While cruising around the trade show floor at SXSW last week, we came upon one of the coolest tools we’ve seen in awhile.
We all have to carry around a flash drive, whether we need to transfer files from one computer to another, or perhaps carry around a presentation in your pocket. (Don’t go there, please.)
There are times we have even put a full company presentation on a flash drive as a giveaway to perspective partners.
Well, what ever you need to use one for, they are pretty utilitarian in form and function.
But what if they could be made cooler?
Designed by the hottest new artists of today? AND have exclusive content included like wallpaper, avatars, videos, music, and more?
Like the mimoZine â„¢ digital magazine a video-based look into the world where tech, culture, and fashion converge, featuring pieces by and interviews with musicians, artists,comedians, and super-villains.

Then you have Mimobots.

These flash drives come in a variety of capacities, and a freaking crazy range of styles. We dug the one featured on the back of the MOMA catalog, by artists Sam Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, called FriendsWithYou. All of the content on these drives follow the same vision as the artistic exterior of the drive.

But you don’t have to stop there. Are you a Star Wars fan? They have drives for you. Imagine plugging Princess Leia into your laptop.

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Or maybe one designed by Gary Baseman. Check out the entire line.

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What we also like about this company is the “green factor”. When we were at their booth, they were offering bucks off the cost, if you purchased a new drive and transferred the contents from your old one. They will recycle that old drive.

Look, we all use these, so why not do a little form with your function?

We are here to help:

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This week we have a smiling Super Malfi, 8gb, numbered flash drive for one of you.

Details will be in the NEWSLETTER this week, so sign on up.

That’s right; it’s time to lighten up.

We are very happy that the Annenberg Foundation loves photography. A lot.
They have created this unique new space in Los Angeles, the Annnenberg Space for Photography, that has gone way beyond a simple exhibition building.

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Of course what they have done with 10,000 sq is amazing. What could have become a simple box, was instead transformed into an experiential space with the centerpiece room sporting 2 hi-res 4K screens, showing a constantly changing array of digitized photographs, in incredible quality.
Monitors this good are actually only found at NASA, and well, in this space.

As well as the screens, are more traditional prints, either shown off in a singular fashion, or gathered to create a full gestalt of an artists iconic work.

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Look up for a sec, and you’ll be rewarded with the blades of a lens iris, incorporated into the ceiling design, further emphasizing the circular shape of this main viewing room.

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But, we digress.

Lets go back to the beginning for a second.

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When you first enter, the walls are currently covered with the photographs of master architectural photographer, Julius Shulman, who has captured the designs of Los Angeles in massive prints.
This 93 year old photographer also photographed this space, earlier this month.

As you walk down the hall, you will find 2 sitting areas with 2 of the 150 Microsoft SURFACE touch screen table tops in the world, allowing you to interact and play with the images from the exhibit, making your own viewing table.

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And then the walls appear to curve around , leading you to the main room.
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Ok, they don’t just appear to be curving, they do.
And the walls are filled with classic silver prints, leading you to the main room, you saw at the top of this page.

This place is so photographic centric that there is even photography when you are in the restrooms.

[photopress:annenberg_2.jpg,full,centered] seriously, there is a monitor embedded into the mirror, with media running.
Or just waiting for them.

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The LA Times has kiosks, showing some of the best photojournalistic images from their archives, in the hallway in front of the restrooms.

What you don’t see when you walk through the space:
There is a seminar and workshop room behind a sliding wall where the masters of photography will be teaching. check the schedule for upcoming classes. We hear that in the future, the plan is for these classes to be broadcast online, allowing photographers around the world to take advantage of the same workshops.

And there is a concept in the Annenberg family that was shared with us on our tour. It seems that some of the best conversations happen in the kitchen.
It’s that way in our house. Yours, too?

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So they’ve built a full up beautiful kitchen to create that “salon” feeling , and will encourage the invited guests to hang out, eat pasta, and discuss the world of photography. What do we mean by salon? It is basically gathering the best minds and, in a very comfortable environment, sharing thoughts on bigger picture concepts in the world. In our case, the photographic world.

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Hmmm…how do we get an invitation to that?

And there is a non-lending library of materials, both print and other media that will allow the visitors to look, read and learn, and otherwise drink up the world of photography.

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It’s the last bits we discussed that has separated the Space for Photography from other photographic institutions. The well rounded, encompassing thought process for all that is here could only have come from people who are as passionate about photography as we are. And it shows.

Entrance to the space is free. Workshops and seminars will be charged extra.

Tonight we’ll hit the opening gala, and in a day or 2 we’ll give a review of the opening show, L8S ANG3LES

Hours (starting March 27th, 2009)
Wed-Sun: 11am – 6pm

Century Plaza
2000 Avenue of the Stars, #10
Los Angeles, CA 90067
tel: 213.403.3000
fax: 213.403.3100

Do you think we are a little excited?
Plus right on the heels of this opening is the Month of Photography In LA.
Love the Spring.

[photopress:kq455aa_300.jpg.jpeg,full,alignright]Springtime is here and it’s time to clean-up, clear out, and make room for the new.
Isn’t it?
All of those photographs you have locked away somewhere on your computer, maybe hidden in unknown folders with cryptic DSC-100 type codes.
Yeah, we all have them.
OK, take a deep breath, and get ready to fix that.
This week we have a very cool product from HP, called SimpleSave. It’s a set of 5 DVD’s with preloaded software that reminds us of a Roomba. (pictured below)
[photopress:roomba_1x.jpg,full,alignright] You know, that vacuum cleaner you put on the floor and let it just find the dirt and suck it up, without you lifting a finger? Until you have to turn it off?
This is kinda like that.
All you do is put a DVD into your computer, and it will search around on your hard drive and put all of your images on a DVD hard copy. All you need to do is listen for the prompts to change discs. Sweet, right?
OK, there are a few caveats: PC only, jpgs only. .
Hey, we wanted to make sure the 93% (PC users) got some exclusive love. Click here for a previous review of the product.
But, we know that the rest of you are doing regular back-ups to hard drives. Of course you are.
We’ll keep revisiting this topic, until everyone out there has backed up their digital life. It’s like a mission we’re on.

[photopress:arbusbook_1.jpg,full,alignright] Would we forget about the MAC readers out there? Fugedabodit! You folks will have the option of an excellent biography of Diane Arbus by Patricia Bosworth. It’s spring so maybe find a nice tree to sit under and have a good read.

Let’s be fair though: anybody can ask for either freebie. Details will be in the NEWSLETTER this week. Better sign up fast though. It gets scheduled late tonight and appears in your inbox tomorrow at 9:00 AM PST.

We’re gonna get to the free gear side of town, starting next week. Our trips and meetings have been fruitful.
Not quite like the J.Peterman catalogs, but we’ve found some excellent tools out there that’ll enhance your photographic life.
And we all love our gear, right?

Here’s how do it:
1. Hit reply to the NEWSLETTER
2. Get the Special words for the item you’d like
3. Put those words into the subject line of
the email.
4. Delete body of email (saving server space)
4. Add a shipping address
5. Hit Send

Yep, that’s all it takes. What we do is sort the words, and count up from the bottom, eliminating replies that haven’t followed the list of rules, and get to the proper numbers.
Fairest way that we’ve found.
So, #50 gets the DVD’s and # 51 gets the book. Of course, each item has it’s own countdown.
hmmm…..seems easy, right?

At every major event you can see them laden down with the bags of gear, strobe frames, wrists and necks full of badges, laminates, and passes. Even the cameras had their own tags

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When you are watching music, they get the 1st row access (at least for 3 songs), at the conferences, they are sitting down by the stage waiting, watching, only to pop up for that decisive moment.

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[photopress:_420.jpg,full,centered] a little Gary Fong flash attachment action here

They hang in the press room, and have a silent community among them. Yep, they felt that every photographer should get the shot, and there was a bond., almost like a secret handshake. Nice.
This past week at SXSW, we were very happy to have not only a paid all access pass, but a press pass, allowing an intimacy with the event, and the ability to bring you another look from a shooters point of view.

One night, we left the big cameras at home and just went out with a lighter point and shoot.
The images were just what we expected; When you look in the cameras LCD, it’s OK. There is image and it is in the moment.
But sharing with anyone? What, are you crazy?

We also ran into this hard working crew, led by Jacob Mengelkoch, who set up a studio between 2 dumpsters, and were hired to shot the bands as they came out of a venue after playing. Working 12-18 hour days, these folks still had a great demeanor.
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And why not: they loved what they were doing.

And then there was this very cool guy named Gary Miller.

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Big in stature and talent. Seemed he got the cover shot of the local periodicals on a regular basis.

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And even seeing him upload after the event in the press room, you could see why. Congrats Gary!

It wasn’t just guys. there was a good representation on women with credentials to cover the event.

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Like Anne Marie Carson, a local shooter working the venues. She also shared a great story about buying a Nikon digital camera body from a pawn shop for $50, and it only took a a coupla pieces and ingenuity, to restore it to an extra hardworking body.

There was a slightly better representation for Nikon on the lines. Not sure if it was a regional thing, but we were among that group.

Cameras abounded on all fronts though.

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And sometimes the multi-taskers had to get the shots, too.

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But we would like to thank all of the photographers we met, shared shooting space with, or just gave the photogs high sign in passing.
It’s a club we are happy to be members in. I’m sure all of you out there feel the same way.

We are sifting through thousands of images that we’ve shot, and will make an online gallery available for those that would like to check it out.

Some folks have asked, what was in our bag. We’ll it goes like this:

Nikon D700
24-70 2.8 lens
80-200 2.8 lens
3 camera batteries, plus rechargeable AA’s for the flash
4 CF cards- 3 4 gb, 1 8gb.
Crumpler neck strap
Nikon SB-800 flash
G-Raid external 7200RPM HD
MacBook Pro
Adobe Lighroom 2
Nikon D200 – just in the bag for back-up
Flip ULTRA camera
Business cards
Pens
Mini mag flash light
Cinnamon Gum
Lens cloths

And the bag we used? Well, this time it was an Oakley backpack, fully padded and partitioned.
With the amount of folks randomly asking how much the gear was worth, and all of masses of revelers, especially in the music portion, total stealth was the key.
We travel it all in a ThinkTank Airporter, though, and reload once at the destination. Have to look into that ShapeShifter.

Austin is now seeing the changing of the guard:
The Interactive portion of SXSW has ended,
[photopress:_SXS1987.jpg,full,centered] Hooking up in the Blogger Lounge
[photopress:_SXS1971.jpg,full,centered] Chris Anderson, writer of the Long Tail

the film continues,
[photopress:_SXS1754.jpg,full,centered] Robert Rodriguez filled the room with indie filmmakers

[photopress:_SXS1820.jpg,full,centered] Rose McGowan with happy fan

As in all film festivals, though, the premieres, sneaks, panels, parties and celebs,
have all happened already at the beginning of the event. Tons of screenings still to catch.

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But the music, which may be the heart and soul of this whole deal, began last night.
The town has EXPLODED with people!
And now, the photographic requirements have shifted.
The crowd shots are easy, but the clubs require a little more for a solid image.
Of course access is a key element, but check your gear.
We’re using a Nikon D700 with a 24mm-70mm, 2.8 as standard, and an 80-200 2.8 (yes, an older lens, non VR), extra batteries, extra media cards, comfortable Crumpler neck strap.

[photopress:_SXS1883.jpg,full,centered] Illeana Douglas working a blond wig, in a Dutch comedy group

Sure, sometimes a flash is fine, and it can work the stage the right way.

We kinda feel that if you can go with a non-flash, real stage lighting pic, it may come off more authentic to the scene.
then there are the colors of the stage lights to consider. Now in the major concerts you’ll attend, there is a lighting plan set out and designed for maximum impact , usually relating to the performer.
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Let’s be real here.

With about 1400 performances going on all over his city, you just have to be happy that there is light, period.
Color or not.

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So here is a question for you; do you think it’s a better idea to maintain the reality of the light, or go 180 degrees another way to remove the color from the equation?