Robert Wicker- Candidate Melbourne City Council District 2

Robert Wicker- 

Candidate Melbourne City Council District 2

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New Beta Release of HDR Efex Pro

As a member of the Beta team we must put the new software to the test before it is released to the public. Tonight I decided to merge a file that I shot last year in Maine. This is the narrows between Acadia and Bar Harbor. The new software is working well and I look forward to running it through some more test in the next few days.

I made it to National TV, now where do I go?

Sit back and enjoy this episode of Nikon Birding Adventure TV. Andy Warhol said I would get my 15minutes, I wonder if this counts?

Sometimes We Do Not Know What Is In Store

This past summer many of you helped make a dream come true. As most of you know this trip was partially to check off a life long dream my parents had to travel after retirement. After my father died in 1999 it did not look like Mom would be able to do it. Then in 2006 she suffered a massive stroke that left her paralyzed on her right side and unable to have conversation due to expressive aphasia. Well the fighting spirit inside her said we can still do this, so we set off to make it happen. A few conversions for access and we were on our way.

Some of the highlights of the trip were that we were able to travel the New England Coast which is beautiful to say the least. The 4th of July in Boston celebrating with Martina McBride and The Boston Pops. Ithica Fest in New York was a complete blast and the friends we met on the way will live in our hearts forever. We visited old friends (David Cox) and met new ones. We visited her 50th Class Reunion from Chamblee High School in Dillard Georgia and spent 3 weeks with our friend Mike Mishler in Cashiers NC where Mom and Dad's ashes will be combined and rest this summer.

On Jan 24th 2012 the Lord came for Mother to take her to her home in Heaven. She will be missed by many who remember her beautiful smiles.

Mother, mother...mother, you were like no other.
Mother, you will always remain, in our
hearts, in our thoughts,
in our lives and in our prayers.

If it were not for many of you that gave from your heart to help make this trip possible, we never would have made it. But I truly believe Mother left this world fully satisfied and complete.

And now from the deepest part of my heart I say THANK YOU!! You are the greatest friends anybody could ask for.

Perfect Photo Suite 6 Available Now

onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today announced availability of Perfect Photo Suite 6. Giving photographers intuitive tools that work where they do, Perfect Photo Suite 6 offers solutions for photographic effects, portrait retouching, creating and working with multilayered files, replacing unwanted backgrounds, image resizing, depth of field control, and edge effects, in one affordable package.

Perfect Photo Suite 6 introduces four new products—Perfect Portrait 1, Perfect Layers 2, Perfect Effects 3, and Perfect Mask 5 to favorites Perfect Resize 7, FocalPoint 2, and PhotoFrame 4.6, and integrates them via a Suite menu bar that allows photographers to move effortlessly between them.

Perfect Photo Suite 6 continues to work as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and now also as a completely standalone application. This additional functionality means that all products in the Suite can be used together within Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture without relying on a separate host application as was previously required. Perfect Photo Suite 6 will continue to include full support for Photoshop CS5 and CS4 with many of the products now functioning as Smart Filters.

“Over the last few years, we’ve heard how photographers are changing the way they work while understanding their continued need for tools that help them solve common photography problems,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “With the release of the completely new products Perfect Portrait, Perfect Effects, Perfect Mask and the update to Perfect Layers,

Perfect Photo Suite 6 offers tools focused on photography that are not only intuitive to use but integrate seamlessly into their workflow, so photographers can realize their photographic vision.”

“With this latest upgrade, I truly feel like onOne Software has taken post processing to the next level,” wrote Colby Brown, a professional landscape, travel and humanitarian photographer who teaches photography workshops and has been an instructor for National Geographic, on his website. “I can honestly tell you that I was blown away by what I saw. I am so excited about many of the new features that I have already began to re-imagine my workflow when it comes to processing my images.”

“This, it’s fair to say, is not a simple upgrade. Many of the component parts of the Suite have undergone a total rewrite, new features have been added by the bucket load and the look and feel is now slicker and much more modern,” said U.K. based commercial photographer Andy Kruczek. “The new features and layout make for an incredibly powerful set of tools. So powerful in fact, that I found myself questioning the need for Photoshop at all.”

Perfect Photo Suite 6 includes full versions of the following onOne Software products:

Perfect Effects 3 - Perfect Effects 3 builds on the popularity of PhotoTools to provide a faster and more powerful way to create images with impact. Perfect Effects includes a complete library of professional photographic effects that can be previewed, live and full screen, on an image before being applied. Perfect Effects now includes more manual control and blending options that provide even more control over how effects are combined and applied.

Perfect Portrait 1 - Perfect Portrait 1 is a completely new product that offers the latest innovations in portrait retouching for photographers. Photographers can now focus on the art of portrait creation because the most time consuming retouching tasks have been automated in Perfect Portrait. Perfect Portrait automatically finds faces, eyes and mouths in images so that photographers can get directly to the work of retouching and enhancing an image. Improving skin texture and color, removing blemishes and enhancing features like eyes, lips and teeth have never been easier.

Perfect Layers 2 - Perfect Layers 2 allows photographers to combine photos for endless creative options. Create and edit multi-layered files with Perfect Layers directly from Lightroom and Aperture, or as a standalone application. Perfect Layers files are saved in the PSD file format and can be edited in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements later. Perfect Layers is the heart of the new Perfect Photo Suite 6.

Perfect Mask 5 - Perfect Mask 5 is the next generation of Mask Pro, the leading software for background replacement. Perfect Mask takes the core strengths of Mask Pro to another level, by automating many common masking tasks with incredible accuracy. Perfect Mask’s new masking technology makes selecting subjects and isolating backgrounds surprisingly easy. With Automatic Background Removal, an initial mask is made on the image and can then be fine-tuned using the Erase and Refine Tools. With these new features, high quality masks can be created in just a few clicks. Perfect Mask makes masking tough subjects like hair and glass on complex backgrounds easy.

Perfect Resize 7 - Perfect Resize 7, powered by Genuine Fractals, is the industry standard for image resizing. It is renowned across the photographic and printing industries for its ability to increase image size well over 1000% without the loss of sharpness or detail that is normally expected. The patented, fractal based interpolation algorithms work like nothing else and the results speak for themselves.

PhotoFrame 4 - Add the perfect finishing touch to images and layouts with PhotoFrame 4.6. With over one thousand design elements like film edges, borders, textures, backgrounds and adornments, PhotoFrame even has complete layouts where users can simply drop an image in and they are done. It is the easiest and fastest way to add an authentic darkroom touch with a film edge or to create beautiful albums or scrapbook pages.

FocalPoint 2 - Like bringing the camera lens inside the computer, FocalPoint 2 gives photographers the best way to add the most realistic depth of field and selective focus control to any image after it is photographed. Photographers now have an incredible flexibility and control over the look of the blur with FocalPoint’s new blur algorithm, FocusBrush, Lens Presets and multiple FocusBug features.

Availability: NOW

Our Fall Adventure

We have begun to pack to go back on the road. We will be staying at a Corp of Engineers park near Atlanta for a week then will go to Dillard for Mother's 50th HS Reunion. After that we plan to travel the smokies to capture the fall colors.

I found a song that I have adopted as my theme song.

Back On The Road, Oh Canada Here We Come

We left the Bar Harbor area last weekend, Destination Canada! We dropped the jacks in a quaint little campground Sunset Point in Lubec, Maine where we were met by a wonderful workcamper named Cindy who checked us in and made us feel welcome.  Every site is right on the Ocean and happens to be the eastern most campground in the United States.

Lubec is a fishing village that once thrived on the Herring industry. The last packing house was shut down by the government in 1991. Another example of the government getting involved in something it should support not attack.

Lubec’s connection to the sea and its close proximity to the Canadian Maritimes have shaped its destiny from trade and fishing in the early years, through the prosperous years of herring processing, and into the present with aquaculture and tourism. From its earliest settlement the town has maintained ties of family, friendship and commerce with New Brunswick.

Lubec’s connection to the sea also offered ideal conditions for the rise of ship-building, with 20 vessels launched from town shipyards between 1804 and 1830. The first schooner, Hope, was built in North Lubec by Captain George W. Allan. The growth of this industry brought increased prosperity to area farmers, who harvested the timber, and to blacksmiths, carpenters, ship-chandlers and other suppliers of materials needed to construct the yards and vessels.


In the wake of the sardine industry’s demise those fishermen who remained turned to the lobster, scallop, shellfish and urchin fishery. Salmon aquaculture has also grown in Lubec and Campobello waters. Gathering balsam fir tips for the manufacture of Christmas wreaths, cutting fire wood and raking blueberries offers seasonal employment.

Growth in the tourism industry provides opportunity for future economic development. The opening of the Roosevelt International Bridge linking Lubec and Campobello in 1962, as well as the establishment of West Quoddy State Park and other conservation areas have contributed to an increasing number of visitors to Lubec, lured by the area’s natural beauty and recreational opportunities. Many of these people have purchased second homes here, established businesses, or become residents of the town.

Passamaquoddy Indian (Peskěděmakâdi 'plenty of pollock.') A small tribe belonging to the Abnaki confederacy, but speaking nearly the same dialect as the Malecite.

Above is a demonstration from the Peace Pipe Celebration.

In 2011 Lubec is celebrating its bicentennial, marking 200 years of existence on the easternmost edge of America. The town has watched its fortunes, much as the Fundy tides, rise and fall as the abundance of herring and demand for sardines disappeared. Throughout its history Lubec’s citizens have; through hard work, resilience, ingenuity and neighborliness; met the challenges posed by geographic isolation, a sometimes harsh environment, and the vagaries of a fisheries-based economy. These strengths should sustain the town as it welcomes its third century.


Today most of the industry has to do with fishing. It appears that the locals are trying to stick with their gem near the sea and create an economic recovery.