Tuesday, January 10, 2006

New Products Galore!

Adobe Announces Adobe® Lightroom™ Beta

Lightroom is an application designed with the photographer in mind. It lets you import, sort and develop images. It also lets you layout and print images. It works similar to Apple's Aperature but does not rely heavily on Apple's Core graphics and thus does not require a high end graphics card like Aperature does. Lightroom is currently only available for Mac OS 10.4.3 (Tiger) +, 1 Ghz Mac with at least 768MB RAM. They will eventually come out with a PC version but they are working on integrating some of the latest Windows "Longhorn" features. I have not yet gotten a chance to play with it yet-- I still don't have Tiger, I just have Panther (10.3). I'm excited about its cross platform capability, its ability to work with non-RAW files and its ability to be able to have pre-sets for converting. One of the biggest advantages over Aperature is its ability to leave files in thier original folders instead of being in a centralized container that is in an inaccessible location to other programs. It also lets you add your own logo with the idendity plate so when clients view your images, it has your logo and not Adobe's on the page. It currently is a free Beta download until June. One thing that I found rather suprising is that the location of the software was found on the Macromedia portion of the Adobe site. I wonder if some of the Macromedia folks worked on it too or what. You can find out more information from: Adobe Labs , Adobe Lightroom Learning Center, Photoshop TV report


Apple just announced today the 1st release of Intel Macs:
They consist of the iMac intels and an intel replacement for the PowerBook 15" called the MacBook Pro. Apple makes use of Intel's new Core Duo processors for both the iMacs as well as the MacBook. The iMacs are suppose to be 2 to 3 times faster and the MacBook Pro is up to 4 times faster than the lastest Powerbooks. The MacBook Pro also sports an isight camera built in, a frontrow remote, and a new MagSafe powercord that is held in place by magnettes and will disconect when someone trips over the cord. See more: Apple's Hardware.

Until I post again, have fun, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great week,

John :)

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Keep it Simple- Portraits of my Kids




Maybe I'm being hard on myself, but I guess I'm as guilty as the cobbler. The cobbler's children don't have many shoes & I haven't taken as many quality pictures of my kids as I should have! Generally when I have lit people for photographs I end up pulling out cases & cases of equipment and set up my A/C powered studio lights. For These portraits above, I used one battery operated flash with a softbox.

My kids: My Oldest, Will, attends pre-school and takes violin lessons. My youngest, Carissa, attends pre-school as well.

Lighting Specifics: For today's portraits of my children I took a simpler approach while still beautifully lighting them. For both portraits I used one Quantum Q Flash on manual mounted in an XS Chimera Softbox on a Manfrotto light stand. The Chimera Softbox was mounted to the Q Flash with a Chimera Speed ring for a Lumedyne battery strobe.

I decided to add another post today that was more upbeat and worthwhile to my audience. More than likely I will continue my diligence and return soon to post more! Until then have fun, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great Sunday,

John :)

Fried Power Supply :(



Last Night my Gateway Laptop Computer Power adapter fried itself. Michelle was using it and noticed a burning smell coming from the computer. When I looked at it, I did not notice any problems with the computer and everything smelled & looked O.K. Later on I noticed the computer was running on Battery instead of A/C. It turns out that the fan in the A/C adapter stopped working and the unit overheated. Gateway will replace it, but I will not get the replacement until January 12 :(. Another problem I ran into was: I have an extended warranty, but they did not have me in their main system. They told me that I was out of warranty. After I provided them with my extended warranty invoice # they were able to look me up on another system and resolve the problem. I Guess the bottom line is keep all paperwork handy for all warranties, etc.

I'm going back to work now. Hopefully I will continue my diligence and return soon to post more! Until then have fun, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great Weekend,

John :)

Friday, January 06, 2006

Cleveland Snow & Linotypes Cool Program!


I woke up this morning to beautiful Snow! It was kind of a depressing day yesterday in Cleveland during the month of January when there is no snow and just rain. I suppose that's what London is all about. I prefer days like today with snow and the beautiful sun hitting the snow flakes, causing "sun sparkles" across the snow.







On a more serious note, I wanted to let everyone know about a cool font program out there for Mac OS X (10.3.9 +). They have an older PC version available as well as Mac OS 8.6+ & Mac OS X in Classic Mode. In other words, use this other version for OS 8 or 9. If you are in OS X, Upgrade to OS X 10.3.9 or Tiger and use the most current version. The older version does not seem to have the same functionality as the current version. The older version appears to only be a program that allows you to purchase fonts. The newer Mac only version is the version that truly ROCKS! I understand that they are working on a newer version for the PC. In the meantime, switch to Mac! Just kidding. I am actually on both platforms and can't wait until the PC version comes out! It's a free program and it works like Extensis Suitcase. It lets you organize your fonts like Extensis Suitcase, but without the $99.95 price tag. It is like iTunes since it lets you go to its store and purchase and download fonts that you need for a particular project. It's a great concept and a great idea. You should check them out at: www.linotype.com/fontexplorer

Until then have fun, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great Weekend,

John :)

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Giving Birth

I was born in January so I guess it's very appropriate that I give birth to my 1st Blog today.

In the mean time you can find out a little bit more about me by visiting my some company websites that I'm the principal photographer in.

They are:

SussexStudio.com
KiegerPhoto.com

I've been very busy these past couple of weeks working with clients, so I must return back to work.

Hopefully I will return soon and post more!

Until then have fun, remember not to take life too seriously and have a great New Year,

John :)

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Pre-Blog: glimpse into my life before blogging

Pre-Bloggging:

What in the world is Pre-Blogging? Well I'm not sure if anyone else has coined this term before. It might just be a Kiegerism. A Kiegerism is something in which I created! (I just came up with the idea today February 16th, 2008)! Wait a minute, why does this post state that I posted it on January 4th, 2006?

A little known secret about blogging is that you can customize and edit the post date. Why would one ever do that, you ask. Simple. It allows you to slack off and not write in your blog for a while, such as when a loved one is in the hospital dying or when you are really sick! By customizing the header date- it just means you are telling when, chronologically, the event happened-- for historical purposes.

Anyhow, I have decided to post events in my life that occured before my Blog existed. I hope you like this concept. Feel free to post a comment here on the concept!

My Blog was created on January 5th, 2006. Anything dated before this point is historical recollection. I should also point out that I started Pre-Blogging on February 16th, 2008, so I am remembering the past that is more than two years old and therefore, some of the information may contain inaccurate information due to gaps in my memory!

Until I Blog again, remember not to take life too seriously and make sure you tell someone that is close to you how much you care for them-- no one knows when our loved ones may depart so we should try to let our loved ones know how much we care for them.

Thanks for reading,

John :)