Samantha Aarts, Mary Pope’s 18-year-old daughter modeled for one of my lighting classes last year. She passed away from an accidental morphine overdose.
I have my days when I think of what I do for a living to be a joke.
It takes but a fraction of a second to make a picture.
While I was at the newspaper, except for natural disasters which affected many lives, the importance of my photography was seldom real.
Often I would ask myself, “Why am I being dispatched to traffic collision especially if it happened hours ago?”
Was it ever going to change how people drive?
Would people think twice about texting or drinking and driving after reading about it?
I met artist Snake Jagger in 2003 at the Blue Coyote Grill in Palm Springs where he had just completed a mural. Notice the lighting of the scene especially the mural which is in the shadows behind him. Compare that with the next picture where I lit the scene ever so so subtly.
I can’t draw or paint.
Maybe it’s because I never took it up seriously.
But I’ve always admired practitioners of the arts.
I met artist Snake Jagger in 2003 while I was still at the newspaper and didn’t contact him again until recently when I saw his Facebook page.
I remember not knowing anything about him other than what was in my photo assignment.
Twice the fun--Working with multiple subjects can be doubly intimidating like it this case when I photographed Congressman Jerry Lewis of Redlands and his lovely wife, Arlene, at newly opened pool in San Bernardino.Window light--For this portrait of French muslim scholar, I kept the situation simple. Fortunately for me, Islam was not new to me having grown in Malaysia. Ultimately the more life experiences you can bring to each portrait situation, the better off you will be.
Whether your subject is children, the hot person you just met on the street, someone you hired as a model, or the CEO at a large institution, a portrait is always a collaborative effort between you, the photographer, and your subject.
Note, I’m making an BIG assumption here.
I’m assuming you, the artist, know your brushes, paint and canvas: your entire arsenal of gear, camera, lens, lighting gear.
So your challenge is to get your subject to relax and trust you.
Most subjects who don’t know you worry about how they’ll be immortalized in a still picture.
The upgrade path to Lion or 10.7 is going to be different. This time, you must have Snow Leopard first. But your Mac may not be Lion compatible because of it's hardware.
One of the realities of being a digital photographer is that for better or for worse, you will be tied to your computer platform.
My Intel MacPro was one of the early models Quad core 2006 model.
It used the Xeon processor.
Apple’s latest operating system 10.7 Lion will be leaving my MacPro and some Mac users behind.
The specs for Lion will require Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better.
How can you tell what your computer has? See the screenshot below:
Mouse over to the "Apple" icon on the top left, click on "About this Mac," you should see this
It is inevitable.
Five years in computer years is an eternity.
In fact when I went to download the latest version of Final Cut Pro X, I saw the following dialog box.
Shocking to be sure.
Rude shock--I had to cough up an additional $150 to upgrade the video card on my MacPro. At least I had that option. Imagine if I had an iMac! That would have meant I have to buy a new workstation.
Research thoroughly before you upgrade
Before you upgrade your software, it’s prudent to research, compare your hardware specs to make sure they are compatible.
If you don’t, you will might end up spending much more than you’re prepared to.
Anyway, when I saw that my MacPro didn’t have the video card needed, I had to cough up $150 to replace the stock video card which only had 256MB of video RAM.
My MacPro may be coming to the end of its useful life sooner than I expected.
How about your Mac?
Do you have some upgrading tales or nightmares to share?
