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Hi Folks:
So far as I know, Facebook was the first to introduce the concept of the ‘Like’ button to user posts and comments, and it’s such a good idea that it’s been adopted by others as well. Google+ uses the ‘+1′ button instead, but it’s the same idea. The folks at TED.com used to give users the ability to up vote or down vote another user’s comments, but they changed that policy so that only up votes are possible. The people at 50opx.com have both ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ buttons on the images displayed there; I suggested to them that they remove the ‘Dislike’ button but the choice is of course theirs.
Why is this so important? Well, in a pre-internet world (yes, I’m old enough to remember such a time), personal interactions were less frequent and more intimate. People waited days, weeks, even months sometimes to hear from a friend or loved one, and as such contacts were treasured. People exchanged long notes, thank you cards and more. Today we live in a much different world. Long letters are hardly ever written, thank you cards are almost forgotten, and even e-mail has become passé, especially among the younger generation. We’re swamped with ever more information, almost all of it short and almost all of it impersonal. The internet is largely considered anonymous and while on one hand that gives people the freedom to express their ‘true’ feelings behind that mask of anonymity it also distances the connections we have with those who are close to us in different ways. Internet friendships can be as strong as any ‘personal’ relationship, but without being face to face we lack inflection, touch and more. Apparently studies have shown that people are more likely to ‘trust’ links that their friends have ‘liked’, but I think it’s much more than that. Continue reading “You Like Me! You Really Like Me!!“
Happy Holidays, Everyone! There are a lot of different celebrations this time of year, but they all share the same general ideas… so whether you prefer Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Solstice or something more personal (the Muslim celebration of Eid al-Fitr is on a different, lunar calendar), we wanted to wish you a safe and happy Holiday Season and a New Year filled with as much love, joy, peace, adventure, contentment, prosperity and excitement as you can handle!
As a gift, we’d love to share this with you: TEDxSF – Louie Schwartzberg – Gratitude
Thanks so much for dropping by our little corner of the ‘net!
Hugs,
M&M
(P.S. Thanks to John for the idea for the image at the top!)
Hi Folks:
While there are usually several templates made every year to make photo calendars in Lightroom, (with many thanks to their respective providers, you can find one here, one here, one here, one here, a Photoshop script here, and while not a template, Matt Kloskowski has a video on using downloaded calendar images in Lightroom here (corrected the link, December 20). NB: He begins in Photoshop, but you can do most of what he does straight in Lightroom. I’ll add more links as I come across them) last year I created a template in MS Word that allowed people who don’t have Photoshop, Lightroom or the equivalent to make their own photo calendars. Thought I’d do the same again this year. I used MS Word 2007 to make the template, but saved it as both a Word 2007 file and a Word 97-2003 compatible file. Basically it’s a series of tables, one for each month, that look something like this: Continue reading “2012 Photo Calendars“
Hi Folks:
This is going to be a very short (for me) post, and is really just a pointer to some excellent articles written by someone else. Photographer Alain Briot recently wrote a series of three articles for the Luminous Landscape , and while they’re primarily written for the understanding of photographers, I think the points Alain makes have a broader reference to the criticisms we all deal with in our daily life.
You can find them here:
Understanding Criticism, Part 1: The Many Faces of Criticism
Understanding Criticism, Part 2: Responding to Criticism
Understanding Criticism, Part 3: A few words on perseverance
Okay, that’s it for now!
Hugs,
Mike.
(See, I told you it was going to be short…  )
Hi Folks:
Well, last Saturday was Marcia’s birthday and since she was off on both Friday and Saturday we (I) expanded her birthday celebration into a two-day event. Fortunately Marcia was willing to go along with my schemes! Before I continue, I should add a little backstory…
Back in 1995 we shared our first two-bedroom apartment together. For Marcia’s birthday I invited a ‘few’ friends for a pot-luck surprise party and we managed to pack 37 people into our little apartment! Everyone had a great time, including Marcia, but she also casually mentioned that she’d kill me if I ever did it again. Well, since we no longer live there, and keeping to the ‘letter of the law’ so to speak, here’s a quick summary of some of the things we undertook over our weekend. It also highlights some of the reasons we love living here in Victoria! Continue reading “Eating Our Way Through Victoria… Celebrations!“
Hi Folks:
One thing I see frequently on Twitter is that someone has decided to import or export a large number of images and is then distraught about how long this particular process is taking. There can be many reasons for this; some of them you can change, and some you can’t but I thought I’d put together a few tips. These have been cobbled together from both my own experience and from a number of other sites, so my thanks to those others! Continue reading “Import/ Export Tips for Lightroom“
Hi Folks:
Happy 2nd birthday to our blog! Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day in the US, it seemed appropriate to offer some thanks here as well. After all, we have a lot to be thankful for. So, in no particular order:
We Give Thanks for You: While this little corner of the ‘net is our own window on the wider world, it wouldn’t mean much without you, our readers. You’re really the reason we’re here! Both of us are writers, but a writer without an audience speaks only to himself, or herself as the case may be. According to Google Analytics, in the past 2 years we’ve had nearly 40,000 page views from over 15,000 different people. That may be small by some standards, but we’re both amazed and delighted by your continued presence!
We Give Thanks for Family: Together we have the usual number of parents and an ever-increasing number of relations, from sisters and brothers to nieces, nephews and beyond. We have two wonderful sons, and two wonderful nieces who are like daughters. We also have two grandsons and one great-nephew who counts as a grandson too. The little ones bring such joy to our lives! There’s a saying that one can choose one’s friends but not one’s family; even if we could we’d stick with the ones we have! Special thanks goes out to our son Nick, not only because starting this blog was his idea to begin with, but because he continues to do a lot of the ‘behind the scenes’ technical support for us.
We Give Thanks for ‘Family’: Ever since the invention of Facebook, the words ‘Friend’ and ‘Like’ will never be the same again. Nonetheless, our connection to others around the world through Twitter, Google+ and several forums has opened doors for us that would be possible in no other way. Because of that we’ve made ‘friends’ with some remarkable people! We give thanks for your presence in our lives!
We Give Thanks for Each Other: A few days ago we celebrated our 225th Monthaversary of the day we met. Earlier this month we celebrated our 17th Anniversary of being a couple, and last month we celebrated our 9th Anniversary of being married. In truth, we celebrate every day together. We are both truly blessed to have each other, and we acknowledge it in every way we can. In the movie ’50 First Dates’, Drew Barrymore plays a woman who is incapable of making new memories, and Adam Sandler plays a man who devotes himself to having her fall in love with him every day. We treasure all of the memories we have, but it’s easy to say we fall in love with each other every day. 
And with that, we thank you for coming by; we’re serving (virtual) coffee and cake (two candles ¡¡ ) in the living room!!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks!
Well, on this one night of the year where perhaps more candy is consumed by more people than any other night, we have two restaurants to share with you from this past month. Both are places we’ve been meaning to go to for some time… Continue reading “Eating Our Way Through Victoria!“
Hi Folks:
End of the month again, and while Hallowe’en is tomorrow, I’m not going to post pictures of zombies, ghouls, ghosts or other Hallowe’en characters. I thought I’d mention something else entirely: serendipity. Roughly defined as a ‘happy accident’, serendipity from a photographer’s perspective often comes about from having a camera at just the right moment, to capture something you might otherwise have missed. Most of my photography is landscape work, and while I do go out on photographic expeditions, I usually have a camera with me wherever I go – even if it’s just the camera in my cell phone. Continue reading “Photo of the Month – October“
Hi Folks:
There was a question on Twitter today asking people about their favourite Lightroom plugin. While I have a few that I use (including Jeffrey Friedl’s export plugin for Flickr), one of the plugins I use the most is the LR/Enfuse plugin from Timothy Armes. In essence the LR/Enfuse plugin allows you to combine multiple exposures into one image, and I use it in three different ways: Continue reading “Using the LR/Enfuse plugin for Lightroom“
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You Like Me! You Really Like Me!!
Hi Folks:
So far as I know, Facebook was the first to introduce the concept of the ‘Like’ button to user posts and comments, and it’s such a good idea that it’s been adopted by others as well. Google+ uses the ‘+1′ button instead, but it’s the same idea. The folks at TED.com used to give users the ability to up vote or down vote another user’s comments, but they changed that policy so that only up votes are possible. The people at 50opx.com have both ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ buttons on the images displayed there; I suggested to them that they remove the ‘Dislike’ button but the choice is of course theirs.
Why is this so important? Well, in a pre-internet world (yes, I’m old enough to remember such a time), personal interactions were less frequent and more intimate. People waited days, weeks, even months sometimes to hear from a friend or loved one, and as such contacts were treasured. People exchanged long notes, thank you cards and more. Today we live in a much different world. Long letters are hardly ever written, thank you cards are almost forgotten, and even e-mail has become passé, especially among the younger generation. We’re swamped with ever more information, almost all of it short and almost all of it impersonal. The internet is largely considered anonymous and while on one hand that gives people the freedom to express their ‘true’ feelings behind that mask of anonymity it also distances the connections we have with those who are close to us in different ways. Internet friendships can be as strong as any ‘personal’ relationship, but without being face to face we lack inflection, touch and more. Apparently studies have shown that people are more likely to ‘trust’ links that their friends have ‘liked’, but I think it’s much more than that. Continue reading “You Like Me! You Really Like Me!!“