0Posted by Nate Ludens on November 3, 2010 at 9:35 am
I had the fortune of shooting photos of another great production by Project Dinner Table on Saturday, October 30th. The event was held at a farm on the northern edge of Las Vegas called the Gilcrease Orchard. (Yes – there’s a farm in Las Vegas). Rick Moonen from RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay and his team provided the eats, Nevada Beverage provided the parrrr-tay, if you know what I mean.
Now the tech lingo: I shot the entire event with a Canon 5D Mark II, using 3 lenses: a 24-70mm f/2.8, a 70-200mm IS USM f/2.8, and I cheated, using a Tamron 11-18mm EF-S lens (not compatible with full frame sensors… or so they say). Dude, there wasn’t much light, so I utilized the awesome noise reduction in Adobe Lightroom 3 on a handful of these shots, though – the 5DMkII continues to amaze me with high ISO functions. Boy, Canon has come a LONG ways since I used to shoot snowstorms at ISO 800 with the 10D about 7-8 yrs ago. As usual, my favorite shots are the goofy ones from shoestring-level or odd angles, getting a little close to the BBQ grill, or some of the slow-shutter speed shots from the tripod. Lesson to take away from this event (for me) – bring a truckload of AA Batteries or rent a new Canon Speedlight that recycles flash faster.
Special thanks goes out to Gina, (Happy Birthday!) Kim, Christine and the rest of the event coordinators. This was their 2nd event in a week, and as always, they put on one unforgettable evening. I hope you enjoy the photos (below) as much as I enjoy shooting them.
0Posted by Nate Ludens on October 29, 2010 at 4:52 am
Today’s prominent facebook-API message on every Hootsuite user’s dashboard was kind of a shocker to some, and quite a few comments I read today showed anger or frustration. There’s some lessons to be learned here, and I think Hootsuite’s going to be the one observing their users (us) learning the most.
On some minute level, I have to wonder if it’s a delayed power play from Facebook to sort of show 3rd party apps “who’s boss,” – or perhaps some 3rd parties cut some dev corners to get out a head start on the Social Media App game. This isn’t a hack on Hootsuite – I’m a big fan, and have been an advocate since it’s launch. Tweetdeck, Echofon, Tweetie for Mac, I’ve used them all. Every single one has glitches – the more social networks it operates, the more drama with API calls, the more down time. Chalk most of these up to growing pains. (Anyone all-too familiar with the Fail Whale?)
Lesson 1: You get what you pay for. When Hootsuite announced a few months ago that they were going to a pay model, the company was met with massive Boos and Jeers. Hootsuite retracted, and said they’d chill and develop a new strategy for their pay version. Well, today they showed corporate users (the freeloaders, specifically) that if they want Hootsuite to single-handedly operate a company’s Customer Relationship Management, they may actually want to invest a dime in it.
I wonder what would happen if a large corporation had a call center full of volunteers and donated phones… I digress….
Lesson 2 is for non-professional SM users. Just because you can post and schedule every update on facebook and twitter and your blog and LinkedIn and MySpace – doesn’t mean you should. When was the last time you actually logged into each of your social networks to post on each, individually?
This week, I was graciously invited to be the co-manager for the Las Vegas Photoshop & Print Users Group, or, VegasPUG. What’s that, you say?
“Vegas PUG exists to introduce or reacquaint people with Adobe’s powerful desktop and web applications for Print design. Our meetings are structured in “show-and-do” lab format, giving attendees an immediate opportunity to put what they’re learning to use right away as well as tapping into the knowledge of our PUG Xperts as they roam the room answering questions and providing individual instruction where needed. Quarterly advanced labs will give seasoned users an opportunity to expand their skills or to share a technique with the group. Meetings are held monthly and are free for members”.
I’m excited to connect with this new community (I’m a community type of guy) and share some of my tricks with Photoshop and all things Adobe (big fan).
Over the next few weeks I’ll have some more news about upcoming programs and – who knows – maybe some other really exciting stuff to share.
