Recently we released Color Fantasies 2 here at Seim Effects – It’s a powerful collection of over 100 presets like you’ve never seen in Lightroom. It’s color alchemy at your fingertips, from Hollywood style color tones to film inspired simplicity. But we know that not everyone will be ready to jump in and buy a premium presets pack right off. That’s why we’re giving you free presets – Good ones too.
Below you can download 15 premium presets from Color Fantasies 2. No strings attached. Downloaded, install and start seeing what kind of color is possible within Lightroom. We hope you enjoy and when you see how powerful they are, you’ll check out the complete collection. If you have any questions or problems just get in touch – effects@seimstudios.com, or give us a phone call – 509 951 4860. We really are here to help.
Once upon a time there was a guy, his family, a bunch of cameras, a Super Camper and lots of passionate ideas. No sponsors. No backup team – Just the open road, a sense of adventure and three months to take full advantage of.
I’m Gavin Seim. We’re out to explore as we attempt to make images and film that do justice to the beauty America. There’s lots of projects on the menu so we can pay bills and keep gas in the tank. We live mostly by the seat of our pants and enjoy the ride.
On Feb 2nd 2013 we set out for the road trip of 2013 – It’s a tad intimidating but quite amazing. We don’t hang out in RV parks or campgrounds. Months on the road in the Super Camper with my wife Sondra and our kids, Cyrus (5) Ariana (3) and Asher (1). There’s new products to test, new images to make, new stories to tell. Last year the big project was the EXposed Light Workshop. This year we’re working on a brand new film called Photographics. By the way, you can learn more about our rig and tips on how we camp in this article.
With Facebook pages becoming less effective and the fact that I can’t send out the Light Letter every day, I wanted to share our journey with you in more detail than ever before. So rather than clutter up the journal with endless micro posts, I’ve decided to try something new – A Road Trip Journal.
This journal details our adventures by reverse date. The stuff you normally don’t see. The snapshots, clips, odd happenings and craziness. The things I’m sometimes reluctant to share, being such a perfectionist. That’s what you’ll find here. I hope you join in this adventure. Bookmark this page and come back because we’ll keep updating as long as we can still pound the keys. You can also join my Light Letter below for more updates and stories. Lets roll.
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FINAL UPDATE:Â What it’s Like Coming Home – Day 89-91 05/01/13 – 05/03/13
Cy likes the shooting gallery at Cabela’s. Teach them early.
It’s bittersweet as I drive down the hill towards familiar grassy slopes and familiar cities on the map. We watch a Spring sunset and flowers spattering green hills. Three full months on the road we’ve been. An adventure of that won’t be forgotten. Yet a part of me feels somehow less for it coming to an end. Like my spirit of adventure is fading because I long for that slow hot shower, a bed where my toes do not hang over the edge and where my wonderful wife’s elbows do not hit me in the side every time she rolls over.
The last few days lacked the grand adventure you look for at the end of a long trip. The kids got a stomach bug and did what you do when you have that. Sometimes we had two going at once – The miles were long and we needed to get home soon for Wall Portrait Conference. We drove hard that final day. Perhaps longer than we’ve ever done. Over five hundred miles from Twin Idaho to Ephrata WA. It took us about twelve hours between breaks, gas and pauses to clean up the mess from sick kids in the back seat.
“What a lousy way to end such a grand adventure” I thought – But somewhere along the road I stepped into the sunlight and realized it was not. Sometimes we get sick, but it passes. Sometimes things go wrong, we have to make repairs, or we come in late. All of those things happened on this trip. More than once. But they’re part of the memories, part of the adventure. They’re surrounded by moments of laughs and wide eyes glistening at the wounder of creation.
The moment I pull in I’m starting a new vacation. We worked hard on this trip. We played hard. It was a gamble too, but our new film PHOTOGRAPHICS is already showing in the black and the trip is all but profitable both emotionally and fiscally. All that time on the road, but so happy to have a place to call home.
We walk in after 91 days on the road and switch on the lights. The house is still here, warm, waiting. Nearly as we left it but for a few extra cobwebs. A bed, a shower, a late night movie with my wife after the kids are finally asleep. We really are home. Next it’s time to process the film, repair the gear, make the prints and get organized.
On Sunday we’re off for a week again to learn and teach at Wall Portrait Conference. But really we’re home right now. It’s only a couple hours away and among people we know. That home feeling is back. It’s odd. Truly surreal to walk down the isle at the store and for once in so long see people you know. Get a hug from your mom when you walk thru a door, or see neighbors wave as you drive down the street. I honestly feel strange not being the stranger here. But that passes and fades into tales of the adventure and silent longing for more.
As the sun shines on our first day home, a breeze blowing, spring flowers popping out, I realize that the world is still alive and that both home and away are something grand. Appreciating your adventure is how you look at it. There’s nothing like a place to call home, but there’s also nothing like the open road, your wife riding shotgun and kids kicking the back of your seat as the road rolls by. This is living, all of it.
Until the next trip, Gavin Seim.
Coming down from the Death Road new Zion. Amazing views.Picked up a hitchhiker from France named Tebu who’s roaming America. He’s headed for Moab. No room in the truck cab, but he fits in the back and his gear in the camper. This guy is hauling way too much weight.
An evening at the Salt Flats. It’s a stark place. but grand none the less.
The kids are hams. Just like dad.The last sunset, overlooking the hills neat Pendleton Oregon.
This is Gavin Seim. And I am fed up with companies who do not understand the most basic tenets of customer service! So I’m going to try and counter it. A few companies get it. But sadly, most don’t. Service reps always say that on a personal level they “understand” But policy says, etc. What they don’t understand is that the personal level is ALL that matters. Is the customer walking away happy?
After getting off the phone with my bank recently and having not experienced real service, I researched and emailed the top dozen of so key executives of US Bankcorp. You see they have forgotten about what service really is – So this is what I explained to them.
“Service is not something computers do for you. It’s not something from a book. It’s not a line in a policy manual. It’s not an excuse – Service means YOU raise a finger, a hand and sometimes even an arm, or perhaps a leg. You do the footwork, you look into the problem and you do your level best to find a way to make the customer happy. That’s service.”
As owner of Seim Studios and Seim Effects Photo Tools, I’m proud to say that we offer real service. Every time a company blows me off, I’m reminded how much I hate bad service and why I WILL NOT do that to my customers. I may be small and have limited resources. I may not be not perfect. But we get things done. Whether it’s one of my software products, a portrait, an art print. If we sell it, we back it up. That’s why returns here are nearly non-existent.
After the recent bout with my bank I went to the Seim Effects Facebook page and posted about this. I also posted my cell phone number saying if anyone EVER has a problem they could call me directly. Interestingly enough that post got more interaction than I’ve seen on Facebook pages in a long time.
On a side note. The emails got thru. I did not hear back from the CEO (though I have had phone calls direct from CEO’s in the past after going straight to the top). I did however hear back from a USB Regional manger and my problem was resolved. This brings about the theory that if a company is giving you terrible service, don’t waste time with the chain of command. Go straight to the top. Because CEO’s don’t want to be hearing from you and it tends to get things done FAST.
I plan to write a bit more about service soon and look at ways we can leverage quality service to stand out in business. Until next time… Gavin
by Gavin Seim: Fads always come and go – iPhoneography and mobile device photo exhibitions are no different. There is no iPhonography. There is only photography and whether or not you do it well.
I’m going to be frank. But let me explain the real issue I have. You see don’t hate mobile cameras. But the fact that industry leaders are on the road teaching “mobile photography” as a genre, singing the praises of cell phones being serious pro cameras, and suggesting that using said cheap camera is a “feature” is utterly ridiculous. Lets put aside for a moment the massive lack of quality in mobile images that we examined last month and just consider the fad aspect.
The fad is this ridiculous idea of promoting yourself as something special because you use the lowest quality camera you can find. The phone camera is just a camera. A very cheap one. And yes, it’s what we do with a camera that makes the image. So, we “can” make a artistically great image from a phone. The problem is that it’s rather like making the best sculpture ever carved out of crumbling rock. It’s very limited and it’s going to end up looking like dust next to the David.
Imagine if Michelangelo started carving with a butter knife and presented Butter Knife Chipping as the future of the sculpting world because it was so simple and elementary. What I’m saying is this: The tool used is irrelevant as long as it does the job well – If it fails to do the job well it should be replaced with something that works better.
Now I know that the cellphone camera is NOT going away. Right now it’s a useful point and shoot tool. In time it will likely achieve the quality we had in the compact 35mm point and shoots of the film days and it will likely grow as a legitimate tool for certain situations. It’s not even close yet.
At this stage I have not seen one mobile image with the technical quality I would attribute to a fine print. Oh, we might get an 8×10, and even stretch it a tad further. But it’s the most limited photographic medium I can think of. So limited that if you do get that once in lifetime shot, you can barely do anything with it beyond putting it on the web. And lets not get into the iPhone Time cover. The image was very low on technical quality and likely only made it because of this fad.
For the record, I use my iPhone all the time. I find it quite suitable for snapshots. The question I pose is this: Would a cheap disposable 110 camera from the drugstore (remember those?) be a suitable alternative to a pro system? Of course not. And yet it could arguably give better quality than our phones.
My point here is NOT that you cannot make an image with “artistic merit” from a cheap camera. It’s that an artist who’s serious about their work must go beyond the artistic and consider technical merits and capabilities of his tools. Saying “Look, I’m using a low grade camera!” as a feature in your art is utterly ridiculous beyond a fad. If you’re reading this years after I write it you may be thinking – “did that actually happen?” – The sad truth is, yes it did.
If you make a good image on a mobile that’s fine – And if the quality of mobile device images when you’re reading this is truly enough quality for the product you “want” to sell then fine. But what model camera you made it on is irrelevant unless it offers some game changing improvement, or is being discussed between colleagues.
Someone will want to point to the photographer doing well with mobile images. They may well even be a great photographer. But if they’re to be taken seriously in the long run it won’t be because of the camera they used. Anyone with an art business that relies on the type of brush they use with is doomed to fail in the long haul. In the end what I’m saying is it’s what camera you use as long as you cane make a great image. Whether you did it on a mobile is totally irrelevant unless it causes a technical failure of the resulting image. Mobile photography is NOT a selling point.
We don’t need to learn or teach “mobile photography”. We need to learn, study and teach light. That’s what photography is all about.
I get in trouble for taking this position. But that will pass. This is an industry where just a few years ago quality was demanded and photographers needed at least medium format to be taken seriously in most genres. Now these same artists are out on the road teaching how would be photographers should make their millions with a cell phone? A $10 camera? If that’s not a passing fad, then I guess I’m not a photographer.
Once upon a time there was a guy, his family, a bunch of cameras, a Super Camper and lots of passionate ideas. No sponsors. No backup team – Just the open road, a sense of adventure and three months to take full advantage of.
This is Gavin Seim. And I am fed up with companies who do not understand the most basic tenets of customer service! So I’m going to try and counter it. A few companies get it. But sadly, most don’t. Service reps always say that on a personal level they “understand” But policy says, etc. What they don’t understand is that the personal level is ALL that matters. Is the customer walking away happy?