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Up Close and Personal with Elephants in Africa

Recently, Eileen and I were lucky enough to experience three incredible safari camps operated by Wilderness Safaris in Africa. We stayed at two of Wilderness Safari’s Classic Camps, Toka Leya Camp, located in Zambia near Victoria Falls, and Chitabe Lediba Camp, located in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The last camp we stayed at was a Wilderness Safari Collection Camp, the amazing Abu Camp, located deep in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Abu Camp has a resident herd of rescued elephants that we interacted with daily, going on walks with them, catching rides on them, and feeding them. It was an unforgettable experience. On the last night we slept in the Abu Camp “Star Bed.” It’s a beautiful bed out in the open on a two-story deck right alongside the elephant boma. Elephants on one side and the delta with hippos dipping in and out of the water on the other. What a way to end our safari. It took us 35 hours door-to-door to get there and we were only there six short days. Still, it was worth it. We’ll try to post more photos and our daily reports later, but here’s a taste.

For more info on the best sources on all things safari and Africa, check out the links below:

Africa Discovery

Wilderness Safari Camps

 

Posted in Travel PhotographyTags: , , , , , , , ,

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Vanessa Murphy - April 30, 2012 - 8:10 am

Hi Jay + Eileen, your pictures are beautiful Jay! It looks and sounds like a magical trip! Thanks for sharing your images and sending you both my best, Vanessa

jaygraham - May 2, 2012 - 5:51 am

Thanks Vanessa – it was an incredible adventure!

Lightroom 4 and Blurb and Maps and ….

Bella Notte Linens

Bella Notte Linens book in progress

Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom 4 was released this morning. As usual with adobe, it’s an upgrade that’s well worth getting. Adobe has also lowered the price from $299 to $149 for the full version. The upgrade is just $79.

Now you can make Blurb books within Lightroom 4 – no plug-in download required, no need to use another tool to design your book. It was so easy to switch between proofing and editing. Any changes that I needed to make to an image were just a click away. Never leaving the program you’ve gotten used to and use for everything from organizing and archiving your library to final output is awesome. Nice to be using just one piece of software. I am always blown away by the quality of Blurb books. I just received my Large Square (12 x 12) book, Bella Notte Linens (one of my favorite clients),  this morning. It’s one of my favorite books so far. You can check it out here.

What’s new in Lightoom 4:

• Video Support
• Manage images by location with the Map Module
• Simplified Basic Adjustments
• Powerful new Shadow & Highlight controls
• Additional local adjustments including Noise Reduction and White Balance
• Soft Proofing Reinvented
• Elegant Photo Book creation with Blurb
• Email from directly within Lightroom
• Publish videos directly to Facebook or Flickr
• Enhanced DNG workflows

My favorite tool just got better!

 

Posted in Book Publishing, Books, LightroomTags: , , , , ,

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Along the Way & Indochine, The books

Now is a good time to buy those books you’ve been wanting to get. Blurb is offering $10 off your purchase. Do it soon, the offer expires February 27th. Just enter the code: “SAVE10” when you check out.

You can preview and buy Along the Way by clicking here and Indochine by clicking here.

Posted in Book Publishing, Books, Travel PhotographyTags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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January 2012 Lightroom Workshop

We just completed an intensive two-day Lightroom workflow workshop in Marin. Take a look at the slideshow above to see samples of photography done in the workshop and the resident mascot who slept through most of it. By all accounts, the workshop was a huge success. Lots of information detailing digital workflow with Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom was shared along with good food, strong coffee, and at the end of the day,  fine wine. And even though the majority of the students were sitting in leather recliners, no one nodded off. Comments from the students best sum up the experience:

“Jay, thank you for sharing your expertise with me. You are so patient and kind and generous with all your wisdom.”

“What an amazing program”

“The best – most comfy class I’ve attended. Great hosts.”

“Loved it all. Small group really helped. Set up around big screen TV was very easy to follow. The outline and agenda you followed was very logical and made a lot of sense.”

“You are so nice and patient and Eileen is so gracious to be accommodating to our needs.”

…… and … What parts could we improve on? Answer: “More Chocolate:)”

I’ll be following up this workshop with a one-day tune up session on Saturday, March 3rd. It’s open to anyone who has attended any of my workshops and will be $185 for the day including lunch….and a comfy seat.  I’ll also be scheduling more two-day workshops in the coming months. In the meantime, if you’d like to schedule any one-on-one Lightroom tutoring, send me an email. Thanks to all who attended the January workshop – really great work. I look forward to seeing you soon.

 

Posted in Insights, Lessons, Lightroom, Uncategorized, WorkshopsTags: , , , , , ,

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Lightroom 4 and Blurb join forces

Along the Way

 Lightroom 4 is now available for public beta testing. It looks like the final version will be available this spring.

The big news is that Lightroom 4 has some great new features, including two new additions to the Module Picker strip – a Map Module and a Book Module.

The Map module shows where your photos were taken if your camera is GPS-enabled. If it’s not, you can select the spot on the map where the photo was taken and the coordinates will be added to the meta data of the photo. Pretty handy for anyone who wants to manage files and keep track of when and where their photos were taken.

The Book module is very sleek. It enables you to make a Blurb book within Lightroom; you don’t have to leave the application. This means you can design an entire book, from choosing the book trim size to the type of cover you’d like (hardcover, softcover, ImageWrap) to selecting layouts (lots to choose from) and picking paper (Standard, Premium, or ProLine). As you make your choices, the estimated price of your finished book is displayed, making it really easy to get from photos to finished book quickly and efficiently.

Photo-editing in your book is easy too. If you need to adjust any images, the changes show up in the book as they’re made. Once you’ve designed the book (including adding text if you’d like), you can either export it as a PDF or send it to Blurb for printing … and you’ve never had to leave Lightroom. Nice. I’ll be making even more books now.

Lightroom 4 is definitely an upgrade you’ll want to get. I’ve just started playing with it, but I really like what I’ve seen so far.

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