Tommy’s Blog

This teaser from Canon was on DP Review’s news page today. Looks like those rumors about the announcement coming on the 18th of this month are gaining credibility.

If you look close, though, there’s something strange about the right side of the body of the camera, almost like it has some kind of portrait grip. But maybe that’s just a deliberate deception since it is way off in the shadows.

See the trailer at Canon’s site:

Destined EVOLUTION

Update: There are slightly different looks at the camera on the various Canon sites around the world. The Japanese site has the best silhouette and mariuss on the DP Review Forums compared the silhouette with the existing 5D to show that some of the buttons on top have moved.

After I imported my Lightroom 1 catalog into Lightroom 2, none of the Keyword Tag Options were set.

I started going through the keywords one-by-one and checking the settings (I only had a handful of keywords related to workflow that I didn’t export) but I quickly realized that I would never get through this with over 600 keywords in this one catalog alone.

But I remembered that Lightroom’s database is not in an Adobe proprietary format but it is a Sqlite database. So I downloaded the command-line utility, made a copy of my database, and fixed it up.

If you just want the one-line command I used, here it is:

update AgLibraryKeyword set
includeOnExport=1,includeParents=1,includeSynonyms=1;

I then fixed the handful of workflow keywords that I didn’t want to include on export (and I am abandoning the workflow keywords for Collections and Smart Collections anyway).

If you want a bit more detailed account, here you go. I made a copy of the Lightroom 2 catalog file and then, from the command-line, ran sqlite3 lightroom.lrcat (I named the copy lightroom.lrcat).

Once inside the sqlite3 interface, I ran a series of commands to figure out what tables existed and what columns to change. I started with the .tables command. This listed two columns of tables and I saw one that looked like what I wanted: AgLibraryKeyword. Next, I looked at the schema of this table with .schema AgLibraryKeyword. There I saw what looked like the three checkboxes:

includeOnExport INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
includeParents INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
includeSynonyms INTEGER NOT NULL DEFAULT 1

Just to be sure, I tried a couple of queries to see if I got back the keywords I had fixed and those that I hadn’t:

select name from AgLibraryKeyword where includeOnExport=1;

and

select name from AgLibraryKeyword where includeOnExport=0;

The results looked right to me. So I issued my update command:

update AgLibraryKeyword set
includeOnExport=1,includeParents=1,includeSynonyms=1;

then exited the sqlite3 tool with .quit and then checked this copy out in Lightroom. Everything looked good so I copied it back in place and have been using it since.

Barack Obama inspires me to be a better man. He reminds me that complaining is easy while action shows character. Cynicism is an easy way to hide. Optimism requires strength. But optimism alone is impotent: power comes from working to turn hope into reality.

I was a little boy the last time a president inspired me. I asked my parents to stop leaving the hallway light on for me at night because Jimmy Carter told us to save energy.

There is no single simple clear action that I take away from tonight’s speech. But I will check myself every time I catch a whiff of cynicism or bitterness or start to think that maybe we’re just wasting our time trying to make the system better; and not just for politics but for all areas of my life.

Yes we can.

I have been playing around with IE8 Beta 2 since it was released. What were "Activities" in Beta 1 are now "Accelerators." Tim Heuer created one that shortens URLs with TinyURL. Using his example, I was able to build one for bit.ly in less than five minutes:

Install bit.ly accelerator

The rumors of the 50D have been popping up for the past few days and now they’re confirmed. The improvements are pretty impressive (although it looks like Mirror Lock Up is still hidden behind the Custom Function menu):

• 15 megapixel sensor with ISO boost up to 12800 (standard range is 100-3200 and they have the Auto ISO set to go from 100-1600).
• Canon says they have a new sensor manufacturing process and have redesigned the photodiodes and the micro lenses. Let’s hope this is the reason for the expanded ISO and not more aggressive noise reduction.
• A 3-inch LCD with 640×480 resolution (finally catching up with Nikon and Sony). And DPReview says that the anti-reflective coating makes this better than the one used on the Nikon and Sony cameras.
• Better weather sealing. It’s just described as better than the 40D so I’m not sure what that means: can I feel comfortable using it in a drizzle? In a downpour?
• DIGIC IV image processor. This is the first camera to get the new DIGIC IV (will we see a pair of these processors in the 5D replacement?). It provides the now-expected 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion and fast handling of big files. For some reason, though, they only talk about the burst speed with JPEG files and not RAW. I wonder how fast it is handling the RAW files?
• RAW, SRAW1, and SRAW2. The 40D introduced the SRAW1 format that used pixel binning (combining pixel sites) to generate a smaller RAW file with a bit less noise. The 50D has two levels of this: SRAW1 is 7.1MP and SRAW2 is 3.8MP. The rumor sites said that ISO6400 would only be available in SRAW1 and ISO12800 only in SRAW2 but the DPReview preview doesn’t mention anything about it.
• AF microadjustments. Now the 50D can store autofocus microadjustments for 20 different lenses. This should keep the folks who shoot rulers occupied for a while.
• Live View. It’s hard for me to get excited about Live View since I always hated shooting off the LCD with compact digicams but I can imagine Live View being interesting when shooting macros. I guess I will have to play with it to be convinced.
• And more. Phil Askey has the summary of new features in his preview.

There is already a hands-on test available but the text is in Swedish. They’re talking about it in a thread on the DPReview Forums.

Now, let’s hope we hear about that 5D replacement in the next week or two.

I never have success when I set out to make pictures of something specific. This afternoon, Dawn planted a couple of bushes in some planters that we got on sale from Smith & Hawken. They are next to our front door along with a couple of wrought-iron trellises. I thought I would take a few pictures of the entryway to show how it looks now.

I am disappointed in the pictures. But then I am always disappointed when I try to make pictures of something specific. The only photos I make that I am happy with are those that I make when I have nothing in mind and no expectations. The first blip of intention or forethought, even if it’s as simple as thinking about where the sun will be or which direction the shadows might be falling, and I might as well not even bother getting out the camera.

This isn’t the case for all photographers—maybe not even the case for many—since landscape photographers talk all the time about scouting out locations when the sun is high in the sky and coming back during the golden hours (around dusk or dawn).

But it’s the case for me. And I’m not even sure I want to try to fix it.

It’s Joe Biden.

I knew there was no way any human could match the expectations we pinned on him in the spring but this goes beyond simply adjusting to reality. His campaign against Hillary was based on his superior judgment. Too bad he couldn’t find it for this decision.

Working with the Windows clipboard in managed code is both easy and hard. It’s easy because all you need to do in order to put a bit of text on the clipboard is this:

Clipboard.SetText("Put this on the clipboard");

It’s hard because you can’t just do something like this in order to get formatted text:

Clipboard.SetHtml('<a href="http://twwilliams.com/>A link</a>"');

The Windows clipboard requires content to be in special formats if you have anything other than text and the System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard class doesn’t provide any convenience methods for handling HTML. But writing your own isn’t too hard.

Mike Stall provides the solution.

In essence, you need to wrap your HTML fragment in a specially-formatted header and then put that on the clipboard.

One thing Mike doesn’t address in his sample is how to set the plain-text version of an HTML fragment so that you can still paste to places like Notepad that don’t support formatted output.

If you only set the System.Windows.Forms.DataFormats.Html part of the clipboard, when you go to Notepad and paste, you will get nothing. So you also need to set the DataFormats.Text part. But it gets a little bit more complicated because you can’t just do this:

Clipboard.SetText(htmlString, TextDataFormat.Html);
Clipboard.SetText(plainTextString, TextDataFormat.Text);

If you do this, you’re setting two values to the clipboard in succession and you will only have the last one (in this case, the plain text) on the clipboard. To set both formats, you need to use a System.Windows.Forms.DataObject:

DataObject dataObj = new DataObject();
dataObj.SetData(DataFormats.Text, plainTextString);
dataObj.SetData(DataFormats.Html,
                HtmlFragment.GetClipboardFormatted(htmlString));
Clipboard.SetDataObject(dataObj);

In this example, the HtmlFragment.GetClipboardFormatted(htmlString) is a method I adapted from Mike Stall’s example that returns the formatted string rather than putting it directly on the clipboard as in his example.

The last thing to remember about working with the clipboard: your program must run in single-threaded apartment mode so set the [STAThread] attribute.

My laptop gets confused when it goes in or comes out of the docking station and always picks the wrong resolution for the monitor. Part of this might be due to a difference in aspect ratios: the laptop screen is a widescreen model (width:height is 4:3) while the monitor connected to the docking station is 5:4.

I have gotten pretty good at Win-R, desk.cpl<enter>, Alt-R, <right> (or <right><right><right> as the case may be), <enter>, <left><enter> but I would still rather do something quicker.

So this morning I decided to write a bit of C# to handle it. I didn’t know of anything that ships in the .NET Framework to handle this directly so I went off to pinvoke.net and found what I was looking for.

The code example is formatted strangely but they link to a sample on CodeProject that presents it a bit more clearly. It is a bit strange that the class he created changes the resolution in its constructor rather than through a method. It is just a sample, after all.

http://www.nuun.com/

I have been looking for a good electrolyte-replacement drink for long bike rides that doesn’t have lots of sugar. I thought I would be reduced to adding salt tablets to water and trying to guess at the right balance but Nuun seems like an excellent possibility. According to the store locator, I can get it at REI so I’ll stop by the next time I am in Redmond Town Center.

The sun was in and out for much of the day today. It was out when I left my office but by the time I got outside the clouds were back and they stayed around until well after I had finished making photographs. This post is one of many that form a fence linked up with chains. This particular post, though, had no chain and only this little slender bit of string with a knot in the middle.

There was some variety in the 42 frames I made today. I particularly like the picture of the bus stop, with the newspaper and magazine stands in a line like they’re waiting for the bus themselves. And the one of the new tree along 156th Ave NE. I don’t know what it is about pylons, but the bright orange color always draws me.

And today is a sad one for those few of you who are fans of the pictures of the red bushes. The landscaping crew has started trimming them back in preparation for spring growth.

Shooting and processing notes
17-40 F4.0 L, 27mm, f5.6, 1/200, ISO 200. Converted to black-and-white in Lightroom, a bit of tonemapping in LightZone to spread out the tones, and local contrast.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

I didn’t have nearly as much trouble getting out to take pictures today. The sun certainly helped me capture today’s 39 frames.

Nothing too compelling to me today, though. I felt like I was just standing around marveling at the shadows and hoping that the clouds wouldn’t come back too soon.

This view of a picnic table next to a basketball court has some promise and I did like the view of this street although something is missing (and, no, it isn’t the cars).

Shooting and processing notes
17-40 F4.0 L, 17mm, f8, 1/250, ISO 400. A few tweaks with a relight tool in LightZone and that’s it.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

I had to force myself to go out and take pictures today. I did not feel like it but I have Ignacy Paderewski’s words in my head (I doubt he said them in English, though): "If I miss one day of practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it." I managed to squeeze out 37 frames today.

And though my expectations were low for the day’s results, I ended up choosing 9 photos from the set to post to Flickr.

I had my usual pictures of cracked and moldy concrete structures, but this arrangement of trees and utility pole struck me. This is probably my favorite of the concrete forms from yesterday.

I also had a glimmer of a realization yesterday that will take more exploration to work out, but I looked at these trees and saw them like a figure group (or, rather two figure groups–one lone tree and the other two together). The photo I took isn’t great but I think it’s a big step forward in the way I frame things. Keep watching and see what happens.

Shooting and processing notes
Canon 17-40 F4.0 L, 33mm, f7.1, 1/30, ISO 400. Converted to black-and-white in Lightroom where I turned up the green a bit to separate the tones of the grass from the trees. Used a tonemapper in LightZone to stretch out the tones a bit, then added local contrast and midtone sharpening.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

40 frames today although nothing particularly stands out. There’s this one where the idea of the picture is much stronger than the result. Dawn likes this picture of the gravel extending deep into the distance.

Shooting and processing notes
The 17-40 F4.0 L was back on the camera today. 40mm, f6.3, 1/125, ISO 400. It rained most of the day but I got outside during a break in the rain and loved how dark and glossy the rocks in this retaining wall were. This might be more compelling in the fall when it would seem like a paean to the harvest.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

The sun peeked through the clouds a bit this morning and, playing with the dark bark from the rain, made interesting shapes. I took 35 pictures this morning but expected I would take many more in the afternoon. But I didn’t, so those from the brief spurt this morning stand for the whole day.

This picture of Maya might very well be one that I forget about after a few days but there is a little spark of something in it that says it will hold my attention longer. We’ll see.

Shooting and processing notes
Took this with the 17-40 F4.0 L at 40mm, f4, 1/15, ISO 800. By some mysterious ability, Maya has learned to freeze in position when she hears the beep of the focus lock and hold that position until she hears the shutter click. I have no idea how she learned it but she’s like a model when I have the camera out, freezing long enough for me to take a picture, then moving to another pose for the next shot. I converted this to black-and-white in LightZone rather than Lightroom. I slid the color balance over towards blue (to simulate a blue filter) and dialed up the strength a bit to darken the overall tone. Added a bit of sharpening and that’s it.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

I attended a caucus today for the very first time. I had always thought before that you had to register ahead of time and meet special requirements in order to attend a caucus. There were a lot of people there crowded in shoulder-to-shoulder. It seems like this was common throughout the state of Washington today.

Though this was my favorite single picture of the day, I got two pictures that, together, beat it: one of the women in our precinct speaks in favor of Senator Clinton and a man speaks for Senator Obama. These would go well together in a book on facing pages. But then it’s too early for Solo Photo Book Month.

BTW, I made 37 frames today and not all of them were at the caucus.

Shooting and processing notes
Took this, and several others today, with the Sigma 20mm F1.8 EX. 1/15, f3.2, ISO 400. There was a mix of fluorescent and a bit of daylight in this cafeteria but Lightroom handled the white balance nicely. It was pretty flat coming out of Lightroom so I used either the "Wow" or one of the "Soft Wow" styles in LightZone, then some local contrast adjustment to make the sign pop.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

It seems like I spent the whole day in meetings at work yesterday and I was not able to get outside and spend time photographing. I still managed 31 frames, though. And something else happened, too. I made a few pictures in my office but I was still a long way off from my 29 minimum by the time I got home. After a nice sushi meal from Tokyo Japanese Restaurant, I knew I needed to take photos of something, and soon. Rather than locking me up, that imperative freed me up to see things more clearly around the house and take some photos that I like. I will have to explore the implications of this more.

Shooting and processing notes
I kept the EF 35mm F2.0 on the camera today. I took this at f2.2 (1/160, ISO 800) so I had a narrow depth of field. But it worked out well in this case since I focused on the candle in the front and let the vase and the lamp go just a little bit soft. The contrast between the sharp edges of the glass candle holder (it holds a tea light) and the other large, smooth forms is very satisfying. Converted to black-and-white in Lightroom where I simulated the effect of a red filter to darken the reddish vase. In LightZone, I used a tonemapper to spread the tones out for dark and light, and then sharpened the midtones to bring out the sharp-edged clarity of the glass candleholder.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

I had a hard time choosing between this photo of the stairs and this other one.

Not a great day for photography for me. There was a lot going on at work so I stayed close to my office. Not a great move since I was stopped three times by people with questions about all the things we’re doing right now. Made it hard to get in any kind of flow.

Shooting and processing notes
Bet you think you know what lens I used, huh? Guess again. I brought a nice little prime lens today that, with the 1.6x crop factor of the 20D works out to about 56mm–a nice normal lens. The EF 35mm F2.0 has nice optical performance even if it still has that ancient buzzy autofocus motor. But it doesn’t usually bother me. Shot this at f7.1, 1/40, ISO 400. Converted to black-and-white in Lightroom where I turned down the orange to emphasize the texture of the concrete. Darkened it a bit and emphasized texture with the relight tool in LightZone and then brought back a full tonal range with a tonemapper. Sharpened with midtone sharpening.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

This was the first thing I saw at the Overlake Transit Center today and my favorite picture of the bunch. I rode my bike over since I didn’t have time to walk. I knew there would be a good place to lock my bike while I wandered around but I should probably have brought a pair of shoes to walk in. I have Speedplay Frog pedals and a recessed cleat on my shoes but they’re still not great for walking around a bunch, or for squatting down low, as with this picture.

I decided to go to the OTC for the cranes that are in service on the other side of 520. I counted 9 of them but I was never able to get all of them in a single picture. I considered this picture of trees on a hill as the photo of the day, but it just missed the cut. I might change my mind tomorrow.

I finally noticed something else today as well: the effect of continuous car noise (in this case, from 520) on my ability to photograph. I have a great ability when reading or working at the computer to tune out all kinds of distractions around me. It’s something I have been able to do since I was a child. In environments where other people can barely think, I’m happy as a clam. But when I am taking photographs, I guess I try to open myself up and sense everything around me. At that point, the noise from the cars distracts me terribly. I had a hard time in an area that, for me, and compared to where I have been shooting each day at work, should be full of opportunities.

Shooting and processing notes
I had a hard time balancing on my cycling shoes while trying to squat down to take this one. Shot with the 17-40 F4.0 L at 40mm, f6.3, 1/80 at ISO 200. The 20D metered this pretty bright (it didn’t blow any highlights by any means, but it was bright) and that worked well in LightZone where I used the Hard style, then a bit of local contrast enhancement. Maybe I used a touch of midtone sharpening, or maybe I turned that off. I have already forgotten and I am too lazy to fire up LightZone and check.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset

I just can’t seem to get enough of these yellow rectangles in the stairwell of the parking garage.It rained most of the day today so I wasn’t able to spend much time outside. In spite of that, I still managed to get 34 frames and cover a range of subjects. Doug Plummer has just posted the one thousandth photo in his daily photo blog. "It’s changed how I see," he writes. I believe him. I have only been at this officially for over a month (I have only 36 photos: a mere 3.6% of Doug’s achievement) but already there is a difference in what I see and how I shoot. LightZone has changed the way I process my photos in the past few days so, superficially, there is more texture and the photos are often darker (thank goodness I am free of the unable-to-resist reflex of Shift-Ctrl-Alt-L in Photoshop) but the structure of the photos is different. The easy answer is that I am simply more careful now, paying closer attention to the selection of what is in the frame and what isn’t, but there’s something else going on.

And this is happening with very little feedback from the outside: there’s something about the cycle of taking photos, selecting them, and processing them that is changing what I am producing. I don’t know how that is happening but so far I like it so I’m not going to mess with it by trying to analyze it.

Shooting and processing notes
I saw this on the way down the stairs to go look for a picture and something about the way the light came in from the opening just floored me. I had to stop, look, back up a couple of steps, and take this picture. I just love the quality of the light, the wetness from the rain, and that bright, graphic, yellow rectangle. Shot with the ever-present 17-40 F4.0 L at 27mm, f5, 1/20 @ ISO 800. Set the white balance to daylight in Lightroom and then tweaked a bit in LightZone: put a region around the yellow rectangle, inverted the mask, and applied the Hard relight style, then some midtone sharpening (I dropped the opacity of the tool to about half or maybe a bit less), and then the Clarity relight style, but very, very slight, with the opacity slider at maybe 10% or less.

Photo a Day 2008 Links
Photo a Day 2008
Photo a Day 2008: February
Flickr: Collection: Photo a Day 2008
Flickr: February 2008 Photoset
Flickr: February 2008 Extras Photoset