new client activity

one thing can lead to another.

the minutos have been clients for nearly ten years. mostly, i keep there ‘puter running. they started with a packard bell (a cursed machine) that would completely quit working every couple of months. after rebuilding that machine several times, we finally built a new machine. from there we kept moving up, finally switching to a 24″ iMac (alum) early this year.

Frank is a professional artist — very prolific. he also teaches for the Palos verdes Art Center. Debs is a photographer, and she specializes in artist’s portfolios – photographing the originals and printing quality giclees. every once in awhile she calls for help with a project in photoshop. her call this week was to create a CD of one of Frank’ss series to present to galleries. it was an excellent time to introduce her to lightroom.

we used lightroom to adjust the images of a few of the photos and to create a screensaver of the series. we also experimented with how it would create a webpage presentation of the series. they liked the result so much, we’re finally going to put Frank’s work online! as i’ve been pushing for this for a couple years, i’m absolutely delighted.

we’re now figuring out just exactly how we’re going to upload the files. one new aspect we’re going to try is embedded videos of Frank’s “gallery statements”. we’re going to give him approximately 10 minutes to record a short description of the series, as though he were presenting it in a class lesson. we’ll probably use viddler, but (just in case) i’m going to try a few things with garageband. after showing the screensaver to another client, there’s even a possibility of having some original music for the site as well.

i guess i’m branching out into “production”.

busy, busy week

or two? i’ve been finishing up all the loose ends with taxes and such. the grandboy celebrated his 6th (!!!) birthday on friday and saturday. and i’m getting ready to go see the endocrinologist in the morning. that was a surprise; i thought the appt. was next month. thank the powers that be – one of my clients wanted a training session this week. there’s the appointment – plain as day…

i usually have my blood work done a week in advance. here’s hoping the test results arrive in time.

getting ready for the meetup with my client was fun, too. now that i have the iMac, i don’t use the laptop every day. i guess i’ve been neglecting it this month – there were TEN updates to be installed. i also wanted to be sure to install the adobe lightroom 2.0 (beta) as that’s one of the programs we’ll be working with. charged the battery and discovered the two spares i have are definitely deader than doornails. so i ordered a new battery, photoshop elements 6.0 and the print shop! i had no idea that was available for macs. i don’t use it often, but when i want to use it…

i spent a few extra minutes last night trying to trim some of the many many podcasts down to “manageable”. sigh, i don’t think it’s going to happen. iTunes reports i have 862 podcast episodes currently in the queue. granted, some of those are stories i haven’t yet transferred to CD, but many of them are tutorials. i’m going to have to get brutal over the next couple of weeks.

creating a logo

well, actually not. what i’m doing is cutting a logo from a photo using CS3. this could be really tricky, depending on the photo. but photoshop has some cool tools that really help.

the photo in use is one i took at the Star Trek Tour. over the entry was a huge and beautiful panel and the picture i took shows it very clearly. the Queen Mary Dome is white on top, but the entrance is dark. selecting just the logo should be fairly easy.

the quick select tool is really a bonus. with a little patience, i was able to select the entire border and not the doorframe. but there are a few blurs along the edge where the contrast fades away. not too bad, really, but the edges look a little choppy at first.

copied it onto a new layer, hid the background and now i’ve got a very sharp contrast. i also have a great cintiq 20WSX monitor. can easily zoom in, and move around the edges. can expand and contract the eraser easily, too. so now i’m just smoothing out the edges a little…

i’ll be using it in a newsletteer reviewing the Tour for the O*W*C.

a normal day

it’s saturday. i’ve spent most of the day in the office. SOP. grampy is visiting #1 son and his family – won’t be back ’til after 9:00pm.

this is routine. i start with e-mail, and catch up on a few podcasts. log in to the #techguy chatroom a little after 10:00am, and listen to the KFI broadcast when it starts a little after 11:00am. yes, i do multi-task throughout the show, mostly in ‘puter work, sometimes a little fiber arts, but always within earshot. today i synced the iPod and the iTouch and made sure they were thoroughly charged. i trimmed some of the rubber stamps i had on the desk, and put away one of the afghans i’m working on (until the rest of the yarn arrives). i added my name to a couple knitting blogs and caught up on past submissions.

NOTE: why does google insist on using the same password for e-mail that is used for google checkout? it doesn’t encourage me to use google checkout–that’s for sure! and it means i have an really complex password just for checking my e-mail…

when the chatroom closes, i sometimes take a nap, but usually i do a few household chores–often with podcasts playing in the background. i love my airport express (broadcasts to the stereo equipment downstairs).

today, i ordered a game for the DS from amazon, placed an order for rubber stamps and paper, balanced the checkbook, edited a catalogue of images in lightroom,  and followed tweets from SXSW. lazy day. but very normal. it’s really been pretty quiet–#2 son has been away all day.

tomorrow is my mom’s 77th b’day. we’re going down to visit around noon, staying ’til a little after dinner. standard visit includes balancing her bank accounts in quicken. my brother helped her organize all her tax papers this year. that’s a real blessing; my eyesight isn’t that much better than hers when it comes to reading the print on the papers she needs every year.

i really enjoyed my day. and i’m looking forward to the day, tomorrow.

not bad at all

so i trimmed most of the photos to 160 pixels wide, and cut down the number of pictures. then i combined 7 photos of costumed attendees to a nice composite about 480 pixels wide. i love layers

i have to remember to name the layers as i create them. sometimes the thumbnails are small enough that it’s a little hard to identify which layer i want to move or transform… still, the results were nice and the entire review with 14 pictures capped out at 168kb…

changeing layouts

sometimes the best laid plans aren’t… i thought i was almost done with the newsletter supplement, but when i got the pictures inserted, i hated the look of it. that happens sometimes.

needless to say – i’m back at the drawing board, and adjusting the layout and the size of the images to suit it better. it might take a few more days, and i may end up cutting the number of images down by a large percentage. it’s just a newsletter, after all… it shouldn’t look cluttered and hard to read.

newsletter

i write a monthly newsletter called “Digital Papyrus” for the Other Worlds Cafe SF chat group (there’s lots more than just chat). this week, i’ve been working on a supplement – a mini-review of LOSCON 34, which i attended Thanksgiving weekend in 2007.

i am totally enthralled by adobe lightroom. i’ve used adobe photoshop for many years, but lightroom puts some “speed” into my work process. having recently convrted to a dSLR camera, i now have some huge photos to work with. lightroom simplifies cataloguing and some of the early editing, without damaging the files.

even though the pics i took at LOSCON were .jpgs from a “point and shoot” camera, lightroom helped me adjust the tones and details immensly. and the CS3 “quickselect” tool helped me create smart objects in a number of photos in less than a third of time it would have taken just 6 months ago (before i upgraded).

should be able to finish this issue in just an afternoon, now

.fr-08: .the .product – a demo in 63.5 kb

.fr-08: .the .product – a demo in 63.5 kb

i just ran across this again (i have a REALLY huge bookmarks file) and wanted to share it with somebody! i want to learn how to do this - the compression is extraordinary, this quality is even better…

i’m back!

yes, it’s been way too long. no excuses, busy, disinterested…

the site is coming along well. once we finally got the “keys to the kingdom” sorted out, i was finally able to post. now, she’s asking “where do we give you credit?” (it’s in the contract) and about some of the finer details. BIG problem, some of the rarer browsers don’t accept CSS very well – the galleries look TERRIBLE!

bills

i posted another photo page, yesterday. finally figured out the trick to using CSS with those photos… load ‘em up and THEN position them. it pays to check them in different browsers, too; don’t forget to resize the windows, to see if the positions jump about!

so, today, i’m paying bills, and doing a little shopping if there’s any money left. i signed up for SmartCertify, yesterday. i really hope to get my money’s worth out of it. i hope that special someone doesn’t fly off the handle over it. it would certainly spoil the fun.