already available elsewhere.
On hold for quite a while is my 3/4 finished eBook on creating web galleries. Now the SDK is out, others can figure it out the easy way, but this book is done from how I found out how to do things. It’s not long enough for a full book and too short for an article, so I reckon an eBook is the way. I’ll present it to my publisher first though!

It’s been strange the last few months because I’ve had a number of projects running concurrently. The biggest one was Photoshop Lightroom Made Easy, a book for PIP (the photo book arm of GMC publications). My first materials are done, and I’m awaiting editors comments to polish it up. It’s my first book, and it took way too long, because Version 2 would’ve been out by the time it came to press, making it out of date. I had to then rewrite most of it for Version 2 and am now done there.

Another project I worked on was the tech edit of a new book by Brooks Institute of Photography faculty member Chris Orwig. It’s called ‘Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques‘ and is available for preorder at that link. A lot of my tips and tricks went into it, while Chris has some really great tips about stuff I wouldn’t have thought of.

Another project I’ve been working on is a ‘Website in a Gallery’ for Lightroom 2. Now that version 2 is out, I’ve released this over at Lightroom-Blog and you can read more about it there.

Obviously to do so much for V2, I’ve had other things on which I can’t talk about, but I’m glad now to be free to catch up on work that’s been on hold with these. I’ve a lot of retouching to do on TFCD projects for models, and on recent commissioned work. A lot can be done in Lightroom too fortunately.

Now some might consider this more appropriate for Lightroom-Blog, but in truth I prefer more personal stuff to go here.

I got a call from a model friend Gwen, to tell me that her model agency finally got their website up. I shot her portfolio last year, so it’s good to see it up at last. The agency it the Catwalk Model Agency. Congrats to Mandy Maher for getting it up and running, especially as it looks well.

Here’s one of Gwen’s shots:

As a photoblog, Random Panderings has almost died. It’s not like I’m not shooting, I’ve shoot over 40Gb of Raw files this week. It’s just that it no longer serves a purpose. Picking one image when I want to show 4 doesn’t make sense. Also folderblog as a photoblogging tool has died a death, with no support for years and years. It was inevitable that it had to go. I’ve also been using MarsEdit with my other specific blogs (lightroom-blog.com and lightroom-news.com), so it seems obvious to use tools that interface with this. I also wanted to have a certain amount of story telling in my posts, rather than quick comments about a photo. Also the total lack of comments (bar a handful of you) means I’ve no idea if anyone even looks in!
So the intention is to post more general stuff, a mix of tools, tales and photos. And to that end:

2 shots from The Dandy Worhols, as they played the final gig in the Big Top for the Galway Arts Festival.

The standard procedure for gigs is first 3 songs, no flash. So bands like to screw with this. Debbie Harry wore sunglasses and a hoodie for the first few songs. The Dandy Worhols just left the lights down. We’re taking 1/25s @ISO1600 f2.8 down @200mm. At least they weren’t moving too fast! The third song had lots of light though! Phew!
These 2 are from the earlier songs. If I get a chance, I’ll add a few more to this post. I intend posting more festival stuff over the next while. I’ll also be seeking out templates and designs for the blog, and I may create a Lightroom flash slideshow, specifically for the photos shown here.

As for the old site? Try here!