The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • 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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  • A Walk in the Park

    Happy 4th of July everyone!

    We spent the morning taking a walk through Lincoln Memorial Gardens and generally just kicking around.

    David brought his camera along too, and we had fun stopping every now and then to take some photos.

  • Sangamon County Fair

    Tonight after work we headed over to the Sangamon County Fair.  I had entered a few photos into the contest, none of which placed.  But we had great weather for a good evening walking around and riding rides.

    This was David’s first time riding any of the rides, and boy did he have a blast.  I captured this photo while coming down from the top of the ferris wheel, and you can see the fear and excitement in his eyes.  I love it 🙂

  • Art Fair

    This weekend we went downtown to the Old State Capitol Art Fair.  I always enjoy the photography most of all (shocking, I know), seeing such a wide variety of styles and subjects helps to inspire as well as solidify what I do and do not like.

    I also took the opportunity to try and get some more interesting photographs of the Old State Capitol.  I didn’t end up with anything outstanding, but it felt good to just walk around and focus on this for a while.

    The morning started off looking like it was going to rain, but cleared up shortly after I took this.

     

     

    This one was from a week or so ago, but it fits the theme.  It’s surely not the typical photograph of this building.

    A colorful exhibit.

    Here’s David taking a breather from all of the walking.  He has about as much fun as a 3 year old can at an art fair.

    Here are the rest of the photos from the Old State Capitol.