News from Rod Barbee Photography
 

Greetings,

Well, I continue working on my winter to-do list. I finally got around to installing an new video card in my computer (to take advantage of new features in Lightroom) and reinstalling my operating system on a larger hard drive. Then I updated to Windows 10. Surprisingly, it all went rather smoothly with very few glitches. Which means that as soon as I hit send on this newsletter my computer will likely tell me how much it really hates me, delete everything on the hard drives, burn down the house, and kick puppies.
 
Speaking of puppies, I put my GoPro on Bailey. Here's just a little taste of that over on Bailey's blog.
 

Free 2016 HTML gallery for Lightroom from TTG
 


Matt at The Turning Gate has released another free gallery plug-in for Lightroom's Web Module. The 2016 HTML Gallery is an updated version of his 2014 HTML Gallery.
It also comes with a bunch of web templates with preset color schemes.
Installation is pretty easy too. Click the text links to go to the documentation for how to install web engines and how to install web templates.

I've got a demo of this gallery on my test site. I'll leave it up for awhile.
 

Quick photo guide to the Lake Crescent and Sol Duc areas


On my Blog I've started posting some quick photo guides to specific locations like the Palouse and different areas of Olympic National Park. I'm hoping to keep adding a couple a month. But for now, you can either jump over to the blog and look around for them, or go directly to the category page for my location guides.

My latest quick guide is to the Lake Crescent and Sol Duc areas of Olympic National Park. I really like Lake Crescent, and not just as a photo location. It's just a very calm place to be.

And the Sol Duc road is probably my favorite road in the park. It follows the river through some really nice forest and at the end of the road is the Sol Duc trailhead.
I usually just hike up to Sol Duc Falls, but in the past (when I was younger and in much better shape) I would start a long 18-mile day hike from this trailhead. A Hike that took me up into some of the most beautiful high country the park has to offer.
Don't worry, if you come on an Olympic workshop with me I won't make you take that hike.

 

Sky Fire for The Photographer's Ephemeris


This new app is for predicting sunrise and sunset amazingness.
Right from your iOS tablet or phone, or using the TPE web app, you can look two days into the future (four days with the Plus version) to plan your sunrise and sunset shots. Or to know that you can either sleep in (sunrises) or drink wine (sunsets). This is possibly its most valuable feature.
The Plus version can even send push notifications to let you know if there's a good chance of a great light in your favorite locations.


Here's how it works, from the Skyfire site:

"Using multiple weather models, Skyfire analyses numerous factors that affect sunrise and sunset color including:
  • Cloud type determination
  • Cloud height predictions
  • Gap light
  • Complex system behavior
  • Satellite weather information
  • Topography
The algorithm is run against the latest weather data multiple times per day."

In other words, technical magic. The results are that you get an overlay over the normal map in TPE. The more colorful the overlay, the better. Yellow and orange mean a good chance for a great sunset and red means an excellent chance. It's all very psychedelic!
 
A 30-day trial version is available and a yearly subscription is only $29.99 for the Basic version. To me, $30/yr is well worth knowing if I can drink wine instead of waiting fruitlessly for a good sunset. Just kidding. Maybe.
(other subscription options are available)
 
I'm looking forward to really testing this out during upcoming workshops, especially in places like Olympic National Park where the conditions can vary from location to location.
 
Right now, Sky Fire is for iOS devices only, though an Android version is planned.
 
Check out the TPE site and the Sky Fire site for a lot more information.
 

Room still available in all workshops


The Palouse
If you're thinking of taking one of my workshops this year, some of them are beginning to fill up. The Palouse workshop has only three spaces remaining and Zion National Park has only four.
 
I've also still got room in my Arches/Canyonlands photo tour (April 13 - 17) and my Columbia Gorge Waterfalls workshop (April 27 - May 1).
 
Other trips on the list include:
   
Be sure to check them out on my Workshops site.
 

My poor Seahawks


Yes, I've saved this for last. Mainly because I'm doing the hard work of putting it all behind me. I must admit though that it was somewhat of a relief not having to worry and stress over another NFC championship game. And now I can just enjoy the Super Bowl without being emotionally invested in it.
I'd rather be emotionally invested.
Next year. Wait and see.
 
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Awesome Website creation plug-ins for Lightroom
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