LR 6 is available as a standalone upgrade. It takes some hunting, or a call to Adobe's sales line, but it IS available.
Who gives a sh*t whether you OWN it or not? When buying a license the software is YOURS TO USE until your OS or a newer computer no longer supports it. This is as opposed to paying up unending extortion and having your software deactivated if you no longer pay up. Neither I nor any professional I know was constantly upgrading. Most of their upgrades offer innocuous and/or irrelevant additions and bloatware. When a relevant feature appeared, we upgraded, but that was often a 2-3 year interval. The cost of using Photoshop is like the cost of Epipens, and for those of us who use it professionally, our lives also depend on it.
I feel your pain. If you're willing to invest some time in learning a different interface, Capture One Pro is by far a superior RAW processor.
https://www.phaseone.com/en/Products/Software/Capture-One-Pro/Highlights.aspx?gclid=Cj0KEQjwgJq-BRCFqcLW8_DU9agBEiQAz8Koh7x1bQUt2gaD29gVPoayYOmZwr8NB-lk6nmil3ATwEsaAiDS8P8HAQOther than major retouching, it can handle ALL of your adjustments and cleanups in stellar fashion. The company, being Danish and not totally-consumed by the pathological pursuit for ever-growing profits, offers a choice between buying a license OR a subscription (a path Adobe would follow were they not extortionists). There are many online tutorials to help soften the learning curve. Capture One is the standard capture and processing software in use by major studios and photographers. It's a small, responsive company.
The only real caveat is for those using plugins as part of their workflow, or those producing composites and advanced retouching. For that, Photoshop still rules the roost. Affinity Photo can handle the retouching, but still doesn't incorporate standard plugin architecture.
If you want to break free from your chains, it takes some effort.
Sling bags are for minimalist photographers, particularly street shooters. They're NOT for those who pack larger SLRs, myriad accessories and all the lenses from their closet. If you have time to change lenses or put on specialty filters, you don't really NEED a sling, but can use one for it's convenience and good weight distribution. They're designed specifically for fast draw: for those who pack light and want instant access to their camera. There's no faster access than from a sling bag. It's as simple as that.
When I have a particular goal or assignment requiring more equipment, I pack a shoulder bag. Otherwise, it's the smallest sling (Lowepro Streamline) I can get away with. Don't be influenced by the 'Mine is bigger than yours' crowd. If the sling fits, wear it.
It may mean that you cannot import directly until Adobe gets around to cleaning their sh*t up with ANOTHER update. It took them awhile, with another d-u-u-u-h moment to notice that the latest Mac version of Photoshop prints color as badly as before the days of any practical color control. Not of concern to executives living luxuriously off of our taxes.
Since you can read the card in camera and on your desktop, the possibility of physical damage to the card is extremely slim. Do you reformat your SD card after a confirmed import? If you don't regularly reformat, the possibility of corruption increases exponentially. If you haven't, reformat the card in your camera, take some shots, and then try to import from the card to LR. If the card still presents problems with LR, it points more directly to another Adobe retrograde 'update'. This is becoming more common for CC, as Adobe comically scrambles to justify their extortion known as the 'Subscription Plan'.
I find the single most useful app for in-phone editing is SnapSeed. I needed help understanding the interface. It's quite ingenious, but not intuitively obvious for all. A very efficient and useful app. There are endless others. One can lose themselves in wow-zowie special fx. If you're looking for the fundamental tools for post, well-implemented, I recommend you try SnapSeed.
This reveals the utter vacuousness of what passes for contemporary 'art'. Yes, people educated in art history can 'see art in everything', because there's no more craft, no standards of excellence, no means of verification nor any coherence in what is presented as art. It's simply based on belief, like religion.What's exhibited is most often the infantile musings or masturbatory self-indulgences of another entitlement baby.
This happened to me within days of buying my first iMac many years ago. After futile gentle attempts at fishing it out I took it to TekServe here in New York. The technician simply turned the unit on it's side with the slot facing down, and shook the iMac. The card slid out. That's all there was to it.
Putting paper or hooks or anything else in the DVD slot to fish it out can result in pushing the card in deeper and worsening the situation. If the card gets lodged deeper in the DVD slot you not only lose the card but, of course, you lose use of the DVD drive. Expensive disassembly of the iMac is then required. After I brought my SD-free iMac home I never made that mistake again.
Behold our future if economic inequality (the new 'Golden Age') continues on its present course.
"The main difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits." Albert Einstein
Interesting, except for the gullibility reveal at the end.
Creating this image doesn't require anything nearly as elaborate as green screen or cgi. It can be produced using basic masking and compositing. The screen resolution the image is posted in can hide all sorts of artifacts. A high resolution version would be required to determine its veracity.
After Adobe went public, in the 90s, they began to fire most of the engineers who made them what they were. My brother was working there at the time, and I remember him telling me that ALL of his friends were being fired and replaced by 3rd world (i.e. cheap) engineers or kids. That was the end of the friendly software shop and the beginning of the corporate black hole it's become.
Resent all you want. Sarcasm? If that's how the facts fit you then feel free to wear them that way. Parsing 'Licensing & Owning' is a real cute trick, but it doesn't camouflage the fact that professional users who bought their license outright were free to update when it was warranted, usually every 2-3 years, NOT when commanded by Adobe. There's a huge difference. First and foremost-the financial burden. And the loveliest of twists: the moment you no longer pay your 'taxes to the landlord' the software is neutered and you're dead in the water. That is NOT the case with owning the version.