Hello guys,

The Flickr Group for Scott Kelby’s Photowalk in Manila is now ready. It can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/scott-kelbys-worldwide-photowalk-manila/

Just some notes:

• The group is open to all those who are registered for the Photowalk
• The rest can just view the photos
• This is an ‘invitation-only’ group. You will be getting an email if you’re part of the Photowalk group so you can sign-up. I will be double-checking the list.
• For those whose Flickr names are not the same as their real names, please send me a message so that I know who you are
• Deadline for submission of entries to be included in Scott’s contest is midnight, Aug 26.

First of all, I would like to thank ALL of you who have signed-up for the walk. I can’t believe that the 50 slots were filled in around 2 hours. Before I proceed with the tips section, I would like to clarify something - Scott Kelby isn’t going to be in Manila on Aug 23. I know a lot of you have asked that question, and it has probably lingered in your minds. So there, he’s not going to be in Manila on Saturday. But, he will surely be looking at ALL of our photos once we submit them in our Flickr Group! Watch out for more instructions on this.

Okay, down to business…I thought I’d like to share with you some tips and reminders for the walk:

• Wear comfortable clothing - we’re going to WALK, so wear something comfortable (i.e. shorts, rubber shoes, etc). Okay, I’m being redundant here…

• Watch out for the weather - I know it’s been raining on and off in Manila, so be prepared to walk even when it rains. Bring an umbrella, a raincoat/jacket and of course, something to cover your camera and lens in case it rains. Sometimes, an extra shirt to cover the camera or lens doesn’t hurt. I’ve seen people use plastic too to cover their cameras.

Our weather reports in Manila aren’t really THAT accurate because they usually just say ’scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms’, so it’s best to look out your windows and judge the weather. You don’t believe me? Check this 10-day forecast for Manila from weather.com.

• WHAT TO BRING:

First, your camera. That’s the most important thing. Don’t forget it. Don’t have an SLR? That’s okay! Just bring whatever camera you have. Make sure your batteries are charged and you have enough memory.

Lenses - Bring 1 or 2 lenses… generally a wide and a zoom lens would be good so that you can cover a lot of things. It really depends on how you usually shoot, but as much as possible, I’d advise you to travel light.

Bag - If you have a bag that doesn’t scream ‘Hey, I’m a camera bag’, use it. That way, it doesn’t draw too much attention.  What if you have camera bags like Lowepro that has a rain cover? I guess that’s an exception to the rule, especially if it rains. Packing tip: you may wrap your extra lenses in extra shirts so that they are protected while inside your bag.

Tripod - I leave this up to you. There might be some nice scenes around sunset so it’s good to have this. Don’t forget to bring your cable release if you will bring your tripod. I’m not sure if it’s okay to use a tripod in Binondo, so it’s a risk. Just make sure your tripod is light enough so you won’t be carrying something heavy.

• Food / Snacks - You might get hungry during the walk. Don’t worry, we have a lot of options in Binondo! See my post below on what you can eat. Just remember that we’re still doing a photo walk, you might end up eating and not shooting anything.

• Water - While I would recommend to bring a bottle of water during the walk, Ongpin has a lot of food stalls and restaurants, so you can easily buy a bottle of water there.

• Think Safety - I can’t stress this enough, watch your gear all the time and be sure to secure your cellphones and wallets. That way, you still have some money to buy food after the walk.

• Remember to walk in pairs or in groups - This is a social event. Get to know new people. We’ll definitely see some familiar faces in the group, but it doesn’t hurt to go with someone you don’t know and get to know them.

• Help others - We’ll be having a mixture of experience during the walk. There are some experienced/professional photographers, so this might be your opportunity to learn from them. For the experienced/professional ones - it’s always good to lend a helping hand.

• Shooting Reminder: Make sure to watch other photographers. Don’t get in their way while they’re shooting.

• Finally, HAVE FUN! That’s the most important thing. Mingle with the group, get to know everyone. It’s going to be a fun day and we’ll all have a chance to share our photos after the walk.

To get to know more about Photowalking and the event on Satuday, check out the following links:

• Jeff Revell’s Guide to Photowalking
• Jeff Revell’s Blog Entry on Photowalking in Scott Kelby’s site
• Scott Kelby’s Q&A for his Worldwide PhotoWalk

What happens after the walk? We’ll all post our photos in a Flickr Group that I have setup. More instructions to follow later.

See you on the 23rd!

First time in Binondo? Here are some links that might help you. The links contain everything from food to a bit of history of Binondo… Enjoy!

• Dumplings, Siomai and Siopao (from Wish You Were Here)
• Chinatown info (places, history, etc) (from Wanderlust)
• Where we’ll be eating dimsum… President’s Tea House @ Salazar Street (also from Wanderlust)
• What else you can eat in Binondo - I’m sure you’ll get hungry while doing the walk , so a Hopia from Eng Bee Tin would be great!

Can’t wait to be in Vegas this September for Photoshop World! It’s going to be my first time in Vegas and my first Photoshop World! I’m sure it will be a blast. Hope to see you guys there! I will post updates here on what I learn and see there.

One thing that I’m looking forward to is to meet the Photoshop Guys in person and probably watch a live show of Photoshop User TV! It’s gonna be a lot of fun!!!

Anyway, if you haven’t done so, go ahead and sign-up for Photoshop World. The early-bird price ends today (maybe till the weekend) and that’s also $100 off the price.

See ya!

Save the date - August 23! It’s Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk and yes, it’s here in Manila! I will be the Photowalk Leader during that day. Details are still being finalized and I will keep the site posted.

Slots are only limited so hurry and sign-up now.

What’s in it for you? Tons of prizes for the grand winner chosen by Scott, plus of course, the best photo of the day will get a free copy of Scott’s Lightroom 2 Book!

See you there!

Hey guys, in case you want to see the alternate splash screen of Lightroom 2.0, here’s the before and after view of the splashscreen:

In order to do this, after you show the original splash screen (by going to ‘About Lightroom’ from the menu bar), just press the letter ‘R’ on your keyboard and voila, you see the alternate splash screen! Enjoy LR2!

NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) also launched a couple of things for Lightroom 2. Here they are:

1. Lightroom 2 Learning Center

2. Updated Trainings on KelbyTraining.com by Matt K: http://www.kelbytraining.com/instructors/matt-kloskowski.html. Classes include: Lightroom 2 Power Session and Lightroom 2 In-Depth.

3. Lightroom Killer Tips Entry on the release of Lightroom

4. Scott Kelby’s Post on Lightroom’s launch

5. And finally, don’t miss Scott’s Entry on Lightroom 2 vs his LR2 wishlist…

Enjoy!!!

A smarter, faster and more accurate version of the Lightroom has been announced by Adobe and is priced at $299 and an upgrade price of $99. More details in this post: http://lightroom-news.com/2008/07/28/adobe-releases-photoshop-lightroom-2/

Summary of the changes (from Lightroom-News.com)

Photoshop Lightroom 2: Smarter, Faster and More Accurate
The enhanced Library module in Lightroom 2 helps streamline and accelerate photographers’ workflows. With the ability to visually organize images across multiple hard drives, Lightroom 2 and its powerful Library Filter Bar makes it easy for users to quickly find the images they need. The Suggested Keywords feature helps photographers keyword their images by making intelligent suggestions based on their own previous efforts. New dual-monitor support allows users to expand their workspace, giving them flexibility to edit and organize images in a way that maximizes an additional display.

In the Develop module, the new Local Adjustment Brush lets photographers fine-tune specific areas of an image to precisely adjust color, exposure and tonal range without affecting other areas of the image. The new Graduated Filter expands the toolbox in Lightroom, allowing for edits to larger areas by applying gradually diminishing or increasing adjustment effects such as exposure, clarity, and saturation, alone, or in any combination. Lightroom 2 also helps photographers print more efficiently by quickly arranging photos of multiple sizes on one or many pages with flexible and customizable templates to maximize paper and ink. Intelligent algorithms automatically determine optimal sharpening for screen or print, producing crisper images faster.

And also, a quote from Scott Kelby on Lightroom 2:

“One of the big reasons why Lightroom has become such a phenomenon among serious photographers is that Adobe built it with the input of a very vocal user community,” said Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). “Adobe really listens to the issues and challenges today’s photographers face and they’ve built a complete solution that not only meets the needs of photographers; it really feels like it was made just for us. The enhancements to Lightroom 2, combined with the power of Photoshop, give photographers the ultimate freedom to produce professional images quickly.”

Some links of LR2 from Adobe’s site:

• LR 2 Main Page: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/
• Features Page: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/features/index.html
• Upgrade Details; Also includes a list of New and Updated features in LR2 vs LR1: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/upgrade/
• Terry White’s Tech Blog: Terry lists out all the features of Lightroom 2
• Lightroom Journal has several entries on Lightroom 2 and Camera Raw 4.5

New Features include:

• Automatically organize photos using Smart collections
• Work with high-quality previews of offline images from multiple libraries & drives
• Dual Monitor Support
• Local Adjustment Brush for targeted dodging and burning
• State-of-the-art 64-bit memory handling
• Easily transfer files to popular photo-sharing sites

What an exciting day it is!

A couple of minutes ago, Terry White had a post on Portrait Retouching using LR2 in his Creative Suite Podcast Blog. It’s not in the site now but this tells us that Lightroom 2 will soon ship! In case you’re wondering what the new features are, well, here’s one thing to get you excited - LR 1 catalogs can be converted into 2.0. I can’t share anything more than that since I don’t want to spoil the launch.

Here are some screenshots of the post (in case you don’t believe me)…

From the Creative Suite Podcast Site:

From my Safari RSS feed (how I saw it):

Can’t wait for the launch of Lightroom 2!!!

Hey guys,

Here are some links that you might want to check out during the weekend (assuming you have some spare time to surf the internet )

• Scott Kelby’s reminder: KEEP AUG 23 OPEN! It’s still a secret on what will happen during that day, but just keep it open. It’s gonna be worth it!
• Terry White was a guest blogger at Scott Kelby’s site and he has a great article on how to use iPhone or iPod Touch to share your photos
• A recent site visitor (Jim Bridges) shared his comments on how my Lightroom 300 presets are very useful to him…Anyway, my point is - he has a daily photoblog called 365,000 words. Check it out, very good photography there! And, if you like his site, make sure to vote for him in the 2008 Photoblog Awards.
• Digital Photography School came out with an article on EV Compensation - very useful read. The important is, know your camera and its functions so you can take advantage of it while shooting.
• Digital Photography School is also telling you all to Share Your Best Shot! - Post why you think these are your best shots and why… go ahead and post!
• FJ Westcott - check out the new FJ Westcott Community Site that was launched recently. Sign-up there and you might just be their Top 100 Endorsed Pros!
• Very good article on Layers Magazine on how to create ‘stunning black & white images in Lightroom‘

Oh, and before I forget - Scott Kelby just announced his new Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers! If you want to learn LR2 the right way and the quickest way possible, I suggest you get his book. You might ask - “How do you know this? Have you seen his new book?” Well, the answer is — NO! Hahaha! I just know that this is going to be a BIG HIT based on how he wrote ALL of his past books. I have a lot of them! His Lightroom Book was one of the most useful resources on how I learned Lightroom. If you’re excited to buy his new book, you may pre-order them at Amazon.com, or from KelbyTraining.com.

Here’s the cover for his new book… I can’t wait to get my hands on his book. Maybe I can have it autographed if I meet him at Photoshop World in Vegas this September!

That’s it! Enjoy your weekend!