PhotoLifeToys

Astrakhan pelicans

2012-01-23T04:45:00.001-08:00

Out and about are the pelicans in early spring.

AppleScript control over SKYPE - call & SMS/Text messsage automation

2011-12-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

We had an issue.

Delinquent clients would not answer their phones, and the reps had a hard time getting through to them.

So we decided to automate the process.

In combing through the Skype API, various inet resources, blogs, books, etc, the "skype call and sms via applescript.scpt" script was born.

The solution is that after setting up 5 parameters: # of attempts, name of person to be called, phone number, SMS message body text, and interval delay between attempts - the script will do the following:

1. Attempt to call the provided phone number (assuming no answer)
2. Send an SMS text message to that phone number asking to call back
3. Echo back to your skype account message recording the attempt.
4. Wait for the interval to expire and repeat.

Call answering is not checked for, so you need the manually halt the script in case you get an answer.

Further, this can be expanded to handle a sort of "mail merge", or "call list message execution". The Skype API allows for changing of audio in/outputs, meaning you should be able to route to "Soundflower", take control of quicktime and playback a preset recording, and then route back for normal operation.

My apologies, but this seems to be a "mac only" solution. I'm sure that the Skype API calls can be referenced and a similar workflow can be created on Win and Linux.

There is no GUI attached - you need to open the script up in AppleScript Editor (should be present on every mac system), and setup the five "variables" as described above and in the body of the script.

Enjoy!
-D

ps. if you copy/paste from below, make sure that the quotes don't come up as "curly quotes" - if they do, you will need to do a search/replace in AppleScript Editor for this to work.

######################################################################
########## SCRIPT TO CALL & SMS to a qualified number, i.e. +44.. at regular intervals ##############
######################################################################
# 13-Dec-2011, DMS.
#
# This script is for used for Skype control via AppleScript. It is a combination and expansion on various
# resources found on internet and SKYPE api.
# It assumes that the current logged in skype account has "skype credit" and is able to
# normally send text messages and call out to mobile/land lines - via the Skype Out service.
# Please keep in mind, that normal Skype charges apply.
#
# The Script will make call attempts via skype, then followup with an SMS Text message.
# It will then report on the status back to you via SKYPE chat message.
#
# At present there is no functionality of checking on whether the phone was picked up, to halt script.
# This has to be done by hand by stopping the script.
#
######################################################################
#
#
# BEFORE USING - SET THE FOLLOWING VARIABLES:
#
#1. numberOfAttempts - The number of times you wish the loop to take place (#of calls & SMS messages).
#
#2. callToA - The Person's name the script will be calling / sms texting.
#
#3. callToAnumber - The phone number to use for the calls / sms. Must be in qualified international
#    format: i.e. UK +44… US +1… France +33… (Followed by area code and phone number)
#
#4. SMSmessageBody - The text in the body of the SMS/Text message.
#    The Message body is combined from the following:
#          callToA - i.e. - "BOB"
#          SMSmessageBody - i.e. "! Please call me at +18005551212 as soon as possible to settle your debt. Reminder #"
#          AttemptPersonA - This is the counter of the loop in iterations.
#    The SMS.Text message sent on attempt #3 would be:
#          "BOB! Please call me at +18005551212 as soon as possible to settle your debt. Reminder #3"
## Most mobile phones will now recognize this format and allow one click call back from within the sms message.
#
#5. attemptInterval - # of seconds between call attempts - i.e. 3600=1 hour, 1800=30 mins
#
#
# SETUP VARIABLES
set numberOfAttempts to 6
set callToA to "BOB"
set callToAnumber to "+13105551212"
set SMSmessageBody to "! Please call DEAN @ +18005551212. Reminder #"
set attemptInterval to 1800
#
#
# BODY
set callAttemptsCounter to 1
set AttemptPersonA to 1
repeat numberOfAttempts times
    #
    # call attempt to PERSON
    tell application "Skype"
        send command "CALL " & callToAnumber script name "Call"
    end tell
    delay 90 #wait 90 seconds before sending SMS, allowing for call to be answered.
    say "call attempt to " & callToA & " completed, sending SMS reminder #" & AttemptPersonA

    # send SMS message after the call attempt
    set smstext to callToA & SMSmessageBody & AttemptPersonA as Unicode text
    tell application "Skype"
        set message to send command "CREATE SMS OUTGOING " & callToAnumber script name "SMS"
        set smsid to item 2 of every word of message
        send command "SET SMS " & smsid & " BODY " & smstext script name "SMS"
        set result to send command "ALTER SMS " & smsid & " SEND" script name "SMS"
        #display dialog "SMS send! Text: " & smstext
    end tell

    #send a skype message to Self with update!
    set messageText to "     Call attempted to " & callToA & "; and reminder #" & AttemptPersonA & " sent."
    tell application "Skype"
        send command "MESSAGE echo123" & messageText script name "messages"
    end tell

    # wait 30 mins (1800 seconds)
    delay attemptInterval
    #
    #display dialog "Call & SMS attempts: " & callAttempts
    set AttemptPersonA to AttemptPersonA + 1
    set attemptPersonB to attemptPersonB + 1
    set callAttemptsCounter to callAttemptsCounter + 1
end repeat

Travelog 11/2011 - New Orleans, LA

2011-11-13T14:07:00.001-08:00

New Orleans, Burbon St. - street "still" performer

Travelog 11/2010 - Istanbul, Turkey

2011-11-09T15:58:00.000-08:00

Amazing play of light in an architectural and cultural monument:

Dictionaries Dictionaries and more Dictionaries...

2011-11-09T15:43:00.001-08:00

I love dictionaries. From what I understand, the Japanese do to. There is a Kanji dictionary in almost every house. Then there are the specialties..

But when it comes to language learning its pretty obvious, but this is a real world tool which is functional outside of academia. Living in a multi-language world mandates this.

I have tree input methods on my computer, covering latin, cyrillic and Japanese scripts - and use all three regularly. On the road, or in a plane, an online source (when the heavy book shelf is not always available) needs to be available.

For words and phrases I've fallen for the new Dictionary in OS-X Leopard. Used a variety of tools in the past, but this has been quick and fairly good of late. The only problem is that by default you don't get very much and its very easy to sweep it off to the side for ever.

The solution is its dictionary expansion. David Tse did a great writeup on expanding Dict App as a resource.

The other local tool I get to often is JEDict. Also expandable, but created with Japanese in specific in mind. Runs on practically every Mac OS version - from MacOS 8.1 (Release in 1997!) through 10.6 !

Have fun with quick reference!

Camera Reviews with a giggle or two

2011-11-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong's Kai W (of DigitalRev) is a bokeh loving cracker of a character!

Not overly scientific, and in fact, they are worth watching regardless of the actual cameras and lenses being reviewed/compared for the entertainment value alone.

The sly commentary from the streets of Hong Kong, the Cantonese British English accent, and the wry taking-ons of surroundings and statements of technical feats brings a smile to your face.

Things often go wrong - things break, get wet, people get insulted.

His reviews of DSLR gear is always a joy to watch. Some of episodes I've enjoyed over the last few months:

Canon 135mm f/2 L - the Lord of the Red Rings?

Paint your Nikon D90 pink

Pro DSLR + Cheapo Lens vs "Cheapo" DSLR + Pro Lens

And then there are the end of day comic relief episodes on making your own 3D camera, and the waterproof camera test (this made more sense in the summer!)

Enjoy

November 3rd - Canon "Hollywood" event speculation vs. RED Scarlet

2011-10-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

The world seems to be waiting for the next Canon camera - mostly for 5D mark III - or something that will hit that niche.

With Canon's announcement of the unexpected merging of the 1D and 1Ds lines with the 1Dx (to be released in March 2012) - speculation is abound.

In anticipation of the Red Scarlet, Mike Seymour and Jason Wingrove at FXphd.com voiced (on the RC podcast #98 at approx 10min30sec into the podcast) the following idea regarding what Canon would come up with during the November 3rd 2011 "Hollywood" event :

*Note - this was in context of what the Scarlet will have to match once its released. Announcement also planned on the tail of the Canon event. Although unlikely that RED will change much from the existing pre-production - less price (which can vary depening on what Canon comes up with.

New Canon camera will have the following:

@Price: sub $15,000 - possible down to $10,000

@Image quality: Alexa good

@SDI outs

@XLRs (audio)

@Piviting & detachable monitors and grips

@PL mount and EF mount options

@Resolution - 4k capture, 2k recording

What most photograhers are actually hoping for is the 5DmIII. November 3rd - will this be the day of the mark THREE ? Or a new Canon 3D line?

Canon 7D - Error 30

2011-10-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

The 7D is rated for 150,000 shutter actuations by Canon.

I'm somewhere above 18,000 shutter actuations on the 7D. Around 15,000, I started to get the "Error 30" message resulting in a frozen body; black last frame shot (visible once camera is live again); battery empty indicator blinking on the top display.

"Error 30" is claimed to be a shutter problem.
This is the link to the official Canon error list for the 7D.

This happens, as far as I can tell, independent of climate (humid, dry, cold, hot), battery (or multiple batteries with Canon's dual battery grip), CF cards, firmware versions, lens attached, flash attached, shooting raw or jpg or both, horizontal/vertical position, LiveView on/off (although I use it only in video mode), Av Manual or Custom modes, focus mode - or any combination there of.

The most frustrating part of this, is that I've not been able to instigate the issue. It comes and goes - and you know how that goes - it comes at the worst possible moment.

Out of warranty, and on the road, I did various searches for resolving this and have found the following suggestions:

1. Firmware update - currently at 1.2.2 - will try updating to 1.2.5 today.
I'm rather conservative on software upgrades - try to be late to the game to make sure the masses have gone through and tested any changes. Especially mid-project. This goes for all gear - field audio recorders, cameras, editing workstations, mixing consoles, even notebook (especially concerning operating system updates).

2. Slapping the body (pretty hard from what I gather) - from the bottom to get things moving again.
Tried this, but not really knowing how hard is hard - well - I'm a bit skeptical in regards to beating up the camera. No change noted.

3. Changing batteries / CF cards / lenses.
As this is a recurring issue, changes have been attemtped. Attempts at swapping out CF card, battry, lens, etc seem to have no effect. Only thing I could not readily change was the climate. Can't really get to the sahara from scandinavia or carribean in a heart beat to test this.

4. Turn off, turn on, remove battery, reinsert battery.
This seems to do the trick, but can take as many as 5 iterations to actually get the 7D back to operating mode.

From the Photo.net forumes: Once its up and running, set for a LOOONG exposure, and pull out the batter mid shot - giving a jolt to dislodge the shutter. Shoot off a burst of 50 or so frames for lubrication.
Tried this as well, but the problem returns at some point. Is it worth it? Probably not.

5. Remove battery (batteries), and use an eraser to clean the contacts.
Done. No change noticed.

6. Resetting the camera - removing battries *including the "lithium coin" battery - activate shutter to make sure you juice it out completely. Settings, clock, etc - need to be reset.
This did not help at the time of the error - but now that the camera is operating as it should (about 3 hours later) - I really don't know if it helped. Ps. - make sure you get any of your custom settings (color profiles, etc) down on paper so that you can get your camera configued back the way you had it before the hard reset.

What I've learned so far / or course of action in case of incident:

1. Removing and re-inserting battery seems to get you more-or-less back to work to finish off the day.
Keep a spare, fully charged battery handy.

2. This could corrupt your CF card. So if it happens, swap it out to make sure you don't damage anything already on the card. Make sure you reformat the card that was in the camera after getting your data off.

3. For critical events - have a backup body (good for any serious job / trip anyway) - at least until this is resolved.

Most obvious - as all the above seem to be "patches" until the next strike -
4. If you have the time, get it to a service center asap - especially if you are still under warranty.

Please commend below if you've had success with any of the above, or other solution.

Internet Bandwidth throttling scrips

2011-10-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted to limit the bandwidth for all traffic that comes and goes outside my network - keeping speed at max on the local net.

After many searches and attempts the following were discovered:

I call this one: throttle_on

sudo ipfw pipe 1 config bw 100kbit/s 
sudo ipfw add pipe 1 not src-ip 192.168.1.0/24
sudo ipfw add pipe 1 not dst-ip 192.168.1.0/24
sudo ipfw add pipe 1 not src-ip 192.168.2.0/24
sudo ipfw add pipe 1 not dst-ip 192.168.2.0/24

The first line limits all traffic to 100kbit/s
The following lines, omit traffic source and destination calls to/from my local subnets: 192.168.1.* and 192.168.2.*

What I called throttle_off would get everything back in order, and remove all rules:
sudo ipfw flush

The rules reset is upon restarting the system. If you want these to remain, you can either have these run at startup, or perhaps add a cron-tab.

Needless to say, this all needs to be done in the Terminal, and you need to have an admin password for the sudo commands to work.

Sample application - keep the kids streaming connections (youtube) below usable speed, but fast enough to allow access to the schools portal for homework updates and online classes. Flush the settings from Friday evening through Saunday afternoon.

For OSX - Cronix is a simple GUI front end for cron management.

Apple Lion Mail Search Issues

2011-10-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

A common thread these days is that the Apple Mail in Lion does not search correctly, search is broken, or limited.

I seem to have the latter problem. Search works for subject, to and from, but completely fails for message contents.

Mail was imported and all was good when moving to 10.7 Lion from 10.6.8 Snow Leopard - somewhere along the line (perhaps in the Mail 5.1 or Lion 10.7.1) - the search broke.

Searching revealed a lack of a solution that works - everything from rebuilding mailboxes entirely or one-by-one through to deleting envelope files.

Your milage may vary. I've done the following in order of "simple" through more "involved"

Attempt 1:
Rebuild the indexes from within Mail
Selecting each mailbox (as well as those nested within mailbox folders) one by one and choosing rebuild. This is a bit tedious.
Result: fail; no change in search function

Attempt 2:
Force re-indexing via spotlight.
Open System Preferences->Spotlight->Privacy tab
Add the ~/Library/Mail forder
Close and re-open Spotlight
Remove the Mail folder from the Privacy tab list (click on it, and then click the "-" button at the lower left of the window.
Result: fail; no change in search function

**UPDATE:
The following seemed to have solved the problem:

1. reboot in single user mode: hold "command-s" at startup during tone
2. repair file system: "fsck -fy"
3. mount file system: "mount -uw /"
4. change to Volumes directory and remove links (they will be recreated at reboot):
cd /Volumes
- take a look to see if you have duplicate drive entries with a "1" appending the volume name at end.
rm -rfv
reboot
5. Open System Preferences / Spotlight / Privacy
6. Add your system drive to "Prevent Spotlight from searching these locations" list. Press "+" at the bottom of the list to do this.
7. Quit System Preferences
8. Ensure that Spotlight is not searching your system drive (this could take a few minutes)
9. Go back to System Preferences / Spotlight / Privacy and remove the System disk from the "Prevent Spotlight from seaching these locations" list - select system disk, and click "-"
10. System disk will be completely reindexed - this could take a few hours depending on how much data you have there and the speed of the disks.

Take this with a grain salt - as they say your milage may vary.
Searching functionality has returned to Mail !

Report on your findings.

Cheap plastic on expensive metal...

2011-07-15T23:18:00.000-07:00

Holga is pushing their lenses for Canon and Nikon!

The great news is that it is REALLY Cheap! Basic set up starts at $25 USD!

A fun toy without a heavy investment.

A common thread is that you can do all of this in post production - i.e. - Photoshop - but why bother... this is a specific look, and its light and small - not taking much space in your bag (or even pocket for that matter.

I see some interesting possibilities with this in video shooting.

This is a shot from a 5D with a Holga 60mm lens.

Short and concise review can be found here.

Time Lapse Sunset Photography Workflow

2011-07-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Time lapse is fun... sunsets are great... marrying the two has always been a challenge.

I'll break this up into the following sections:

1. Equipment

2. Environment (weather, locations)

3. Photography - what we need to do differently than stills - including issues that come up "in motion" that we are not aware of in stills. Including my preferred

camera / intervelometer

settings.

4. Assembly / Editing

Let's get rolling...

Equipment

Camera:

Equipment requirements can vary, and will in part depend on your make of camera - to be more specific, whether your camera has a built in time-lapse function. Nikon DSLRs do - Canon do not.

With Canon DSLRs you need to use an intervelometer, a devide which plugs into the "remote control terminal (

N3 typ

e on 7D, 5D, 5dm2, 1D, 1Ds, and 10D-20D-30D-40D-50D cameras, E3 type on the 60D, XT,XTi,XSi,T2i,T1i, and their Euro counterparts the 300D-350-400-450-500-550D and the 1000D as wells as the Powershot G10, G11 & G12).

These can be the Canon originals, or their off brans equivalents (which tend to cost 2-3 times less). I've been using the Satechi TR-A (RS-80N3 compatible) with great success for the last two years.

Saterchi also makes a model the for the Sony DSLRs. Pentax K7 users can use the Canon model (E3 type).

Tripod:

This can be overlooked, and sometimes you can get away with just placing the camera on the roof of a car.

If going the no (low) cost route, at the very least buy a 3 kilo bag of rice, or other beans, use 1/3 of it in food, and the rest (re-sealed) as a pillow for the camera. Make a nice indentation in the bag of rice/beans to hold both body and lens - making sure there is enough in there to hold the camera in place.

This will help with positioning, and help reduce vibration. There are commerically available "bean bags" such as the one in this photo, or the Molar Bean Bag, but there is really nothing stopping you from making your own.

Obviously a tripod will give much more control in positioning and framing.

Software:

Quicktime (QT Pro preferred for assembly), or any of the free/shareware tools - but flexibility to achieve results will be limited.

You can stop here, but I would strongly recommend also having access to the follwing:

Digital Media management tool - i.e. Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture as well as your choice of video editing software.

This will help greatly in post production on with the project.

Shootsac - revisited...

2011-07-11T15:23:00.001-07:00

About a year ago I posted about the Shootsac - a working camera bag that it NOT made to transport your gear on the go.. rather, the idea is to have some gear strapped to your body while you work.

It won't hold your camera, but it will swallow up your lenses, flash, etc - kinda like having some big pocket pants all the time.

I use te shootsac, perhaps once or twice per month. But on those days - it is a life saver. Leave the ball and chain back at base camp, but take all that you need for the short run. Great material - elastic and easy on the shoulders.

Highly recommended.

DSLR lens for your iPhone!

2011-07-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Photojojo has a grand new toy!

You can now mount your iPhone onto your DSLR lens - it looks funny - but the results are quite nice. Can't wait to try this out with a 70-200+1.4 EX !

Aperture - SmugMug integration.

2011-07-10T06:24:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of integration - keeping to computer to doing repetative things while I do I what I need to do.

Always on the lookout for a simpler solution to add or combine various workflows, I've come across Joseph Linashke's review of the SmugInProForAperture plugin - which does a great job of pushing your photos to SmugMug with minimal fuss.

TimeMachine - ENCRYPTED ARCHIVES

2011-01-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

Any good data backup strategy will include the following words: "off site copy".

This is something which can be much more involved than it originally sounds.

Moving drives between locations is another task, where we are slaves to technology and work for the computer as opposed to having the computer work for us.

With a notebook that travels with me between home and work, as well as on trips - where I've been lucky enough to have drive failures. Clouds are nice, but I want something local.

My solution is to have two Time Machine backups - one at home on a larger drive for a deeper archive, and a smaller drive (2.5" usb) for work and travel. The problem with the smaller drive is the additional risk of theft or loss. The natural reaction would be encrypt the backup, but getting this to work in OS-X turned out to be not the most straight forward and simple of matters.

The following is based on OS-X 10.6.5

The steps are as follows:

1. Format the drive to be used for Time Machine

2. Find computer's info: Machine name and ethernet address

3. Create encrypted disk image on drive using disk utility or terminal

4. Add keys to keychain

5. Setup Time Machine

6. Peform backup, and hourly automated backups

7. Verify recovery capability

DETAILS:

3. Make sure the disk image is located on the top level directory of the drive.

REFERENCES:

http://earthlingsoft.net/ssp/blog/2010/05/encrypted_time_machine_backups

http://thepracticeofcode.com/post/749686705/encrypted-rotating-time-machine-backups-on-snow

LIGHTNING FAST - APERTURE

2010-12-19T16:20:00.000-08:00

These words don't really fit together well do they? Especially when working from a notebook as opposed to a Mac Pro. BUT - It is possible!

From Click to Preview in Browser mode with 44,000+ images (the bulk of which are RAW files) loaded available for immediate review - in less than 6 seconds!

Working off a couple of generations old MacBookPro (5,3), 4Gb RAM, Masters are relocated to a FW drive (notebook size 2.5" 640Gb spinning at 5400 RPM). I keep only the current working project masters in the library (currently 59.6 Gb) until completion, then relocate them off. This allows me to work on the move without having to bring my photo drive.

Down to the nitty gritty:

1. The search:

Frustrated with the speed of Aperture, I was looking for a replacement internal drive running at 7200 RPM - willing to live with the added heat and reduced battery life.

Remembering the old days of the G3 PowerBook Lombard (1999) with the right side optical drive which could be ejected and replaced with a second battery, and the aftermarket enclosures which allowed adding a second drive in that same slot - I though - what can we do today?

In search of drive reviews, I landed at OWC's site. OWC is a long term reseller of mac and pc hardware, including various "upgrade path" solutions extending the life of your current machine. There - I found the "data doubler" !!!

2. The implementation:

This kit allows you replace your optical drive with a frame which will hold an additional drive. My SuperDrive gets used at best once per month. This was the best way to go for me.

Since I was up to something - this something had to be done "all the way".

SSD was the way to go. After detailed searches and articles, I chose the Corsair Force series F240 SSD. High throughput, stable results, and updatable firmware (through windows machines only).

The data manipulation was the most time consuming aspect of the upgrade.

I moved all ~/Music, ~/Movies, ~/Pictures (except for Aperture Library) to an external drive.

For the time being, I've decided to keep ~/Documents in place, but plan on moving this over if I start to get low on space.

Keeping system files, applications, and libraries (including mail in place).

Did the drive swap - at first placing the SSD in the bracket, and keeping the HD in original location.

Cloned the original HD to SSD, and replaced the moved files to the internal HD after re-formatting. Links needed to be fixed in iTunes and other places for everything to be found correctly.

Warning! This led to crashes upon sleep / hibernation. Search on Corsairs support site as well as other online resources pointed to the fact the swapping the location of these drives solves the problem.

I'm getting good at taking apart the mac book pro - Apple, if you're listening, I can sub for a maintenance engineer! Its actually quite simple and takes no more than 10 mins for the whole thing (all required tools were included with the bracket package). Instruction booklet is great, as are the online videos.

I had set aside a separate external HD for aperture backups throughout. All the data moves sure ate up space, but I kept at it between each change of hardware or file location. Its worth the peace of mind, knowing that I can roll back at any time, as well as to my original state with just the one drive.

3. The Results:

Mind-blowing. No other word to describe this.

The machine boots 3x faster - in approx 16 seconds.

Office apps open instantly - in 1 bounce.

iTunes - 3 bounces

Mail - 1 bounce !!!!!! Search through a mail archive since 1996 (22gb worth) is instant - as fast you can type.

Paralles Desktop - 3 bounces to open, 11 seconds to launch (not wake) Windows XP in Coherence mode.

And of course - Aperture - 2 bounces to open, 3 seconds for "Opening Aperture 3 Library", and another second or two to display in Browse mode - ALL images in library.

LIGHTNING FAST APERTURE - sure, with a LIGHTNING FAST DRIVE.

4. Arguments:

Is money better spent on RAM?

NO! It is not. The move from 4Gb to 8Gb yields marginal benefits. We went through this last week at the office. An i7 MacBook Pro with 4Gb ram was upgraded to 8Gb. Performance increases were noticed in Photoshop - this was the most obvious, but too small to gauge.

The same upgrade as I've outlined herein, save for a drive from OCZ, and we saw dramatic improvements - from 2x to 5x performance increase. The more data needs to read and written to disk, the more amazing the change.

Fit your OS, Apps and core data onto an SSD - 100Gb is enough. Leave the rest on HDD, dump the optical drive.

Get rid of that extra box to charge and carry - the Geo Logger

2010-12-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer - iPhone w/ GPS required for this. - although it seems obvious symbian, nokia, blackberry etc developers will be sure to follow soon.

http://www.galarina.eu/GeoLogTag/Home.html

GeoLogTag will log your movements. You can then export the logs, of tap into a shared folder, and the app will geo-tag your photos for you for further processing.

While there are various devices which can attach directly to a Nikon DSLR, Canon folk have to use external loggers. Number of points is limited to the memory you have available.

The great thing, its one less piece of gear to carry, one less unit to charge - and the phone does tend to be along for the ride regardless.

Need to check on accuracy of the logs, and the response times - especially in big city environments.

Kevin Carter wrote out the logging/shooting/tagging/import procedure with iPhoto.

Could not resist the $5 cost. Will test and revise my GPS geo tag workflow if this works out.

Canon "Mod" of mode dial - 7d & 5d mk2

2010-12-08T09:36:00.001-08:00

Lock the dial mode to prevent accidental movement during operation.

When moving quickly it is quite simple to make a change to the mode and miss a shot. The dial mode is one of the last things that would come to mind when things aren't working out. Slip from AV to Tv, and we're in a different zone.

http://www.canon.co.uk/Support/Consumer_Products/services_locator/index.aspx

This is the notice from Canon. Costs approx $110 usd.

Repair your APERTURE Database

2010-10-30T02:26:00.000-07:00

If things don't seem quite right, rebuild!

http://aperture.maccreate.com/2010/02/09/repair-rebuild-fixing-your-aperture-3-library/

Make sure everything is backed up before attempting repairs though!

Aperture update promises speed!

2010-10-29T07:48:00.001-07:00

Last week, Apple updated Aperture to V.3.1 !

From the list of fixes, position #1 and #2 start with the word PERFORMANCE!

Link to read details and download: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1315

Let's hope for the best.

Here is a thread on Apple's discussion forums: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2626963&tstart=0

iCal / Mobile Me CLEAN UP SYNC!

2010-10-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

Duplicate entries and loss of complete functionality - undocumented HOWTO without spenidng 6 hours on the phone with Apple support.

http://robulack.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/how-to-manually-delete-all-sync-data-from-mobilemes-servers/

New PL-MOUNT for Canon

2010-10-11T02:55:00.000-07:00

New PL mount - NOT REQUIRING DESTRUCTION OF CAMERA!!!

http://www.canonrumors.com/2010/10/new-canon-dslr-pl-mount/

Now on sale at ZGC http://www.zgc.com/webstore.nsf/products/zunow_pl5d

Aperture WISH LIST

2010-08-19T21:23:00.001-07:00

1. Local/Remote Photo server sync - allowing access

2. At leaset mediocre performance- current is just awful

What is a HEAVY lens?

2010-08-19T18:43:00.001-07:00

While reading reviews, I noticed many a folk complain about the weight of lenses. This is important, as less weight will keep you going longer... but when is too much and how much is too much?

Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8L - 950 grams (33.6 oz)

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM - 290 grams (10.2 oz)

Canon EF-S 10-22mm - 385 grams (13.6 oz)

Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L ii - 650 grams (22.9 oz)

Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 - 310 grams (10.9 oz)

Canon EF 70-200 f/4L IS - 760 grams (26.8 oz)

Back to GeoTagging.. workflow improvements...

2010-08-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

I've recently gone through and made my GeoTagging Workflow, but it looks like its time for revisions.

The main change is the order in which images are added to the library (Aperture in my case) and GPS info is attached.

Round tripping from Aperture, by opening the library projects from within HoudahGeo and posting the data back seems to be providing inconsistent results. Not all images are updated with the GPS data found within HoudahGeo.

The REVISED workflow is now:

Components:

1. Canon EOS D-SLR

2. Wintec WBT-201 G-Rays2 GPS logger

2.1 - a list of proven GPS devices for HoudahGeo can be found here.

3. HoudahGeo (Mac OSX Version 2.5.6)

4. Aperture3

5. Google Earth

Process:

1. PREPARE

Before beginning, some things need to be understood about the time zones, what is where and how they are to be logged and matched with the photos taken with the camera.

-Fully charge your logger so that it will last the day without the battery going out.

-Set the TIME ZONE in the Camera to Match the current Time Zone! (You will need this later)

2. SHOOT

-DO NOT CHANGE THE TIME in Camera once you have started shooting - otherwise, import the photos with the different TIME SETTINGS as SEPARATE projects into HoudahGeo !

-Keep the GPS logger close to you... in a pocket, not somewhere in a bag or car near by.

3. Launch HoudahGeo.

Create a New Project

4. Import the TRACKS

5. GEOTAG - import the images from mem card into HoudahGeo, and the GPS data should be automatically correlated with the images based in date/time. Use a fast card reader and save yourself some pain.

** You will be asked to confirm the time zone for the photos in this session. Make sure not to import photos with different timezones into one batch, or they will be mislabeled with the wrong coordinates!

5. Double check results:

In HoudahGeo, click on the GeoTag Google icon to open the link to Google Earth. Spot check or check all photos to make sure that the correct location is tagged. This should be fine if the clock settings were correct.

6. Export EXIF / Write metadata back to image files on mem card.

7. IMPORT images into library (Aperture, Lightroom, etc) tagging all of your MetaData as usual. Jason Linashke/ApertureExert has many a great tutorials on Metadata logging.

8. Open updated project in Aperture (or other) and check locations to confirm that all is good!

~ Finito !

Panavision 3D - film and digital

2010-08-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

The most amazing thing about this system is the lack or requirement of a silver screen. This works just fine on a standard white screen.

In a demo with a split screen (top white/bottom silver) something of great interest was discovered.

Dead center the silver, with higher natural gain, gave an appearance of at least 1.5 ftL brighter image. A pleasure to see. Moving approximately 15 degrees off axis either direction, both white and silver were equal. And moving any further off axis, yielded an amazing drop of image brightness into a moot grey for the silver screen.

No trigonometry and slide rule in the theater here, just eyeballing it, but the difference is amazing.

A BETTER viewer experience with the white screen~!!

A blog of cinema and film (celluloid) interest...

2010-08-15T02:28:00.000-07:00

Not something I would talk about... suggesting sites that is. Perhaps this is more of a note to myself, or anyone who is passionate about film in the art sense as well as film in the celluloid sense: http://celluloidjunkie.com/

3D in the Cinemas

2010-08-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

It's not only digital.

It was film based in the past, and film based 3D projection is making a huge comeback.

Two current systems are being offered. Technicolor 3D and Panavision 3D.

Technicolor has over 100 cinema installations in the US, and a few screens in Europe.

Panavision is to be available to theater owners within the coming months.

Basic breakdown:

Technicolor Panavision

-------------- ------------------

Screen Silver White

Film/Digital Film Film with migration to Digital

Film Frame Over/under Over/under

Glasses Polarized Spectral Comb filtering

Glasses cost ~ $1.00, disposable ~ $5.00-7.00, reusable

Business model lease per use not yet determined

Studio support Confirmed in the works

Main obvious difference is that the Tech3D, as claimed by Technicolor is an interim solution, to be in place during the transition to digital. It is a closed solution and in itself provides no transition. Finally, it is inexpensive to get into the cinema, aside from the required silver screen.

Panavision is a system for both today using film projection and possible transition to digital. It is also a system for todays digital projectors. Currently working with Sony projectors, but Barco, Chrystie and other support is upcoming. This places them in competition with RealD 3d, Dolby 3D, XpanD3d.

Technicolor systems looks great. I've yet to see the tests on Panavision 3D.

Film based we get a much smooth picture, with dramatically less flicker than with digital projection. Color is well balanced, and 3d is smooth.

More updates to come...

Script WORLDCLOCK

2010-08-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

While looking for a quick reference online to download and have a quick World Clock at the fingertips - even when there is NO connection, I discovered a few tools, some nice, some not so nice... in the end... nothing made the fit to match what I wanted.

So I popped open the command line and put a very basic script together, which in essence repeats the "date" command with different modifiers, and outputs the results to screen.

Sample output:

08/03/10 02:42:52 LOCAL TIME

08/03/10 12:42:52 UTC TIME

08/03/10 02:42:52 HONOLULU TIME

08/03/10 13:42:52 LONDON TIME

08/03/10 05:42:52 LOS ANGELES TIME

08/03/10 16:42:52 MOSCOW TIME

08/03/10 14:42:52 MUNICH TIME

08/03/10 08:42:52 NEW YORK TIME

08/03/10 21:42:52 TOKYO TIME

Apple OS-X Terminal. Paste the following into a new file... you can do this with the following at the command prompt:

pico WORLDCLOCK

Clear

date -j "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S LOCAL TIME"

date -j -u "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S UTC TIME"

date -j -u -v-10H "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S HONOLULU TIME"

date -j -u -v+1H "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S LONDON TIME"

date -j -u -v-7H "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S LOS ANGELES TIME"

date -j -u -v+4H "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S MOSCOW TIME"

date -j -u -v+2H "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S MUNICH TIME"

date -j -u -v-4H "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S NEW YORK TIME"

date -j -u -v+9H "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S TOKYO TIME"

Cntrl-X to Exit and Save.

chmod u+x WORLDCLOCK

this will make the file executable.

Run it from Spotlight by doing a search for WORLDCLOCK, terminal will open and the script will be executed. You can also add an icon on the dock if you so wish.

Things to consider:

- Not yet clear on correct functionality in Daylight Savings time in different time zones. The script will either need to be expanded to take that into consideration, or adjusted to reflect the current time differences.

Have fun & please comment if you have ideas for improvement.

Working through a GeoTagging workflow...

2010-08-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

**** THIS HAS BEEN REVISED AND UPDATED HERE ****

Components:

1. Canon EOS D-SLR

2. Wintec WBT-201 G-Rays2 GPS logger

2.1 - a list of proven GPS devices for HoudahGeo can be found here.

3. HoudahGeo (Mac OSX Version 2.5.6)

4. Aperture3

5. Google Earth

Process:

1. PREPARE

Before beginning, some things need to be understood about the time zones, what is where and how they are to be logged and matched with the photos taken with the camera.

-Fully charge your logger so that it will last the day without the battery going out.

-Set the TIME ZONE in the Camera to Match the current Time Zone! (You will need this later)

2. SHOOT

-DO NOT CHANGE THE TIME in Camera once you have started shooting - otherwise, import the photos with the different TIME SETTINGS as SEPARATE projects into HoudahGeo !

-Keep the GPS logger close to you... in a pocket, not somewhere in a bag or car near by.

3. IMPORT - !! If you are NOT using Aperture, import to your storage directory and skip to Step #5.

Import into APERTURE tagging all of your MetaData as usual. Jason Linashke has many a great tutorials on Metadata logging. LINK here.

4. Calculate PREVIEWS in Aperture. Otherwise you will not see anything in the Aperture album in HoudahGeo.

5. Launch HoudahGeo.

Create a New Project

6. Import the TRACKS

7. Import the Photos from Aperture Album (or Directory if not using Aperture)

You will be asked to confirm the time zone for the photos in this session. Make sure not to import photos with different timezones into one batch, or they will be mislabeled with the wrong coordinates!

8. Double check results:

9. Export EXIF / Write metadata back to photos within Aperture Library.

10. Open updated project in Aperture and check locations to confirm that all is good!

~ Finito !

GeoTags will automatically

...To Be Continued

ADR with iPad.. good idea in theory, but in practice?

2010-07-29T06:34:00.000-07:00

The Surround Factory in North Hollywood have done something technologically fun and geeky! They've got an iPad feeding the ADR scripts to talent during recording. The iPad functions as an extended monitor from a workstation and a central electronic script (in Excel format - but can be any other tool) is used during the dialogue recording process.

The math seems pretty simple off the bat - a new paperless process: no printing for the admin group, no paper shuffling for the talent or director or assistants. Just scroll through the script, perform, record, and you're done.

The problem I see is that pen & paper in the Dialogue recording process is not a limiting point or an annoyance, but rather a tool. Each talent has their own internal timing. Their own way of interpreting the director's commentary, their own way of hitting their marks, dotting their accents and crossing out words that may no longer be needed. This means MANY MANY marks which do not exist on a keyboard. Resorting to JPG files and painting applications is not an option for scripts.

Then there is the director. Who also makes all sorts of marks, arrows, highlights, commentary, etc. within his script. And these are different than what the actor needs to see.

The recording engineer also has his own script - marking preferred takes. Many do this within the software they work in, many do this by hand.

Supervisors have yet another way of using the script and making their own marks.

Putting all of these script discrepancies aside, with the new "virtual paperless tool" someone will need to be at the controls typing in changes. Changes that are required by the talent and director at the very least. Leaving our the recording engineer and supervisor for the moment, the first two alone would require another person to be present in the studio, doing this secretarial work. Time required for understanding (through dialogue with talent and director) how the script needs to be updated is also a time hit.

So the question is - does a paperless process with savings in admin costs for printing offset the time requirements and additional staff in the recording studio to run the process?

Perhaps. Depends alot on the workflow.

I would be very interested to find out from The Surround Factory how they've managed and progressed 3-6 months down the line.

Current attempt at the GPS Circut...

2010-07-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

On the road its great to be able to get GPS info attached to your photographs. Pretty simple for Nikon dslrs, a pain for Canon.

A solution I've been playing with is based on HoudahGeo and a Wintec G-Rays2 GPS logger, which attaches to your computer - not your camera - your computer via blue tooth or USB to reconnect time juxtaposed gps travel logs with the times the photos were taken.

The results are... mixed.

When the tracking is good, you usually get pretty good results. In dense city areas, there seems to be quite a bit of noise in the log, and some dithering is required. There are ways to do this, but the amount of work required offsets the "enjoyment" factor.

Then there is the issue with the clocks.

This particular logger does not allow you to change time from the display. If you change time in camera, you have to keep in mind to do so in the software later to match coordinates.

If you travel through different time zones, keep your photo sessions separate - or confusion is guaranteed!

More to come..

Disk images - to be or not to be BIG AND FAT

2010-07-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

Disk images are great - especially sparse bundles as they allow you to grow your space. However, there is no direct way to tell the system to compact the images to free up space gained from file deletion from within the image.

Found this: http://www.macworld.com/article/58547/2007/06/compactsparse.html article which shows you how to do just that!

RED confirms - its in the software!

2010-07-24T13:54:00.001-07:00

Its a treat when you own a piece of gear, and year after year, you get updates... literally functions which did not exist before. Sure, we're used to seeing this on a personal computer - same hardware running new software, and having new tools... but on a camera?

RED has done it.. in development of their EPIC and SCARLET cameras, they have release an update of software recently developed for the new tools in a backward compatible version for the existing RED ONE (M series) !!!

Hello CANON, hello NIKON, hello SONY !!!

Databases for family entertainment.

2010-07-20T06:27:00.000-07:00

Why bother with a spreadsheet when you can make a pretty strong analytical too in a few minutes with a bit of database development.

In days gone by - where the internet had no backoffice, before LAMP, having multi platform database clients was something we could only wish for. You could always settle for terminal access, but Filemaker Pro made gui views possible, and simple project development quick. Windows or Mac clients, no issues.

The tool is still quite viable, and quick in development of small solutions. While you can't quite approach it from the Third Normal Form (3NF) and SQL point of view, it can be fun for the entire family (or workgroup).

Developer Dwayne Wright has a great technical blog with lots of tips and howto walkthroughs on common problems with FMP scripting, logic, etc. His posts have saved me time. This matters.

Aperture - preset adjustment sharing.

2010-07-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

PresentPond - that's the place. Seems obvious, but many are better behind the lens then behind the mouse, and not enough time to boot!

Grab some presets offered by the mouse crowd and use them as a starting point. An image good to begin with can get a new life, while something which you might trash, will turn into killer art.

Real people, not corporations, add their adjustment creations - some from the Aperture world, others from Lightroom.

Wow - a Camera Bag draws attention!

2010-07-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Camera Bags - there is no such thing as a perfect camera bag. And it almost seems that while photographer's opinions vary on a great deal of things, they are unison on the fact that the search for "The Camera Bag" is eternal.

Some thing cool - something new. The "shootsac" comes with a news twist, its made for using while you shoot, not for carrying your metal and glass while you get to location.

Now I've been using a Lowepro terraclime 100 in this same very manner,

fitting a 50d with a 50 1.4 and a 70-200 slammed in the corner.

But the shootsac looks quite promis

ing - especially that it keeps the lenses from banging against one another while you make your trek.

I'll rate it a "worth a try, because it might be just what you need"

I love Aperture... I hate Aperture...

2010-07-19T11:20:00.001-07:00

This primary issue is that of speed performance... or rather, lack thereof.

Working off a MacbookPro, I'm constantly hit with slow downs - system wide - when Aperture is running. Procedure is... close everything, reboot, work in Aperture - but this doesn't always match life's demands.

Can't seem to find what will help. Nearly all masters are located off the main system. Read somewhere that it takes up 4.04 GB of RAM upon loading..... moving up to 8GB on the system is a costly proposition, without concrete proof that it will help.

Any one have success on this?

The "Normal" Lens..

2010-07-13T16:48:00.000-07:00

It drives me mad... question and questions about a fast normal lens.. but time and again podcasts, magazines, sites, forums recommend a 50 mm - 1.8, 1.4, etc. But on a ASP-C crop sensor Canon (x1.6 magnification) this is 80mm and on a crop sensor Nikon (x1.5 magnification) this is 75mm !

Previously owned a Canon 50D, and had the good fortune of owning a 28mm 1.8. Now this IS both Fast and Normal - !!!

Sitting at a dinner table with friends, and being able to actually take a photo of more than a close up face crop shot of the person sitting across from me.

Have not tried the Sigma 30mm, but looking forward to it. Reluctant only when thinking "what if I go full sensor?".

Any comments?

Canon DSLR and GPS

2010-07-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

Been searching for a while, and there is no easy / elegant solution at a reasonable price point.

Tried the independent logger, and matching files and track via software. Works - somewhat.... but if change the time in the camera.. its all over.

Uncovered a new one today - previously a Nikon only toy.

digital images GPS - di-GPS USB

This requires the WTF wifi grip for the Canon dlsr, but each image is tagged. Need to borrow the grip, but will have to buy the toy from Hong Kong ~$200 USD.