Micah Walter

Well, we had to take a short hiatus from the 100 portraits thing. Don’t worry, we will be right back at it as soon as our mini-crisis is over. Last night I decided to randomly adopt two puppies during a card game. No, I didn’t win them, I “saved” them. Well, turns out one of the pupps was pretty sick, so I have been spending the entire day and all last night trying to help him out. The only Vet in Dominica just came by and fixed him up and he is on the road to recovery.

Thanks to all who helped me find the “vet.” Puppy portraits will have to suffice for now.

On another note, I just announced my new site, Aperture Plugged In. Check it out!

Kendra’s mom sent us an Elmo blanket in a care package. Where is my Crayon box? Kudos to Kendra for the creative lighting, off camera flash and using the flashlight beam to focus.

So, like, what’s up with the new Adobe icons. I know, there has been debate all over the net about these sort of, well, dull icons. There was even a blog set up by Adobe to talk about em. Well, I just thought I’d add my two cents. I like the old ones better! I mean the really old ones! They were so much more attractive. Anyway, just seems kinda dull to me coming from one of the leading graphics and imaging software companies. C’mon!

Adobe began taking orders for version 1.0 of Photoshop Lightroom. As most of you know by now, Lightroom has been in Beta form for quite some time now. Lightroom won’t be available to th epublic until Feb 19th, but you can place your order for a discounted price today. Once released on Feb 19th, there should be a trial version available for download from their website. Check Adobe’s website for more info.

Gross Anatomy can certainly be the cause of a person’s mood. Just a quick one today, no fancy lighting or anything like that.

Kendra took her fast crack at portraiture tonight on our balcony under the warm glow of green fluorescent light.

After reading through my morning Strobist I was inspired by a this thread of images by an Iclandic photographer on flickr. 100 portraits in 100 days! Wow, and great stuff too! So, I thought I would give it a go. However, for my version I am going to try and alternate back and forth between portraits by myself and of my girlfriend, and vice versa. So, each day one of us will be art director,and one of us will be subject. Kendra’s photo skills have improved rapidly since I met her, so it should be fun to watch.

Above is the first shot, a simple headshot. I took it yesterday morning in our apartment. So, uh, I guess it’s her turn to pick up the camera!

I am also placing these photos in the flickr sidebar thing on the right, so you can see the most recent 5 images from the project. Enjoy!

I think there are actualy two www.micahwalter.coms right now. So, the thing is, I am trying to transfer my hosting provider, domain name and email to a new service. I am hoping this transfer will allow me to put up an even better website than before, with lots of new features and information. For now though, this blog will have to serve as my website.

If you are looking for my portoflio or are trying to reach me, please contact me via email at, um, hmm… how about micahpix@mac.com for the time being.

Hopefully it wil all be just a matter of days or so before my regular email and website are back in action. Until then, hold your breath!

Okay, so I will admit it, I have been stalking John Harrington’s new blog on the business of photography. After a few good hours of reading through the site, and checking out more and more of his book, I have come to realize one thing: John knows what he is talking about.

Being a good business-person is pretty much make it or break it stuff in the industry today, and John seems to have a good deal of it figured out. So go out and buy his book!

But before you do, be sure to check out this cool online calculator that John put together for the NPPA.org website. You can plug in your numbers, read the little help boxes marked with the letter “i” and figure out if you are making any money taking pictures.

Not only is the calculator a really easy to use predictor, it can clue you into a number of interesting details. “Am I charging enough for this assignment?” “Is that new 30 inch LCD display in my budget?” “Am I actually getting paid to do this work?” — All valid questions. Here is the link.

Cost of Doing Biz

So, I am starting a new section on this blog called Aperture Quick Tips. For some reason, I seem to like to write more lengthy blog entries on the Inside Aperture site, so I think this might be a good way to add the little tips and ideas I come across while working in Aperture.

So today I was working on a few images in Aperture and I noticed that I can add custom fields in the Metadata area. Whoa! I had no idea!

All you do is click the “Other” button on the Metadata view pane (bottom of the screen) and you will have an option to add your own field. Who knew!

Obviously this is great news for me as I love to come up with new ways to add organization to my chaotic brain!