Paean to an ancient camera. Kodak, please come back to us.

This is Missy.  I swim with her.  I also cast her in a series of photographs of athletes for Austin Sports Medicine.  This was shot back in 2003 or 2004.  It's one of my favorite advertising images for a number of reasons (not the least of which was quick payment by the client).  We were shooting on one of those obnoxiously bright days and we were in the middle of a little league baseball field.  I used a 3/4 stop silk on a frame just over the top of Missy to cut the direct light of the Summer sun.  You can see one of her knuckles sticking out into the sunlight but miraculously still holding detail!!!!  I used a small white reflector near the camera to pop just a little front fill onto Missy.  The way the camera handled the giant range between the sun drenched clay field, the tree line and the sky is amazing.  And the other amazing thing is that this image (and other from the same shoot) was blown up and used on posters and looked sharp and rich.

It was shot on the Kodak DCS 760, a six megapixel camera.  I used the Nikon 80-200 2.8 zoom lens.  And, importantly, I used the camera with only the UV filter in place, not the optional anti-aliasing filter. And I think that had a lot to do with the detail the file yielded.

Would my Canon 5D Mk2 do as well?  From a resolution point of view?  Yes.  Probably much better.  But from a tonality and rich color point of view?  Maybe yes.  Maybe no.

For a while this was my favorite camera.  And then I got lured away by the Nikon D2x and the promise of high sharpness and higher resolution.  Silly me.

This image was shot at the Austin Kipp School and used in an annual report for the school.  It was lit by one large softbox (54 by 72 inches) using a one Profoto Monolight and placed just out of the frame.  There is no fill.  I used the light in such a way that it mimicked the light coming into the window and across the white board behind.  A month later I went to a luncheon honoring the school's donors.  They decided to take all of the images I'd shot for the annual report and blow them up into four foot by six foot posters.  Austin Photo Images took 16 bit raw files I made for them (unsharpened) and made LightJet prints.  I almost fell over when I saw them at the luncheon venue.  I hadn't tried printing many of the early digital images much larger than 12 by 18 inches and had no idea that, in the right hands, they could be blown up so large and retain so much detail.  And with so little noise!

The camera?  Once again it was the Kodak DCS 760.  And again, the 80-200mm Nikon zoom.

I had occasion in the same year to do big enlargements with the Nikon D2x and, to be honest, the results were not nearly as good.  There was more pixelation, less sharpness.

You would think I would have trusted this camera and continued using it but there was the almost universal drum beat consensus that all digital cameras should be able to handle high ISO settings without noise and with more grace.  The DCS 760 was beautiful at ISO 80 and 100 but beyond that it generated enough blue channel noise to make your eyes go crazy.  And it was impossible to really remediate with Noise Ninja or its competitors.  A succession of cameras followed.  All worked okay but none really made such a convincing and robust file.  To be fair,  I did shoot them at ISO like 200 (a must on Nikons) and even up to 1600 on a Fuji S5, and while the noise was better.......well.....maybe it was a nostalgia for the early days......

At any rate, as I collected more and more cameras whose files were easier to process, whose batteries lasted days or weeks longer than the Kodak batteries, whose LCD screens were actually usable, the Kodak(s) ended up in a drawer in the gear cabinet, unused.

I thought about getting rid of them lately and I pulled them out of the drawer and fired them up.  The ancient NiMh batteries spit out ten or fifteen frames before dying.  I couldn't sell them to anyone like that.  So I hit Amazon.com and started looking for replacement batteries.  What once cost $125 each was now replaceable for around $30.  I bought a couple batteries thinking they would help me find a willing buyer for the whole package.  Then I made the mistake of putting a CF card in the adapter that fit into the PCMCIA slots that were part of the camera's "early days" design.

And I went for a walk around town.  Actually, I started in our kitchen and shot the plates in a drying rack.  And then I moved to downtown.  I couldn't tell what I was getting during the day because of the dismal screen but when I came home and processed them I was amazed at how different the files look that those I get from my Canons or those I got from my Nikons.  The color was richer without being overly saturated.  And the tonality was amazing.  Very long tones.  Very smooth transitions.

A gracefulness that belies the ancient technology.

I'm putting the camera back into service in the studio.  I'm using it to shoot portraits.  Not with little battery powered units but with big Elinchrom monolights pumping photons through giant Octabanks and layers of diffusion.  I love the style and the look and I'll be showcasing some of the portraits here. 

While some technical factors work to obsolete some technologies I think we just didn't understand how advanced Kodak's grasp of imaging technology was and how well it was informed by over a century of making film.  I wish they would re-enter the market with their sensors and their electronic pathways.  It would give us more choices, and perhaps better ones than we have at hand right now.  Wouldn't it be cool if you could choose which sensors you wanted in the camera body you wanted?

I'd love a Kodak sensor (like the one in the Leica M9) planted right in the middle of a Canon 1dMk4 body.  That would rock.

Kodak DCS 760 with Nikon 50mm 1.1.2 Lens.

Luddite thinking?  Not hardly.  I've used and owned newer cameras.  At some point you need to acknowledge that for some steps forward there can always be a few steps back to accomodate the changing tastes of the market.  We've talked about wanting dynamic range and long tonal range for years.  Now if we could just wean ourselves off the megapixel buffet table........

KRT_6528

KRT_6528, a photo by KirkTuck/photo on Flickr.

It's getting hot here in Austin and now I'm nostalgic for the low 90's that we had during Eeyore's birthday party a few months ago. This was done with the Zeiss 50mm 1.4 and the Canon 1Dmk2n. What a wonderful combination.

Changing Gears. A brief blog about marketing for local photographers.

I just got off the phone with a dear friend who started a landscaping business here in Austin, last year.  She's doing okay with her business but like most of us she needs a stream of new clients to keep her business going and growing.  She'd like every client to be a big client  but we were talking about how human nature really works and after mulling it over for a while we settled for doing marketing the way big companies do when courting consumers.  We like the classic model of retail marketing.

The biggest obstacle companies of every size face is getting someone to effect initial trial.  To take active steps to work with your company the first time.  To make the move to buy your product the first time.  And there's a lot of logic to the customer's resistance.  Most things people spend money one aren't really necessities.  If your product (photographs) or service (photography) isn't in the same category as food, shelter and electricity they've probably done okay without it for a long time.  If your client is an ongoing business, like an advertising agency or marketing department within a company, they probably already have a trusted supplier or a list of referred suppliers.  Something may have changed in their situation and you've showed up on their radar as someone who can potentially  add value for them.

The customer may have determined that they'd really like to hire a photographer for their daughter's wedding.  The ad agency may need some photographs for a series of ads.  But there are doubts that you'll need to overcome to get the work.

Since the clients have never worked with you before they will have doubts.  Will they like the final image?  Will it be worth the money they have to spend?  Will you be able to deliver?  If the need is timely, are you reliable?  Will they enjoy the time they'll need to spend with you to make the job work?
Their fears as retail customers are:  Will I get what I'm paying for?  Will I like what I get?  Could I spend this money on something else and have a better emotional reward? (Better cake.  More flowers.  Nicer food. Cooler dress.)

For the responsible party at the ad agency or marcom dept. the emotional reticence is the same.  Will this supplier be able to deliver a good product?  Are they reliable?  Will we get our monies' worth?  And the fears sound something like this:  If this supplier messes up will I lose credibility with my client?  Will I lose the trust of my employer or supervisor?  Will we have time to pursue other options if this doesn't work?

Having never worked with you before all these responses are a natural part of the divining process.  On some level people hate to make bad purchases because it calls their competence into question.  I firmly believe that online product research will (or already has) outstrip porn sites in our society because people are so determined to check in with everyone else and to research each purchase in detail.

So, how do you handle getting in the door?  I'd suggest that you do it by finding a product or service your business supplies that has a low purchase cost and a very high probability for success and offering that product or service to customers first.  The price has to be low enough so that, in the event of perceived failure, the client isn't afraid of taking a risk.  You'll need to finding a pricing inflection point at which your offering value potentially outweighs the risks involved in buying it.

In my business it's the head shot or business portrait.  In the coffee business it's a small cup of coffee.  For a camera company it's 4x6 inch color prints.  I price my in studio commercial headshot sessions at $250.  This includes the sitting, a web gallery for selection and the retouching and digital delivery of a file (in three sizes) for their use in public relations and promotion.  When business slows down I'll have a sale and provide the same service for $199.

Starbucks often introduces new products by sending out coupons for a free, small serving of the product.  It takes away the "what if I don't like it?" fear.  My favorite camera store will do give aways of prints that only require that you come into their store with a coupon.  Starbucks assumes that most people who try their product (and their service and store environment) will like it and come back for more.  They've removed all the risk for you to try them.  The camera store has provided an incentive for people who are interested in photography to come in and check out their store.  They'll assume you've never been to such a good photo retailer, that you'll be impressed by their prices and their knowledgeable staff and that you'll enjoy the experience enough to make them one of your vendor's.

I know that most companies won't blink at spending $199 to get a great marketing image of one of their important employees and I hope they'll have a positive experience with me, with my delivery and with the image.  And to back that up, if they don't like what they see in the galleries, we offer a money back guarantee.  If you aren't happy with my work I'll refund your money or reshoot you for free.  Your choice.  Once they are in the studio they'll see nice work on the walls.  They'll see how I handle portrait sittings and they'll see how well people respond to their new portrait.  They get to see us in action.  They get to see the result for a low financial risk.  We've found the inflection point and used it to get them to effect trial.

Now, when they return to Starbucks they'll feel more confident about their chances for satisfaction if they order a larger, more expensive treat.  Having been treated well and having gotten wonderful color prints on their first visit, the camera store customer will feel more at home coming back to talk to an "expert" about a new lens or camera.  And now that they've had a good experience getting their portrait done at a good price (with great service) they'll feel a lot more confident talking to me about a bigger project.  With a bigger budget.

Each interface with a customer gives you the potential to strengthen the relationship (or kill it).  But in each step you have the opportunity to make them feel smart about their original decision to buy.  And that's the crucial decision for your business.

Consultants in our business love to talk about getting in the door at Nike or a big ad agency in New York but in reality only a small percentage of photographers will play in that rarified arena.  The rest of us need to understand how to work, survive and thrive in second tier markets and with normal, day-to-day clients.  Getting that first yes is critical.  It's the stepping stone to bigger and bigger projects.  And it's the financial foundation for organic growth.

So, when we got into the subject of landscaping we talked about the current reality of central Texas.  We're in the middle of a severe drought.  There's water rationing in many areas.  And the big trees on our properties are starting to be affected, not just the lawns.  And a big tree can add $50,000 to the value of good properties so it's important to do what's possible to keep the trees healthy.  A simple step is to surround the base of your trees with mulch so that when you deep water them the mulch holds in much of the precious moisture for the tree to use.  We decided that people will be slow to add new plants or undertake big landscape projects during the worst of the drought but they would have a keen interest in taking care of their trees.  My friend is putting together an offer to "remediate" effects of the dry weather on the trees by enriching the soil and putting down a healthy mulch spread, with a ringed dam, to retain water and help the trees use it efficiently.

She's determined to keep the cost per tree low.  She'll offer the service to her existing clients and target new people within her target market with a simple mailed card.  The cost point will be negligible compared to the value of the trees.  And the people in the demographic she markets to would much prefer using this service instead of sourcing mulch, transporting it and then working in the 100+ degree heat.  She'll also put together a little paper about proper tree watering as a "leave behind" piece.

Given that bigger landscaping projects can run into the tens of thousands of dollars or more getting people to effect a first trial is a great way to build the business.  It may be basic marketing but I get the sense that most people are looking for the big splash in their marketing and that may just be counter productive.  Fish in a good stream before going out after whales.  It's all about sustainability.  In landscaping and in photography.

Hope you are having a cool, fun, happy Sunday.   I'm heading out to buy some mulch.

P.S.  Once you've gotten someone to try your photos, your mulch, your coffee or your prints be sure to drop them a nice, handwritten note and tell them how much you appreciate their business.  You wouldn't be in business without them.

Creating your own background. Making your own art.

I wanted a cool, warm background for a photo I was working on of four women in wild, bling, "art bras."  I'd be photographing them in a group and wanted something just......crazy....as a background.  So I dropped by the art supply store and bought a square canvas and came home for a little painting session.  Red, with tinges of black mixed in, as a background for warm yellow.  Now, this is just a starting point.  Once you've pulled the background into PhotoShop the sky is the limit.  I played with the background until I ended up with something I really liked and then I tested it by throwing in my favorite singer/actor/model: Selena.  The final background is the result of some motion blur, a couple of filters in Topaz Adjust (Photoshop plug-in) and some quick selection moves.  Nothing fancy compared to what I'm sure most of my readers are capable of doing.  But the cool thing is the idea that you can paint your own backgrounds for just about anything.

I'd show you the Art Bra finished piece but I need to wait on that until the people print it in their calendar.  It's wonderful to have a studio, no matter how small or rough.  At least you'll have a place where you can splash paint around without people fussing.  And you can sit in front of your computer and write blogs while the dog sits at your feet and looks at you adoringly.  Not bad.

Gaussian Blur.

Saturation and motion blur.

Just Plain Nasty.

I went through four Profoto Acute B batteries in three hours today.

I agreed to do something I've never done before.  My kid is a swimmer for the mighty Rollingwood Waves swim team.  Every year they line up whatever kids want to participate and do a portrait of each one with the pool in the background.  They also round up all the kids and do group photos by age group.  In the past they hired someone to do this for a set price.  The photographer would deliver a 4x6 inch print of the individual swimmer and a 5x7 inch print of the age group the kid swims with, in a little presentation folder,  for somewhere around $20 per kid.  They've asked me if I wanted to do this in years past but it's not a niche in photography that I have any expertise in and I was usually too busy so I always declined.  This year the parents asked again and I decided to go ahead and do the job.  I figured 20 or 30 kids would sign up for the individual photos and I didn't have a lot on the calendar anyway.  Maybe I'd make enough money to buy a couple bags of groceries.

So I loaded the car with a Profoto 600b power pack, a head, a 28 inch beauty dish with a front diffusion sock, a heavy duty stand, a thirty pound sandbag, my wooden Berlebach tripod, a Canon 7D and a 24-105L series lens.  I also had 100 sign-up sheets that Belinda designed for me the night before.  I brought along 4 batteries for the Profoto set up.

The shoot happened at 8:30 this morning so I left the house at 6:45, dropped by Starbucks for a coffee and a scone (intending to enjoy them later......) and then headed to my masters swim workout at 7:00.  After workout I unloaded the car and had everything set up and ready to go at 8:30.  When I looked up there was a line of moms and dads and kids and they were clutching the sign-up forms and their checkbooks and jockeying for position.  I had a volunteer assistant who took the paperwork, accepted their checks and helped line up the kids.

The way I organized myself was to have the kid (or parent) write the swimmer's name really big across the sign-up sheet.  Then I would take a test shot of each kid with the sheet in front of him/her.  That way I'd be able to identify any of the kids I didn't know by sight. (Keep in mind that I've been photographing some of these kids every Summer for the last ten years and all of them for the last four swim meets.)  As a failsafe I had a blank on the form called, "reference frame" and I'd call out the starting frame to my assistant and have them jot it in.

Long story curtailed.  I started making portraits at 8:30 and didn't look up or have time to grab my coffee from the car until 11:30.  We shot nearly 180 people, five group and over 800 total frames.  I was twenty shots into my fourth Profoto battery when the last person came through the line.  Nice to be able to click the box off, pull the battery out, shove another one in and get to work in less than a minute.  An hour into the shoot I had to have a parent make an emergency called to Belinda the Designer to bring more sign-up forms.  Thanks goodness she was near the studio.....

The flash was remarkably consistent and the beauty dish with diffusion was just right.  I was exhausted by I had a blast.  The previous photographer shot film and took one frame per person.  If you know anything about the way I shoot you'll know that's not the way we rolled today.  We shot until we got a genuine smile.  That meant a lot of photographer silliness: growling, howling, giggling, jumping up and down and generally acting about five years old.  You know, the same kind of thing we have to do to get CEO's not to look to stiff.

The battery pack system was the way to go.  We used it at almost full power to achieve parity with the sun.  The recycle was three seconds.  Since I used a radio trigger to fire the flash we had NO cables on the ground.  Nothing to trip over.  Nothing for the five year olds to play cowboy with.

I'll send digital files out to the lab.  Wait patiently for my folders to arrive and charge the camera batteries for the swim meet tomorrow night.

In the meantime I'm cleaning up the studio.  I got volunteered to do an art photo for the Breast Cancer Resource Center's annual Art Bra Calendar project.  I've got three or four people coming over to the studio in a couple of hours to model artist's "art bra" creations.  Should be a fun evening.  I don't know what to expect but that's never been an impediment before.

I'm starting to think of my life as........interesting.