Happy Leap Day everyone Unfortunately, something that will not be returning in 4 years is Polaroid film It has only been a couple of weeks since the company announced they would no longer be making it I listened to another story about it today on NPR Not only is that huge Polaroid camera amazing, but I also found some of the comments interesting in the story.
“Dorfman says the “seduction” of the digital camera ” the ability to take picture after picture until snapping a good one ” does not mean it’s actually a better process.
“The person is more on if they know they only have a few shots,” she says.”
I think this highlights an important aspect in image making that maybe will get lost in the digital generation Slowing down Just because repeated pixels are ‘free’ – doesn’t mean we don’t owe the capture sufficient time for contemplation I don’t like that it is applied as a blanket statement towards digital, because it isn’t an equation, that one equals the other But I have certainly seen it myself, a shutter drive blasting away on a flash card with comments to the effect of ‘I am sure I’ll get one good one in there.’ Being methodical can apply to any medium, and the medium doesn’t have to mean. sloppiness.
“They’ll never know what it was like. If it is the end, it will be a truly gigantic shame for future generations,” he says.”
. This made me think about how I started with 35 mm film, and I have shot Polaroids, but I didn’t really know what it was like for something like photographic plates or daguerrotypes It certainly would have been interesting to me to have shot on different formats, but I don’t really know if I feel any loss from it.
Digital instant prints are coming soon as a replacement from Polaroid, but I doubt we will see anything like Elsa’s camera in digital form anytime soon Can you imagine a digital sensor the size of that huge polaroid camera?! I think there will continue to be demand for instant prints Many travel photographers rely on polaroids for handing out prints as gifts to their subjects in remote places For me, I always feel that an image isn’t in its final resting place until it has been printed It is nice to see that perhaps the end of one era will be replaced by simply a different one – the tradition isn’t lost in the change of medium.
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Getting a new computer can be a great source of fun, as well as a lot of work in migrating all of your software and data over Adding a new computer with a new type of operating system.. you would think it compounds the work But actually it has been much easier than I expected A lot of people worry about software expenses in such a move from PC to Mac They can add up depending on the applications you use most My most heavily used applications are from Adobe; Photoshop, Lightroom, and Dreamweaver, and are probably the most costly to buy outright.
As I mentioned before, Lightroom already has cross-platform licensing, so it was a no brainer, and no cost to switch it My other apps, I have been holding off on upgrading them because I was anticipating this switch Dreamweaver also has cross-platform licensing, so it only cost me the standard upgrade fee to get Dreamweaver CS3 for Mac (less my NAPP discount of course!) Photoshop is a bit more complicated.
Adobe requires you to sign a “Letter of Software Destruction” (sounds ominous doesn’t it!) to transfer your PC license to a Mac license, and then only the normal upgrade fee applies if you are upgrading from an older version I was moving from PC CS2 to Mac CS3 in this case They do a lot of digging into your Photoshop history to determine your last full version that was registered (not upgrades) Other than some time spent on the phone (and you do have to call to get a ‘case number’), it was rather painless It is a good idea to first start with the 30 day free trial on Mac first to make sure all of your actions, presents, and plugins migrate over OK Even though I am only a week into my trial, I probably have to start planning my Photoshop for Windows CD destruction party now.
I. am already spoiled on the speed I am experiencing in Photoshop CS3 on the MacPro My PC was quite old I know, a new PC would probably perform fast just as well But just to highlight the difference, there is a popular Photoshop benchmark test that is referred to quite a bit here Give it a try if you want to see how your own computer fares Be sure to follow their preparation instructions.
Old PC: Dell 8300 Pentium 4 3 GHz, 4GB Ram, ATA hard drives, Windows XP Pro SP2, CS2 : Speed test results 3 min 45 seconds
New Mac: MacPro 2.8 GHz Harpertown, 6 GB Ram, SATA2 hard drives, Mac OSX 10.5.2, CS3 : Speed test results: 25 seconds :o
That’s quite a big difference of course, and I am noticing it in how much quicker I can process an image to a fully processed 16×24 size print.
I am still quite a newbie in learning the Mac way, lots of apps still to explore like iPhoto, GarageBand, all the other cool stuff available online All in all, software migration has been quite painless, and quite easy Smooth as silky water, and now flowing quite fast! 
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Some of the samples I have been photographing are nothing short of amazing in so many ways. I have added a couple more Pietersite pictures and a new one, Rose Plume Agate photos. To contemplate how nature formed something so absolutely fascinating to look at, the fact that these patterns probably formed millions of years ago, and here I am today portraying them is just mind boggling. One of the best parts is that I am only scratching the surface on the possibilities with these pieces of stone and probably earning a junior geologist ranger badge. How do they look under different types of lighting? What if I apply even more magnification? How do the patterns react to different filters? I have really only started.
Pietersite is a type of rock as I described it in my earlier post. This particular sample has about 1000 amazing paintings within it in a couple square inches. The number of images I get from it is really just limited by my time available to sit down and photograph it.
The person I purchased the other stone here from called it Graveyard Point-Regency Rose Plume Agate. It has translucency to it, opening up a variety of possibilities for lighting. Here it is portrayed with some backlight to give it a golden glow. . . One thing these closeups of Agates remind me of are the deep space images we see of nebulas and other gas clouds. . The similarity is quite interesting. . More images have been added to my rock art gallery.
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Well, OK, a couple days belated, but nonetheless, a blogworthy event. There is a wonderful writeup about the history of Photoshop by Jeff Schewe over at Photoshop News, with all sorts of great links and backstory. Photoshop just celebrated its 18th birthday, Camera Raw its 5th, and Lightroom its very 1st. It is quite remarkable that the birthdays of Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom all coincide at the same time, without any forethought about planning them that way. The Digital Cosmos must come into alignment on February 19.
It is also a coincidence that Feb 19 also happened to be the day I downloaded and installed Photoshop CS3 (ie. v10) for Mac on my new MacPro. The user license I originally obtained for 3.5″ floppy disks will finally be changed over.
Reading the articles about the history, I learned that Photoshop has local ties I never knew about. It started in an Ann Arbor, Michigan apartment – where Thomas Knoll started developing it. From there it has grown into a huge industry of seminars, training, books, magazines, plug-ins, and tutorials on doing the same task ten different ways. Who would have thought? Aside from the massive industry it spawned, the generic phrase “Photoshopped” emerged. The program has played a major role in our feelings, interpretations, debates and attitudes towards the photograph and what it represents.
The link above has a lot of fun and interesting information, check it out (Oh – and why the rock photo? Besides just generally being on a rock kick lately, it reminded me of the Big Daddy Photoshop and all the siblings it has spawned :-) ).
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Wow, my first post from a MacPro.. I am kinda teary eyed :) I am still in the process of migrating data and files from my PC and am quite happy with my decision thus far There are some statements from Mac users on various things where it ultimately comes down to “It just works.” I have to say I have had a few of those experiences so far It is pretty obvious that a lot of attention has been given to the entire experience by Apple The first time you turn the computer on you are presented with a little video show saying “welcome” in about 20 different languages in front of a little light show It’s not a big deal, but that small human touch that is nice to see Those small touches are everywhere, and I am seeing that they all add up to the complete experience.
. I am still finding my way around OS X Leopard and trying to adjust to the Mac way of doing things – from determining what programs are running to the unbelievably easy process of installing new applications ”Drag icon to applications folder” are the instructions you see a lot because that is usually all there is to installing a new program As mentioned in the comments of “Part 2″ – the mouse is certainly different I like the little magic ball for scrolling more than a scroll wheel, but hate the right clicking experience of this thing I think Mighty Mouse’s days are numbered.All-in-all a pretty good experience so far No technostress.. it has actually been quite fun.
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