It so happened that the night Tropical Storm Lee rolled through, the dogs and I spent some time on the back porch. The evening just begged for back porch relaxing. The wind was starting to whip. The sky was slightly overcast and getting darker as night time approached. And the hot, oppressive weather we had been experiencing was lightening as the storm approached.

Gabby, for once, didn’t pay my camera much mind. While she never wanted to get too close, she mainly ignored me, preferring to stand on the edges of the porch and sniff the wind.

And as we both took the time to enjoy the porch and the impending storm, we wondered what it would bring.

A part of:

There is a bit of morning glory that crawls up the lattice work of my raised porch and makes itself known. Every year, it comes back.

Every year, I look at it and wonder how it is this plant that seems a wild weed finds its way back. I love it. But it can’t stay on the porch climbing every skyward along columns and porch rails.

I can’t keep a normal, potted plant alive to save me, but this morning glory thrives all its own. It’s like a stray that came to my doorstep one day and decided this was its home.

It creeps along its vine-y way, encrouching on my dog’s territory. And when it’s nearly overtaken the floor of the porch, I know I have no choice. I cut it back and try to keep it contained or eventually have to kill it.

But back again it comes every year, bringing with it it’s bright color and cute flowers. Now if there was just some way to train it to grow in a more appropriate place.

Part of:

“Do I or Don’t I?” is the question I ask myself each season when I look at this planter on the back of my porch.

If I do, some plants are sure to die. I did not inherit my father’s green thumb.
If I don’t, some plants live to tell their story to someone else.
If I do, my back porch is bright with a bit of color and joy.
If I don’t, the hummingbirds and bumblebees will just find somewhere else to get what they need.

Do I or don’t I?  Anyone have a packet of colorful weeds?  They are the only thing I can’t seem to kill.

part of:

I have wanted for some time to get back to taking photos just for the sake of taking the photo. I used to do this a bit more and share the photos on my blog now and again. As with any hobby, you go through active periods and lull-like periods. Lately, I’ve always found something else to do rather than take photos. Lately, I keep looking at the stuff around my house and thinking of taking pictures of them just…because.

As I mentioned on NEB, Mommy Rachelle’s blog is one that I am quite enjoying reading. Her photography is amazing, her children are very photogenic (and always bring a smile as I read), and she seems to follow and participate in the most intriguing photography memes. Reading all of her posts and how uses the memes to inspire or photography, or vice versa, has woken up my drive to start taking pictures again just to hear the snap of the camera.

Texture Tuesday is an easy enough one in which to participate as I love textures while I don’t often use them. I had even started to photography textures out and about to use, but strayed away from the interest as of late. I stumbled across Kim Klassen’s blog through Mommy Rachelle and decided participating in Texture Tuesday might be a great way to get my feet wet as it were.

For this week, I decided to just try adding this week’s Cracker Jack texture by Kim Klassen on a recent photograph of nesting dolls I snapped at the house. Product photography is what interests me most, and these wee dolls are the perfect size for my interests.

Two layers of the Cracker Jack mask were applied. The first “Soft Light” at 75% and the second “Multiply” at 100%. Texture was removed from the dolls using a quick layer mask. It’s a quick and dirty application of texture on my part, but I loved getting back into the game.

Thanks again Mommy Rachelle for the reference to Texture Tuesday and thank you Kim for so generously sharing your textures. I look forward to many more Tuesdays with you (hopefully!).

The older I get, the more I despise shopping for certain clothing items, with pants and shoes being at the top of the list. I avoid shopping for these items to the extent that sometimes I find myself in a bind. One pair of shoes is what I had left. They were little light shoes. Nothing meant for everyday, hard use. But they were my last pair and I clung to them desperately to avoid shopping. Then, I discovered the holes, both inside and outside. The wee tears starting. And there was no choice left. Time to go shoe shopping.

Calling up my Mom, we went on the great hunt. I knew with her by my side I would not be allowed to leave town without a few pairs of shoes. She had told me for months I needed to break down and go shopping. I had complained and fussed and moaned about the one pair I had left. They had no support. The inner soles were developing holes. She knew what I needed to do. But I just didn’t heed the advice.

Off we went going to 1…2…3…4 stores and finally settling at a brand name store that I’ve purchased before. They had a new line of shoes that wre both nice looking and serviceable. Would do for work and after hours. Three pairs later I don’t feel so shoeless. They are comfortable. They are reliable. They will have new friends soon as I plan to purchase a few more styles. I don’t mind shopping if it became simpler.

My family is a supportive bunch, and each year for my birthday a particular part of my family tends to give me something inspired by the Asian culture.  Often, this includes a set of chopsticks.  I love the look and feel of chopsticks, but can’t seem to get the knack of using them.  No matter how much a try.  Two years ago, I was given a pretty little set of four wooden chopsticks that I’ve used a few times, but not overly much due to the whole lack of knowing what I am doing.  The set came with four chopstick stands, which looked cool, but I’ve never used until recently…and not for their intended purpose.

Case in point: this picture.  I made fried rice the other night and ate it with a broken crab cake.  The crab cake, while tasty, is was a 2nd attempt at a recently shared NEB dish that I wanted to make again.  Plus, I had crabmeat in the freezer that needed to be used…so crab cakes redoux it was.  I took a picture of my dinner with the idea that I might share it on NEB (though in the end I didn’t) and just wasn’t happy with the picture.  I just wasn’t getting the angle on the dish that I wanted.  And I wasn’t willing to change bowls.

So, I did what I normally do.  I changed the angle of the tripod a little…came in a bit closer to the subject….and took another snapshot.  Still not what I wanted.  Plus, I must have bumped the camera a bit while clicking the shutter release remote as this picture is not the clearest.

Then, I remembered those chopstick stands, something I’ve been using now and again to tilt a dish up a bit for a shot.  I placed the stand under the bowl, placing it on the bowl’s bottom edge furthest away from my camera.  It was just the right height for what I needed.  I got the shot I wanted (though I probably could have focused even better).

Two of the little chopstick stands now reside in the drawer of all my photography tools.  And nothing seems to be sacred now.  I pulled out a packet of active dry yeast the other day to lift something up a wee tiny bit as the chopstick stand was a bit too tall.

Take a look around your kitchen.  You’ll be amazed at how many things you can use to help you get that photographic shot…as well as help you prepare a meal.

Take lots of pictures, and I’ll see you again soon,

Last time we talked, we spoke of organizing any existing photos you have before setting up your Lightroom catalog.  Once you have your existing photos organizing to a satisfactory point, it is time to import the catalog.  You can get an idea of what the catalog looks like in the picture above.  I currently have 2 external hard drives of photos going.  One contains more recent photos and my “stock” photography, and the other contains older photos that I might never use again.  You’re looking at hard drive #2.  The little area circled blue, to the left of the catalog viewing area, is what we will focus on today.

That area circled in blue is where you want to be when you’re ready to setup a new Lightroom Catalog.  It’s the “Folders” area that you need, along with that little “+” symbol next to it.  Hover your mouse over the plus symbol and the instructional pop-up tells you “Create New Folder.”  Ready to create that Lightroom Catalog?  Then, let’s click the plus symbol and get started.

Once the plus symbol is clicked, the next window pops up.  We want to “Add Folder” to our catalog.

Find where your primary photos folder is located on your hard drive (internal or external).  Remember, we stored all our photo subfolders in one main folder.  You’ll see why in just a minute.  Once you’ve found the folder, click once to choose it and then click “OK.”

Lightroom will then begin to import your photos into its catalog.  Don’t worry.  It’s not creating a whole new copy.  It’s just cataloging each photo into it’s “memory.”  First, it is going to scan your files to determine how many you’ve imported.

Once Lightroom has scanned the designated folder and all its subfolders, the “Import Photos” dialog box pops up.  You have several options here.  The only option undeI chose “add photos to the catalog without moving” for the “File Handling” option.  I want my photos to just stay right where there are on my hard drive; all I want Lightroom to do is to scan and include them in its catalog.

Next, you can choose if there are any folders don’t want Lightroom to import.  To do this, uncheck the mark next to those folders in the list under the “File Handling” section.  Additionally, you can choose to not import specific photos.  You can do this in the “Preview” area by unchecking the photo.

If you feel you might have duplicate photos in your files, Lightroom can try to detect these for you.  Click the “Don’t re-import suspected duplicates.”  Sometimes, I purposefully have duplicates.  That’s why I leave this box unchecked.

You can also choose to do certain actions to your photos on import.  Specify these options in the “Information to Apply” area.

• Develop Settings – If you have any develop presets installed, you can choose to apply a particular preset to all your photos.  I don’t tend to use this as I like to look at my photos beforehand and make corrections, sometimes as a batch, another way.
• Metadata – You can specify certain metadata as you import.  This feature I find VERY helpful when I’m importing photos and before posting them to my blog (we will be covering this at a later date).
• You can specify keywords for your photos if you like.  This is something I do with smaller batches of photos taken during the same shoot.  These keywords stay with the photo when you export the photo out to Flickr, a feature I find extremely helpful and a big time saver.
• Initial Previews.  You can choose how the photos initially display to you upon Import.  I just keep it set to minimal and haven’t messed with this feature too much.

Once you’ve chosen all your settings, click “Import” to being the process.

The import begins and Lightroom will show you the progress in the upper left hand corner of its screen.  At this point, I go off and do something else if I have alot to import.  This import had over 10,000 photos, meaning I spent my time fixing dinner while I waited for the import to finish.

Once finished, you’ll see where Lightroom now has your hard drive and the specified folder/subfolders imported into its catalog.  You can see how many GB your total photos equal, as well as how many photos are in each folder and subfolder.  Any folders with a solid right-facing arrow has other subfolders underneath it.  Folders with a dotted right-facing arrow (like the last folder) have no subfolders.

And now, you have your first Lightroom Catalog setup.  You’re ready to do whatever else you need to do now.  Import more photos.  Develop some photos.  Export for use on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.  And much, much more.

However before we do any of that, we need to get used to Lightroom’s work area and its modules.  So until next time, get your catalog imported and start exploring!

Today’s Wordless Wednesday post features another dragonfly.  This big blue guy keeps flying around my backyard.  He is completely gorgeous.

I'm here to tell you. Photo Organization is key.

No matter what sort of program you use, Lightroom, PS Elements, or something else, photo organization is a key element before you begin. (Amazon affiliate links listed). Sure, both Lightroom and PS Elements have components of their programs that will help you organize your photos, but it is a pain to go into a program if you need to pull a photo quickly.  Good organization is a essential to accessing your photos quickly both in and out of a program.

When I first received Lightroom, I knew my photos needed a bit of cleanup before I imported them into the program.  Furthermore, I wanted to control which photos and graphics Lightroom pulled into its catalog.  Not everything I have saved needs to be in my Lightroom catalog.  Here’s how I chose to organize my photos on my hard drive.

First, I moved all photos into one folder that I creatively named “photos” (circled above in green).  Why?  Because when you import photos into Lightroom for the first time, it is going to ask you where you want to pull photos from.  Then it is going to import all jpg, raw files, and other files it is programmed to think is  a photo.  It looks for these files in the folder you specify and all of its subfolders.  If I go one up in my organization tree, I’ll be in the root directory for my external hard drive.  And I have more stored there than photos…namely all the files for the websites that I help to design….which includes lots of jpgs.  And I don’t want a bunch of graphics in my Lightroom catalog.  That’s me.

Step One in folder organization is to think about what you want in your Lightroom catalog and what you don’t want there.

Once I accomplished this, then I broke my photos up into main categories that made sense to me and my life.  You can see them above: bento, cooking, dogs, food stuff, mylife, etc.  Each of these are the main folder for LOTS of subfolders beneath.  But if you look at them, they nearly coincide with the major portions and categories of my blog.  Bento contains pictures of all packed bento boxes and related accessories.  Cooking has photographs of dinner plates, lunch plates, restaurant eats, and recipe tutorials.  The dogs have their own special folder because there are just so many pictures of them.  And so on.

Here’s  a quick peek of the inside of one of those main folders: Bento.  you can see where I keep pictures of my bento gear, that I break my photos up by year, and that I have some bento lunch pictures I think are exceptionally good, so I’ve called them “stock.”  These are the ones that I go back to over and over to use on the blog when I need a quick bento picture somewhere.  If you’re wondering where Bento Lunches for 2007 – 2009 are, they are stored on a second external hard drive to ensure that my main hard drive doesn’t fill up too quickly.

Today’s first post on the photo front might not seem like much, but it is a crucial step in setting up Lightroom for the first time.  Next Monday, we will go step-by-step on how to import your photos into Lightroom for the first time, aka setting up your Lightroom catalog.  So, you have a week to get yourself sort of organized before we do so.

Be the bento everyone!  I’ll see you here next week as we set up those catalogs.

If you’ve followed along with my food adventures on Not Exactly Bento, you know that twice I’ve tried to create a NEB Photos website.  And both times, I’ve failed.  The main reason is that those sites seemed so disconnected from NEB.  And I didn’t like that.  At all.

Photography is an integral part of NEB.  Not just because its a blog and any good blog, in my opinion, has some great photography to go along with it.  Regardless if it is taken with a point and shoot or a high-end dSLR, the photographs should mean something both to the poster and the reader.  They should connect with the story and help the reader out.  That’s my philosophy.  To have my photography section not connect well with the site that brought me to this point…well, it never really worked out for me.

Then a few things happened, which it always seems to in my life.  How many times have I started out a story that way?  Too many to count, and this story is just another addition to the list.

Kim recently asked me some photography questions, and then asked if I would end up doing some tutorials.  She asked that question after I mentioned something or other.  I can’t remember what now.  But what I do remember is this part of the exchange…

Kim: You should do that.  Do the tutorial.

Me: Ah, you can find that anywhere.  There are plenty of websites and blogs out there with photography information.

Kim: Yeah, but I don’t read those.  I read yours.

And there went my lightbulb moment.  I never thought about the fact that the reason I’m asked so often about photographic stuff is that I’m someone else’s resource.  I’m so used to trying to find my own resource to answer a question that I never considered I’m the resource for someone else’s question.  (Whew! What a sentence).

It makes sense though.  And the germ of the idea started again.  But how to incorporate it into NEB.  Another lightbulb moment came when I realized how to do it.  It was so simple.  Just sitting there staring me in the face all this time and I’d never realized it.  And then came the “DOH” moment, which always seems to follow the lightbulb moment.  But as usual, I digress.

So on this lazy Sunday (and mostly lazy weekend), I’ve turned my energies to working on just that purpose.  A fair amount of photography information has been removed from the original NEB and can be found here.

The old prints and desktop wallpapers I was offering before are now more easily found…and I hope to add to them in the coming months.

I have Lightroom tutorials that I’m working on.  In fact, before we get to them, I have a post about thinking about one’s photo organization coming tomorrow.

And since I use PS Elements constantly, I’m sure that’s going to appear around here as well.  I’m currently thinking about updating the watermark tutorial as there are other ways to accomplish this that might be easier.

So we’ll see what happens.  We’ll see if 3rd time is a charm and if we can get NEB Photos to fly this time.  Or at least a wobbly walk.  :)