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We all like to save money dont we? I mean, business is a bit slow with the economy and whatnot so everyone likes to save here or there. There are coupons, deals, specials, closeouts, eBay and Craigslist. But one place where it’s foolish to try and save too much on are your critical pieces for your business. Take computers for example. I use Macs.. I have twelve of them of various types and ages. My main computer is a MacPro dual quad. This was a three thousand dollar computer new, I bought it used off Craigslist last year from someone who bought it as a “trophy” and now needed cash. I ended up getting a great deal on it too. Why did I spend about double of a home brew clone that could have been hacked to run OSX? Because I tried the clone and after dealing with not working pieces, no support except what I could dig up on Google and spending HOURS getting it finally work right just to have it die on an update, I decided enough was enough. I could not count on it when I needed to work the most. Saving one thousand dollars was costing me more in lost time, productivity and more. It was cheaper over the year to buy the real Mac used then it was to try and save more by a hack job.
I still have my Hackintosh.. actually, I have two of them. I have a Dell netbook and my first tower with a single Quad. As it turns out, the Hackintosh works great as a media center in my office. Or it did until the EFIx card that let it run OSX died. So I ended up wasting a day putting it back together another way that did not need the card. And it reminded me why over a year ago I stopped using the Hackintosh as my main computer.
Sometimes trying to save money will cost you a considerably amount in the future. This lesson is why I buy the best camera bodies I can buy, the best lenses and the best software even though it hurts to write those checks. I get support, I get efficiency and I get peace of mind. There are some places you can cut a corner or two and get away with it but you need to always think ahead and ask yourself, “what if”. What if your deal dies in the middle of a work day? What if your deal cant be upgraded? What if your deal turns out to be a trojan horse that ends up letting bad things on your computer (think bit torrents and the like). As a hobbiest, one can get away with alot more than as a business person. Because as a business, there is far too much at stake ranging from your client’s images to your profits.
There are places you can save ALOT with some careful shopping. Take lenses for example, there are many high lenses for sale on eBay that are what I call “trophy glass”. Someone bought them when they were flush with cash and now they need cash. I bought my 17-55mm F2.8 for less than half of what a new lens would cost and I sent it Nikon for refurbishment. Even then, I was at a bit over half price of a new boxed lens and I had a “new” used lens. My 70-200mm F2.8 was the same way but not quite as a good deal but better than buying new by four hundred or so. One D300 was a factory refurb and the other came used from B&H and had a 30 day promise of replacement if needed. Both were several hundred cheaper than a new boxed camera. That right there more than paid for the MacPro.
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So I survived Vegas with it’s 30 dollar lunches, 25 dollar shots of Scotch and my cheap room at Mandalay bay. I guess it all balances in the end since I did not give a nickel to the slots. The keynote was awesome, the Tweet up was alot of fun, the Expo was crazy good fun and I did sneak out early because of the holiday and trying to fly home on Friday.
I split my time with several class this time. I noticed that in 2007 which was the last time I was there at PSW, I saw 95% software based classes. This time, the tracks were split between real photography classes and software like Painter, Photoshop and such. I ended wishing I could attend them all but settled on a mix of classes
My preconference class was “The Art of the Digital Canvas” with Faye Sirkis and I had high hopes for the class since I really wanted to see how to make CS5 work with the new bristle brushes. But, the class fell short of my expectations between a lack of real meat in the class and technical issues with CS5. The good news is that was the only class that fell short in my opinion. The two classes I took with Joe McNally were awesome to be in and Joe has a very good sense of presentation with humor and solid information. I took a Fashion Portrait class with David Cuerdon who I found relatively recently on Kelby’s training site and have decided that I really, really like his style and teaching methods.. The fashion class was a wealth of info on how to shoot and more importantly, retouch the shots effectively.
Zack Arias did a couple of classes but the one I went to was “Stuff you need to know to be a photographer” and as always, Zack did a bang up job of getting down to the nuts and bolts of being successful as a photographer and to figure out what is really important to you and and your craft. A hint, passion only gets you so far as a photographer.
I did the concert and event photographer on something of a lark and it was very interesting to hear how it works behind the scenes as it were. Also the choice of gear, how to get the pass and what to expect as a photographer at a concert. Alan Hess did a very good job at showing the class the real world of Concert photography and proving that yes, you can have fun while working for a living 
Here are some random shots from the trip. I split my shooting between my Canon G11 and my D300. Both worked well but the Canon struggled with the low light in the classes. The D300 would work but only but shooting at 2.8 with ISO 3200 or 6400. I was really wishing for a FX camera and ISO 25,000 The NAPP Keynote was completely shot using the G11 and it did very well considering I had the zoom maxed out and the lighting was so bad. The class shots of Joe McNally were taken with the D300 at ISO 6400.
Zack Arias
Mac Classic and Photoshop V1
Metal prints were the hot item
Scott giving away his Flying V to Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen
JohnnyL Adobe GM Digital Media
Photoshop Keynote
Scott Kelby and NAPP (KISS cover ala Spinal tap)
Scott Kelby and NAPP (KISS cover ala Spinal tap)
Scott Kelby and NAPP (KISS cover ala Spinal tap)
Home Base
Mandalay Bay Lobby Entrance
Photoshop TV LIVE
Joe McNally
Small Flash Class by Joe McNally
Joe McNally in action
My view while blogging at Mandalay Bay
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It happens to everyone and not just photographers. You just can not get the creative juices flowing, nothing jells, nothing looks fun, you just feel blah. Sometimes it comes from shooting the same thing over and over, other times it comes just from the endless days of trying to make a living. But everyone gets there now and then.
I was in a bit of a funk several days ago when I was invited to a local car show here in Orange County at the proverbial crack of dawn. “Maybe” was my response to the invite from my friend when he sent me the email telling me about the show. About the same time, I read a blog post by Scott Borne who is a photographer who I have only recently heard of but have really “connected” to via his blog, photofocus, and other articles. This particular post was called “12 tips for car show photographers and a second post was about why fast glass matters was about shooting cars with wide apertures and why you needed to use something other than a wide angle lens.. He talked about using cropping and strong lines to make art instead of snap shots. This kinda of clicked with me on several levels since I have been a car enthusiast for years. Car show? blog? hmm.. a way to get out of a creative funk? Possibly.
So I found myself getting up at 5AM to meet my friend at the Irvine Cars and Coffee meet and greet along with my Nikon D300 and my 17-55mm F2.8. It did not start off in a very promising way or so I thought, the light sucked, the coffee was weak, I had more excuses than carter has pills. But, I stuck with it and starting to shoot. And it was hard, harder than I thought it would be. But as the morning wore on, I really started to get into a nice rhythm and feeling like I starting to get traction for some nice “keeper” shots.
Here are some of my results from breaking out of a creative funk with some help from a blog entry.
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- Wired
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- Vintage Turquoise
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- Makers Mark
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- Lost and Found
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- Hemi
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- Fins and Bullets
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- Double Shocked
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- Double Bullets
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- Chromed LIght
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- Chromed Fury
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- Chromed Bullet
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- Bel Air
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- Airflow
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- Red Chrome
Like I said, getting this pictures was harder than I thought it would be. I really had to look at the subject very differently and shoot a bit differently that what I am used to shooting for the majority of the time. With the shallow DOF, I had to nail the focus on the money so I was using my spot focus mode. I paid very close attention to my histogram to make sure I was not blowing out the highlights at all, I needed all the information I could get since I wanted to have a very saturated look. Angles were everything and I made a point of getting all the way down on my butt, stomach or standing on something to get up then down. Anything to get away from the normal 5 foot high shooting position. I also went in very tight alot both in camera and in post on a couple of images. A tight crop can work wonders on art like this.
My lighting was very overcast which at first I was cursing under my breath, ok, maybe out loud some too, till I understood that the very flat light would help a lot in keeping the image’s contrast flat till I brought it up in post to exactly where I wanted it. It did mean I had to shoot with a relatively high ISO even with a F2.8 aperture. So noise reduction software was a much to clean up the images. High pass filtering was used to really get the images to “snap” and show off nice sharp lines. I used LR3 for the majority of my post work and CS4 for the final touch up and finishing.
In the end, I had alot of fun at the car show, I got some cool images and made a few new friends and managed to get out of my funk. I meet a couple of car owners who I gave a few images to to thank them for letting really get up close to shoot their cars. In both cases, the owners were intrigued by what they saw as very weird angles until I showed them the images on the camera. So not only was I able to get out of my funk, I managed to make a few business contacts too. This was a win -win day for me all the way around, I just had to embrace it.
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