Put down the camera Uncle Bob.

It's no news that "everyone's a photographer", but over the past several months (years for most professionals), it's getting just plain ridiculous.  Dads at soccer games with Nikon D3's and 300 f/2.8's, chaperones at prom with Canon 5D Mark II's and fast primes, and uncle Bobs at weddings rockin' R-straps and Fong-spheres.  Are hobbyists ever going to draw the line and just stop trying to compete in the professionals' market?

For those who're reading this and scratching their heads a bit, let's start from the beginning.  A long-long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,(or about 2002), the professional photography world was starting to look toward the innovations that digital photography was bringing them. Popular 35mm camera manufacturers were starting to come out with higher resolution, more rugged digital bodies, and the medium format world was already starting to acknowledge the advantages of 25+ megapixel tethered capture. Many large volume, lower cost photography operations such as the one I work for were also starting to migrate, and even starting to utilize the power of the internet for their marketing and sales strategies. But a strange thing happened alongside this boom in professional volume; consumers who'd before not had access to high end film labs and expert developers now could rely on their personal computer to process images. This continuity between professionals and consumers has only increased with the larger scale by which digital photography has propagated itself into the digital lifestyle. What used to be a startup cost of several thousands of dollars could almost be had for several hundred. Image processing that used to cost up to $15 per roll of film could be had for the one time value of a memory card plus software.

This is Bob, at this particular event, it was the Father of the Bride!Add a few years of technology and about a few million emerging pro-sumers/ professionals to the mix, and you can see where there might start to be a problem. Let's not forget to include the plethora of image hosting sites that offer everyone FREE service (Flickr , SmugMug , Photobucket , to name a few). Wow, photography's not looking so bad now is it? This is exactly the thought which is catapulting thousands and thousands of otherwise normal, hardworking moms, dads, aunts, and uncles into the photography market. And who could blame them, right? Well, let's first lump "them" into a persona we can all identify with. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Uncle Bob.  And sorry Uncle Bob, but I can blame you! If you don't mind, sir, I'd like to ask you a few questions:

(I'm going to spend the rest of this post referring directly to Uncle Bob and those like him, so please bear with the aggressive statements that follow. ^_^ )

Question #1 - Wow, that's a nice new (insert DSLR here) Uncle Bob, so why are you here?

Truth is, you're not here because you want to be, you're here for what you think is saving you money in the long haul. "Oh my God," you thought, "there's no way I'm paying $10 for a 4x6 of my niece/nephew!" Or "Why would you pay $3000 for someone to photograph your wedding? I could buy my own gear for half that and shoot it as a wedding gift!"

Question #2 - Just what part of your little "investment" is saving you money?

Truth is, it isn't! Even though today's entry level DSLR's are cheap by professional standards, they're still at least a couple hundred bucks. That's not even including the mountain of accessories you may feel compelled to buy to look "professional".  And what happens if you manage to damage your gear in the midst of playing the pro? That's right, you eat even more of the cost. Let's not even consider the fact that you might be doing  weddings without the reassurance of backup equipment, good insurance, and good contract/lawyer.

Question #3 -  Furthermore, what part of this is saving you any of the time/hassle?

Uncle Bob, you already have a day-job. Why needlessly add more hours of work for something that's going to offer you little/no return, especially when there's probably already a professional on the job? Don't think it takes time? Consider travel time, shooting,  post processing, and uploading. Even with very little of all four, I know I'd rather spend a majority of that time not shooting for free.

Question #4 - Do you even really know what you're doing with your gear?

If your answer is no, I admire your honesty, but go ahead and add education to your totals for cost and time. If your answer is yes, why are you always standing behind/around me when I'm trying to take a shot at a job I'm being paid to do?

Am I being a tad overzealous on this topic? Hell Yes. Why? Because I'm sick of showing up to sporting events where I know I'm going to see more mom's with Canon 7D's than those with snacks for the players.  It's just plain rude to be constantly bumped by a random dad's monopod whilst he's creeping right behind me on the football sidelines.

So what can I as a pissed-off professional do to quash this onslaught of Uncle Bobbing? Why I can dress in bright colored clothing and passively ruin Bob's shot, just what any other mature adult would do. Honestly, it usually never comes to that, but as a preventative measure, I always have sassy-colored clothing on hand just in case. Don't believe me? Well, I wouldn't want to be called a liar. Just check out this Flickr set of an Uncle Bob's volleyball shots:

Wow, Uncle Bob certainly did take a lot of pictures ^o^

 Not only are the .jpeg's he's posting for free unprocessed, ill color-balanced, and often out of focus, you can probably see me in every single one of them. I usually never follow up on Uncle Bobs, but I just couldn't help myself. ^_^

Bottom line Uncle Bob, put down the camera and enjoy your life. There are already people being paid much less than you think to waste their time at your kid's game, wedding, or other drawn-out event. And if you're really in it for the love of photography, start off small, at home, or maybe while traveling. But if you're polite, respectful, and not planning on undercutting my territory, I'd be glad to help a fellow enthusiast out. Happy shooting Uncle Bob, please just don't interrupt my day job to ask what the heck ISO is.



The Logitech g13 gamepad, best. investment. ever.

To my left here stands quite possibly the best $75 I've spent in the past five years. What the heck is it? Why it's a gamepad, photo-editing-on-the-fly-pad, and omg-InDesign-is-now-slightly-workable-pad. To everybody else, it's Logitech's most unique keyboard to date, the G13.

So aside from looking like the Nintendo Power Glove's badass little cousin, what can this keypad offer us?

• 25 programmable, backlit keys, with standard joystick included
• each key can be assigned up to three single-stroke or macro functions, selectible on the top panel
• customizable lcd display, for ingame, general status, or rss feed info
• quick-macro key for assigning new keystrokes on the fly
• application recognition; when you change to a different program, the G13 follows

 At first glance, its easy to shrug off these modest specs as something that could only fend off carpal tunnel for the serious gamers out there. That was my first impression too, that is, until I saw this little gem: RPG Keys.

 "Wait! So they make a keyboard that's pre-programmed to make Photoshop and Lightroom even faster to use? Ok, so what's the catch?"

About $700 to be precise. Ouch. Like anybody else who owns any Adobe software, I don't want to shell out any more than I need to for faster functionality. That's where the beauty of the internet meets the genius of nerds with too much time on their hands. Meet Jonathon Ceci, this guy wasn't the first to figure it out, but he makes a pretty convincing argument to spend $75 for the keypad plus another $40 for his homebrewed scripts.

"But Mat," my loyal fans will say, "we don't even want to spend $40 that we don't have to!"

Well for all of you penny pinchers out there, thank Gordon's Tech & Hobby Blog for giving us a free plugin for a free app (Autohotkey) to DIY the hell outta the G13. About two hours of key-slaving later, you have yourself a workflow that laughs at stacks of wedding photos and doesn't even break a sweat at those thousands of unedited vacation pics.

What makes the workflow so much faster? Imagine: importing, exporting, spot healing, graduated filters, exposure, color, sharpening, and noise adjustments (to name a few), all without using a single slider.

"Well if I can make one Adobe program easier," I thought, "why not try a few more?"

As of this blogpost, I've tamed InDesign CS4, Photoshop, and Lightroom, with Premiere and Illustrator macros in the works. No more fumbling over Ctrl+Shift+Windows Key+Knick-knack-patty-whack bs with less than intuitive hotkeys.

For a final recap, who would like this awesome piece of ergonomic plastic? Any PC users who game more than they spend time with loved ones, PC cursed photo/video editors, and geeks with $75 burning a hole in their pocket. If you're still on the fence about the G13, buy one, check out the provided links for free apps and scripts to aid your macro'ing quest, and see what happens. Worst case scenario, you still have an awesome way to play virtually any FPS, RTS, or MMO with more ease than should be legal. Now get out there and get playing!

Other helpful links:

Adobe Lightroom HotKey List

Adobe Photoshop HotKey List

Adobe InDesign HotKey List

Logitech G13 Support

Shooting kids, more fun than you'd expect...

Cliche, yes, but moms go ape over it. Logging into Facebook a few weeks ago, I was surprised to find a request from a high school friend.

"Hey! How are you old friend?! How are things going? Well by reading your info I guess you're a pretty damn good photographer, so you're definitely the man the job!"

0_0 Oh no, this was not going to bode well.

Well, it turned out it wasn't so bad. She was a new mom looking for some simple documentation of the newest edition to the family. So how was I going to shoot this? Would I bring the whole mobile studio and overshoot this poor little girl, or would I use a little photojournalistic style? The latter, hands down.

I learned a few things shooting a four-month old:

• Take a standard portrait. Sure you hate it, but most relatives require it. 
• Be patient and move away from the camera and regain baby's attention.
• Mom doesn't want to see herself, no matter how much you need her to hold her baby for that perfect pose.
• Use a telephoto! Those big blue baby eyes are big enough without wide angle. 
• Baby looking at the camera is great, but baby discovering the world around him/her...better!

Little Claire discovering dandelions for the first time.Wrapping up this baby shooting experience:

Was it fun? Yes.

Babies aren't picky models or fat businessmen who want to look 25 and skinny, they're babies. If you want to give a baby motivation, play peekabo with your SLR or tug at your cheeks.

Would I work with kids again? Maybe.

I got really lucky with a great set of clients, especially considering this was the first real kid shoot I've done.

If nothing else, this shoot has given me great respect for those that do this day in and day out.