Lightroom 2.3

Adobe has just released Lightroom 2.3!

Bug Fixes
• In Windows 64-bit version of Lightroom an sFTP upload process could cause Lightroom to crash.
• Slideshows could return to first image randomly during playback.
• A memory leak could cause Lightroom to crash while attempting to process files with local adjustments.
• Canon EOS 5D Mk II sRAW files could process with artifacts in Lightroom 2.2.
• Lightroom 2.2 could cause disc burning to fail for Windows customers.
• Attempting to undo (CTRL-Z) a single step in Lightroom 2.2 on Windows could cause a series of previous actions to be undone.
 
Enjoy…

Planeteers…

Gene Kelly, Lana Turner, and Janet Leigh starred in The Three Musketeers (1948), a lavish adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic swashbuckler.

Gene Kelly (’48), Michael York (’74)… the Gascon, D’Artangnan, that 17th century clever and courageous chevalier who joined the Musketeers… ah, such memories from the old Paramount theater of yester year!

Digital photography, gear, wilderness treks, captivating nature images, internet, blogs, recognition – only some of many hurdles awaiting diligent photographers who establish an internet presence to sell their wares.  Dramatic images are a piece of fine art reflecting the change and growth in one’s passion.  Getting nature’s images before the buying public is quite a chore – yet it seems 2009 is Blog Explosion Year.
What’s a blog?  It’s a method of maintaining a daily diary on the web, complete with images, feelings, workshops, and event notices for individual (or groups of) photographers. 
At first, this blog explosion was subliminal.  Reading blogs, searching for a new reality in troubling times, I finally began to notice blogs whose first post was only in January, 2009.  Yes, several good blogs were out there before.  But, there is a strong move from web sites and static galleries to daily blog posts, new points of view, and an expanding nature photographer’s gallery and very active blogosphere.

Let’s call a new blog movement – in this case, searching for marvelous fine art nature images - Planeteers!  After all, The Three Musketeers fought for liberty, equality, fraternity… If you like to see beautiful nature photography – why not find a way to watch nature photographer’s daily growth.  Your elevating reward – a daily dose of classic beauty from all parts of our planet.  If you have WiFi, it’s simply like traversing our planet in seconds. 

Nature Photographers Online publishes 1-2 page short essays with nature photos from field contributors – here are the archives.  Read those essays, search out each contributor’s gallery, then take a look at the blogrolls for those who have blogs.  A blogroll is a list of ‘buddies’ – those guys or gals (eminent or otherwise) who pique your continuing interest in nature.
Pretty soon – you’ve become a Planeteer; beyond that, you’ve begun to accumulate your own list of nature experiences.  You can do this whenever – a few minutes at a time or simply emerge yourself in beauty.
If you want to follow Pathway’s method – become a Planeteer - surf nature by taking a look at our dynamic Around Our Planet in 80 ms…

Our next blog will illustrate how Planeteering has already provided a new, early spring nature sunset arch venue for dramatic shots to replace people-filled, jaded shots of Mesa Arch at Canyonlands…

Around Our Planet in 80 ms…

Michael Todd’s Around the World in 80 Days (1956) was truly an epic… it portrayed David Niven, as Jules Verne’s imperturbable Phineas Fogg, traveling the world in a balloon.  Did you see it…?  Catch the trailer…

Nowadays, half a century later, a laptop can take one around the planet to beautiful scenes wherever one's fancy might roam, 24x7… almost instantaneously!  Satellite café, VIP airport lounge, fancy yacht in the British Virgin Islands, the Louve, the American Museum of Natural History, or, even just your own backyard! My, how technology has changed…

Digital photographers capture gorgeous scenes, put them on the web, and provide you your own balloon a.k.a. Time Machine.  The nice thing about this new balloon technology; it lets you go where ever you want, whenever you want.  For me, this incredible technical process really stirs my imagination. 
For example, the other morning, waking up to the challenging scent of juniper, I spent an hour in Copenhagen trying to absorb tantalizing photography of Kenny Weng.  Yesterday morning, Michael Frye, who's been documenting winter in Yosemite, captured amazingly colorful poppies along the Merced River.  A month before that, Michael shot the elusive Horsetail Fall, trying to emulate Galen Rowell's incredible shot in Mountain Light.  And, of course, there's William Neill – I particularly like his Half Dome and elm tree, winter, Yosemite National Park, California  1990.  Mind you, that classic image, fêted at the Ansel Adams Gallery Friday, and laboriously captured on film just 20 years ago, was another milestone of this path from Around the World in 80 Days to Around the Planet in 80 ms...
And, mind you, you can create your own Planet; a computer, the Web, a few favorites, a little time, a topic that really captures your fancy, and the never ending spate of new technologies!  For some of you, the name Phineas Fogg may be arcane; the nice thing about this new planet is: you're revitalized, you get to choose your own name, and, clearly, you get to play your own game...

Whether it's art, fine art, landscapes, nature, laptops, technology, blogs, WiFi, iPhone, Kindle 2, or what ever new creation will come about in the next half-century... you have the opportunity to get to know your planet ~ both intimately and rapidly. 
As for me, microphone on my head trying to capture a spate of thoughts, dictate them on a screen in front of me (can you recall when Thomas Jefferson used a quill pen to write the Declaration of Independence on papyrus?), occasionally even around my own images, and share a moment of true rapture ... it seems that so many deeply awesome things come together.

Enjoy...