- Search results for: industry

Half price cheeseburgers

Posted: 2010-06-08 13:11:12 by jonc

"Here's the deal. If you give me this mega-double-cheeseburger for free, I promise i'll tell all my friends how great your fast food joint is, and make sure they all buy their cheeseburgers from your restaurant!"

Laughable right? If your not laughing, then you've heard this line probably one too many times. This business model is a very unfortunate reality for many creative firms of all shapes, sizes, and specialties. Relationships are forged between client and vendor on the promise of connections, and a lifetime of quality referrals to big name folks in high up places. More often than not, this isn't the way things end up turning out.

Before you know it, you've already put in 4 times the number of hours you originally planned to spend on the project, and you realize you can only invoice 1/4 of your time at half price. Already you are frustrated because you feel ripped off, and the client is frustrated because they don't feel they are getting the 'full price' treatment. At the end of the day, no one is happy, and your dreams of big contracts and lifelong good recommendations have gone down the toilet, along with a heap of un-billable hours, and most of your sanity.

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Categories: news, industry, relationships, business, calgary, marketing, advertising,

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Canon announcement & showcase on February 8th?

Posted: 2010-02-04 14:56:43 by jonc

The release of a new video-focused DSLR camera looks to be imminent as the BAFTA press event looms on February 08, 2010. From previous rumors, it's likely the new Consumer Rebel(T2i) & Prosumer 60D will be on hand for press and attendees to play around with.

Although it's not likely to be an option for high end photography, I could certainly see myself picking up one or two in the future to add additional options and angles for sports and other film-making applications thanks to their feature-to-price ratio with regards to video. I can imagine this new offering will be offering similar quality to the 7D, although dual digic IV processors is probably a bit of a stretch, so 60fps will be an option we will have to wait and see on.

Source: Canon Rumours

Categories: industry, gear, photography,

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Hasselblad announces H4D 40/50/60 Behemoth

Posted: 2010-02-04 14:44:10 by jonc

The long awaited (Wait, didn't the h3d come out in 2008?) Hasselblad H4D-40/50 medium format digital camera. (check out the hasselblad page for pics and details). This one actually looks like it has some pretty cool features as well that may prove to be rather groundbreaking, at least in the medium format world. I'm expecting the H4D will be an interesting direct competitor to Lieca's S2, despite the difference in form factor.

The most notable feature built into the H4D body is the APL True Focus system, which seems to be a first of its kind in the industry. The H4D actually has a built in velocity sensor that measures minute movements as you recompose after focusing using the center-clustered focusing system. Pretty ingenious way to deal with focus plane issues on a medium format camera. Not sure how effective it will be on real world shoots, but I can imagine it would certainly help improve focusing accuracy and consistency for wide aperture / close in frames.

At $20,000+ I'm sure the price point will deter all but those with the most extreme resolution needs, or those who require the unique look and feel that medium format provides thanks to their massive sensors and unique physical properties. Based on pure resolution, the 5D Mark II at 21mp in conjunction with some of the excellent F1.2 L primes Canon produces should get you pretty close, at least with regards to resolution and depth of field. And at $2,800, the 5D Mk II is certainly hitting the resolution-for-dollar ratio a little better for those of us mere mortals that can't quite justify the astronomical price of a top of the line hasse setup.

Categories: industry, gear, photography,

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HTML5 and the future of online video (and the iPad)

Posted: 2010-02-02 10:21:07 by jonc

I felt yesterday as though I had my eyes snapped open, emerging from a dark fog... I was reading some of the entertaining spats between adobe and apple yesterday when suddenly it occurred to me... Is apple actually right for a change? John Cabell's article in Wired brought up a very interesting point: Just how far away are we from HTML5 video dominance? Could this be, finally, the tipping point where users start trading their old browsers in for modern, HTML5 & CSS3 compliant browsers in order to be able to do everyday activities on the net? In the past (and even today), the general consensus is that we need to be as backward compatible as possible. Which is good to a point... but when we start throwing away some of the incredible features offered by HTML5 and CSS3, i think it's time to start pushing our end users into upgrading their browsers.

For those of you wondering, HTML5 is the sparkly new standard for the basic building block of the internet: HTML. Version 5 introduces the video tag, which finally allows embedding of video on any web page without the use of flash. Flash is great for a lot of things, however, it is still a plugin, and it still is a resource hog when it comes right down to it. Unfortunately, as with any new web-standard roll out, it takes a few months for the browsers to catch up. Currently Safari, Chrome, and Firefox to some extent already support HTML5 (mostly), IE is lagging behind (as usual), although something tells me that Microsoft will have to step up to the plate when it comes to internet explorer, or risk losing their steadily shrinking browser market share all together.

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Categories: industry, html5, video,

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Accidental photo theft?

Posted: 2010-02-01 13:21:17 by jonc

Thomas Hawk posted an interesting story today that has some members of the strobist group up in arms on the Thomas Hawk Blog. Now, i'm always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, but accidentally stealing pictures from flickr for your own portfolio? Honestly, i can't imagine the circumstances that would lead to this kind of "honest mistake". As a photographer, I am extremely aware of every image I have ever taken... or at least I can remember when, how, what, why when I see one of even my oldest images.

After the whole Fake Wolf story, I think we can all agree that even the most 'professional' photographers are capable of acts of dishonesty.

It's sad, however not really surprising, that plagiarism can exist in all forms, even at the highest level where one would think it's not really necessary.

Anyone really concerned about whether or not their images are online somewhere should really try TinEye... a handy reverse image search that seems to be pretty successful at finding images based on pixel mapping. So far, it only searches a small portion of the overall internet, but is certainly helpful for finding your images on flickr, photoshelter etc.

Categories: industry, photography,

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The Story Beyond The Still

Posted: 2010-01-31 15:00:08 by jonc

It has certainly never been a more exciting time to be involved in the fast paced world of photography. It seems we are on a slippery, exponential curve of technology... we can either ride it, or risk falling a long ways behind. Video has been kind of a mixed blessing for me. It is amazing as it opens the door to creating truly top-quality shorts, films, and tutorials. It is frustrating as it introduces a whole new realm of costs that are associated with film-making. ND filters, matte boxes, frames, custom tripods, steady-cams, video light systems, dollies, final cut... the list goes on. However, the floodgates of creativity have been opened, and I for one can't wait to see what indie short film-makers and extreme sports film companies start producing.

Canon recently announced an exciting new contest to help further awareness of what is actually possible with their modern VDSLR's. Personally, I am very excited to see what people are able to come up with for this contest. Marketing strategy or not, there are some big names on the judging panel, including now world-renowned photographer & director Vincent Laforet, among other directors of photography for great movies such as Titanic, and Terminator Salvation (which featured absolutely fantastic cinematography, despite it's lack of compelling storyline).

If you are in the US, and would like to win a 5DmkII or 7D, it is certainly worth checking out Beyond the Still for information on how to enter the contest.