Sitka is different. And yet it isn’t.

When I first arrived here, it appeared strange, foreign. And yet curiously familiar. Perhaps because I was a stranger in a foreign land, I was looking for anything that would link me back to my beloved Aotearoa. The mountains encircling the town seemed remarkably like Fordland, the sound (fiord) had the same feeling of remoteness and calm that I have experienced in places back home. And yet…and yet…

When I arrived, it was raining, and it  continued to rain. There is an old Scottish expression: if there is enough blue sky to patch the holes in your shirt, then it is going to be a good day. It had taken me a week to understand that. Blue sky never lasted more than a few hours, and then only on two occasions. When it came, I was almost taken aback by it. Heck, I was taken aback. I was stunned. For a time I really didn’t know how to cope with it. It had reached the point where I almost didn’t want to see it, because it was disturbing. Hard shadow, so much a characteristic of New Zealand light, seemed a stranger there, so out of place. I could live without it. (more…)

For the first time in a fortnight (or maybe it is the second), the sun comes out. As I glance down at the skunk cabbage at my feet, uncharacteristic black markings lie across the leaves. I look at it for a moment, somewhat stunned by the strangeness of what I am seeing. Then I realise what it is; shadows have grown on the leaf. The sun has made a rare appearance, teh second time in a fortnight. It augurs well for the day ahead.

Sitka lies in the back corner of a fjord on Baranof Island in southeast Alaska. There is a gap of around 12 miles from the town out to the edge, to the place where the land lies behind and only the ocean is before. The next stop from here is Vladivostok. From Sitka to the outer edge is a trip of around two to 2 1/2 hours in one of the local fishing boats or about a half hour in something faster. (more…)

Kia ora tatou:

I have found that motels in San Francisco come with free wireless broadband, so I thought I would put up a few posts, noting my impressions of being in the US. While I can and when I can..

A long time ago, I studied American literature and history as part of my degree. Now, after 30 years, I am experiencing it in real time. So far, I have seen things that confirm my impressions and half-held preconceptions and things quite at odds with that… (more…)

Kia ora tatou:
After having used 1.1 for a week or so, I have so far been really impressed. It is a substantial upgrade from 1.o, which was a major improvement on Beta 4.

Here are some impressions:

1. In an older post I knocked the Sharpening function in LR1.0 as being crude, akin to doing brain surgery with a chainsaw. Well they have sorted it and it is now a more subtle tool, still not in the same class as Photokit Sharpener, but good for 90% of what you will need.
2. The catalog now enables you to share between multiple computers, or to run several of them. Nice.
3. The Library now has more sophisticated filtering and something called the Painter. It looks very cool ( when I have the time to figure out what it does)
4. Keywords can be organised into sets.
5. The Develop module now has a greater range of presets,including sharpening presets. Sweet. The photo of Cassie in the next post was processed using the Selenium preset.
6. Clarity has been added to the Vibrance/Saturation submenu. This improves microcontrast and microsaturation and is very good for slightly flat images
7. Sharpening now has 4 sliders instead of just the one. You get Amount, Radius, Detail and Masking (aka Threshold).
8. Preferences ( always a first port of call when customising an Adobe product to the way you work) offers more options.
9. No change that I can see in the Slideshow module, and you still can’t export a pdf with sound. Thank goodness for ProShow.
10. The Print module has more presets, but otherwise the song remains the same. Why fix a thing when it ain’t broke?

I am not 100% sure of this, but it seems to run quicker on my PC ( Intel 6600 dual core, 2Gb Corsair 800 RAM). I don’t know whether it was me, but 1.0 was flaky at times and ran slowly. 1.1 has (so far) been faster and more stable. I would be interested to hear if any of you have similar issues…

All good reasons to make the upgrade.

Ka kite ano

 Kia ora tatou

I have been in training.

After a lifetime of being owned by cats, I am free now. I do not have to come at their beck and call. For all their larger-than-life personalities and unique character traits (Beastly was just that, a cunning tormenter of the local dogs, especially smaller ones ,and Lucky The Bionic Cat-he carried a lot of steel in his hind-quarters after going mano a mano with a car and losing- still kept his no-retreat, no-surrender attitude), cats have their own thoughts and clutch their secret lives close to their chests.

Dogs are different. (more…)