My weekend road trip to NYC was much better than I had hoped or expected. We had very few concrete plans & yet everything came together perfectly!!!

I was able to enjoy happy hour at one of my favorite watering holes in the village with a friend, had tons of delicious meals, did a little people watching at Coney Island while getting broke paying for kids rides, randomly met 2 social media contacts in person, I got to dance at the Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson party in Prospect Park, set off an awesome photo shot in Brooklyn & I picked up macarons from MacarOn Café. PERFECT, PERFECT PERFECT!

The trip had several highlights but I think was the Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson party, which was hosted & organized by Spike Lee. It was nothing less than epic!

Over the course of 6 hours, attendees were treated to MJ impersonators, surprise guests like Snoop Dogg & kick ass dancers. What a great way to spend a day in Prospect Park!

Then I had a GREAT photo shoot (images coming soon) around Brooklyn with an awesome Virgo. I’ll spill the beans in a later post but I will say that your boy put in some work!

Next up:

- Fashion week is 9 days away & I’m like whoa! My mind says that I’m ready but it doesn’t feel like it.

- Classes start next week also & I have not registered. I think I will take two classes but one class sounds so much better. I need to hurry up & finish! Blah!

- Today is the last day to vote in the Black Weblog Awards. Please vote for Tafari’s Mindspill for best photo blog! Help me make this happen! >>> http://tinyurl.com/292zw38 AND YOU CAN VOTE MORE THAN ONCE!

Be sure to also check out & vote for some of my favorites peeps & reads!

• Afrobella
• Black and Married with Kids
• Friday Favecast
• The Gentlemen’s Standard
• Kiss My Black Ads
• Mostbeautifullist
• SoulBounce
• What Would Thembi Do?
• Womanist Musings

- In 19 short days, I officially enter my late 30s.

I came home today intent to relax on my deck with a Ooba hibiscus lime soda & Flaming Hot Cheetos. The sun was out & it was just perfect.

As soon as I had my snack set up & ready to go, it started to rain. Rain very hard. So I just sat at the door watching the rain as I enjoyed my snack.

It was hot before the rain & after the rain; it was hot & sadly muggy. The only thing good about the situation was my delicious designer/ghetto snack.

I had an idea to photography Olivia today. It wasn’t a well thought out idea but I kinda knew what I wanted.

When we arrived to the location for the photos, things just didn’t go in any direction that wanted.

The one goal was to use my Alien Bee beauty dish. I used it & the photos looked good but like I wanted in my mind. So then I decided to go with available light. Well, those photos didn’t come out as I had hoped.

I didn’t think the photos were a loss but I just wasn’t felling it 100% but I’m happy that Olivia was a willing model!

The above is a available light shot. To see a portrait lit using the beauty dish, click here.

Taken with my iPhone 4 then processed in the Adobe Lightroom 3 to add a little depth of field effect.
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It’s been a week since I got my hands on the iPhone 4 & I am very impressed by the new 5-megapixel camera after testing in a variety of lighting conditions!

My assessment:

- The shutter is much faster since the iOS 4 release & the upgraded 5-megapixel means larger images vs the 3Gs’ 3-megapixels. Images actually appear to be much more crisp under the right lighting conditions which is a total win. And you know I am all about great lighting when it comes to my photos.

- As you may very well know, the iPhone 4 also has a [LED] flash, which I too am impressed with thus far. The flash performed well while I was out & about in San Diego this past week. It even worked well when shooting video. Who knew?

- When uploading to Flickr or other sites directly from the iPhone, I have not noticed any loss in quality like with uploaded HD videos from the iPhone to Flickr or YouTube.

- In terms of the large 5-megapixel image files, when sending photos via email, you get a few options to downsize the photos, which is cool in most situations.

- More than anything, I have been taking tons of self-portraits for shits & giggles, so yes, I’m also loving the forward facing camera! I just need to learn how to hold it at a level where you don’t see all up my nose.

By the way, I hooked up a few more iPhone wallpapers, which are available at no charge. I hope you enjoy them! Download link

Taken with my iPhone 4 then processed in the iMovie app for the iPhone 4.

My assessment:

- When you upload a 720p (HD) version of your iMovie creation to either Youtube or Flickr directly from the iPhone, the conversion/compression totally destroys the quality of your mobile masterpiece making it look like a hot mess!

- For better results (720p HD), it’s best to export the movie from the iPhone (i used iPhoto to export from the phone) onto your desktop then upload to either Youtube, Flickr etc.

- What you see here was exported from my iPhone to iPhoto then uploaded to Flickr. This version looks 100x’s better than what I uploaded directly from the iPhone to Youtube & Flickr earlier today as part of my experiment.

On a side note:

- I need a little tripod for my iPhone!

- Suite Suzy got an iPhone 4 today. We spent a little time setting it up this evening & I gave her the quick tips & tricks guide. I hope that she will have fun with it.

- Once the novelty of then new phone wears off, I’ll stop talking about it. I promise!

Art Credits:
Music: “Aquarian Moon (LP Version)” by Osunlade
Setting: Float Bar at the Hard Rock Cafe San Diego

This is perfect! I’m so an iPhone whore but this is brilliant. The cute cursing bears make this perfect!

And for the record, Walgreens is not carrying the iPhone.

Whether hell or high water came, I was not entering this weekend without the new iPhone 4 in my possession.

Yeah, I know for weeks, I was stating that I was not going to get it but I got weak, & the tech gadget whore within me took over my mind. And when I read that Radio Shack was doing a trade in program, I said fuck it, what the hell.

So after I heard about the offer, I called my local Radio Shack to confirm & I was told that it was indeed true.

The deal was, if you turn in a iPhone 3Gs, Radio Shack would give you up to $200 bucks in trade for you to purchase the new iPhone.  In my case it was a win-win because I didn’t have to come out of my pocket & I would have a brand new phone.

The thing I hate though is that I’m pimped out by AT&T again for another 2 years.

The service in my area is great, don’t get me wrong but when I travel it’s another frustrating story.

So rewind to 9am yesterday morning (June 24, 2010), I’m in line at Radio Shack.  The line was not long at all, maybe 13/14 people with me being at the tail end.

I’m waiting in line patiently, when 15 minutes later, the manager of the store came out & informed us all that they only received 1, yes 1 (one, uno, une, um, ein) fucking iPhone 4.

As you can guess, a lot of us were more than disappointed.  In the meantime, I left my name on the waiting list to be called when more phones came in.

Once I left empty handed, I remembered that Walmart was also carrying the iPhone 4 so I headed there next (good thing both stores were in the same plaza).

Long story short, I left empty handed because the 1 (one, uno, une, um, ein) iPhone 4 they had was long gone.  My dreams shattered once again!

Later in the evening, Radio Shack issued this statement on their Facebook page.

After my let down, I, later decided to call the Apple store to see what was going on & the guy answering was like, if you are not in line now, you will not be getting a phone this day.

Like a fool, I said fuck it (in my mind) & ran over & got in line. As I entered the line, a woman approached & was like your chances are none & none on getting a phone.  I was like damn!  So she took my info & put me on a waiting list.

Again, I left empty handed.

So fast forward to today about 1230, I decided to call the Radio Shack to see if more phones came in. The young woman (Yaritza, the Dominican diva) on the other end said yes & I left you a voicemail. I’m like what, my phone never went off.

Anyway, I was like, I’m on my way. I dropped everything & hit the door like a lunatic.

Twenty minutes later, I run into the store & wound up with the last of the 4 phones that came in today.

SCORE!!!!

While in line, 3 more people from yesterday came in because they got the same call. They all looked at me like I oughtta… when the learned that I got the last one. Ooooops, I move quick bitch!

Next time, I’ll just preorder & avoid all the running around (which was kinda fun in a weird way).

So I got my phone, I’m happy & all I need now is a damn case.

By the way, if you dig the background on my phone, you can get it along with a few special others here for FREE 99.

If you’re an iPhone user, I’m willing to bet that you upgraded to the new version of the iPhone software iOS4 yesterday. If I’m a losing man on this bet, please take an IOU.

One of the cool features in the new software is the ability to have custom images displayed as your home & lock screen backgrounds. I think it’s pretty cool, because I can use my own imagery to pretty up my phone.

Once you view the updated wallpaper gallery on your phone, you will notice 27 options that Apple has provided for you to customize your phone. Of the 27 options, I dig 3 or 4 but what does that matter because I hooked myself up some cool new ones.

I hooked up 16 cool new wallpapers to be exact & I would like to share!  If you dig my photography, then I’m sure you will enjoy these cool freebies.

I’ll assume that you know how to add these to your photo library, like a smart iPhone junky, so please enjoy!

Download link

Lightroom 3 was released yesterday & yours truly rushed to download it & test out the new features.

My verdict on LR3, like so many others is that it is AWESOME!

It performs much faster than the previous version (LR 2) & it’s packed with all sorts of goodies.

Of the new features, I’m totally digging the easier photo importing, new watermarking options, ability to upload directly to Flickr, the entire development panel; especially the lens profiles & the ability to export HD slide shows with the click of a couple of buttons.

Getting set up was a breeze & took all of 4 minutes to bring in my former catalog, which meant that I was able to play almost immediately.

The images represented above where compiled on LR3 using the new slide show feature. This slide show literally took me 2-4 minutes to slap this together. Wow!!! And it’s HD!

If you are on the fence about trying LR, now is the time to make it happen cause this shit is HOT.

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Images in order of appearance:
Peony: The Beginning, Peony: White, Peony: Bright Pink, Peony: Magenta, Peony: Hot Pink, Peony: Antique Bouquet

Music:
“Decade” by Esbjörn Svensson Trio

One of the hottest features in Adobe CS5 is the all new content aware fill option.

Actually, CAF pretty much is the one option that I absolutely love. Previously, I used to clone my ass off on certain images, now that job time is cut significantly, in addition my results are more satisfying and accurate.

Amazing what this program can do with a few clicks & drags of a brush.

This series of images represent one of my recent uses of CAF. It’s a very random image that I captured while driving near my home.

As soon as I saw the cocks, I came to a screeching halt. So happy that I had my camera by my side.

Iron Baby is KICK ASS! What a cool video to kick the weekend off with!

Well today was my big Adobe Lightroom presentation at the Ann Arbor Flash user group “Flash Focused”

My presentation was focused on some of the key features of Lightroom & my own workflow.

I had been going back & forth over how I was going to pull it all together for over a week but it all came together last night.

After setting up my Keynote presentation & setting up some test files, I was ready to go!

So I get to the venue 15 minutes before the meeting started & found out that they did not have a way for me to connect my MacBook Pro.

With some quick thinking, a Windows based laptop, & free wifi I was able to download a trial copy of Lightroom & upload my Keynote presentation to Google Docs.

After about 1 hour of waiting for the download I was able to present without further drama. Well, no, there was a little drama. I had to get adjusted to using Lightroom on a Windows PC.

When all was said & done, my presentation went well & I covered everything that I planned. I also now know that I need to get an adapter so that I won’t have this issue again.

After my presentation, there was a raffle for some fun little Adobe swag & I managed to win an Adobe notebook of graphing paper.

AND THEN…… there was a larger raffle for CS5 & your boy won the copy! I am now the proud owner of a fresh copy of Adobe CS5 Design Premium. I’m still too excited & basking in the afterglow of a very nice win.

In other news, I sold an image of Kwame Kilpatrick that I took a couple years ago.

The purchaser was Detroit Clear Channel station WKQI FM 95.5. They used the image on a 14ft billboard on I-696 & John R, which shows Kwame with a caption that reads “It’s fun til ur caught.” I love it & I love the check that comes along with it.

What a GREAT Monday!