Breakthrough!

If I could only reach you
If I could make you smile
If I could only reach you
That would really be a breakthrough

Queen - Breakthrough

We all get it at some point...writer’s block. I find it happens towards the end of each month in particular when I sit down and try to pen the monthly photography essay for this publication. It happens in more than writing though, and photographer’s block can be even worse than writer’s block (at least for photographers that is). The inability to ‘find one’s groove’ and see the picture. It becomes frustrating and rapidly descends from there to demoralising, until we pack up our camera in disgust and stomp away from the scene we have been trying desperately to photograph. 

Setting Up An In-Pool Studio

I really enjoy pre-conceptualising a shoot and seeing it through to completion. Often my ideas never really fully materialise due to a number of constraints (biggest being I usually have to earn a living first). However, I do quite a lot of work for a school in Durban and it often allows me room to play. One of their requests recently was to photograph two of their promising swimmers for web and newsletter material. I didn't feel like doing the usual 'stand in front of a wall' shoot, so asked whether I could have access to the school's pool. Permission granted. I proceeded to put together a studio in the pool itself. 

Alternatives to Adobe for Lightroom and Photoshop

Last week Adobe rather unsurprisingly announced that the standalone Photoshop CS6 would no longer be updated with new features or have new codec supplied to handle the files from newly released digital cameras. It seems that they are now finally throwing the towel in with the boxed versions of Photoshop. Many writers predicted that this would happen when Adobe first launched their so called ‘cloud’ version of Photoshop, Adobe CC (Creative Cloud). No problem, say Adobe, you can still download their free DNG converter and convert your RAW files into DNG that can be handled with any Photoshop suite back to Photoshop 7 (in the pre CS days).