It's all there in Black and White.

In an moment of weakness I accepted a B&W Challenge on FaceBook from by Friend and past winner of the prestigious Vicent Versace Award , at Photoshop World  Cam Miller.  Normally I avoid any FaceBook driven endeavor like the plague, but like I said, “In a moment of weakness”.  7 images over the course of a week, how bad can that be? Well so far, not bad, not bad at all, I decided to use images from a last weeks trip to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.  As of this posting 2 days down 5 to go.. 

"Hot Day in January"

 In one of his songs, Cajun fiddle man, Doug Kershaw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Kershaw sang  “It’ll be a hot day in January when she'd ever leave me”.  I guess they were talking about today.  I’m showing 18° as I get ready for my 5th Maryland State Police Polar Bear Plunge. (Media) While not one of the brave plungers, braving the outdoor’s 0800 to 1600 has been a challenge at time.  Most of my family and friends think I’m nutz, and would rather spend the day bundled up, inside.  Thankfully I’m not at that stage yet..  And why, may your ask? That’s easy, I spend the day trying to chronicle the nobel efforts of the thousand of folks, plungers, staff, whoever,  who do this each year to support the  Maryland Special Olympics.  Plus I get to hang around with one of the best media pros I knew Tina Miles.  With maybe a bit of Rob Roblin thrown in.  Who know what this year will bring? Cold, yes. Snow, maybe, In the meantime here’s some shots from the past to pass the time..    

 

Over the years Beauty Queens,  Swimming Chickens, Ravens QB Joe Flacco , and even my man “Brittany Girl Dale” have all fallen prey to my camera..   

 

Off shortly, hope to see you on the other side 

 

Torn, and torn again. But happily now on the mend

Yes I've been remiss.  It's been a while, almost  a month the be exact, since my last entry. But this time I have an excuse.  Well..  some what of a excuse.    

Drum Roll Please ……. 

I've been spending a lot of time over at Speed Vision of MD  which in case you haven't heard is the new home for all my  Motor Sport images.  Web sites never come easy and because of the bleeding edge design, this one is taking some extra time to fully stand up.  But I am happy to report there is some faint light at the end of the tunnel.  Logos (well at least 1st gen) are done, Flickr, Facebook and Zenfolio sites and galleries are in place.  And if by magic (not ) content is finally starting to appear.   Not to much additional to add right now. But a "Arnold" said "I'll be Back" 

-bye- 

Eastern Museum of Motor Racing A sardine can of memories.

Driven inland by the projected crowds at Sailabraton  I spent a most amazing 3 hours at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing today. Located Just  south of Dillsburg PA off or RT 15 this hidden  treasure chest of motor racing artifacts that is truly a wonder to behold.   

As a life long fan of, any and all, motor sports, for me the contents unleashed a flood of fond memories.  But what made the visit amazing wasn't the fact that I have seen two of the cars race in their day, or the supporting contents that i found highlighted reference to all my favorite drivers from Reading, Nazareth, Langhorne, Dorney Park. But that every one in the museum, visitors, or  volunteers could, and would, talk racing.  

 

Like the # 5 of Bobby Gearhart I've seen race at Reading .

Or this veteran example of a midget, I believe to have seen race at Dorney Park a as kid.  

 

Legendary cars, legendary engines, dusty trophies. they all are in attendance 

 

If you're ever in the area stop on in.. You will not be disappointed  And admission is free (donations are accepted)  I'm already planning future trips.

© 2012 FDphotovideo - - Doug Miller Photography
www.fdphotovideo.com
www.dougmillerphotos.com

 

Aperture 3.3 and the power of Smart Albums

First off, I am a fan of Apple's Aperture program, have been using it since V1,0 (had lots of opportunities for improvement then ).  Currently it's at V3.3 and it's developed into a mature, feature packed, stable program.  I currently have about 110,000 images and videos in multiple referenced libraries, living on DROBO raids,  Aperture has no problem tracking, managing, and modifying the images as I see fit.

Recently I received two requests for images, One was a request for a specific rider, in a specific motorcycle race,  The 2011'  Barbara Fritchie Classic .  Easy enough as I only shot around 1200 images at the even.   The next request involved one rider, and a whole series of races held by the Baltimore County Trail Riders Association in 2011. A bit tougher as I shot almost 9000 images at the race venues in last year.

Here's how Aperture and more specifically the Smart Albums made the task easy.   First pass I looked at the images from the event date in "thumbnail view" which allows very fast scanning of galleries.  I then used keyboard command to assign a color tag to all images that met the search requirement.   Then I create a smart album based on that color.  Paste in the riders name and # in the keyword metadata.   Delete the color tags, and redefine the Smart Album criteria to reflect the riders name and number.   I then use the Zenfolio export tools to move the requested products to a specific gallery. The Flickr export plugin to post to Flickr so I can post a link to Facebook.   I was really surprised how quickly these tasks were accomplished..  Shout out to Apple, keep up the good work, allowing me "to get things done".

 

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