Summer is just slipping away. My fall season hopes to be spectacular this year. I have lots of spots scoped out for portraits. We'll have apple orchards, pumpkin patches, and changing leaves as backdrops. Book early because I began an advertising campaign this week that I hope will keep me busy throughout the fall. I'll be shooting outdoor location portraits for September and October. If you are reading this and don't live in the area, consider coming out here for apple picking and doing a photo shoot with me. I'll be happy to meet you at our local orchards (Honey-Pot Hill, Shelburne Farm, Carver Hill, and One Stack Farm).
Technology-wise, my office/studio/gallery space is all set up. I've enhanced the online previewing capability for clients and this new system seems to be working out better.
Other technology news: yesterday Nikon announced they're finally going to compete with Canon and introduced the D3 (full-frame, FX) and D300 (DX) cameras and a bevy of lenses which will be available before Christmas. Right now I'm on the sidelines. The D300 is a big jump up for sports shooters. The things I care about that make it better than the D200: high ISO performance appears to be much better, 14-bit color depth, better autofocus, UDMA support, and a high resolution 3" LCD. The D3 is a bigger upgrade, but I'll probably wait a year or more for the expected "D3x" which will undoubtedly be a high pixel count full-frame on par with the newly announced 22MP Canon. Your images won't suffer as a result of my waiting. I can still produce stunning 20x30" prints for you with my current gear, processing workflow, and labs. Come to my studio and I will be happy to show you.
Now we're buying school supplies and getting ready for my sister's wedding. I'm still trying to decide whether I'm going to take my cameras. I'm afraid I'll drink too much and forget where I put them, so I'm leaning towards not taking them even though I know I will!
It's closing in on mid-August. I finally sold that Hasselblad kit and was just about to buy an "old" iMac for the bulk of my photo editing, when the new ones got released! So, I got a 20" new iMac that was released the same day I bought it! How's that for a summer Christmas present? And it's not even my birthday or Christmas! The new iMac is sleeker than last year's version. There's a black border around the main screen and the Apple logo is now black. Instead of the all white plastic, it's anodized aluminum and the keyboard is really thin and is aluminum and sports really nice keys. It's upgraded to a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 320MB hard drive, and better graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory. Thank you OWC for letting me upgrade to the full 4GB rather cheaply. For $300 more I could have gotten the 24" model, and part of me was kicking myself. Then I found a lot of discussions about the difference between the two LCD panels and so I went today back to the Apple Store to get the 24" version without paying the restocking fee because the technology for the new 20" screen is inferior to the technology for the old 20" (TNT versus S-IPS). Luckily, the manager let me do it. So, now I have this monster 24" screen. There's also been a bit of discussion on the photography forums about the new glossy versus the old matte finish. For me, since I keep the light down, I don't get much glare and I actually like the colors better on the glossy. My office/studio space is real nice and inviting for clients. I have my keyboard gear there along with my photography gear and some comfortable seating. I rearranged the photos for better display and am had some electrical work done for better image lighting. I'm using track lighting in the office to show off an open-framed 20x30" print, two matted 10x15's, 12x18, 13x19, and 16x20. Half were shot with film, half digital. I like to let people guess which is which. In the hallway, I'm using gimbal-style recessed lights for two 20x30" and one 16x20" canvas gallery wraps shot digitally.