Jim Atwood Photography News » jimatwood

Strobist DVDs arrived.

Jim Atwood — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:20:12 +0000

Well the DVDs arrived yesterday. It took about two weeks to get the items from Midwest Photo Exchange located in Columbus, OH. This is the only place offering the Strobist DVDs at this time. I paid $139 dollars for the 8 DVD set and was dinged with $35.00 shipping to Japan via UPS. UPS then dinged me for 600 yen duty which is the first time I have ever had to pay duty for any DVDs. Thus aside from the Strobist DVDs, I wish I could have purchased them from some other company. Midwest Photo Exchange probably made a few bucks of the postage and UPS definitely made a few bucks as well. I just hate it sometimes when it’s so unnecessary. Now on to viewing the DVDS. I’ll post another update shortly. Geez….we should have a viewing party!

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Just ordered Strobist’s 8 DVD Seminar Set

Jim Atwood — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:19:10 +0000

Although not an avid everyday reader of “The Strobist”, I have definitely been interested in the material he talks about. In Japan, I like to use flash and try to shoot off camera as much as possible. I was surprised this morning to see that a new DVD flash lighting box set was released and only 1000 copies too. So I rushed to get in an order for Japan. The excerpt on using Gels for cool backgrounds was really nice and I’m looking forward to revisiting the basics of flash and solidifying my knowledge even more. I’ll post more info once I receive the DVDs which may take one to two weeks to arrive. If you have any desire to do a lot of off camera flash, this DVD set is probably you’re best bet to reduce the learning curve in a short period of time. Of course getting out and practicing on your own will great help as well. Enjoy!

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Ripe Blue Kanji

Jim Atwood — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:17:42 +0000

Ripe Blue Kanji

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Moo Cards Interface Sucks

Jim Atwood — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 01:07:53 +0000

I’ve tried lately not to rant that much about internet services or software, but I came across a website that just drove me nuts and thought I would share my experience. The website is moo dot com and they create these Moo Cards which are much like business cards. I use Flickr and thought at first what a cool idea. I could create 100 unique cards with my name and business info on the back for a very reasonable price. However, I think Moo has a few huge problems with their website ( in my opinion ) and as a result I’ve elected to not order from them.

Problem 1: You can’t save your work! If you choose 100 unique photos for your Moo cards and then wish to modify or change them later on, you have to completely redo EVERYTHING which takes much time. If you make any mistakes or close the browser, you can to again redo everything. This is very inconvenient.

Solution1: Get the ASP programmer to fix the interface or get a new programmer. This is easy to do.

Problem 2: If you for any reason make a mistake on dragging and dropping your photo, the IE browsers will prompt you to refresh or go back. When this happens, all of your hard work will be erased. Thus you again have to completely redo your organization for the order. Believe me if you are doing 100 cards it is very upsetting to have to redo everything several times because of Moo’s interface.

Solution 2: Perhaps more user error, but I would clearly state on the interface that your work will be lost if you in any way click anything that is not supposed to be clicked. A warning is needed.

Problem 3: Autoresponders!! Sorry folks, but I’ve been on the internet long enough to know that autoresponders are used more often as an excuse not to respond. Here is Moo’s autoresponse to the feedback I gave them.

“We’ve received your feedback. While we can’t respond directly to every suggestion, all feedback is organized and reviewed regularly by the MOO Product Development Team for use in future product releases.”

Solution 3: Actually respond to people and add the responder message to the contact form so people can make an informed decision about whether the company will actually respond or not.

Now if I had received this message BEFORE writing my feedback, I certainly would not have taken the time since I would have realized they were not going to listen or do anything about anyone’s feedback. People want a reply or some sort of “human” indication that they are being listened to. An autoresponse like the one above just tells you that your feedback really isn’t that important.

In conclusion are the Moo products good? I have no clue. I couldn’t even get my first order off the launching pad with all the fighting I had to go through with their design web interface. I also haven’t heard any response from them except the autoresponse which just proves my point. I just hate companies like this and if you are fortunate enough to not have any problems and are now holding your fabulous Moo cards, then Bravo! It worked for you and that’s great.

I may be the only one which is common with me, but if for some small chance others have had similar experiences, then perhaps this blog post will give them some comfort that they’re not alone in trying to wade through all this internet interface crap. Now on to shooting pictures.

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Worn Gloves

Jim Atwood — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:04:32 +0000

A while back I tossed my daughters gloves and they fell hanging on a tree near a pond. While she was angrily yelling at me to get the gloves, I took a few quick shots. The background seemed like a battlefield to me and the gloves were obviously messed up, so I titled the photo war gloves.

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Action Shoes

Jim Atwood — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:04:01 +0000

My daughter Aily goes through shoes like you wouldn’t believe. She is only 4 years old now but I feel like I buy shoes every other month. Not only are her feet growing fast, but she loves to play outside. I photographed her shoes one day and as you can see, she doesn’t hesitate to let loose.

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Sasha Caroline in Pigtails

Jim Atwood — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 04:34:18 +0000

This is my youngest daughter Sasha Caroline who is one year and five months old. Here she is playing at Zenkoji, Temple in Nagano Japan while I am on a photoshoot. I turned around and saw her staring up at me and so I took this closeup shot. She’s a lot of fun and like her sister Aily, likes the camera very much. In Photoshop I enhanced the eyes, colors, and did a little bit of dodging and burning.

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Retro Sasha in November

Jim Atwood — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 10:18:07 +0000

Here is a photo of my daughter that I took today. I used an SB-800 flash and actually took the shot low without using the view finder. I find myself doing that much more when taking shots instead of putting my body through the grinder trying to position myself. I find I get better shots sometimes if I let my own radar guide my camera. I then later post processed the photograph in Photoshop to get a sort of retro feel working with the colors a bit. Fun photo I thought. Enjoy!

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The Three Halloween Amigos

Jim Atwood — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:20:49 +0000

Here they are … the three Halloween Amigos. Two of the pumpkins have the names of my daughters carved out, Aily and Sasha. The other pumpkin was carved by my Japanese father-in-law who had a lot of fun this year with the kids celebrating Halloween. It’s kind of new to him, so I thought it was nice to see him enjoy the Halloween season. In Japan, pumpkins can be difficult to find, especially at a good price, but my father-in-law did well this year grabbing a few pumpkins for the kids. These shots were taken with a Nikon 28mm f/1.4 handheld. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

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Halloween Flash Tricks

Jim Atwood — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:16:41 +0000

This week I was having some fun using my SB-800 on Rear Curtain Sync to shoot some glowing Pumpkins. I also used a Nikon D200 and a Nikkor 28mm f/1.4 lens for these shots. I thought they turned out pretty well and it was a lot of fun experimenting with all the various ways to shoot these. I would have like to have a tad bit better background, but I didn’t have much say in how to position these and simply had to shoot in close quarters. I also shot some low light stuff without flash which I’ll post later. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

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