Follow the steps below to see how easy it is to begin sharing your photos on your iPad.

Step 1. Plug your iPad into your computer and locate it in iTunes. Click on the Photos button at the top right to load the Sync Photos options, as shown in figure 1. Notice that by default the iPad is setup to sync from iPhoto.

Figure 1: Choose Photos from the selections at the top.

Step 2: Click on the Sync Photos from menu and select Choose folder, as shown in figure 2.

Figure 2: Select Choose folder to create a special folder for iPad albums.

Step 3: When the Choose Photos Folder Location dialog box opens, navigate to your Pictures folder and use the New Folder button to create a new folder named iPad Photos, as shown in Figure 3. Then click the Choose button to close the dialog box.

Figure 3: Select Choose folder to create a special folder for iPad albums.

Now that the iPad knows where to look for photos, it’s time to setup Lightroom to give it something to find. One of the best ways to do this is to make a collection in Lightroom for each of the albums you want to add to the iPad. Then use Lightroom’s Export dialog to create a custom export preset to export the photos into the iPad Photos folder you just created.

Continue with Step 4 below to setup Lightroom:

Step 4: Open Lightroom go to the Library module. Click on the Export button to open the Export dialog.

Step 5: Choose the For E-Mail preset under the Lightroom Presets at the top of the Preset panel on the left (circled in figure 4). This loads settings into the panels on the right which are used as a starting point. Now you can fine tune those settings to configure them for your needs.

Step 6: Go to the Export Location section at the top and click on the Export To menu to open a drop-down menu. Choose Specific folder, as shown in figure 4. Then click on the Choose button to navigate to the iPad Photos folder that you added to the Pictures folder in Step 3.

Figure 4:Use the Export To menu to find the iPad Photos foler you created in Step 3.

Step 7: Select the Put in Subfolder option but don’t type anything into the text box just yet because you’re setting up a custom preset. You’ll add the names of the albums here when you export them later.

Step 8: Go down to the Image Sizing area to set the sizing for the photos. Choose Long Edge from the drop-down menu and then enter a value of 1024 into the text box to the left of pixels, as shown in figure 5. This way if the photo is vertical, it will be 1024 pixels high, which is a perfect fit for the iPad’s longest dimension. If it’s a horizontal, it will be 1024 pixels wide. In both cases the other dimension falls into proportion with the original proportions of the photo.

Figure 5: Change the Image Sizing to 1024 pixels on the long edge.

Now it’s time to save these settings as a preset so that you don’t have to bother with them again. Continue with Step 9 to add a new preset.

Step 9: Click on the Add button at the bottom left of the Export dialog box. When the New Preset dialog box opens, type iPad Photos into the Preset Name text box. Then click Create to complete the process. Now your new preset is located in the User Presets section of the Preset panel on the left. Choose Cancel at the bottom right of the Export dialog to close it.

Step 10: Now all of the pieces are in place. To export an album of photos to your iPad, select a group of photos in Lightroom and export them using your iPad Photos export preset. Be sure to type a subfolder name into the text box in the Export Location section of the Export dialog. This is the exact name that is used by the iPad to name its albums. If you forget to add text to this box, the photos are dropped directly into the iPad Photos folder and won’t be visible in the iPad albums.

Step 11: Go to iTunes and sync your iPad. When the sync is complete the iPad updates its albums in the Photos section.  To add or remove photos from an album simply re-export the new selection of photos from Lightroom and then sync the iPad. To remove an album from the iPad, simply use Finder (Mac) or Explorer (Windows) to remove the folder from the iPad Photos folder on your computer and then sync the iPad.

That’s all there is to it. After the initial setup, adding photo albums to your iPad takes only a few moments.

Note: Simplify the process is to use collections in Lightroom to keep track of your albums. Simply create a collection for each set of album photos. That way you can change the contents of an album by modifying the collection and re-exporting the photos.

]]> http://www.ddroom.com/memos/2011/06/16/exporting-ipad-photo-albums-directly-from-lightroom/feed/ http://www.ddroom.com/memos/2011/02/10/why-do-flags-disappear-in-lightroom/ http://www.ddroom.com/memos/2011/02/10/why-do-flags-disappear-in-lightroom/#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:08:05 +0000 Mark http://www.ddroom.com/memos/?p=1015 Earlier this week I was helping a Portland commercial photographer rebuild her Lightroom catalog when I learned something new. Something that anyone using Flags as a rating system in Lightroom should know. Before I get to that, let me tell you what happened.

A Crash Raises a Question

Because of a series of computer mishaps, my client was forced to completely rebuild her Lightroom catalog from scratch. Fortunately, she had set the Catalog Settings Metadata preference on her previous catalog to record metadata changes with XMP sidecar files. This was an advantage because it meant that most of the work she’d done on her 50,000+ files could be recovered because it was stored in XMP files rather than the original catalog, which was now corrupted beyond repair.

When the files were added back to the catalog everything was looking good until she realized that none of the photos had flags on them. Flags, like rating stars and colored labels, are used to rank images so that you know which are the winners and which are the losers. My client was using flags to indicate which files were were the ones her clients had ordered. Unfortunately, without the flags it was difficult for her to recover this information.

Lesson Learned

After poking around a bit I found that flags are intended to be used in a slightly different way than labels and stars. Flags are meant to be used in a “local” manner. This means that if you apply a Pick flag to a photo and then add that photo to a collection, the flag is removed from the version of it in the collection. Even though the photo in the collection is simply a virtual representation of the original and they linked in most every other way, the flagging information is only applied in the folder or collection where it was added. The intention is to provide a flexible rating system that can be used independently. For example, if you have the same photo in more than one collection, you can flag it in some instances, while not flagging it in others. In the case of labels and stars, adding or removing one from a photo in a collection has the same effect on the original and the photo in other collections.

I knew that information such as individual Develop history steps and collections aren’t stored in XMP metadata, but I’d never realized that flags aren’t either. Part of this is because I personally don’t use flags. I prefer using colored labels and stars for my rating system because they offer a wider range of ranking with 5 stars and 5 colored labels. Additionally - though using flags can sometimes be a bit faster than using labels and stars, it’s easy to make a mistake and delete some files unintentionally. When using labels and stars, the deletion process is more intentional, giving the user the opportunity to pay attention to what’s about to happen.

The main point here is that if you use flags, do so with the knowledge that they’re intended to be used locally. Knowing this opens the door to a flexible rating system and prevents you from needing to sort out a mess if a catastrophe strikes your Lightroom catalog.

The first client had recently purchased a new computer, installed Lightroom 3 onto it, and then transferred her catalog to that system. While working in Lightroom she began to experience erratic behavior. The main issues were that selected images would randomly change to different images and panels would mysteriously scroll up or down. This client was planning to reinstall Lightroom to see if the problem would clear up.

The second client had a completely different, though related problem. She to had recently purchased a new computer and installed Photoshop CS3 onto it. Her problem was a very unusual one. When using the Width and Height text boxes with the Crop tool, the numbers in one of the boxes would randomly change after she entered a specific value. For example, she would enter 5 inches in the Width box and 7 inches in the Height box. Almost immediately the Height value would jump to a random number, like 42.7 or 13.2.

This client spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with Adobe customer service getting passed around before she called me. She told me that the only advice Adobe support gave her was the suggestion that the version of Photoshop she installed was too old for her computer. I knew this wasn’t even close to true because I’ve seen PS CS3 on computers like hers. However, the type of computer she was using was the clue to solving her problem.

Photo courtesy of Apple

The new computers both of these clients purchased were 27″ iMacs. It wasn’t really the computers that were causing the problem. It was one of the peripherals that comes with them: the Magic Mouse. I have a couple of Apple Magic mice and I think they’re very cool. However, the scrolling area on top of the mice is very sensitive. It’s driven me to curse more than once when working on a large PowerPoint presentation. Even the gentlest touch of the mouse can send the slides careening like symbols on a slot machine. When this happened, which was too often, it was necessary for me to retrace my steps and remember which slide I was on when they went flying. (I can’t imagine what it would be like to work on a spreadsheet with one of these mice!)

The scrolling sensitivity is what caused my clients their problems. The second client who was experiencing problems with the Crop values found that barely touching her mouse was often enough to cause the values in the active box to scroll randomly. Both clients switched to different mice and are now happy. In both cases what they thought was a complex software problem turned out to be a simple hardware problem.

Photo courtesy of Apple

On a personal note: Though I really like using a Magic Mouse with my laptop (and was willing to endure this sensitivity issue) both of my Magic Mice were relegated to obscurity in an office drawer when I discovered Apple’s Magic Trackpad. This input device is as cool or cooler than the Magic Mouse and supports even more finger gestures. More importantly,  it doesn’t suffer from the random scrolling issue.

The brush's cursor begins to disappear as the size of the brush is increased.

Not the Usual Problem

When someone contacts me about a disappearing Photoshop cursor it’s usually because they inadvertently pressed the Caps Lock key on their keyboard. This handy shortcut changes the cursor to a simple crosshair, no matter which tool is in use. However in each of these cases only the brush-based cursors were affected. Additionally, as you can see in the figure, not all of the cursor was affected equally.

OpenGL and GPUs in Photoshop CS4 and CS5

When Adobe released Photoshop CS4, it included a graphics feature named OpenGL (Open Graphics Language) that uses the video card’s processor, or graphic processing unit (GPU), to do things that the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) used to do. This enhancement not only takes some of the load off of the GPU, it also enabled Adobe to add some cool features to Photoshop such as animated zooms, the Rotate View tool, and flick panning. This feature-set was increased with the release of Photoshop CS5. The downside of using OpenGL in Photoshop is that not all GPUs and the video drivers they use support it completely.

When I first began investigating the disappearing cursor problem, I assumed the it was related to OpenGL in some way. One of the reasons I made this assumption was that some of the people who were reporting it said that it wasn’t happening on all of their Photoshop CS5 systems. One of these people reported that the problem began as soon as he upgraded from CS4 to CS5. He also said the problem then began to appear in Lightroom 2 if Photoshop CS5 was open.

Update Your Video Driver to Solve the Problem

One of the easiest and most logical methods for solving the PS CS5 Disappearing Brush Cursor is to update your computer’s video drivers. You do this by going to the card manufacturer’s website and checking for driver downloads specific to your card. Most manufacturer’s update their divers regularly to keep up with changing technology. Updating these drives is a good idea because outdated drivers may be affecting other things on your system, causing crashes and other video performance issues.

Before you update your driver, it’s useful to know exactly which video card and driver your system is using. Follow these steps to find out:

1. In Photoshop CS5 go to the Help menu and choose System Info.
2. When the System Info dialog box opens scroll down to Video Card Vendor to see the make and model of your video card. Just below it is Video Card Renderer ID, which indicates which driver your system is using. The figure below shows these settings on my Mac Pro.
3. Go to the manufacturer’s website to see if a newer driver is available. If you’re using a Mac, check for new drivers using the Software Update feature under the Apple menu.

Use Photoshop CS5's Help menu to learn more about your video card.

Another Solution for Windows Users

Each person who reported this problem to me was a Windows user. That doesn’t mean this is a Windows only problem. It merely reflects the great diversity of video cards being used on Windows computers. If you’re unable to update your video driver following the steps above, there’s another solution that involves changing the graphics card hardware acceleration. Follow these steps to try it:

1. If you’re using Windows XP, right-click on the Desktop and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.
2. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, click on Settings Tab and then click the Advanced button on the lower right.
3. When the Advanced settings dialog box opens, click the Troubleshoot tab. This panel contains a slider that named Hardware Acceleration. The default setting for this slider is all the way to the right to the Full setting.
4. Adjust the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left to lower it by one notch.
5. Click OK a couple of times to exit the dialog boxes and you should be in business.
6. Naturally, you’ll need to restart Photoshop for the changes to take effect in it.

If you’re using Windows 7, you’ll need to do the same thing. However the route to the Hardware Acceleration slider is a bit different. follow these steps to get to it:

1. In the Control Panel, choose Hardware and Sound.
2. When the Hardware and Sound preferences dialog box opens, choose Display to open the Display preferences.
3. Choose Change display settings from the menu on the left and then click on the Advanced settings link on the right.
4. Click on the Troubleshoot tab and then click the Change settings button to access the Hardware Acceleration setting.

Learning More

If you want to know more about how Photoshop CS4 and CS5 work with GPUs, go to Photoshop’s Help menu and choose GPU. This will take you to a website that explains what features are included and which video cards work the best. Here’s a link to that page: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404898.html#main_Update_the_video_card_s_display_driver.

Press the Spacebar to temporarily reveal the Hand tool while the Spot Removal tool is avtive.

Lightroom uses one of the same keyboard shortcuts that Photoshop uses to access the Hand tool - the Spacebar. The next time you’re working with the Spot Removal tool or the Adjustment Brush tool and you need to quickly pan the image, simply hold down the Spacebar and pan the image. When you’re done, release the Spacebar to return to the tool you were previously using.

Here’s a bonus tip: You can also zoom while holding the Spacebar by clicking on the image instead of clicking and dragging. When you do this to zoom out to the Fit preset, the temporary Hand tool changes to the Zoom tool until you click and zoom back in (while still holding the Spacebar down).

After living in the Pacific Northwest for almost twenty years, I never had the opportunity to get a decent photo of a Bald Eagle  Even with a special trip to the Puget Sound area last January, I only saw a few of them, with little opportunity to get a good photo of one. That all changed when I went to the Winter Wings Festival in Klamath Falls, Oregon last February.

The Klamath basin is smack dab in the center of the Pacific Flyway, a migratory path used by a wide variety of bird species. Eighty percent of the birds who use the flyway make a stop at one of the six refuges that comprise the 200,000 acre National Wildlife Refuge. One of these species is the Bald Eagle. It’s common to see hundreds of them as they fly out of the fields at sunup.

For the last thirty-plus years the Klamath Audubon Society has hosted the Winter Wings Festival. This festival attracts birders and nature photographers from all over the world who want to experience this unique opportunity.

Last February I had the opportunity to teach Lightroom and Photoshop workshops at the three-day festival. It was great fun, especially when I went on one of the Canon sponsored field trips with local pro photographer, Larry Turner. His expertise in the field led us to several great opportunities for some bird photography. You can see a gallery of my photos here. You can also see some behind-the-scenes photos of our trip to the wildlife refuge here.

This year’s Winter Wings Festival will be even more oriented to photographers. Canon is one of the primary sponsors and will be hosting a number of educational programs. I’ll also be on hand to teach a raw clinic Saturday afternoon and a daylong Lightroom workshop on Sunday.

Also on had will be Arthur Morris, one of the world’s premier bird photographers and one of Canon’s original Explorers of Light. More than 20,000 of his images have been published in books and magazines worldwide. Art will be speaking on Saturday (2/19) and be leading photo field trips. (Better sign up soon if you want to join one of these trips.) Canon reps will be at these outings with demos of some of their long lenses that nature photographers have come to love.

Follow this link to learn more about this year’s Winter Wings Festival and accommodations in the Klamath Falls area. If you plan to join the fun, be sure to let me know.

When multiple hand-held photos are rapidly shot of the same subject, they’re often slightly out of register from one another due to slight camera movement between exposures. This can cause problems when merging the files for HDR, resulting in soft focus and ghosting. Though I really like Photomatix Pro 3, I have to admit that one of its weaknesses is image alignment. There is an option that enables you to align source images by matching features, but sometimes it just can’t do the job.

Image alignment is something Photoshop has been quite good at for a while. But what might surprise you is that you don’t need to use Photoshop’s Merge to HDR Pro to align images. Instead you can use a command named Auto Align Layers, which has been in Photoshop since CS3. The CS5 version of the dialog is shown below. (It looks very similar to the Photomerge dialog box.)

Photoshop CS5's Auto-Align Layers dialog box

The following steps detail how to use the Auto Align Layers feature in Photoshop to quickly and precisely align out-of-register photos for processing in Photomatix Pro.

1) Select files in Lightroom or Bridge.

2A) In Lightroom: Choose Photo > Edit In > Open as Layers in Photoshop.

2B) In Bridge: Choose Tools > Photoshop > Load Files into Photoshop Layers.

2C) If the files are already open in Photoshop: Choose  File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack.

3) Select all of the layers in the Layers panel by clicking on the top layer and then Shift+clicking on the bottom layer. (If you don’t do this, the Auto-Align Layers command in Step 4 is grayed out.)

4) Choose Edit > Auto Align Layers. When the Auto Align Layers dialog opens, select the Reposition option (as shown above) and then click OK.

This process aligns the layers to one another. Now it’s necessary to convert the layers back into individual files.

5) Choose File > Scripts > Export Layers to Files. When the dialog opens, choose a destination for the new files.

The files are now perfectly aligned and ready for HDR processing in Photomatix Pro.

Copyright Everything

One of the best workshops I attended was titled, “The Copyright Zone”. It was presented by attorney Ed Greenberg and photographer Jack Reznicki. The pair write a regular column with the same title for Photoshop User magazine. Both of these guys have extensive experience dealing with copyright infringement. Their program focused on the importance of copyrighting photos to protect your photos from unauthorized use. Greenberg and Reznicki used real-world examples to demonstrate the importance of copyrighting even the most mundane images. The bottom line: Every photographer should copyright everything they shoot. It’s easy and it’s cheap. You can upload and copyright thousands of images for a mere $35.

Greenberg and Reznicki  have a new book titled, “Photographers Survival Manual, A Legal Guide for Artists in the Digital Age“. It’s a short book that’s easy to read,and it’s packed with useful information. Even if you think you understand copyright, you should read it. Otherwise you may be basing your opinions on one of the Top Ten Myths on Copyright, (which are covered in the book).

Cool New Photoshop Plug-in from Adobe Labs

Photoshop Expert and Adobe Digital Imaging Evangelist, Julieanne Kost, did a great program on how to shoot time-lapsed photos and combine them into a video using Photoshop CS5 Extended. During that program she also demonstrated a new Photoshop CS5 plug-in, named Pixel Bender, that’s available for download from Adobe Labs.

Click on photo to see full size.

With features like Fisheye, Kaleidoscope, and Tubeview, this new plug-in enables you to do a number of unusual things to a photo. However, the coolest feature is the OilPaint setting. When you choose it, a brush stroke pattern is applied to the image. The resuling look is different from the typical Photoshop Artistic filters because the texture is added intelligently. Additionally, a series of sliders can be used to control Stylization, Colorization, Brush Scale, and other stylistic aspects of the process.

The dahlia photo at the left is a section of a photo I used Pixel Bender to stylize. Click on the photo to see a larger version.  Like most Photoshop filters, OilPaint option in Pixel Bender does have a distinctive look. I find it best to run it on a duplicate layer and then blend that layer into other duplicate layers that have had other creative filter treatments. One thing to keep in mind with this plug-in is that it currently only works with files that are 4096 pixels in their longest dimension, or smaller.

Speaking of Julieanne Kost…

Julieanne Kost is one of the top Photoshop trainers in the world. Because I do lots of training and public speaking, I consider myself a student of training techniques and public speakers. I have to say that Julieanne was everything and more than what I expected. Her style was warm, confident, and engaging.

Though I’ve been aware of Julainne Kost’s digital expertise for some time, I never realized what a talented fine-art photographer she is. Before her presentation we were treated with a range of images from two of her projects, Window Seat, and Motion Color. Window Seat is a series of photos shot from window seats of airplanes. Motion Color is a series of impressionistic photos created by motion during the exposure.

Window Seat is also the name of a new book by Julieanne Kost. The full title is Window Seat, The Art of Digital Photography and Creative Thinking. I haven’t read it, but if it’s like the rest of Julieanne’s books, I’m sure it’s worth taking a look at.

3-D Printing is Here

Some of the coolest things I saw at the vendors expo were new printing techniques and technologies. The one that really got my attention was 3-D printing from a company named Snapily Pro,  Snapily Pro offers a wide range of online 3-D printed products, primarily intended for graphic design professionals. Products range from super-cool 3-D business cards to large signs. (There’s also a consumer version of the website simply named Snapily.)

The Snapily Pro booth featured several large sample prints, mounted and framed. Though they did have the typical etched plastic finish of traditional 3-D, they still knocked my socks off. Unfortunately, it’s hard to share the 3-D look of these prints on the web. You have to see it in person to experience it. With that said, the Snapily Pro website does have a gallery section where you can get a feel for the effect.

Secret to Photoshop’s RAM Sweetspot

Finally, a nuanced tidbit that appeals mostly to the true geeks among us. Most people tend to purchase computer RAM in multiples of two gigabytes: for example 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB. However, I found out that Photoshop actually works best with RAM in multiples of three gigabytes: for example 3GB, 6GB, 9GB, and 12GB. On a modern system, the difference between 8GB and 9GB may be inconsequential for most software. But according to Adobe engineers, it does make a difference in Photoshop. How big that difference is, I can’t personally say. If you decide to check it out, please let me know what you find.

This photo was shot from a vantage point that requires a short ladder.

When I mentioned that the step ladder offered a great way for his son to get above the adults around him, Daniel said that he himself often carries a ladder along on photo shoots. Later on, this conversation got me to thinking about how I could use a ladder for an upcoming shoot of my own.

I really enjoy photographing bicycle racing at Alpenrose Velodrome, in southwest Portland, Oregon. With the bright colors, the speed, and the hardbodies — opportunities for interesting photography are countless. Every summer the velodrome hosts one of the best paying track racing events in the country, the Alpenrose Challenge. Top level competitors come from across the country.

There are lots of great vantage points to shoot from at the velodrome, but because of a safety fence many of them aren’t easily accessible. In the past I had contemplated bringing a ladder along, but it just seemed to be a bit over the top to haul a 6′ stepladder around. Now, after seeing Daniel’s step ladder, I realized a ladder was doable.

Two steps is all it takes to make this a great vantage point.

I visited a local Fred Meyer (variety) store to see what the options were for short ladders. They offered two  choices, both from the same manufacturer (Cosco). One cost $19 and the other was $32. The primary difference between them was their weights. The more expensive ladder weighed in at only six pounds: just twice the weight of my Canon 100 - 400mm lens. I purchased one and attached an old padded, tripod strap to it so I can easily carry it over my shoulder.

This step ladder has only two steps, with the second step being a larger platform. In many cases these two steps are all it takes to change your point of view enough to get that great shot. In the photo to the left you can see how it enabled me to shoot over the safety fence near the corner of one of the velodrome’s banked curves.

This small lightweight ladder has become a permanent part of my photography kit. I bring it along no matter where I’m shooting because it opens the door for countless vantage points, many of which completely change the feel of an image. I suggest you consider adding one of these lightweight ladders to your photo gear. After you do, you’ll wonder how you got along without it.

All photos © Gary Wilson

One of the wonderful things about photography is its rich heritage spanning evolutions of time and technology. I often rely on that heritage to try old things out in new ways for the fun of experimentation, just to keep interest alive.

Less than a month ago I was doing some on-line reading on premium medium format film cameras, which inspired me to reflect back on the legendary Hasselblad SWC line of cameras. I recalled how enthralled I was by the combination of their square format with the wide viewing perspective offered through their well-reputed 38MM Biogon lens.

Back in the heyday of film, wishful window-shopping was as close as I could come to actually owning one of these cameras. In great part, my fascination was for the implicit functionality of that particular square format camera. The camera’s auxiliary optical viewfinder was the only way to view and compose the image, adding to its simplicity. Any inconvenience in that regard however, was made up for by the system’s square format making it unnecessary to rotate the camera in order to compose for either horizontal or vertical image taking.

I still regard the square format as an appealing attribute and one that I’ve wanted to emulate with my horizontally held Canon 5D2. With some informal math, I came to realize that the 38mm Biogon’s angle of view can be well replicated by a 20MM lens on the 5D2 camera body. I need to admit at this point that an exotic Carl Zeiss 18 or 21mm lens could more aptly be viewed as the perfect lens to use to emulate the reputation and resolution equivalent of the 38mm f4.5 Hasselblad lens. However, my Canon 20mm f2.8 does a great job at about 1/4 the price.

I principally compose to fill the frame from top to bottom and allow for the left-right crop to occur post capture. This provides me with lots of room for composition. An added benefit to this digital approach is that there is now the option of post capture perspective control which wasn’t possible when shooting film with the Hasselblad SWC and the 38mm Biogon lens. The Canon lens also has the advantage of auto focus, which works quite well with this handheld approach.

All of the examples that accompany this article were taken within this last month using the method described. It should be noted that all these examples are handheld, three exposure, High Dynamic Range images, which suits my personal aesthetic. You may not be into shooting HDR, but if you are interested in exploring the look of the legendary Hasselblad SWC, think about pairing your full-frame dSLR with a 20mm lens.

Gary Wilson is a long time Portland, OR based architectural photographer, who over the many years of enthusiastically pursuing his professional career has found that it is helpful in staying flexible by dedicating time to travel and to his fine art photographic work. Over the past three years he has enjoyed exploring the various expressions of HDR work and routinely employs facets of it in his commercial architectural photography. You can learn more about Gary at http://www.garywilsonphoto.com.