You’re Going to Podcamp. Now What?
Just like last year, I will again be presenting at PodCampAZ. Just like last year, I will be doing a talk about Podcasting. But this year will be different.
This year, instead of just talking about Podcasting, I’m going to get anyone that wants, to actually make a podcast. That’s right. A short audio podcast (or video), uploaded to a server, posted to a WordPress site and made available in iTunes!
There is a chance that I will also be leading a session that will continue, more in-depth and hands on, where the talk leaves off. I’m pretty excited and can’t wait to start putting it all together. Watch this space for more details.
And if you are going to be in or around Phoenix November 11-12, drop by the University of Advanced Technology to check it out. Last year’s event was pretty amazing and I will almost bet that this year’s will be even better! Click the logo for full details.
It’s Time We Nerds Help
Just through the course of a day I end up on some photographers website. Invaribly it’s something hosted by photobiz.com or wix, all done in flash with copy-righted background music playing and a crappy looking WordPress blog hanging off the side like dirty dish rag hanging out of the kitchen window. I keep asking why, but never get answers that I find acceptable.
Until I asked Stella the same question. Being the photographer of the house, I thought she would have good insight into the reasoning behind photographers having such horrible websites. Our conversation went a little something like this.
- dbwilldo: why do photographers have such yucky websites?
- Stella:because they are not nerds
Could it really be that easy? A person that has the ability to charge thousands of dollars for their services that they perform with (possibly) tens of thousands of dollars worth of very complicated electronic components just aren’t nerdy enough?
That must be it. I think the problem that we as nerds run into is in our thought patterns. Photographers aren’t nerds. Photographers are creatives, that just so happen to do their creating with digital equipement. A fact, I think, fools the rest of us into thinking that photographers know the same things that we do.
Which they don’t.
They just want a website that displays their portfolio and other information in a pleasing manner, just like everyone else. Sites like photobiz and wix have capitalized on this, targeted photography professionals with words like ‘easy to use’, ‘background music’, ‘elegant’ and ‘comic sans’ to lure them in. So they get stuck.
Makes me wonder. Do they not try to open their websites on their iPhone/Android/Blackberry? Have they not tried to open their site using an iPad or Android tablet? If they have, do they just shrug their shoulders and say “Oh well. I’m not a nerd enough to make something better”?
Or do they see Flash as their security blanket? Thinking that if their photos are wrapped up in flash, they can’t be stolen and used in nefarious ways. Nerds know otherwise, don’t we?
Instead, I prefer to think that we, as nerds, have failed the professional photographers. Failed in that we haven’t shown them the way to nicely display their photos on any device, on any platform and with any browser. We have failed to guide them in best web practices. Failed to help them save money by avoiding services such as these.
As nerds, we owe it to our photography brethren to show them the right way. The way to display their photos in a pleasing way that is easy to use and keep their photos as safe. The way to share their work with iPhone/iPad/Android/Blackberry users. The way to save money by not having to pay the rediculous rates that the other guys charge. We owe them.
The Sunday Post #105: Where it Started
Recently, I was turned on to a pretty keen app for the mac by Jason. It will let you download all of you flickr photos. Pretty keen, right? Not only will it let you download them all, it will let you download only those photos not in sets. Brilliant!
Photography over the years
From what I can tell, I started my Flickr account way back in 2005. I didn’t even own a digital camera at the time, but was using it to share photos that I took with my Motorola Razr and LG Env. Here comes the magic. Click any of the collages for a larger version.
WordPress + Amazon S3
Recently I’ve been tasked with management of a couple of WordPress websites that get more traffic than I’m used to dealing with. Quite a bit more in fact. So much so that they were causing the server they lived on to have memory issues, random reboots and other odd issues.
Step 1
In order to get the sites more stable, I started clearing out plug-ins. Starting by deleting the ones that were being used and actually deleting them off the server. Then removing plugins that weren’t really needed and replacing them with a WordPress function where possible.
Result: Not enough to stablize the server
Step 2
Looking at the logs, I found quite a bit of traffic to the WordPress comment system. These sites are running Disqus, so WordPress comments aren’t needed. Got rid of them. I also noticed quite a bit of traffic and strain on the servers coming from other sites, hotlinking to images, javascript files and content. Turned on hot-link protection for all but a few sites and blocked a few IPs.
Result: Better, but server still not 100% stable. (Read on…)
Changing the video
I’ve always been fascinated with stop motion animation (remember Gumby?) and time lapse photography. Since I do not have the time to make clay bits move about, photography is more my speed.
It’s really simple. Find what you want to shoot, set the focus, set the invalometer to the desired time and walk away. Come back to a either a dead battery or full CF card (yes, my camera is old. Let it go) and transfer them in. The video above was created from over 500 shots taken every 3 seconds.
I have a photoshop action that I use to resize the images to 720p, bring them into Google Picasa (yes, on the Mac), set the frame rate and turn ‘er loose! Once I have a completed movie, I can edit again in iMovie (to add sound or mix it with something else), which I have done here.
As a bonus, this one is short enough that I was able to post it to my Flickr stream, something I haven’t updated in months!
