I have been a professional studio photographer for the past thirty years. Photographers have been shooting objects and people on plain white backgrounds since well before the arrival of Amazon, or even the introduction of desktop computers (see Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, albert Watson for starters). If Amazon ever tries to bring an action the defendant will have no trouble proving the patent should not have been issued.
What is Amazon going to claim next? A patent that explains how to turn off the background lights in order to create a black background?
We are all used to referring to Mac Pros as towers. I have heard people refer to the newest creation as a tube, but this sounds rather grim. Suggestions? How about Ziti? Rigatoni?
This is not an uncommon problem.
I do not recommend outsourcing at this stage. A marketing exec should be the point person on your price point, sales distribution, CRM, sales staff and product updates, as well as direct public advertising/marketing/PR. It's an important position, and a qualified individual is frankly a necessary component to a successful launch. This is not someone who should report to anyone but you. That person will need good compensation, but there are always people who are open to a low(ish) salary with the possibility of a high payoff. Make sure you find someone with the right experience in companies that offered somewhat similar products, or at least companies that had good marketing in the same field. This person should be able to locate and manage sales and marketing staff as your company expands. You can look to outside companies later on, when you need fresh ideas for ad campaigns for new products and new venues.
As for determining the success of your marketing staff, a good analytical sales evaluation system will identify your most profitable customers, give you early warning data on your product's shortcomings, and of course identify and develop the markets most open to your products, current and future. This is the best you can hope for. There is no accurate way that I know of to determine in advance the performance of a marketing campaign for a brand new product. Once you have some experience you can make projections on new products and new markets (other countries, for example), but that will, hopefully, come later.
Good luck!
I bought a couple hundred boxes of 8 x 10 sheet film; it all fits in a rather large top loading freezer. The film set me back about 15K, by the way. I know that sounds like a lot, but I go through a lot more than 15k in a year, believe it or not!
Yes indeed! Thanks for the link. I did send an email this morning and invite them to either join the discussion or respond directly. So far no news yet.
Good points, but I did take them into account before making the purchase. As others noted, I am shooting with a view camera. An 8" x 10" Sinar, to be exact. They are built to last a very long time and have no electronics. One can still find usable forty year old Sinar Normas for sale on the Web. I am not obsessing about Velvia 50, I can only say that it is a unique tool, and I would like to have this tool available as long as I continue to shoot. These days I use Kodak 100VS or Fuji 100 Provia or Velvia 100 for most shoots and work with the Velivia 50 on occasions when I really need it. I should also note that I spent over 15K on all that film, so I would like to protect it as much as possible, or at least have a firm idea when I should expect too much fogging. As for E6, it is likely to be around for quite a while.
Yes, I have already read that. And a whole mess of other non-specific articles on film fogging. As far as I can tell, ISO 50 film will not show significant fogging for about ten years or so. If I can find a barrier that will cut 50% or more of the radiation, I get close to my 30 year goal. A basement is not a good solution as others have mentioned -- there is almost certainly more fog inducing radiation underground.
I have shot with Velvia 100. It has higher saturation than, say, Provia, but in no way reproduces like Velvia 50. I conducted many tests in the studio, shooting many films. Historically, Kodak balanced films so that neutral pale colors would "snap" to neutral tones. Many of the films were balanced to "snap" to skin tones for example, others were balanced to produce accurate colors, or greys. Fuji changed that with Velvia 50. That film reproduces neutral tones with as much color as possible - a pink face can look positvely red in the film. Sometimes I'm looking for this effect when I shoot.
Yes, the color will shift over the years and the film will lose some speed, but the characteristics of Velvia -- very high saturation and high contrast -- will remain. As for Fuji bringing back the film, that would be great. I will simply shoot with the film as I used to, and use up my stocks before they fog.
We got to visit Albany, a remarkably unexciting place to visit, even in the eyes of a 17 year old. The main challange for the first NY Olympics of the Mind was to build a stick balsa wood structure that could hold the most weight. There were a number of parameters, such as the total weight of the structure, type and amount of glue, and the minimum height off the ground (it also had to allow for a steel verticle bar to hold the dumbells). We were also not allowed to glue any two pieces over a greater length than the width of the sticks. We eventually came up with a great column design: we cut the sticks into perfect cubes and then glued thousands of cubes to sticks in cube-width intervals. The thing held every dumbell they had -- over 700 pounds! Such fun! I heartily recommend participating.
I would buy a horse and buggy if I were in a desolate, fertile area and had no access to gasoline!
My point being that even if a tool is outmoded it may still have significant advantages. An unmodified G5 is never going to work in a recording environment. It will have to be isolated from the mic. I recommended the Cube because I don't see recording in a closet as a great solution, and isolation is problematic with a heat generating device. I would not want to use the cube for mixing, of course, but for recording it would be ideal.
Cheers,
- M
Get a Cube. It runs OSX. It has more than enough power for recording. It is inexpensive ($1K). And it has no fan.
Be aware of one downside: the cube has no pci slots and no audio-in (I think), so a usb microphone will be necessary.
On a moderate audiophile system (under $10K) there is a clear difference difference between an AAC encoded file downloaded from itunes (and then burned onto a CD with itunes) and an original CD. I spent the money to download songs I already owned in order to make a comparison. I do not have great sensitivity any more -- I'm 41 -- but there was no mistaking the lack of "fullness" in the AAC, particularly at the high end, with instruments such as a violin. True, my test was not double-blinded, but the difference was obvious.
That said, I continue to purchase music on itunes. I simply avoid purchasing music that is more sensitive to the encoding.
Digital cameras can reduce stress for professional shooters. Before digital cameras came along, photographers would have to wait a minimum of two hours to get the film back. As a practical matter, this usually meant waiting until the next morning, since it can often take all day to shoot. If the shoot was difficult, you could spend all night tossing and turning, hoping your film was going to look like your test Polaroids. Now you can immediately download the digital images into a computer and shoot until you have exactly what you need.
is not really about looking for another payment method. After all, it's easy enough to pull out a wallet. The new technologies are designed to help retailers build loyalty programs unique to their chains. Speedpass was one of the first applications. Their RFID keypass is not only about payment, it's about providing a service that makes loyal customers. Since a driver already has his keys in his hands, and he is often in a rush, a keychain fob makes sense.
I think about 6 million Speedpass tags have been distributed. To my knowledge, fraud has not been a big problem.
Companies like Visa and Mastercard have brought out better tag technology that will eventually allow retailers to offer rewards and loyalty points based on purchases, like the airlines. There's even a company in Virginia that offers retailers just the loyalty tag -- without the payment.
The point here is that shopping will soon be more like that on Amazon: your purchases will be tracked in real time, and special offers (based on previous purchases or similar aggregate data) will be tailored just for you.
The logic behind NASA's statements that any damage to the wing was not followed up with land-based or ISS-based visual inspections because they could not have done anything about it is deeply troublesome to me.
One should not limit the aquisition of important safety data based on this type of thinking. You don't try to phone someone who lives in a burning building just because you are, at that time, unable to come up with a response to that situation.
As somone who went through a life-threatening situation (a fire), I can affirm that the mind can get pretty creative when it has to.
For example, the Progress vehicle could have been sent to Columbia while a rescue shuttle was prepared.
With only two EVA-certified individuals on board, and no docking clamps, moving supplies from the Progress vehicle to Columbia would not have been a trivial endeavor. And transferring untrained (for EVA) people between shuttles would have been difficult, at best.
Yet no one would have argued before a rescue attempt that the seven astronauts would have been better off if we had not known that the left wing was damaged.
Slashdot Mirror
I have been a professional studio photographer for the past thirty years. Photographers have been shooting objects and people on plain white backgrounds since well before the arrival of Amazon, or even the introduction of desktop computers (see Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, albert Watson for starters). If Amazon ever tries to bring an action the defendant will have no trouble proving the patent should not have been issued. What is Amazon going to claim next? A patent that explains how to turn off the background lights in order to create a black background?
We are all used to referring to Mac Pros as towers. I have heard people refer to the newest creation as a tube, but this sounds rather grim. Suggestions? How about Ziti? Rigatoni?
This is not an uncommon problem. I do not recommend outsourcing at this stage. A marketing exec should be the point person on your price point, sales distribution, CRM, sales staff and product updates, as well as direct public advertising/marketing/PR. It's an important position, and a qualified individual is frankly a necessary component to a successful launch. This is not someone who should report to anyone but you. That person will need good compensation, but there are always people who are open to a low(ish) salary with the possibility of a high payoff. Make sure you find someone with the right experience in companies that offered somewhat similar products, or at least companies that had good marketing in the same field. This person should be able to locate and manage sales and marketing staff as your company expands. You can look to outside companies later on, when you need fresh ideas for ad campaigns for new products and new venues. As for determining the success of your marketing staff, a good analytical sales evaluation system will identify your most profitable customers, give you early warning data on your product's shortcomings, and of course identify and develop the markets most open to your products, current and future. This is the best you can hope for. There is no accurate way that I know of to determine in advance the performance of a marketing campaign for a brand new product. Once you have some experience you can make projections on new products and new markets (other countries, for example), but that will, hopefully, come later. Good luck!
Much thanks -- A good sign for 50 ISO film!
I bought a couple hundred boxes of 8 x 10 sheet film; it all fits in a rather large top loading freezer. The film set me back about 15K, by the way. I know that sounds like a lot, but I go through a lot more than 15k in a year, believe it or not!
Yes indeed! Thanks for the link. I did send an email this morning and invite them to either join the discussion or respond directly. So far no news yet.
Do you remember the film speed?
Good points, but I did take them into account before making the purchase. As others noted, I am shooting with a view camera. An 8" x 10" Sinar, to be exact. They are built to last a very long time and have no electronics. One can still find usable forty year old Sinar Normas for sale on the Web. I am not obsessing about Velvia 50, I can only say that it is a unique tool, and I would like to have this tool available as long as I continue to shoot. These days I use Kodak 100VS or Fuji 100 Provia or Velvia 100 for most shoots and work with the Velivia 50 on occasions when I really need it. I should also note that I spent over 15K on all that film, so I would like to protect it as much as possible, or at least have a firm idea when I should expect too much fogging. As for E6, it is likely to be around for quite a while.
Yes, I have already read that. And a whole mess of other non-specific articles on film fogging. As far as I can tell, ISO 50 film will not show significant fogging for about ten years or so. If I can find a barrier that will cut 50% or more of the radiation, I get close to my 30 year goal. A basement is not a good solution as others have mentioned -- there is almost certainly more fog inducing radiation underground.
I have shot with Velvia 100. It has higher saturation than, say, Provia, but in no way reproduces like Velvia 50. I conducted many tests in the studio, shooting many films. Historically, Kodak balanced films so that neutral pale colors would "snap" to neutral tones. Many of the films were balanced to "snap" to skin tones for example, others were balanced to produce accurate colors, or greys. Fuji changed that with Velvia 50. That film reproduces neutral tones with as much color as possible - a pink face can look positvely red in the film. Sometimes I'm looking for this effect when I shoot.
Yes, the color will shift over the years and the film will lose some speed, but the characteristics of Velvia -- very high saturation and high contrast -- will remain. As for Fuji bringing back the film, that would be great. I will simply shoot with the film as I used to, and use up my stocks before they fog.
Two worked for Kodak, one was an ex-employee for Fujifilm.
I missed the June 8th press conference. Anyone have a link to a free archive of it?
We got to visit Albany, a remarkably unexciting place to visit, even in the eyes of a 17 year old. The main challange for the first NY Olympics of the Mind was to build a stick balsa wood structure that could hold the most weight. There were a number of parameters, such as the total weight of the structure, type and amount of glue, and the minimum height off the ground (it also had to allow for a steel verticle bar to hold the dumbells). We were also not allowed to glue any two pieces over a greater length than the width of the sticks. We eventually came up with a great column design: we cut the sticks into perfect cubes and then glued thousands of cubes to sticks in cube-width intervals. The thing held every dumbell they had -- over 700 pounds! Such fun! I heartily recommend participating.
I would buy a horse and buggy if I were in a desolate, fertile area and had no access to gasoline! My point being that even if a tool is outmoded it may still have significant advantages. An unmodified G5 is never going to work in a recording environment. It will have to be isolated from the mic. I recommended the Cube because I don't see recording in a closet as a great solution, and isolation is problematic with a heat generating device. I would not want to use the cube for mixing, of course, but for recording it would be ideal. Cheers, - M
Get a Cube. It runs OSX. It has more than enough power for recording. It is inexpensive ($1K). And it has no fan. Be aware of one downside: the cube has no pci slots and no audio-in (I think), so a usb microphone will be necessary.
On a moderate audiophile system (under $10K) there is a clear difference difference between an AAC encoded file downloaded from itunes (and then burned onto a CD with itunes) and an original CD. I spent the money to download songs I already owned in order to make a comparison. I do not have great sensitivity any more -- I'm 41 -- but there was no mistaking the lack of "fullness" in the AAC, particularly at the high end, with instruments such as a violin. True, my test was not double-blinded, but the difference was obvious. That said, I continue to purchase music on itunes. I simply avoid purchasing music that is more sensitive to the encoding.
Digital cameras can reduce stress for professional shooters. Before digital cameras came along, photographers would have to wait a minimum of two hours to get the film back. As a practical matter, this usually meant waiting until the next morning, since it can often take all day to shoot. If the shoot was difficult, you could spend all night tossing and turning, hoping your film was going to look like your test Polaroids. Now you can immediately download the digital images into a computer and shoot until you have exactly what you need.
someone named fashionpillows. Go figure.
You are forgetting our natural inclination to root for the underdog.
is not really about looking for another payment method. After all, it's easy enough to pull out a wallet. The new technologies are designed to help retailers build loyalty programs unique to their chains. Speedpass was one of the first applications. Their RFID keypass is not only about payment, it's about providing a service that makes loyal customers. Since a driver already has his keys in his hands, and he is often in a rush, a keychain fob makes sense. I think about 6 million Speedpass tags have been distributed. To my knowledge, fraud has not been a big problem. Companies like Visa and Mastercard have brought out better tag technology that will eventually allow retailers to offer rewards and loyalty points based on purchases, like the airlines. There's even a company in Virginia that offers retailers just the loyalty tag -- without the payment. The point here is that shopping will soon be more like that on Amazon: your purchases will be tracked in real time, and special offers (based on previous purchases or similar aggregate data) will be tailored just for you.
Although Colorado University may never forgive me, this address has links to the research papers as well as more images: http://www.colorado.edu/isl/
The logic behind NASA's statements that any damage to the wing was not followed up with land-based or ISS-based visual inspections because they could not have done anything about it is deeply troublesome to me.
One should not limit the aquisition of important safety data based on this type of thinking. You don't try to phone someone who lives in a burning building just because you are, at that time, unable to come up with a response to that situation.
As somone who went through a life-threatening situation (a fire), I can affirm that the mind can get pretty creative when it has to.
For example, the Progress vehicle could have been sent to Columbia while a rescue shuttle was prepared.
With only two EVA-certified individuals on board, and no docking clamps, moving supplies from the Progress vehicle to Columbia would not have been a trivial endeavor. And transferring untrained (for EVA) people between shuttles would have been difficult, at best.
Yet no one would have argued before a rescue attempt that the seven astronauts would have been better off if we had not known that the left wing was damaged.