ken zirkel

Gonna drive to the Stop 'n' Shop / with the radio on at night

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Entries from April 2008

Photo workshop

April 28th, 2008 · Comments Off

Last week, I attended a photo workshop with famous landscape photographer Jack Dykinga. The workshop was local, and we went to the following locations at sunrise and sunset:
Beavertail State Park (with the lighthouse); sunrise and sunset
Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge; sunrise
Windmill in Jamestown; sunset
Black Point (on Ocean Road in Narragansett); sunrise
Dykinga is an amazing photographer and [...]

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Tags: Photography

Alternatives to Photoshop

April 28th, 2008 · Comments Off

There are several alternatives to Photoshop that nobody seems to know about. Here are a few:

Pixelmator is $59 (OSX only)
Lightzoneis $129 for basic, $199 for full version (OSX and Windows)
Portrait Professional is $119 but at this moment on sale for $60 (Windows only)
Flying Meat Acorn, $50 (OSX only)
Helicon Filter, $0-75, Windows only

Note: I don’t actually [...]

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Tags: As seen on the Internet · Photography (writing)

What’s the difference between Lightroom and Bridge?

April 27th, 2008 · Comments Off

If you have Bridge and Photoshop CS3, why would you want Lightroom?
Lightroom is a complete workflow solution. You can do everything from assign metadata on import to process your photos to manage your printing. Lightroom does everything Bridge does, but easier. Lightroom does a lot of things bridge does not:
1. manage your printing. So if [...]

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Tags: Photo Gear · Photography (writing)

Trip Report: Block Island

April 21st, 2008 · Comments Off

This weekend I did something a little different. The wife was out of town visiting her parents. Lately, when she’s done that I’ve tried to take the time to work on my photography. It occurred to me that there were two outstanding lighthouses on Block Island that I had not photographed yet. An overnight trip [...]

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Tags: Lighthouses · Trip Reports

How to get smart curly quotes using the keyboard in Mac OSX

April 21st, 2008 · Comments Off

I can’t believe I couldn’t find this information in a google search, so here it is:
Open double quotes: option left-bracket
Close double quotes: option shift left-bracket
Open single quote: option right-bracket
Close single quote: option shift right-bracket

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Tags: Technology

T-Ball

April 19th, 2008 · Comments Off

Son has started playing T-Ball. He’s number 8. Photo by the Wife.

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Tags: Son

Once a upon time …

April 16th, 2008 · Comments Off

Son wrote this short fairy tale tonight.

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Tags: Son Art

Gardening weekend

April 13th, 2008 · Comments Off

I’ve spent practically the entire weekend gardening (well, all except for a gorgeous bike ride around the neighborhood with the kids on Saturday evening). I’ve basically doubled our garden bed space, so that now we have two 12×3-foot beds, and one 8×2.5-foot bed. The new beds are more sunny than the old 12×3 bed, and [...]

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Tags: Our backyard

Son gets dirty in the garden

April 12th, 2008 · Comments Off

I offered Son one cent for each rock that he pulled out of the garden bed that I’m preparing. He gave up after 65 rocks, and started playing in the dirt. Which I suppose was just fine by me.

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Tags: Our backyard · Son

Flag

April 10th, 2008 · Comments Off

Son created this neat flag on his favorite web site.

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Tags: Son Art