Author Archive for djaef

After the shutter has fired, then what?

Published
by
djaef
on August 16, 2008
in photography
. 0 Comments
Sunshine Smile

As we all know the advent of digital photography has changed photography enormously. Not only has it fundamentally changed the way photography businesses operate, and how professionals are perceived, it has changed our whole relationship with photography. And by ‘our’ I mean everyone’s.

What once was a very simple relationship, both in nature and in volume, and which might have been called ‘me and my photo album’ is now a complex web of relationships with a vast array of both print and digital media. Through this over saturation of imagery, we have become sophisticated consumers of visual communications, and we consume imagery voraciously on a daily basis, but still the vast majority of people don’t look past the surface impression and still don’t have a good understanding of what makes a professional photographer a professional, and an amateur just that.

It is clear, that in many ways photography is being devalued. Online, the $5 stock library sites, like istock.com are a good example. Getty Images and other traditional image libraries look to be surviving, but their market has decidedly shrunk. Some will say this is just natural selection, and in a strict sense they are right, but the implications of devaluing photography goes a lot further than getting a bargain stock shot.

And it’s not just the digital revolution that’s getting us in trouble. Sheer media overload is causing problems as well. Attention spans are getting smaller. Research tells us that at a photography exhibition, we can expect to hold people’s gaze on a single image for no more than 3 seconds. The images had better be good if you are going to hold them longer than that.

In educational institutions teaching photography there are also massive changes. Out with the traditional darkroom skills, in with Photoshop. Yet by its very nature, digital photography can be a poor teacher, with its wide latitude of error, instant feedback and cost efficiencies. Digital doesn’t help students learn to ‘get it right behind the lens’, because they know they can just ’shoot the shit out of it’, and fix it in Photoshop if it’s ordinary. But of course many of these same things are the positive benefits of digital. Being able to rattle off hundreds of frames without thinking of cost is amazing, and Photoshop is just a fabulous new fangled digital darkroom. ( There is a big hint in this if we will listen. As is often the case, mixing the best of the old ways with the best of the new is a smart way to do things…)

Continue reading ‘After the shutter has fired, then what?’

The Perfect Backup Strategy Part 2

Published
by
djaef
on July 19, 2008
in Computers and photography
. 2 Comments

In an earlier post, I spoke about back-up and the need to develop a system that does what it needs to do - save your data from all potential loss, and allow you to get back up and running in the quickest possible time.

Photographers have special requirements with regards backup. They generate huge volumes of data in a very short time. It would be in no way unusual that in one photo shoot, I might generate from up to 4GB of data. And this is data, that if lost, is totally irreplaceable. The sheer size of it as well precludes online backup strategies for most, as upload speeds are too slow, and adsl account limits are often 20GB or less (this is of course only an issue if your ISP includes uploads as part of your allowance).

Peter Krogh, the DAM (Digital Asset Management) specialist, talks a whole lot about backup strategies in his book, The Dam Book. I’m not going into that much detail here, but there are a few things that are worthy of mention. There are many considerations when designing a backup system, including cost, scalability, and redundancy. With regards cost, he gives very good advice when he says to ‘buy the backup you need now, not in 18 months.’ I spent months looking into backup systems, including expensive raid arrays and JBoD boxes and home servers etc… That was because I was focussing on scalability more than cost. But all those solutions were too expensive, at least for me. I couldn’t justify the expense. So I thought about what I needed right now. And that was basically 1TB of storage. The quickest and cheapest solution would have been to just buy a cheap internal drive and an enclosure, and hey presto, a 1TB USB external drive. But the build quality of many cheap enclosures is suspect, and for a very similar price, you can get a entry level external drive. Then there is the question of interface. USB 2.0 is the basic requirement, but there’s also Firewire 400 and 800 and eSata (forget NAS devices for the moment).

In the end, I decided to take a small step up and get a WD My Book Home Edition. It has a triple interface (USB, Firewire 400 and eSata). I finally realised that there would be no instant implementation of a perfect system, and that it would be something I developed over time. My immediate requirement was to safely secure my data. I already have a 320GB external I built myself. That is now my secondary off-site backup, which is placed at a neighbours house. When I do a shoot, I backup to the 1TBdrive, and then go and collect the 320GB drive and backup to that, and then return it to the neighbours house. There’s my data in 3 places, one of them off-line. That is a secure backup.

But then there’s my system drive. At the moment I have my system drive ina  RAID array (Raid 1- mirroring). This is a great solution in the event of a total drive failure, as I have an exact copy ready to go. But what about OS problems? Recently I had a terrible security failure in Vista, which meant that the OS was basically kaput and needed to be re-installed, something I didn’t want to do. All those programs, all those settings… But I realised my mirrored drive now had exactly the same problems. Hmmm… So it seems to me, I need a complete mirror image of my drive to be backed up to an external drive whenever I make any major system changes or updates, and to have that stored offsite as well. So that means another external drive, and a program like Norton Ghost to make a mirror image. That has to come soon. Then, I should feel a little more confidant, that when (not if) a drive fails or the operating system decides to die, it will only be a new drive and a few hours, and all will be back as it was. That’s the idea anyway. Am I missing anything?

15 kilos of passion

Published
by
djaef
on July 18, 2008
in Software Discussion and photography
. 0 Comments

It’s a good thing I go to the gym. I can feel I’m going to have to make it more regular though. After a recent upgrade and expansion of my equipment, my Lowepro backpack weighs a tonne… I haven’t weighed it, but judging by how much my seven year old boy weighs, I think we are talking about 15 kg. Sure enough, that’s two DSLR bodies, and about 6 lenses and a flash and accessories, but hey, a photographer needs all that if he’s going to be prepared. It’s a very hard decision to make to just go out with one lens. Of course it depends on what you’re doing. I just went to my kids’ sports day and I could easily have just taken the camera and 70-200 along. That’s all I used after all. But on many jobs you might need to change from wide angle to zoom, so covering 16-200mm takes a fair few lenses. And if you believe in backup, an extra body comes along too. And all of a sudden, you need to be very strong. It’s not so heavy, but after a few hours you collapse into the car with exhaustion. I suppose niche photographers have an easier time with it, knowing what they need. Also it could be a personal thing, and many photographers might just decide that they can’t be prepared for everything and only take a limited range of gear. I’m still figuring all that out, so at the moment, I take everything but the kitchen sink along with me and I see what I use.  It’s be interesting to hear how others decide what to take / split their gear etc. There’s even a slot in my backpack for a laptop, and while I don’t have one at the moment, I’m considering getting one, but that would add another 3-4.5 kilos, depending on whether I went 15.4 / 17″. I’m beginning to see a need for an assistant. :) I’d better go and earn some income then…

Pixelpost

Published
by
djaef
on July 7, 2008
in Blogging, Software Discussion and photography
. 5 Comments

My other blog, my photoblog, runs on Pixelpost v 1.7. I’ve been using Pixelpost for nearly two years now, but have only recently upgraded to the newest version. As far as photoblogging applications go, I think it’s the best one out there (certainly the best one I’ve found.) It’s free, there are a lot of templates to change the design, and there’s a great community of users.

But that’s not to say I don’t have issues with it. I do. I simply don’t understand why it has to be so difficult. The answer to that may simply be ‘because it’s free’, and if so, then fine. But maybe that’s not the entire answer…

I have been dabbling in web design for a few years now, and while I’m not a born coder (never will be) I can write html and have a decent understanding of css. I’ve even managed to design and make several really nice looking standards compliant web sites. But Pixelpost is not a simple website - it’s complex. It’s a mixture of html, css and php, running on a MySQL database. I imagine most people can get it up and running, and even change templates, but modifying it is not for non technically minded people.

And that’s where a few interesting questions pop up. Who is this application designed for? Photographers is the obvious assumption I make. And I don’t make a distinction between amatuer and professional, as a photographer is a photographer. But it would almost appear, looking at the application from a technical perspective, that it has been made for ‘code heads’ instead of photographers. Even my most generous interpretation is that it has been made on one level for photographers (the basic out of the box experience) and has a whole lot of extra functionality possible to those that can get really techy with code. And that’s why I think it’s frustrating.

I want a photoblog that doesn’t require I have a PHD in php, javascript and CSS, but I also want one that’s easily customisable. Maybe I just want too much. That’s the most likely truth. Especially as it’s free. But I wish that the code head developers would realise that most photographers are not necessarily good at coding, and that an application that was easier to customise would attarct a better level of photographer, and increase the market share. In my browsing, I have certainly found a large number of fabulous looking sites with pretty ordinary photos, and also a whole lot of sites that needed some design and attention, but that had great photos. It’s not until you put both together, like J.R Photoblog that you really get a fabulous product.

I know that I’m mostly jealous. It blows me away what some people can manage to master. That’s why I want Pixelpost to make it easier for us lesser talented mortals to compete.

Wink

Published
by
djaef
on June 25, 2008
in Blogging and photography
. 0 Comments

Magnolia Road

Magnolia Road, by Tyler E Nixon, of Wink Photoblog.

I haven’t been keeping much of an eye on the photoblog world lately, as I’ve been focussed on other things, but I came across this site today, and I recognised it immediately. Ahh, I thought, I remember this site. Bookmark it this time, so it doesn’t get away! I spent some time looking through the archives and I have to say I’m so impressed by the work there.

Now I look at his about page, and it seems Tyler, the perons in question, is no stranger to acclaim. Take this for example: Awarded “Photoblog of the Year” at the 2007 Photoblog Awards. OK, how on earth have I neglected this site before now? As I said, I obviously haven’t been paying attention to the blogosphere lately.

In any case, if you are as wayward and unobservant as I have been lately, check out wink. Tyler, I take my hat off to you mate. Some of your stuff I would put into the category of ’sublime’. It’s my kind of work. It’s always good to find some inspiration, and I know wink will be a source of inspiration to me for some time.

A world of excess

Published
by
djaef
on June 18, 2008
in Politics
. 0 Comments

I was cleaning up the other day, and came across an old notebook from my uni days. I went through it to see if there was anything I needed to keep, and I found one page that I’d written that I wanted to post for posterity.

Considering the obscene (though incredibly uneven) wealth of the Western world and the extreme poverty the rest of the world largely suffers, I thought this comment had to be recorded. To put it in context, on the 22nd of May in 2001, I was in an elevator at UTS, my university, and two teachers got in with me. As we were dragged up to the 20th floor, I overheard this simple comment.

“We could make the other house into a big kitchen, but I’m not sure we really need that.”

The comment was passed in all seriousness and the man who was listening didn’t react in any particular way. I, on the other hand, nearly fell over, and pledged to write that comment down when I got the chance. Seven years later, with the housing boom and resultant housing crisis, I wonder what they did with that second house? On a larger level, what does it say about western excess? Can we justify this level of wealth when such inequality exists? Or are we supposed to be just grateful that it’s not our children starving in Ethiopia? It’s a mixed up world isn’t it….

2008 AIPP Canon APPA

Published
by
djaef
on June 4, 2008
in photography
. 0 Comments

One of last year’s Category Winners.

The other main highlight of PMA 2008 was watching the judging of the 2008 AIPP Canon APPA (Australian Profesional Photography Awards). Firstly, I went to the AIPP stand and acquainted myself with the book from last years awards - and found 2 of my own pictures on page 84 (yay!). Then having got a feeling for the level of Silver, Silver with Distinction and Gold, I went to watch some of the judging.

It was fascinating, if for nothing else, just for the organisational structure. I’m not sure how many entries there are but I am pretty sure it is up around 10,000. In any case, it’s a lot of images to judge in a few days. Nonetheless, not having seen any photographic judging at this level before, I was somewhat surprised initially at how little time they devoted to each image. 5 up to possibly 20 seconds looking before they scored it. Only if there was a +/- 10 point dispute, did they have a discussion at all. If it was awarded one? point under award level (say 84 points and 85 is Silver) then it went to re-judging in another room.

So it was helter skelter and very subjective. There were often very large divergence in the points given, and these ended with at least an interesting discussion (sometimes) and a bit more of a look and a remarking. There was a huge range of quality on display, from the slightly ridiculous (OK, a lot of students are encouraged to enter, even though they realistically don’t have a hope in Hades to win anything) through very good student work and all the way to top of the line professional images. After a while I got in sync with the judges and started guessing the scores pretty closely. The way it works makes it easy as well. The numbers are largely irrelevant, If it deservers Silver, then it needs 80 points. If it deserves Silver with Distinction, then it has to go over 85. But not over 90, or that’s Gold. And not many get Gold. Only the very best. I thought the judging was pretty fair overall, with some dubious decisions of course (there just is no accounting for tatse sometimes). There is a feeling that the AIPP judge dark and moody very highly, but that didn’t seem to be evident to me. Maybe times are a changing…

I didn’t have any entries in this year, but it was fascinating to see up close the actual prints that received all the accolades. And I can only say one thing - the level is just going up and up and up…

PS> The winners have been announced. Check out Canon’s site for more details.

Carl Sagan

Published
by
djaef
on June 2, 2008
in Other
. 0 Comments

The Pale Blue Dot


(click the small play button at bottom left to watch the video here,
or click the large one in the middle to go to the youtube site)

Carl Sagan was an amazing astronomer who also happened to be a gifted story teller. His passion and eloquence about the universe led him to writing about 20 books, including ‘his most well known, ‘Cosmos’. This book became an incredible 13 part TV series, which was aired in Australia in the early 80s, and for me was a great revelation. It informed my burgeoning atheism, and gave me a sense of wonder of the universe and a humble sense of perspective from which I have not recovered :)

There is now a 7 DVD set of Cosmos available (check out eBay or Amazon, or the ABC shop if you want region 4). This series is a must for anyone who wants to be humbled by the incredible nature of the universe. I will never forget Carl mathematically ‘proving’ the existence of life on other planets, simply by mathematical equation on a blackboard.

I mourned his passing in 1996, but his life work lives on and hopefully it will inspire the next generation as much as it did me.

PMA Australia 2008

Published
by
djaef
on June 1, 2008
in photography
. 5 Comments

As I write, there are no doubt a lot of people getting drunk. It’s Sunday night, and the PMA Australia 2008, held in Brisbane, is finally over. I was only there for two of the four days, and I didn’t even go to a single paid conference event. I was there in a role as a professional photographer come consumer, and as such I was there to suss out future directions, trends, and all the latest gear. It’s a highly personalised experience going to such an event, due to the incredibly diverse nature and levels of professional photography. I hang around the lower levels as it is, but that doesn’t make my perspective any less interesting. Here’s what I thought were some of the interesting bits.. (I’d be here for days to discuss it all)

Adobe - They placed nearly ALL of their focus on Lightroom 2 Beta. Sure, they plugged CS3 and a few other bits and pieces, but they seem obsessed with Lightroom. I am only just today evaluating the product for myself, but to me it sits awkwardly between and on top of other Adobe products. It’s not a full on cataloguing software like iView Media Pro (now Microsoft Expression v2, and more of that later), and neither does it have the browsing power and functionality of Bridge. It handles raw and dng files, and it does some local adjustments and non destructive editing, but in no way does it replace Photoshop. So what does it do? Well, I think the best explanation I got was from well known Photoshop author Mark Galer, who basically said that it was a work flow solution for some photographers, in some situations. To me it feels like it’s aimed at consumers as opposed professionals, but I’m still to really figure out how it works. What I do know however is that my test catalogue of some 3500 images (mostly jpgs and a few hundred raw files thrown in as well) fills up some 3.46GB of space. The images themselves only fill 8.45GB. Admittedly I have 1:1 previews built in to the catalogue, but it’s a whopping catalogue nonetheless. My old iView Media Pro catalogues covering over 10,000 images with full size previews were only 1GB! Go figure… I do like the design of Lightroom however, and I look forward to discovering exactly where it sits amongst the plethora of photographic software now on the market. All I can say however, is that Adobe are going real hard on this one, so I assume they see such a product as filling a very important niche or future direction.

Continue reading ‘PMA Australia 2008′

The Perfect Backup Strategy

Published
by
djaef
on May 16, 2008
in Computers
. 3 Comments

I’ve been deliberating lately about data backup, and how to design a solid strategy for both OS and data. All on a tight budget of course… :)

Being a photographer and avid net user, I can fill up hard disks with the best of ‘em. And having a ‘hoarder’ personality type also means that I don’t like to delete anything. So backup is a subject that has always been dear to me (see my earlier post on backup). But given that I’ve been a pc user for 15 years, I’m doing pretty well. Despite 4 hard disk deaths in that time, I’ve only ever really lost vital data once. And that just reinforced a lesson I already knew. So to me, backup means double or triple redundancy, with one set off site. But that’s in theory. In practice I have a more complicated and not quite complete set-up. Budgetary constraints shoulder most of the blame for that, but now I have decided that it’s time for no more excuses!

Continue reading ‘The Perfect Backup Strategy’