Garrett Ross Photography
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Best of 2011
Just wanted to note a few “best of” items for me for 2011:
Favorite Book: Unbroken - Hillenbrand
Favorite Book Series: Mitch Rapp series by Vince Flynn - great mental escape and I’m into my 5th of the series.
Favorite Learning Book: Sketching Light - Joe McNally
Most Inspirational Book: Steve Jobs - Isaacson - his life was just too impactful for what I currently do even though the book could have been a lot better.
Favorite Movie: Crazy Stupid Love. I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t see a lot of great movies in 2011 - or really a lot of movies in general. It was a busy year. But this one was a pleasant surprise.
Favorite Kid Movie: Kung Fu Panda 2- I have to include this now as I see way too many of them, or at least parts of them. And this one blew Cars 2 away.
Favorite Song: Secrets - One Republic
Favorite New Group: Angus and Julia Stone
Favorite Camera: Nikon D3S. Hands down still the most incredible camera I have had a chance to use.
Favorite lens: 70-200 2.8 (Notice I didn’t say favorite lens to carry around. A close 2nd and 3rd is the 24-70 2.8 and 85 1.4).
Favorite Editing software - NIK filters - Had to include these into the editing arsenal this year and I use a lot of them now along with Lightroom and Photoshop.
Biggest Editing Failure - Wacom tablet. I need to sell this thing as I still have not fallen in love with it. I just don’t get the passion that so many editors have for this thing.
Favorite New Technique - It’s close between HDR and Light Painting, but I’m going to have to go with HDR as it is more practical and it made me buy more gear (another tripod).
Favorite trip: Nags Head Beach trip with the fam
Favorite work trip: New York - there were a lot of good ones up there but the best was when I had half a day to explore.
Favorite photo shoot: Sunrise shoot on the beach. Hey, I’m just proud that I got myself up that early - and oh yeah, I was on the beach.
Favorite date with Ellen: Anniversary date - I have to admit that I need to do more dates, major failure from this past year. But on this date we got to think back and laugh a bit on the past 11 years of marriage while we walked along the water in Yorktown.
Favorite memory of Will: There are plenty to choose from but going to the beach at Nag’s Head and boogie boarding with him had to be the best. He could not stop laughing and he did not want to get out of the water.
Overall, 2011 was a good, growing, and exciting year. At some point I’ll try to post 2-3 of my favorite photos from the year. Hope everybody had a nice 2011. I’ll also try to post a few goals for the new year soon. -
Instagram review…
Every once in a while on this blog I review a tool, lens, or piece of software that is related to photography that I use. I actually avoided using Instagram for quite a while. Maybe it was that purist part of me that figured if I was taking a picture, I should take it with a good camera and a good lens. After all, what would I ever end up really doing with a 612x612 px image?
But I gave in and decide to try it out. Now, I have given several iPhone camera apps a try, but I honestly say that I think I finally found one that will stick. Especially now that I have a great way to view and follow others on the desktop (more on this next week). I am truly enamored with what the Instagram folks have put together.
I once read that limitations provide freedom. And that is where true creativity takes place. This is what makes Instagram special to me. It is literally like going back to the polaroid camera. Capture moments. Capture elements of interest. And for kicks, give it a quick style, like a lomo camera, to just wet your appetite a bit while you are on the go.
Chase Jarvis coined the phrase “the best camera is the one with you”. I now find myself capturing more moments when I don’t have my nice camera with me. And to be able to participate in a community that is focused on this is pretty cool.
Benefits:
- Always with you
- Fun and easy editing styles
- Great online community
- Easy to post to Tumblr, FB, Twitter, etc…
- Great for outings with family
- Great for documenting trips/events and sharing with friends an family
- Silent shutter - I actually liked taking pictures during a presentation because of this.
- Looks to have a great future
- It is free
Drawbacks:
- File size (would love to have a larger generated image- but I understand why they haven’t done it yet.)
- Didn’t have a way to easily access images on the desktop (we’re fixing that though)
- No cropping on a photo (but again, I kind of like this at the same time)
- Those who don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch can’t have it
So give Instagram a try. You might just find a new little hobby.
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Photography Tools - Software Frustrations
One of the biggest challenges for a photographer is having the right tool and then knowing how to use it well. What are the photographer’s tools? Primary tools are: the camera, lenses, flashes, computer, and software. Granted, you could add in radio poppers, modifiers, reflectors, tri-pods, etc… but the primary ones are in that first group.
To run a successful photography business, you have to have good tools and you have to have sufficient knowledge on how to use those tools well. The frustrating thing can arrise when you commit yourself to a tool, you then become dependent on it. You expect it to work consistently the same over and over again. Being a good photographer is about being efficient - and steady tools provide that balance and stability. The problem comes up when a tool stops working like you expect it to.
From that primary list, the one that is most out of your control is the software tool. There are two primary pieces of software that I depend very heavily on: Photoshop and Lightroom. Over the last couple of years, I have grown accustomed to expect consistent results to achieve the look I am after time and time again. But now, Adobe is making it more difficult to consider these primary tools. The last two updates of Photoshop have not been good ones. More and more stability issues, primary features don’t change much, but menus, and core application functionality is getting worse and more and more unstable on the mac platform. And Lightroom… it is like they all of a sudden dumped a truckload of elephants into it. Ten times slower than the previous version and my catalogs are relatively small. It is probably the worst update to a piece of software that I have ever used. They took something good and have crippled it’s primary functionality - speed. Integration with Photoshop and speed were the primary reasons I picked it over Aperture in the first place.
The problem is that I love a lot of things about those two different software packages. I don’t necessarily want to begin finding an alternative solution. It looks like Solid State Drives might be a potential answer for speed - but again, that is now another tool and will require more time and money to set up. So Adobe, please get your act together. Please stop bloating Photoshop with crap, especially your flash menu system - it is terrible and only makes you look bad. And with Lightroom - just focus on speed. I don’t care about slideshows, web, video, and printing ability. We want speed. Please.
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