Big Picture: A Royal Farewell In Bali

© Bay Ismoyo/AFP/Getty Images-All Rights Reserved
Another pictorial coverage of the royal cremation on the island of Bali is featured by the Boston Globe's Big Picture blog.

The head of the royal family of Ubud was laid to rest in a rare, spectacular Royal Funeral - the largest in decades. The head of the family, two other members of the royal family, and 68 commoners were cremated in the ceremony - their bodies having been previously preserved, awaiting cremation, which is traditionally believed to free their souls for future reincarnation.

The images by various photographers are on The Big Picture

Lightroom: Stunning Black & White

Photograph © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved
Chris Orwig of Layers magazine has written an article on how to create stunning black & white images in Lightroom.

I sometimes test tutorials, whether for Lightroom or Photoshop (the latter less and less frequently), but usually find them too complicated...and frankly, not worth the time to learn them. As I often mention, I'm far from being a pixel pusher, and my fiddling with photographs is kept to an absolute minimum. So I'm not at all keen in learning a superfluous new technique that I sense will keep me chained to my desk for hours.

However this one is well worth the time and effort...it's simple, it's effective and even allowed me to add some tone to the final image. I've used it to create the above photograph taken last week in Coney Island in a matter of minutes.