I just got back from the EOL APA event that took place in Los Angeles last night - and it was pretty fantastic.  It was well worth the cross country round-trip.  

There seemed to be great interest out there on behalf of photographers who were contemplating making the jump into video/film.   While there is a lot to learn in terms of the nuances between shooting a still vs. moving image - I think that one of the biggest hurdles for most will be post production.

Therefore  I wanted to let you in on my little secret:  Ripple Training.    I met Steve Martin (the person behind Ripple Training) two years ago at NAB - we were both there as guest speakers for Apple - at the time he was helping to announce Final Cut Studio 2, and I was there to talk about Aperture and my experience with it.   Steve and a few of the other experts out there (many of them the actual product managers for many of the Apple apps) gave me one on one training during the lengthy breaks back stage - and you’d figure that with that kind of tutelage that I’d be an expert at these apps by now… but I can tell you that there’s ALWAYS more to learn.

As I find myself jumping into video/film now - I felt that I needed a refresher course and a more in depth understanding of workflow etc.  I’m not a big fan of books - they’re often too bulky to travel with - and I just love video tutorials.   I found myself asking quite a few friends who work at/with Apple where the best source for such information could be found - and quite a few of them kept sending me back to Steve’s Ripple Training series.    (Note: I use Apple’s Final’s Cut Studio 2 to cut/grade/export my video - and the Ripple Training series focuses on that product.) (more…)

One of the most common questions that have been posed by people on this blog is:  Do you delete your images in camera and do you delete images on your server or in your Aperture Library?

I think it’s a very important question, and my answer for the most part is: No - I don’t.

Why?  Well here it is:  I’ll point to the following events in specific:  My coverage of Hurricane Katrina, and my coverage of (actually pretty much any) Olympics.  In all of these events - I was often rushing to make a deadline and under severe pressure.  I had a clear idea of what the “news of the day” was and what images I needed to get out first, and I was all too often sleep deprived - in that state, I become pretty close to being my own worst editor.  

And here’s a big lesson: once you make that initial edit - you almost NEVER MAKE a second edit of that work - EVER.   All too often you move on to the next event or day - and never get the luxury of looking back.

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