Trying Galleries with Lightroom... and new blog template...

Dear Reader,

When I was cleaning up my FTP, I accidentally deleted some files that were used by the previous template... and besides, it's not available anymore in the blogger system, so I went for the new ones. They are quite nice actually, so I hope this one looks good. I'll run it through Yukyin to ask for her advice.

Second big thing, I purchased Adobe Lightroom 3.0 and this piece of software... is... quite a good piece of software. I know that there is other alternatives on the market, but the first issue I needed to sort out was the compatibility with my DSLR, a Fuji S5 Pro which a lot of catalog/raw processing software don't support. Anyway, I followed the 3.0 development and now, I am using it. Very quick, very convenient, at least for me, Yukyin found it to much difficult to handle, lots of options everywhere, but to me, it makes sense, I import pictures, do the back-up in the same time, apply metadata, batch process, pick the ones I want, drag and drop them into publish and there are there on flickr/facebook/ftp.... isn't it simple? Anyway, I am overly thrilled by the features of this software and just for a few quirks, it answers pretty much 90% of my needs.

As you read my previous paragraph, you may have read that the software can publish to FTP. For LR user, it might not be a big deal, but I found it really convenient (now that I filled up my free flickr account), so here it is after the jump: Morning Jam. This is the complete gallery for my pictures session with Myrtille on her bed, the pictures from the previous post are from the same series.


Here is another picture to give you another insight:

Gallery is here: Morning Jam
I still need to work a bit the format, but it should give you a quick glance of my future plans for this blog and its photographic contains.

Time to me to jump in bed, Good night and take care!

Not dead yet!

Dear Reader,

It has been a while, like always... but I am not giving up blogging yet, it just that I have too many things to handle at the same time. Between work, where there was quite a stir lately, and home, with our noisy princess, life has been so much tiring these last months.

Myrtille continues to grow up, now, she is not walking yet, but crawling as fast as ever. She is getting noisy and all that stuff. I am still yelling at her quite a lot... not that good, but I pray that it won't affect her too much and that she will forgive me. I'll apologize when she will get older. Anyway, here are some of her last picture:

Yukyin was completely tired as our little princess decided to wake up at 7h15... on a sat morning, so I spend some time with her and the camera... Should do it more often...

Hehehe. Ah, last thing, I am thinking about moving away from Flickr, I reached my limit of free pictures there and I need to find a way to host my pictures.... in a cheaper and more permanent way, so I'll start to dig up my old ftp for that. You might see new galleries showing up.

Sorry for the wait though :)

6th Month Milestone (lot of pictures this time!)

Dear Reader,

First, Happy New Year, I did not have the time to wish you all... life is a bit busy lately and I did not find a time to share my life with you. Last year was a year with big changes, Yukyin became a mother, so I need to "share" her with the little squid, talking about her, she will be 6 month in a few days and lastly, I became a father.. so I have much more responsibility than ever.

To cope with all of that, Yukyin found out that my organization skills are meaning pretty much: zero. So, I am starting from scratch, this year, I need to change the messy guy I am in a clean and tidy person. Starting from home, work, and extra activities. There is a load of things on my to-do list and this one does not stop to grow, like Myrtille.

Starting with the easier things: Photography and Computer stuffs... Last year, I had the chance to change my computer, :) this one is blazzing fast and I am happy... I would like to have something even faster, but... it's out of reach. Actually, computer is very much related with how fast I get pictures to this blog... After I take the picture, I need to review them, add my little spice, upload them on the Internet and scratch my head to find something to blog about.

It requires a little bit of organization to do all that in a very precise and constructed way. So, finally, after testing different solution, I went ahead and freshly install Adobe Lightroom (a beta version, but I might break the pink piggy bank to buy it). For the non photographer friends, it's a Photo cataloging software with a lot of different tools to process your pictures in a very efficient manner. So right now, this software helps me: back-up pictures, tag them, classify them, post process them and publish them. All in one software without the need to open another application (most of the time). I still need to figure out a few things, but I mostly cut out 50% of my post-production time with it. For the special case, I still need to launch The Gimp or Lightzone (two other applications I am working with).

At least, that's something taken care of.

Work wise, I need to get some secretary courses... get organized.. that's the main focus for this year.

Home wise, the same... Yukyin always complain that I am messy (and she is right), so, I have a new method in my mind, I mind photograph the scene in my house when it is in a clean state... (yeah, even if I am messy, sometimes, it's tidy) and then, before Yukyin can say anything, I try to see what's not in place and tidy it... that's my new method, I pray that I keep doing this.

It can seems weird, but I am highly efficient in doing the mess everywhere!

So, where are this week pictures? (by week, I pray that I can keep up and post something new each weeks :))

Here they come:

Myrtille enjoying a play-time session on our bed with Mom and Dad:


Myrtille, playing with her miniaturized walkie-talkie


Snack time by Myrtille


Tiny Feet :)


Woken up by Dad


Snoozing


Bwerh!


O_O, watching TV


One of a serious portrait:


So, that's it for now, you can still watch over my flickr for new pictures as I post new pictures usually quicker than blogging about them.

Please pray for Myrtille as we still have difficulties handling her, she still cries a lot and we get mad easily and are very tired. Other than that, she is plenty of life and I feel happy... sometimes... when she agrees that I care after her...

If you did not see her last videos, here they are:

For her 5th month:


And Mom caught her calling her...:


That's all folks, see ya around :)

If you have any prayer request, please drop them in the comment section :)

Some Look Change

Dear Reader,

I worked out a new look for this blog. Yukyin was quite unhappy about the black one. In fact, the black background was better to show pictures, but as this blog derived a bit from its purpose, I think a bit of make-up was to be done. I hope this one looks better... at least, we chose it together. It's based on a template in the blogger system. I enlarged it a bit so that the text frame is 640 in width instead of 480... who uses a screen narrower than 640 anyway?

So, a bit of look change before our little one appears.

Still working there and there to match item colors but i am almost there.

Ah, I almost forgot the most important, Yukyin added a very nice looking signature bar in the title area... I am still working a bit to better integrate it though. You'll understand a very big piece of information there.

For the news, we are waiting... waiting... waiting... don't know when it will happen. Keep us in your prayers though. Thanks to you all.
Comments are welcomed!

1000 Visitors Mark

Dear Reader,

Just got 1000 visitors :), the 1000th visitor is Canadian.

Hehehe, just a short post to say that's it's cool. It may not sound a lot, but the frequent readers list has been growing lately... especially since I hooked up the blog with facebook/flickr/live accounts. People from around the world comes to read it. In all those readers, I would like to know few things... There are two readers that come quite often and I don't have a clue of who are them. First, one people in Hungary and another one in Ireland. For the other ones, I pretty have an idea of who they are based on their location. My stats engine allows me to know few things, your IP, your location (city or area, I don't have an exact address don't worry). So, if someday you have the time, please just leave a say "Hi!" in the comments.

I will continue to post message about things happening around me.

Thanks for your visits :)

First blog, first post.

Okay, so my name is Valentin and I live in Hong Kong. I created this blog in order to sharea vision of the world that I see through my lens. After building a flickr gallery, I started to think that it may be a good idea to say more than just posting some pictures and talking about it...
So first, I cannot start without her:


Fuji S5 Pro - 35f2 - 1/100@f2.8 - 1600 iso

She is the one that share my joys, my sorrows, my love and my deepest faith in God. I like taking pictures of her even if she gets mad. :)

More pictures will come later, in the meanwhile, you can have a look at my gallery on flickr by clicking here.

See you around.

Valentin