I always get mixed feeling very time I hear, read and watch news and editorial media corporations talk about the state of the industry. For one - I know they are right. The expectation that consumers have to get free content over the internet has eroded the budget of all news rooms and valued editorial services. 90% of all quality news reporting comes from less than 8% of the news outlets out there... That is because there are very few outlets that invest in investigative and quality journalism whereas the other outlets are reactionary (they just jump to the scene of the news and report on it). This has lead to the layoff of editors, photojournalist and the overall staffing of the news room... because we as consumers do not differentiate between the New York Times (who might had invested time and money to bring you the news) and CNN who picked up the story and is reporting it life - 24/7 with a sexy cast, holograms and their tiring and frustrating habit to interview themselves because there is no one better (or no one available). Read More...

This is what I expect from the Apple iPad...

1 - It WILL revolutionize the editorial industry. Sure - the print industry and editorial industry already use new media to communicate and present information to the masses, but if you thought that adopting it on a computer or a phone was going to take it mainstream - wait until the iPad does. There are many newspapers and magazines already working on what they think the new format will be and once they have figured it out (and the price of the hardware decreases) the delivery model WILL change. By making it acceptable to download an application - the ability to charge for the content will be easier. This is because we are now been educated to pay for content delivery. Take a look at the iPhone (or any other smart device). People pay for an application to deliver the same free and available content on the internet to their mobile devices. How many Wikepedia, IMDB or even Twiter applications are there on the platform? The ease of interaction adds value to the content. People will like this content and I think this will be a great platform to deliver it.

2 - As the platform changes - so does the content. Still images will no longer be the primary means of visual communications in editorial or commercial content. It has changed already so a small degree - but as adoption to new media moves forwards (and with the changes in the photo industry, with DSLRs producing top quality video) I can see all Photo Journalist and commercial photographers adding video to their core offering. Shooting stills and video will be the future for all of us if we want to participate in this revolution.

3 - The iPad has one benefit and one downside - The hardware is well above any one else’s. The touch screen from the iPhone/iTouch series is far more responsive and far more sensitive than the competition. It is sleek, the UI is well composed for the finger use, but the approval process for application and content is less democratic that people would want. While I like this state (keeps a lot of junk away) it also shuts the doors to people who want to express more than allowed on this platform. My prediction - the iPad will be hacked. Unlike the phone, this hack could just expand possibilities to the platform adding more interest.

4 - I see one day shooting thedered, where I can shoot with the camera and via WiFi have the images displayed on a couple of tablets. So I can hand out two or 3 displays and they can sit out from the crowed monitor to see the shoot.. That is a year or two away...

In any event - I do see the iPad taking the printed media to places that it has struggled to get on their own... Only hope they don’t screw it up...

I recently attended a fashion workshop at Pikto, which is by far - my favourite printing house. Pikto is a cool, trendy, efficient and proficient printing outlet for professional and amateur photographers alike. I can rent a workstation, sip on some coffee and print my images in a trendy, relaxed setting that no other printing house offers... It's a model I have come to enjoy and in fact - surprised that no more people have tried to replicate.

They also have workshops... many technical and photography related workshops are offered geared on helping you become a better photographer.

I recently attended the Fashion Workshop at the end of Feb. It was a present from my best friend and a great present it was... unfortunately I found the material a little lacking. The programme was not followed and it felt short on many, many of the selling/marketing points that the workshop is based on. There was little structure to the workshop and it turned into a painful experience. The workshop was marketed to those who already shoot.. its their “pro” workshop but we found ourselves learning the basics of lighting - no “pro” material here... It wasn’t my only opinion either - had many other participants thought the same thing. It was just not well organized... I shot 17 frames... (while others literally filled their cards - to the point I had to lend a CF card out to a participant while clearing the first card on his laptop) could not contain the boredom. It was just a painful experience.

Very disappointed. In fairness - Pikto offered me a free workshop when I came to them with my views of the effort, but I politely declined. As I said before, its my favourite printing house and I din’t want to experience another disappointing workshop as that would ruin for me the rest of my printing experience. Hope it improves in the future.

Well - it was bound to happen. The “Storage” issue hit me again late 2009. As my photography and consulting business continues to produce data, the need to store, access and archive this data grows with it. Even on the home front... the amount of data I collect for iPhotos and iTunes alone - its over the terabyte long.

The problem is that the tools, the media and the rest of the industry is not keeping up with this demand... This is why companies like Data Robotics (the makers of Drobo) are doing so well. The use of magnetic spinning disk (which has been the solution for this long period of time - its essentially the same technology we have had for the last 40 years when introduced in 1956) is not the future. SSDs are still too small and too expensive - and I think that for SSD a new interface would be required for future growth. Do not count on SATA III to come to the rescue, these drives can saturate these channels very quickly. Backup devices are slow, small and expensive - leaving most users to up for doubling the number of spinning drives as a backup solution.

Meanwhile, we need to manage our data and wait for the next technology to appear. I could not wait and had to update my storage needs before 2009 ended... So I had to do a bit of research and figuring out what to use for the time being... The problem is that current and decent RAID systems for small-to-medium businesses have a lot of leave desire. Read More...

I will never go back to a spinning hard drive... wow....

After installing an Intel X25-M SSD (Solid State Drive) on my Mac Pro - I came to realize that this was the single most performance effective purchase that I have made after my computer. I had seen videos of laptops booting up - and other tricks (like launching all the applications all at once) trying to show off the speed these drives add to your computer. Trying it for yourself is a really cool experience. It really impressed me and my (less than a year old) 09 Mac Pro seems like a brand new and much faster machine. The computer just flies... but I have come to learn, there are specific considerations to be given - not only to the SSD but on how to install it, configure it and using it on your Mac Pro. Read More...