Around the Bay Road Race - March 27, 2011

The 30k Around the Bay Road Race, North America's oldest road race, challenges thousands of runners every year to see what they are made of. I have known about this race for quite a long time, but this year it has a different meaning. Last year I became a runner. I'm still not sure when it happened, still not sure how or why it happened, but it did. Last year I tacked on a runners bib and ran three 5k races...I was hooked! This year the goal is a number of 10k races (currently working on a sub 60 min. time). Next year? Maybe a half or perhaps I can convince my wife to run the Around the Bay two person relay at 15k each... however, I 'm pretty sure I'll be one to run all of the hills in last half.

I thought this was a great opportunity to grab my camera and head down to the half-way point to support and cheer on the runners, and capture some of the race action.

I think this sign at the half-way point says it all!

Here are the two front runners approaching the 15k mark at around 48 minutes.The runner in red, Derek Nakluski of Kitchener, Ontario, was the men's winner crossing the finish line in 1:37.15. 

 

Ah yes, the 2 hour pace bunny... love the ears!

Enjoy!

DC

Kenai Mountains and Whittier, Alaska

I mentioned a few posts ago about the Seward Highway in Alaska having some of the most incredible scenery that you could ever imagine. So many opportunities; however, when you are there for only a short period of time you shoot what you can, sometimes very quickly, and keep moving. The image below was one of those quick set-ups.

We were on our way back from Mt. Alyeska and I wanted to pull off to one of the vista points to see if I could grab a quick shot. We passed this spot on our way down and I was hoping to get a decent shot on the way back. The weather had changed and some more clouds moved in, which gave a more subdued tone than the colour from Mt. Alyeska. When I shoot landscapes I try to follow a simple composition process which includes a foreground, mid-ground and background. A little reflection is nice addition, too. This was looking across Turnagain Arm towards the Kenai Mountain Range. Taken with a Nikon D300 and 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR lens (f22 @1/100). 

The following image was one from the forward deck of the Sapphire Princess while docked in Whittier, Alaska. What you're looking at is the only road in and out of Whittier. There's something I love about fog that makes scenes like this really interesting. Perhaps it's the mysterious look it gives. If the fog was not there I might not have given this a second look. Again, taken with a Nikon D300 and 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR lens (f14 @1/25).

 
Enjoy!

DC

Joe McNally and David Hobby on a bus for 6 weeks?

This either an interesting sociological experiment or two lighting gurus extolling the virtues of big light from small flash, or perhaps a little bit of both. "The Flash Bus Tour 2011" begins on March 11 and these two lighting masters are going to put on one hell of a good show.

I'll be heading down to St. Louis to see them in April and I'm totally looking forward to it. Cities are filling up fast so you better be quick if you're interested.

Cheers!

DC

Cleaned Up Your Lightroom Catalogue Lately?

Ummm actually, no it's been a while. But I try, I really do!

I sort and store my photos by year, month and then by shoot depending on what it is I've been shooting.  So back in January, as I do every year, I set up a new folder for 2011. However, last year I began using "Collections" within Lightroom to manage the selection, culling and editing of each shoot, and to also make some things easier to find.

I noticed as I was scrolling through the "Collections" panel that there was a "Smart Collection" with a sub-collection called "Without Keywords" and a number somewhere around 2000 beside it. Basically, it was telling me that I had 2000 photos without any keywords. I make it a habit of "attempting" to keyword every photo or groups of photos, but it seems that I've been a little negligent. The up-side was that I noticed this happened right around the same time I started managing things with the "Collections" function, which meant that finding certain photos was still quite easy as all I needed to do was find the appropriate "Collection".

I started digging back through those 2000 photos attaching keywords and also making sure that I had things in the right spot. Now this brought up another issue... do you "Delete" photos and if so when? I typically delete photos during the initial culling process; however, I only toss out the  photos that I think are way beyond any chance of survival (i.e., blurry, closed eyes, poor composition that even cropping wouldn't make any better etc.). I think you know the one's I'm talking about. But sometimes I'll keep the multitude of exposures of the same thing, even after I have selected and edited what I feel are the best images. This is especially true when shooting HDR (High Dynamic Range) images with 3 to 7 exposure each. Again, even after I have selected the best of the best for editing, I still keep the others. Do I really need to keep all of them, or should I just pull the trigger and get rid of them?

Well, this is where I am right now with my Lightroom catalogue, and the question of cleaning it up little more. One of the arguments of deleting those extra photos is to free up some memory; however, I currently have only 9% of my 1TB external drive used so that's not an issue. Also, memory is quite cheap now so it's easy to upgrade external drives when the need arises. I guess the real question is what have you done with all of those extra, or duplicate, photos from 5 years ago or longer? Other than the real keepers I have not done a lot with them, but it's still hard to let go. So, I'm going to take the time, bit by bit, to go through all of those extra photos (for me it's around 6 years worth) and attempt to employ some critical judgment on whether to keep or delete.

I'm sure this will be a steady work in progress. We always have good intentions with our workflow, but sometimes we just get sloppy or need to do something quickly and skip a whole bunch of steps. So for now, I've got some work to do to clean up my Lightroom catalogue.

Wish me luck!

DC