Even though the polar vortex is gone, there is a lot of winter left this season. Here are some suggestions for protecting your camera gear and film from the cold temperatures ahead.
Protecting Camera Gear in Cold Weather
Managing Digital Files
We were asked a question by reader @franckhertz via twitter, wondering how others manage their digital files. He said, “I’m producing ~40GB a year of photos… I’d love a post on how people manage their (ever-growing) photo libraries.” The new year is always a great time to start better habits, so we thought it was a great idea to tackle this often confusing subject. We reached out to several professional photographers to see how they manage their large catalogs.
Their answers are as varied as their work, and as with most things in photography there is no one size fits all answer. While they may use different techniques and software, the common theme is a thorough system of file naming and backing up files on more than one hard drive. We hope that learning from them can help you organize your own system. We also encourage you to spend some time on their portfolios, because there is a lot of inspiration on their websites.
Holiday Gift Guide for Photographers
We know that buying for photographers is not easy, as we are very particular people. Well meaning friends and family often want to buy us something photography-related for the holidays. Since they don’t know exactly what to get, photographers often end up receiving camera lens mugs, camera ornaments, and an assortment of other items that, while very nice, aren’t particularly useful. We are here to help! We merged our collective wish lists and asked photographers what they’d want, and here are the results:
The Exposed DC Holiday Gift Guide for Photographers, by Photographers
Night Sky Photography for Beginners
When you think of astrophotography, you probably think of mind-blowing Hubble images, but you don’t need a billion dollar space telescope to image the night sky. In fact, most hobby photographers have all they need already in their bag, or can cheaply rent from a local camera shop. And right now you have a unique opportunity to get started. Comet ISON has been visible with the naked eye just before dawn for the last few days, and may get even brighter before it reaches perihelion, its closest point to the sun as it swings around, on November 28. If ISON manages to survive its close encounter, you might get a second chance to catch it in camera over Thanksgiving weekend.
Here’s some history about Comet ISON, discovered in September 2012, its current status, and where you can find it in the sky.
Or try your hand at night sky photography almost anytime with the moon, which was full on Sunday night and will start to reveal its shadowy craters as it wanes for the next couple weeks. To get you started on your first night sky shoot, we asked some practiced local photographers, Phil Yabut, Brett Davis, Brian Mosley, Pablo Benavente, and Exposed’s Sanjay Suchak for their advice.
Exposed: What do you like to photograph in the night sky?
Exposed Interview: Kevin Good, Droneography
Kevin Good is a very busy man. He is a photographer, cinematographer, teacher, and film director. Good produced the popular and very funny web series Weapons of Mass Production, which break down many of the technical aspects of camera technology, like comparing the Nikon D800 and the Canon 5D mkIII or How to Light Your Video on a Budget. His film work has been featured in TV and Film Festivals around the world. He also finds time to teach photography and film classes.
It is Good’s newest venture, droneography, that caught our attention and that of many others. The Washington Post wrote about how he used a drone to fly in the rings during his brother’s wedding ceremony. He’s also been interviewed by the Today show. For someone as accomplished as Good to describe droneography as the “most challenging thing I’ve ever undertaken,” we knew we had to find out more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOhJiWY_PDs&feature=youtu.be