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radiantphotography.com > Blog > 2011 > March

Van Heffner portrait at Aria Hotel

We recently completely an awesomely fast and diverse location portraiture shoot of Las Vegas big wig Van Heffner for Nevada Meetings + Events Magazine. (Digital version here, see page 48).

Mr. Heffner is President and CEO of the Nevada Hotel & Lodging Association, and one of the nicest men we’ve ever had the pleasure to photograph. We led Mr. Heffner around the Aria Hotel property for about an hour and a half, lighting and shooting in six different portrait environments. It was quite a feat, and he was relaxed throughout the whole process. Big thanks go to Aria’s Barbara Maisano and Shannon McCallum for making things happen at Aria for this shoot to be a success.

Van Heffner at Aria Hotel

Van Heffner at Aria Hotel

Van Heffner at Aria

Van Heffner at Aria

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Behind the scenes vid of Radiant Photography luxury product shoot

We recently had the pleasure of shooting four groupings of luxury products for a six page spread in Desert Companion Magazine, for their advertising client GGP.  It was an awesome gig with great stylists and art direction.  GGP, which runs three Las Vegas luxury retail venues including Fashion Show Mall and the Shoppes at Palazzo, filmed a behind the scenes video of the shoot.  It includes the luxury products, the photography equipment and some interviews with key players in the shoot, including Radiant Photography owner Ryan Weber.

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“Creepy” software shows others when & where you took your photos.

A new program called creepy might convince you to stop geotagging your photos.

Type in a username from Flickr or Twitter and it will map out when and where all the user’s photos were taken.

It also works with the following photo hosting sites by pulling EXIF data:

  • flickr – information retrieved from API
  • twitpic.com – information retrieved from API and photo exif tags
  • yfrog.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
  • img.ly – information retrieved from photo exif tags
  • plixi.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
  • twitrpix.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
  • foleext.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
  • shozu.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
  • pickhur.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
  • moby.to – information retrieved from API and photo exif tags
  • twitsnaps.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags
  • twitgoo.com – information retrieved from photo exif tags

Even more creepy is that you can export all the data to .csv format and save it….like a stalker…or a good marketer scouring info on a client’s lifestyle habits, I guess.

Some people like geotagging, and we use it in conjunction with Google Maps to digitally “scout” locations before we travel there.  But we’re not too fond of making it easier for you to come kill us or wreck our photo shoot  minutes after we post a behind the scenes shot on Twitter.

You can avoid geotagging altogether by turning it off in your apps and mobile devices, or by using a scrubbing software like Geotag Security.

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iPad 2 features for the photographer

The iPad 2 has been announced today, and while we’re not there to play with an actual unit, we’ve culled the interwebs compiling what new version features will be useful for photographers.

Cameras:
While we can’t find specific specs on the cameras, the iPad 2 comes with front and rear cameras.  The rear camera will shoot 720 HD, and the front will shoot VGA resolution, so we’re confident the camera sensors will be great.  This will allow for video chatting with the pre-installed “Facetime” app.  More importantly to us is the ability to capture locations while scouting and then edit them on the spot.  Now instead of sketching out a location lighting idea with a client on paper, we can work at the site with “Photo Booth” or some other other app to sketch in lighting locations, models, etc on a real image.

Processors:
The new version uses the new 1GHz A5 chip with dual-core processors.  The CPU performance will be twice as fast as the iPad 1 and up to nine times faster graphics processing.  This will be useful for photogs during editing and slide show presentations.

Storage and output:
Sadly the iPad 2 didn’t get the removable SD card photographers were craving, but there is a camera expansion pack and loads of on-board memory.   The iPad 2 also outputs at full 1080p with and HDMI output, so you can plug your iPad into your client’s flat-screen and really wow them with your portfolio slide show.  (The HDMI output requires a $39 adapter, and since the iPad 2 captures at 720p, I’m guessing it’s just up-scaled to 1080p)

Variety:
The iPad 2 will be available in many flavors and the 16GB WiFi version starts at $499.  You can opt for white or black cases.  It’s also available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB variations, all with WiFi and some with 3G connectivity through ATT or Verizon (you have to choose just one).  None of the units will act as a wifi hotspot like the iPhone 4.

By far we’re most excited about the processing speed, the additional camera with high res video, and the HDMI output.  We see an improved work flow and more impressive client experience for photographers upgrading to the iPad 2.

What are your thoughts?  Notice any benefits or negative aspects we missed from a photographer’s view?

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