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Lightroom 4 Preset: Behind the Scenes
It’s been a while, but here’s my seventh free Lightroom 4 preset, Behind the Scenes. I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback on the first six, so thanks to everyone who’s given my presets a try. This one is actually quite similar to Speakeasy, but it brings out quite a bit more detail in the shadows, which is great for wildlife shots.
Here’s my first example, a bird landing in the water:
Some monkeys doing monkey things:
And a tree in Boston’s esplanade:
Here’s the download: Lightroom 4 Preset: Behind the Scenes
To install it in Lightroom, simply right click any preset, select import, and then select the downloaded preset file.
Andrew Combs
Last weekend I went to see Shovels & Rope at the Sinclair in Cambridge. A few things to quickly note.
1. I can’t really describe Shovels & Rope well, but if you haven’t heard of them, check them out. A recent NYT article actually gets it pretty close: “They like to say they are “making as much noise as they can” with two old guitars, a kick drum, snare, harmonica, tambourine and occasional keyboard. I dare to match them with the couple that set the standard for country duets, Johnny Cash and June Carter. Both couples share Southern roots and that music-from-the-back porch country sound.” They were great live too, although they didn’t quite meet my (very high) expectations.
2. I liked the Sinclair a lot. It’s a new music venue right behind Harvard Square. They seem to have a good line-up of artists coming through, the sound is great, and the layout’s well-done. A nice addition to Cambridge.
3. The opening artist, Andrew Combs, completely blew me away. And I almost skipped his set. He’s a Tennessee-based guitar player and singer, and performed an acoustic set with just a pedal steel player backing him up. Reminded me a bit of Ryan Adams, but he’s definitely got his own thing going on. Here are a clip I shot. The quality’s not great, and it doesn’t do his set justice, but it’s something:
Thanks to Ed and Cress for the tickets.
Glenn Yoder & The Western States
I had a great time last night at the CD release party for Glenn Yoder & The Western States at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge. They put on a great all-around performance, and Jeff Katz, the guitar player and a friend of mine from BU, tore it up on his tele. Here’s a clip I shot:
Check out their CD, Javelina, here:
Posted in General, Music 4 Comments
Avan Jogia and Inigo Montoya
My site traffic has surged 500% over the past few days after 20-year old Canadian sensation Avan Jogia tweeted about my post on Mandy Patinkin, Inigo Montoya, and Saul Berenson:
Admittedly, I’d never heard of Avan, but I appreciate the tweet and traffic that came with it. He’s known for playing Beck Oliver the Nickelodeon TV series Victorious. He actually looks a bit like Mandy:
While I’m on the topic, for any Inigo Montoya fans out there, I found this amazing shirt on Amazon, which I immediately purchased for my girlfriend:
Posted in Current Events, General Tagged Avan Jogia, Inigo Montoya, Mandy Patinkin, Saul Berenson, The Princess Bride Leave a comment
Lightroom 4 Preset: Speakeasy
Here’s my sixth free Lightroom 4 preset, Speakeasy. This one adds some slight enhancement, mostly sharpening, contrast, and vibrance, without changing the overall look and feel of the photo. It’s quite versatile, and I use it on a wide range of photos, usually when I’m not looking to get too creative, but want to remove haze and liven up a shot a bit. One thing I often tweak after using the preset is the exposure, especially if I want to get more contrast in a shot with some sky.
Here’s the first example of the preset, a boulder on Mt. Cardigan:
A dog on a street:
A parrot up close:
And a beach landscape taken in Puerto Viejo:
Here’s the download: Lightroom 4 Preset: Speakeasy
To install it in Lightroom, simply right click any preset, select import, and then select the downloaded preset file.
Sustainable Approaches to Reducing Food Waste in India
About a year ago I spent a month in India working on an MIT research project focused on food waste with a classmate and close friend, Paul Artiuch. Throughout that month, we blogged extensively about what we learned both on the MIT Public Service Center website and on this site. Here’s a summary of what we wrote:
1. Battling Food Waste in India
2. More on Azadpur Mandi
3. India’s Cold Storage Capacity
4. A Look at India’s Agricultural Supply Chains
5. The Punjab Potato Party
6. India’s Grain Storage Problem
7. India’s Lack of Food Processing
8. Smaller Markets in Rajasthan
9. Four Problems with India’s Food Supply Systems
10. Pune: A (Nearly) Waste-Free City
Since we returned, we’ve generally received an email or two a week from researchers who are working on similar initiates and are interested in learning more about what we did and what we found. It’s great to see that the time we spent to understand the problem and more specifically the unique dynamics of food waste in India turned out to be a useful investment. Our main goal was to complete some ground-level research that others who might be interested in starting a business, NGO, or more extensive research initiative could build on.
The topic has recently gotten quite a bit of media attention, as a new comprehensive study on global food waste was just completed by the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers. There’s a great article on it here, and WonkBlog had a nice post on the topic here.
Paul and I have been sending out a report we put together on the topic to anyone who contacts us asking for more information. Given the number of people who are interested in learning more, we decided it makes sense to just publish the report online. So here it is: Sustainable Approaches to Reducing Food Waste in India.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact Paul or me.
Posted in General, India Food Waste, Research Leave a comment
