I’ve read at least one account of how to move photos from one Lightroom catalog to another, which is pretty common if you travel with a laptop and make edits in the field (as I do). It’s a tremendous help to be able to spend hours on the flight home organizing and even editing images, but all of that work would be for naught if there wasn’t a nice, easy way to move those images and their corresponding metadata onto your primary computer.

Fortunately, there is! I will tell you how!

Prerequisites (and helpful tips):

• You have Lightroom installed on your laptop, which of course it’s the same version that you have on your primary computer.
• You’ve created a new catalog on your laptop for the trip that you went on, or the shoot that you did. Even though I only have one main catalog on my desktop, I create a new catalog on my laptop for every shoot.
• You have a home network, either wireless or wired. It seems like most people do these days, but it’s important for this method that you are one of those people.
• You understand the basics of file sharing between two Mac computers.
• It helps a lot if you save your Lightroom catalogs on your laptop in your “Pictures” folder, or anywhere within your “Home” folder.

Okay, you have all of those things. Now what?

Step 1: Get connected

Make sure your laptop is turned on and connected to your home network. You’ll need to be sure that File Sharing is enabled on your laptop. You can enable it within System Preferences in the Sharing panel. Tick the check box next to “File Sharing.”

From your desktop, use the Connect to Server dialog to connect to your laptop. From the Finder, click the Go menu and select “Connect to Server…” Enter the address shown in your laptop’s Sharing panel. It should look something like afp://192.168.0.3, though the numeric address will vary. If you know your account’s short name on your laptop, you can enter that at the end, like this: afp://192.168.0.3/john.smith.

If you used your short name on the address, it should prompt you for your password at this point. If not, it will probably present you with a dialog where you can choose which shared folder to open. You want the one corresponding with your short name (which is your home folder on your laptop). If you need help setting up file sharing between your Macs, you may like to read Mac OS X: About File Sharing on Apple’s support website.

Step 2: Get some photos!

At this point, you should be able to browse to your laptop’s Pictures folder from your desktop in the Finder. The name of your laptop should appear under the “SHARED” section in the left navigation panel of Finder windows. Time to open Lightroom!

From within Lightroom on your desktop, open the File menu and choose “Import from Catalog…” A dialog will open where you can browse to the Lightroom catalog file you want to import from. At this stage, find your laptop in the left panel, open up your shared home folder, and open the Lightroom catalog file itself. For me, it’s located in the Lightroom folder in my Pictures folder.

When you open that file, a somewhat trimmed down Lightroom Import dialog will open. The only thing you probably want to change in this dialog is the location where the files will be saved. You definitely want to choose “copy files to a new location and import” so that Lightroom will copy the physical photographs from your laptop onto your desktop.

Click Import and wait for a while… Voila! Your photographs have been copied onto your desktop and imported into Lightroom with all of your flags, tags, labels, and edits preserved!

Of concern are so-called primary lithium or lithium metal batteries as well as the somewhat more common lithium ion batteries so familiar to photographers. The regulations basically prohibit loose spare batteries in checked baggage and also place a number of other restrictions on the number and variety of batteries that can be kept in carry-on luggage.

I became concerned because I will be flying out to the California coast at the end of February to scout locations for future art photography workshops and making that voyage across the country is enough of a hassle without TSA inspectors throwing all of my batteries away.

Here I will make a valiant effort to summarize what has already been said by others and tell you why I think this “emergency” might be somewhat blown out of proportion. Continue after the jump!

The Facts

Before I get into the details of this new set of rules, you should probably know what the rules actually say. So, for your convenience, here is the actual DOT PHMSA press release in full:

Friday, December 28, 2007

Contact: Patricia Klinger or Joe Delcambre
Tel.: (202) 366-4831

New US DOT Hazmat Safety Rule to Place Lithium Battery Limits in Carry-on Baggage on Passenger Aircraft Effective January 1, 2008

Passengers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning January 1, 2008 once new federal safety rules take effect. The new regulation, designed to reduce the risk of lithium battery fires, will continue to allow lithium batteries in checked baggage if they are installed in electronic devices, or in carry-on baggage if stored in plastic bags.

Common consumer electronics such as travel cameras, cell phones, and most laptop computers are still allowed in carry-on and checked luggage. However, the rule limits individuals to bringing only two extended-life spare rechargeable lithium batteries (see attached illustration), such as laptop and professional audio/video/camera equipment lithium batteries in carry-on baggage.

“Doing something as simple as keeping a spare battery in its original retail packaging or a plastic zip-lock bag will prevent unintentional short-circuiting and fires,” said Krista Edwards, Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

Lithium batteries are considered hazardous materials because they can overheat and ignite in certain conditions. Safety testing conducted by the FAA found that current aircraft cargo fire suppression system would not be capable of suppressing a fire if a shipment of non-rechargeable lithium batteries were ignited in flight.

“This rule protects the passenger,” said Lynne Osmus, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) assistant administrator for security and hazardous materials. “It’s one more step for safety. It’s the right thing to do and the right time to do it.”

In addition to the new rule, PHMSA is working with the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the battery and airline industries, airline employee organizations, testing laboratories, and the emergency response communities to increase public awareness about battery-related risks and developments. These useful safety tips are highlighted at the public website: http://safetravel.dot.gov.

For the extremely intrepid, you may read the actual final rule on labsafety.com. It’s 22 pages long, so get a cup of coffee.

On the Safe Travel website (which is an arm of the DOT and PHMSA), more specific guidelines are provided than what was in the press release. Feel free to read Safe Travel’s synopsis as well if you like. It’s not too long.

For the record, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a primary lithium battery before. All of my lithium-based batteries are lithium ion, which are much less volatile and are subject to slightly different rules. I will presume that we’re only talking about lithium ion batteries from here on out.

The Concerns

The danger of having lithium batteries floating around in luggage is twofold. First, there is some concern about batteries getting shorted out and causing fires in the cargo hold where fire suppression is mechanized and not as effective as people in the cabin area with fire extinguishers. Second, if a lithium battery were to catch fire by some means, it is possible that it could explode. So you can imagine the DOT’s concerns.

Safe Travel’s release about these new rules is fairly specific about what sorts of batteries you can’t bring on the plane, but rather than parroting their website, I’ll break it down into the important bits.

The Rules

• You really shouldn’t pack your spare batteries in your checked luggage because the TSA inspectors have the right (and yes, the responsibility) to remove them and throw them away if they believe them to be a safety hazard. At between $25 and $50 per battery, why take the risk?
• These new rules do not set any quantity limitations on batteries containing fewer than eight “equivalent grams” of lithium. Basically, all of your batteries are likely to be excluded from this rule. I will get into the specifics below.
• Batteries that are not lithium-based are definitely excluded from these rules. Make certain that you are aware of what your batteries are made out of. For example, the Canon EOS-1d, 1ds, 1d Mark II, and 1ds Mark II use nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, so take as many as you want.

Let’s Do Some Math

What on Earth is eight equivalent grams of lithium? Well, the DOT says that eight equivalent grams of lithium are present in a battery with approximately 100 watt-hours (wh) of power. So, how much is that?

We can figure it out pretty easily. A standard Canon BP-511A battery (used by all Canon prosumer cameras such as the Rebel, 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 5D, and on, and on) is rated at 1,390 milliamp-hours (mAh), which means that if you pulled one milliamp of current out of the battery per hour, it would last for 1,390 hours. Another way to say it is that if you pulled 1,390 milliamps of current out of the battery, it would last for one hour.

We can convert 1,390 milliamps to watts by assuming a time period of one hour. Ahem, here is a formula:

W = V × A

Watts is equal to volts multiplied by amps. This battery is 7.4 volts and we’ll say it’s pushing 1,390 milliamps, or 1.39 amps.

W = 7.4V × 1.39A
W = 10.286VA

Because we assumed a time unit of one hour, we can say that this battery has a power rating of roughly 10wh (10 watts × 1 hour). Making any sense?

Clearly 10wh is far below the 100wh rating necessary to reach eight equivalent grams of lithium, so it’s safe to say that our little BP-511A battery is pretty far away from being subject to these new rules. It’s really important to note that the DOT doesn’t care how many batteries you have that contain fewer than eight equivalent grams of lithium, nor do they care how much aggregate lithium there is in your carry-on. The concern is only for batteries with eight or more equivalent grams each.

Taking Precautions

Just because you’re a whiz kid with a calculator and you are functionally literate doesn’t mean that the TSA folks won’t hassle you if they feel like you aren’t being safe. So, to prevent unnecessary headaches, the Safe Travel website recommends the following important procedures:

• Pack spare batteries in carry-on baggage. In the passenger compartment, flight crews can better monitor safety conditions to prevent an incident, and can access fire extinguishers, if an incident does happen.
• For loose batteries, place tape across the battery’s contacts to isolate terminals. Isolating terminals prevents short-circuiting.
• If original packaging is not available, effectively insulate battery terminals by isolating spare batteries from contact with other batteries and metal. Place each battery in its own protective case, plastic bag, or package. Do not permit a loose battery to come in contact with metal objects, such as coins, keys, or jewelry.

The first one echoes my intuition about keeping expensive batteries close as hand if possible, to keep an eye on them. The second and third points are of interest to me because I normally pack a couple of Canon-brand BP-511As as well as a handful of cheaper, third-party BP-511A lookalikes, which do not come with the handy plastic covers that would satisfy those suggestions.

Fortunately, there is a Yahoo! store called Green Batteries that is selling those little doodads for $1.77 (or four for about $5.50, which is about $1.40 each). I plan to pick up a bunch of those and make sure all of my batteries are properly insulated from external contact.

I travel with a Tamrac CyberPack, which has individual battery pockets in the outer compartment, but when it comes to TSA inspectors, I always give them the benefit of the doubt. For $10, it’s just peace of mind.

If any of you good folks fly with your gear in the coming months, please do write me with your experiences, positive or negative. Leave a comment on this post, or just drop me an email (aaron at singleservingphoto dot com), I’d love to hear from you.

This is officially my first post from the field, though I’ve tried before and failed. My impression so far? Positive!

Photos after the break!

Tips for Visiting

If you think you’d like to come down and visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind.

The park itself is best accessible via the town of Gatlinburg, which sits on its north edge in Tennessee (that’s where we’re staying). Gatlinburg can be a chore to get around in by car during popular park times. October is a peak foliage time and sometimes the road through Gatlinburg is backed up from one end of town to the other. It’s manageable, but be prepared to sit in bumper-to-bumper for a little while.

Lodging is plentiful in Gatlinburg and in the town of Pigeon Forge, which is about 20 minutes north on the main road (route 441). Between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, you have access to all of the food and entertainment one could ask for, including small roadside amusement parks, an aquarium, the Miracle Theater (playing two or three Christian stage shows per day), probably around 20 different pancake houses, and so on.

There are only a couple of major attractions within the park that are accessible by car, which makes them prone to congestion and crowding. Unfortunately, they are also the most attractive photographic opportunities as well. The only cause for relief is that some of the best photographs are made at dawn, sunset, and during the night, and most of the weekenders don’t really want to be at Clingman’s Dome at 7:00 in the morning when it’s 37 degrees outside and black as tar.

The most convenient way to photograph the park is to camp there. It will cost you only a few dollars to register for camping in one of the several available campgrounds, so if that is a lifestyle that suits you, you’re going to be better off going that way.

Getting in and out of the park by car is limited to one major road, but it’s empty before dawn and virtually empty after dark.

Photos, As Promised

Photographing dawn is one of the hardest things for me to do. The only thing I hate more than the cold is getting up early in the morning, and photographing dawn—more often than not—involves both of those things. Nevertheless, dawn can be one of the most inspirational and beautiful times of day, especially when viewed from the dramatic overlooks offered by the Great Smoky Mountains.

The photo above was taken at the New Found Gap overlook (which sits right on the line between Tennessee and North Carolina) just after dawn. During the very early morning, the fog is so thick that it’s hard to see more than a few yards ahead of you while driving. The photographic opportunities, however, are splendid.

The foliage change here in Tennessee isn’t quite at peak yet, but some areas are showing a lot of great color. We pulled off the road on a whim to photograph these beautiful orange leaves in the light of very early morning.

Here, again, is an example of what great images are possible when you grit your teeth and forget about the sub-zero wind chill whipping across your body at barely the crack of dawn up near Clingman’s Dome, approximately 6,500 feet above sea level. There was no frost to speak of on the eastern side of the overlook, but about fifty feet toward the west the trees and shrubs were caked with frost and ice.

I used a split tone in Lightroom 1.2 to create the red/blue hues, which I think do a nice job of illustrating what that freezing dawn was like.

This is our last day here, so I do hope to have the rest of the photos online in the coming weeks!

I am very excited to announce a photography workshop in Death Valley National Park, California, hosted by Christopher Blake and Aaron Bieber (that’s me!), to take place in April of 2008.

This will be a thrilling four-day workshop in Death Valley open to photographers of all skill levels. We’ll spend four days and nights making photographs from before sunrise until well into the night. Aaron and Chris will serve as your guides to aesthetic approach and technical application as you explore some of these breathtaking Death Valley locations:

• Badwater
• Artist’s Palette
• Dante’s View
• Stovepipe Well Dunes
• Eureka Dunes
• Golden Canyon
• Devil’s Golf Course
• The Alabama Hills
• and more!

There will be a strong focus on night photography including work with light painting and star trails. This workshop is designed to coincide with the new moon, giving us nights filled with stars. If you have never done photography at night before, or if you want to get better at it, this is the right workshop for you. Between the two of us we have 12 years of experience making wonderful images at night.

This workshop gives you the opportunity to photograph a famous and unique location with two professional photographers who will help you get the most out of every hour and out of every exposure.

Who should attend this workshop?

Anyone who wants to advance their photography skills and get the absolute most out of a trip to Death Valley. In a limited amount of time we’ll bring you to the best locations at the best times and work with you both in the field and in front of the computer to help you get great results.

Itinerary

Here’s the plan.

Friday April 4th

$image:right/Places/DeathValley/Tendrils.jpg$

We will meet in the afternoon (you’ll be emailed the exact time and place to meet at least two weeks prior to the workshop). Each participant will receive a workshop package including information and equipment (listed below). We will then have introductions, get to know one another, and get a feel for what each of you hope to accomplish during the workshop. We will set out in the early evening to photograph sunset and then do an introduction to night photography.

Saturday April 5th – Monday April 7th

Each day of the workshop will be broken up into three sessions, described here:

Session 1 – Dawn

We’ll meet in an agreed upon location and set out to photograph dawn, then return to the inn for breakfast.

Session 2 – Late morning

After breakfast we’ll get together to review the work we’ve done so far, go over any questions, and plan shooting locations for the remainder of the day. Participants who shoot digital and have a laptop with them are welcome to share their work with the group. Chris and Aaron will be available to do one-on-one critiques and offer guidance.

There are a few locations that can be effective during morning and afternoon sun, such as Golden Canyon, so we may opt to explore one of those locations together during the day. If you wish to explore on your own, you are welcome to.

Session 3 – Sunset

$image:right/Places/DeathValley/SilverOrb.jpg.html$

We will travel to our chosen location to photograph sunset. After night falls, we will commence night photography sessions. It is not unusual for the ambitious in the group to photograph well into the night.

Note: Some of you may not want to join us for the next sunrise session. You can meet us at breakfast, normally around 9-9:30 AM.

Since the conditions in Death Valley change from day to day, it’s impossible to predict the perfect location for each session. Both Chris and Aaron have a good deal of experience with Death Valley and will plan our locations to best fit the changing conditions. Our first priority is making great photographs, no matter what the circumstances.

Though we will be photographing locations as a group, each will offer the opportunity to spread out across a large area. Two-way radios can come in handy, so we’re going to give you one. It’s an effective method for the group to communicate across distances of a mile or more, and we’ll also use the radios to communicate between vehicles while traveling to each location.

Registration

The cost of this once-in-a-lifetime experience is only $1,199 and is open to photographers of all skill levels. To register, please send us an email. We accept all major credit cards as well as personal checks. After you contact us, we’ll mail you our registration package. Workshops are filled on a first-come first-served basis, so don’t miss out!

Workshop fees are refundable up to 60 days before the workshop, less 10% for processing fees. Within 60 days of the workshop a refund is not possible.

Please feel free to e-mail us with any questions.

This workshop will have a maximum of ten participants. Sorry, but no guests are permitted to tag along. We find that the group is most focused and productive when we are all actively photographing, and we don’t want to dilute the experience for any of our attendees.

Important Notes

• This is not an all-inclusive trip and as such does not include transportation, food, or lodging. Your registration package will contain a thorough list of available hotels and campgrounds as well as our advice on staying in Death Valley.
• Though meal cost is not included, we’ll eat at the same time each day and you may wish to join us, or feel free to go out on your own during this time.
• Your registration package will also include detailed information on the trip as well as a very basic questionnaire that we use to tailor the workshop for you.
• We will not be taking any long hikes, but some hiking will be required. This is not a stressful amount of exercise by any means, but you should be in decent physical shape and able to navigate the irregular desert terrain.

Gear

You’ll need some things on this trip…

What you should bring

$image:right/Places/DeathValley/DevilsLandscape.jpg.html$

Although this workshop is open to all skill levels, you should have at least a 35mm SLR (digital or film) camera and a tripod. You should also have a basic understanding of how your camera works. We would be glad to help you get the most out of your equipment while on the workshop, but it won’t be a fundamental course, so be sure you are familiar with the basics.

If you want to brush up or review, you may want to read these articles (posted here):

• Histograms, Huh?
• Be a Control Freak—Shooting Modes Explained
• Focal Length Reciprocal Rule

And also these assorted articles from Earthbound Light Photography:

• I Bought a Digital Camera But My Photos Are Still Blurry
• Program vs. Aperture Priority vs. Shutter Priority vs. Manual

If you are interested in advice on what to bring (or what to buy), you can email Chris. He has a lot of equipment experience and would be happy to share it with you.

The weather in Death Valley can go from very warm to very cold. You should pack accordingly, keeping in mind that in windy conditions before dawn and after the sun goes down it can feel very cold.

What we will give you

As part of the workshop experience, we will provide you with a few essential items that we have found to be indispensable on these trips. The Death Valley Workshop package includes a GMRS (family band) two-way radio with several-mile range; a bright xenon flashlight for light painting and general navigation; a rugged, waterproof National Geographic map of the park that we will refer to often; and lots of information about the art and science of photographing on location and specifically in Death Valley. All of these items are, of course, yours to keep.

Who are you?

Here’s a little about us and why you’re going to love to learn and explore with us in Death Valley.

Christopher Blake

I am a fine art travel photographer living in the Boston area. I have worked exclusively with digital cameras for the past six years, focusing on traditional fine art landscapes, HDR (high dynamic range), and night photography. I have an extensive background in information technology and I leverage that knowledge to get the most out of my photographs. I am excited to share my experience in travel photography with you in Death Valley!

View Chris’s gallery, The Curious Lens.

Aaron Bieber

I am an illustrator, photographer, web and graphic designer living and working on the scenic Connecticut coast (I am also the author of this blog). Though I have been very serious about photography for many years, I come from a traditional art background and I have written at length on the topics of photography as an art form and the techniques and practices unique to photography as a medium for artistic expression. My main interests in photography are geometric abstractions and exploring the invisible world as can only be seen through the lens of a camera.

With over ten years of Photoshop experience and as an outspoken fan of Photoshop Lightroom, I do my best work in post-production. I look forward to helping you make the most of a very unique experience during this workshop!

View Aaron’s gallery, Fisheye Multimedia Galleries

Ready to Register?

Just send an e-mail to Death Valley Workshop registration and let us know!