PixelatedImage Blog

I drove down to Seattle yesterday and spent the day with the Blackrapid team. The folks that bring you the Rapidstrap are awesome. Thanks to Ron, Tyler, Melissa, and Milo for having me. We had a really great time talking and scheming and I’m really excited by some of the ideas that got bounced around. One of those ideas was my demand request for an R-Strap that’s pared down and able to be integrated into the other R-Straps for shooters like me who use two bodies. And while I can’t make any promises, and I swore a secret oath not to reveal too much, I can say that good things are in the works. Maybe. Keep watching this blog and the Blackrapid site - you never know what might turn up - just don’t hold your breath (seriously, don’t hold your breath).

In the meantime - two things:

First, the Blackstrap YouTube Video Challenge - and a chance to win $500. Check it out HERE.

Second, the winners of the Pixelated Image/R-Strap Giveaway. I took all the names and submitted them to a complicated logarithm-thingy and…ok, I promised my cat some catnip and she picked four names and they are as follows…drum roll please…

Still not hearing the drum roll…ah forget it.

OK, the following four lucky readers will be getting an R-Strap. If your name is on the list, please email me with a mailing address and I’ll have them in the mail asap. Congrats to…

1. Jay Stott

2. Marymuses

3. Doug Little

4. Stephen at FocusedOnLight.com

The rest of you, get working on your YouTube video - c’mon, it’s $500! Think of how many R-Straps that would buy! Thanks to all who participated. Y’all come back now y’hear!?

This is the Gary S. Chapman Edition of the monthly wallpaper. This is me in Kona against the famous Hawaiian sunset. As usual, click the image to get a larger one then right click and you should be able to set it as a desktop. Windows users, you’re on your own, but I’m sure you know the drill. This image is 1280×853. If you want a larger one, click HERE for a 2560×1600 version.

A reminder - tomorrow I draw four names for the R-Strap Giveaway. If you’ve not yet done it, head back to that post and add your name.

I usually publish around 2:00, tomorrow I’ll publish once I’ve had my coffee and give the stragglers one last chance to get it done.

I’m thrilled to be hosting the Vancouver leg of the Worldwide PhotoWalk on Saturday August 23rd. We’ll be starting at 10am in front of Canada Place and walking through historic Gastown, winding up - I hope - at Steamworks to sit, chat, and wind it all down. Participation is limited to 50, so if you want in, sign up soon. More information, and to sign up, follow THIS LINK to Scott Kelby’s Worldwide PhotoWalk.

Basically it’s this: we meet, we walk, we shoot, we have a great time. At the end the best images of your choosing can be loaded up to a special Flickr group and you can win some stellar prizes. Again, for all the scoop - head over to THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

If you’re already signed up, or are planning to, leave a comment. I’d love to see who’s coming and right now I am unable to login to the Vancouver page to see the admin stuff. A glitch, I guess. Still, lemme know! I think this is going to be alot of fun and I’m looking forward to meeting y’all!

This is a first for me folks, so be gentle. It’s rough, but I do better in front of an audience, so that’s why.

Click on the image above and it should play the video. This is not the most comprehensive tutorial, it assumes you know your way around the PS interface and I don’t hold your hand. Furthermore it’s a pretty small video, but like I said, it’s my first time. Some of you will just like it for the mellow, soothing sounds of my sultry voice. Others will like it for the awkward silences. Still others because if you watch really, really carefully you might learn something. No guarantees.

I’d be happy to do more of these and get a little better at it, so if there’s something you’re just dying to learn, drop me a comment and I’ll do what I can to make it happen.

Ok y’all - Lightroom 2 has been released. Many of you assume that my sponsorship with Adobe means I get the inside scoop on things like this. I don’t. I wait with the rest of you. And hold my breath. And beg the gods to be merciful and intervene. And today it’s out.

The Abobe site has posted their Lightroom 2.0 page HERE. And NAPP, as always, has a learning centre up already - The Lightroom 2 Learning Center is HERE.

Matt Kloskowski, the man behind the curtain at Lightroom Killer Tips has a great list of links and resources relevant to Lr2. Check it out HERE.

As they say elsewhere in cyberculture: whoot! Once I get my own copy I’ll let you know how it’s impacted my workflow, but I can already tell you I am excited about features like the brush capabilities, the post-crop vignette, and the graduated filter. Small things I once took images into Photoshop for, now I can do more of this in Lightroom itself.

The Travel Photographer has been on a roll the last few days. On Friday he posted a short article about Model Releases, on Saturday an article about the censorship of war photographers, and on Sunday, an article about photographing people and the need for relationships. All good stuff. The article on model releases reminded me to finally post my thoughts - I get at least a couple emails a week asking me how I approach this subject.

Q:Do I use model releases when I shoot internationally.

A: Sometimes. When I shoot for a client, like World Vision, and they ask for signed consent, we get it. It’s not always easy, but we have field staff who speak the language and usually the hardest part is just tracking down the actual legal guardian of children we’ve photographed. But when I travel on my own and shoot for my portfolio or no specific client, I do not release my images. My rational is similar to that of Tewfic El-Sawy - it’s just not feasable, or even appropriate sometimes. How do you deal with people who are iliterate? What about child-headed households in Africa? What about plain old language barriers?

Doesn’t this prevent me from selling certain images to certain clients? Yes it does, and I’m ok with that. In the end the question is not “should I get my images released?” it’s “does my intended use or client require that I have a release?” If the answer is yes, then you need releases or you need to change your expectations for the uses of your images.

There’s some good discussion about all this going on these days over at Scott Kelby’s blog, and the input is coming from experts, not just other photographers with opinions. Start HERE.

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Speaking of Scott Kelby - check in on his blog today (Monday), rumour has it he’s making a big announcement about August 23. I’ll recap it once it’s been made public, but you’re going to want to get in on this if you can. Scott’s blog HERE.

This January I’m traveling around the world for a project and among other places will be spending time in Havana, Cairo, and Hanoi. I’m pretty stoked.

The interactivity on this blog has been awesome lately, so in keeping with that I thought I’d throw this one out there - if anyone has been to either Havana, Cairo, or Hanoi, and has any recommendations on accomodations, local contacts, must-see or off-the-beaten-track kind of stuff, please drop a comment.

My time in each is limited so the more research I do now the less time I’ll spend waste while in-country.

Thoughts, suggestions, recommendations are welcome. Looks like I’ll be in Hanoi during Tet - very excited about that.

The image above was taken on my last night in Tunisia at the Sfax train station. January 2008. Man it was cold. My buddy Henri took the photo, but I did the duo-tone and old-photo faking. If you want a tutorial on this let me know.

It is time again for another hodgepodge of resource, gathered from the far reaches of the cyber galaxy.

First, in the interest of keeping as many photographers from bankruptcy and therefore living the dream as long as possible - check out Freelance Switch’s article 10 Items You Absolutely Need For Financial Security.

On the same topic, Photopreneur has a post about raising your prices HERE.

Eric Frischling, aka Flying With Fish, just got a book deal! Congrats to Eric, and good for us who travel with cameras because The Traveling Photographers Essential Pocket Guide is going to be a great resource to us.

Terry White was the guest author on Kelby’s Photoshop Insider this week, and gave a good tutorial on outputting images for an iPhone or iPod Touch. Link HERE.

David Hobby, aka Strobist, has a review of the new Nikon SB 900. I’m not a Nikon shooter, but these are sweet strobes. Nikon shooters toying with the idea of shelling out for these new strobes will want to read this.

A couple weeks back Scott Kelby asked the world to save August 23rd on their calendar. Keep it open, folks. I can’t say why. Just do it for me. Keep it open. Pretty please.

Yesterday Matt Brandon took a comparative look at VistaPrint and Overnight Prints on a recent business card project. Even I was surprised at the cost - and the cards look good. If you still haven’t got business cards that make prospects say “wow, nice card!” you need to step up to the plate.

Don’t forget to get your name in for the Free R-Strap Giveaway. Hey, while we’re talking about the R-strap, check out this two-camera set-up on Tony Schreiber’s blog. It’s similar to something I’ve been playing with, but while I’ve been toying with velcro, he’s gone and used straps. I like this alot. Check it out HERE.

Finally, a quote, found on the PhotoQuotes site. If you’re looking for inspiring out-of-context quotes from your favourite photographers, this is the place. It’s actually a great resource and the quotes are very well referenced.

A mad, keen photographer needs to get out into the world and work and make mistakes.
- Sam Abell

Have a great weekend. Shoot what you love, love what you shoot. Go make some mistakes.

Ok, y’all know me, and I know some of you. I think we’re now close enough that I can ask those really personal questions - like, say, those of you that never wear a photographers vest - why not? For those that have them - what do you hate about them, love about them, or want to see changed about them? Dream big folks. I dare say, dream the IMPOSSIBLE DREAM! (As long as it’s a dream about vests.) What’s a must-have, and what’s a deal breaker?

Let’s just pretend this is all a hypothetical question - like we were in Photography Vest 101 back in college and the teacher might be thinking about making a photo vest and gave you a chance to contribute in exchange for not flunking you. Now let’s pretend he wasn’t exploiting you just to supplement his meager teaching salary by doing a little sideline project. What kind of input might you give him? Hypothetically…

The good folks at Blackrapid were kind enough to send me some of their new straps to review and I’m passing the love on to you. Read to the bottom and I’ll tell you how you can win one.

The Problem
I hate straps and the less they get in the way the better. As a result I’ve come up with a way of working and rigging my straps that allows me to get them out of the way as much as possible, while still allowing me to grab my camera quickly. But until now there hasn’t been a strap that really jived with the way I work.

For years I’ve rigged my camera by one strap point - the bottom right corner, which you will only have on a pro body or if you use a vertical grip. Doing this allows my camera to hang out of the way and when I need it the straps aren’t in my face. I’ve also mostly used my strap in bandolier mode, across my body. Just feels more secure. But the problem is that bandoliers generally have no padding, and a conventional strap used as a bandolier doesn’t slide well and makes pulling the camera to the eye difficult. I also want a strap I can remove easily anytime I don’t need it.

The Premise
Enter the R-Strap. It’s a padded bandolier-style strap and it uses clip-on sliding camera mount hardware so the camera can be drawn from a suspended position to a shooting position very quickly.

The R-Strap comes in 3 versions right now. The R-Strap, the RS-2, and the RS-3 Camo. All function basically the same, though the RS-2 has a cell pouch and pockets for memory cards, and the RS-3 Camo is a camo version of the R-Strap, with a cell pouch, but not the other pockets. The website will help you understand the differences, but here’s some pics:

The strap is pretty simple in concept. The camera attaches, with a clip, to the camera in one of two ways - to the d-ring on your tripod plate, or with a supplied bracket that mounts to the camera by screwing into the threaded tripod socket. Once attached the camera hangs by your side and out of the way from that point. When you want to use the camera you reach down and pull it to your eye - the buckle slides easily along the strap allowing the strap to remain where it is. The camera moves, the strap doesn’t. Here’s a shot of the camera hanging - one from the tripod socket on the body, one from the socket on a longer lens.

The Review
It’s about time someone came up with this. It’s simple and works as promised. What I like best is how fast the camera can be brought to the face without the strap hanging up. The strap is comfortable and well made and the hardware is solid. There is a small plastic sleeve supplied with the clip to prevent the gate from accidental openings, and while it seems like a bit of an afterthought, it works well. I’m very confident in this product. It came in a nice mesh pouch - always handy for storing bits and pieces and a refreshing change from our packaging-addicted society that seems to demand shrink-wrap, plastic and cardboard to feed the landfill sites.

Of the three, I prefer the original R-Strap. The RS-2 is great but I’m less sold on the pockets. I’m a bit of a minimalist when it comes to this kind of thing, but some people will love this. The camo isn’t me at all, but again, some people will love it.

What don’t I like? With the strap mounted to the camera bottom via the fasten-R hardware, it’s nearly impossible to use a vertical grip. For me this is not a problem. As I said, for years I have been mounting straps to the bottom right strap point on the body, so I did the same here, clipping the R-Strap to a piece of climbers cord I’ve threaded and knotted into a secure loop. But without this I’d find it hard to hold, and for smaller hands than mine, virtually impossible. If this is a problem for you I’d encourage you to try my workaround, or mount the strap straight to a tripod mount plate without use of the fastenR hardware.

In an ideal world I’d also love to see a David duChemin Limited Edition R-Strap that has none of the padding. Just a long bandolier with the adjustable buckles and the clips. Sure, I could make one, but a guy can dream, right? I already wear alot of gear on the field, and a simple, no frills bandolier would be great. Anyone else want one? I’ll lean on Ron Henry, the inventor, and see what he can do for us minimalists.

Pros
Well made, easy-on/easy-off of strap, fast camera access, puts the camera where I like it when not shooting. I really like where it hangs with my 70-200/2.8 attached at the tripod mount ring. Some will love the pockets and pouches for CF cards, business cars, cell phones, batteries.

Cons
Some will say price but I’m a big believer in the “get what you pay for camp.” They retail for $44 to $56, depending on the model. I’d love to see a version even more basic than the original R-Strap.

Take a moment and watch the demo video to get a better understanding of all the wordy stuff above. The video can be seen HERE.

Would I recommend the R-Strap?
Absolutely. Everyone works differently, so if you still like a conventional strap hung around your neck like a millstone, this might not be for you. But if you want comfortable, fast access to your camera, in a well-made strap, I’d give this one a 5 pixel rating.

So how do you get one for free?
I have 4 of them to give away and all you have to do is:

1. Go to the R-Strap website,
2. watch the video and decide which one you like best.
3. Leave a comment here with your name and email, and which R-Strap strap you’d like. Additional comments are fine, but no name, no email, and no specifying which strap you like will get you a big, fat, nothin’. Them’s the rules.

In exactly one week from today, I will randomly choose 4 names and email the winners for a mailing address. I can’t guarantee you’ll get the one you want, but I’ll try. Extra points given if your comment indicates you’d like to see a David duChemin Ltd Edition version.

See? Easy. Ok, on your marks, get set…(wait for it…) Go!