Create. Share. Sustain.

We used to require permission from others to put our work into the world with any sort of scale. That permission came in the form of getting hired to shoot a news story, a magazine feature, or an advertising campaign. "They" sat up in fancy corner offices and if you were good...no, scratch that, good AND lucky...'they' would say 'yes' and then you'd be permitted to share your work with the world.

Not any more.

It's the first time in the history of the world that you can share your work with any sort of scale--whether that's a photograph, a video, a story, or whatever you're making--without anyone's permission. What are you waiting for? Spend your own time and your own money. And hit post, publish, share, send, or whatever makes the software push it out into the world.

Create. Share. Sustain.

No, seriously, what are you waiting for?...[click the 'continue reading' link below]
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Why is this important? Because I think that making stuff over and over is the key creativity. And especially the key to creativity to the next era of media. And especially for creatives. Don't be fooled. It's painfully simple. The road may be a long one, but it's certainly not complicated:

Create. Make something. A photograph, a video, a poem, a piece of software.

Share. Send your thing out into the world. Post it to your Facebook, your blog. Tweet it. (And still share it with your mom).

Sustain. Start out by waiting tables. Or keep your day job. Or sell your spouse's socks on ebay. Or do something out of the genre of what you want to do until you can afford not to do it. Or do all of these so that you can keep creating and sharing without requiring "permission" from anyone.*

And repeat. Create. Share. Sustain. Repeat.

And soon enough, if you so desire, and if you listen to yourself and your network--your creating and your sharing will become your sustenance. Whether it's via Kevin Kelly's 1000 true fans, or whether it's some new adaptation of your vision, you will have the ability to sustain yourself in connection with a sea of like minded people.

Never mind the man in the corner office.


[If you give a rip, the first time I formulated this create-share-sustain into any sort of a cohesive thought was here:
Video: Consequences of Creativity and the ADCD. I've preached it a billion times since then, but written the words here on the blog, curiously, until now.]
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Chase Jarvis TECH: Underwater Camera

I'm going to the bottom of a pool and I'm taking my Nikon D3 with me.

If you're curious about taking your dSLR underwater, I assure you it's safer and easier than you might think. In this vid, I lightheartedly kick off a new series of pictures (a fun and growing project) AND I show you the gear we use to get it done.

Bloody Marys optional. Watch the vid, details after the jump... [click the 'continue reading' link below]
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Some hurdles and how to jump em:

1. Can't get my camera wet: GET A HOUSING
I have an underwater housing for my Nikon D3/D3s/D3x made by AquaTech. It rocks. They're a tad pricey, but worth it if you're doing any underwater work on a regular basis. Here'a B&H link to my AquaTech rig - different lens covers are optional. And Remember if you can't afford to buy, but want to play around consider renting them from local camera shops like Glazers.

2. Don't have a pool. CRASH YOUR NEIGHBORS
I don't have a pool either, but I have some friends that do. Erin and Norman were gracious hosts - all I had to do was ask (and bring the BBQ fixins). Obviously, most lakes and oceans are free for you to swim in as well...

3. Don't have scuba gear. JUST SNORKEL OR RENT GEAR.
I don't own scuba gear, but I rented the whole tank setup for around $50 bucks.

4. don't have a subject: FIND ONE.
Surfer buddies are good. Belly floppers are good too. Canine friends would be interesting. Big fish in a pinch.

4. Don't know how to make a bloody mary. FOLLOW THIS RECIPE.
Get yourself some 42 Below vodka. Good stuff. Some tasty tomato juice or organic bloody mary mix, in a pinch, some Mr.T's. Dash of tobasco. And for those who think the drink is complete, think again. Here's the secret ingredients that my grandma taught me (I swear): tablespoon or two of dill pickle juice. Celery salt and pepper. Generous squeezing of lemon and/or lime. Pickled asparagus spear. And put some chunky salt on the rim if you can swing it, ala margarita style. Olives are gross and should be left out (and banished from the earth).

Hope this helps you enjoy some underwater shooting. Happy Friday - have a great weekend. Special thanks to Head Like a Kite for the music behind this track. Check them here on iTunes.
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Chase Jarvis RAW: Nikon Festival BTS

Meet the stars of my Nikon Festival video: Joshua Roman (cellist), Saba Mohajerjasbi (Sabzi playing the Beat Gorilla), and Ellie Sandstrom (choregrapher/performer), and check out how we made my 140-second film in just a day and a half.

Reminder: there's still 6 days for YOU to enter your 140 second film into the Nikon Festival and let yours truly--along with Rainn Wilson (from 'The Office') and Justine Ezarik (iJustine) decide if your vid should capture the $100,000 cash prize. I'd love to see your entry when submission period ends and my judging begins at midnight on December 15th.

For more deets visit www.nikonfestival.com, the festival's Facebook page. To stay tuned in, you can also follow the festival on Twitter via @nikonfestival.
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Chase Jarvis SHORTS: Ground Control

Creating a strong emotional connection with the viewer is without a doubt the most important criterion in a successful image. Nothing will ever supplant that. Beyond that, however, there's a whole bunch of second tier, more "mechanical" techniques that we creatives can cook up to elevate our images and create visual interest.

One such technique is compositional in nature: creating cool angles and unique perspectives. It's what makes P.O.V. shots cool, it's the mojo in those classic 360 degree shots from The Matrix and the super-cool car commercials, and it's what make those slick overhead shots on Monday Night Football all really sing.

In the 2:41 of this Chase Jarvis SHORTS video, I illustrate the what, where, how and why for a contraption that we built in-house that's helped me make some of my most-asked-about...[click the 'continue reading' link below]
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...(how'n the hell did you do that?) images from The Blakes music video, from Laura's Story video, and from images created for Apple, Brooks running shoes, Hasselblad Masters and others. I've used all sorts of lighting AND Nikons, Hasselblads, RED motion cameras, even the Phantom HD motion camera in conjunction with this contraption.

A quick spin thru the portfolio section of my site will reveal that I've got a good bit of use from this sucker. We call it "Ground Control". Watch the vid and you'll know why.
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My "Trade Secrets"

[Update: just got an email from Zeke at Trade Secret Cards. He wanted me to let you know he's already sold about 25% of his inventory in just 3 weeks. He's hoping to have unloaded the 5000 number by the end of the year... Let me put some of that money back into the photo industry... He's also posted a YouTube clip of a photo tip I gave him from the interview here.]

I love it when people--especially members of this community--take ideas and run with them. This one is no exception...

A couple months ago, I was approached by blog reader and founder of a company called Trade Secret Cards, Zeke Kamm. He had a business proposition: He'd come to Seattle, pick my brain about various different pictures in my portfolio and then he'd put together a pack of 22 glossy, high-end cards that illustrate "how to" re-create each picture. Soup to nuts. Diagrams, equipment used, what I was thinking, etc. He sells 'em and gives us cut.

We agreed to his proposal and for about $20 you can--starting today--buy these illustrative card packs here at www.tradesecretcards.com or at national photo retailers like Midwest Photo. Cool idea on Zeke's part - 100% his thingie.

And, fwiw, what's with our 10%? I'm giving it away. Here's the fun twist. I'm putting 100% of our cut back into the photo community. Zeke has printed 5,000 sets of cards. They go for roughly $20 each. So if my math is correct, we'll give every dime of $10,000 bucks back into photo community if Zeke sells all his cards.

How shall I put this money back into the community? You tell me. I'm all ears. Let's not put the cart before the horse, of course, we've got to help Zeke sell these cards, but I'd love to get your ideas in the comments below about how you'd like to see the money spent back into the community. My 10% is actually your 10%.

Another card example and link to other cards after the jump. Click the 'continue reading' link below.

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And lastly, if you like the Trade Secrets concept, Zeke has also done a set with my good friend David over at the Strobist community. Buy those too, also available at the Trade Secret Card site.

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Chase Jarvis TECH: Strobed Photo Sequences

Of all the behind the scenes stuff we've showed in recent vids, the one techie thing that far-and-away led to the most questions from readers was the part in this video where I'm photographing X Games uber-skiers Simon Dumont, Colby James West, TJ Shiller, Peter Olenick, and Nick Heine in New Zealand using strobes at 8 frames per second. That's right, all that stuff for the SanDisk campaign you remember reading about earlier. Rail slides and 100 foot airs. 8 frames per second. Strobed.

I know why you had questions.

To be honest, I too didn't think it was possible to shoot any pack at 8 fps for 40 or so frames straight, covering more than 100 feet of distance without frying something or something whimpering out. ...Which is why I tested the concept a number of ways before the shoot. The above video briefly chronicles those tests, the actual shoot, and the cool results.

More images, 2 lighting diagrams, a full gear list, and a couple more tech points after the jump...[click the 'continue reading' link below]

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Using this idea, we got results like this:



From the diagram below, you'll see that we've got one Broncolor Scoro A4s pack run off a Honda 3k generator. I've moved the heads so they're each front-lighting the rider. My VALs (voice activated light-stands...ie humans! - thx McNally for that term...) are in place and are pointing the Broncolor Unilite heads with Par reflectors at the subject (sorta like shooting a machine gun). The first of the two heads picks up the rider from takeoff to about mid-flight. The second head picks up the riders from about midway thru flight to landing, some 100 feet down the hill.



The other lighting diagram I sketched (below) outlines similar stuff to the one above. We've again got the Broncolor Scoro A4s pack, two heads with VALs, but this time we're running one of my time-tested "sandwich" techniques... a light on each side of the subject. Here, it's Simon.



And that gave me results like this:



Unreal, eh? We actually had to remove about 8 frames during the making of this composite since there was so much overlap...

For you techie's, here's a gear list:
Nikon D3
Nikkor 14-24mm lens
Nikkor 24-70mm lens
Broncolor Scoro A4s pack
Broncolor Unilite heads
Broncolor Par Reflector
SanDisk Extreme Pro card 32GB
Pocket Wizards
Aperture (to process)
Photoshop (to make layered file)
Honda 3.0k generator

Here's a link to B&H if you want to buy stuff.

What to do if this sort of equipment is outta your budget? Try renting stuff. Experiment. Use some of that birthday money from your mom and teach yourself how to use this stuff. And here's a secret: try pickup after 3 on Friday. Rent for Saturday. Most places are closed on Sunday, return gear Monday. 3 days for the price of 1. Don't tell them I told you.

And some tech details:
_Camera set to its maximum sync at 250th of a second (fastest base sync speed for camera)
_Camera set to its highest frame rate - this case 8fps
_Camera on a tripod (for ease in compositing frames later in post production...)
_Broncolor pack output scaled to about 60% or less of full power to keep up with 8fps. Your results must vary. But you should know this is an absolutely incredible statistic. A 3200 watt-second pack at 60% (roughly 2000 w/s) at 8fps for 40 frames or more until my camera buffer was filled.
_Remember from this vid, and the vid I did last friday it's the super short flash duration that's really stopping the action - not the shutter.
_For more on the shutter/flash duration thing, check out the kissing cousin to this vid here, the Chase Jarvis TECH: High Speed Photography vid.
_We're using Photoshop to create the layered file...shooting on a tripod, laying each frame of the jump on top of the other and masking away the unwanted parts of each frame to reveal just the rider on the background...

Lastly, hope this has been informative. I hadn't intended to do a video on this, but there were so many questions about it--plus I truly didn't think this was possible--so I just had to put something together. Lemme know what you think.
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Chase Jarvis CURRENT: SanDisk Q&A FollowUp

I've been on the road almost non-stop since we shot the SanDisk campaign in NZ last month, but I'd promised that there was a bit more followup to come as we wrap up post production back at the studio. In this vid, for example (in the spirit of the oldie-but-still-relevant Chase Jarvis CURRENT: 32 Questions vid) I jam through a selection of about 30 questions I'd been asked via the online channels, from creative direction to shoot concept to tech specs to gear.

And a heads up. At your request, I'll be sprinkling in just couple more vids from NZ in the next couple weeks--at least a TECH about lighting and another RAW.

Lastly, lemme know what you think of this loose Q&A video format. If it sucks, tell me. If it you're able to tolerate me yammering on, I could streamline this video work on my end of things (add it to my podcast too), answer a heck of a lot more questions than I'm currently able to via email, and it would add a layer of discourse that's currently not there. Feedback please.

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Clean Your Room and Do the Dishes

Is it just me, or are we all a bit more creative when we have some distance between ourselves and our chaos?

Living life - be it adventure, struggle, conflict or resolution - gives us the bedrock of artistic inspiration. But if you're anything like me, actualizing that inspiration requires moments of calm.

Case in point: Just sitting here working my ass off in the studio, 10pm on a Friday night...the last few weeks have been a doozie. Crazy schedule, travel, media, Best Camera, assignments, work, deluge, family, not enough hours. Needing. Inspiration. Struggling. To come up with. Some creative inspiration for an upcoming project. Kept indulging, pushing. Longer hours. Nothing. Creatively parched.

So I went to my old college habit. The grown-up version of cleaning your room during finals before you begin to study...[click 'continue reading' link below]
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I temporarily dug outta my life's clutter. I cleaned out my inbox, cleared off my desktop, returned some voicemails, I made lists. It gave me a moment. A breath. I went for a walk in the rain, carefree for the first time in weeks. And sipped a glass of wine.

And it happened. 2 hours of calm is all it took, and whammo. Best ideas I've had in weeks.

It's often hard to see the forest through the trees, but the next time you're struggling creatively, go clean your room and do the dishes. Pay your bills and then take a walk. Get some distance from your mayhem, even if it's for an hour. I'll bet you 10 bucks you'll be better off--and more creative--because of it.

Have a great weekend. I know I will.
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Best Business Practices For Photographers, by John Harrington

If chapter titles like...

_Working with Reps, Assistants, Employees, and Contractors: The Pitfalls and Benefits, or
_Transitioning to Freelance, or
_Licensing Your Work, or
_Setting Your Photographer’s Fees, or
_Releases: Model, Property, and Others

..don't get you to buy this book, perhaps my assessment of the book will:

I think Best Business Practices for Photographers, Second Edition is essential reading for anyone even thinking about licensing an image, starting a business in photography, or dreaming of taking their photo game "pro".

Long time photographer, author, and blogger John Harrington today delivers his 2nd edition of this book in epic detail. The thought of creating this book makes my head explode because it's so loaded with details, facts, and examples. It's dry reading - but a lot of this stuff mission critical, or at least sets the stage for your understanding. John is a vocal advocate of photographer's rights. And while things in our industry are on the move, John's got a smart, conservative, and worthwhile voice for dotting your business i's and crossing your business t's. We should be thankful that he's done the work to assemble a strong reference guide. Consider thanking him and informing yourself by spending the $23 on Best Business Practices for Photographers, Second Edition right now.

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Chase Jarvis TECH: Shooting Sequences

Hopefully you were tuned in the previous coupla weeks to our play-by-play campaign shooting for SanDisk in New Zealand. Well, we're back in the states, digging out, editing and what not, and as promised, we've got more content from the trip to post. In this Chase Jarvis TECH, I'm responding to hordes of you who asked 1)why are you shooting so many frames? 2) why in the world are you shooting on a tripod? and/or 3)how do you create sequenced frames of the skier or snowboarder atop the stationary background?

Hope this answers all three questions and a little more. [Additional videos/links from behind the scenes in New Zealand after the jump...]

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Related videos + posts:
[Now You Know, Sandisk Extreme Pro]
[Photo Gear Mania]
[Behind The Curtain: Guts of a Commercial Shoot Video]
[Video Report From the Heliworks Barn]
[Video: Packing Quick 'n' Dirty]
[Chase Jarvis RAW: NZ Basecamp]
[UPDATED behind-the-scenes snapshot gallery]


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Correct Rolling Shutter from Nikon D300s, D90, Canon 5d, iPhone 3Gs

WARNING: Nerdy tech content. If you're shooting a lot of video with all the video dSLRs and even the iPhone 3Gs, you've no doubt noticed the slight "wobble" when panning those cameras quickly. It usually translates visually into the slanting, or canting, of what are supposed to be vertical lines in image that you're recording. This phenomenon is the result of the digital rolling shutter, the mechanism by which these cameras write to their chips. As it writes information to the sensor, it does so by writing from one side of the sensor to the other. And if the subject in view is moving faster than the camera can draw that image on the sensor, the camera perceives a bending or warping of that subject. As photogs/filmmakers rapidly adopt these new cameras there's an increasing need to create elegant solutions around solving this problem. In comes the fine folks at the The Foundry in the UK.

"Rolling shutter effects are commonly found with video cameras employing CMOS image sensors, which record every frame line-by-line from top to bottom of the image, rather than as a single snapshot of a point in time. As parts of the image are recorded at different times, fast-moving objects, or objects that pass quickly through frame during camera whip-pans, become distorted with diagonal skews. Other typical distortions include image wobbles created when cameras are hand-held, and exposure problems with flashing or strobing lights....

Along with being ungainly and unwanted, these image distortions also increase the difficulty of 3D tracking during VFX post production, as the tracking points themselves can be equally affected or not deliver accurate results."

Demo Rolling Shutter for free.

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Amazing Photo of The Moon with iPhone

[UPDATE: Martin has chimed in with more details and original photos...all info after the jump].

After reading the headline of this post and looking at the image, you're probably waiting for the other shoe to drop. What's the catch? Well, there isn't one. Yes, my pal Martin Gisborne used only an iPhone 3Gs and a telescope to get this shot. He did some slight tweaking in Aperture, but no crazy-fancy space cameras, no Photoshop, no compositing, no gimmicks. Pretty impressive. The best camera is the one that's with you.

[By contrast, last spring I was dorking around and also shot an image thru a telescope. My results were, er... let's say, less interesting. That image after the jump...]
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Here's my laughable shot:



Not nearly as powerful a telescope...

[And here's Martin's addendum, just cut and pasted from his email to me...Thanks Martin!]
...Here's the scoop:

1) Exposure was simply controlled using tap to focus/expose.
2) The telescope was a modest 80mm William Optics Zenithstar II... only 545mm focal length. I used a 20mm Plossl eyepiece in a 2" diagonal.
3) The iPhone was handheld - which was the most challenging part... getting the lens in alignment over the eyepiece without moving the scope.
4) The size of the moon in the frame came from using the 20mm eyepiece on the telescope.

This is the original frame from my iPhone... you can see that it's not BAD exactly as it is:


This is the image cropped in Aperture:


This is the cropped image with Levels applied:



This is with Definition applied:



And, lastly, this is with Edge Sharpen applied, no external plug ins used:


[Thx again for the play by play, Martin.]

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Should Freelancers Qualify as Journalists?

Whether you love it or hate it, the term "journalist" is increasingly being accepted by our culture to include freelancers, bloggers, even just citizens who happen to "be there".

In a crazy story I read about first over at Wired Mag's new photo blog, RawFile, they report that a student photographer who photographed paramedics tending to a homicide victim was given journalistic protection provided for by the law. From the Wired story:

"In recognizing the journalistic entitlements of the student, whose name has been sealed by request of his lawyers, Judge Tomar Mason has strengthened persuasive authority supporting the rights of freelance photographers and journalists.

Legal wrangling erupted following the April 17th homicide of the student’s primary subject, Norris Bennett, a resident of San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunter’s Point neighborhood. The student had met with Bennett earlier in the day and admits to being in the neighborhood at the time of the shooting. When police responded to the scene, the student was found photographing paramedics tending to Bennett but he refused to submit to an interview, citing protection under California’s shield law.

Police were issued a search warrant by Judge Mason, which they executed on April 27, seizing photographs, files, cameras and DNA evidence from the student’s home...[click the 'continue reading' link below]

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...In overturning the original warrant, Judge Mason recognized the validity of the student’s published freelance work, as well as the project underway when the student’s subject Bennett was murdered. Police will have to return all items seized during the execution of the warrant. It is unclear whether the District Attorney’s office will attempt to appeal the decision..."

Is our judicial branch actually coalescing that most traditional "news" is really yesterday's news, and that a lot of "new" news is provided by freelancers, students, and citizens?

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Making Subtle Light

Problem: I think a lot of photographers (myself included at some point in the past) pour too much strobed light into an image out of technical misunderstandings rather than stylistic choice. Under-exposing 2 stops and then popping your subject from 5 feet away with a direct shot from your strobe is certainly a style, but unless it’s done deliberately as a style, it often distracts the viewer from the image rather than adding to it. I’d say it’s the most common mistake that plagues photographers new to off-camera strobes: just because some is good, it doesn’t mean more is better.

Solution: I’d encourage you to think of artificial light in a photo more like good service at a restaurant: it’s often best when it’s there, but you don’t notice it at all. Thus, enter what I’d call subtle light. And the beauty of making subtle light is that it doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, most shooters I know over-think it. At it’s root, it’s really about just a few things: your ambient exposure, bouncing and/or diffusing light.

Balancing your strobes with the ambient exposure (the natural exposure of the light in the room/location) is the first key. Simply put, if your goal is to make some subtle light you shouldn't really be able to “see” that light source. And if you’re subtle light is adding to light already in a scene, you shouldn’t be able to see a difference between the value (brightness) of the light that’s already in the scene with the light that you’re bringing in.

To illustrate this concept, I’ll use the really simple editorial-feeling image atop the page that I shot just a couple weeks ago...[click the 'continue reading' link below - more pics, lighting diagrams after the jump...]
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...as an example.

First, I set the exposure to get a nice bright, natural feel out of the windows behind my subjects. My next goal is then to match that exposure gently with the lights that I’ve brought with me. A mistake would be to blast model Rusty's eyeballs outta his head with 1200 watt seconds of flame-thrower-bare-naked-flashtube aimed right at him, revealing all my artificial light. Instead, the AD and I agreed that a simple, more subtle light--one that looked like it was from big set of wrap-around windows, with a similar light value to what's happening outside--would be the ticket to drop into this scene and brighten our happy travelers. Nothing extraordinary, just something that looked natural.

The most common way to make a big, soft, artificial light is to have a big, soft source...a 12'x12' silk that you can shoot a bunch of light through, a big 8-foot wide Para umbrella, or similar. The only problem with this is that we photographers quite commonly find ourselves in need of such things, but without them (through lack of planning, laziness, or needing to stay light and fast...). Enter stage left, the secret weapon of any good photographer: the ability to think on your feet...which is exactly what I did when I found myself in Colorado on this particular day in a mostly dark room, sans 12 foot silk, without giant umbrella, but with my trusty 1200 w/s battery powered strobe kit.

First, the bounce. In order to make the light falling on this scene seem like it was from a big wrapping set of windows, I wanted to create the biggest light source I could - something much larger than the 2’x3’ softbox that I had with me. And so I created that source by bouncing light from a single head fired off my 1200w/s Broncolor Mobile kit right off the 14-foot ceiling. Like magic it turned my 2'x3' softbox into a 20 foot wide source of light just by firing it at the ceiling. (Note: the deed was further amplified by the fact that the ceiling was made up of reflective metallic tiles - keep your eyes peeled for such things that can play in your favor).

I was instantly in a much better place. Once I got the "right" amount of light coming outta the gear and bouncing around--actually the right amount for the dark wood all over the bar, and for the other model, Chris' dark skin color--I noticed that Rusty was getting overpowered. His red jacket and fair skin needed less light.

Enter subtle light technique #2: Diffuse. Diffusion can look like a lot of different things. You can shoot light thru a milk carton, a sheet, a silk, some clouds, whatever. The principles are all the same. Your goal is to knock down light pouring on the subject. Since we had the entire scene looking good with light except for our featured talent, pulled back the light falling on Rusty using the one partially opaque thing we had on hand - my PhotoFlex Translucent Lite Disc. My second assistant, Mario, simply held that disc between Rusty and the lit-up ceiling, and we nailed it. You’re no doubt picking up what I’m putting down: subtle light is about adding light gently (big light source, bounced, etc) and take it away in the same manner (diffusing hard light with scrims and silks).

Here's the top view, sketched out:



And here's a shot that Scott snapped with his iphone to illustrate what's going on from the side. Note that I drew in a tripod on my sketch. This image was snapped moments after deciding not to use the tripod so I could tweak my camera angles a little more freely...



Now, as we've said before, there's a million ways to skin a cat. Because of the limited amount of gear I had with me, I chose to light the whole room for the darkest bits and then scale back the things that were a little to hot with some additional diffusion. I could have done just the opposite--lit the overall room for the base value I wanted and then brought in additional light on the dark bits with some more light, but given the lack of gear I had because we were in a pretty remote location, I chose the latter. It worked in my favor here.

The long and short is that we ended up getting the subtly lit shot we were looking for, with keeping just a few simple things in mind: exposure, bounce, diffuse. Whether it's with specialty light modifiers, or with do-it-yourself stuff, dialing in your ability to partially- and subtly light your subjects will drastically help your photography.

[A vid of the gear we had in the back of the truck with us on this shoot can be found on my Facebook Fan Page. Become a Fan if you'd like to check it out.]

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Deconstruct This Photo: Revealed

It was fun reading all the great attempts to deconstruct the photo from Monday's post. As you might imagine, many of you got close or even nailed some of the components, and many of you were way in left field. And that's exactly what I expected, especially since this image has some tricky, unexpected stuff going on.

At any rate, here's the debrief:

Concept: this image is really a snapshot. I confess to liking it quite a bit, but at it's root, it's a lighting test for a campaign image that's just about to happen moments after this image was snapped. I was taking pictures every 30 seconds or so as the sun was bouncing in an out of the clouds low on the horizon. I was looking at how the light was falling on the ground, creating the dramatic shadows behind her, and examining the difference between full sun and the partially diffused sun to make a choice with the AD and the CD as to which would be better for our shot. When Chloe faced the sun, I saw this cool shot, and so I snagged it. It's a "just" lighting test outtake, and there are 30 others that look really similar to it, but it's a wonderful little moment here with her arms behind her head, facing the sun.

Location: we're pretty high in the mountains on the big island of Hawaii. The smokey looking stuff in the background is...[click the 'continue reading' link below]
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...just a cloud bank, settling between the hills. During our scout, we'd noticed this phenomenon and we're hoping we'd get it again on the shoot day. We got it. As is said in some circles: location, location, location.

Lighting: all natural. Sun is near the horizon in the evening, just poking out from behind a substantial bank of clouds. The fact that there seems to be no shadow can be explained either by the our altitude relative to the setting sun, or due to the camera angle and the rough grass behind her and we're just not seeing it.

Tech specs: Camera is Nikon D3. f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 400. Lens is Nikkor 70-200. Focal length of this shot is 190mm.

Post processing: Aperture only. No Photoshop. No composites. We tweaked exposure, contrast, blacks, clarity, cooled down the temp, and vignetted the corners just a touch to enhance the in-camera vignette that the 70-200 lens creates when it's at its upper range. Total post processing time: 1 minute.

My direction: none. Well, almost none. I'd asked model Chloe to merely stand in her shot while I chimped away at the back of my camera with some lighting tests. She's waiting for the "real" action to get started when we determine that the light is doing what we want.

And voila. There you have it. A high 5 to everyone who contributed. Since there was over 100 comments less than a day, seems like this is something we'll do again at some point.

There's a million things to take away from this exercise, some obvious, others not so obvious. Love to hear some of what you're taking away if you care to share.

[Revisit the original post, Deconstruct This Photo]

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Deconstruct This Photo

One of the ways that helped me learn to create the kind of pictures I wanted to create from a technical standpoint was by trying to reverse engineer the work of others... work that was my friends, that was the photography masters, or, even just cool images I'd seen in magazines. I'd sit there for hours considering what might be at work. It's a good exercise in trying to understand both the technical stuff AND it can inform the creative for sure.

As such, if anyone is willing to take some stabs, I'd love to know what you think is at work - front to back - in creating this image. Consider lighting, mood, exposures, set build or location, what direction I could be giving the model or anything else you think is relevant. I'll tell you as much as I can recall about what is actually at work in a follow-up post and maybe kick out a high five or something else to someone who gets closest.

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[update: the full story on this image has been revealed here.]

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[Depending on your RSS reader or email client, you may need to click here to see the image in this post.]

Shake Your Tree Today

I'm taking the liberty of suggesting that you do one or more of the following today:

1. Shoot personal work. Call in some favors, get creative with no budget, and shoot something for yourself.

2. Set free that idea you've been holding onto. Write a blog post about it. Ask your friends what they think. Tell the world.



3. Learn about video. Don't have a camera? Buy drip coffee for a month instead of lattes, and buy a Flip Mino video camera with the money you save. Experiment.

4. Connect with your peers. Start a blog, dig into your Facebook. Or, hell, gather your photo friends for beers and a slide show.

5. Walk around with your camera. You don't need sunshine. Interesting weather makes interesting pictures. iPhone or one dSLR body with one lens. There is no "client". Just take pictures.

6. Rent a piece of equipment you've been wanting to learn about. Or try this rental secret: pick it up on Friday after 3pm, pay for Saturday. Sunday's are often free because the camera store is closed. Return Monday by 10am. 3 days for the price of 1.

7. Put together a book of your work. Blurb or Asuka, whatever. Affordable. Even if you don't print 10 or 100, print 1. Put it in your studio for visitors to flip through, or leave on it your coffee table at home.

8. Do the thing on your list that you most dread doing. Call that client who hasn't paid. Sign up for Twitter. Develop a marketing plan. Go to the ASMP meeting.

9. Remind yourself that the gear you can't afford is not the barrier keeping you from success. Gear has very little to do with photography.

[Click the 'continue reading' link below.]

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10. Read up online about the history of photography and it's masters. Weston. Steichen. Arbus. Mapplethorpe. Adams. Doisneau. Cartier-Bresson. Avedon.

11. Admit to yourself that you don't know about something you've been pretending to know about. Sit down and do the research yourself. Learn it.

12. Go sit in front of the newsstand at some mega book store. Flip through all the magazines that interest you. Go beyond photo magazines. Generally speaking they limit your imagination rather than expand it. Spend at least an hour.

13. Make a list of 5 clients you want in the next 24 months. Shoot for the moon.

14. Rent a medium format film camera and shoot two rolls of 120. Slow down. Places will process your negs and give you scans these days for pretty cheap.

15. Look through the pictures in my portfolio and appropriate an idea. Tweak the concept and go make a better picture. It's okay. We all do it. I'm probably looking at your work right now and am grateful for the inspiration.

16. Take 100 pictures with your iPhone. Or your Samsung phone. Or your point and shoot. Whatever camera is the closest to you right this minute. The best camera is the one that's with you.

17. Refresh your website with at least one new picture. Or dig up an old one, re-process it and make it a new one.

18. Take a picture of something wherever you are when you read this post. Share it somehow, even if it isn't your favorite. Post it to your blog, twitter, or link it in the comments below. Email or MMS it to somebody who will appreciate it.

19. Quit your day job if you hate it and can live without it. People say it's a bad time to start a new business or go in a new direction. On the flipside, I think it's a great time if you've got a clear vision and a little cushion.

20. Concept, shoot, and edit a short film (video) in a single day. Keep it cheap. Keep it short. Use whatever camera you have access to.

21. Show somebody your portfolio or a selection of pictures. Let them tell you which ones they like, but also be sure to ask them which ones they don't like and why. You'll likely learn something.

22. Back up your work. It's not that hard and it'll probably save your arse at some point in the very near future.

5 Tips For Making Great iPhone Photos

My iPhone has been like crack to me since the day one on the market, June 3, 2007. Most of us iPhone users make regular and swift use of the impressive 'Net, email, and location-based tools, but as a professional creative I'm always using the built-in camera to grab snaps of anything that catches my eye for ideas, inspiration, and such. In fact--in case you didn't know--I post daily mobile iPhone snaps to my Facebook page and my Twitter account for fun (friend/follow if you're interested.)

That said, I dunno if it's been the pile of comments I've received from those sources, the numerous ranting requests via email, or the hilarious fact that someone actually started a Facebook group called "Chase Jarvis Shoots Better Pics with His iPhone Than I Could With a Hasselblad", but I figured--since people have grumbled to me about such challenges and since grabbing snapshots is a part of my daily creative routine for staying fresh and inspired--that it would be good fun to post a quick 'how to' checklist for making great iPhone pictures. So here goes:

Tip 1. Hold the camera still, using two hands.
Seriously. Whether shooting vertically (portrait) or horizontally (landscape), day or night, inside or out, use two hands and don't wiggle until the shutter has entirely closed in the viewer. This is 75% of the battle.

Tip 2. Compose the shot with your finger on the camera button.
The shutter release on this camera goes click when you release your finger from this button, not when you press the button. As such, do all your composing with your finger on the trigger and simply lift your finger when you like what you see in the viewer. This will help you keep the sucker steady (Tip 1) and will help with your timing.

Tip 3. Avoid fast-moving subjects and low light.
Let's face it, a little phone camera doesn't have the same smarts as your Nikon D90 (ams)or D3x (pros), so don't ask it to behave like one. Without dissecting the boring details, this camera just isn't made to shoot slick action images of skateboarding or sexy images of your significant other on the dance floor at 2am. [Click the 'continue reading' link below for more tips and sample photos after the jump...]
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Tip 4. Keep it simple.
I've never been much of a traditionalist, but my style is typically pretty clean. Take this to heart and we'll skip the composition lesson, but in the meantime we can boil things down to this: pictures with one or two graphic elements are generally better than busy images with tons of clutter. This concept is amplified with the iPhone camera which lacks the chops to render the subtleties that your dSLR can. So just like Tip 3, don't ask it to try. Keep your subject matter simple and your pictures will be better.

Tip 5. Buy two applications for your iPhone: Camera Bag and Pano.
Camera Bag ($2.99) has a series of pre-selected aesthetics, including "Ansel" and "1962" (black & white), "Instant" (polaroid), "Helga" and "Lolo" (vignetted, toy camera), "1974" (funky muted colors), "Fisheye" and "Infrared" (self-explanatory), and "Cinema" (cinematic 16X9 aspect ratio) that takes your vanilla iPhone snap and spits out something more interesting. Pano ($2.99), another great app, lets you take series of pictures and sew them together seamlessly in-camera to make one giant horizontal by following a series of simple prompts. Goodbye Photoshop. Both these apps allow you to save the final "new" picture directly to the Camera Roll in your iPhone, and will really help bring your snapshots to life.


Gasworks Park, Seattle. "1962" Theme from Camera Bag.


Gasworks Park, Seattle. 3-photo panorama from Pano.

That's it. Seriously. So, whether you're a pro shooter using the gadget of the century to help fuel your creative inspiration, or a you're just looking for a way to take a picture of your girlfriend that doesn't suck, I hope these tips help demystify the great iPhone snap.

[In case you're interested in following these low-brow snapshots, or any of this 'creative discovery/means of inspiration' stuff that doesn't always make it to my blog, it usually goes down on my Twitter feed or my Facebook page, so I'd love to have your 'friend' and 'follow' accordingly. In contrast, if you're visiting here via Facebook or Twitter, the more comprehensive behind-the-scenes highlights (videos and pithy topics, spectacles and disasters) always filter there way here to my blog, so I'd encourage you to subscribe to this beast via email or RSS if you don't already.]

Photoshop CS4/Color Correction Class - FREE in Seattle

Want to learn something about color correction and Photoshop CS4?

Just got off the horn with my friend Craig, founder of CreativeTechs here in Seattle (I reference them regularly on this blog). CreativeTechs is THE go-to group for Apple Mac support here in Seattle, offering "right brain support for left brained people". In addition to tech support, they also do cool seminars on a variety of topics including retouch techniques, software, etc... They've been doing these classes for a long while - they're great. 90 minutes long - short and really dense with great info, and normally go for $50.

Craig tells me he will let anyone using the coupon code 'chasejarvis' or this link attend tomorrow's Color Correction Photoshop CS4 class in person for FREE.

(This does not extend to the other people already signed up for the class, so please keep the discount on the down low ;)

That's tomorrow, Thursday November 6, 9-10:30 am. Follow the above link for event details, location, and to sign up.

Teachers, take your whole class. Students, this is a no brainer...

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Chase Jarvis TECH: High Speed Photography

Step 1 (The Premise): If you like photography, cameras, flashes, strobe lighting, computers, knives, Photoshop, or fast action, read on.

Step 2 (The Concept): I know you've seen still photographs of arrows piercing apples, exploding water balloons, and bullets tearing through roses. If you've ever wanted to know how we photographers freeze this crazy-fast action, you'll want to watch this 3-minute video on high speed photography.

Step 3 (The Background): A short while ago, our superstar friends at Superfad concepted, developed, and shot an amazing broadcast campaign for the Kung Fu HD network. Very cool stuff. In concert, they graciously invited us on board to shoot still images that attempted to mimic their live action work. Although the task was a steep one, we managed quite well and tricked some people into giving us a 2008 International Photography Award for the effects. You may have see the results in an earlier video we put out called Chase Jarvis RAW: Kung Fu (Featuring Superfad). Today's video is in many ways a followup to that piece. We got so many technical questions about how we were able to freeze the action of so many fast-moving objects for our still pictures, that we thought it would be prudent to spin out a little Chase Jarvis TECH vid to show you how we pulled it together.

This is certainly beyond Strobist's Lighting 101, but I'm hoping we're able to answer most of your initial high speed photography questions with this video. Feel free to post your "aha!" moments or further questions in the comments section below. This is a cool technique that, if you can nail it, will give you lots of freedom to play around creatively.

For further details about equipment, a broader explanation than the video offers, a list of other TECH videos, and a list of credits, click the 'continue reading' link below ...
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Considering the video above, here's a few key reminders and some details. Remember, the four keys:

1. Keep the ambient light low. This allows you to open the shutter for the duration of the event, plus some buffer before and after the event, without allowing ambient light to bleed onto your sensor or film.

2. It's not the shutter that's freezing the action, it's the strobe. When your shutter is open, it's all about letting the strobe stop the action with that pop of light. Strobes can fire really quickly - in many cases up to a 1/8000 or faster - which does a great job of stopping high speed events...much better than your shutter.

3. Use a special trigger or a manually tripped pocket wizard to capture the event. In the case of me with the water balloon, I was quick enough to open the shutter with a plunger, wait for Cody to slash the balloon, and then trip the handheld pocket wizard during the event, and then close the shutter with the plunger. If you want to capture faster action, you'll need to use a special trigger to trip the strobes...something like a sound trigger or a laser trigger that is hopefully available at your local rental shop. You open the shutter with a plunger, let the event happen and let the trigger pop the strobes, then you close the shutter.

4. Higher speed flashes (shorter flash duration) will give you a better result. If you have a slower flash cranked up to high power, the flash duration time will be slower. On the contrary, if you have a faster flash cranked to a lower output (say 1/16 power), you'll have a faster pop- exactly what you need to have those strobes pop for a really short interval. THAT gives you the best result. Of course you still have to manage a great exposure, which is why digital cameras are awesome. You can just fire the camera a bunch of times and dial in your exposure. In the case of my task in this video we used our favorites: two Profoto 7A packs, each with their own head and set on a low output, to create a very fast flash...in this case 1/8000 of a second. You can create similar results with all kinds of lights, but you'll want to pay attention to the specs.

If we haven't lost you, right on. Go give it a try yourself. And if you have questions, do ask. Signs say there are enough smart photographers in our community here that we'll have some great answers chiming in from the audience (encouraged); and what doesn't get answered by the community, I'll certainly follow up as best I can.
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For additional TECH-Y sort of vids, check out:
[Chase Jarvis TECH: Photo Shoot in 180 Seconds]
[Chase Jarvis TECH: Packing Photography Gear]
[Chase Jarvis TECH: POV Photography]
[Chase Jarvis TECH: Pimped Photography Laptop Case]

Credits on the original Kung Fu motion piece by Superfad from which these stills were derived: Will Hyde (Superfad Founder, CD); Dade Orgeron (Concept + Director); Rob Sanborn (Exec Prod); Stephen McGehee (DOP); David Viau and Luke Allen (Designers); Phiphat "P" Pinyosophon (Sim Artist); Ryan Haug (Editor); Nate Barr (Producer). And of course the Kung Fu Master: Paul Gutierrez. Thanks all!

POV Photography On Steroids

For a long time, I've been a playful advocate of POV (Point-Of-View) photography. Years and years ago, I did this with my custom POV rig:



Hell, we all did it.

Then, it got more complicated. I was having fun and I sync'd my camera with a camera strapped to the athlete, so you'd get one moment from two perspectives. I have a ton of these, but generally the result is pretty interesting and looks this:



Then, after doing that commercially for a few folks, I tried to share what I had learned and released this video called Chase Jarvis TECH: POV Photography to illustrate all the parts and pieces, concepts, how to fire a remote camera, etc.

Now, sure, it's been big in movies and photography for a good long spell, but if you're interested to find out from Nike just how far POV has really come, click 'continue reading' below...
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Let's just say it's come a LONG way... Imagine how long this would take to make!? Brilliant piece of art from a technical perspective (for us photo/director geeks) Brilliant advertising piece as well. For those of us who grew up playing soccer there's a great emotional tug here and for those who didn't - it's just plain cool.

Saving Dough on Photography Gear

Q: (via email) Chase. I'm basically in love with Profoto lighting. But I'm a kid that has bad credit and photo is my life. Any suggestions on how I could get some Profoto lighting?

A: Yep. Rent it. Seriously. This goes for almost all killer, pro gear. And here's the thought of the day:

Most rental houses are closed on Sunday. Also true is that you can normally pick up stuff at your local shop at 3pm(-ish) the day before you're actually "renting" it. That said, consider reserving your rental for Saturday; pick it up Friday at 3pm. Nerd out with it, practice, learn, do a shoot or whatever Friday night. All day Saturday it's yours. Sunday too. Return the gear Monday by 10am (or whatever the store's policy says) and you've just had your way with this stuff for almost three days for the price of one.

Don't tell them I sent you.

(BTW, today is Friday.)

How to Get a Job With A Photographer

Well-executed, creative attempts to get hired by a photographer as an assistant, producer, re-toucher, etc, are few and far between. That said, I was inspired by the following letter I recently received (posted with permission):

Obviously you folks are stacked with talented, energetic folks over there at CJ inc.

But that's not going to stop me from trying to get my foot in the door over there. I recently left my post as studio manager, assistant, photographer, post-pro guy, painter, espresso master, steamer and dog walker at XXXXX Photography (www.XXXXXXXXXXXXX.com ) It was a good run there and I'm looking forward to some changes and meeting new photographers. I feel like a free agent, although I would rather be a secret agent.

I can wrap extension cords in fancy figure eights, I can create clipping paths for hours and steam motocross pants even longer. Most assistants can after doing it a couple years. (I attached a resume)

I find it takes much more to be a valuable assistant, that's why I got an iPhone. As far as dedication and work ethic go......A few years back I had the fortunate opportunity to take part in a crevasse rescue demonstration. I strapped the climbing harness on, waved to my rope team and did my part by hucking myself off a glacier. I plunged toward the icy water in the middle of the Yukon Territory. It was sort of like bungee jumping except on a climbing rope. There I hung, 100 feet above the water, they caught me. I think it's important to trust your team. Next time, I'll remember to have the rope next to me instead of between my legs when I jump off. I'm tying to give the impression that I give 100% (I don't believe in 110%, but that might be a topic for your blog down the road.)

I play soccer, ski and mountain bike. I never made it professionally at any of those so I bowl and play kickball in order to get the thrill of winning. Curling is next on the list.

I hope some day there is an opportunity at CJ inc. I look forward to challenge. I really respect the amount of work and energy it appears comes from the organization.

Thanks for posting the Superman game on your blog and thank you for considering me if anything opens up over there.

Cheers,
XXXXXXXX
XXX-XXX-XXXX

That letter was very well-written IMHO. For someone like that, there are opportunities.

What did I like about it?

1. It's unique but not weird or freaky. He seems skilled, knows his stuff, and demonstrates that he knows something about my brand; specifically, my work, style, blog, career, etc. He's articulate and tells my why he wants a job from me and not some other operation down the road.

2. He knows that I'm less interested in his portfolio and more interested in his go-get-em, attitude, skills, usefulness, humor, wit, and general intelligence.

3. He's seems to have solid photography experience, knowledge, and genuinely seems interested to become an outstanding team member. Regardless of office staff or crew sizes, producing shoots and making images involves teamwork. Crucial home run to know that - he hit that one out of the park, simply and subtly.

4. He doesn't seem to have fretted too much over the details of how he contacted me. There were no gimmicks, yet it was interesting. He seems comfortable and genuine that we might be a good match and has presented his ideas clearly, honestly (seemingly), and cleverly. His note happened to be an email, but it could have been a snail-mail letter all the same and it would have got my attention due to THE CONTENT. Ultimately, it was about his skills, experience, and the personality he exhibited in his contact.

Now, here's the kicker: despite being one of my favorite letters of all time seeking employment, I still didn't hire him. Why? Just unlucky timing. We're all full up with a killer staff for the time being. But just like A Photo Editor holds onto good promos, I'll hold onto his info and give him a ring when the time comes.

Hacking Your Camera's Flash Sync Speed

Ever wanted to shoot with a strobe at a faster shutter speed that your camera's flash sync allows for? (Only like EVERY darn day, probably...since a 1/250 is sooo wimpy...). Well, I've been using this cool technique for quite some time, but it never occurred to me to share it as a neat-o "hack" to beat the system. My pal over at Strobist however, who is much sharper than I at identifying cool tips like these as actually being relevant, posted a great piece yesterday on precisely this topic. For a more complete explanation and a two-part entry on the subject check it out there...

The principle is simple: If 1/250th of a second allows your camera to sync perfectly with your flash (full flash coverage across the entire frame), other steps up the shutter speed ladder (1/320, 1/400, 1/500, 1/640, 1/800, 1/1000) don't give you ZERO light, they in fact give you partial, but substantial, light on your subject according to a relatively predictable pattern. Basically, the shutter "drags" across the frame in a race with your strobe--typically from one edge to the other-- in such a manner to get an band of flashed light across the image frame, roughly according to guide below.




Thus, if at 1/250th you get 100% coverage--or rather a perfect sync--, at 1/500 (a full stop faster than your flash is "supposed" to sync with your shutter with typical dSLRs) you might get as much as 50% coverage - or enough to make a really cool image.

Strobist talks about employing this technique primarily to gain flash sync speed by framing and lighting your subjects in such way as to hide or make subtle the harsh-ish lighting line created by the incomplete sync (ie, using it like a strip light in dark situations or setting your camera close--one stop he suggests--to ambient light) so there's not much visible difference in what's lit or not... My approach is slightly different. I actually use this technique and visually ENHANCE that dark line in pursuit of a unique aesthetic. By simply increasing the difference between my camera's exposure settings an the ambient light, I don't hide the shutter drag with the ambient exposure, I ACCENTUATE the line to get a certain, almost an intensified "flagged" look (physically blocking certain parts of a strobe using handheld or stand-mounted boards, scrims, etc) - as in the image above at the header of this post. You'll see the subject is well lit, but the area to the left of his arm is quite dark.

There is certainly an air of unpredictability to this, especially with a fast-moving subject, however, with a couple takes I can usually nail the framing for which I'm aiming.

Lastly, if you're not out there hacking, tricking, messing or playing with this and other non-traditional looks or techniques, and pushing the limits of your equipment, you should consider trying it. There's a whole world beyond F8 at 1/250th. Don't simply let your camera manual or your photo class instructor mandate what's cool. Let your own aesthetic and the back of the camera teach you what works and what doesn't!

Strobist = Photo MacGyver on Steriods

If you haven't visited Strobist yet, you must go there now.

It's one of my favorite photo-geek (in the cool sense) blogs on the web - intelligence mixed with insight, humor, and wit, all wrapped into off-camera lighting on the cheap and easy. Word on the street is that he very graciously compared our cool, portable Photography Laptop Case to something out of Q's workshop in a James Bond flick. Well Strobist, if we're Bond over here (case IS complete with Rocket Launchers btw), you are far and away the net's Photo MacGyver on Steriods.

Ever wanted to light something creatively using just your two Nikon SB800 flashes? Or better yet with a slide projector, some lights from Home Depot and a stick of gum? Well Strobist is your man. And if he hasn't MacGyver'ed it YET, he knows someone who has and he posts that info for us too. Check out his friend Daniel's solution for when you're in a pinch for a lightstand for your off camera flash (btw, this had happened to me about 50 times...). At any rate, Strobist is a fantastic resource. He concocts, perfects, uses, and then shares the best do-it-yourself photo lighting tips on the net; and his motto sums it up: Less Gear, More Brain, Better light.

Predicting Weather For Outdoor Location Photography

I just returned from a location shoot in the Cascade Mountains, east of Seattle today. The weather had us guessing at several points during the day, but for the most part it went according to plan. Plan? That's right, as someone who is often hired to shoot outdoors, I've been forced to become quite the weatherman, doing my best to anticipate and plan for Mother Nature's ways. She always plays hard to get, but it occurred that it would be good to share how--over the past 13 years--I've managed to keep an eye on the weather with some reasonable success.

The nice thing about my "science" is that it's available to anyone. My primary three resources are online and I tend gather info from all of them and compare/contrast the info to have as clear a picture as possible. In order of preference:

1. http://www.wunderground.com This is a free site that gives weather forecast by city/state or by zip code. It also provides, lower on the page, handy info like sunrise, sunset times, wind, moon status and local area weather blogs worth reading, as well as a detailed history of weather patterns.

2. http://www.noaa.org This is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or in short, government weather from the US Department of Commerce. Some deep diving in this site for specific weather OR this site in conjunction with various universities in the area about which you are curious can be really helpful (especially for mountain weather telemetry.)

3. The local news channel weather for whatever city/region. For example, here in Seattle, I often reference KOMOTV.com. A simple Google search for a city or region will reveal local weather/news sites, etc.

BONUS. If I have time or it's important to further support my weather forecast the best group to know/speak with are definitely helicopter or airline pilots. Commercial heli pilots in particular are usually dialed into the weather quite keenly through a paid weather source, years of experience, and common sense. If you're shoot involves helicopters or planes, or you've got access these resource in addition to the others, use 'em!

Now, keep in mind that I amalgamate all of the info I can from the sources above in determining MY personal outlook for the weather at any given location. While these are typically suited for USA spots, other similar options are available for most geographic regions you're looking for in any given country where collecting weather information is common. It just takes a bit more digging.

And last but not least, there's never a substitute for planning ahead for all types of weather when you're on location. Check, double check, and have contingency plans. Mother Natures loves to keep us guessing, and every time you think you "know" the weather, she has a habit of showing us that we really don't know squat ;)

How To Back Up Your Photography: The Basics

More than a few aspiring photographers and hobbyist shooters that caught my earlier (very hardcore) post outlining back-up strategies for professional photography, videography, or design studios, have asked me to advise on a more basic solution for backing up their images. Since there are numerous ways to accomplish the goal of backing up your work, I think it's best if I focus the discussion to the THEORY of backing up, and let each individual adapt the theory to a PRACTICE that works for you. That said, you'll be happy to know that the theory is quite simple. And if you want more info, see the earlier post. Here goes:

The theory behind backing up your work is five-fold.

1. Make your work ORGANIZED. You should be able to easily navigate, save, and locate files an organized folder structure. For starters, I recommend what's commonly called reverse-date naming, combined with some convenient, recognizable text. For example, if I shot images of our family reunion today, December 28, 2006, I would download the images in a folder I'd name 20061228_FamilyReunion. The crucial part of the convention is the number at the front of the title where the year precedes the month, which precedes the date. Naming in this manner will ensure that each folder you shoot will line up in the default setting of most operating systems with the most recent folder atop the list, and others following according to date shot. From this convention, the detailed content of each folder is up to you. If you don't shoot a lot, then perhaps just put all the day's files in that folder without additional structure. If you shoot more than one or two memory cards per day, consider further segmenting the reverse-date folder with sub-folders titled Card 1, and Card 2, or similar. AVOID folder names like NEW PICTURES, or YESTERDAY'S PARTY. Lastly, it's beyond the scope of this post, however if you want to someday find specific images by text searching some day in the future, I recommend using a photo-specific software like Abobe Bridge, Apple Aperature, Photo Mechanic, or iView Media and renaming each file using built in automated functions according to these reverse-date principles.

2. Choose the right STORAGE MEDIUM. Use portable, external hard drives; do not use DVDs or CDs. Lacie makes nice, affordable drives in a variety of sizes. Purchase more storage than you think you'll need, and note that relatively speaking, when buying storage, you're purchasing according to economies of scale. Thus, 100GB Hard drive costs $100, or $1.00/GB; whereas 250GB hard drive costs $150, or $0.60/GB. (Note: I recommend that once you identify the ideal-sized hard drive, you purchase TWO of them. Why? See #4 below.)

3. Keep a CLEAN COPY OF THE ORIGINAL DATA. Before uploading your images into some proprietary viewing software like Apple iPhoto, or whatever you might chose, I recommend copying the original data from the camera or memory card directly onto an external hard drive and name the folder according to the convention above. To do this you may want to disable any 'auto-image-upload' functions enabled on the proprietary software or operating system. Keep your computer's hard drive out of the equation. Upload or copy images onto your computer's hard drive and into your preferred viewing or editing software only AFTER you have a clean copy saved on the external drive.

4. Make it REDUNDANT. In order for your backup protocol to be effective, it's absolutely crucial that your files be in at least two different locations as soon after creating the images as possible. I suggest using a second external hard drive and making a copy ONLY OF THE CLEAN ORIGINAL DATA either a)every time you download your camera/media card, or b)on some regular interval that you can live with... try putting reminders in your electronic calendar and stick to them! Creating two copies of the original data (and keeping any viewing/editing software out of the equation) is the most important step in backing up data. Hard drives DO FAIL. Don't subject yourself to having only one copy of your precious photos. It's not worth it.

5. Keep 'em SEPARATE. Remember why you keep originals of your will in the bank's safe-deposit box and copies at home? This is a similar concept. Now that you've got two separate hard drives with the exact same data on them, do your best to keep them separated. Try keeping one at home and one at the office. Or what at your house and one at your moms. This is the most far-reaching component of the backup protocol and protects you from the more extreme events like theft or fire. Statistically, it's unlikely that this will happen, however it's the best way to truly protect yourself from catastrophic loss.

Lastly, be diligent! A backup strategy is only effective if you can maintain it. Even if you're not an established pro photographer, keeping extra copies of your files according to a well organized, established protocol will help keep your precious files safe for the long haul.

Quick Tip for Aspiring Shooters: How to Take Better Pictures in the Snow

Since I've just read a whole pile of news about the blizzard in Denver, it occured to me that I often field questions about shooting in a snowy environment. I usually don't give straight up photo tips on this blog, however, 'tis the season and this might make somebody's holiday snaps a little better. Therefore, a quick tip: how to get that snow so nice and white, instead of that nasty-ass grey.

Simple answer: Over-expose the picture. Fool your camera. Preferrably using the manual mode and the light meter built into your camera (or by shooting test pics and looking at your histogram), you should overexpose the image by 1 to 2 full F STOPS beyond what your in-camera meter says when you're exposing directly from the snow. That's right, point your camera at the snow, see what it says, then tweak your exposure by at least one stop, often more, to get desireable results on subjects in that environment. Generally, if you're shooting a wider, enviromental shot, you should be on the lower end of that overexposure range. If there are some people subjects in your shot and you want to get nice detail in them, you might want to push the further end of the 2 stop range. Push it till your exposure really starts clipping the snowy highlights.

Why?: The meter in your camera wants to make everything (in this case the snow) 18% grey. So, in metering off the snow and overexposing, you're compensating for this. Without adjusting for this, the camera will put your nice winter wonderland in a sea of grey soup, so remember, little tweak of the exposure--using manual settings or exposure compensation--and you'll be taking better pictures in the snow right away.

Happy Holidays.