David duChemin is a Vancouver-based freelance humanitarian and travel photographer. An unashamed do-gooder, David uses his powers for good and not for evil. This is his blog.
This month’s issue of Travel Photographers Network features an article that came out of my reflections on lessons learned in India, specifically in regards to the art of seeing. It’s called India: Reflections on The Art of Seeing and you can find it by following this link: TPN Article - Feb 2007 Issue
I think I’ve posted something along these lines before but I continue to get emails asking what kind of software I am using to post my portfolios.
I am using Evrium’s Fluid Galleries 2 Basic. I suspect I will upgrade to the professional package sooner than later, but here’s the lowdown on why I use what I consider to be a truly exceptional product.
1. Easy to use. Evrium uploads this to your server (or provides hosting for you, if you need this) and you do all your management on the back end. Sign in to your site and in moments you can upload, reorder, and delete images, and change colours, spacing, the order of images and galleries, etc. Simple. Easy to use and very immediate. I can come home from India and have new galleries up in just a little longer than the time it takes me to get my images prepped for the web.
2. Good looking. Folks, photography is a visual art and if your website does not look good it says you don’t have an eye for design or you don’t care. Flickr is fine for the amateurs and family snapshots but not for a portfolio presentation. Sure, you could still make a Fluid Galleries site look bad, but you would have to try really, really hard.
3. Relatively inexpensive. If you opt for the Professional package, which allows you to create custom pages, then you can do your complete website with this software - and it is as easy to update and change as the gallery pages. So when you get a new client you want to profile, you can post it quickly without fuss or the need to ship files off to your freelance nerd to do it. And when you decide in a year that it’s time for an overhaul, a change in colours or design, then you can do that without shelling out for more design and nerd time.
Evrium Software’s Fluid Galleries gets a five star from me. Additionally if you head over to their site you can sign up for their newsletter. They have buy 1 get 1 free days, photo contests, and special deals, as well as user forums. Brilliant. If you buy it, tell them I sent you.
Adobe has just announced the full release of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. It’s hitting the market at $199USD and ships on February 19. More details here on the Lightroom product site and here on the Rob Galbraith site.
In brief, it’ll ship February 19 and the intro price is $199USD, which will go up to $299 after April 30th.The current beta will expire on February 28.
I am very excited about this, can you tell?! Be sure to read the announcement and details on Rob Galbraith’s site.
The wait is over….but why am I so excited about Lightroom? In short, Lightroom provides a place to import, process, sort, and output my images, completely in harmony with Photoshop. Less of my work now happens in Photoshop and the workflow in general has been streamlined. Apple’s Aperture has been out longer and while i concede Aperture has some cool features that Lightroom doesn’t, Lightroom benefits from an extensive beta program that included thousands of professional and advanced amateurs. For me and my style of working this changes everything.
Also check out the NAPP Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Learning Center (the NAPPAPLLC?) HERE - excellent content as always from Scott Kelby and the NAPP gang.
i caved in. i am a weak man. and now i am wearing these ugly things on my feet.
i almost got a pair for my last trip to Africa. i didn’t, and i regretted it. i almost got a pair for the recent trip to India. i didn’t. But my travel partner did. And I regretted it all the more. Folks, these are some of the ugliest things i have ever seen, let alone put on my feet. BUT they’re light and easy to pack, easy to slide on the feet, and after a long day of walking and shooting and sweaty feet - these rock.
camera stores should carry them. until then, find’em here - www.crocs.com - or wherever they sell ugly footwear.
A new look for a new year - the blog banner and some format changes have been made; if you can’t see them hit the refresh button.
As I move into this new year I want to continue to build on the success of this blog, and welcome your feedback. Feel free to drop me a line to tell me why you come here so I can keep dishing up more of the same, or to suggest something new in terms of content.
As an experiment I used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom exclusively as I shot my way through India this month. I have become convinced that, but for the limitations of the used 12″ Powerbook I picked up for travelling (it’s slow folks, I’m not going to lie to you, I should have bought something a little newer), Lightroom is a brilliant application and it is all I need for on-the-road photography. I used it for importing, editing, sorting, and presenting my images - all easily, all non-destructively, all intuitively. As Lightroom comes into its own and heads toward official release, i become more and more convinced that it’s going to be perfectly wedded to Photoshop and will outshine Aperture hands-down. With that in mind I will include some links and tutorials related to Lightroom and the Lightroom/Photoshop workflow.
I’d also like to do a book review each month. 2007 is my year to brush up on some theory - it’s been a long time since I had my nose in theory books and I truly believe the “why” of photography preceeds the “how” of it - as well as some workflow issues. So I’ll review a book a month that focusses on these. Rattle my chain if I forget. The first one will be Welcome To Oz, by Vincent Versace. I have it on order with Amazon - look for a review mid February. After that I suspect I will dive into The DAM Book and try to improve on my current system for image storage which is organized and heavily backed-up and archived but is ad hoc at best. Suggestions for reviews are welcome. Authors are welcome to send me their books in exchange for honest review and recommendation (or not) on this site.
Penultimately in this housekeeping extravaganza, my travel itinerary for the first half of 2007, for those who can’t keep track of where I am and when:
Finally, my best to you all for a wonderful 2007. I am more excited about what lies ahead in this year than I have been for a long time. I hope this new year brings you great blessing.
I’ve been back from India for about twelve hours now and am already settling full-swing into the insanity of jet-lag. Not good for me, but for you it means I’ve been up for hours posting some of my favourite images online. There are two new galleries of images from India on my Pixelatedimage.com site HERE - the images are a mix of shots from Agra, Delhi, Jodhpur, and Varanasi. There are also a few India images thrown into the mix in the Travel gallery as well.
The trip was amazing - I hope it shows through in the images. I’d love your feedback, particularily if there are certain images that you find particularily compelling.
Namaste.
News this morning of a new magazine from the fine folks at NAPP - a new magazine dedicated to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - and it’s included in your membership with NAPP, just like Photoshop User magazine is now. Yet another good reason to join NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals)
Check out the official Darkroom site here.
In less than 24 hours I head to the airport and begin the long trek
to northern India. I will be shooting in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh; a
week in Jodhpur, a week in Varanasi, with a stop in Agra if the trains
run on time and don’t delay us unreasonably. This is a portfolio trip,
and the realization of a long-held dream. Images from this trip will
end up in my portfolio and in my first exhibition - Women And Children
First (dates are yet undecided for this - it was to be March but now I
will be in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Rwanda during that time.)
I will be here in Jodhpur (check out the rooms in this cool place!) - PAL HAVELI, JODHPUR
and I will be here in Varanasi (not so cool- don’t let the name fool you - but it’s on the Ganges and close to the action) - PALACE ON RIVER, VARANASI
Home late on the 23rd, then in recovery mode. I will post images when I can - likely on my main site, but with a link here.
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