Am I a photographer or videographer?

A few people asked me recently if I'm going to learn video editing and how to shoot video. The short answer is absolutely not. Not professionally anyway.

I am a still photographer. I respect film and video far too much to try to pass myself off for a professional videographer. I find it intriguing that every time the still photographic industry goes through an evolution many people believe they too must evolve to be part of the industry in order to stay marketable and valuable. I do not believe this is always true.

I remember about 10 years ago when the web was really coming on. Internet speeds were starting to get to the point where it wasn't annoying work online; speeds and content were evolving rapidly. I know a lot of photographers; myself included; started to learn HTML. We were told and thought that if you wanted to be a photographer in the new millennium you were going to have to know how to build your own website and maintain it. Gratefully this is not the case.

Many DSLR's are now offering video capabilities. I am noticing that some professional still photographers are starting to look at video in much the same way as some of us viewed the web.

I am a still photographer. I love taking images. Whether capturing them with a digital camera or exposing film. I have decided that focusing on managing my film and digital archive is my next evolution in my creative and professional career.

Snow Leopard or Slow Leapard*

Apple's latest operating system Snow Leopard totes 64-bit capability, advanced support for people with disabilities (braille software ready to go out of the box/upgrade) an increased utilization of the faster graphic processors when developing.

All this sounds good in theory. I am one of those people who I usually do not upgrade to a new software and/or hardware until it's had an opportunity to be tested or ran for a bit to have all of the bugs worked out. Sometimes I wait up to a year, however that is usually with Windows products. With Mac operating systems however generally 3 to 6 months is what I feel comfortable with.

The glitches I've heard about with the Snow Leopards upgrade so far is the fact that it runs very very slow when you're trying to use the mail program and a few other applications. I'm sure updates and patches will be available for these slow run times and matter of weeks if not days. I look forward to upgrading to Snow Leopard within a couple months.

* Term coined by pb

Wi-Fi SD cards

Eye-Fi has developed wireless SD Card that works in any camera that uses SD cards. This is super cool. ranging in price price from $50 $150 depending on what it is that you needed to do. All of them allow you to shoot pictures from any camera that takes an SD card then the images or videos are uploaded to a wireless network that you sent up.

From a personal point of view it would be exciting for me to be able to hand my nieces and nephews a wireless SD card for their camera so the pictures that they are taking during birthday parties and holidays are being uploaded to a common website so everyone in the family can view and enjoy the images and their point of view.

From a professional point of view for events or during commitment ceremony or wedding receptions this could be such a cool selling point. Instead of convincing the happy couple to purchase hundreds of dollars worth of point-and-shoot throwaway cameras that then need to be developed and printed. You can convince them to purchase 2 GB WiFi cards that are then uploaded to a common computer that you the photographer furnish and set up with a wireless network during the reception. Then all of the wedding pictures from all of the guest show up on a common website.

Did I mention that this is super cool?!

Back up on the go

The ability to backup multiple gigabytes of images has long been a requirement while shooting digital. Ideally you want to make three copies of every file shot while you're still on location to ensure that nothing has been lost or corrupted. The obvious solution is to copy everything to your laptop, then to an external hard drive and finally to either a second external hard drive or hyperdrive.

The advantage of using a hyperdrive is that you can view the images if need be while the computer is being used to process files. I've heard of photographers going so far as to mail their UDMA or external drive to themselves so if they are traveling and something happens to their carry-on their shot is not lost. They always have a backup somewhere else. I find this to be sound advice for the cautious geek.

Smart phone vs Wireless Coverage

Recently I started to compare the different apps that are available for different smart phones. I was under and overwhelmed at the same time. No surprise the phone with the most diverse and useful apps is the iPhone.

I'm currently on AT&T and I've yet to upgrade to the iPhone because I'm so disillusioned with the frequency of dropped calls. I'm hoping that Apple will be able to offer the iPhone to other networks other than AT&T before my contract is up in six months.

At this point it feels like I have two options: bit the bullet stay with AT&T and go with the upgrade. Or by Jail broke iPhone on eBay and go with T-Mobile. Unfortunately I have heard T-Mobile's not much better than AT&T as far as coverage goes in the Bay Area. I want to be on Verizon's network with the iPhone. Is that too much to ask? Coverage on any set in any location with the ability to access the applications and the functionality of the iPhone?

Conserving Color

Being able to print gallery quality prints at home is one of the many advantages of digital photography. There so many papers and ink combination's to choose from however I tend to get overwhelmed. The site that I tend to migrate to when I am thinking of trying new papers or inks its www.inkjetmall.com.

I was fortunate enough to attend a week long workshop with Jon Cone several years back. Not only is he a master printmaker he also has a black belt, is an excellent cook as well as down-to-earth and attentive to every question regardless of how mundane it feels like while asking.

The continuous inking system that he has pioneered is very environmentally friendly. You don't have to recycle used ink cartridges because you buy in bulk 8 or 16 ounce containers that you simply pour into your existing container. I have set this system up in labs before and though it looks like an octopus coming out of the ink cartridge area of your printer it works seamlessly.

Ektachrome

I remember the first time I saw an Ektachrome print in my color photography textbook. I noticed a little difference and I couldn't put my finger on it at the time. Later when I actually had the opportunity to see an Ektachrome chrome transparency projected, I then understood what the deal was. The color, saturation....the luminosity. The whole package. I was maybe 18 years old at the time and I went out and shot my first roll of transparency film.

To this day nothing is more satisfying than exposing a piece of transparency film, having it processed and then getting the whole piece of film with all of its saturation and texture in my hands. Tangibility.

I never actually shot a roll Ektachrome even in the early 90s labs were starting to not carry it much less process it. Back then if you shot a roll of 36 and got one frame you where doing really good, plus it just seemed over-the-top. I will miss seeing new images exposed on Ektachrome film. And I still feel so lucky be part of the photographic evolution.

Geotaging

As most photo advocates are aware, Geotagging it is now easier than ever. It's exciting to see software companies such as iPhoto picking up the ability to geotag after the fact. A few years back I was interested in the Nikon point and shot cameras because I really wanted to be a geotag. at the time geo-tagging in the camera was the only option; however now you can get SD cards that you can geo-tagged with any camera that runs on an SD card.

I feel like we are embarking upon the fourth dimension of photography. I look forward to the days where we can go to website and type in a longitude latitude coordination's - wait for the search engine to scrolls all of the different media feeds and/or Flickr; Facebook and other photo album sites for images that were shot at the co ordinance then display the living history. Over period of time years decades; we the Internet users will be co creating this living history of a specific site and/or area. What trees were there? When houses were there? When mountains where there? The color of the sky of the water. In a very geeky way I find this incredibly exciting and I'm looking forward it.

Viewing/Converting MAC formatted hard drive to Windows

Here is a useful tool that I have found that's free.

I do most of my image editing on a Windows machine. I realize that what I just said could be consider heresy. It's not to say that I don't love Macintosh computers, I do. I just have been using PCs for most of my life. I use Macintosh computers quite often on set and when supporting photographers in their studio. The fact of the matter remains I use a PC for most of my image editing.

Generally I don't have a problem plugging a hard drive in to a Macintosh downloading the files that I needed and then plugging that drive into my PC, to continue working on the files. One external hard drives that can make the transition from Mac to PC and then back from PC to MAC is Western Digital.

An example of a drive that does not make the transition would be leasing. Gratefully someone made a program that is free. It's called HFSExplorer and it works like a dream.

Simply install the software have it search for local drives it finds your Mac drive structure enables you to view it and transfer and/or convert the files that you desire on your PC. This software does not work if you want to transfer the files from your PC to a MAC formatted drive.

Back Up - hardware and software ideas

It’s time to back up
If you have not backup today you should. If it's not an automated backup why not?

Backup software:
Okay, so you are not ready to invest in new hardware. You have plenty of extra hard drives already.

Now what do you do with all of them to ensure that all of your images on all of your drives are backed up safely and consistently?
Automate you backup

The dmailer backup software is the solution that offers backing up of both PC and Macintosh files over the network at the same time. The benefits of using dmailer with Apple`s Time Machine backup feature is that it adds the capability to backup and restore individual Files and folders. FYI: This is SUPER COOL!

Avoid the hassle and risk of multiple external storage "solutions"
Consolidate Your Storage

Drobo is compatible with FireWire 800, 400 & with USB two. It is capable of RAID and offers up to 16 TB of storage. It comes with Drobos own backup software.

Iomega StorCenter Pro is either 2 or 4 TB solution that plugs into your network through a gigabit Ethernet connection. It offers RAID 10, and RAID 5 hard disk drive mirroring and/or striping. It has a built-in print server and four USB ports. It includes backup software.

Knowledge is power

A common question that I get from many of my friends and also from some professional photographers is how many megapixels (MB) is enough to get a good print? Or what is the difference between megapixels (MP) & megabytes (MB).

I'm not going to try to reinvent the wheel, there are literally hundreds of forums, blogs and websites that address this question. However, I recently discovered a site that has been around for several years that explains tech related jargon in very plain language.

Tech soup
A guide on resolution and size
A guide to file formats

Shooting film

I truly enjoy showing people my large format transparency shots on a light table. Who would've thought that this would have been so cliché even five years ago. I love watching the expression on their face as they try to search for the words to describe the luminosity, the color saturation and the overall sharpness of the image. I enjoy shooting film for many reasons one of the reasons is its tangibility, I can touch it feel the emulsion and dare I say I do enjoy the smell of the lab when I go to pick up my film.

I love film it's not to say that I don't respect and utilize digital when appropriate. I'm a digital tech that's what I do for a living I make my living from knowing what digital resources; whether it's software or hardware; can make a photographer more effective and efficient on set. With that said I feel lucky, I get to participate in the photographic industry at a time when it's transitioning and changing the way everyone is relating to and thinking about taking pictures. I feel like I'm watching history unfold right before me and what's even more inspiring is that I am participating in it by simply being a part of it.