Lightroom 5 Preset: Joshua Tree

Posted on by in Lightroom 5 Presets

Here’s my fifth free Lightroom 5 preset, Joshua Tree. I’ve been very surprised by the positive responses I’ve gotten to my first four presets, which can be found in the ‘Lightroom 5 Presets’ section of my site. Thanks to everyone for downloading them. If any readers want to share either their own presets, or examples of presets I’ve posted, I’d be happy to include them in a post. This one has a bit of a vintage old photo tint, adds a vignette, and reduces the saturation while increasing vibrance and clarity. It’s fairly versatile, and I’ve used it on a wide range of shots. Here’s an example, which inspired the name, from Joshua Tree National Park: And here’s another. A horse drinking some

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The Much Feared (but less talked about) “Milk Cliff”

Posted on by in Current Events

Via Ezra Klein, “If Congress fails to renew the farm bill by Jan. 1, the country’s farm policy will revert back to laws dating from 1949. Government price supports for milk would rise significantly — and the cost of milk could rise by as much as $3 per gallon. Dairy doom!” “While we’re on the topic, though, it’s worth noting that milk has been growing steadily less popular in the United States for three decades now”: The post then goes on to discuss how milk has been losing out to other beverages, with one of it’s biggest competitors being bottled water. Given my uses of milk, which are mainly for coffee and cereal, I don’t see water being a reasonable substitute. But that’s just me.

Bend When The Sun Moves – Out Today!

Posted on by in Music

I’m excited to announce that an EP I worked on earlier this year with a group of great musicians is being released today. It’s called ‘Bend When The Sun Moves’ and our band is Vanessa Kafka & the Sunday Spins. The EP is available on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify — and you can search for it on Pandora as well. There are also previews of the songs on Amazon. Here’s the album cover, designed by Neil Walton in the UK: I got involved with the project after becoming good friends with Vanessa while studying at Sloan. She was a classmate of mine, and we first played music together as part of the Rolling Sloans, a Sloan cover band that’s been in

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Lightroom 5 Preset: Silhouette

Posted on by in Lightroom 5 Presets, Photography

Here’s my fourth free Lightroom 5 preset, Silhouette. It’s a fairly straightforward black and white preset that works especially well for partial or whole silhouettes. Depending on the starting brightness of the photo, you might want to adjust the strength of the silhouette effect by adjusting the ‘blacks’ control in the develop panel. Here’s the first example, a shot of a former Fidelity colleague’s son jumping into a pool: And here’s a second, a buffalo in a field I snapped while driving through Custer State park in South Dakota: Here’s the download: Lightroom 5 Preset: Silhouette To install it in Lightroom, simply right click any preset, select import, and then select the downloaded preset file.

1933 Beer Brewing Diagram and Subway Maps

Posted on by in General

Completely unrelated, other than that they’re both interesting, and both from 1933. A 1933 beer brewing diagram from popular science: And a some maps of the London Underground. In 1932 the map still attempted to show turns along the subway lines. By 1933, the design that dominates most subway maps today was born. 1932 with turns: 1933 without turns: And a 2012 London Underground map for comparison: And Boston, why not: