Cover of Trail Runner Magazine: Photography

I'm super stoked to bring you a few behind the scenes clips from images that appeared on this month (July/August) issue of Trail Runner magazine as well as earlier this year in March.  On both occasions, the opportunity came to shoot a couple of commercial photography assignments and on a side note, these two images also get picked up by Trail Runner magazine for covers.  This months cover was taken on the island of Kauai, one of the most gorgeous places on earth (anyone interested in a "Location Lighting" workshop in 2011??).  We whipped up a little BTS video earlier this year from our shoot out there, showing some lighting techniques, so check that out too - Kauai Trail Running - Photography.

I hope you enjoy a quick behind the scenes from each of the trail running Cover Shots!  Feel free to fire away with any questions about the shoot!

-Kevin Winzeler

Tour de France - Big Picture (photography)

ONLY in the TOUR...

Photo courtesy: Bogdan Cristel
I try to frequent the Boston Globe "Big Picture" at least once every few weeks to take in stories from around the world.  I was stoked to see shots from the first half of the Tour de France as I opened the page this morning.  If you've never watched a stage of the biggest bike race in the world, do yourself a favor and check out one of the mountain stages (Pyrenees) over the next three days.  You'll see both epic battles on the steep mountain slopes and some of the craziest folk you've ever laid eyes on.  Check all 40 out here
:http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/07/2010_tour_de_france_-_part_i.html

After checking out the link, let us know which are your favorite images (first, second, third).  Also, whether or not you're a cyclist and if you've watched any of the race either this year or in the past.

-Kevin

I had an absolute blast shooting a few of the stages during the 2006 Tour de France, including the Prologue (opening time trial) in Strasbourg France.
commercial and sports photography

WINZ Photo Tip: Find a compelling Foreground

 

(Right-click on the picture to your right and "open" in a new window)


When composing photographs, I quickly fire through the following checklist in my head:  

1) Foreground (What is the best foreground to draw interest to my subject?)
2) Subject (what am I composing my shot around)
3) Background (Is this the best background to draw interest to my subject?) 
Sure, this is photography 101 stuff, subject, foreground, background, but acute attention to the details of these three things will make or break your photography.

The first image was taken during the Salt Lake ski shootout this past winter.  

Notice a couple of things about the foreground element in the Ski shot:

1) It's taking up roughly 2/3rds of the frame. 
2) Color = Red.  Cyan (sky) and Red (sign) are complementary colors and draw our eyes into a scene quickly.
3) The text "Experts Only" supports the the subject and tells a story.

Next, are two images taken at Pipeline on the North shore of Oahu, one of the top surf spots in the world.  The difference between aiming your camera toward the surf and framing your subject through an interesting foreground element is huge.  The silhouetted coconut trees above felt like I was peering out of a window frame into the scene.  The large wave rolling in with lots of little bobbing surfer heads just below it are an interesting subject as well. If I could change one thing.... (this was a candid image and if I could have directed one part of the shot, I would have created a bit more separation between the boy (also silhouette) on the lower left-hand side of the frame and the tree. He creates an additional foreground element and adds to the story as you can imagine he might be dreaming of being out there himself.)
The take-away here is to do look at anything that could be used in the foreground (purposefully) to add depth to the image.

-Kevin Winzeler
More Sports Photography

Inspiration Monday: Time Lapse Photography

I was entrenched in some research for a commercial photography project this past weekend and found this time lapse piece of the Eyjafjallajokull (er...volcano) eruption in Iceland especially inspiring.  Excellent work behind the lens Sean Stiegemeier!

Favorite shots:
:34 Composition from the road feels like I'm going into battle as well as the movement of the dead brush, dust and smoke.  It also looks like a reverse graduated filter effect was used in post to create the desaturated feel on the road.
:48 Epic volcano shot.  So much power.
1:33 Abandoned DC-3 plane! I want to travel to Iceland just to shoot this.  Either some clothing mfg or magazine needs to jump on this location for their next catalog.

The other cool thing about this piece:  Dude only had two days off of work, but headed out anyway (self-funded) and created something epic.  Message to self = stop making excuses and go shoot.

On the technical side of this type of stuff, you may recall a recent conversation I had with another fella about some of the techniques here.


Kudos to these guys for their passion and patience!  Besides giving me the travel bug, stuff like this inspires me to be a better photographer.

What inspires you lately?

-Kevin Winzeler

Giving away a 16"x24", Signed Print. Join the Facebook Fan Page

Hey Guys and Gals,

I wanted to let my blog readers in on the Free Print I'm giving away on the "official" Facebook Fan page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kevin-Winzeler-Photography-and-Film/121038077926051?v=wall

Here's the rundown:
1) GO to the Facebook Fan Page: HERE
2) Become a fan. click the little "likey" button
3) "SUGGEST THE PAGE" to at least 20 fans (on your honor)
3) Tell us about it on the Fan Page
4) Cash in and look at the tropical Hawaiian ocean every day in your office or living room

Pretty simple and easy! (Contest ends Thursday, June 24th!)

The first image was taken on a peaceful morning at sunrise on the North Shore of Oahu near Laie.  The worn and weathered pillars stand still as the ocean washes around them.  

The second image, also from the North Shore is a surfers dream. There could not have been a more pristine setting as two long-time surfers made their way out to a distant break with long boards in hand. It's a favorite for sure!

.

-Kevin Winzeler
Professional Photographer

CreativeLive w/Zack Arias - Photography workshop worth buying!

This weeks all about giving a huge shout-out to music photographer and educator extraordinaire, mr. Zack Arias.  I met Zack while teaching a course during Photocamp Utah and was super impressed by not only his photography, but by his personality and philosophy in life.

In short, he just wrapped up a teaching a 3 day live workshop with the creativeLIVE folks and absolutely killed it!  If you can scrounge up a few bucks ($129 to be exact) I highly recommend picking up the nearly 20 hours of live footage on all things studio photography- CreativeLive Info.  Whether you've never picked up a flash in your life or are a seasoned pro, you'll get your money's worth.  I'm half way through the content and picking up some sweet tips and tricks as well as being entertained by one funny dude.  Thanks Zack and crew!

BTW - the classes are free if you tune in LIVE and so check out some of the upcoming stuff.

That's all!
-Kevin
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Professional Photographers

Photographers: Shoot what you love! Exercise: find 5 Images you would DIE to have in your portfolio.

I love photographing in the outdoors, working with people and promoting an active and fit lifestyle. On occasion, I find dabbling in the world of architecture fascinating too.

Photographers - What do you love to shoot? 

Try this exercise:

1) Open five separate browser windows with five of your favorite photographers websites.

2) Save ONE image from each site that you would absolutely DIE to have in your portfolio.  Just one!

3) Create a collage of those five images, save it as a jpeg and send it to your phone, ipad, printer, desktop.

4) Study the photographs for 5-10 minutes each day and look for something new.  

-What emotion do you feel?

-Why do you connect with these images?

-What are some common themes across all of them (people, sports, products, food)?

-What interests you about the posing, lighting, camera angles and post-production?

-What would you change about the image?

Okay, I can already hear a number of you saying: "Ya, nice idea, but shouldn't I find my own vision and style?  I don't want to copy someone else's work." And while I completely AGREE with your thought process here, this is simply an exercise to help you find what it is you love about picking up the camera and taking pictures and deciding to pursue those interests.  What subject matter most intrigues you?  Do you know?  If every picture in your collage has a person in it, then why are you so bent on learning how to light and shoot inanimate products in a studio environment?   If the images promote fitness, sport and the outdoors, then why are you spending time and money learning how to promote your wedding photography business?  Vision comes from passion and this will help you visually see what it is you are passionate about shooting.  You probably already know, but we can all use a reminder from time to time.  You may find that you can shoot a variety of subjects and that your five images are completely diverse and span everything from sports photography to pet photography, but I doubt that will be the case.  So the message is not to steal or copy, but rather to focus and develop your vision and style.  

5) DECIDE to develop your portfolio around what it is you love to shoot.  The type of work you put out is the type of work you'll be paid to shoot.

6) Repeat this process once a year.

-Kevin

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Commercial Photographer

Buying Strobes? Do you know the Flash Duration? (How to Stop Action in Photography)

The following question came recently:

"Kevin,
I am a big fan of your work after seeing you on strobist, I am now doing quite a bit of adventure oriented advertising photography. I hope you can answer one question for me.... I am deciding between the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS pack with "S" freelight head or Ranger RX pack with "A" freelight head. CAN THE "S" FREEZE ACTION FAIRLY WELL OR DO I HAVE TO GO WITH THE "A"? I understand you are very busy but hope you can lay a little info on me.
I use Canon 5d II, 16-35 II, 24-105, 70-200 f4. pocketwizard plus ii's
Thanks!"

This is a great question because it addresses one of the most important, yet overlooked items to consider when buying a new set of strobes, especially for sports photography, that of Flash Duration.  The key difference between the two heads in question is the flash duration, the "A" head being twice as fast as the "S" head.  Flash duration, just like shutter speed, is measured in fractions of a second and becomes your action stopping measurement when working in low light or dark (studio) situations. Typically, you want the shortest/fastest flash duration possible, just like you would want the fastest shutter speed possible when shooting and trying to stop action.

To visualize this, find a room in your house that you can turn completely dark (no ambient light leaking in).  Put your camera on a tripod and open your shutter for 30 seconds.  Now, let's say during your exposure, the fastest man in the world, Usain Bolt, runs in front of your lens and just as he passes by, you fire your strobe.  Will he be in focus, blurry or a combination of the two?  Remember, your shutter is open for 30 seconds, so wouldn't he just be a blurry abstract blob in the final image?  The truth of the matter, is that the action freezes based entirely upon your strobe (remember no ambient light) and the accompanying flash duration of that strobe, or in other words, how QUICKLY your strobe goes on and then off.  So if your strobes flash duration is 1/125th of a second, Usain is going to be blurry!  So what is your strobes flash duration?  In the case of an Elinchrom Ranger it is a combination of which head, pack and power setting is used.

If I were shooting Mr. Bolt in a studio with my Ranger AS Speed pack, A head and Full power on the B channel (366 w/s), the absolute best (shortest) flash duration I could achieve would be 1/1700th of a second, plenty fast to stop the action (see my note on using the t.1 rating instead of what the mfg suggested t.5).   However, with the same settings but switching to the "S head" my results would be 1/850th of a second.  Now, what if I needed full power from my pack (1100 w/s)?  Note the chart above with 1 A head @ Full power = 1/2300 s and 1 S head @ Full power = 1/1250 s.  For the A head, my action stopping power has been reduced from 1/1700th to 1/766th and S head from 1/850th to 1/400th, which starts to creep into the blurry zone for action stuff on the S head.  Lower power settings would result in an even slower duration and more chance for motion blur.

Skiing photograph shot during the SLC shootout. Skier: Jason West.  4 strobes used in total: 2 Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS Packs, 3 "A" heads and 1 Canon 580EXII fired via Skyports.  Lighting set-up here The action in this shot is entirely stopped by the strobes (roughly 1/2000th of a second flash duration).

Phew...so, what does all of this mean in the real world and why is it important?  If you are using strobes while shooting ANYTHING moving, then just like knowing what shutter speed to pick to create a sharp, crisp image, you should also know what flash duration you'll be getting from your strobe:

-hummingbird feeding
-gymnast during a floor exercise
-outdoor portrait of model on a windy day (blowing hair)
-pouring a bottle of Coca-cola into a glass for a product shot
-cyclist descending Cormet de Roselend during the Tour de France


IN SUMMARY:
1.  Flash duration stops the action and becomes your shutter speed (in low-light and dark settings)
2.  Flash duration changes (typically is fastest at full power)- check mfg specs
3.  If your strobe manufacturer uses the t.5 number, divide by 3 for the true stopping power of your flash.

So, what's the answer to the question?  For the most flexibility stopping motion, get the "A" head.  This is one of the main reasons I chose the Elinchrom system because most of their lights have very fast flash durations at a reasonable price.  However, just like buying any piece of equipment, consider why you need the faster flash duration head and how it will fit into your work as a photographer and buy what fits your needs.

And one final CURVE BALL to end on:  If you shoot location work during daylight (much of what I do) then your true stopping power becomes a combination of your cameras sync speed and your strobes flash duration OR worse yet, entirely dependent on your cameras sync speed.  In the next blog post we'll discuss using strobes with ambient light, on-location.

-Kevin Winzeler
Advertising and Commercial Photographer based in Salt Lake City, Utah
Tags:  Elinchrom, Ranger RX Speed AS, Commercial Photographers

5D Mark II shoots the Season Finale of "House". Greg Yaitanes interview.

Phillip Bloom interviews the Director and producer of of the hit TV series House, Greg Yaitanes, in this interview.  The fact that the director of a major TV series decides to shoot it's season finale (not just parts of an episode) is unreal.  As photographers and film makers, we have access to an unbelievable number of tools to tell and share stories.  Exciting times ahead folks!

It sounds like the Canon primes won on set along with a couple of zooms to ease the transition of shooting different focal lengths.  Of note were the 50 f/1.2, 85 f/1.2, 100mm Macro (used in the opening sequence below) and 70-200 f/2.8 II.

There's a good discussion happening over at Cinema 5D on the topic and hopefully we'll see some behind the scenes footage and further discussion soon.

If you missed the show this week, download an HD version at the iTunes store.

-Kevin
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Commercial and Advertising Photographer

Advanced camera panning techniques (Sports and Action photography)

When we think of sports photography, usually we think of shooting at the highest shutter speed possible and wide open apertures in order to stop the subject dead in his/her tracks.  The sharper the image, the better, right?  Let's talk about breaking this rule for a minute and working to capture more of a sense of motion in your images.  How do you translate the feeling of a cyclist racing across the asphalt at 30mph?  How about the movement of a propeller as an airplane leaves the ground at take-off?  Or a sail boat piercing it's way through an open ocean?  Or what about a skier tunneling through three feet of freshly fallen snow?  One way to create movement in our imagery is through the use of slow shutter speeds and panning the camera.  As a commercial photographer, I'm constantly striving to create the most intriguing and compelling photographs.  Of the many techniques available to photographers, panning and the use of slow shutter speeds is an excellent tool to add movement and energy when shooting action.
Skiing image: panning at 1/30th of a second

The easiest way to practice this technique is to pick up the camera, walk out of your front door and point the camera at moving cars.  You can experiment with different shutter speeds, backgrounds and subjects this way.  To take panning to the next level, the trick is to get the camera into a position that it can move at the same speed as your subject.

Road cycling image: panning at 1/20th of a second from the back of a van.

Some other points to consider when panning:

1) Pick the important elements to keep sharp:
What are the important elements to keep sharp in the final image?  If I'm shooting people, I generally want head and facial features sharp.  If it's a commercial shoot, keeping logos, product names or other elements we are advertising is also critical.

2) Move with your subject:
Once you have the location and subject matter, next decide on your composition.  The easiest way to explore the technique of panning is to move the camera parallel to your subject as they ride, ski, swim, walk past you.  For example, during the 2006 Tour de France, I captured this image of cyclist, David Millar during the prologue stage of the tour.  And a few months ago during the Salt Lake Shootout, I captured this skiing photograph with roughly the same technique.  However, if you're working in a more controlled environment, try getting into a position where you can keep the camera still and move with the subject.  Whether it be a bike, motorcycle, car or other rig, try the camera into a position is moving at the same speed and direction as the subject.  For the following image, I wanted a head-on perspective and so we jumped in the back of a mini-van and with the tailgate up, started shooting.   I love the gritty feel of getting the camera close to the moving pavement, while keeping the rider and bike in focus.

3) Choose your shutter speed.
Panning requires a steady hand and experimentation with your shutter speed.  For example, when shooting a cyclist, I'll start in the 1/25th of a second range and move up or down from there to get the right blend of motion and sharpness.   Also, keep in mind your background colors when choosing your shutter speed to create either something that's recognizeable or completely blurred giving an ethereal and abstract feel.

Lifestyle shoot: Panning at 1/5th of a second (strobed w/ Elinchrom Ranger)

Lastly:

1. Use ND Filters.  If you're shooting on a sunny day, throw a neutral density filter or polarizer on your lens to bring your exposure back to 1/30th of a second (or whatever shutter speed you decide on).  As a LAST resort if you can drop your iso to 50 and crank your aperture to f/22, but make sure your sensor is clean!
2. Bring lot's of memory.  We shot roughly 300 images of one athlete in the span of 2 minutes or so on the 5D Mark II (3.9 FPS).  We had roughly 10-15 keepers.
3. Safety first.  If you are hanging off or a motorcycle or out of the back of a van, make sure to communicate to everyone involved.  You, the driver and the athlete need to be on the same page.  The last thing you want is for the driver to suddenly hit the brakes while your cyclist is trailing 3 feet behind at 30 MPH.  Keep it safe.

What are some of your techniques for panning?  Let's hear it.  Next, we'll talk about panning with the use of strobes (big and small).

-Kevin

More behind the scenes videos and photography

Inspiring Documentary: Up There

A few quick thoughts from the documentary "Up There".

First, I hope in addition to shooting a ton of photographs lately, that you are also experimenting with video on your DSLR.  As a commercial photographer often working with people, I can say that the number one benefit from shooting and understanding motion and film has been learning to direct people.  Film also helps me to think in terms of story telling with my photography, which I worked on more this past weekend while photographing Ironman, St. George, Utah (photos coming soon).

Second, both the artists in the story as well as the artist, Malcolm Murray telling the story inspire me to be patient and continuously improve my craft as a photographer.  I love how these folks talk about the process of learning and the time and sacrifice involved in becoming an artist in their field.  In this fast paced world, where truck loads of free information are available at our finger tips, we can at times be a bit too anxious.  Amazing doesn't happen in minutes, but rather it takes a long time and sometimes a lifetime.  Let's step back and appreciate the photographers that have paved the way for us, as well as steadily improve as artists.  Patience is a virtue I believe...

Third, shoot photos and stories you are passionate about.  This story is told with a sense of pride and passion.

-Kevin

Parkour - Free Running Photo Shoot

I've been working on a few personal projects lately, including a photographing some local Parkour, Free Running talent.  I love the combination of technical, physical and mental strength required to pull off the moves these guys do.  The sheer power they display blows my mind.  Ironically, the day we shot the following pictures started out as more of a scouting trip for a short film I'm working on, but ended up becoming the focus of the day as I just couldn't pass up the chance to photograph this stuff.  Here's a quick breakdown of a few shots from the day as well as bts video below:

For the first shot, athlete, Devon Bardole, popped up on a railing and literally stayed in a handstand position for minutes (not seconds).   I quickly grabbed the fisheye lens and started working a few shots telling him to hold on for just a bit longer.  The fisheye lens came to mind first in order to get an "in your face" feel and to capture the intensity of the eyes, while also showing the surrounding environment (tall buildings, urban setting).  The concentration is really impressive from these athletes as Parkour is an extremely technical and mental sport.  As you can see in the quick behind the scenes clip, the rail drops a good six feet on one side (shooting position) and I'm working several different angles during one take.  We had the sun almost directly behind the subject, so I exposed for the face and skin tones allowing the sun to blow out a bit behind and create a halo look.  We could have also brought in a little fill flash (either soft or hard light), but I'm quite happy with the resulting image we got.

Second, we worked into a location with more of a back alley feel, where the athlete's (Devon, Bobby and Ellis Robinson) were picking different lines, popping, flipping and dropping off of everything imagineable.  When one of the athletes (Ellis) flag-poled the side of this a old, gritty building, I quickly set-up a shot to capture the move.  My thought process when I see something I want to capture is to first think about the type of light that will work best for the location and subject.  In this case we had a really nice shaded light that was soft and stunning.  I popped an Elinchrom Ranger at 100 w/s for just a touch of fill light (7 degree reflector from camera right), but otherwise kept the soft feel.  Next, I looked at other aspects of the environment to enhance the shot and in particular for foregrounds and backgrounds that would provide either texture, interesting lines, color and sometimes a combination of all three.  This is also where the choice of lens length comes into play as well as depth of field and whether you want the viewer to see a tack sharp image front to back or isolate the subjects to avoid a cluttered background.  While I was drawn to elements of the foreground and background, I quickly made the choice to isolate the subject with a f/2.8 aperture at 200mm on a Canon 5D Mark II and enhanced that feel with a slight vignette in post-production.

Lastly, we worked a large gap drop that provided a another nice fisheye perspective from directly underneath the take-off zone.  The drop involved a "Kong" move, (blindly I might add) over the wall and down roughly 12-15 feet onto cement, an insanely big move. Here I'm using a Ranger at near full power, 1000 w/s or so and a standard reflector to light the athlete and retaining wall as well as slightly over-power the sun by a stop or so.

The process for this shoot evolved quite quickly as I mentioned we initially wanted to shoot a few stills and scout locations for film work.  That said, the on-the-fly direction worked out really.  When you're shooting in a run-in-gun type fashion like this, you have to make quick decisions.   First, I'll analyze the light and whether I need to add or subtract light or even whether or not I have time as often it will ruin the spontaneity of the shot.  Foregrounds and backgrounds come into play next and other supporting aspects of the environment that I think will enhance the shot (include) or detract (exclude).  Theses types of shoots are a balance of documentary or event type work (where "key moments" won't be repeated) and a commercial photo shoot like our recent trail running shoot for example where prior to taking a shot, we had scouted locations, diagrammed lighting scenarios, and chosen our color palette, compositions and art direction.

See more Parkour and Free Running pictures from our day in downtown Salt Lake City.  Also, stay tuned for the short film we are currently in the process of making!


-Kevin Winzeler
Commercial Photographer

Recent work in Print | Photography

It's time for a quick post with some recent photography that went to press; including a couple of magazine covers, ads and campaign work.  It's always fun to see how an image you photograph translates into print.

-Kevin Winzeler

Advertising and Commercial Photographer

Be Inspired. Find your creativity.

Pictage Films put out this nice little piece on creativity. The interviewees hit it out of the park on a few points as far as I'm concerned:

"The best thing about deadlines is that it forces our creativity to come to the surface" - Blake Howard
"The main feeling I go through when I'm writing a new song is...this sucks!" - Nick Kirk
"When you have a story that needs to be told, you can't help but go out and make it (tell it). If you were to say no, you're doing yourself and others a disservice...you're walking away from the muse that says you need to go make this and it's important that you make this...every film maker, photographer and writer..." - Brandon McCormick

Creativity for me, is a lot like what is described by these individuals. As a photographer, creating images that I feel good about requires an immense amount of hard work, while forcing myself to set deadlines and editing out all the images that "suck". The majority of us out there work hard to develop creativity.
If I put myself in an environment to be creative and by that I mean, always shooting, studying, listening, collaborating, and repeating, I'll improve as an artist and individual.  The "environment" is not a geographic location (i.e. Borders Cafe) where creativity flows continuously, but rather the entire process of WORK.

So keep working!

I'm curious to hear what your creative process is? Chime in below:

-Kevin
Commercial photographer

2010 PhotoCamp Utah: On-location Photography. SCOUT. LIGHT. CREATE

Participating in this years PhotoCamp Utah was an absolute blast!

Photographers! - If you weren't able to attend this years PhotoCamp, I'd highly recommend getting on board for 2011. Just make sure you register early (like within the first 6 hours of registration opening). I guess there were 400+ people on the waiting list this year which doesn't surprise me given the dirt cheap price ($15) for a solid day of all things photography. It was a packed day of excellent presentations and networking opportunities as well as a final Keynote address by Zack Arias, which rocked the house. Thanks for making the trip out Zack!

Photograph: stitched pano shot during my "On-Location" presentation (minute 11:01) while showing recycle time of the Ranger.

I presented toward the beginning of the day and was stoked to see so many people interested in learning about photography on-location as well as lighting. We had 60-70 people crammed into a smallish room all anxious to share and learn. Check out the presentation below and the slides here: Photography and Lighting On-Location
 I'd love to continue the Q&A session as well.  Please chime in with any questions, comments and your experiences with location work, scouting and lighting.



A HUGE thanks to all the people behind the scenes that pulled this thing off (Jeremy, Ann and crew)! Until next year...

-Kevin

Advertising Photographer in Utah

Photographers: Add space and BACK-UP your images today! 2TB Drives and Mac Pro Optical Bay

As a professional photographer, hard drive space is a constant battle!  Of course, we hear all the time how "cheap" HD space is, so what's the problem?  Well, what most people "experts" don't acknowledge is the real cost of adding space to your working system.  I'm talking about the hours of researching reliable drives, planning for future growth, installing and reconfiguring your current system and/or paying for someone to help to do all of that for you.  Time is money and there's a lot more involved than cost per/GB when it comes to running things reliably and professionally. Second, you rarely hear talk of a serious back-up plan which should at a minimum consist of two complete copies of all your data (one being off-site).  With file sizes as large as they are as well as the addition of HD video to most cameras this can start to add up quickly, even for "cheap" space!  

If your system is getting full (say a single drive in an iMac for example), then you're stuck either upgrading that drive or adding external drives.  If adding externals, buy drives with the fastest connection your computer will handle (eSata, iScsi, Firewire 800, Firewire 400, USB), but realize this solution is simply a band-aid.   Externals are great for archiving or back-up to, and yes, I'd include the drobo in this group, but not so great when editing large photography or video files (5D Mark II or larger) (New drobo (iscsi) may be an exception, but I've heard mixed reviews on speeds).  With the exception of eSata,  Read/write and transfer speeds of externals becomes too difficult to work with.  You need your drives working FAST, especially on data you access daily.  At some point you'll need to upgrade to a box (Mac Pro).  More on the back-up plan below.
If you already own a Mac Pro, still running out of space, there's another solution for you.  The beauty of the Mac Pro is the ability to expand from 4 drives into 6 or even 8 by taking over the optical bays (Screenshot below).  A few weeks ago, I found myself in this situation and opted to add two Samsung 2TB drives in the 2nd optical bay (below the DVD drive/burner) via a Pro Caddy 2 from Transintl for roughly $450. This is awesome!  The future possibility for growth here is: 8 bays x 2TB drives = 16TB of onboard data.  

My current Mac Pro is set-up as follows:

-Early 2008 2.8Ghz 8 Core Mac Pro

-16GB RAM

-Hard Drive set-up:

   Bay 1 - 320GB Factory Drive - Holds OSX and all Applications

     [Drives 2-4 are set as a software RAID 0 (through the disk utility in your applications]

   Bay 2 - 1TB Western Digital Black 

   Bay 3 - 1TB Western Digital Black

   Bay 4 - 1TB Western Digital Black

-NEW: 4 Terabytes of space for $450

   2nd Optical Bay-   2 x 2 Terabyte Samsung Drives via Pro Caddy 2 ---[currently set as a RAID 0]

[Note: There are cheaper 2TB drives on the market.  They don't look as reliable as the Samsungs.  Saving $40 on an HD that is of questionable reliability, which 2TB still are, even the Samsung, is about the most insane thing you could do as a photographer, in my opinion.]

In summary, the "Mounted" drives sitting on my desktop are as follows (remember drives 2-4 and the optical are set-up as RAID "0's" so they appear on your desktop as 1 drive):

Mounted Drive 1 - OS/Apps

Mounted Drive 2 - 3TB in RAID 0 - Current years work with 64GB partition for Photoshop scratch disk

Mounted Drive 3 - 4TB  in RAID 0 - All data (Photos, Documents, Music, Motion/Video)

WARNING  -- ***DO NOT SET-UP ANYTHING IN RAID 0, WITHOUT A REALLY, REALLY SOLID BACK-UP AND RESTORE PLAN (In my current set-up, If my "bay 2 drive" crashes, then I lose all photography (data) across 3 drives (bays 2-4).  So in my mind, I have to ask myself - "When a drive crashes, can I get my photographs back?" AND "How long will it take to restore the data?"

BACK-UP PLAN
Probably the most important part of your data management plan as a photographer is to have a consistent back-up plan in place.  When I say consistent, I really mean automated.  If it's not automated, something will slip through the cracks.

Mine's not foolproof, but it's solid and a good place to start...

STEP 1: Back-up all of your live data locally and continuously.

  Part A) Drive #1 (OS/APPS) backed up via Time Machine to a USB drive

  Part B)  Drives #2-6 backed up to Server via Gigabit ethernet.  My main block of live data (i.e. Photographs, video, docs, music) spans 5 hard drives within my Mac Pro, equalling 8 Terabytes of space.  My server consists of a 10 Drive, RAID 6 box which will handle all 8TB's of data.  RAID 6 just means that two drives can completely fail and the data will still be in tact within the server. A drive will fail on you at some point.  Plan on it.  If you can't afford or don't need a server, get a Drobo or even a simple external Hard drive from Costco that has enough space to completely mirror your entire data set).  Another option if your a Mac Pro user, is to simply use the remaining Bay's for back-up (remember you have up to 6 bays with the Pro Caddy 2).  This is the cheapest and cleanest method if the space is available.

STEP 2: Back-up all of your data offsite.  
You need to back-up your data to a place that will still be around if current location experiences a natural disaster such as a flood or fire.  The external HD's get backed-up and stored securely off-site at least monthly and more often if possible.

STEP3: Back-up offsite again - Online.  
I'm currently evaluating CrashPlan and Backblaze for online back-up (both around $50/year).  I'll let you know soon which I prefer.  So far I'm leaning toward CrashPlan for 2 reasons 1) You can send a 1TB upload initially via a Hard Drive  and 2) If and when you have to restore the data Crashplan is a few hundred dollars, Backblaze is several thousand.  Both programs run continuously in the background and update only the files that have changed/added on your computer.  

STEP 4: AUTOMATE everything. 
 I use Chronosync ($30) to automate my main drive back-up (Drives 2-5) to my Server. I also use chronosync for my monthly external, offsite back-ups.  The beauty of this program, is that you don't have to re-copy your entire library of photographs.  For example, let's say I go into Lightroom and tweak my Saturation on a RAW file shot way back in 2005. When I sync my hard drives with Chronosync, it will notice the change to that file (XMP) and add the saturation change to the back-up.

STEP 5: BACK-UP one more time. 
IF you're extremely paranoid (like me), hook-up an additional external drive (or box) via eSata, FW800, or Ethernet directly to your Mac Pro (iMac or PC) to acts as another back-up source to either all of your data or your most important files/folders.  A drobo would be an example of such a box.

*IF you're on a budget, take STEPS 1 and 3 at a MINIMUM.  This is the least expensive, yet viable option.

  

I realize this could either be completely overwhelming to you OR too basic, depending on which camp you fall into on the techy side of things.  Don't stress too much if it sounds overwhelming, just enough to decide to put a back-up plan in place!  If you have questions about your particular system or where to start, please put them in the Comments section and let's generate a good discussion.

Also, please chime in with your experience and plan for both adding more space for data and backing it up.  I would love to hear your thoughts!

-Kevin

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Park City Utah Professional Photographer

On-Location, Big Lights Photography: Presentation Feedback Needed!

So, I was asked to present this coming weekend at PhotoCamp Utah 2010 on the topic of "on-location photography and big light techniques", which is going to be a blast!  The one day event is completely sold out (with 400 people on a waiting list...sorry ya'll).  I think Mr. Zack Arias has something to do with that.

Here's the deal. I only have 45 minutes to present before they yank me out of the room (which has been threatened).  It's just enough time to talk through some scouting ideas as well as show a few behind the scenes examples, but not nearly enough time to set-up a true demo.   If YOU were going to attend my class (or are), what would you want to get out of it??   I plan on talking about the behind the scenes from this  Kauai, Trail Running Photograph as well as the lighting set-up for some of the images from the recent Salt Lake City Shootout: Powder Skiing image 1 and Powder Skiing photograph 2.

Here's the course description :
On-location Photography: from scouting great locations to delivering results with BIG light techniques

This class will focus on what it takes to achieve stellar imagery on-location. We will review two location based "BIG light" shoots and the resulting imagery

Starting point: Please come with a basic understanding of the technical side of working with off-camera lights.  A love for the outdoors and location based work is a bonus.  Ending point: Getting past the technical stuff and finding greater vision when shooting on location including the use of BIG lights.

HIT me below with your feedback (comments).   I'm also toying with the Chase Jarvis idea of doing either a live feed from the presentation or at a minimum recording it and putting it up here in the near future.  

-Kevin

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Park City Utah Professional Photographer

Adobe Lightroom Workflow: Single catalog or multiple catalogs?

Adobe Lightroom users, I need your help!

What is the most effecient way you've found to manage your library of images?

Please tell us if you are using a single catalog or multiple catalogs or a combination of both and what the advantages of your system are?  Also, specify the following in your response:

1) What version of LR you're running?  (For Beta 3 users, specify any differences you see in speed between the two)
2) How big your catalog (s) is (# of images)?
3) How fast the program runs for basic viewing and developing features (adjusting saturation, switching tasks - develop to library grid, etc.).  I realize this is subjective, but is the program running fast enough to actually get work done...
4) How your computer system is set-up (Type, Processor speed, RAM, HD configuration -- LR Catalog on  Drive A, Images on separate drives, and any other nuances)

In addition, do you have any feature requests for Adobe? --   My #1 feature request is to be able to open more than one catalog at once.

Looking forward to hearing your experience!

-Kevin
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Utah Photographers