Fear and the Dentist

I’m going to talk about something unrelated to photography today. Well not exactly, I guess it’s related to fear and can thus be applied to pretty much anything. Fear is a scary thing to paraphrase FDR, and I’m coming to believe that overcoming one can give you the confidence to tackle others.

I for one was, and I guess am, terrified of dentists. Pretty much anything to do with my teeth was enough to raise my heart rate just thinking about it. I think it started in my childhood. It seemed like every time I went to the dentist as a kid, I had cavities. I don’t know why that is, I must have genetically weak enamel or something. Even when I was brushing and trying to be good, still more cavities and the drilling and filling that went with them. Add to that 3 years of orthodontic work and a bit of oral surgery to go with it, as well as the extraction of 4 impacted wisdom teeth and what it adds up to in my mind is a scene from one of the SAW movies.

Well what this led to is avoidance. And avoidance is not a healthy thing to do. Some of you may think what follows is too much information, but i’m going to be open and honest on this one so bear with me. In the past 13 years of living in NYC I had gone to the dentist only twice, and to two different dentists. First one was back in 2000 or so for a cleaning and a filling at an office overlooking Rockefeller Plaza. A pretty bad experience overall. Guy was bad with a needle and overall made me feel crappy. Then in 2007 I was on a trip with my family and pulled out a filling with a piece of gum, which I rarely if ever chew. For the record I haven’t touched the stuff since. Well by the time I went in a couple months later to get it fixed, the guy had to drill away even more, getting dangerously close to having to get a root canal. Apparently I had a couple more little things he wanted to do but I just never went back. His offices were old and a little scary and he sang along with Simon and Garfunkel songs while he worked. He also told me stories of his father working as a dentist on the islands of the pacific in the Army during WWII. Apparently he has to run his drill with a foot pump. Nice guy in any other situation, but disconcerting to a phobic.

Now at this point many of you are saying, “Oh come off it, I’ve had root canal and lots of fillings, and I’m not crazy like you are, so get over yourself”. And that’s true if my mind were being rational about it. But fear is very often not about rationality, it’s about irrationality. It literally is about fear of fear itself. And while you might not be scared of the dentist, I’m sure there’s something that scares you just as badly. Public speaking scares the bejesus out of a lot of people but I kind of like it. I’m ok with snakes and spiders but cockroaches make me skeevy. I’ve got a friend who’s terrified of wet paper. Another for whom standing on a chair is unthinkable. We’ve all got our issue to be sure. And I’m beginning to think that they are a proxy for all of the things that make us scared or uncomfortable in our lives. For artists a lot of the fear is wrapped up in self-image. Standing up for yourself or your work, fear of failure, being scared that another idea will never come (that one is easy, it will). All of this is what makes art hard. It’s a personal pursuit and praise or attacks on the things you make are therefore taken personally. Sometimes it’s like trying to tease apart a rat’s nest of wires from behind a home theater. It’s all such a jumble that you can’t tell where one thing ends or begins. I’m not quite to the end yet myself, but I’m making progress.

To finish my own story, there was a tooth on the upper right side of my mouth that was sensitive lately and I knew that I’d eventually have to go to the dentist to get it checked out. I brush twice a day and whatnot and I know my teeth aren’t falling out of my head or anything, but still the idea of going to the dentist was terrifying to me. I’d been trying to eat away at the fear slowly by working my way up to it and mentally desensitizing myself over time. Well a couple of weeks ago Heather and I were watching Band of Brothers all the way through of the first time. Very heavy stuff but very well done if you haven’t seen them yet, do so. And while watching reenactments of men getting their legs blown off and crying for their mommies I had the realization that my going to the dentist really wasn’t anything in the grand scheme of things.

So I started doing some research. Did you know there are dentists in New York City who will put you out with general anesthesia with an IV in order to work on your teeth? That pulled me back from the brink of fear because I thought, “Hell, I’m not THAT bad”. Back in the real world I did a google search to get the number for the guy I went to last time in Columbus Circle and the first link that showed up was a Zoc Doc page for him, so I clicked through and while they had his info there, they also had a list of other dentists in the area, one of whom was a young woman with nothing but 5 star ratings. I had only ever had older men dentists so I thought I’d give it a try. It was now or never and so I just made the appointment before I lost my nerve.

Well I went to that checkup last week and the first of 4 follow-up procedures yesterday. Yes, 4 appointments, there’s that many things that need to get done to get my teeth into shape, but nothing major. Just a few small cavities and an old filling that is causing trouble. It adds up to thousands of dollars worth of pain on my credit card but it serves me right for ignoring it for so long. Was I scared going for the checkup? Yep. Terrified. Couldn’t sleep the night before. Was I scared yesterday before I went under the drill? Yep. But the Dr gave me some Xanax to take before I got there. My pulse was still racing, but I will say that it was the best dental experience I’ve ever had. I didn’t even feel the needle go in and the Bose noise-reduction headphones they handed me helped a bit too. No way to get too upset while listening to Tony Bennett and Bill Evans. A must have record in my opinion.

For those in NYC who are looking for someone new. Dr Julie Hassid has been amazing and you can tell her I told you so.

So the point of me telling you all this little tale is to say that phobias can be overcome. Will I require drugs to go see the dentist in the future? Yes probably the next few times, but maybe I’ll get to the point where I won’t need the crutch. The main advance is that my fear is not a singularity anymore. It’s not a black hole which I do anything not to look into. It’s not an absolute, instinctual, reflexive “NO!” anymore. Going to the dentist is still not something I look forward to doing, but I can overcome that fear and do it. And if that’s the case with my paralyzing fear, now I’m kind of looking for that next thing to tackle. Maybe it’ll be heights.

Screw that, I’m staying on the ground.

Why Film is Not like Vinyl Records – aka Say Goodbye to Kodak

Well now it’s actually happened. Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection this morning. The once juggernaut of the industry is now a very sick old man trying to sell it’s crown jewel patents to make some cash to stay alive just a little bit longer. It’s quite sad really, for Kodak the company, what’s left of its employees, and photographers everywhere. No word yet on if and how this will effect film production, but let’s all be honest here, film is going away and is not going to make an economical resurgence.

People point to the strength of the vinyl record business as proof that a niche product can re-emerge and thrive, but it’s a false comparison. I know a little bit about the record business actually as my father’s owned record stores and I myself have a degree in music and its production from Berklee College in Boston. Yes, there are more records sold now than at any time in the last decade. However it’s still only few percentage points of total music sold and there is evidence that the trend line has flattened out. This means basically that most of the people who are interested in buying a record player and phono preamp and records have already done so. Don’t get me wrong, I think this is super if that’s what you’re into (personally I’d prefer everything on SACD if I could get it, but that’s another story) And it’s also great for the small short run record plants around the country that were shuttered up in the 90′s. Those pressing machines are very mechanical and virtually indestructible, basically just a hydraulic piston, so I’m not surprised that a little oil and elbow grease brings them back to profitable life. Plus the vinyl blanks (basically just a 1″ think slab of vinyl about 6″ in diameter) are about as simple as can be.

The same is not true of film which is a very complex manufacturing process. It’s chemical, it relies by definition on very strict environmental and procedural controls. Even at its best it can vary greatly from batch to batch of the same stock. All of this means that it’s very much a product which thrives on volume production. The more you make, the cheaper you make it and thus the cheaper you can sell it. The prices of all films that I use have gone up a fair amount over the past few years. And that’s just the films I can still get unlike the Polaroid 55 and Scala which I can’t. When I started out in this field about 10 years ago the film counter at B&H here in NYC was 40 feet long, now it’s barely 10. Likewise there were at least 4 rows of darkroom equipment, now it’s less than 1 all the way in the back right next to the bathrooms.

And there is one of the big problems. Film is a two step process. There’s buying the film and then there’s getting it processed. There are still a few pro labs in the city but the prices have gone up and the lead times have grown. Used to be that you could get a roll of E6 medium format slides back in a couple hours, now to do it same day is an extra rush fee. Luckily I’ve still got a place in my neighborhood that will run my C-41 roll through the machine in 10 minutes for $4. But it used to be $2 only back in 2007 and Connie is giving me a deal because she likes me. Her costs for chemicals have doubled. CVS still has a photo lab, but the quality is crappy and I doubt it will be there in a year anyway. And I live in New York City!, can you imagine what it must be like to get film processed in East Haverton, LA?

How many photographers that want to shoot film are prepared to do all their own processing? Let’s be honest, most of these chemicals are pretty noxious. Kodachrome was a 6 step process from what I recall and the constituent chemicals were so nasty, complex, and expensive that Kodak just stopped making them a couple years ago. Mass outrage on the web and in media, but I didn’t see any other company come in and offer to buy the patents to make Kodachrome. It’s just not profitable, and that’s what it all comes down to.  Don’t get me wrong, I like film too. I love the look of old 50′s Kodachrome especially when it’s by Saul Leiter. But I’m just being rational.  I’m sure there will remain a few boutique companies who make batches of film and chemicals for the die-hards. Places like Photographers’ Formulary, but it’s going to be very very niche.

Also, I think that people’s love of records has as much to do with a reaction to the fast paced “everything at your fingertips” nature of the modern world as it does the sound. People like the idea of slowing life down. Listening to one album at a time, having to flip the record after 20 minutes, just like their parents did when they were kids.  The same is true in the wizbang automatic world of modern cameras to be sure, but I don’t think all the way back to film is what people are looking for. I think they’re the market who is so interested in the recent crop of cameras with physical manual controls and retro styling. All the convenience of digital with the styling of your grandfather’s Leica.  Which I’m all for by the way. That new Fuji X Pro 1 while having a terrible name is a pretty sexy piece of kit.  Expensive for what you’re getting at around $2400 for a body and lens, but very attractive.  If I had it to do I’d still go for an M9 though. If only it was half the price and still used a thumb lever to cock the shutter. Oh well <sigh>

And finally, film was designed for printing, something that not too many people do very often anymore (Though I think they should). Scanning film yourself is a massively time consuming and frustrating affair, not to mention the post scan dust cleaning and color correction.  Sending them out is easier, but still takes a while and is expensive if you want it done right.

I’m not a big fan of making my digital pictures look like they were taken on film however.  Leave sloppy edges for when you actually shoot film. And don’t get me started on the Hipstamatic revolution. Ya, let’s take my nice 5MP nearly perfect reproduction of the scene and make it into a 600px grainy, out-of-focus, color shifted mess. Silly if you ask me.  That said, I do add a bit of grain to low ISO photographs from my 5D2. It’s like the whole thing is a little too perfect. Requires a little dither to look organic and ‘right’. So go out and shoot some film while you still can, because someday soon it’s not going to be an viable option.

Canon 5D Mark II Review Redux

I’ve had my Canon 5d II for over 3 years now, having gotten one a couple months after it came out in 2008. Still today it’s largely without peer. Full frame, 20+ MP resolution, low noise, all for a little over two grand? Yes please. As a photographic tool it’s just outstanding in almost every respect, holding it’s own against a 60MP monster back in March. Overall I’ve been very very happy with it, in fact I just did a check of my total shutter actuations and I’ve apparently taken 76,627 pictures over the course of the 3 years. For someone who shoots weddings and events, that’s a months work, but for me I’d say that it gives me enough experience to take another look at it’s foibles.

As I’ve said above, as a photographic tool, it’s great.  The image quality is terrific, usually limited by the lenses you put in front of the sensor. I’ve made big 30×48″ prints that look fantastic even up close. Battery life is fantastic as well.  I don’t shoot a ton each day, but if I’m going away for a week’s trip, I don’t even bother bringing the charger and I’m rarely less than half full when I get back. Maybe there’s room for even a little more dynamic range in the next revision, but then I’m just complaining to complain.

That said there are things that drive me nuts every time I pick it up. First is sound and speed of the mirror.  I know it’s a big chunk of glass and this is not a 1D body, but honestly, every time I press the shutter I expect pin, rod, or spring to come loose and pop out of the viewfinder. Not solid in the slightest.  It wasn’t when I got it and it’s not now. There’s also a pretty big viewfinder blackout where the mirror is out of position.  Honestly, these two little things go a LONG way to making a camera feel more professional.  Everytime I pick up a 1D or Nikon D3 I’m reminded of where the extra three thousand bucks must be going.  And I had a 1Ds3 which I sold to get the 5D2. Very similar sensor, smaller size and weight, better screen, 1/3rd the price. It’s a no brainer, but I still miss the feel of the big brother.

It’s a little thing, but the fact that you can only do 3 shot +/- 2 stop bracketing is sad.  Nikon cameras will do up to 7 shots at +/- 3 stops from what I understand.  And this is software guys, it’s not like it’s a whole lot of engineering work to do.  Give a programmer the morning to write the code and the afternoon to get the bugs out and then roll it into the next build of the firmware.

I find that tethered shooting is unreliable.  The connection to the computer times out quickly and is hard to get going again.  I’ve seen this both in the Canon software and using Lightroom 3 to do the work.  In this day and age, that should be kids stuff.  I’m not sure which side the problem is on, but it’s annoying nonetheless.

1080p video is great, though I rarely use it.  The 7D however can record at 720p at 60fps which you can then slow to half speed to do some slow motion work, however the 5D can’t do it. I’ve heard it’s a hardware limitation in some way, but annoying because the 5D should be the more powerful camera.

Speaking of the 7D I’ve got to bring up the 5D2′s auto-focus. It’s pretty bad.  It was pretty bad and outdated when the camera came out 3 years ago, hell it was somewhat outdated when it was the AF system on the original 5D 6 years ago.  The less expensive 7D which came out a few months later got an updated AF system which is a little embarrassing.  Canon, couldn’t you have waited a few months and gotten it into the 5D as well?  It’s fine for the most part, but in lower light situations it’s useless. I’m a center focus point single shot user anyway so I rarely use the fancier tech but for the times when I’ve tried it I’ve mostly given up.

I’m sure there are more, but that’s enough for now, I’ll be sure to add to the list if I come up with anything.  That said, there’s not really any camera on the market within my budget that I’d rather use, so for an old camera it’s doing ok.

Photographers No Longer Power Users?

Almost 3 years ago I build the desktop computer I’m still using as my primary editing machine. Sure, I added an SSD a couple years ago, upgraded the video card to one which was more Hackintosh friendly, and doubled the RAM because it was on sale a few months ago, but essentially it’s the same computer based on Intel’s original i7 ‘Nahalem’ platform. A 920 CPU to be exact. Well Intel has finally released its successor, the so-called SandyBridge-E and you know what?  For the first time in my life, I’m not itching to upgrade my computer.

Recent History
For those of you who want particulars, let’s back up for just one second and retrace Intel’s path. You can alternately just jump down to “What does this all mean” below.  To break it down simply, you could say that Intel has two different consumer lines: One for ‘normal’ people and one for ‘enthusiasts’. Usually the ‘normal’ platforms are a slight bit slower with fewer memory channels which limits you to less system memory slots and smaller caches. Very similar, but there are differences.  The ‘enthusiast’ platforms tend to be almost identical to the Xeon server chips which Apple for instance uses in their Mac Pro.  The only real-world difference is that the Xeon’s are able to be used in Multi-processor configurations. So if you buy a single processor Mac Pro, you could get the same amount of number crunching power for a lot less money.

Ok, so here is the short history.  Back in late 2008, Intel released the original i7 ‘Nahalem’ which I’m still using.  A few months later they released the ‘normal’ version based on their ‘Lynnfield’ core.  Both were great platforms but the former had 6 memory slots and the later 4. Being a Photoshop guy, I like RAM, so I was glad that I went with the ‘enthusiast’ part.  A couple of years of more incremental upgrades and Intel finally comes out with the ‘Sandy Bridge’ processor last January. It was great, really fast, ran cool, and if you got the more expensive ones (2600k), it overclocked like the dickens.  You could build a great little machine around it, but it only offers 4 memory slots max, which limits you to 16GB of RAM if you use 4GB sticks. I know there are 8GB dimms, but they’re still way too expensive (about 4 times what the 4GB dimms cost) and a year ago were doubly so.  16GB of RAM sounds a lot, but I don’t want to be stuck there if I keep the new computer for another 3 years especially since it would be a step back from the 24GB I’m running now.

So finally last week Intel released the replacement for the original ‘Nahalem’ part called ‘Sandy Bridge E’  where the E stands for enthusiast or extreme or some such.  The first ones they released were 6 core monsters starting at $500 for the cpu alone. They give a 20-30% improvement in Photoshop benchmarks which is because Photoshop isn’t well multi-threaded, meaning it’s going to waste much of the power of the extra cores.  And that’s in a benchmark which measures how long it takes to run a bunch of filters and conversions. Not the kind of thing I’m doing for 98% of the time I’ve got a stylus in my hand. Frankly, I’m a little be disappointed.

What does this all mean?
Well, first of all it means that I don’t think I’ll be upgrading my machine any time soon.  I’ve got 24GB of RAM and my i7 overclocked to 3.4Ghz so I’m still doing just fine in the number crunching department. Would the new CPU speed up RAW file conversion in Lightroom?  I’m sure it would, but not enough to justify spending $1000 on the hardware I’d need to make the leap.

I guess the bigger question is if we’ve gotten to the point where photo editing (even the 16 bit 20+MP files with 30 layer stuff that I’m typically doing), no longer requires the latest and greatest.  I can remember when photo, 3D rendering, and video were the trifecta of use-cases that people would alway pull out when someone asked why ‘faster’ was better. You might say that we’re down to two. And even then, you can certainly cut video on a Macbook Air, you just wouldn’t want to render it on one. That’s all a little bit crazy to me.

I’d say that if you’re running a quad-core CPU and 16-24GB of memory and have an SSD as your boot/applications drive, you’re in the butter zone.  Yes, faster machines exist, but I doubt the difference in real-world usage would blow your hair back.  I’m sure there are a handful of editors out there who are building panoramas from multiple 60MP medium format files and require more than this, but that’s way at the end of the curve.

Now, I’m not suggesting that can use a Macbook Air as your main editing station. It’s maximum of 4GB of memory and slower dual-core CPU are designed for small size and lower power usage. Though they make a fine travel machine and for use tethered on set in my experience. Just don’t expect a lot.

That said, a quad-core Macbook Pro or 27″ iMac with an SSD and enough RAM would be just fine.  That’s actually a little tough for me to say, it’s been so long that I’ve been fighting for faster machines.  I guess the only problem with those computers for photo editing is that their screens are good and not great, but you could alway plug them into a nice pro NEC panel.  Yum.

For me, I’m going to stick with the two machine scenario. My one big 3 year old hackintosh desktop with lots of internal drives and a little 13″ Air for travel. I guess I’ll just keep reading anandtech.com and hope that intel surprises me with its next trick, Ivy Bridge.

Shooting Art Workshop Notes

I was asked to do a workshop at Pratt to show some grad students how to photograph art for their portfolios and websites and such. So I’ve spent some time putting together notes for my presentation and figured I’d write it up as a post for those who missed it or as a refresher for those who attended.  I’m going to assume some photographic knowledge on how to use a camera and lights and that you how they work and such.

Preparation
First things first, you’ve got to get the art ready. Remove it from from any frame or at least remove the glass if the frame is part of the art.  Flatten any curled papers by sandwiching them between some books for a while or have them pinned down on the corners so you have a nice flat surface to shoot.  Some people use an easel to hold the art, or use binder clips attached to a wall in order to hold it vertically without having to pin through it.  I’ve also see artist’s tape attached to the back side of the corners of the art and tacks or more tape the other way used to attach it to a wall.  When it comes to 3D art or sculpture, make sure everything is clean and you have a good setting to shoot it in.  Don’t forget about the background.  You generally want a nice neutral color behind the work if possible.

Lighting
When it comes to lighting you may be surprised to find out that you don’t always need fancy lights. In fact, a nice even indirect Sunlight is a great source, nice and soft. In fact it’s what we’re going to try to mimic when we don’t have it available. For best results you’ll generally need quite a bit of light in order to use your camera at the lowest noise and highest sharpness settings.

Flat art and sculpture will generally require different lighting setups because in one you’re trying to minimize shadow and in the other you try to use it to your advantage. That said, even with flat art you may want to light the work more from one direction. Does the work require texture? It may have a surface you want reflected in the picture, things like canvas, finer papers, or the impasto technique in painting for instance.

Once you decide what you’re goal is you can setup some lights.  Basically two different options, continuous or flash. The advantage of continuous is that it’s WYSIWYG so you see what the light is going to look like in the picture, and they’re cheaper, however you need to take more care to get the color right and they don’t put out as much light as strobes so you’ll need longer shutter speeds all things being equal.  Flashes on the other hand put out nearly perfect light at whatever amount you need, though they’re a bit harder to use in practice. Either way you’re usually going to want to spread the light out to be softer, using umbrellas or softboxes or similar tools.

For most work, two lights is more than ideal, one on each side of the flat work to fill in each other’s shadows. As far as distance goes, because light falls off in an exponential fashion, you’ll get more even light across a larger area if you back the light up a bit. Though this property can be used to the opposite effect in sculpture by using closer up spots to highlight parts of the work. Don’t forget too that even if you have only two lights, you can mimic a third fill light by using a reflector.

So the place to start is two lights, both in front, one on either side for flat objects like papers, canvases, and such.  For 3D objects, try one up front right as your main or ‘key’ light and then a second around the other side and slightly behind to give the left side an edge and some dimensionality.  Move and shoot to taste.

Color
When it comes to getting the correct color in the photographs you must remember that all light is not equal. The main thing you need to worry about is color temperature.  Just like how you’ll notice that things look warmer and more orange with old school incandescent light bulbs, you need to tell the camera what kind of light you’re using so it can compensate. The three you’ll ever probably use are Daylight, Tungsten (fancy name for normal light bulbs) and Fluorescent. Almost all digital cameras allow you to manually set the white balance, called WB on some systems. If you shoot RAW files instead of Jpeg right out of the camera, you can effect the white balance in a computer in post-production.  This is arguably the more accurate method, but it doesn’t hurt to get it close in the camera just to see what you’re doing while shooting.

If you’re really anal about such things and color is important to you, make sure you’re on a good calibrated screen and also shoot a color chart or grey cards to give yourself a reference to work with. More on this later.

Camera
Don’t forget, you may not need to use a camera. If you’re work is small enough you can get arguably better results from a scanner.  You say your painting is 3’ wide?  Ok, well read on then.

Even though you may be doing all of this to go on a website at lower resolution, when in doubt work on bigger files.  You never know when you’re going to need a high-res copy to sell print reproductions or to give to the authorities when your painting gets stolen from the Uffizi

You can of course use just about any camera, but you we’ll use a dSLR. However in a punch I think you could even use an iphone if you had to.  You want to use longer lenses (more telephoto) when possible because it flattens perspective and allows you to move further away from the work so that the likelihood of reflections from the lights is less.  Prime lenses tend to be sharper across the frame than zooms, though both can be used.  Better lenses also have less geometrical distortions which you wouldn’t notice when taking a picture of your friend on the street, but become very obvious when you’re shooting a perfect rectangle and the sides look like they’re bulging out.

You’ll want to shoot straight on from the middle of the work to reduce key stoning.  I’ve also shot straight down depending on size of work. The floor makes a nice flat surface to shoot at.

Exposure
Ok, so you’re ready to actually take the pictures.  If you can, use a tripod if possible, that’ll make getting the shot straight on and longer exposures possible if you’re using continuous lights. Use the lowest possible ISO, 100 or 200 are great, that will make sure you have as little noise as possible in the images.

If you’re using continuous lights, set your camera to Aperture Priority (“Av”), that way it’ll take care of the shutter speed. Lenses are sharper in the corners if you stop down the lens, so if you have enough light, stop the camera down to it’s optimal aperture, usually somewhere between f/8-f/11, but try to make sure you’re at at least f/5.6 for best results.

If you’re using flashes, you’ll want to shoot in Manual Mode (“M”). Set the shutter speed to 1/160th of second, and stop the lens down to f/8.  Back in the day you would have used a light meter to set the power of your flashes, but now with digital you can just as easily take some test shots and adjust the level of your lights to taste.

Use the cameras Histogram to gauge exposure. Make sure you’re nothing is way off either end of the spectrum, though unless your piece is extremely contrasty, you should worry more about not clipping the highlights.

Post-production
Once you’ve gotten the shots you need you can use Photoshop or Lightroom to fix geometric and perspective issues. Crop, and use the grey card you shot earlier to set the back, white and grey points to get your color corrected. Often the images will require a bit of sharpening to look their best. Use small radius and don’t overdo it. If you’re sharpening in Photoshop, use the “Smart Sharpen“ filter instead of “Unsharpen Mask” for best results.

Wrap-up
Things can get crazy from here. How to deal with translucent objects and reflective pieces, oddball perspectives like shooting from above or below, stitching together multiple shots of a larger work that won’t fit into frame well. Those are all subjects bigger than I want to get into, but I’m sure the stuff above is enough to get your started.

Hard Drive Hard Choices

If you at all follow technology and haven’t been on vacation on a beach somewhere for the past 3 weeks you may have noticed that storage has gotten a lot more expensive. The 2TB WD Green drives which I use to store images have gone from around $79 to $129 to $149 in a matter of days. And no more free shipping. Not good news for those of us who use a lot of drive space.

The reason behind all of this is the flooding currently happening in Thailand. Apparently a very heavy monsoon season is pummeling them. This is obviously a terrible human tragedy, around 400 people have died at last count with millions displaced from their homes. The bad news in tech land is that a huge percentage of hard drives are put together in Thailand, and even worse news is that around 90% of some of the components like the main motors are made in Thailand, which means that even companies which manufacture their drives elsewhere are screwed.

Estimates I’ve heard recently indicate that it may take them a few quarters to get things back to where they were once the water recedes, and that there are only a couple of months worth of inventory in the pipeline. Put this together and it means we’re in for a bad winter if you need drive space.

The question is, what to do about it. I’ve got a couple of spare 2TB drives in my case which should give me more than enough bits to get through, but still makes me nervous. What happens if I have multiple failures or get inordinately busy? One possible option is to do a bit of hoarding now. They’re expensive for sure, but maybe the price will go up to $300 in a couple months and I can sell a couple of the drives I bought for $150 on ebay at net gain. Fantasy? I’m not sure. I’ve watched them double already on NewEgg and that’s before the real shortages occur, when things are just out of stock.

So if you see a good deal at Costco, you might want to pick up a few before it’s too late.

Think I’m crazy? Feel free to comment and let me know.

Vagabond Mini Battery Powered

If you’re out on a shoot in a situation with no access to a power outlet, you’ve got a handful of options to get you through. First I guess is to stick with available light, which I tend to do a lot, however you’re at the whim of the sun. Second is to use speedlights, which are surprisingly capable as people like David Hobby have shown with his Strobist zeitgeist. They do have limits on their power however which makes shooting them into a 4 foot octabox less practical. So what do you do if you need a big powerful light in the middle of nowhere? Well on really big shoots you could use a generator, but the cool way to do it is with battery powered studio strobes.

I’ve owned and used a Profoto AcuteB pack and head for a couple of years now. The light out of it is typical Profoto beautiful and smooth, and it’s simple well as relatively compact to boot. The problem is that I don’t use it very often and I think the lead acid battery is dying on me. Honestly, I get maybe 100 pops at half power (on a 600ws light) before it starts complaining by slowing down recycle times and beeping to tell me I’m going too fast.

Well last night I went to shoot a ukulele player I know up on a midtown roof at sunset. I needed to balance the light from the remaining sun on the buildings behind him with a big soft light source on Paul. Normally this would be a job for the Acute, but Dan came along with me and instead brought a 1600ws White Lightning head and his recently aquired Paul Buff Vagabond Mini battery. And I’ll get right to the point, this little thing blew me away.

I shot over 300 shots with the light around half power into a big octabox about 8ft away from the subject and the little thing didn’t even flinch. In fact when we were all done it was still somewhere between 50%-75% charged. And it’s only $240. Granted, you still need to buy a light to use it with, but even with that taken into account it’s still less than a third of what you’d pay for the Profoto which in my experience can’t hold a candle to the versatility of the Vagabond.

Is the light from the White Lightning strobe quite as nice as the Profoto head? Maybe not exactly as nice, but still pretty great, and the Vagabond has two outlets so you can plug in two lights to one battery where the AcuteB can only power one head. They even say you could use a power strip and go up to 4 lights which is just insane from something the size of a brick that weighs 3.5 pounds.

I’m honestly considering selling the Acute and buying one of these. It was really that great. The only downside I see is that you’re now carrying a battery pack and the monolight vs a pack and lightweight head. But that’s a bit of a 6 of one kind of thing. And your clients may not be quite as impressed as if it said Profoto or Broncolor on the side, but the results should make up for it and your wallet will thank you.

By the way, I have no affiliation with the Buff people, I just think this product is amazing. Though if they sent me one as a thank you, I might just keep it.

Research

A big part about connecting to your subject in portrait photography, or at the very least getting them to feel comfortable, is to know a bit about them. This helps both in the obvious case of conversation, but also in reading their mood and body language. I’m lucky in that I can talk to just about anybody (A gift of my father I think), but knowledge is definitely power. And the way to get that knowledge is through a little research. Now, I don’t do this for everyone I take pictures of, but often I’ll do it for editorial shoots especially when I’ll probably only have less than an hour of their time. Small talk about the weather is fine, but to me it often sounds like practiced banter and that doesn’t help the cause. Have something to say about what they’re interested in and you’ve got some power. Not only have you shown them that they’re not just another job, but you also get them really thinking about the questions rather than the artificial situation of sitting in front of a camera lens.

For example, this morning I was doing a little research on a subject I’m shooting later this afternoon. Author, college professor, ok I could get that information in the assignment email. But that’s going to get you conversation about how his books do on amazon and if this years crop of students is up to snuff. Fine and better than the weather, but just so. The magazine also sent me a draft of the article the portraits are running with. So that gave me a little bit about his new book and the trilogy it’s a part of, but it doesn’t tell me much about him as a person.

Next step is Google. Wikipedia entries, written interviews, etc are all great. Also check Google Images to see if there are other shots of the guy. That might give you some ideas on how to photograph him and at a more basic level whether or not he’s photogenic. Sometimes you get a tough subject and need to plan your lighting and equipment accordingly. I also find it handy to see if there’s any video of them online as well. Them giving a talk at a conference or getting interviewed for TV and such. Knowing how the person looks in motion and the tone of their voice can make meeting them for the first time less jarring because you know what to expect.

Finally comes a little research into their field. Knowing the guy is in finance is good, but knowing that he works in the international bond market is better. That way you can do a five minute read on the subject and not sound like an idiot when you ask him what he does. I once shot a guy who was an oil market analyst. He had been on Charlie Rose, so I watched that, and read a few bios and interviews, but then I did a little reading on recent volatility in the oil market and what was causing it. Read an article on recent discoveries in Kazakhstan and oil shale in Canada, and learned a bit about the concept of peak oil. So when I showed up the next day, Charley and I hit it off like crazy. I asked him interesting questions and he gave interesting answers. So not only did I make his experience more enjoyable and less artificial, but I got better pictures because he was comfortable AND I learned something to boot.

Some of you reading this must be thinking that I sound bat shit crazy, and that’s ok. I’m not looking for cookie cutter in my work, I want each experience to be unique and interesting. In fact, the pictures and the money are all well and good, but in some ways it’s the people whom I’ve met that have made taking portraits rewarding. If the cost of doing that well is an hour or so of browsing the web to do some slightly obsessive pre-shoot research? Well, I think I can live with that.

My thoughts on the Kindle Fire

Earlier in the week Amazon announced their new family of Kindle devices and even though they’re not available for a few weeks, I figured I’d write up my thoughts so that people can have a record to skewer me with if my predictions south.  For those of you who listen to my Circuitous Conversations podcast with Dan Gottesman, go check out the latest episode #57 where we do a half hour rundown.  For those of you who don’t podcast, here’s what I think.

The new e-ink readers look good.  I’ve got a Kindle 3 I really like, but the idea of an even smaller Kindle Touch device for $99?  You honestly can’t beat it.  There is also a new one with buttons for $79, but I’d say spend the extra $20 and get the Touch. Well worth the aggravation tax to not have to input text like a game code on Metroid back in 1988. One letter at a time. Some people are upset because the new Kindles come with the so-called “Special Offers” by default. Yes, these are ads, but they’re pretty unobtrusive. A small sliver on the main menu and they replace the ‘screen-saver’ pictures of old dead authors with ads for books or whatever? They’re not there when you’re reading or pretty much any time you’re using the device, so who cares? It’s $99 for a top of the line touch controlled e-reader and started at $399 just a few years ago. It’s almost an impulse buy at that price.  I’m also a WiFi guy on the Kindle. I know that the price of the 3G version includes lifetime internet for the device anywhere in the world, but if you’ve ever tried to check your email or browse the web on an e-ink screen, you’ll know that you’d be far better off using your phone. I’ll just fill mine up with books before I leave, thanks.

I think the Kindle Fire looks pretty damn awesome and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t think the iPad is from the grace of God. I’m of the opinion that 10″ is just too big to carry around, and that is the promise of a tablet to me.  Sitting around the house or reading in bed is great, but I can do that on my laptop and I don’t have to hold the screen up vertically the whole time. As a city dweller, the promise of a device with books, music, movies, magazines, etc on the subway is a grand one. And I know that my phone can do all of this, but I’m sorry, watching a movie on a 3.5″ screen is not something I do unless I have to. 3.5″ too small, 10″ too big,  7″ might be the Goldilocks ideal. Especially when you consider that the screen is 16:9 and not 4:3 like the iPad, which means that the actual size of widescreen movies won’t be that different between the two, you’ll just get more movie and less letterbox.

Dual core A9 processor, 8GB of internal storage, WiFi, Gorilla Glass, 8 hour battery. Yum. And as someone who likes Android and wants it to succeed, this is also a boon.  Though from what I understand, Amazon has actually branched it’s own versino off the Gingerbread codebase and put their own skin on top.  From what I’ve seen it looks great and is smooth and fast, unlike every skin I’ve ever seen for the OS. This also leads to the promise of adding apps from the Amazon marketplace.  The Google apps (Gmail, Maps, Navigation, etc) are nowhere to be found because it’s not a pure Google device, but I’d be willing to bet $100 that we’ll see custom ROMs and ways around that within weeks of launch.

Some people point to the size and lack of cameras and bluetooth support (for external keyboards and such) as evidence that this is a pure consumption device unlike the iPad which people use to create content. But I’m willing to bet that this is exactly how the vast majority of iPad owners use theirs. It’s for browsing the web, and reading facebook and email, and watching movies.  Sure there is a subset of people who actually write on the iPad or make music with it, but I have a feeling that’s what floats to the top of the publicity pile, not what actual users are doing. At least that’s been my experience.

Perhaps the best feature of all is the price. As the old adage says, Apple has content stores to sell the hardware where Amazon has the hardware to sell the content.  And this shows in the price.  $199. That’s less than half the price of an iPad.  I couldn’t justify a tablet at $500, I can at $200.

Isn’t it just a portal to Amazon’s content stores?  Sure it is, but really no more than the iPad, there’s just less subterfuge about it. They’ll admit it right on the surface. I guess we’ll know more once the devices get in reviewers hands, but if it’s anything close to how good it looks right now, then Amazon’s got a huge hit on their hands. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold 8 or 10 million for Christmas.  Finally some competition for Apple.  They’ve had it too easy for far too long.

If you’re thinking about checking out the new Kindle anyway, do it through this links and you’ll support the work we do on this site.

Turning Points

I spent this weekend walking around Washington DC with my partner Heather and our British friends colloquially known as ‘The Brits’. A full 11 hours on Saturday where I led them through The Capitol, Air and Space Museum, National Archives, American History Museum, Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, MLK Memorial, FDR Memorial, and finally the Jefferson Memorial. That was just Saturday, we did another half day on Sunday, and we walked the whole way both days.

Small photographic opportunities came up and although I was carrying my Leica M4, I only ended up taking one picture with it. That’s right, one single frame. Pulling out a light meter and fiddling with aperture and focus settings and soon the moment is gone. Plus the hassle and cost of processing and the time spent scanning hung over me like a shoe that would eventually drop.

I could have brought my Canon 5D2, but a prime lens would be limiting and a zoom is just too big and heavy. I just don’t enjoy having a couple of pounds pulling on my neck all day long.

I did however take 30 or so photos. “With what?” you say? “With my iPhone”, I answer. Seriously. Is it a great camera? Nope, but it’s a decent one. Especially for an occasional shot to put on your facebook or send to my mother. The other great feature is that I carry it around with me all the time anyway, so in a sense I get something for nothing.

If you look at the 365.2011 posts from this weekend. The rainbow, the Capitol rotunda, and the grave at Arlington Cemetery were all taken with my phone. Would a good little compact like an S95 or an LX3 take better pictures? Of course, but I’ve never been able to justify a $400 purchase for the couple times a year I’d actually use it. I’ve tried small cameras over the years but they tend to sit in my closet unused. Plus, how big would I ever print one of these out anyway. Assuming enough light and good sharpness, I’m sure the 5MP of the iPhone would make a nice 8×10″ print anyway. In fact let me pause here and do a test.

Ok, I’m back. Printed an 8×10 of the Capitol picture and you know what? It looks pretty darn good. Not as good as it could have looked had I used my 5D or even a better compact, but it’s just fine for a travel snapshot. A extra small radius sharpening and I’d be perfectly happy. Remember that I’m a portrait photographer. So when I travel, taking pictures is not the goal. In other words I take pictures when I travel, I don’t travel to take pictures.

Also, I’m sure there are a bunch of other android phones and such with great cameras too, I’m not singling out Apple, though whatever camera module they chose is pretty great. Certainly a step up from the toy in the 3G. I wish they would put a simple exposure compensation slider in the camera app though. Maybe next time.

So what does this all mean. Well I guess it means that I’ve proven that I’m fine with snapshots from my phone. Something I honestly never thought I’d say. It also means that I’ll probably use my film cameras even less going forward. It was kind of like the moment when you realize that you’ve fallen out of love with someone. There’s really no way to forget that you’ve thought it. I’m heading out west in a couple weeks to see some national parks and will most likely bring my Canon, those places deserve it. However the next time I’m taking a trip to Disney World, I’ll most likely be leaving my cameras at home.