New Beginnings
New and repaired equipment prompts a re-evaluation of my photography workflow.
New and repaired equipment prompts a re-evaluation of my photography workflow.
Twenty-twenty-four is looking to be a year of New Beginnings. In November, I received a new aortic heart valve, and I am recovering from that. December saw the arrival of a Surface Pro Tablet. And last week, my Canon R6 came home from the repair shop looking like it was brand new.
Start with the R6.
Some months ago, I dropped my R6 while my 100–500mm lens was attached. The 100–500 did not appreciate the tumble and was sent off to the Canon repair shop (Ka-ching). It came back, as I knew it would, all shiny and bright. Ready to go. The R6 soldiered on until just before Christmas when it started throwing an ERR 70 message. A bit of research and I knew I would be invoking my Canon Professional Services (CPS) membership yet again (Ka-ching).
Repair Complete Comment:
Your product has been examined and it was found that the circuit board had been impacted causing the unit to display an error 70 message. The main circuit board and top cover ass’y was replaced. Product functions were confirmed.
The camera arrived home late last week, and I wasted no time testing it out. Yep, the Error 70 message has been vanquished. Because the main circuit board was replaced, all of my configuration settings have vanished. It’s like I have a new camera. Yikes! My personalized settings — gone.
On the bright side, this has forced me to review all of the features of the R6 again. Watching many YouTube videos and many consults with the manual. I haven’t finished configuring all of the settings yet. There are quite a few. My appreciation of this fine camera has just been reinforced as I work through this exercise.
So, a new beginning for my Canon R6.
A New Surface Pro Tablet.
Some years ago, I purchased an HP Spectre Laptop. Fifteen-inch 4K display, 16GB of RAM. Pretty solid device. Pretty weighty device. Not a device I want to throw in my pack and go travelling with.
The Spectre hosts Lightroom Classic and Photoshop. In addition to being my main image processing tool, Lightroom Classic keeps track of all of my images and videos. I wish Adobe would put better video support into Lightroom. Oh well.
Before Christmas, Microsoft was clearing their inventory of Surface Pro 7s for the same price as a Surface Go with a keyboard. We bought two of the Pro 7s. One for my wife, and one for me.
Yes, I know, these are two model releases behind the current one, but hey, let’s consider the use case. I’m replacing a three or four-year-old Android-based Samsung Tablet which I have been using as my travel device.
I don’t plan to use the Surface for any major editing. I installed Lightroom Desktop on it. This is the newer Creative Cloud edition of Lightroom which is heavily dependent on an internet connection to Adobe’s servers. The latest release of the desktop module now has a local mode in addition to the cloud mode. This means that you can use the tool while offline. Because Lightroom Desktop does not use a database catalogue to track files as Lightroom Classic does, the issue of conflict between two catalogues is avoided. I can choose to send the images to Lightroom Classic via the Adobe Cloud sync function, or just import them when I return home.
Truth is, there is a lot of functionality in Lightroom Classic that is not in Lightroom Desktop or Lightroom Cloud. For instance, I rename all my files with a format that puts the capture date in front of the camera-generated name. This ensures that all files have a unique name and aren’t going to be written over by mistake. There doesn’t seem to be a file renaming function in Lightroom Desktop let alone a renaming function on import.
I expect Adobe will address most of the gaps between the two applications eventually. In the meantime, I can use Lightroom Desktop to do my in-the-field culling and initial edits. To address the file naming issues, I have purchased an upgrade to an old friend, Downloader Pro by Breeze Systems. I used this app for years until I surrendered to the options in Lightroom Classic deciding they were good enough.
Downloader Pro will download images from the camera cards and use the EXIF metadata to rename files and save files to folders according to my directions. It works really well, and now that I have reason to use it again, I will be exploring how I want the image files stored on the Surface. And how it will flow through to Lightroom Classic.
For those readers who feel the need to say Apple is better than Microsoft, I will say that they may be right but after forty-five years of Windows, I’m not about to find out.
So, a new workflow. Download files from my cameras using Downloader Pro. While travelling, do my edits and culling with Lightroom Desktop on the new Surface tablet. Import the final set of files into Lightroom Classic when back at my desk.
A Valve Job.
In late November my aortic valve was replaced with a bright shiny new one. (I assume it is bright and shiny, I wasn’t awake to approve their choice 😊) I am told it will be good for at least thirty years. I hope so because I plan to be a nuisance to my friends and family for a long time to come. I also hope to take advantage of the extension I have just been given to get out and explore more places and have more fun.
So, new beginnings. A newly refurbished camera. A new tablet computer. A new lease on life. What a way to start the new year!
The world is a beautiful place. Share the beauty. Leave only footsteps.