PixelatedImage Blog

Multimedia

The pundits are all in accord on this: multimedia is where things are going. Not ALL things, but big, important things. They’re going to Multimedia. No idea what it means. But hey, they said the Pet Rock would never catch on and, man, were they wrong.

But folks, this shouldn’t scare you. If you’ve already embraced that the job of a photographer is to be a visual storyteller, then adding multimedia to your toolbox is time well spent.

In Kona last week Gary S. Chapman led a session on getting started in multimedia presentation. I was amazed how easy it was (important) and how powerful the results were (way more important). Here’s the gist:

1. Lay out your sound first – Gary used a simple mix of audio interviews gathered on an Olympus DS-30 and pulled into Garage Band via iTunes, and royalty-free music from Magnatunes.

2. Pull the resulting audio into Soundslides Plus ($70 for the full licensed version) and add your photographs. Add credits.

3. Congratulations, you’ve just put together a basic multimedia presentation. I’ve oversimplified it, and you can get as complex as you like if you use programs like Final Cut Pro.

Looking for some inspiration on this kind of thing? You need look no further than MediaStorm which has some truly powerful pieces.

Don’t think of this as a change of discipline, but as a chance to present your images in a way that, when done right, can multiply the impact of your story. Still not convinced? Read this article by Michael Clark on the O’Reilly site.

*Be sure to check the comments from Brad – he’s added some solid recommendations and alternatives.

Writing Software

While we’re talking about stories, I was just turned on to a great piece of writing software while in Kona. It’s called Scrivener and it’s freaking amazing! Unlike MS Word where the document is a single written piece, in Scrivener each document is an entire project, with the ability to outline, to gather resources and links, and to keep it all organized. I’ve never been this stoked about writing since that ill-fated experiment with caligraphy back in grade 5. It’s going to make my book WAY easier to write. Scrivener is a whopping $39.95, and there’s a fully functioning 30 day trial.

Q: So you’ve seen those weird interviews Scott Kelby does with himself right?

Me: Yes. I have. Very disturbing. But strangely impossible not to read, like a literary train wreck waiting to happen. The man clearly has issues.

Q: I feel much the same way. Have you ever been tempted to do the same, kind of an homage, to the man?

Me: Funny you should ask. Why, just the other day I thought it was high time I did so, and my latest trip and the resulting lameness of me not posting to the blog with any frequency might just provide the perfect opportunity.

Q: So we’re agreed to do this, but that it in no way mocks, satirizes, or downplays Scott’s sense of humour.

Me: We are, though a momentary lapse in judgment and an indiscreet comment about one of Scott’s jokes is what led me to connect with him in the first place, so don’t underestimate the networking power of a poorly-aimed criticism.

Q: Noted. So, you were in Hawaii last week, is that the story you’re using to account for posting practically nothing all week?

Me: I was. And it is. I was teaching for a week at the University of Nations. They have a college of communications, under which is a School of Photography. I had a blast.

Q: First time to Hawaii?

Me: It was. Loved it. Amazing place.

Q: When do we see the photos?

Me: You don’t. I shot practically nothing. I had a couple days off and I did almost nothing but snorkle and hang out. It was very refreshing. Sometimes you just have to put the cameras down and live a little.

Q: And no time in there to write a blog post, eh?

Me: You’re upset about this, aren’t you? You need to let it go, man. You need to hang loose, as they say. I can tell you aren’t Hawaiian. You need a holiday.

Q: This isn’t about me.

Me. Point taken.

Q: Why spend a week in Hawaii teaching?

Me: Seriously? You’ve never been to Hawaii have you?

Q: I have not. Let it go, man. Ok, why teaching?

Me: Teaching gives me an opportunity to give back, to mold young impressionable minds into my image. And I really, really love it. Beyond that, teaching is one of the best ways to sort through your own theories and practices; to test them, to galvanize them.

Q: So you’re back. Can we expect the lameness to continue or will you be posting daily again?

Me: I am back, though tired. I will be posting daily this week. Starting now. I’m planning to talk about multimedia presentations and tools, do a review of a new camera strap – and the easiest contest ever to win one of several of these straps. And I plan to do a resource round-up, and throw some miscellaneous stuff at my readers. Depends what I can scrape of the inside of my brain-pan.

Q: Thank you for your time, and welcome home.

Me: No, thank you.

Q: Would you be open to doing this again sometime?

Me: Don’t get your hopes up.

Still in Hawaii. Spent Saturday snorkelling in the waters just North of Kona. Bought a small waterproof film camera and shot my first roll of film in five years. Strange not being able to look at them right away. Spent Sunday snorkelling at Cook’s monument with my students, bookended by a forced march up and down the mountain. If that hike was any indication, I am clearly in need of more training before Kashmir

My time in Hawaii has been wonderful, teaching photography and my Vision-Driven theory and practice for 5 days. Spent some time with colleague and new friend Gary S Chapman and his lovely wife and made fast friends with them. Gary shot the image above last Wednesday, I think, while I tried my hand, not overly successfully, to shoot something resembling a landscape/seascape. Instead I got wet. But I really enjoyed myself.

I really have not had much time to shoot, and what spare time I’ve had I have spent enjoying myself, and that’s meant leaving the cameras in my room and just lovin’ on Kona. And in return Kona has been lovin’ on me. Man this place is nice. Sorry for my absence this week – but it’s a sign of things to come as I get ready for busy season.

Ok, a couple things.

1. Check out this site. It’s called Lightmark and it features the lightpainting images of a couple from Germany. I love this work.

2. The Layers blog has announced a contest and if you want to win a free iPhone, check it out HERE. Don’t want a free iPhone? How about a full conference pass to Photoshop World in Vegas? Books? Magazines? Ok, how about a tutorial by Chris Orwig on great B/W conversions in Lightroom? It’s all here in this post on the Layers Blog. HERE.

3. Loving the idea of free stuff? Here’s another contest, the prize being a set of Pocket Wizard Plus II wireless radio triggers for your strobe(s) – awesome. Find it on the Strobist HERE.

4. I’ve got an insane fall and with that comes less time for other projects, but I have room now for ONE more mentoring client. If you’re looking to improve your shooting – want to take it to the next level – or to have someone to walk through your transition from amateur to pro with you, check out my Mentoring Program. I only have room for one, so get in touch quickly. If I don’t get any interest this week I am going to shut the doors on this and the next opportunity won’t be until the spring. Check it out HERE.

I leave Hawaii tonight and will resume more regular posting this week. But give me tomorrow (Tuesday) to take a breather.

7am. Sitting on my balcony overlooking the water, a newly arrived cruise ship, and white billowing thunderheads. Gorgeous here. I’m doing final prep for today’s classes and need to be off in a few minutes. Love it here.

Apologies for not being as active in the comments as I usually am, especially in the post about the decisive moment, in which y’all seem to be getting along just fine without me. I’ll read them all when I have time, but from what I’ve seen there’s some good stirring of the paint going on. Thanks to Gavin Gough for sticking with it and moderating the conversation.

Headed out last night to shoot along the water. I’m not much for shooting landscapes, so once you’ve looked at this postcard shot I did, head over to Kah Kit Yoong’s website for some truly incredible work. Kah Kit is a colleague from the Travel Photographers Network and he’s truly talented. Dude owns more ND filters than I own camera bags.

Matt Brandon has an interview on Duniya Gol Hai (The World is Round)- read it HERE. via his blog, HERE.

Right, I’m off. Aloha and maholo.

I was stunned to see Olivier Follmi’s new website today. I’m teaching students in Hawaii and when I brought up Follmi’s new site my jaw dropped. I don’t know if Follmi, whose work I generally like a great deal, has his ear to the ground on a new trend, but if the “crappy, I’ve never cleaned my sensor” look is the next big thing then I’m trading in my spot removal tool for a brand new bag of dust. Amazing. Amateurs, consider this a cautionary tale. The rest of you, look at the image on the splash page, recoil in horror, then go clean your sensor. Link to Follmi’s site HERE. (You’re looking for the larger image of the one shown above, and you’re looking at the dust spots.)

Link to Visible Dust products HERE. Unless you’ve got dust like Follmi, in which case go to Home Depot and get a Dust Buster.

I keep hoping this is some horrible error or prank, but this is not what marketing folks call “your best foot forward.” Don’t let it happen to you.

Enjoying Hawaii, loving my students. Wish you were here.

*This post sent alot of traffic to Follmi’s site and I’m a little embarassed. I agree with all the comments, his site is tough (ok, impossible) to navigate, and the sensor dust is truly unbelievable. It’s hard to post something like this without feeling a little guilty. So in the interest of re-stating things more clearly, the reason I was initially going to his site was to show my students examples of some excellent images that have resonated with me. The presentation on this new site is what threw me, and all I’m saying is “don’t do it like this.” You may now return to gawking at the hideous dust spots, but don’t forget to appreciate Follmi’s images for what they are.

In 1952, celebrated photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote Une Decisive Moment, a book filled with both his photographs and philosophy. One concept, the titular “decisive moment” has become so well-known as to become cliche and then suffer the same fate most thoughts and theories suffer when their commentators and quoters drift too far from the source material. Here, then is the context for that phrase, and the definition given it by HCB himself:

“the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms that give that event its proper expression.”

Lately when I hear the decisive moment concept mentioned, it is frequently invoked to imply a moment when a person smiled just right or when a motion is frozen at its apex, and while these might be, generally speaking, decisive moments, I think HCB meant much more. In fact, it’s fashionable of late to criticize the concept with a dismissive “yeah, but every moment is a decisive moment.” Maybe, but that has nothing to do with what Cartier-Bresson was saying.

Yes, in life there may be many, many decisive moments, but I believe HCB was being specific to the frame. Within the strict geometry of the frame not all moments are equal.

According to HCB each scene at one particular time would have a moment where the gesture and geometry come together to express the nature of that scene in the most aesthetically meaningful way. Likely, it can only be judged in hindsight that this moment was in fact decisive, and it doesn’t entirely exclude the possibility of other decisive moments within that scene.

Remember, HCB was talking about the two-dimensional frame , not the near-infinite views and perspectives of our real-life perceptions. So yes, experientially life offers many decisive moments, but when you’ve translated a scene to two dimensions and are looking at them on the light-table, a few of them are likely to be stronger than others – and learning to see that decisive moment before you squeeze the shutter rather than afterwards, is the point.

I think we can all agree that within a frame certain compositions exist that express our vision of a scene better than others. Certain geometries exist at one moment that make an image more powerful than they would be had we waited a moment later. HCB was not saying some moments were good and some not worth photographing – he was saying that composition and the placement of elements within a scene was important and that the timing of the capture had a significant role to play.

When we say, “yeah but every moment is decisive” we’re really saying that we either misunderstand Cartier-Bresson, or that composition is unimportant. It’s a little like those schools where kids don’t get graded for fear of wounding their self esteem. It may do the kids fragile little ego a world of temporary good but his math skills are going to suck by the time he’s in grade 4. Dismissing every moment as decisive won’t improve anyone’s composition skills. It’s the image you capture that matters, not the ones you miss, decisive or not.

*The strong possibility exists that (1) HCB needs no defending, least of all by me, (2) some people understand HCB’s decisive moment concept better than I do, and simply disagree with him, and/or (3) I’m the one who misunderstands. I’m OK with all three, really. But my opinion stands. Until I change it. So if you get bent way out of shape by this, feel free to leave a comment, but don’t look for a fight. I’m a lover, not a fighter, man. Rabbinic though suggests that the questions are often more important than the answers, but that doesn’t mean yeshivas aren’t full of heated discussions. Feel free to weigh in.

I’ve got lots of links for you today, so let’s get at it.

Layers TV has a new episode up, and if you’ve ever wanted a primer on getting a website up – from the very, very beginning – RC Concepcion has a series about just that, starting with this episode. It’s not sexy tips and tricks, it’s just good solid, education and it’ll get you going. Tune in to the whole series. Layers TV – go HERE. If the link gets old, just look for Episode #43.

Speaking of sexy tips and tricks, be sure to read Stephen Johnson’s guest post on Scott Kelby’s blog this week. He’s tapping in to the whole “addicted to HOW” stream of consciousness. The dude just gets it, and is really articulate about it.

Back to Layers – the blog has a solid article by Rick Sammon about shooting people on location – The Art of the On-Location Portrait.

Remember a while back how I raved and raved about Up Straps? Well, after a year of using it I stand by how good they are. The thing is, they just don’t match my shooting style – in fact I now just use their bandolier, which is great but kind of defeats the purpose of the Up Strap sticky rubber pads, because, well, the bandolier doesn’t have one. I’ve recently stumbled onto the BlackRapid R-Strap and I’m stoked to get a couple – I won’t go into it now because I’d rather do a review when I’ve tried them, but check out the website, particularily the video. This is how I shoot already, I just don’t have the strap that does it as well as this. When I get them I will do a complete review, and I’ve arranged with Black Rapid to do a give-away as well. So stay tuned.

Moleskine user? Here’s a cool site for a service that’ll laser engrave/customize your Moleskine notebooks. I’m still trying to get pricing on this service, but in principle I’m stoked about this. While we’re on it, here’s a page of Moleskine Mod resources on the Freelance Switch blog. (oops – the link for the engraving service is: www.engraveyourbook.com but they suddenly closed, something about concerns over the chemical make-up of the book. Sorry if I got your hopes up!)

Have a great weekend. I’m shooting the Vancouver Yogathon and Blissfest on Saturday and flying to Kona, Hawaii on Sunday. I’ll be there all next week and will try to publish while I am there, but teaching generally consumes me, so posts might be a little thin.

Jodhpur is a town in Rajasthan, India, that I would go back to time and time again if I could. Steve McCurry calls it “almost too good to be true.” I spent a week there in January last year and truly felt at home.

The walls in most of the old city of Jodhpur are washed blue and give the place a surreal calm feeling. If you were dropped in to Jodhpur without knowing where you were you’d swear you were in a now-defunct Indian theme-park or movie set. There is something visually enticing around every corner of the old city – alleyways that wind around and back and encourage the wanderer, the flaneur, to get lost in mazes of impossibly-infinite shades of blue.

Looming over it all is the Mehranghar Fort high on the escarpment. Jodhpur is a desert city, so the weather, to my mind is perfect. Warm and dry in the day, cool at night. Of course, I was there for a week in January, so it’s likely to be warmer around now.

I stayed in an old heritage hotel – the Pal Haveli – I think we paid about $40/night for a double, and while we could have done it much cheaper, or for much more, this place was incredible. It was comfortable and the service was truly good. Check out the website – truly a cool place to spend a week.

We ate dinner nightly, after sun-down on the roof-top terrace, mezmerized by the lights of the looming fort. We ate breakfast daily at the omlette shop that appeared out of the dust each morning in front of the clocktower – for a dollar we had a couple omlette sandwiches and a cup of chai, sometimes we ate lunch there as well. I still have cravings.

Truth be told, I’m a lousy tourist. Seeing the sights ranks last on my list, I spend my days wandering for the most part. I generally feel that if you try to see it all you wind up experiencing very little. So I confined myself in Jodhpur to the old city and the blue walls, the endless temples and shrines, the market We walked up to the old fort but found it to be a typical dusty monument (impressive, but lifeless) that hasn’t seen life or culture for generations, so we wandered back down to lose ourselves in the labrynth of back alleys and streets, once to be accosted by a gang of children who forced me to play cricket with them. So with the exception of the fort, I saw nothing but the sunrise to sundown life in the neighborhoods, which to my mind beats hanging with the tourists.

Among many memories, one that sticks with me most clearly is my time with the woman pictured above, engaged quietly in morning devotions. I rounded a corner, and mesmerized by her colour and her quiet grace, I just sat there, watching, and quietly photographing (with her permission). She finished, invited us in for tea. I shook my head, made a lame excuse and walked off. That’s one of those moments I wish I could re-live, have a do-over, go back and accept her gracious hospitality.

There’s so much of India to see, so many places that boggle the mind, and the eye. But Jodhpur is one I am longing to return to. We flew in on Jet Airways, from Delhi, a driver from the hotel met us at the small desert airport in an old army jeep and a week later took us to the train station for the night train to Agra.

Want to be a smarter shutterbug when you travel? MSN Travel has a two page article, in which my opinions (of which there is no shortage,) make a starring appearance.

I think the funniest thing about the article, which is not bad advice for folks wanting to up the ante with their travel snapshots, is that while they did not link to me, they linked to Vancouver, Canada. Sometimes you just gotta wonder about the logic. Of all the interviews I’ve done, this one did a fair job of not mutilating my words. Read the article HERE.

The Travel Photographer links to a great article by Vincent Laforet. It’s a lengthy one but for aspiring professionals it’s a must read. The title, The Cloud is Falling, should suggest that Laforet, who I have great respect for, spends the article running amuck and crying “the sky is falling, the sky is falling.” He doesn’t. Not really. But ignore this article and the realities it represents at your own peril. Read The Cloud is Falling HERE.

One of my sponsors, Data Robotics, has just announced a Firewire 800 version of the DROBO – of course I had to find out from RC Concepcion on his Layers Blog. Once of the quirks of sponsorship – they send me stuff but don’t really talk to me. More info on the FW 800 Drobo HERE.

While we’re talking about harddrives, Western Digital makes some of the smallest, cheapest ones out there. I have a couple of the smaller USB Passport drives but the USB keeps me from using them when I travel on assignment. Western Digital now has Passport Studio drives that are USB 2.0 and Firewire 400. They’re bus-powered, small, cheap, and they come in 250 and 320gb sizes. All this means I can carry less drives and all of them are capable of being bootable back-up drives. Here’s the link to the 250 GB drive at B&H. They come with cables, a carry bag, and a 5 year warranty. I’ll be buying a couple of these, replacing my handful of 80gb drives.

Chase Jarvis has a short but encouraging post called My Photography Mistakes #2496 – check it out HERE.

There are some excellent videos of lectures by photographers like Steve McCurry from the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism. I’m watching them as I write. Here’s a link to the Rob Galbraith site which’ll give you a comprehensive set of links.

The current issue of PDN is The Career and Self Promotion issue. Be sure to get a copy if you’re not a subscriber.

Be sure to check in on Scott Kelby’s blog to read today’s guest post by landscape photographer Stephen Johnson.

Thanks for your patience yesterday in the wake of my lack of inspiration. I still feel like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I’ll kick it up a notch tomorrow.