Where am I now?

New site design and health concerns

Tue, 8 May 2012 16:05:54 -0400

Apple’s decision to shut down the MobileMe web site hosting has me scrambling to find a new hosting domain. In the meantime, I reconstructed the site to streamline the look and feel and make it more compatible with non-Apple hosts.

Also, for the past couple of months I’ve been dealing with cancer. Bladder cancer to be more specific. Fortunately, bladder cancer is one of the easiest to treat. Unfortunately, it also one of the hardest to permanently eradicate—after surgical removal of the tumors, there is a 50-75% chance the tumors will return.

I had a trans-urethral resection procedure in February and the pathology of the tumors was as good as it can get (while still being cancer): Low grade, barely Stage One. No further treatment is required, so no radiation and no chemotherapy. I do have to return for check ups every few months for a year, tapering off to annually for the next five years. If, after that, my bladder is still clear, I can then call myself cancer-free.

The progress on the bus has been slow (duh), but I’m gradually returning to work, trying to do a little bit every day instead of mounting a major assault once a month. :)

Progress continues

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:02:37 -0500

The RV is now completely stripped down to bare metal on the walls and ceiling. The engine is clean and shiny. The generator is removed. Lots of stuff has been hauled to the landfill.

It’s going well. :)

This site, however, is fated to be shut down next year, so I’m going to discontinue updating this blog and start posting notes to my Facebook Photo Page. I won’t delete anything on this site until Apple shuts down the servers, however.

My new home has arrived!

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 01:00:51 -0400

Last week I found and purchased a 1995 International with a bookmobile body. It is already remodeled as a motorhome, but the previous owner’s tastes differ from my own, so I’m going to replace the interior design with my own.

I’m so excited!

Meanwhile, Apple has decided to replace the MobileMe service with the new iCloud, so this site will be discontinued in September of 2012. I’ve already started to transition my updates to galleries on SmugMug in Journal format, so please take a look at all the pictures I’ve posted of the new vehicle at pdbreske.smugmug.com.

How do I do it?

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:27:39 -0400

Someone asked me what software I use for editing my photos. Okay, what they actually asked was how much I use Photoshop to make my photos look the way they look. The answer is: Not much at all.

When I started using digital editing, my workflow was thus: Adobe Camera RAW to import the camera files, then Photoshop for processing. I would store the photos in iPhoto. This whole process was time-consuming and painful. ACR just wasn’t built to digest large numbers of files in a short amount of time, and Photoshop, while extremely powerful, is overkill for all but the most esoteric photographic needs.

In 2005, Apple released Aperture and soon after Adobe released Lightroom. (I use Aperture.) Both of the applications were designed from the ground up to handle digital RAW files with speed and they both do exactly what is needed by digital photographers. They both offer a digital facsimile of a darkroom, and they are each much faster at processing huge numbers of photos with ease.

For some tasks, a digital editing application like Photoshop is still required. Unfortunately, Apple’s newest operating system kills my copy of Photoshop (I bought it many years ago). I found a new app called Pixelmator that does almost everything Photoshop does, for about one-tenth the price of Adobe’s giant. So what do I use it for? Mainly creating watermarks with transparency that can be laid over images I intend to share on the internet. I have also used it for digitally erasing people and vehicles from shots of other subjects and for combining multiple shots into a wide panorama. For just about everything else (cropping, adjusting, cloning, archiving, printing, etc), all I need is Aperture.