Photography Insights | July 2024 (better late than never 🙃)


Happy Friday!

The heat is on! July has been a whirlwind preparing to relocate with my family from Atlanta to Washington, DC. In between the packing chaos, I managed to squeeze in a few day trips to bid farewell to my favorite spots in Georgia.

Now, we’re ready to hit the road and drive all my camera gear, computer, hard drives, and printer (no way could I trust those babies with the movers) to our new place this week. I’ve never moved a printer before, so keep your fingers crossed it survives the journey! 😬

Needless to say, my photography work this month has been all client-based, leaving me with zero time for personal projects. But that’s okay—I’ll be fresh and ready to dive back in once we’re settled into the new house.

In the meantime, I’ve been organizing my thoughts and tackling some of the most common Lightroom questions I receive. So, this month's Technical Tip is all about How to Speed Up Lightroom Classic. Plus, I’ve included a review of BenQ’s ScreenBar Halo light.

Lastly, I’ve got a quick poll for you—what would you like to see MOST in future newsletters? I’d appreciate it if you could vote for your favorite item so I can focus future newsletters on what matters most to you.

Cheers,
Chrissy


In this comprehensive guide, I share proven tips and best practices - sourced from industry experts, including Adobe itself - to help you optimize Lightroom's performance and make your editing sessions smoother and faster.

Since there’s so much valuable information, I’ve divided the guide into five parts. Let's dive into Part 1: Setting Your Lightroom Classic Preferences for Speed.


If you have any other thoughts or ideas for the newsletter,
please feel free to reply to this email and share your feedback!


While we often discuss the light on the landscape, one critical yet often overlooked aspect is the lighting in our workspaces - ensuring color accuracy during photo processing and reducing eye strain during those long editing sessions. So, when BenQ reached out asking me to review their ScreenBar Halo light, I knew it was worth exploring.


Did you know that certain plants can indicate the pH level of the soil, influencing the types of flora and fauna you'll encounter. Trees such as Hemlocks, Sweetgums, and Eastern White Pines thrive in acidic soils found in regions with coniferous forests. Blueberries and rhododendrons, for example, are characteristic of these acidic environments, making them ideal targets for photography in such areas.

On the other hand, spotting wildflowers like lupines and trilliums suggests a slightly acidic to neutral pH soil. Trees such as White Oaks, American Elm, Eastern Redbuds, and Sugar Maples prefer soils ranging from acidic to neutral.

Understanding these soil preferences can guide you in targeting specific plant species during your photography excursions, enhancing your ability to plan and predict where you will likely find certain wildflowers.


1.) ICYMI Colleen Miniuk released her adventure travel memoir last month So Said the River: Life, Loss, and Pie on the Colorado.

2.) Matt Kloskowski shares the New Photoshop Features from the July 2024 update in one of his latest YouTube videos.

3.) Out of Chicago announced their 2025 photography conference line-up. You can catch me teaching at Out of the Great Smoky Mountains in spring and Out of Chicago Botanic in the summer. They will host an Out of Olympic in the fall as well. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you a discount code.

4.) Save the Date! Out of Chicago LIVE!, an online, global photography conference with over 50+ photography instructors and over 100+ online sessions will be February 7-9, 2025.

5.) Ian Plant from Photo Masters talks through the most common gear problems that landscape photographers face and how to protect your camera gear.

6.) Josh Cripps shared a new free eBook on 20 Camera Skills and Settings You Must Master.

7.) On August 22nd at 2PM Central Time, Blake Rudis is hosting a free live webinar sharing his entire workflow for processing photos. This pairs with the release of his Visionary Panel, a Photoshop plugin with an emphasis of editing like a painter for photographers.

8.) Eric Bennett released "Secrets of the Forest", which is a 4 hour tutorial of both theory and image development. Plus, see Eric's recent gallery "A Fulfilling Emptiness".

9.) Watch Christopher Nolan's Advice to All Photographers by Tatiana Hopper.

10.) Nature Photography Classes recently started their Speaker Series on Intentional Black & White: New Concepts, Inspiration and Ways of Expressing your B&W photography with Richard Martin, Michael E. Gordon, Brooks Jensen, and Huibo Hou.

11.) Tony Kuyper and Sean Bagshaw announced a new free TK Print Plugin for Photoshop!

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Chrissy Donadi

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