Happy February (dribble dribble)!



It is a good job you're cute Oli, because we're not getting much sleep around here!

Daniel got in touch back in the summer to get a portrait shoot with two sisters as a surprise gift to their parents at Christmas. Fall in New England is a wonderful time for outdoor portraits and the backdrop of the Minute Man National Historic Park, with the beautiful old trees and river running towards Concord is a perfect setting. Merry Christmas to the Cullens!

Do you live a couple of hours apart from your family, or like me another continent?

Do you have kids and want to keep them and your closest friends in touch?

Have you tried online sharing services, but just don't have the time to upload?

Do you have more than one computer and need to sync documents and application settings without having to be on the network at the same time?

Do you always forget to copy those files over to your laptop before a client meeting?

Here's a great solution! I've been using this great service called Dropbox. It is really cool free online storage that mirrors a folder on your disk. You can use it as online backup, a way of sharing files between your home and work computer... or to share photos and video with your distant relations.

Dropbox is a little different - you basically just drop files into a folder on your computer and the files upload automatically in the background. To share them you can either share a private folder (with an email invite) or a public file, simply by right clicking on it!

Download dropbox for free here: http://bit.ly/9JuvlT

Once installed you will find the Dropbox folder in Finder on a Mac, or desktop, or My Documents if on PC. It works great on both.

Sharing a folder  with email invites (best if you want to keep totally private):
- This option requires that the recipient have Dropbox installed as well. It is great if you have regular people that are wanting to see your photos or video, because every time you drop something in your folder, the automatically get the file in their dropbox too!
- Go to the Dropbox folder and a folder to put your files in.
- Then just drag your files (like movies) in there.
- Right click on the folder (not the file) and Go to the Dropbox menu (see screenshot) and select Share this Folder. Your web browser will open and you can then type emails to recipients. When they get the email they get a link to the folder and everything contained within it.

Sharing a file with just a link:
- Copy or move the file to the Public folder in Dropbox
- Right click, then choose Dropbox, then Copy Public Link
- Go to your email and paste.
- When the recipient gets the email, they click the link and automatically download the file!

Sharing photos:
You can do the same with photos - just drag the images that you want into the Photos folder (into a sub folder if you want to get organised).
- Then right click on the folder, select Dropbox...
- Select Copy Public Gallery Link.
- Go to your email and paste - it will paste the web address.
- The recipient opens the email and views an automatically generated web gallery online!

Here's a sample: http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/117989/2/Website%20Portfolio/weddings%20best%20of%202009?h=a47d2b

So that's it. Really, once you've installed dropbox and you've done the above once you'll get the hang in no time! Just drag, drop, right click and paste!

And for the photographers out there with more than one computer, you can even sync your application settings, documents and even bookmarks between your computers (windows and mac) by means of a symbolic link with this finder plugin. I use it to do all of the above and love it! Especially great if you have Lightroom or Aperture on two computers and want to sync the preferences, presets etc!

Let's say you were working away at your desktop on a few files, then have to rush off to a client meeting. You head off, with your laptop under your arm and you open it but remember you didn't copy the files over! Oops! No matter, as soon as your laptop connects with the internet the files instantly sync to your laptop. You make changes in front of your client and those changes are automatically backed up to the cloud and will be present on your home computer as soon as it goes online. Genius!

I just posted my favourites wedding photos of 2009 and thought it was worth a nod to explain what it takes to keep improving the quality of your images year upon year. How does one keep upping the ante?

If you are looking for a few tips on how to give your photography a kick in the pants in 2010 here it is:

- Take more photos. Even if you go out with a compact. Get the creative side of your brain engaged and shoot every day. I carry a small camera with me every day. It doesn't match the quality of my Canon gear, but liken it to the difference in quality of 35mm vs medium format film: perfectly adequate. Small enough for portability, but powerful enough to make 'keepers' that even I am happy with:


- Don't take yourself too seriously: listen to your peers, be honest with them about their work and ask them to be honest with you about yours. I'm lucky enough to be part of a great community here in Boston and a handful of us head to a monthly critique night at Mike and Kate's.

 
- Get on Flickr! No it isn't Facebook without a wall and annoying widgets. Flickr's been around for yonks (well at least since woolly mammoths were wondering the internet). It is a great way to stay connected to your photographer peers and explore billions of images for inspiration. Sure there's a lot of rubbish, but there's an incredible amount of amazing work that will stimulate the brain, especially on these cold days. I'm there (http://flickr.com/brownphotographic)

- Lastly, invest! No I'm not talking about chewing up all of your $ on the next big lens. Every year or so, invest in yourself, peel yourself away from flickr, twitter and facebook and enrol in a workshop. Ask your peers for good options. I've been on a couple recently:

Photo Biz Bootcamp run by Liana Lehman. Great 2-3 day (by day I mean long hours, but fun) course to get yourself on track, establish goals and make sure you are running a business solid enough to support yourself and your family.

Roots Workshop - a visual storytelling workshop run by Emilie Sommer and taught by an insanely talented group of working photojournalists. I continually wax lyrical about this workshop and for good reason. See my full report here.  The quality of my imagery has gone up tenfold, I've keyed my brain in to visual storytelling and I cannot contemplate not have invested in this one. They sold out for 2010 in just a day, so for a chance to get on the list for 2011 you'd better pay attention to the blog www.rootsworkshop.net . A 5D2 or D700 may be high on your list, but if you're looking to improve your storytelling rather than getting lower noise, drop the money on this workshop and have an incredible time doing it.