Travel at the holidays can be challenging what with the TSA acting like it’s the third date every time you go to the airport and climate change making everything but frogs fall from the skies keeping you from the roads. So that is why the seasonal pilgrimage to love ones can be stressful especially if you have travel by car through the state of New Mexico. Now for those of you who are not familiar with our 47th state it is the one that keeps Arizona and Texas from crashing into each other. It is also a state not known for scenic drives unless you think the pan handle of Texas is just this side of Heaven. It has lots of open space but apparently just a few roads to get you in and out of the state. In fact I suspect that this lack of egress is how they increase the population. They should change the state motto from Land of Enchantment to Once you get here you can’t leave.
Let me share with you our travel through New Mexico to Arizona to visit family over the Christmas holidays. We left Colorado and traveled down the interstate into New Mexico and were going to stay in Albuquerque overnight. Going down I 25 we thought we would stop in Las Vegas (Yes Virginia there is Las Vegas New Mexico though not as shiny as the one in Nevada) to get something to eat. Since we are not familiar with the fine dining establishments in Las Vegas (Oh look the KFC is offering the Double Down, maybe it is just like the other Vegas) we decided to get a salad from Wendy’s since they come prepackaged and we can get them fast. Pulling the GPS out we type in Wendy’s from the Food Section. It tells us that there is a Wendy’s just up the road and to keep going straight. So we drive down the road passing other fast food places thinking it must be just ahead. Getting to the darker parts of the road the GPS now tells us to turn right so I do. A couple of blocks into a neighborhood it tells us to turn right again and that we are “There” with “There” being a rundown building and a mail box. Thinking to ourselves that there might not be a Mandarin Chicken Salad inside we drive back to the main road and go to one of the other fast food places that does appear to be open. After eating we rush down the interstate to Albuquerque. The next day we were able to get to Arizona.
Leaving Arizona we once again drove to New Mexico and after a night’s sleep in Albuquerque headed north toward home in Colorado. Getting just a few miles up the road we see signs on the freeway that there is an accident and that all traffic must get off. If you have never driven the stretch of freeway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe there are long sections that while there appears to life on either side of the freeway there are no exits to get to them and this appears to be where the accident took place. We exit the freeway and once again pull out the GPS to see if there another way north that we can take. It spins it’s little thinking wheel and says to make a right and drive for four miles. I do that and then it says to make another right for ten miles which would take us back to Albuquerque. I start down that way when after a few miles it now says “Oh wait I have a better idea, make a right up here and go this way” then had us going west to take a mountain route that we knew was snowed in. Thinking that the GPS was now just playing with us we ask it for the nearest Starbucks for coffee and an internet connection to check out the routes ourselves. ” Very Well” it grumbles and gives us two choices one that is three miles down to the left and one two miles ahead. I drive down street and see the Starbucks but no entry from the street. So we turn right and find entrance down the street by crossing a parking lot. Finally getting to Starbucks we find that it is a Dive Thru only. I swear I heard the GPS snickering and decide to drive back to other one it mentioned. “Sure” the GPS smirked “Do you feel Lucky” and it directed us down the street and what else, to turn right. (Now I know the west is conservative but always turning right, Really) There were some buildings there and we thought it might be hiding in there. Going through the parking lot there were offices but no Starbucks. One of my sharp eye daughters saw the green lettered sign ACROSS THE STREET so we finally got there. (I think a twenty year old girl is much better at finding a Starbucks than a satellite connected mapping devise. ) When I looked at the GPS it just looked up at me and said “OH did I say right, I wanted to say left”. Getting inside I get out my laptop and first try the New Mexico Dept. of Transportation to see if they had any updates on the accident but no luck there. My wife got the phone number but the answering machine was no help. Google maps did show me a route alongside the freeway and where we could get back on. Going analog I got out a piece of paper and wrote down the streets (Take that GPS) and once again we were off. Going through some of the small towns we start to get close to freeway but all the streets have the same name. What I mean is we were driving through a town called Benito and the street we needed to turndown to get to the freeway was also called Benito. Well in this town there was Aventio Benito, Benito Street, Las Benito Way and many other variations with no other signs showing the way to the freeway. We did finally find it and headed north. The trip from Loveland Colorado to Albuquerque normally takes only about eight hours. It took us over six hours to just get to the border that day. Before leaving this State of Entrapment we thought we would get something eat at the last major township before Colorado so we went to an Arby’s which is in Raton just before you cross the mountains. Now Arby’s is known for it’s Roast Beef Sandwiches unless it is the only Arby’s in America that RUNS OUT OF ROAST BEEF!!!
So the good news is we did make it to Colorado and all is well at last. The GPS seems to be happy to be back home and works fine here and elsewhere with the exception of just the 47th state.
When you download your files from your latest shoot and you use Elements, Bridge, or Lightroom they will ask some simple questions.
First where do you want the files. To make it easier on you there should be one main folder for your images. Windows and Mac have a folder already setup which does make it easy but you can make one if you want. These can have catchy names like My Photos, Images, Pixel Press or what ever you like but a single main folder is easier on you and the software for keeping track of the images.
Once you have a main folder you can set up sub folders for each shoot by date or name. That way if you go looking for something using the computer find method your search is made easier. At the time of the download the programs will ask what folder you want to download to and if you want to set up sub folder. By default they often just do the date but you can put in a word or phrase to the sub folder to make more sense. Names like Disneyland09 or Yellowstone10 with a phrase and a year helps a lot if you go back to the same place year after year.
Also by giving your sub folder a name and date you will also be asked at download if you want to rename your files. I do and the programs also ask if you want the files to be the same name as the sub folder. I say yes since it will have the name of event and a year already there. The program will put image numbers with this file name so when you look at the images they will be called Disneyland09001.jpg or Yellowstone10005.nef . You now a file with a better name than 7763665266117.jpg which we all know was the shot of your bother in law falling into pool at Aunt Lois birthday party and the most requested photo for Christmas Cards.
For the really paranoid you can embed the original file name into the image’s metadata at the same time. Metadata is a discussion for another time. Enjoy
If there is one thing that all photographers run into it are folders full of files that we have no idea what they are. It is true we can use programs like Bridge or Organizer to peek at them but then you still have a bunch of files that you might need to drag into separate folders, Albums, or Catalogs to get them under some kind of order. Just like a messy desk (or even a room) we should strive to keep the files in logical folders so if we need something for a client or even our own projects we will find it quickly and not be frustrated rooting around a hard drive like a shoebox full photos in no order.
Here are basics and suggestions for taking the images from the camera to computer to projects. First is after your shoot you need to get the files out of the camera and into the computer. A lot of new shooters sometimes view the camera as an album you can carry around. They only seem to show the images from the back of the camera. While convenient you do run the risk of losing an image from being overwritten, not getting an important shot because there is no room on the camera card or a better question how do you show your images to your family and friends across the country.
Now I know that the camera box contained a special USB cord for connecting the camera to your computer for downloading the images. While not a bad way it is not how I suggest to do it. There have been a few rare cases of power surges damaging cameras plus running the camera during the download and your battery runs down you might lose an image. What I like is to remove the camera card and use a card reader. They are quite cheap and many newer computers and printers have card readers built right into them. They are also faster than cameras for uploading images.
Next time I will talk about the upload process and setting up subfolder and if you should rename your files.
When we purchase Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom and other software it would be nice to think that once it comes out of the box we would be set for life. However with new cameras and after release bugs do crop up so updating the programs is something we all must do from time to time. There are some programs with auto update that gives us those little pop ups but if you keep clicking on the hide or the X to get rid of it you could be missing out.
Adobe updates all of their current programs from time to time. Many times it is an update on newer cameras or a bug fix and since the release of the current crop of Adobe software there have been a few. So just how do you update? It really is easy to do. For Photoshop start up Bridge and go to the top menu and click on Help. Under the help menu is a link for Updates. Just make sure you are hooked up to the Internet and click. Bridge does a much better job of updating not only the programs but the Camera Raw updates too. Many times when it hooks up with the Mothership (Adobe.com) it will see all of your Adobe programs and update them all.
For Elements it is the same with going to the top menu from Organizer. Lightroom is a bit more pro active, when you turn it on it will have a major pop up in the middle of the program with a button to click here to download. Once the down load is complete you have to sign out of the program, click on the download then turn the program back on.