Well, we’re back. Actually, we have been back about a week now, and I’m still jet-lagged. We pulled in at about eleven o’clock last Tuesday night and I left my house at about twelve-thirty to get to school, sleep, and get to classes the next morning. It sure was fun.
As for the tip, all in all it was wonderful. Vegas is always fun, as usual. However, oddly, I didn’t get out nearly as much this year as I did last year. We did stay an extra week last year, but I also did a lot more in terms of meetings and rehearsals. This year I didn’t attend one single practice, as appose to last year when I attended each and every one. I didn’t go to any press conferences or meetings, save the very last one after Lauren Nelson was crowned Miss America 2007. And yet, despite my admittedly lax schedule, I only went out once, and even then it was only with Shari, my mother’s right-hand gal. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with Shari, I actually had a great time, but I was rather hopeing to get out with some folks my own age, which never really happened. I did hang out on the casino floor with Jr., and made sixty dollars to my fifty. Well… He did anyway. Hopefully I will be returning to hang out with him again. Other than that, I didn’t go to any clubs or bars, besides the frequently occasional drink here, there, and everywhere.
Maybe next year.
In regards to pictures, this year did go quite a bit better than last year. Last year around this time I was still trying to figure what do do with all of my photographs. I had some up on the Miss Maine website, but I hadn’t really done anything with the vast majority of them. It took me over a week and a half to get them on-line, and I lost a good bit of sales that way. This year, I was shooting for a “night-of” release time, which didn’t happen… However, I did quite well. It took me a day to get my keywords set-up, and to get another project out of the way, but 255 keywords later, I was cranking them out and on-line. In the end, I got Thursday nights shots up Saturday, and Friday and Saturday nights shots up Monday evening. The final night (Monday evening), with the crowning, didn’t get up until Wednesday evening… However, all of this was a learning experience.
Compare/Contrast: This year and Last.
The biggest, and most important change, was my on-line host. Last year I was in a hurry, and chose the first host I found with little research, Fotki. Now, Fotki is a wonderful host. They have a wonderful community of photographer, they offer really inexpensive prints on real high-quality paper. However, they are not for the professional. They do not offer image protection, a proofing system, effective use of keywords, featured galleries/prints, and most importantly, watermarks of any kind.
I mention each of these points for a reason. After VERY careful consideration of all my logical options, this year I settled on a service called SmugMug. I could not be happier. SmugMug offers varying levels of image protection, from Original/Large/Medium/Small image restraints, right-click protection, and hot-link protection. This way, no one can get at, or distribute you images, short of pulling it from system cache, or using the “Print-Screen” function (but I’ll get to that in a second). SmugMug also offers a proofing system that delays processing of orders up to 7 days, to allow you to touch up images before sending them off to print. This also allows one to upload smaller, lower resolution prints the first time (for speed) and save uploading the good stuff until its needed. Additionally, their search system is amazing. Now, Fotki may have had this, but it wasn’t highlighted in a way to make use of it. I have tagged every photo with anywhere from a basic 13, to 255 keywords (I could do more, but I couldn’t think of any more). Keywords include the contestants name, hometown, state, their year of reign, the year of this pageant, the location and state of the pageant, the phase of competition, their type of talent, etc. By doing this, anyone can type practically anything into the search bar and get a group of results from the pageant, from a contestants name or state, to the very type of dance performed. SmugMug also lets you feature galleries, as well as individual photos, to highlight a recent event, or a particularly awesome shoot or shot. Most importantly, however, SmugMug allows effective use of watermarks, marking your images (save the original size) with a custom watermark, so that even if one manages to get their grubby little hands on an image, it is clearly marked. Granted, some people can ignore these watermarks an still put them on their shelf, but it is the best that can be done…
Speaking of shelfs, SmugMug’s pricing is very competitive, and they offer everything from wallet prints, poster-sized prints and mugs, to mouse pads, aprons and tote bags. Its actually kind of cool…
So, there is that change, coupled with my new MacBook Pro and Apple Aperture, and I am toasting. Now, if you don’t know the MacBook Pro, suffice it to say, its a workstation in pancake form. Its more than a “Desktop Replacement,” it effectively made my desktop obsolete, and I only built it a little over a year ago, and for a pretty penny too. Raw power aside, the real kicker of the package is Apple’s Aperture, which let me sort through, straighten out, touch up, tag, and upload anywhere from 250 to 500 proofs in a matter of an hour or two. Thats where the real speed came in. Of course, this year I wasn’t even nearly ready for the project in terms of set-up or work-flow, but next year I will be quite well off.
Breaking theme a little, there was one place where I was considerably less prepared than I thought I would be… My camera. Last year I purchased a Konica-Minolta Maxxum 5D body for the 2006 Miss America Pageant, and called it good. I was quite surprised and just how dark the theater at the Aladdin was, and just how soft my images were turning out at maximum aperture. In response, I saved up a god amount of money this past spring, and sprung for two really high-quality f2.8 lenses. The short end doesn’t matter, as I only took 6 money-making shots on the $600 beast, but the long lens was a 70-200mm f2.8 (through and through) APO monster, cashing in at $1,300. It is a WONDERFUL lens under just about every condition, except for my particular conditions at this years Miss America. It was a step down from my 80-300mm f4.3-5.6 of yester-year, and evidently that 100mm is a BIG deal… Out of 1,800 shots total, only 300 shots we’re taken under 100mm, only 47 of which I posted for sale. Of the same 1,800 shots, 1000 were taken at my lenses max of 200mm, 422 of which were posted for sale. To put this into perspective, I only posted 578 shots. Of those at 200mm, a good majority could have used a little extra length. Besides the focal-length issue, it turns out that my camera doesn’t exactly have the best in-camera noise-reduction at ISO 800 either…
Not to say I got no good shots. On the contrary, I got some excellent shots! I just shouldn’t be using an entry-level consumer camera for such things…
So, my goal for next year? Professional camera/lens set-up. I need it. Over the past week I have been really researching the big ones (the great Canon v. Nikon debate) and have come to find the truth, there really isn’t much, if anything, different between the two brands. Actually, Ken Rockwell’s works and musings have really enlightened me in this time of confusion. He is a Nikon man, through and through, but he is not partial like you would assume. Yes, he is partial to Nikkor lenses, but that is because he has been using them for 35+ years. He takes the time to go through both brands, their lenses, their pro’s, and even Nikon’s con’s. Really, his writings haven’t exactly clarified which is best, but what I should be looking for, what I, in my future line of work, will need, and what I should actually be looking for. With that, I have taken those needs and held them against the two brands, and honestly, he may have swayed me towards Canon, something I actually swore against a few years ago. What I have found is that Canon brand bodies and lenses offer the same quality, and a slightly lower price point against Nikon’s offerings. I hove come to find I prefer Canon lenses over that of Nikon, and that the switch to the EOS system didn’t limit Canon’s offerings like I had originally believed it had. Actually, the switch occurred around the same time Nikon added electronic Auto-Focus contacts to their F-Mount, and thus, offers a nearly identical range of usable lenses. Also, it is pointless to use manual focus lenses on a Nikon anyway, because they will lack essential metering functionality that I will need in my field.
In the end, what it all comes down to is how well Fujifilm’s FinePix S5 Pro does over the coming months. I hinge it on the S5 Pro due to its superior color rendition and incredibly wide dynamic range which will be a very big deal as I venture more into portrait and wedding photography, which is inevitable, really… It is a bit slower, with a lower resolution, but the quality of its images is so far above anything Canon has, it could make of break Nikon’s deal (the S5 Pro uses Nikon’s F-Mount lens system). Initially, the S5 Pro will have far to high a price-tag for me, and its low resolution and slow continuous drive mode will be impractical for field work. However, if it shows a significant advance in image quality over the S3 Pro, and Fujifilm shows solid dedication to the F-Mount, I will use it’s impact on the market to buy a D200 (here and here) on the cheep. Which is probably a better idea over the Canon 30D (here and here) anyway, although I am kind of fond of Canon’s lenses over Nikon’s…
One thing that really chapped my hide in Vegas, was NAMASP and the Habitat for Humanity project. I have nothing agains NAMASP as a organization, as a matter of fact, I have many friends in their ranks. All I have an issue with is their payment methods. They contracted me out to shoot a volunteer project they were organizing preceding the big Pageant about a month previous. We negotiated a cost of $300 dollars, and I agreed to provide 60 DVD slide shows the Monday following the event (four days later) and provide the photos for on-line purchase. As any normal person would, I assumed payment would come due upon completion and distribution of the 60 DVD slide shows. When I finally asked about payment that Monday, I was referred to the president (whom was busy and would be for the rest of the day) and informed that I would need to provide a bill to the board, which would then need to be approved at the next meeting before a check would be mailed to me nearly two months later… None of which was mentioned upon agreement of the job…
So that was fun…
Besides that, everything went great…
Anyway, thats whats been on my mind as of late. Getting the photos out, touching up the ones that have sold (only $200 worth thus far), and keeping up with school. Honestly, I am surprised you read this far. The photos as part of this post, and many more, are available for sale at my site, Cover This Photography, on the cheap. Enjoy.
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