The Online Photographer

The Super Bowl: Jack's Take

Jack MacDonough sent us some pictures from Dallas. A picture Jack took...

...and Jack taking the picture. Leica S2, 35mm ƒ/2.5 Summarit-S ASPH lens. (Fans were not allowed to bring lenses more than six inches long into the Stadium.)

In the top picture, on the Jumbotron, from left to right: Packers CEO Mark Murphy; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl 45; former Steelers quarterback, four-time Super Bowl champion, and current Fox TV personality Terry Bradshaw; and Packers Coach Mike McCarthy (a native of the Pittsburgh area who grew up rooting for Bradshaw's Steelers).

The matchup was a good one for diehard football fans. The Steelers have the most Super Bowl wins (six), and the Packers have the most NFL Championships (13, including the first two Super Bowls and one more following the '96 season). In an ESPN poll rating the rabidness of NFL fans, Steelers and Packers fans ranked #1 and #2 respectively.

Two of 42 Fox television cameras.

A pass play on the 42 yard line is repeated in real time on the Jumbotron above.

A detail from the shot.

Packer fans wait in line to get into Cowboys Stadium in Dallas before the game.

It's at least possible that there are Packers team owners in this picture. For those who might not know, Green Bay, with 102,000 people in the last census, is by far the smallest American city with a major sports team, and the Packers are the only major team in American sports that is owned by the public. At last count there were more than 111,000 shareholders. The team is non-profit, and no dividends are paid to shareholders—excess funds (and any proceeds should the team ever be sold) go to charity.

Such an arrangement would violate NFL League rules today. But the Packers are "grandfathered in."

Mike McCarthy and players after the game.

If you missed the game, the Packers, who won 31–25, never trailed, but it was close several times and came down to the Steelers' last possession. A good game if you didn't have a horse in the race. And if you did, well, I saw a public service announcement earlier in the day the said there's a spike in heart attacks during big football games in the cities whose teams are playing.

Super Bowl ring from the last time we won, after the 1996 season.

Big thanks to Jack for sharing these with us. Here are some more. He's planning to put up a few mega-panoramas in the next few days; I'll let you know.

Mike

ADDENDUM for our international friends who have never watched American football: a Super Bowl ring is not just a fashion trinket. Since only members of the winning organization get one, it's one of the most coveted prizes in American culture, never mind American sports. They're more rare than Academy Award Oscars.

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Featured Comment by CharlieH: "That screen is just incredible. I am dying to see the remote."

Mike replies: Charlie, the remote is called a NOC (network operations center). You can see it here."

...Priceless

Having your cake and eating it too....

Mike

Featured Comment by Paul McCann: "Don't get it. Is this football related?"

Mike replies: Your instincts are good, Mr. Holmes. A Chicago baseball team was the first to use the term "cheesehead" as a label of derision for the fans of Wisconsin's baseball team, and, as with many such terms, it was embraced by those it was intended to embarrass, and has come to mean any resident of the Badger State, especially one who is a sports fan. Cheeseheads now wear giant, bright yellow wedges of cheddar made of foam on their heads to sporting events. Google "cheesehead" for some pictures, at which point the cake should begin to remind you of something. The "G" on the cake is the logo of the fabled Green Bay Packers, our sixth-seeded football team which went on a tear through the playoffs and resumed its rightful place atop the glorious throne of football yesterday evening. (Am I getting carried away? It's hard to know.)

OT: New TOP Mac

TOP's new heart.

I wrote about my computer shopping travails last September, here and here. I concluded at the time that there was an urgent need to continue dithering. Finally, Steve Pellechia, owner of Techwise Computers in Waukesha, let me bring the store's demo 27" iMac home so I could try out the glossy glass screen for myself in my own environs. A five-minute trial convinced me it was less an issue than I thought it would be, so I wimped out on getting the Mac Pro and NEC monitor that I really wanted and bought a new quad-core 27" iMac instead. (I bought from Steve, since he helped me out with the demo loan.)

Experienced and intelligent computer users must be grateful for Migration Assistant, which essentially turns your new computer into your old one with minimal hassle. For a guy like me, however, what it means is that every bit of clutter, error, and all the piecemeal and illogical (dis)organization of my old computers is faithfully recreated on my new one. I find that dispiriting. I've likened it in the past to moving house and being forced to move every single thing from the old house into the new one, down to and including the trash. And even the dust. You use a move as an opportunity to clean up, clear out, and reorganize. Not so when you get a new Apple.

In my "Applications" folder, for example, there are many applications—along with another folder called "Applications," in which are more applications. Why? I have no idea. Does it have to be like that? No idea. There are many applications I don't recognize. I have no idea what they do. Is it safe to throw them away? No clue.

Ctein is a computer expert. I am not. It's too bad he's out there gazing over the Pacific Ocean. I wish I could sit him down and let him help me organize my computer. At the very least, I'll bet his running commentary regarding my ineptitude would be very entertaining.

Does anyone know of a book or a site that tells how to most efficiently organize one's files on a Mac? I should have looked at the Apple default before I ran Migration Assistant, although it doesn't really want to give you the opportunity to do that, prompting you at turn-on to migrate your old data immediately.

The new computer is up and running quickly and efficiently, at least. The only thing I couldn't get working is the new AirPort Extreme; that looks like it will have to wait till Monday when I can get Apple Technical Support on the phone. My current Rube Goldberg rat's nest of modems, routers, and ethernet cables reminds me of the story of "Leaky" Lee, the 95-year-old town plumber in Woodstock, Illinois, who died a while back. It was rumored that when Leaky passed, the owner of one old building downtown had to rip out the entire building's plumbing system and replace it from scratch, because no one could figure out how the crazy old system worked. Only Leaky knew.

In my case, no one knows. It works. Don't touch it.

The new computer seems sleek and huge and fast compared to the old one—just like the old one seemed when I got it. Of all the Macs I've had since 1984, only two have not imparted this sense of gleaming speedy modernistic up-to-the-moment improvement—a Mac "Classic" I had for only two years, and a shoddy Mac desktop my then-boss provided for me during the nadir of the Sculley years. All the rest have imparted a wondrous new-toy new-tech aura, each in its turn.

The new screen seems quite nice, but very bright. I have the brightness slider turned down to about 1/3rd and the screen still makes me squint. Strangely, the one thing that looks horrible on the new computer is my own site—TOP. On my old displays, the main text background was a subtle beige, and the sidebar color was a muted brownish yellow. On the as-yet-uncalibrated iMac11,3 screen, the text appears on a sickly yellow background that has a greenish cast, and the sidebar color is a lurid, bright, grotesque yellow. It looks horrible. (And yet the photographs on the site look fine.) If there are people out there who have been seeing the site like this for years, all I can do is apologize!

One thing's for sure, I'm not going to keep looking at the site in these colors.

I found an old ColorVision Spyder in my drawer—it might be three or four years old—and when darkness falls I'll plug it in and see if its software is still lurking on the computer somewhere. It should be. It might even work, if the various updates over the years haven't "broken" it. We'll see.

If not, I'll have to buy or borrow up-to-date calibration equipment.

And if that doesn't help, well, TypePad has a design service—it might be time to spring for a top-to-bottom redesign of the look 'n' feel of TOP.

Seriously, is there a manual that covers housekeeping on a Mac? I need that, and I'm not just trying to be funny.

This is the exact computer I got, I'm pretty sure, except mine has a 2 TB hard drive, and I plan to boost the RAM to 16 GB with memory from Other World Computing (which, by coincidence, is based in Woodstock, where Leaky Lee plied his trade for 70+ years). (And did you know B&H sells more Apples than Apple does? True.)

Mike

P.S. I hear there is a football game being televised today, which partly explains why I feel so free to maunder on about my computer: no one is reading this. This is traditionally our next-to-worst traffic day of the year, second only to Christmas. Hmm, maybe the new color scheme of the site should be green and gold....

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Nikon Lens Hood Update

This is wonderful—after my recent post telling the story of the $5,500 Nikon lens hood, a thread on the subject started up on the Nikon Journal site (subheaded "The Nikon Historical Society Online"). And it turns out someone had saved a printout of the auction, which he then scanned and posted. So you can see the original auction at this link.

My memory wasn't too bad, all things considered—the final price was $5,555, the auction took place in March of 2000, and there are 10 of those hoods known to Nikon collectors (or at least there were at that time).

Mike
(Thanks to Fred Krughoff, Jarle Aasland, and especially "nsp9107")

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Scrap of Cloth Tied to Tree-Trunk...

...Figuratively speaking.

I am now going to attempt to switch over to the new computer I finally bought. If you haven't heard anything from me in three days, please send IT with bloodhounds.

—Probably-more-nervous-than-he-needs-to-be Mike

Open Mike: Three Cheers for Dentists

Do you know how a cow dies of old age? Its teeth wear out. When it can no longer grind up grass, its jig is up.

In ancient eras, many human beings also met their ends because of dental problems and complications arising therefrom.

I spent 11 1/2 hours with my dentist yesterday. Well, not continuously—off and on. We started with one long emergency appointment at eight o'clock in the morning, met again at 5:00 p.m., and finished up the first stage of a root canal at 7:30 last night. The hyperemic tooth which has been giving me fits in recent weeks had finally gone into its Red Giant phase. The level of pain was...impressive. I'm not intimately acquainted with major pain, thank you god, but the pain of that tooth at least makes the cut to the big leagues, I would guess. It was like a tungsten fire burning in my jaw. (One of his patients who had the same thing told my dentist she would rather give birth again.) When it spun out of control the pain made me sweat, and feel dizzy.

Tark Barsamian and staff a couple of years back

I have an outstanding dentist. Very skilled, and devoted to his work. A genuinely nice guy, too. He is Dr. Tarkis Barsamian, a.k.a. "Dr. B."—Armenian-American, as you can tell from the name (my college dorm-mate Greg Aftandilian taught me that names ending in "-ian" are usually Armenian). Very interesting guy, too—it was nice to get a chance to talk with him at length, even as he was depriving me of pain meds.

Blamed, stood up, and welched on
I would have thought that dentists would find their work fulfilling. They're relatively well compensated, and they unambiguously help people.

Not so much, it turns out. People don't like going to the dentist, and blame dental difficulties of their own making on their dentist. Dentists get stood up a lot—people avoid their appointments (I do that. I've long suffered from an uncontrollable fear of dental work, triggered by a bad experience decades ago). They get stiffed a lot, too. Tark told me that some people who treat him like their best friend when they're in distress in the middle of the night suddenly unpack a trunk full of excuses when it comes to paying the bill.

Which is an injustice, seems to me. Where would we be without dentists? Sure, having the work done is unpleasant—but not nearly so unpleasant as not having it done. Before yesterday, I had never looked forward to a root canal before. Last evening I was positively eager for it.

On the trail of a tooth
Much of what Tark did with me amounted to detective work. It was fascinating to watch him on the trail. A hyperemic tooth "refers" pain—the inflamed nerve is bundled next to the nerves that lead to other teeth, making them hurt too, even though they're not affected. I could have sworn the tooth that was giving me trouble was no. 19, and if if it wasn't, then it was no. 14. Through a series of diagnostic tests, including several rounds of selective anesthesia, plus X-rays, plus a careful collation of his notes going back several years, added to good intuition and 28 years of experience, Tark figured out that the culprit was really no. 15, which surprised me. It really didn't seem to me like that one hurt as much as the others.

But he was right. Today I'm pain-free for the first time in a month and a half, and I got a full night's sleep last night for the first time in a long time. And no longer do I have to bombard my poor sufferin' kidneys with ibruprophen every five hours. I feel great.

I'm determined to pay every penny of the bill with nary an echo of complaint. And I'm never saying another word against dentists who buy themselves Leicas, either. As far as I'm concerned, every dentist should get a couple of Leicas just as a general thank-you.

Dr. B. is a great doctor and a great craftsman, and I mean both as compliments. Oh, and did I mention that Friday is Tark's day off? He had been helping his son renovate some rental apartments, and he arrived at his cold, darkened office for our afternoon appointment in work clothes. Part of the job, he said. He quoted Telly Savalas with a laugh: who loves ya, baby?

Dentists are your friends. Treat 'em well. Here's three cheers for dentists, the world over, and all they do.

Mike

"Open Mike" is a series of off-topic posts that appear only on weekends.

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Featured Comment by Dwight: "I'm not sure if he told you, but #15 is frequently the hardest tooth in the mouth to do a root canal on. A lot of dentists would have needed to refer that treatment to a specialist. I'm glad Dr. B. was able to help."

Featured Comment by DC Wells: "Ditto on the value and kindness of dentists, Mike. And glad to hear you are feeling better for a change. I sent this along to my dentist. She and her staff have taken very good care of my teeth for quite a few years."

Featured Comment by Anupun Sra-lum, DDS: "As a long-time loyal TOP reader and a dentist by profession, I feel so great reading your compliments to Dr. Barsamian. Your kind words to people in my profession make me feel so proud being a dentist. You just make my day. And after spending 26 years performing dental treatment, I still cannot afford a Leica."

The Lost Portfolio of Christopher Bailey

Continuing our conversation about portfolio feedback, I wanted to tell again the story of my art-school friend Christopher Bailey. (Note that if you Google the name, you'll get the wrong guy. Several of them.) Chris is a painter, a free spirit who for several years was a "squatter" (it's a long story, but that's more or less what it amounted to) on the top floor of a Brooklyn warehouse, and who, when last heard from, was living in the Carolinas in a barn with one wall missing.

Chris is an all-around multitalented guy who probably has too many abilities for his own good—he tended to be mercurial, skipping from one activity to the next (furniture building, organic gardening). And he definitely "thinks different"—it took me a long time, for instance, to realize that he sometimes associated the sounds of words rather than their meaning, which could make conversations veer wildly from their conventional tracks! For a time, at least, he turned his attention to photography.

To deal with editing and review he'd make tiny proof prints, about 2x3" or even smaller, on fiber paper, usually with torn rather than cut edges—and he'd make them by the hundreds, if not the thousands. So then he got the idea of making little matchbox mini portfolio boxes for the tiny proof prints. Each box was custom-made, and many were little works of art in themselves, covered with exotic or found materials. Some if not most of them were open on two sides so the stack of little prints could be removed just by pushing them in on one side and grabbing them from the other side, like a matchbox.

Attuned
So here's the point of this story: because the portfolios were so tiny, Chris could carry them with him all the time. So he would show them to people constantly—other artists, people in the industry, movers and shakers of various kinds at parties, bars, openings, wherever. I remember one time he met a female art director in a bar and after talking for a while, she said, "Bring your portfolio around some time—I'd love to see it." Chris reached into his coat and five seconds later she was looking through his portfolio, right there at the bar.

And he was keenly attuned to peoples' reactions as they looked at the work. He'd remove the pictures people tended to not like, and keep the ones they responded positively to. Sometimes the consensus choices were real surprises to him. So, over time, he gradually built up a portfolio that was based on real-world feedback from real people, one that was reality-tested again and again.

It's been long enough now so that I no longer remember all the pictures in his "best loved" portfolio, or the exact sequence of the pictures, but I do remember that it was an absolutely stunning set of pictures. The pictures were unconventional, subversive, elliptical. It has nagged at my memory all these years, as a set of work that really should be documented, commemorated, honored, and put into final form as a book. It's probably too late now—Chris might still have some of those negatives, but somehow I doubt it. He's an artist; no doubt he's moved on.

Christopher Bailey had many of those little mini-portfolios, but the one that contained all the "most popular" pictures—based on all that feedback—I remember as one of the best bodies of photographic work I've seen in my life, published or unpublished, known or unknown.

Mike

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Featured Comment by SHJ: "Hi Mike, I still remember the time in my apartment in Manhattan when Chris pulled out his miniature portfolio. The pictures were amazing and his technique for maximizing appeal was something I recounted to photographers for years. Of course the other thing that stuck in my mind was the reaction the guy got from women on the street. He could charm anybody. A quirky and compelling character! Glad you are feeling better...."

Featured [partial] Comment by robert e: "I remember you mentioning your friend's mini-portfolio a long time ago, almost in passing, in a thread about editing. At around the same time, I noticed that one or two days a week, the local Ritz Camera offered 3x5 prints from files for seven cents apiece.

"Getting those prints to come out right turned out to be kind of a pain, but that's another story. I eventually ended up with a 'deck' of 52 that I packed in an index card case, and my friends and I had a lot of fun spreading them out on a table top at a local bar and shuffling through them to find the 20 or so that were good enough for a 'real' portfolio.

"The benefit, of course, was instant, intimate and interactive feedback; but I found another important benefit, too—editing is quite enjoyable as a social activity. And seeing as how the goal was to make and show prints, it made a lot of sense to be looking at prints, however small, rather than projected or backlit images.

"So it is now a tradition, and almost part of the process: when I need some feedback in a hurry, I'll have some small prints made, and I and one or more trusted pairs of eyes will spread out the prints and shuffle them around and discuss them over a round of drinks or a meal. More often than not, we'll attract some welcome attention and the feedback pool will grow.

"Thank you again, Mike, for the great advice. It's nice to know the name of the artist who came up with this, too. I'm going to try even smaller prints next time."

Charlie's Prints

Yesterday the frozen FedEx man made his way to the front door bearing a dog-eared and taped Kodak paper box. Inside were the proof prints of the upcoming Print Offer pictures from Charlie Cramer. (The sale kicks off a week from this Sunday, if you've forgotten.)

They are gorgeous. Delicious. Beautiful. Gorgeliciousiful.

I showed one to my son, and his first response was "I like that! That really pops." Then I showed it to his girlfriend, and she said, "Ooh, I like that!" And you know, I think they nailed the matter: the print quality of Charlie's prints is "I like that."

They're gorgeously colorful overall, but the remarkable thing to me is what I might call "microcolor"—the small, subtle shifts and variations of colors within very small areas.

I could go on about detail and colors and the beautiful paper surface, but I think the short take is that these prints are going to be crowdpleasers. Not only you but also the non-photographers you know who see them are going to like them.

Maybe I don't get out enough, but seeing these really got me amped up. I only have room for one at a time on my print-viewing board, so I've been switching them back and forth. I don't think there are going to be any complaints on the print quality front. State-of-the-art digital printmaking, circa 2011.

Just thought you might like an update.

Mike

P.S. We'll publish on Monday morning an article that Charlie wrote for us about his techniques and methods.

P.P.S. We don't reveal the actual sale images until the sale starts.

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Portfolio Feedback

When I was writing that "one wedding picture" portfolio post published yesterday, just so I'd have my facts straight in the third-to-last paragraph I called my old friend Kevin, the one who used to have the 150 5x7 transparencies from which he'd build custom 12-to-15-piece portfolios. He told me something interesting—he mentioned that the evolution of his portfolio took a step backwards when he stopped being able to do in-person presentations to potential clients, for one simple but crucial reason—the feedback stopped.

He said he used to try to do personal presentations whenever possible, but eventually it became conventional for art directors to insist on drop-offs. With in-person meetings to present his portfolio, he saw what people liked and disliked, heard comments pro and con—and what he learned was reflected in the ongoing development of his portfolio. With drop-offs, you lose that.

In that sense, the current common form of the "portfolio"—the photographer's website—might be the worst. It's great for ease of access and ease of maintenance (and low wear and tear!—no more having to replace pieces when the lamination gets scratched or the mats get scuffed), but not only do you not get to tailor the portfolio for specific clients or specific jobs (you pretty much have to put up on your site everything anybody might want to see)—but you never get any feedback (other than when you're hired). Gone are the hints and clues as to which pictures are working for you and which might be turning clients off or away.

I'm not sure I know a sensible way around that, or any way of compensating for it, but I thought it was an interesting observation, worth passing on.

Mike

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Random Excellence: Phil Hart

Bioluminescence created by Noctiluca scintillans on the Gippsland Lakes in eastern Victoria, Australia. This was taken by Phil Hart on January 1st, 2009 (midsummer down under, remember), from Camp Cooinda on Banksia Peninsula. Phil has an explanation page called "Bioluminescence in the Gippsland Lakes" with a number of additional pictures.

Mike
(Thanks to Phil Aynsley)

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Featured Comment by V. I. Voltz: "I am a marine biologist. We have had large scale cultures of Noctiluca spp. in bags in our algal culture lab—some of the original samples came from the Gippsland Lakes. These algae really are exquisite. If you hit the bag with your hand while the lights were off, the whole mass would shimmer and flash, shining and changing colour subtly. Amazing, amazing little organisms."

Featured Comment by Ctein: "Oh, my. I've been wanting to make photos like these for over 40 years. The second one is exquisite. The first, in this small, oversaturated JPEG, is too over-the-top to work artistically; the disparate elements just don't seem to cohere. In a larger, more subtle print, though, it might very well be glorious. Still, all in all, a remarkable set of work. Makes my heart swell in my throat just to see it."

Featured Comment by Vito: "The island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico, has a bioluminescent bay. Five years ago on a moonless night we went. It is one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We even saw a large shark below our kayak all lit up glowing green as it cruised about. I tried my best to get photos, but my canon G7 wasn't up to the task. Needed ISO it simply could not do. Our guide said he knew of no one who had successfully photographed the bay. I guess, he hadn't met the right photographer with the right gear yet. I'd absolutely kill to have a photo of that slowly moving bright green shark."

Featured Comment by Leigh Youdale: "During the Sydney Olympics (2000AD) I was crewing on a yacht delivery from Noumea in New Caledonia to Sydney—some 1500 miles.

"One evening still stands out in my memory. There was sufficient breeze to push us along under spinnaker at about five knots. There was a slight sea mist and high alto-cu clouds that obscured the moon but the effect was as if the yacht was located in the centre of a luminescent sphere. You could not detect where the sky and sea joined at the horizon. It was quite magical.

"We became aware of of the luminescence in droplets and plashes from the bow wave and then remarkably there was this trail of light behind the boat for some 200 yards. It was as if we were suspended on a trail of light. Presently too, we became aware of ghostly green shapes below us in the water, shadowing our progress. They never surfaced and some were huge - much bigger than sharks or dolphins—possibly whale sharks or small whales. The yacht was 39 feet long and the 'shapes' were longer than the boat!"

A Tip: Never Have One Wedding Photograph in Your Portfolio

Photographers like being paid. We want to work. Your portfolio—whether on an iPad or online or in a box—is one of the best tools you have to get the sort of work you want.

But our portfolios sometimes work against us. Our tendency is to want to throw in "examples" of a wide variety of work. We want to say "Look at all these different kinds of photographs. These are among the many things I will do if you'll pay me."

This was driven home for me years ago when I bought a big ad in the Yellow Pages advertising my services as a portrait photographer. The ad worked, all right—I got lots of clients. But the problem was that not very many of them wanted the kind of work I did. I quickly learned that my first task with each of them was to try to coax out of them what they had in mind. Each client had something in mind. But few were very articulate about what exactly that was. To each of them, what they were thinking of was "a portrait." I was the one who was supposed to know what that meant. For them it was obvious. For me, it was a game of "guess what they're thinking." After all, this is a portrait (Abby Wilcox)—and so is this (Ed Salter), and this (Art Wright). Yet the person seeking one or the other of these styles probably wouldn't be happy with one of the others. It was up to me to figure out what each person wanted and what would make them happy.

The everything-but-the-kitchen-sink portfolio continues: "Here's a food photograph. So I can do that. And here's my portrait photograph sample. So you see I can do those. I did a real estate brochure once. Need a real estate brochure? How about a studio shot of a widget for a catalog? Can do. Interiors. I can do interiors. What do you need? Hire me, and I'll take a stab at it."

It's hard to make a picture like this unless you love dogs and have a feel for dog behavior. Photo by Bob Rosinsky.

And of course you got roped into doing your cousin Mary's wedding a year ago last May. Hey, a few of them turned out okay. What the heck, you'll wade in and do a wedding, if the price is right. Throw one of 'em in the portfolio. It'll say, "Want a wedding? Can do." Weddings R Us.

I'm not going to argue that you can't market yourself as a jack- (or jill-) of-all-trades if you want to. I'd just encourage you to think of it from the customer's perspective. Among brides-to-be who are out there scouting for the right photographer for their wedding, who in their right mind would hire somebody with one wedding picture in his or her portfolio? That's probably never happened once since 1839. What prospective wedding clients are looking for is someone who likes doing weddings, has done a lot of them, and really knows how to do them. Wedding clients aren't interested in your widget pictures or your real estate brochure. They only want to know how you're going to shoot their wedding, and what they can expect of you if they hire you.

With my portraits, I never got the kind of work I wanted until my friend Judy let me put up a semi-permanent exhibit in her frame shop in Georgetown. From then on, I got exactly the kind of client I wanted—people who had seen my work at the frame shop, liked my style, and wanted something just like what they'd already seen. And that was just the kind of work I liked to do, wanted to do, and was good at. Match. That's the magic of a good portfolio.

TOP reader Bob Rosinsky in central Florida wants to be a go-to guy for studio portraits of dogs, so there's nothing ambivalent about his portfolio at his Top Dog site. The best clients want the photographer who's the best for their specific job—they're not looking for someone who's willing to do any old thing.

Even if you're a jack-or-jill-of-all-trades (and most photographers do have several areas of specialization), at the very least you should tailor your portfolio for each prospective client. A friend of mine I used to share a studio with back in the days of film used to keep just under 150 portfolio pieces waiting and ready to go. All of them, no matter what format they started as, were duped to 5x7 transparencies in black mats. But he'd tailor a portfolio specifically for each potential client with only 12 or 15 pictures that spoke directly to the client's need. If it was a job for an architectural interior, he'd show just interiors. If it was a job for architectural exteriors, he'd show only exteriors. And so forth.

The problem is that having one wedding photo in your portfolio doesn't say what you hope it says. That is, the message received isn't, "Oh, so this person can do weddings too. How great. I'll get him to shoot mine next June." What it actually communicates is, "One wedding picture? This photographer isn't very serious about weddings. I'd better go find someone else who is."

The proper number of wedding photographs for your portfolio is: all, or none.

Mike

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Some Updates on My Photoshop CS5 Mac Problems

By Ctein

A few months back I wrote "Photoshop CS5: A Simple Desultory Philippic." Since then I've made some small progress at wrestling some of the alligators back into the swamp.

On the plug-in front, Topaz and Akvis have released sharpening and noise-reduction plug-ins that run under 64-bit Photoshop. I don't know how they compare to the ones I've been using with Photoshop CS4, but I intend to find out over the next several weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed; these folks write some interesting software, not your run-of-the-mill stuff.

I still have lots of work-critical plug-ins that are never likely to be updated or replaced, so I've figured out a workaround. It's got its problems, definitely far from ideal, but it gets me there well enough.

When I hit the point in working with a photograph in 64-bit Photoshop CS5 where I want to apply some plug-in that doesn't run there, I launch my copy of Photoshop CS4. In CS5 I select-all and copy the layer that I want to run the plug-in on. If it's a plug-in that I want to be running on a layer-modified photograph, I use the magic keystroke combination command-option-shift-E to create a single layer that's a merged version of the layers in my file and copy that.

I create a new, empty file in CS4 and paste the copied layer from CS5 into it. Then I run my plug-in on the copy. Select all, copy the modified layer, switch back to CS5 and paste it into a new layer in my original file.

Advantages? I don't have to shut down CS5 or lose my history states or workflow. It's a nondestructive edit, so I can take it or leave it or modify it further as need be, but I'm not making any irrevocable changes.

Disadvantages? Well, obviously, it's a bit slower and less convenient than just being able to apply the plug-ins directly from within CS5. You also need to have enough RAM in your system to happily support two copies of Photoshop running. This trick barely works at all on my 6 GB MacBook Pro, but it's fine on my 12 GB iMac.

Files get even bulkier, as you add new layers for each plug-in that you run. Which further increases the memory footprint.

The biggest problem I've run into is that it appears that CS4 is not entirely happy sharing memory space with CS5, even though there's an ample amount of RAM in my iMac to be supporting both. I discovered that I can make CS4 crash quite reliably if I try to run more than one plug-in (or one plug-in more than once) on a large image file. I'm not sure what the critical file size is; I routinely work on files between 30 and 100 megapixels in 16-bit color. Everything is fine the first time I run a plug-in on the copied-over layer. But, if I decide I don't like the results and undo them and then apply that plug-in again, or if I try to apply a second plug-in as a follow-up, Photoshop CS4 folds up its tent.

So, this is a trick that works exactly once. If I need to make more than one change under CS4, I need to save the first-plug-in-modified file, shut down CS4, relaunch it, and reopen that file. Then I can apply a second plug-in, or re-apply the first plug-in.

It's a kludge. No doubt about it. But it works. Well, it works better than sticking with CS4 or foregoing all my CS4 plug-ins to be able to work under CS5.

Still not jumping for joy, but I'm dealin'.

Ctein

Ctein's regular weekly column appears on TOP on Wednesdays.

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It Snowed

It's a measure of the "new connectedness" that I woke up this morning wondering how the Australians are doing. Our weather event was nothing like a hurricane. (They're called typhoons in the Pacific [and cyclones in Australia, as several readers have commented], but they're the same thing.)

And we here in Wisconsin were hardly alone. This pair of storms dumped snow over a third of the country. But the school system was right—this is definitely a snow day.

It was the sort of storm I recall as being much less unusual when I was growing up near here in the '60s and '70s. Howling wind, blowing snow. The news reported that snowplows were getting stuck, and a rescue team on snowmobiles had to be called off because the visibility was so poor. State and city state of emergencies were declared, the local mall closed, and the Mayor explained on TV that where there are signs that say "No Parking / Snow Emergency Route / Cars Will Be Towed," it means that you can't park there or your car will be towed. People really did stay indoors and off the roads. A cross-country ski race in the park today was postponed because of too much snow. The Groundhog Day ceremony at the State Fairgrounds was cancelled.

I spent some time last night watching through the front door as gusts of wind blew snow off the roof. It swirled in the air like smoke, constantly changing. Mildly mesmerizing, like watching the flames of a campfire. Very pretty.

Meanwhile, the news coverage of the Packers in Dallas took up far more local news time than the storm, so all is still right with Wisconsin.

Ctein's column will be late going up today. I have to go tend to snow removal now.

Mike

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Featured Comment by Walter Glover: "You are correct about Typhoons in Asia and parts of the Pacific but here in Oz we refer to them as Cyclones. News from Queensland is slowly filtering through as daylight reveals the extent of the devastation. Poor old Queensland just copped monstrous flooding and now this weather event up in far north Queensland.

"The cyclone made landfall at Tully and Innisfail (between Cairns and Townsville) with wind gusts up into the 270 kilometres per hour region.

"In a shelter in a school in Cairns a woman went into labour in the height of the event at about 2:00 p.m. Also in the shelter was a holidaying mid-wife from Britain. The power of nature never fails to impress—new life in the midst of chaotic wreckage."

Featured [partial] Comment by Mani Sitaraman: "Typhoons originate in the Pacific Ocean, cyclones originate in the Indian Ocean, and hurricanes originate in the Atlantic Ocean. This bit of orthodoxy was drilled into me by my geography teacher circa 1966."

We Get Weather

TOP world headquarters about half an hour ago (5:24 local time).

Finally, a little weather for us. We've gotten about eight inches of powder today (a very pretty day—as I was shoveling, I kept hearing Gabriel Iglesias—"it's fluffy!"), and the kids arrived home after school today reporting that a snow day had already been announced for tomorrow. That's fairly amazing. The schools here don't close just for blizzards—they have to be strategically timed blizzards. We can go a whole winter without a snow day, and I don't think in the ten years we've lived here they've ever announced a closing the afternoon before a weather event—a grudging closing at 6:30 a.m. is more the norm. Kind of makes me wonder what the heck could be on the way.

The light you see burning in the window in the picture above is my home office, from whence I blob on the ethernet all day. As long as the power stays on, no closings here.

Mike

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Featured Comment by marty: "Meh. Wrecks my whole mental image of stately TOP manor. I imagined it clinging precariously to the side of craggy cliff above a raging black river...but it seems I was accurate about it being cloaked in perpetual night."

Localization in Camera Markets

Panasonic has announced the pricing of the GF2, a somewhat smaller and simpler successor of the GF1. It'll come in black, silver, red, and white models and have a suggested retail price of $499.95. Availability is imminent—the middle of this month.

And speaking of mirrorless developments, Ricoh Camera has just announced the so-called "GXR Lens Mount Unit," in development for release next fall. You remember the GXR—that's the camera with the interchangeable self-contained lens-sensors units. The Lens Mount Unit will enable the use of Leica M mount lenses in a unit that contains a 12.9 MP APS-C sized CMOS sensor behind a focal plane shutter. In other words, exactly what many enthusiasts were barking for when the exotic GXR was first treed.

And speaking of Ricoh...it's a company that has long had a very low penetration and a low profile in the U.S. market. Think of Ricoh (the camera division, I'm talking about—the company also makes business products and much else) as being roughly analogous to Subaru—a proud but quirky little company that goes its own way, and that has a user base sometimes described as a "cult following." Small but dedicated. For years, Ricoh bypassed the U.S. for its cameras, feeling its products got lost in the crowd. In the last decade, however, it has quietly re-entered the U.S. market with at least four dealers: Adorama, Tony Rose's PopFlash in Thousand Oaks, California, and Rich Pinto's Photo Village in New York City, and it has just struck an agreement to sell directly through Amazon. So at least non-gray Ricoh cameras are available here again, and have been for at least six or seven years now. Still, Ricoh remains a very minor presence in the U.S.

And speaking of "regionality" where cameras are concerned...take the following with a grain of salt, because I'm no expert on the international camera market—this is just a report of rumors, none of which has an official source. But I hear there are some significant regional aspects to the popularity of various cameras and brands. For example, evidently it's mainly China that's keeping the global pipeline for the Leica S2 dry as a bone: the S2 is rampantly popular among newly minted millionaires there (and to a lesser extent in India). The country that's turning the Pentax 645D from a prestige loss-leader into a viable cash-cow product is India (and to a lesser extent China), where the camera is in great demand. And the Brazilians (they of the most recent economic miracle) are apparently wild for Sony NEX cameras. NEX 5's are apparently just the hottest thing going there. Or so rumor has it.

Of course, the opposite happens sometimes as well: The Fuji X100 was reportedly conceived as a niche boutique product principally for the Japanese home market, but is now slated for a worldwide rollout because of all the attention it got in the wake of Photokina.

My favorite lens. For now.

Finally—on a matter of extremely local concern*—can anybody steeped in Oly links 'n' lore fill me in on the current status of the rumored upcoming "pro" Micro 4/3 camera? Any camera that takes my current favorite lens is of at least a little interest to me.

Mike

*Here in my office, or, you might say, inside my head.

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Featured Comment by Russ: "In New Zealand Subaru are very popular and Ricoh not so much, so even your comparisons are localised!"

Featured Comment by Jeff: "My understanding is that the largest proportion of late model Leica M film cameras (MP and M7) have been sold in Japan."

Mike replies: Thank you Jeff. I forgot that example.

Winter Print Offer Will Start Sunday, February 13th

Our Charles Cramer Print Sale—TOP's Winter sale for 2010-11—is planned to commence at noon on Sunday, February the 13th.

If you're not familiar with our four seasonal print offers, what we do is take orders for a very limited time—just five days. The photographers can then produce prints in volume knowing they're already sold. This allows them to sell prints for far less than gallery prices, yet make more money on the sale as a whole. Win-win, as the saying goes.

In the case of our winter sale, the two pictures on offer will be well under half the usual price. Another big difference compared to gallery sales is that the photographer keeps 80% of the proceeds—about twice the percentage artists get from galleries. And the remaining 20% is the largest share of what keeps TOP churning merrily along in fine economic fettle.

Nary an aesthetic hiccup
We also try when we can to see that there's an aspect of technical interest to some of our sales.

In Charlie's case, it's "large format." Charlie went from shooting 4x5" film (above left) to shooting with the largest digital format (called "medium format backs" because they fit on medium-format film camera bodies, but really the digital large format) (right), and it essentially didn't interrupt his output at all. Working digitally is more convenient for him and allows him to do some things he couldn't with film, achieving a technical image quality almost as good as that of film—but the change introduced nary an aesthetic hiccup in the continuity of his work. Charlie has written about his transition elsewhere, but he'll talk about it here on TOP too, before the sale starts.

At any rate, one of the pictures we'll offer in our sale was taken with a 4x5 on film, and the other with a Phase One back. Proving nothing, but I'm rather fond of the parallelism to Charlie's body of work as a whole.

These sales are a lot of fun for me personally—they're probably the most fun thing I do. It's been great to work with Charlie, who is a true gentleman, and I hope you like at least one of the pictures we chose. Please come back the week of the 13th.

Mike

Photo credits: Keith Walklet (top), Bill Atkinson.

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Apropos of Nothing

Dilbert this morning provides a new term for what I do all day...I'm just sayin'.

Mike

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