A follow up to Apple Mac by Kafka.

The Good

Applications bought on iTunes could be downloaded again. This was nice as I had just paid about 20 bucks for the Japanese Ap. that works as a great English/Japanese dictionary.

I easily reinstall the applications Soundslides, iVCD and Earthdesk via downloads from the web. Happily I still had all the license codes. To get Fetch again I needed to upgrade to the latest version for a few bucks, but that too is now up and running.

The Bad

Photoshop CS3 install disk doesn’t run. In a bizarre twist it looks like CS3 is compatible with Snow Leopard but it seems that the tiny little program that installs the program isn’t. Adobe doesn’t support CS3 anymore. Supposedly there are no problems with CS4. I bite the bullet and order a CS3 to CS4 upgrade from Adobe. (I realize this is rewarding bad behavior).

No longer have the CD or code for Word for Mac. Go out and buy copy of Microsoft Office for Mac 2008. Get home, put disc in machine. Machine spits it out. Need to finish writing a The Traveling Photographer article so download trial of iWork. “Pages” seems to be a pretty good word processor, just need to remember to save as  .doc before mailing anything to an editor.

The Ugly

CS4 upgrade pack arrives. Happily open box insert install DVD, computer whirrs then spits out DVD.

Deodeo phones to say my  external hard drive has returned from I-O Data fixed and clean (empty) as a whistle.

Connect external hard drive and let it backup about 500 GB of data.

Talk to Apple Care. They suggest to try the CS3, CS4, and Microsoft Office for Mac discs in another Mac to see if it was a problem with each disk. (I resist the urge to point out that if there is a one in a thousand chance of a particular install disc being faulty, for it to happen to all three discs would be one in a billion.) Drive over to house of fellow Mac Pro user, photographer Aviva Bowman, discs work fine on her computer.

Talk to Apple Care again. They say they’ll send a shipping box right away. Couriers will pick  up my computer tomorrow, take it back to Apple and they’ll sort out the problem.

The Good (I realize I’ve used this already, but it’s nice to end on a positive note)

Drink mug of tea and look on the bright side of life.

Didn’t lose any significant information, but learned a valuable lesson about backing up data.

I had purchased the extended 3 year Apple Care plan so if there are any faults with the Superdrive they’re covered.

Bear, my labrador, just peed outside on the grass rather than inside on the floor. Hoorah.

There seems to be an endless number of books, magazines and Internet forums discussing the latest camera equipment. There are fewer places to get information about actually taking photographs, even fewer with regards to printing those photos, and hardly any giving advice about putting on an exhibition.

Over the past two years I’ve had my first 4 exhibitions. It has been a real learning experience, from the initial stages of working out how I am going to produce the prints to finally sitting in a room watching other people stare at my photographs. There are many things I know now that I wish I had been aware of a couple of years ago. They may be obvious to some, but I thought I would share these little nuggets of wisdom.

Time

Do not underestimate the amount of time it will take. If you are putting on a solo show with numerous prints life is going to be busy!  For example, I thought it would be quite simple to frame all the prints by myself. It did, however, take an average of about 2 hours a picture and with 24 prints it became a huge job. Some galleries also expect you to be present during the entire show. And although it’s very enjoyable meeting interesting people, it involves a lot of days spent in a room when you might rather be out traveling or taking photographs.

Listen

If you are at the gallery the entire time it provides a fantastic opportunity for feedback. Some conversations were about what I could do better (see labels and height), others were advice on great places I should visit in the future. When I asked visitors which photograph was their favorite the results were fascinating and quite unexpected. The vast majority of Japanese men liked “Into the mist”, while the Japanese women were far more enamored with the photographs of either Fuji or the snow monkeys. The Geisha / Maiko photograph although very popular with western visitors was of far less interest to Japanese. I was pleased that this range of choices validated my decision to show a diverse selection of photographs. An entire exhibition of bridge photographs might have had a tighter artistic theme, but then I would have missed out on the conversation with the elderly lady who pointed at my print of a deserted Okinawan beach and explained how she had visited the exact same place sixty years earlier.

Labels

There should be clear labels that tell the visitor exactly where the photograph was taken, and even better a description of how you took the photograph. Labels should be printed large as a surprising number of the people who visit galleries are older and don’t want to be straining their eyes looking at small typeface.

Height

Hang the prints at the correct height for the average viewer, not yourself. Otherwise (if you are six foot foreigner in rural Japan) you may have people balancing on their toes trying to see them.

To sell or not to sell?

Some galleries are display only, others will happily sell your prints and take a commission, while others will vary the cost of renting the gallery space depending on whether you are displaying or selling. I chose to display only for three of the four exhibitions, but handed out business cards to anyone who enquired about prints.

Advertise

You may have the most amazing selection of photographs but if nobody knows about your exhibition you are only going to get a few random visitors who happened to be passing by. It is worth talking with the gallery to find out how much if any advertising they are willing to do for your exhibition. Of course tell family and friends, but also consider contacting local newspapers to let them now about the event. The key here is to do it in advance so that hopefully you will get mentioned in the paper on the first rather than the last day of the exhibition.

Guest books

Guest books are vital way of staying in touch with visitors who come to your exhibition. It is essential therefore that as well as a name and comment you get an email address or a full mail address. That way you can thank them for attending and / or let them know when your next exhibition will be held. (It will be a little tricky to do this if all they write is John Smith – Nevada.)

Portfolio

At my second exhibition I put out a small file with some tear sheets from various magazines that have used my photographs. It turned out to very popular, people could sit down and look through the pictures and spot which of the ones that had been in magazines were now up on the wall.

Real Art

Putting on an exhibition is a wonderful way to show everyone your work and hopefully most people will be full of praise. It is unlikely, if not impossible, however that praise will be universal. What surprised me was that there is still a certain snobbery by some gallery patrons that photography is not “real art,” or that real photographs are black and white, not color.

Once you embrace the fact that your can’t please everyone, (or that some can’t be pleased at all) it is much easier to concentrate on following your own artistic vision.

Just had an interesting email which shows the importance of watermarking your images.

Photograph by Chris Willson (not Youko Maeda!)

The webmaster of a model / photographer  website contacted me saying that he was suspicious of a new member’s application. The new member, a photographer named “Youko Maeda” from “Hawaii”, uploaded some examples of her photographs (including the one above)  all of which had  TRAVEL 67 watermarks on them. The webmaster decided to visit www.travel67.com found out the photographer was a Chris Willson and not a Youko Maeda and got in touch. The new member’s application has been denied, hopefully thwarting some dirtbags plans.

A simple watermark gives potential clients or customers the ability to find who the owner of the copyright is, and hopefully dissuades others from stealing your work.

Having said that people can still crop or photoshop watermarks away. This is one of the reasons why I don’t have huge images on the web.  I once got an “Okinwan Souvenir” on Facebook of some Taketomi Island star sand. Ironically the tiny gift image had been taken from my website by the application creator without my permission. I contacted the creator, Fernando Nakasone, but got no reply. Whether this was incompetence or maliciousness I don’t know but it is another reminder that photographers need to protect their work.

Over the last year I’ve talked about a few inspirational photography books on my bookshelf. This time, I thought I’d make my discovery of the photographic masters a little more interactive. Would it not be more interesting to read the book at the same time as others? Similar to a book club, but with less Oprah and more photographs.

I thought we could start with a book I’ve just ordered for Christmas The Americans by Robert Frank. So if you’re interested please beg, borrow or buy a copy and then I’d love to hear your comments. Exciting stuff.

The Americans by Robert Frank

American photographer Robert Cameron died last week aged 98. He specialized in aerial photographs, most famously for his “Above” series of books.  Just three months ago he was up in a helicopter taking shots of the famously contorted Lombard Street in San Francisco.

What I hadn’t realized was that he took photos with a Pentax 67 attached to a gyroscope to minimize vibrations. Many of his photographs are  stunning.

Photograph by Robert Cameron

This has inspired me to do some aerial shots of Okinawa. All I need is a plane or a helicopter, and a pilot.

So if you or any of your friends happen to have a plane in Okinawa please get in touch!

10 days ago my 1TB external hard drive stopped working. This hard drive was running Time Machine continually making backups of all my data. I took it back to the store. They said they would send it back to the manufacturer IO DATA. IO DATA phoned a couple of days ago and said they would fix it but I would lose the data. No problems I said it’s only the backup, everything is safe on my very reliable Mac Pro computer….

This morning turn on my computer and all I get is the Apple logo and a little thinking symbol.

Call Apple support.  First question…

Is all your data saved?

AGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

After an hour of trying various things. The lady on the phone says that I should reinstall Snow Leopard, but I will lose all information on the hard drive.  But there is hope…..

All my data is on my second “DATA” hard disk. Only applications are on the first “APPLICATIONS” hard disk. I figured I could reinstall on the first hard disk and all I will have to do is then reinstall photoshop etc which I have the disks for. (Because I was a good consumer and actually purchased the disk from Adobe!)

Lady on the phone talks me through the stages of clicking the Erase button followed by the various warnings saying are you really sure you want to do this…..

Snow Leopard is reinstalled. Computer springs back to life.

But….

Suddenly I begin to realize the consequences of my actions….

Anything saved to the desktop was on the now spotlessly clean hard disk 1. Images and articles I was currently working on have floated into the ether. The same goes for music, music videos, podcasts, ipod applications.

I connect the ipod to the computer. It says the ipod will only sync with the original computer, would I like to erase all the files on the ipod and sync with the empty folders on my spotlessly clean hard drive. I check the apple itunes store. It says please backup all music and videos as you can only download music and videos once. If you didn’t have a backup please purchase them again.

Insert Photoshop Cs3 disk to reinstall. Computer spits is out again.

Phone Adobe Japan. No English support. Explain situation in Japanese. I am told  that they no longer give free telephone support to CS3 customers.

Without CS3 I can’t edit or print. But then again the images I was currently working on have vanished.

Suddenly realize that I am happy to be still using film so at least I have a physical backup of everything. Just need to rescan the latest images. Scanner needs to be linked to photoshop. Aggghhhh.

The internet.  All my bookmarks have vanished. No problem, hopefully I will remember the address of anything important.

Go to WordPress.

Vent……

Feel better now.

Pentax ceased production of the Pentax 67II camera this year. Maybe it was just too expensive to produce in small numbers, or maybe Pentax decided it was simpler to make the move to an all digital lineup of cameras.

There are some photographers however that are still use, and love, the Pentax 67II. It turns out that Helena Christensen, supermodel turned photographer, is one of them. I spotted this image of Helena with her Pentax 67 on the home page of the Guardian newspaper.

www.Guardian.co.uk

It links to a slideshow of her images documenting the effects climate change is having in Peru. You can see the slideshow here. Well worth checking out.

Peruvian Woman by Helena Christensen/Oxfam

Here’s the second image from the model shoot of Nikki I did with Eboh last month.

Studio shoot with model Nikki Wright

I watched the Ryukyu Kings vs. Osaka Evessa basketball game today. This is the first basketball game I’ve ever seen in Japan, and only the second in my life. (I saw the Harlem Globetrotters play in Calgary, Canada.)

It was a great afternoon’s entertainment. Okinawa beat Osaka 82 to 77, which pleased the spectators. Of the 2815 in attendance, I think at least 2800 were Kings supporters.

I took my little point and shoot camera with me. The quality of the image isn’t that great, but of the few shots I took one of them was of a Kings player dunking the ball.

Ryukyu Kings vs Osaka Evessa

Thanks very much to the folks who came out to the Kadena Market Day. Overall, it was a good experience, met a lot of nice people and had some interesting conversations.

Kadena Market Day Display

Many, if not most, freelance photographers have to act as their own accountant, business manager, travel agent, website designer, publicist and even therapist. Adding the role of “vendor” has its own challenges to overcome, its own skill set to learn. I guess the only way to approach it is, like anything in life, to simply do it to the best of your ability.