I have a lot of pictures on SmugMugPro which gives me peace of mind in case something ever happens to my DroboPro. Because I could use a cool program and download the images.

USES

Luckily nothing has ever happened to them and I’ve never needed the pictures because of something bad going wrong. If I did need them I could re-download them from SmugMug for my clients. I did however once need the pictures while on the road away from the computer.

MANY TIMES i’ve wanted to put them on facebook, not just one or two but most of the album… I used to rt click on each picture… then I learned it was much faster to drag and drop into an album. Now i’ve learned it’s much faster to use a program that’ll download them for me, like all at x2 size and then upload to facebook.

Why get them from SmugMug?

Because it preps the pictures to look mighty nice on facebook which is known to have problems… it also puts my watermark on, which saves me tons of time.

What’s out there

Here’s a list on SmugMug’s page of programs designed by many people http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Hacks+and+Apps

I have always used AlbumFetcher which works great for me and only works for Windows. I haven’t used RapidFetcher which I’m told is cross platform. SmugMug is no longer supporting AlbumFetcher so I won’t link it, but then again I have no complaints so I’ll probably continue to use it unless someone convinces me that something else is better for some reason.

SmugMug Downloader Review

I tried out SmugMug Downloader which is a Java app – so I’m assuming it’ll run on both mac and windows. It looks nice, it seems simple. But it’s lacking a ton of functionality. I wonder if they’re just gonna keep it simple or make it more robust and usable?

For one: I have a client needing their pictures like right now for a political campaign. This program requires a password which I’m not going to give to a client. I also don’t see where to select the size pictures you want to download. Which makes it so it doesn’t help me out.

Organization can only be sorted in 3 ways and one of them is not date gallery was created. So for someone with almost 1000 albums of pictures yeah it makes it hard.

But I will say kudos to trying it out and making it look nice. I would hope there are some people out there with some good use of this program.

For now if you’re on Windows Album Fetcher is pretty complete.

Experiences?

Have you ever used one of these systems? And if so for what reason? Facebook? For Client? Lost Pictures?

Share

I wear warmer shoes ready for any condition and ready for any place I might have to step.
Sometimes I’m even ready to wear thermals so that I can wear a sweater and avoid a big puffy jacket, because that gets in my way.

I’m still willing and able to get down on the ground for the shot.

But most of all my hands are staying warm.

I bought these gloves and they work like a charm and were well worth the money.
I bought them at Outdoor Photo Gear

Buy them here and have a better winter

There are other options
Certainly plenty of much cheaper gloves and perhaps many are “good enough”, but if you’re still looking for something this will be better.
If you’re happy with where you’re at then I guess you don’t need new gloves anyway.

I will say that this is a photographers glove not a glove that happens to work for photography.

Anytime you’re bothered or burdened and not putting you’re best towards the client it decreases your abilities exponentially

I’ve been waiting for a version of coupons that would ease the way to let the clients choose their pictures straight from the site.
Like a little shopping spree. But allow me to still be in control of the end result.

As a photographer I want to focus more of my time on creating better pictures and not spending so much time picking pictures and dabbling in business things and I would hope my customers would appreciate this.
I also like the fact that it all still goes through me when they select pictures, and I’m sure that’s what the customer hopes for as well…
I love their print delay feature… having a few days to review their order and enhance the pictures before they’re sent to the printer is perfect.

There are 4 types of SmugMug coupons.
Percent off
Dollar amount off
At Cost
Print Credit (Gift Card)

I’m mostly interested in the last of these… which is also probably the most complicated type.

“Print Credit – This functions just like a gift card. If a customer does not use it up in an order, the balance will remain to use on future orders. You can optionally set a start and end date for its use.”

So thanks for the coupons SmugMug and I hope my customers love the idea as much as I do and look forward to incorporation of coupons in 2010 packages.

———-

Now for the questions and requests:

I know it’s a new system and it looks like some kinks need to be worked out.

Limit By Gallery

First off obviously being able to limit a coupon to work with a particular set of pictures is Hugely important to us.
Whether it’s a wedding or a set of our fine art pictures.

You have the ability to limit by date range and that’s cool as well as number of usages.
I was shocked that you weren’t able to specify a gallery they could use.
There are ways around it… but it seems like an unnecessary hassle for us to deal with and worry about.

Coupon Presentation

I made a coupon last night and wanted to present it as a Christmas present to a friend.
How to give it to my friend?
I couldn’t find a way… I ended up sending it in a boring email with a couple of letters on it.
Now I can choose the crappy presentation or having the coupons take more time out of my busy schedule by doing something to present it nicely.
Frankly I’d be happy if I could show them or send them to that nice badge that you show us when We make the coupons.

On this I think maybe I’m missing something and it does actually exist and I haven’t seen anything.
I’ll send that badge in an email myself… but if we could input an email into the system and it came from you guys that would be cool.

Coupon usage

I don’t want my customer to have to wait until the very end of their buying process to see the results.
I want them to be excited and happy the whole way through, or at least very quickly.

Personally for me it’s more like a shopping spree or a gift certificate where they can check to see how much they have left or what they’re saving.

But it seems like the very last thing they do is find out that the coupon did indeed work. What if it didn’t work, what if I screwed up on the coupon and they spend 3-4hrs picking (very likely) all for naught.
I’d be in a dog house.

I don’t know how to implement this but I just want them to know sooner that their coupon really is doing what I told them it’d do.

Pay for shipping

There are times where I want their experience to be totally free (because they’ve paid me all up front or it’s a present)
I know shipping varies so much.
But there has to be a way to make that an option at times… like pay for up to $10 of shipping. So we’re not paying for overnight delivery or something.

Shopping spree More worth it

I love being able to hand the reigns totally over to the couple and have them pick their pictures straight from the site, it makes it so we’re not doing the same process on both ends and avoids the problem of how do they tell us.
I also think they’ll be faster at picking (some couples, families take a long time and it’s easier to just say… don’t forget to pick your pictures online.) They also decide where it gets shipped and it goes right to them.

This makes it worth paying for these costs instead of choosing a less expensive print alternative, even for the really big print packages in the 4 figure ranges.

Having us pay for  printing is a No-Brainer everyone expects that.
But I still ask myself… is it worth it to have them order this way when I’ll get charged 15% of my proposed cost.

When they order straight from the site it seems like part of that comes from the fact that you’re handling the money part.
but in the case of the coupon that’s like a shopping spree… well I’ve handled the money on my side. Or it’s a present… that has now become much much more expensive.

Is it worth it? Or should i have them pick and then just order them myself (from smugmug) just as if they had ordered it but avoid the 15%
But then I think well since I’m already doing that perhaps I go to other print sources.
I want it to be worth it pretty bad because I want to save time. But I also want to save money.

SmugMug – You need to get your part understandably… but some of our coupons plan on being very large and at 15% it’s hard because on certain coupons that’s coming straight out of our credit cards and not as a deduction from a print sale.
You’re not saving us from handling the sales (exchange of money) part so what’s a fair lower rate so compensate you for handling the picture selection.

Example I’ll give a $1500 print package (shopping spree, gift card) for $1000 to a client when they do a wedding for $3000 – To me in the end it’s $1000 but and that’s what I get.
I know a ton of pros that include a print package for a ton of print credit in their wedding because they know that the actual cost is rather low for the actual prints.
But then I get charge 15% on $1500 … is that right?

Now having just gotten home from a trip and not knowing everything about it… I’m more than happy if I’m mistaken on how this works.
Just asking the questions and hoping that you’re working on improving your new and very fortunate upgrade to your wonderful system.

Others?

Well as I use it more I might have others… and I’m happy to see what other people are liking or hoping for… and knowing SmugMug I’m sure they’d like to see what people are looking for.

Thanks Smugmug

Sincerely,
Scott Jarvie

For the rest of the month I’ll be highlighting the many projects and sites found on the JarvieDigital launch page http://jarviedigital.com

The launch page itself was designed by Thom Allen and Jake Spurlock with some prior input by Jonathan Bond

It seems fitting for the first highlight that I present a brand spanking new project… a blog.

All the Photographers BLOG

Finally here

I’ve been developing the idea for a while now, and have just recently freed up enough time to get it going.

Each day we’ll highlight a different photographer from all around the world doing different kinds of photography at different skill levels.

At the moment you’ll notice a lot of Utah photographers, as it was easiest to start off dealing with people I know.

There are already 10 photographer reviews and we have another 10 drafts which we’ll release on a consistent basis

Multiple authors

Next I’ll be training other authors how to log-in and create their own reviews.

If you are interested in being another author please drop us a line blog@allthephotographers.com we’d love to consider you.

Purpose

To share great photography with aspiring photographers and non-photographers alike.
The site is a jumping off point, these are only recaps of photographers, there will be links so people can go see more of their work.

A place you can go to find new people you might never have heard about.
It will also be used as a place where  people can search for photographers (by type of photography, country/state, and keywords)

We intend that the site inspires people with all the wonderful work and creativity.

Goals

To make great photographers more well known.
To share beautiful art.

I also have a personal goal to have several authors with multiple posts a day.
I also have a goal to hit 10,000 consistent readers by June .

To get involved

If you’re interested in either
Becoming an Author
Being reviewed

Feel free to send an email to blog@allthephotographers.com

I hope to stock pile a good 30-40 reviews in advance.

Photographers
If you’re a photographer or aspiring photographer, this can be one of the best opportunities to learn and be expired.
I know many of you already spend a lot of time searching for photographers.
Why not spend 20-30 extra minutes and create a post and share your finds with the rest of the world, and make better connections and network with other photographers.

Highlights so far:

Charles Uibel

Whitney Lewis

Sara Jarvie

Suzanne Plant

Luke Isely

David Terry

Steph Jorgensen

Hey look!!
I used a lensbaby on an actual photo-shoot.

These are wedding detail shots from two weddings.
Both were pictures of rings.

That’s not to say I probably couldn’t use it even more and get some really fun results.
But I just haven’t… many times the situation wasn’t right or I didn’t have enough time.

Focusing takes a lot longer so the situation had to be right.

Taking pictures of rings are cool… because they don’t move.
I did these without a tripod and it took a while.
I was using the macro filter adapters, and focusing and the depth of field was so narrow it was really hard to nail down.

I ogirinally bought the Lensbaby because I was trying to purchase the Nikon 105 macro and pictureline was out of stock that day.
Therefore I used the lensbaby to get Macros.

Next wedding I’m taking the G11 and testing it out to get some macros (details)

May I add I had a second generation lensbaby years ago… tried it on one wedding and never used it since.
The LensBaby composer is much more user friendly in my opinion.

To learn more about LensBaby go here

This is probably the most iconic LensBaby look… with the blurred edges.

First wedding that I used it on was the following

(FYI: I own a PC and a MAC.)

What actual benefit does MAC have on graphics that everyone says

“If you do anything with graphics or video, 100% hands-down, no option go with a MAC.”

Pictures look real pretty on a MAC and I hope my clients view on a really nice big mac display.
But I run a color calibration to get Real-as-they-should-be-looks and it seems to take away all that niceness so I can view the picture as it really is.
(So doesn’t that erase the benefit of those displays?)
This is because of the way they build their displays and do their color profiles… so should i just be buying a Mac Display?
(Aren’t the color profiles replaced when you do a color calibration?)

You gonna use their video program or need garage band like i needed then go for a mac for that software.
If the PC has the software you need wouldn’t you go there… But we don’t have that problem as photographers. Lightroom is on BOTH systems.
You like their user interface and the looks of their hardware… well then that’s a style choice… did it actually help you in your profession???

But it’s not like they have better graphic cards options… heck they aren’t known for their options.

It’s right abt the virus thing. PCs get more.
(Though personally I don’t run virus programs and I’m online more than almost anyone and I’ve never had problems)

I’m not trying to sell PCs – I have both for very specific reasons.
And I would defend MACs against unfair HYPE or bashing.

KNOW THE SUBSTANCE OF YOUR COOL-AID

But just don’t drink the cool-aid because everyone else is.
Don’t just believe HYPE … until you know if the HYPE is real.

As a photographer understand your needs and what will help you the most…
I’m assuming it’s LESS time in processing. Right?
And quality?
I see quality an effort of the user interface:

• the program you’re using,
• the skills you have to use it,
• the base product,
• the tool you’re using to edit like mouse or wacom
• and the screen

THE ANSWER

Well what’s the answer?

I have no idea…
But I do want to know…

Not just a theory, or hype…. I want to know.

What will actually give me better quality and do it faster?
Substance to this magical cool-aid.

LIGHTROOM SURVEY

I will design a test to see what actually would give the best results for me as a photographer using 99.9% one program LIGHTROOM

If MACs operating system and their hardware does for some reason make my job easier (faster) then I will tell the world and share the results openly and honestly and probably start using my $3k MacBookPro a bit more.

The survey is under some serious testing and I have some notes about it and you can try out the survey (do a few surveys) and give some feedback. (
I have some changes to make and some issues to resolve so i get back good solid information.

SURVEY INFO AND LINK PAGE

(200K+ pictures and 1000Gbs later)

Read the FULL long and Intensive review after the jump

My SmugMug Page

The original reason = Backup

The reason behind signing up was because I didn’t have a backup method at the time.
No DroboPro like I have now to be safe with my pictures I was taking for all my clients.

I had read a blog by one of the founders and saw how open and honest he was with the decisions they had made in creating the company and handling crazy amounts of pictures… so I felt a connection to the company.

I didn’t know much about, or really need, many of their other options at the time which I now use all the time.
I simply wanted a place to backup my pictures for just in case and they said I could have Unlimited.
Prior to this time I was hosting Lightroom Galleries on my own site.

Well I was too busy and to this day still haven’t put on many pictures from pre 2008
Or I suppose that number would be much much higher than 1000GBs

Primary Display Site

I was making galleries with Lightroom prior to SmugMug and was decently happy, but when I saw how smugmug displays the pictures and how much time it would save me to not have to upload the pictures twice to the web.
I decided SmugMug would become my primary location.
I loved viewing the stats on my own website and was a bit hesitant thinking that somehow having that many people come to my own website would make it more popular and perhaps rank even higher for the SEO stuff.
I’m still not sure it is the case but I think the other benefits outweighed that desire and ever since I have shown off my pictures on SmugMug

Sales

I still am not very into sales, mainly as a lifestyle decision because it’s not enjoyable to me and because I book my schedule so full i don’t often have time to deal with print orders or books.
In fact I’ve thought of many ways to promote the SmugMug buy prints direct from the site ability… but haven’t gotten around to implimenting them over the last 18 months or so.
(Pretty much I’m waiting for them to come out with the Coupons feature they’ve been talking about for a while)

So I’ve had people randomly buy prints but personally I’ve never told them… they’ve always just stumbled upon it.

But I do have designs to get a bit more involved with printing.
Ever since I found out about the ability to delay prints by a few days to give me time to check someone’s order and make changes or edits as needed.
That is a perfect solution to be able to tell someone to always make their print purchases through SmugMug (which coincidentally will cover the money part)

Plus they’re also using Bay Photo which has some benefits.
Now I’m not much of a print snob… meaning I can’t tell the difference between print qualities like some others can.
But I have a talking point… I can tell people their prints will be printed by one of the best print labs in the country.
In the end it only costs a little more than using the other print companies.

Referrals

I’ve talked up SmugMug a lot since I signed up because they were perfect for my needs.
I’ve had a bunch of my friends sign up… and sometimes I’d even remember to have them put in my email address when they signed up (jarvie at jarviedigital.com)
And they’d get $5 off
And I’d get $10 off my renewal… meaning that this last April my renewal wasn’t very much.

But on the other hand it could have been free if I had done a better job of telling them to use my email.

I think a big thing was that most people ended up using bigger discount codes… there are codes out there to get a lot more than $5 off subscription.
Going to PhotoCampUtah got people 50% off (or maybe it was more)

In any case I think I’d prefer that they save even more money than earn me a couple of dollars towards renewal.

But the point is… it’s a cool program they have. And I refer it.

Blogging

SmugMug has been a heaven-sent for all my blogging needs.
When I learned that I could simply drag and drop my pictures from a SmugMug gallery into my Wordpress blog and that was all… wow!!
No longer export and then upload and then use the wordpress system to connect each picture into the post from the wordpress library.
I saved crazy amounts of time.
The best part is that the pictures were just the right size for my blog 600px on the long end. (width) But I could select larger or smaller if i wanted.

They were also watermarked so they would show up on the blog with the watermark.
Which may I add is awesome.

Watermarking

Many people ask how I do my watermarks… If I use a Lightroom plugin or something.
I created a simple watermark in Photoshop and then uploaded it to SmugMug.
I’ve tried several watermarks and each time I can just simply change the gallery to use a new watermark.
The point is they’re not burned into the pictures… you can change the watermark down the road and there’s no need to re-export or re-upload.

I can even use the watermarks from my interns and assistants and mark the pictures They took with their watermark

I know Lightroom in Beta3 is coming out with a pretty good watermarking ability, but I still think it will fit my workflow better to use the SmugMug method.

Upgrades

They’ve made some changes here and there but overall since I joined it’s stayed very much the same.
Recently they started “Nice Names” where you could decide what the URL to a gallery looked like.

There’s actually been a flurry of updates in this last month. (Some expected and other unexpected and still others that haven’t happened yet)

One of my favorites is the Slideshow feature, which as you can guess adds a slideshow to your main page.

They also added another view a few months ago called “Journal” which lets the customer see the pictures nice and big.
Since I display soo many pictures for each job it is a bit much so I don’t use it… but people are able to change the view to journal if they want.
But most of the time viewing my galleries is the first experience with SmugMug and therefor they wouldn’t know how to do that.

Just today they added the ability to change gallery settings on Multiple Galleries, that’s pretty cool.
(Not something I’ve needed a ton, but had I not set up my galleries well to begin with I’d be crying for this big time)

VIDEO

I recently purchased 2 cameras that have video capability. d300s and a G11

I love that I can take video and just straight upload it to SmugMug and that’s all.

I also like being able to stream it on my blog.

I don’t edit my videos, mainly because I know that once I start I’ll get addicted to it and feel like I have to (like with pictures)
I’m not a videographer nor do I claim to be, thus I’ll keep it simple and pedestrian.

It’s so freeing to not have to worry about editing and just put it straight up on smugmug.

They do re-size the videos, so they’re not storing quite as much as the originals, but I’m guessing it’s a decent amount of storage to put up a bunch of video.
There are of course limitations of file size to upload and length of clips, which means there are some stuff I can’t put up. (Like workshop videos… not that they’ve been edited yet)

Workflow

I export full jpgs from Lightroom (I export with a sequencer in the front 001, 002, 003)
The reason for the sequencer is so because I put my files in a specific order with the better ones first and that way I can keep that order when in SmugMug
I upload from my computer to SmugMug (the new uploader Rocks BTW)
I’ll often several galleries at a time – it seems to do 3-4 at a time rather well. (I think the restriction is more on my computer and web browser side)

I only get 2-4mb/s but if I do 3-4 galleries at a time I’ll get 2-3 mb/s upload speed on each. (Not sure why I can’t get higher speeds when just doing one)

I have a preset for my gallery so that it does all the things I want the gallery to do.
for instance

• • allow rt click save (protected = no)
  • apply my watermark
  • view up to XL Large files
  • allow camera info
  • Sort by filename 1-99
  • Printable = yes
  • Public

I’ll either unlist them or make them public and I rarely do the passwords, I’m happy enough with the quality that I don’t mind if someone sees them.
Plus I don’t do maternity or pictures of babies or random other shoots that any clients usually want passworded.

I would password them if they asked… but they never do.

Old Workflow – the reason for 75k extra pics

Once upon a time I would take pictures in Raw+JPG and upload the JPGS straight to SmugMug for a just in case something happened (pre-DroboPro)
And also to have immediate access to the pictures for things like Blogs (if the JPG looked good enough)

But that became tedious and I stopped.

They were All unlisted galleries
And it was the full photoshoot not just the final edits.

The point is 75,000 pictures came from that method (not all were full size JPGs)… and that’s a big reason I’m at 200,000 pictures

So don’t be too impressed.

Facebook and SmugMug

I used to want everyone to go to SmugMug and see the pictures there… I thought having all the brides friends go to my site to see the pictures would be beneficial to me.

But now I understand that sometimes it’s about going to where the people are, and not making them come to you.
People are already on facebook.

Thus I don’t just allow them, but I encourage Brides to grab all the pictures off smugmug and make a facebook gallery. (Best thing ever)
My pictures are meant to be seen, that’s how I like it… it makes me sad to take pictures for them to never see much the light of day. (Don’t hide your gift under a bushel just because you want a few extra dollars)
This applies to people photography and I’d probably have a different view on fine art and landscape photography.

The ability for the client to grab the pictures of themselves on SmugMug and simply drop them into a folder on their computer is very handy.
Beats having to rt click and save.

Stats

as of Oct 30th 2009

No my stats are NOT normal for a typical SmugMug user.
I was once told that I am among the top 10 or 20 users of SmugMug  (I’d be interested to know exactly where)

201,007 pictures

1022.34 GBs of pictures (and some videos)

Bandwidth

I’m not honestly sure what these stats mean. I think they are affected by having pictures on  my blog.
It’s fun that SmugMug has these stats, but I do not know how to interpret them and understand what they mean.

Oct – 323593 (Pictures Viewed) 30.7GB (Of Bandwidth)
Sep –  197576 – 23.66
Aug – 307823 – 31.43
Jul – 479-825 – 50.05
Mar – 542,798 – 30.36
Jan – 513,145 – 23.73

Analytics

They do allow you to use an analytics program to track people coming to the site with all that usual Analytics information.
When I found this out a couple months ago I was very happy. (And sad it took me that long to get around to applying it)

I use Clicky Analytics which is a tad better than Google analytics (but Google is free)
Clicky is known for very conservative numbers
And is most popular probably because of their Live Viewing feature.

It is fun to know which galleries are the most popular.
Ever since the Nice Names feature came out, you can really understand which galleries people are going to… before you had know way of knowing what that random string of numbers and letters stood for and had to go to the gallery to see which one it was.
So again props to SmugMug for that.

I have other websites for people to look at my stuff… but that being said so far in October (a slow month)
I’ve had 1220 people check out galleries on SmugMug

I would tell you about previous more exciting months… but I only installed it recently.

Like any Analytics system it’s great to see where these people are coming from

Downage

Personally I’ve been happy with their uptime.
I know they’ve had some problems and when they do it does affect my blog since my pictures are coming straight from there.

But it was down less than my old web hosting company Bluehost and when that was down the whole Blog wouldn’t exist.

So I’m happy with SmugMug … the times they’re usually down it’s to perform maintenance late at night or to do upgrades, and they let people know usually.

Wants

Coupons

Oh to dream!

I know they’ve been teasing us for Way to long on this one.

I know that they’re working on it… but sometimes I feel it’s like the company that cried wolf.

When will it ever come out we never know… But as soon as it does there will be a lot of happy brides.
I’ll be reorganizing my prices that’s for sure.

What are coupons?

Well honestly I’m not sure what some people hope it to be, nor how SmugMug is designing them (I know it’s not easy programmers at SmugMug)

But this is how I’d want it.

I want my clients to go on a type of Shopping Spree… let’s say they have $1500 of prints to buy (my set prices)

They put in their coupon they got when they paid for the wedding and they can just go crazy.

We already have delayed printing (where I can check each picture they purchase and make necisary edits before they’re printed)

Then I get the bill for the printing for the at cost prices or something like that.

I don’t know the perfect solution but that’s the desire is to make all the print orders go through smugmug and to not just have them get them all a la carte

Organizing System (To move Galleries)

This was a horrible mess for me. I wanted to reorganize my galleries and I couldn’t figure out a way to move tons of galleries all at once.
I had to do it one at a time. Which is fine if you’re moving 1 or 2 galleries… NOT fine if you have to move 100-200 galleries around.

The more you use galleries and just over time you seem to build up

Xn Galleries

Right now we’re limited to 2 levels: Categories and Sub-Categories

There are talks to open that up.
I had never thought about it… but when I heard about it I thought it made a lot of sense.
I’m not sure how that will change things for me, I guess I’ll cross that bridge when it’s built.

But one things for sure they better build that organizing system before they create that or we’ll all be cursing the new feature as we spend a decade moving each gallery one by one.

Usable Stats

I don’t know the answer to this… but I want to understand what my stats mean.
I know using analytics is usually the solution but if SmugMug itself had a way to track the quantities of visitors and where they’re coming from there’d be a lot of interested folks.

I also think lifetime stats would be fun.

Pricing syncronization

Personally I don’t mind the way you syncronize pricing from gallery to gallery.
But I know some people do.
And when they tell me about how they’d like it, I am on board with them.

For now I’ve just created a category called Prints and create fake galleries with one picture and name that gallery based on a price structure.
It’s a work around that some say shouldn’t have to happen, but I’ll go with it for now.

Customer Service

SmugMug is known for having amazing customer service.
They seem to pride themselves on having wonderful and knowledgeable employees. (That’s awesome)

They don’t do Phone service but their email support is above top notch.
They often respond faster than you could get with phone support (being on hold)

And since it is so good I can appreciate the savings it passes along to us to not have to support a call center with our fees.

I’d rather have a stable company that won’g go out of business.

Honestly I’ve rarely felt the need to call someone up about smugmug, since I’m the type to figure it out myself.

Training

SmugMug takes some getting used to, there’s a lot going on.

There is a desire by a lot of people for some training on the system.

I’ve trained some friends and interns.

I do lightroom training and you’d be surprised to know how many times people ask if I could do some SmugMug training while I’m at it.
I haven’t done it yet. But I’m just saying there seems to be an interest.

David Terry is usually the guy I went to when I had SmugMug questions back in the day

He’s been with SmugMug for a long time.

I guess if people want to understand it better they should know that SmugMug help really works and it’s great.
But it doesn’t take the place of good ol’ fashion training.

SMUGs

It’s a monthly meeting of SmugMug users that meets to have free presentations and get togethers.
They just started in Salt Lake City but they’re being held in many location around the USA

Honestly it’s more centered on socialization of photographers… they do have a short presentation each time so it seems.
The last one I went to was a little short and almost didn’t warrant the 30 minute drive, but I was late.

The SLC version isn’t terribly popular yet, but we’ll see where it goes… I applaud the concept.

Here’s more info on the subject

Should I sign Up?

In a word = Yes

That is, if you take lots  of pictures.

3 Versions

I’m not as familiar with the 3 versions I use the pro version and it’s something like $150 a year for pro $40 for standard.

If you’re a professional photographer you’ll want the Pro version for sure!

You can check it out for free and you can always easily upgrade from one level of service to another with a click of a button.

RECAP

I almost expect other photographers to be using SmugMug
It might not fit every need or aspect of their workflow.
But I consider it a no-brainer.
So when someone says they don’t use SmugMug sometimes I’m a little shocked.

I’m pretty darn sure even though I pay the SmugMugPro rate that SmugMug probably looses money on me because of how much I store.

BUT… who in their right mind does as many photoshoots as I do and edits and gives the customers as many as I do.
It’s my style to do it that way and I’m single and I spend Way to much time with photography than any normal person should.
So most people are putting up a lot less.

So I trust they’ve got a good system that will keep them in business for a long long time.

Basically, SmugMug has saved me tons of time and tons of hassle and I refer them to everyone needing a home for their pictures.

I look forward to many great developments to come.

Questions or Comments

If you have a question about SmugMug or how I use it let me know.

I’d also love to hear if this influences your opinion or prompts you to tryout SmugMug
It is free for first couple of weeks.

You can get a discount using my email jarvie@jarviedigital.com but you don’t have to, I don’t mind one bit paying for their service.

I just wanted to write a review and let people know about my experience… as a way of celebrating my first Terabyte of usage.

I’m gonna make this short or I’ll get overwhelmed and you won’t see many more of these.

I just wanted to take a minute to say I loved having the Joby Gorillapod while in Mexico for a week.
It was small and easy to cary around, weighing next to nothing and attaching to the outside of my bag.

I love pictureline and all and me them are all friends, but I must say the pictures on their site are less than astounding as you can tell from their lack of photo of the product on the website. Tisk Tisk!

But nevertheless here’s the link

GorillaPods aren’t perfect you have to fiddle with the legs for sometimes TOO LONG and the screw in base isn’t that great, but I was too lazy to screw in my kirby tripod head into the gorillapod and have a better option.
So I dealt with it.

But overall it came in way handy as I photographed pictures.

I did 2 sets of time lapse projects.
Both of a group of humanitarian workers working on a cement floor for someone less fortunate.

I probably won’t get to compiling them for a while but it was fun doing it and at least I have the raw footage.

having an extra battery made that all possible. Also getting an umbrella over the camer on one of the non-cloudy days was comforting.

While those pictures were being taken with the interval timing function (found on most mid to high level D-SLRs) I was able to use my other camera to do other pics.

The GorillaPod did seem like a little too expensive at first. But I was viewing it’s small size and comparing against the other gorillapods that are for the smaller cameras and cost a lot less.
But i’m very happy I bought it. I used it much more than my nice fancy pantsy carbon fiber tripod. As it just wasn’t practical to lug around to these humanitarian jobs anyway.

For now I’ll keep you in suspense until I complete the time lapse videos. Keep checking back… haha… someday it’ll pop up.

More on my trip to mexico to come.

Including a few more words on
photographing while river rafting
photography in a foreign country
photographing from a car (my speciality)
photographing with a GPS device connected (I realized that after almost a year of ownership I still haven’t written a proper review on the GP-1)

UNDERWATER CAMERA

I bought a small camera (A Canon G10) and the corresponding Underwater Housing.

I’m in Mexico at the moment at a nice resort.
It’s on the beach and has a nice pool.

I’m whitewater rafting on friday, I couldn’t think of a safe way to bring along a DSLR on this event… So i tested out the camera today.
A DSLR underwater housing would be cool but it costs well over 1000 and wasn’t readily available and certainly not in time for the trip.

I bought my camera and housing from pictureline the day I left for Mexico.

Plus some other considerations were that I wasn’t going to have many opportunities to use it and I tend to upgrade cameras so which camera do i buy it for? (D700? well it’s already hit over 150K clicks and is ready to be replaced just as soon as there is an upgrade)

OTHER GOOD POINTS ABOUT A SMALL CAMERA

Might I add having the small camera has been nice for certain situations.

It doesn’t make any noises making it even more sneaky for times when you didn’t want people to know.

It’s more acceptable in certain situations such as malls or airports or other places they look down on my big cameras.

And the obvious is that it can fit in my pockets (bigger guy pockets)

MY TESTING

It’s fun!

I can see how a Snorkler or Diver would have a ton more fun!

Small cameras are frustrating sometimes. The lag from when you hit the button.
Frames per second…. yeah right. I can take fast shots for nothing!

I wanted to take pictures of the waves rolling in and it was frustratingly slow.

Timing means so much in photography, difference from a good shot to a great shot!

The biggest test was passed… no water got in!

I couldn’t hardly tell i was shooting through an underwater casing, until I was out of the water and the beads of water were on the glass rolling down. Kind of a pain…. maybe there’s a trick.

This is our huge Gulf of Mexico waves, i think this one topped out at 6

6 inches!!

Me and my abstract photography

More pool shots… because the water was clearer!

What do you think about the droplets? Kind of annoying, but I suppose the nature of having a camera under water.

Chillin like a villin … oh yeah and he’s dead

So we’re not really introducing video to cameras,

But we are itroducing video to this blog.

And I am introducing the D300s

Since now I own a camera that does video it makes it so easy to record video, upload to smugmug and imbed that video here on this blog.

My disclaimers are:

This is the first video on my blog, my first video I’ve recorded for a blog. So I did several takes because I wasn’t about to spend the time to edit and splice stuff.
But I still made verbal mistakes and since I only have owned the camera for a few hours I still don’t have a handle on the focusing.
I also did hand hold it…
So basically don’t get too after me about the quality of filming.

But I do aim and can promise I will get much better.

D300s

Rundown on new notable features.

• Video
• 7 frames per second without grip
• faster access to live view – 2 button clicks to start recording
• on camera mic and plug in for external mic
• better d-lighting
• quite mode – means take a picture without much noise. (forgot to mention on video)
• dual CF and SD slots
• Better latch for memory card slots
• the cool center button I love (like introduced on D700)

If you want me to talk about anything else… I might be persuaded to make a few more videos.

This blog also happens to be a test of the amazing video features of SmugMug – the place where I happen to put all of my pictures.

I searched for a while to figure out how to embed video into this blog (it being my first time) there were ANY good resources I could easily find online (we know how a mess the internet is)
So I’ll quickly say I grabbed the embed into web code from smugmug much as one would get the embed link for a picture.
You must keep in mind this is code and not a URL or link… so you switch over to HTML on your wordpress editor and drop it into its place.
This suposes you know how to do a lot of what i just explained. But for me that’s exactly what I was hoping to find out that took me 20 minutes to figure out on my own because there were no good sources.

Shameless plug: Who wants to buy a used D300 (or even a much less expensive D200)

I’m talking about tons of editing… fast editing.
A computer for tons and tons of editing with fastest speeds possible.
Not a computer that will be used from time to time to edit.
Because if you have other pressing needs for the computer then your decision might differ.

My solution isn’t for the pretiest or the most user friendly… I’m talking effeciency!

Fastest, most powerful machine to run Lightroom or Photoshop. = Saving Time

Winner = Hand built PC for serious editing

If you want the fastest machine possible (at the moment) for picture editing you’ll have to stick with a PC for now.

-Good news is it will be abt half the cost (Roughly $3000 less)

-You’ll either need to set it up yourself
OR – Pay someone a couple hundred to set it up.
Still much cheaper than a Mac by several thousand.

Price has a lot to do with my consideration… so if several thousand for a similar powered machine isn’t a concern… by all means go Mac.

I don’t like store bought PCs

Thing about PCs is that stores sell cheap PCs or sell the good ones too expensive.
(Not an efficient move)
The PCs in stores aren’t that good… companies trying to make a buck on shoddy stuff. Therefore the whole PC system gets a bad rap.

And I must admit Macs are great for people who don’t know much about computers and have no desire to learn. But they just aren’t as fast for the same cost… and the options are way limited in comparison. (Stick with them for laptops)

Get a really great one set up by someone

Like i said just pay some techy friend to set it up…
or I’ll find you a techy friend to set it up for you.
Spend the couple hundred you save by buying hand selected parts and pay someone.

My old PC vs New MacBook Pro

I have a brand new MacBookPro for traveling but it’s way way slower than my PC. (1 yr Old quad core)
But laptops are small and convenient and great for travel. I don’t expect to use it all the time, just travel… that’s what it does best.
Why mac for laptop – macs don’t have a huge price difference when it comes to the higher end. I think it was only a few hundred more than the HP and it was smaller and had better battery life. The mac laptops are great…

BUT… For serious editing – use a desktop with real power

But come on, don’t use a laptop for editing if you do lots.
If you edit just a bit… it’s ok, by all means… get a laptop and plug it into a monitor and use a mouse.

COST

Top of the line PC can be built sub $2k (w/o monitor)
(See details below)

Throw in a dell or a mac 30″ monitor and then you’re loving life, you’ve saved several thousand by going PC why not.

MAC = $5549  (w/o monitor)
8cores 2.6, 2 video cards, 2HDs
(NO FAST HD option like an SSD … at least not from their store… so you’ll need to get one of those somehow and reinstall OS)

So yeah it’s a fast machine I can only imagine, perhaps due for an update… but it’s nice.
They really don’t have a lesser version I would recomend unless get the 4 core instead of the 8 core.

Mac is $3000 dollars more and isn’t technically quite as fast. (Not sure how it compare honestly)
But it is prettier and the Mac/OS is nice for many people.

But let’s face it… you’re using Lightroom and Photoshop not finder or laucher all day long.

Seriously I’ll find someone to build it for you

Specs=

i7 8cores, 12gb ram, SSD fast HD with several 1.5TB HDs, best video card or two for up to 4 monitors, full tower, best MB with tons of toys.

Crazy fast for Lightroom editing.
Add in a 30″ monitor or a couple of regular size ones.
I recomend always having a couple of monitors

Oh and if you play games on the side… You’ve pretty much built the ultimate gaming machine

Yet another reason to get a PC for editing?
Fusion IO is coming out with their incredible new pro-sumer HD and it’s a PC device!
And no longer do you have to spend $3-$10K to buy one!

Via the other blog we learned that one type of person we need

The points were these:
- Find someone that shares your passion
- Find someone nice that is fun to be around
- Find someone that will be a really good friend to you.

But there are other types of people we need in our life.
We need a Rich Legg

—————-
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Spare a moment for URL introductions:

http://www.leggnet.com – Blog

Twitter

Facebook

He desperately needs more facebook friends… so don’t forget to add him! He’ll cry if you don’t

He’s a stock photographer so his portfolio of photography can be found there
He’s one of the top stock photographers in the country.

And he loves to teach and give back.

—————–
—————–

What kind of person do we need?

• We need someone who believes in us.
• Beyond that, who believes in us so much they’ll tell everyone.
• They’ll boost our ego (… or confidence is a better way of saying it.)
• Someone who sits at the cool kids table and in front of the whole school invites you to come on over… and makes you feel like you’re now one of the cool kids.
• Who makes your job easier because they’ve taken it upon themselves to help you.
  Whether it be teaching or being your best advertiser.
• All in all we need someone who appreciates us.

-Also-

• We need a person that will play around and joke with you but that you know that when the joking is done it’s nothing but a real solid friendship and caring.
• Someone who does something in complete and opposite style… but you can both really appreciate what the other person does.
• Someone you can bounce ideas off of.

And if you know Rich… then you know that even if he jokes around and plays with people… that he really is a great person.
And he does these things and more.

Look how he’s being all tough… like he’ll beat up anyone who messes with his friend!
Stands behind you and believes in you… that’s what we all need!

No facts just opinions

There’s plenty of sites with specific details on this new camera so i’ll not repeat this but give you a little of my opinion and leave the stats and facts to them.

My Camera background:

I’ve owned the following cameras

D70
D70s
D200
D300

I use lenses that are low light 2.8 or lower.

D300

That being said earlier this year I bought the D300 primarily because I wanted to be able to operate at higher ISO

While I’m happy I have the D300 i must say that I haven’t been operating at higher ISOs with it.
I think I’m getting pickier and pickier and the way they “get rid” of the grain wasn’t to my liking.

So once again I got a new camera hoping that it would work well in those high ISOs.

Problem Solved

And my first opinion is… it most certainly does seem to solve my ISO problems.

To someone taking pictures in darker situations (receptions or indoors anywhere) that’s a big deal and could be worth the $3k

Right now I’m looking at some pictures I took at a reception. It was dark outside they were cutting the cake and I wanted to be at a faster speed to avoid movement blur when they smeared the cake in eachothers face.

125th of a second speed and 1000ISO and the picture was completely useable… and that’s what it’s all about.

I haven’t been afraid to go up much higher than 1000ISO but I haven’t tested exactly the level that I am comfortable with. My guess is I’d probably go all the way to 3200 without too much concern. And if it’s alright to have a moody grainy picture I might even go up to 12k.

UPDATE: I’ve been looking at a lot of the pictures taken at 1600 and I’ll absolutely use them without any hesitation. They look great! They’re somewhat soft and maybe not crisp as most pictures but had I taken them with another camera the grain would have been prohibitive or at a slower shutter speed the pictures might have been very blury (and that’s worse)

Not only was the grain not a factor but the colors were beautiful!

A Pleasant Surprise

I wasn’t expecting that!
It will take some more shoots to really get a handle on it but my first impression is that the color of the pictures might be way better on this camera… which certainly saves me a lot of time in editing.

Enjoyed it more than I thought.

I always considered myself more of a telephoto kind of guy.
So when I picked up the full frame camera and lost that 50% increase in telephoto I thought it would just be alright. But I must say I really enjoyed it. My 28mm lens acted just like my 18mm lens of old.

Now this just means I’ve got to get a 14-24 2.8 nikon lens for $1600 later in the month.

This is my perspective and it comes from my opinions of my D300 and how it compares… If you have any questions ask away.

There are a lot of people wanting to Take pictures out there. Awesome!

But I’m gonna take a shot at classifying their level of interest in photography.

1. In word only -
It’s an excelent thing to want to be better at photography
In this stage someone would have to push you to actually do something
What it means to me:  40%/30% commitment… me doing most of the work
Meaning… I love your appreciation for photography and hope it goes well
If you’re really attractive it could be worth it. haha

2. If it’s convenient
This means you really want to, but there are a lot of other things just a bit more important.
Photography doesn’t have to be #1 for everyone. I suppose it’s better for business
What it means to me: It’s kinda like a 50/50 commitment. Usually results in getting the basics down and being satisfied. One photography Lesson is typical. But they’ll cancel the lesson if something comes up.

3. Stop at Nothing.
They’ll figure out how to be a better photographer wether or not I help them.
What it means to me: It’s like a 100/100 partnership.
They are resourceful and persistent and that makes me more willing to help.
What I like about it the most… I’m not the one arranging the times.
If you really are #3 I won’t be the one setting up stuff.
I might inform when I have a job you can come watch/assist.

The point is… I understand all 3 and it’s alright to be 1 or 2
But i probably won’t be as helpful for 1 and 2… unless it’s convenient for me (Or she’s cute)

This goes for everything… there’s a lot of people out there that are willing to teach and help. But what do you bring to the table? And showing thanks doesn’t have to be material… but above all it comes in the sincerity of your desire and your appreciation.