Revisiting and Returning to Lightroom

Adobe can pat themselves on the back for many of the new features they’ve implemented into Lightroom in recent years. I’m thoroughly impressed, especially with their denoise feature. I’ve switched between Lightroom and Capture One throughout the years for various reasons, but now I really appreciate what Lightroom does in terms of digital asset management. I find it much easier to organize, sort, and rename images.

My images live on a large external drive in a RAID array and for some reason Capture One has a problem renaming them, often taking 15+ minutes to rename a group of about 500 images. This only started around the release of Capture One 20. I’ve searched for years for a fix to the issue to no avail. The same group of images in Lightroom takes mere seconds. I think Adobe has a better understanding of software development so optimization for different setups is generally flawless. Although I do love many of the features Capture One affords.

Between the two of them I think the Capture One image looks slightly better but it’s splitting hairs. I prefer the overall experience of Lightroom and will be switching back. Capture One will mainly be used for tethering which I think is still the superior experience between the two programs.. Now if only Adobe would an ability to set custom shortcut keys.

The Trade-In Scam

If Gamestop has taught us anything, it’s that Trade-Ins are a scam.

Best Buy sent me this wonderful bit of marketing material in regards to trading in some old electronics I may not be using. “Trade In and Trade Up” they say. Pictured in the ad is a Nikon Z7 which I purchased from them years ago which cost about $2700 at the time. Now, only a few years later, the trade-in value is $165. Unless I was extremely hard up for money, I would never consider such an offer. I’d just keep the camera and use it at that point.

Companies prey on the ignorance of their customers, presenting their trade-in values as good deals. You’re much better off selling on eBay, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, forums, etc. than to be royally screwed by stores offering some sort of trade. The amount they offer you will be insultingly low versus what you initially paid for it, whether the item is a recent release or years old. If the item cost more than $500, it’s best to sell to someone directly or keep the item. If it’s a cheap item, say under $250, trading in may not be the worst scenario.

Also consider trading in if there’s some sort of offer to increase the trade-in value. In the case of photography, manufacturers often have a special offer where if you trade in your old camera, they’ll give you an additional credit on top of the trade-in value towards the purchase of the new camera. Sony currently has such an offer where they’ll give you an extra $500. That could be a sweet deal if the item you’re trading in has very little worth these days.

But in general, avoid trade-ins. They’re a scam.

In Search of Escapism? Look to the Past

In this dreadful time of nearly every form of American media being infected by politics, short-sighted and often malicious agendas, and altruistic posturing, it can be hard to steer clear of it all. Beloved characters and IP’s being rewritten for “modern audiences”, award shows changing their rules, preachy messages that aim to make you feel bad about nearly everything, and the pandering, oh the pandering.

It’s all so tiring. It makes one ask, “What is even counter-culture anymore? Where did it go?”

So what can you do?

I would say vote with your wallet, but it’s not even about profit for companies that peddle this drivel. They’ve chosen the hill they wish to die on, so I say let them.

Now’s a good time to turn to the past. Consume old media. Old tv shows, movies, music, and books. Oh books! Not some politician’s autobiography that was ghost written by someone else and suspiciously is a New York Times Bestseller even before release. I mean fiction. Stories that spark your imagination and take you somewhere else. Neverland, Narnia, Middle Earth, Hogwarts, etc. Heck, Mars or the Moon.

Literature is perhaps the last bastion of free expression. Probably because most people under the age of 40 don’t read.

Of course, you may not stay as hip to the “current thing” as your peers, but they’ll all be mindless zombies once they connect to those new Apple Vision Pro headsets anyway.

Zeiss Existing the Photography Market?

Rumors swirled recently that Zeiss, one of the industry’s most revered lens manufacturers, may be exiting the consumer photography market. Having only put out a couple of new products in the past several years, I can’t say I’m surprised. While they’ve put out a statement reassuring users they intend to stay in the market, they seem to be reeling from the effects of the pandemic and a rapidly changing photography landscape.

Just speculating, but I believe many companies were already expecting downward shifts in the industry and consumer buying habits to change. New technology on the horizon that makes taking pictures easier via your smartphone, people not being interested in photography as much as before, etc. They probably could see things going downhill years ago, but the pandemic accelerated the decline far faster than they expected.

Like other companies have done in the past(e.g., Samsung), I think Zeiss put out a “relax, everything is okay” statement so there isn’t a panic and people don’t buy up any remaining stock they have on the market. My guess is they’ll play coy for a bit then in about 1-2 years after they’ve determined their exit strategy, they’ll bow out gracefully. They’re an optics company so they have far greater and more profitable ventures they can focus on than making lenses for photography. However, I do see them continuing to make high-end lenses for filmmaking(which probably have a much greater profit margin), but the photography segment is probably no longer viable for them.

It’s sad, but it was only a matter of time. May want to pickup some of their lenses before they’re discontinued.

New Days

Model Staci bringing life to the beach.

Welcome to the new website!

I put a lot of thought in terms of how I wanted to present my work and business going forward. Drastic changes in one’s business should never be arbitrary. While I liked the previous site design, I ran into issues when it came to both organizing and presenting my work. It didn’t feel satisfying to look at nor update for me. The new layout is much better, especially for my work as it allows me to present my images in a larger, more eye-catching manner. It’s a design I’ve used in the past, but now I can include my more refined design sensibilities gained from years of experience. I’ve added a couple of new images, with more to come in the next week. I’m currently retouching a large batch of studio portraits I recently completed. Excited to share those. This also means a lot of older work will get phased out. Out with the old in with the new as they say.

You’ll also notice some changes to the blog. That is, this is the only post so far. I had blog posts dating as far back as 2017 and considered whether or not I should include them in my new direction. Ultimately I decided against it and have since archived all the original posts. This is another case of me being fully committed to the new direction in my career.

To veer off onto a tangent for a brief moment, I think the style of photography blog talking about gear is antiquated. It doesn’t attract the most engaging of readers nor does it result in energetic conversation. That is, unless you do reviews or have a rather controversial opinion about a particular camera brand or another. I find it all tired and dull to speak about, so no more of that here.

I want actual clients and/or people interested in working with me to be the main focus of traffic to the website, so I’m not deliberately courting photographers as an audience. Although, I’m sure there will be the odd nugget of insight for the observant reader.

What will the new blog consist of?

• Work

• My writing

• Project plans and progress updates

• The occasional musing about a subject that interests me (non-photography related usually)

The new format will also be very brief. More of a mini-blog format. There will be very minimal long form content with brevity being the priority.

I’m also doing away with the blog posting schedule. Instead I’ll post when the mood strikes me. Since posts will be smaller, it should allow for more frequent posting overall. Nonetheless, I want to spend more of my days shooting and working on projects than writing for the blog.

For existing readers, I do hope you stick around.

For new readers, welcome.

As for my career, what’s the focus?

High quality, compelling photographs. Interesting people to shoot and to work alongside. Cool locations. And work that I believe in. I’m not chasing brands or trying to appeal to the social media market. I’m doing work I enjoy and working with people that I connect with. I’m also transitioning more into directing, but it’s not something you just jump off the porch and do. Making films takes time, money, and lots of planning. I have a few projects currently in the planning stage and once they’re ready to move into production, I’ll share them here.

Overall, I’m excited for the new direction. The new site design I love and the new work I’m creating has been fun.

That’s a great position to be in.