Quick Hit Monday: BIG Crash; LIVE Webcasts; DPT Kudos; iPad Pushes Back; and More

Good Morning Everybody,

At least it's a much better morning than the one I woke to early Saturday. I had just checked in with my buddy who was going to be picking us from the airport Saturday evening and all was good to go with schedules.  We hadn't talked for over a week so it was good to visit with my old friend.

Now fast forward 8 hours to 2:30 a.m. early Saturday morning - it's my buddy again only this time with a lot more concern in his voice.  Certainly, I was hoping he and his family were OK.  Well they were, but my car wasn't.  It had been parked by the curb outside his home as it was convenient for him to have my car for our Saturday airport pick up. 

He heard the loud crash about 2:00 a.m., jumped from his bed and headed outside to see what happened.  My car had been hit by a drunk driver at a high rate of speed, thrown back 10 feet into another parked car, and the driver of the green SUV sped away!  I listened in disbelief!!!  My car will probably be estimated by the insurance company as totaled!!!

Soooo.... Saturday morning had me calling rental agencies, car dealers, and checking CarMax and EBay for pricing on a replacement vehicle and all before we headed to the airport.  It still seemed a little surreal - I loved my car and wasn't looking to replace it any time soon. 

Things change pretty quickly though, don't they?  We can certainly count our blessings that at least no one, that we know of, was injured. It baffles our imagination how the drunk driver drove off after the accident.  No, the police still haven't located him. So my friend didn't pick us up in my car Saturday evening, we headed to the Enterprise rental counter instead grabbed a rental till we get all this sorted out.

OK, I know you're feeling bad for me.  I know you would like to reach out and help in some way.   Well, I've got the perfect suggestion.  Please head over to our Digital Resource Center, check out all the good deals, and take advantage of some of the great specials going on right now - I need to make a down payment on a new car this week and need all the help I can get ;~)

OK, I’m only half joking.  People are safe, we were getting close to updating our automobile in the next couple years, and worrying about it will not solve a thing.  I guess, like they say,  it's all part of the grand plan.  Uhmmm... I am kind of looking forward to checking out a few new models ;~)

On with Quick Hit Monday....  Lot's of cool FREE stuff happening on the web.

Speedliting Live! Webcast

That's right, my good buddy and now best selling author, Syl Arena, is presenting his Speedliting Live webcast [link] this Thursday, March 3, 2011. Syl has writhed the definitive, no holds barred, book on speed lighting entitled, "The Speedlighter's Handbook".  It's hanging in there quite well at Amazon and should be close to a second printing.

Hearing Syl first hand and in person should be quite the treat for all those joining him [link] March 3, 2011 7p.m. PST - that's 10p.m. EST. He's using a brand new web service to pull it off which even allows questions from the live audience.  It should prove to be a very cool session.

FREE Photoshop Webcast

John Wright, at Media Wright Workshops is also presenting a FREE Photoshop webcast on March 10, 2011.  Seating is limited on this one so you'll want to sign up early to be sure you have a seat.  Here is the lowdown:

There are several new features in Photoshop CS5 worth learning about. You may of already heard of the features but haven't had a chance to see just how they work. The discussion will center around Content Aware Fill, the Puppet Warp feature, Mini-Bridge and the Refine Edge changes. Tune in. It's free. But you do need to register.

You can get all the info and register right here. By the way, Media Wright has several of their past episodes archived too so check them out if you missed them.  Hey, you can never stop learning,

About The The Best Price Ever For Online Backup

So I was working away on my iPad last week pounding the keys in Evernote, an app that is quickly becoming my most used favorite app.  Everrnote has the habit of popping an ad or two in while you're working.  It's all very discreet and don't bother me one bit.

Anyway, the ad that caught my eye was from Crash Plan, a new online backup service.  I decided to check it out.  A few mouse clicks later, I was hooked on giving it a try.  Their business model is to offer totally unlimited online backup for only $3/month - unbelievably inexpensive, especially for a photographer with lots of images to archive.

I know what you're thinking, "It will take days to get 1 terabyte of data uploaded!" Well, I agree but they have a work-a-round whereby they send you a 1T disc which you load up with 1.5T of data, (compressed) and send it off to them.  They seed your account with the disc data and from that point on, you just let Crash Plan take over and keep all your data safely up to date.

It looks pretty cool to me.  I signed up - I'll keep you posted.  Here is the link to all their info.

Kudos To DigitalProTalk

I was doing my daily iPad web cruise using the app PhotoVerse, which is by the way, very efficient way to follow your favorite blogs and hit a Pixiq link listing the Top 150 Un-missable Photo Blog sites.  Much to my surprise, I found DigitalProTalk listed at #38 with some very nice comments [link].  My sincere THANKS to all DPT readers who invite and encourage me to write every day with their loyal support.  And my thanks to Pixiq for acknowledging the effort. 

iPad Calendar Pushes Back

Does anybody feel the way I do - I love my Google calendar pushing to my IPad calendar but I hate the fact that my iPad calendar only updates when I sync up with iTunes…. which I never do, BTW.

Anyway, I figured there had to be a solution to the inconvenience.  After a little web searching I found this post at Island In The Net that gives you the road map to making the problem go away.  I haven't given it a try yet, but I surely will once the second generation of the iPad comes out this week.  The functionality will make it that much easier for us road warriors to collaborate with our staff back home.  Anyway, check it out right here.

Is Anybody Listening

Everyday I get several notes telling me that folks are following me on Twitter - I'm very grateful, THANK YOU again!  But what I would like to know is this - do you, my DPT reader like the Twitter sidebar widget here on the blog?

I think it's an easy convenient way for me to point you towards some cool content without having to make a blog post out of it.  I am like always hitting my Facebook, Twitter, and blog FACS for cool news items.  The DPT Twitter bar makes it easy for me to get the info out to you even if you don't follow me on Twitter.  Anyway, just thought I’d inquire as nobody has ever commented on it for the entire time it's been up.

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  I’m catching a plane to Tampa and heading to NAPP World Headquarters for a special project today ;~)  How about I catch up with everyone tomorrow for another episode of Technique Tuesday.

See ya’ then,  David

Business Day Thursday: After The Wedding - What Happens Next: Part 2

Good Afternoon Everybody,

We headed out bright and early this morning and are on our way to Las Vegas for the huge WPPI Convention.  I'm not speaking at this show - we're here mostly to see what is new and to take in a few of the programs.  I'm also doing a gig or two in the Westcott booth, so if you get a chance, come on by and say HI.

Hey gang, last week I began a new series "After The Wedding - What Happens Next?"  I'll be posting for the next several Business Day Thursdays walking you through our workflow and sales flow at my studio. I hope you enjoy the read.

After The Wedding - What Happens Next: Part 2

Time To Recap The Job

I don't know about you guys and girls reading this but after the wedding I'm exhausted!  I'm usually working with two assistants, we've been running like wild banshees for 10 straight hours, so the first thing we need to do is regroup - that is check that we have all the gear and all the cards in a safely secured and accounted for.  We make the rounds to say our goodbyes and head back to studio to unload the gear.

After we arrive back at the studio we unpack the gear, check that we have everything and pull all the cards.  Most of the time that's about 4-5 16 gig full and partially full cards. I grab the cards and I begin the download with our Delkin Image Router. I've discussed the Delkin Image Router previously at DPT.  It's the fastest, easiest way to download gigs and gigs of data.  I can have 4 cards downloaded simultaneously in about 35-40 minutes - pretty darn quick.

OK, I know it's late by the time we wrap up - usually about 12:30 - 1:00 a.m. - am I heading to bed? Heck no.  We still have work to do and need to have an "adult beverage" or two to enjoy ;~). I'm serious about this.  We head to one of the local watering holes to get something to eat and something cold to drink. Remember, I don't eat at weddings so we are famished by days end.

The main reason my team and I take this time at the end of the day is to recap the job - what went right? where do we need improvement? did our newly tried ideas work? do I need to review issues/concerns with my team while they are fresh?  This is just a great time to sharpen the saw for yourself and your team after the event and in preparation for the next big event. 

OK, let's say your a single shooter. I would still recommend that you sit down with yourself and jot a few notes about how the job went while things are still fresh in your mind.  In this digital age this is  simplistic process. Grab your iPad and start making your notes in Evernote, tag them, and use them for review before the next job. Doing this on a regular basis gives you a great resource to prep for those future events.

Back To The Downloads

I'll usually finish up downloading the last card or two the following day.  If I have a second shooter, and I always do, the second shooter's images are all put into one folder with my images in another.  All files are renamed as such ####-DZ_SmithW11 and sequenced in time/date order. 

My assistant's images would be annotated with his/her initials.  This is done so I can easily review and critique my second shooter's work.  We are constantly striving to improve and polish our product for our client.

After the numbering/renaming process, All the images are imported into Lightroom 3 with my "Secret Settings" [link].  No the cards are not cleared yet.  That doesn't happen till we have the images stored in at least three places and one of those places must be off line.

Backup Policies

Up until a few years ago, we backed everything up to two sets of DVDs.  But that was back in the JPEG days when I could back up 3000 images on 1-2 DVDs.  That number has increased to 10-12 DVDs since switching to RAW - ouch!  Needless to say, things have not been going through the normal back up policies for the last few years.

I will admit, I'm a bit nervous about that too.  I still prefer DVD backup.  Some photogs have told me that they found that some of their CDs and DVDs and become corrupt and unreadable.  I have never had that problem. I suspect the reason that we've not experienced these issues is because we only use high quality 100 year archive media, for example, Taiyo Yuden/JVC discs.  We get them from CD Dimensions right here. Read my lips - your data will slowly fade away if you use cheap disks!

What's the disk solution to a 50 gig wedding?  The only answer has to be Blu-Ray which have been quite expensive these last few years.  The prices on the burners and media has started to come down and we're looking to upgrade this year to the new burners and Blu-Ray media.

In the mean time though our policy is to have all images residing twice on the main computer and then having a third backup on a USB external drive - I prefer Western Digital to Seagate, BTW.  This drive gets disconnected from the main computer after the third backup is made.  The drives are getting so inexpensive, it's really a no brainer to back up to a third drive.  I've seen 2T WD drives under $150 - I can back up a years worth of jobs easy.

I've been playing around with the compact Toshiba pocket drives which I also like. A 1T drive is only $150 and is quite small and portable.  You can pick them up at B&H for under $114 [link]. Don't you love how things keep getting cheaper, faster, and better.  My first 1T Lacie was $700!

All this discussion takes us up to the point where we need to ready the images for Internet upload and client viewing.  I'll get into that next week.  Our plane is ready to land so I'm wrapping the discussion for today. Check back next week for What Happens Next: Part 3.

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Hey gang, that's it for me today.  It's time for us to hit the town and see what's cookin' in Vegas.  I promised LaDawn a little time off from the blogging duties this week so I may not be back tomorrow, well, maybe for an image of the day post, at least ;~)

Have a great one and I'll see you soon,  David