Finally Editing Again

Art Model, @Kayci.Lee, ©2018 Terrell Neasley

"Travel makes one modest, you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world."

~ Gustave Flaubert

Art Model, @Kayci.Lee, ©2018 Terrell Neasley

I'm grateful that I'm finally able to edit photos and work on a decent laptop. As I mentioned in the last blog post, I ordered the Gigabyte Aero 15X. Its beautiful, lightweight, fast, and I'm very happy with it. I've almost finished with customizing it to the way I like a laptop to work. I've got Adobe loaded on it, but I've only installed a single Plugin of the usual ones I normally work with. If I'm going to have anything, it's gotta be the Nik Collection that is now being distributed under DxO Labs, who took it over from Google. I still wonder if DxO Labs will really continue to develop this plugin or just roll it into their own PhotoLab editing software. They have already incorporated the Nik U-Point technology into PhotoLab. Nik is now available for $70.

Art Model, @Kayci.Lee, ©2018 Terrell Neasley

Of course, that also means I have a lot of edits to catch up on. I can tell you the feeling of 8 months worth of shots to even look through feels daunting and slightly overwhelming. At the same time though, there are some that I've eagerly been awaiting to get to work on. Namely, these shots you see here of @kayci.lee from January as she traveled with me from Nicaragua up to Guatemala. The horse ranch shoot was definitely my favorite time of her entire visit. It was quite remarkable to get her up on those Andalusian horses and get some shots. @kayci.lee 's efforts paid off handsomely to make that contact to get us access to that ranch.

Art Model, @Kayci.Lee, ©2018 Terrell Neasley

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."

~ Mark Twain

Shooting on Nicaragua's Little Corn Island didn't work out as well as we had hoped. Despite being there during the peak of the dry season, somehow a weather phenomenon caused a deluge to drench us during our entire 5-day stay. Our clothes never dried out even a bit and actually began to mildew by the time we left. A few days in the hot El Salvadorean sun fixed that problem. These things happen and sometimes seemingly often. We stayed in 10 different hotels/hostels over almost 5 weeks. Something is bound to go wrong at some point. We ran into a 5 day storm during dry season. This is where they say you have to take the good with the bad. You can plan all you want but sometimes things are out of your control and you either roll with the punches or you'll spend your days frustrated and a great trip can end up fraught with mishaps because you're not flexible enough to maintain a good attitude. Plan as best you can and then just do your best. After that, deal with what's before you and make the best of things. The world is not obligated to be considerate of your itinerary.

Yes, we are watching Ice Age 3 in the last photo. You can't tell me you wouldn't have also taken that shot.

Art Model, @Kayci.Lee, ©2018 Terrell Neasley

Art Model, @Kayci.Lee, ©2018 Terrell Neasley

Kicked Off Instagram AND The Gigabyte Aero 15X

Art Model, Panda ©2017 Terrell Neasley

So, Instagram didn't like my last post. My profile on there does not exist anymore. Can't access my account. Nothing. Just gone. Well, that's their game and as a private entity, they have the right to do just that. And I have every right to say Fuck'em. They have 100% lost my respect, because respect would have been, "Hey we're sorry you feel this way. What can we do to help make your Instagram experience better?" At that point, we can still talk and I get to feel like a citizen consumer of their product. And if we don't reach a conclusive mutual agreement, then OK. Part and go separate ways. No harm. No foul.

But that's not what they did. I was dictated to without the ability to question a thing or even get clarification to better understand. Shadow Banning my images isn't in their Community Guidelines either. I can't work with anybody like that and simply won't. For the future, I'll move on without Instagram in my life and I'm absolutely cool with that. I still have my goals and I will achieve them in a different manner. I'm just getting off that platform earlier than expected. This will give me time to research my options more thoroughly, so I'm good with having that bridge burned.

Moving on...

Art Model, Panda ©2017 Terrell Neasley

Yeah, so I ordered my laptop yesterday. Going with the $2300, 15.6" Gigabyte Aero 15X, with the 6-core i7-8750 processor, 16GB of RAM, half a TB of NVMe SSD, Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU, and a 1080p display. I wanted to wait another week or two for it, but inventory everywhere is low. Other versions/variations of this laptop model suddenly were not available any longer so when I saw this one with a much sooner date of arrival, I jumped. The 15X is the middle version of this model. There's a 15W for $2000 which is the one I wanted. Its the exact specs of the 15X only with a GTX 1060 graphics card. No date on when it gets in...only "soon". Then there's the 15X, but with a 4k display for $2500...mid-July expected delivery for that one. Nope...had to jump on what was available. If the 4k version was what was available, I'd have pulled the trigger on that one.

Art Model, Panda ©2017 Terrell Neasley

The MS Surface Book 2 was less power but still more money. It was a whole grand more money for a lesser processor AND lessor GPU. I didn't need the removable screen. I hated the fulcrum hinge and I just couldn't see that it was a better deal. Its hard to believe the Surface is charging a thousand dollars more...and for what? If it was worth it, I could see it. Maybe it is for you, you should check it out. I need a laptop to edit photos and videos on and I think the Gigabyte Aero 15X best suited my needs.

Now we'll see after I get my hands on it as to whether it was a good decision or not, but I feel good about it. But that won't be for a while yet. I'll definitely be doing a review on it, but I won't have it til sometime late June. Then I'll load it up with my much needed software and get to work. Adobe for sure will get loaded, but what else? I used a ton of plug-ins on my desktop and I'm not looking for the same 'ol, same ol'. Its been years and I'd love to change it up a bit. Capture One, maybe...? I love the fact that its easily upgradeble, but I'll wait til around Christmas to add another 16GB of RAM (2 slots for max 32GB) and another 2TB SSD for a total of 2.5TBs, since there's one more slot for another SSD.

And with that, Papa's gotta get a brand new bag. My current Thinktank Retrospective 30 won't hold a 15.6" laptop. So I'm going with the biggest messenger shoulder bag that gets the job done. I don't need anything that looks like I got a boat load of cameras in it, so I'm sticking with Thinktank again and getting the Urban Disguise 60 v3.0. I'll be doing a review on it as well when I pick it up at B&C Camera in Las Vegas. This along with the Sennheiser AVX and the Osmo Plus will be my main purchases for now. Waiting til the end of the year will be the Mavik Air. Gotta pace myself! The only thing that is also still questionable is the Sigma 20mm f/1.4 E-Mount for Sony lens. There is still no word yet on if it will be available and in stores during my visit back stateside.

Art Model, Panda ©2017 Terrell Neasley