I'm packing to head out the door on still shoot and I have to make this decision, do I take the extra 2 lbs of stuff to do basic video too? I have Magik Lantern installed on all my cf cards so all it takes to add basic video is the Juiced Link, Rode NTG-1, a Zacuto Z-Finder and some cords.
Tempting. Maybe instead of mulling this over anymore I should throw this stuff in a bag then clean my studio floor...-Stephen Alvarez
A couple of people have asked me -both in email and personally- about my workflow. It is a good question. A bad workflow can sink your business, a good workflow makes your life easier. So here is a down and dirty explanation of mine.
I do all the archiving and editing on Expression Media (about $200 here
1 Using Expression, I rename everything. It is important to my filing system that I have a naming scheme where each file has a UNIQUE name. A common one is some part of your name (first 3 letters of your last name + first 2 letters of your first name) plus the date(100207) plus a sequential number for the day.
alvst10020700001, alvst10020700002, alvst10020700003...
2 Write captions/keywords/people to the raw files, then write the files to 3 different OWC hard drives.
I do steps 1 and 2 in the field, with my laptop.
3 Back in the office I'll dump everything on to a raid 5 array and import the raw images into a master Expressions catalog. I then make sure that captions/keywords are correct in the raw files. Note that Expression seems to have a catalog limit of 128,000 images so I have a different catalog for each year.
4 Edit with Expression using the raw files.
5 Convert edited raws into full sized 16 bit tif master files. I use either photoshop of canon dpp. There are a bunch of converters around. Use what you are comfortable with. I do not rename the files, just the extension. They go from alvst10020200001.crw to alvst10020200001.tif The correct captions should travel with the files automatically as they are converted.
6 Import the tifs into another Expression (Master Tif) catalog that has only tif files in it.
7 from the Master Tif catalog I can write files for the client. Expressions lets you automatically resize images to other locations. I'll also generate a catalog of jpg files that are more reasonably sized for quick viewing.
In this system all the images raw, tif and jpg have the same file name but different extensions. It makes it very easy to return to the original raw file. Also doing the captions in the raw file keeps captioning consistent across the images. The idea is to do the work once and save time down the road.
Backing up as opposed to archiving is a different matter altogether. Its a different talk for a different day.
-Stephen Alvarez
"Foreclosure: Death of the American Dream" by Lauren Greenfield (with final credits) from Lauren Greenfield on Vimeo.
Lauren Greenfield's Foreclosure (thanks to Duckrabbit for pointing this out).Great essay.
-Stephen Alvarez
Burn is accepting applications for a $15000 Emerging Photographer grant (apply here). That is a lot of money in this economy for an emerging photographer.
First Commissions, now a sizable grant way to lead the way in 2010 Burn.
-Stephen Alvarez
We are in the middle of a massive winter storm in the Southeast. There is snow and rain and sleet. Crazy winter weather. I'm trying to shoot a story in the middle of this, and weather doesn't make things easier. The drive from one site that I am shooting to another should have taken 4 hours yesterday. Instead it took 12 through rain sleet and snow. I have to shoot today operating on 4 hours of sleep.
On the upside 1/2 a foot of snow makes everything pretty.
-Stephen Alvarez
Rogersville, TN
Last week Human Rights Watch released a report saying that abuses by both the Northern and the Southern security forces threaten to undermine the upcoming elections. That corroborates what I found in my informal survey in October. As one man told me, "at least during the war I knew who my enemies were."
-Stephen Alvarez
Stanley Greene is a brilliant photographer. His new book Black Passport is available for preorder ($37.80 here
Thanks to Aphotoeditor.
-Stephen Alvarez
Ok this photo is a bit misleading. Yes the bat is dead, but it died thousands of years ago in Belize. It is sealed in rock deep inside Chiquibul cave.
But there is something killing bats in the US (here). White Nose Syndrome has killed close to 90% of the hibernating bats in the Northeast US and the disease is moving south. I am researching a story now and frankly I am scared.
Why should anyone care if creepy bats get wiped out? Bats are tremendous insect killing machines. Every night in New England the missing million bats ate an estimated 780,000 pounds of insects, EVERY NIGHT. With their primary predator gone insect populations will surge. That means more pesticides for farmers, more mosquitoes, more mosquito born disease... Think not only West Nile Virus, but Malaria and Yellow Fever.
What can be done? Right now scientists don't know. And quite honestly not enough is known about the disease. What is known is that White Nose Syndrome is spreading rapidly. From New England it has spread across Central Pennsylvania and through Virginia. The State of Tennessee has closed its caves. If you do go caving. Clean and disinfect your gear after each trip. You don't want to be the one who spreads this from cave to cave.
-Stephen Alvarez