The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • That’s Really Pretty

    Last night as we were leaving David’s YMCA swim class, the sun was setting behind some clouds and it was already starting to get dark outside. A few blocks away, nestled among other buildings, the tower of the Cathedral caugh my eye; it was lit with several lights shining up on its sides which really made it stand out from dusk. I kept my eye on it for a few seconds as we started walking, but didn’t bother saying to Ana or David about how it looked to me.

    I really wish I would have been prepared with a camera, but that’s beside the point.

    Just a moments after I stopped looking at it, I hear “Ooooh, that’s really pretty”. It was David. He had noticed it too.

    Ana and I try to point things like that out to him as often as we can; trying to teach him to stop and take note of how things look. All the times we are out together, and I have my camera, I try to explain why I’m taking certain pictures. I don’t know why I’m surprised, but it’s rubbing off on him.

  • Back to Monticello

    Saturday we went back over to Monticello for their monthly running of their “Southern 401” steam engine. David enjoys trains period, but particularly likes the sights and sounds of the big steam engines. Between runs I got to take David up to the engine cabin so he could see everything, including the fire.

    On our ride from the station to downtown Monticello we rode in “the green car” at David’s request, and on the way back we rode on the wooden open-air car so we could really see and hear everything. If you decide to try it out, the timing of everything works out well for a ride into town, lunch at the Brown Bag Deli, and a ride back.

    There are plenty more photos available, have a look.

    And finally, here’s a video of our ride.

  • Monticello Railway Museum

    On Saturday we visited the Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, IL. David had a blast around all of the trains and really enjoyed the rides we took.  At one point he shouted “I LOVE this place!”

    We’re hoping to make it back over there at the end of this month or next to ride on the steam engine they run once a month or so.  Should be fun!

  • Canon 30D Shutter Button Repair

    A few weeks ago I noticed that I was having a higher frequency of images coming out with signs of camera shake.  I didn’t think much of it, until one evening I realized I was fully pressing my camera’s shutter release button and it wasn’t firing.  Without thinking, I had been rolling my finger around to make it fire, while introducing the shake at the same time.

    After some searching, this is a common problem with the Canon 30D, 40D and 50D cameras.  Mine started failing right around 50,000 photos – apparently right on schedule.  I had brief thoughts of making the repair myself, until I ran across this video – and promptly broke out into a sweat.

    So I sent the camera in for repair.  It took a week, came back fully functional and clean, and the bill was $201.

  • Sharing iPhone Wallpapers

    I have created a page here where I will be sharing images I’ve cropped and re-sized to be used as iPhone wallpapers.  Navigate to Wallpapers -> iPhone Wallpapers on the menu above (or go directly to the page here).

    I won’t be noting new uploads here, so you’ll need to just check back periodically.

  • How I Use Lightroom: Collect and Share

    This post is part of an ongoing series related to how I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.  If you haven’t read them yet, check out How I use Lightroom: Getting Photos In, How I use Lightroom: Taking Out the Trash, and How I use Lightroom: Getting Photos Out.

    Collections, Quick Collections and Smart Collections

    In the first post in this series I discussed importing your photos into Lightroom and explained how I have Lightroom configured to import into a nicely organized, folder structure based on the import date.  So you’d think I’d use this all the time, right?

    Not as much as you may think.   And the reason is becuase the primary organizational unit in Lightroom is the Collection.

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  • How I Use Lightroom: Getting Photos Out

    How I Use Lightroom: Getting Photos Out

    This post is part of an ongoing series related to how I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.  If you haven’t read them yet, check out How I use Lightroom: Getting Photos In and How I use Lightroom: Taking Out the Trash.

    First Some Background

    One of the first hurdles users new to Lightroom run into is how to get to the images they have edited.  It’s common to think I imported them to the My Pictures folder, so I’ll just use Windows Explorer to grab a copy.

    Wrong.

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  • Google+, Circles, and Cognitive Dissonance

    I’ve been on Google+ for two weeks now, and overall I really like it.  The system feels like a good combination of Facebook and Twitter.  However, from the first circles I created to the first notifications I receive about being added to others’ circles, I’ve had cognitive dissonance about how to setup my circles.

    I have circles for friends, family, tech, photography, etc..  Everything seemed clean.  But then two things happened: 1) I started following some popular (read, geek famous) people and 2) complete strangers started to add me to their circles.

    So what’s the problem, you ask?

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  • How I Use Lightroom: Taking Out the Trash

    This post is part of an ongoing series related to how I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.  If you haven’t read it yet, check out How I use Lightroom: Getting Photos In

    In the previous post I described how I use the Import window.  As I mentioned, I don’t exclude any photos at that stage.  I bring everything in and then quickly make a pass where I figure out which need to be deleted.

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  • How I Use Lightroom: Getting Photos In

    Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is an excellent piece of software I’ve recommended to many of my friends who have been bitten by the photography bug.  It catalogs and organizes all of my photos, allows me to quickly and efficiently edit them, and assists in pushing the end results for others to see. While on the surface it is targeted to professionals, I’m no professional and wouldn’t enjoy photography nearly as much without it.

    Because it is so configurable, it is often very helpful to get a look at how others use its many features.  So that’s what I’m going to do with this series of posts titled How I Use Lightroom.  I won’t go to mind-numbing depth into every feature it has to offer, but instead will show you what I think is a very approachable and practical method for getting your money’s worth out of it.

    So let’s get started with the first thing you need to do with it – get photos INTO lightroom.

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