Calm Photos

It’s almost like I know what I’m doing.

Messing around with computer hardware, that is.

Up to about three years ago I was backing-up all of my original digital files - both raw and JPEG - on an external hard drive - a Maxtor 300 GB. However, after experiencing a complete crash of my PC (back during my pre-Mac days) I started backing-up on archival-quality DVDs, using a great little device that I picked-up at a photography trade show, called a Burn Away. From that point on I burned all of my raw files to DVD even before downloading the contents of my memory cards into my Aperture library.

However, that still left many, many older files vulnerable that were still on the Maxtor drive. Being the lazy person that I can sometimes be, I just let those files be without transferring them to DVD or copying to another drive.

Murphy’s Law came to visit about a year ago. Sure enough, the Maxtor crashed. I did have secondary JPEG files from those images on my Macs, but when making prints I prefer to work from the first generation raw file. Plus there were many other image files on the Maxtor that perhaps on first edit back then didn’t make the cut but deserve a second look, especially when an ad or stock agency sends a request for something that I know I shot four or five years ago but never assigned a file # to.

My challenge was how I could recover all those files on the Maxtor drive without having to send the drive off someplace, only to pay through the nose for drive recovery service.

At last, it pays to read the help forums on some of my favorite pro photography sites as well as pick the brains of the friendly people down at Best Buy.

So what did I do ? I searched for an external drive enclosure kit that would accommodate the older IEEE connection for the 3.5″ drive that was within the original Maxtor unit. The kit came (Macally PHR 100 AF IEEE FireWire Enclosure), I popped in the 3.5″ drive from the Maxtor, hooked it up to my MacPro and bingo-bongo, I had all of my old raw files back again, ready to be imported into Aperture 2.0 for some fine tuning that I was not able to do three or four years ago when the images were first captured. My Mac didn’t even require me to re-format the old drive.

The problem wasn’t the actual disk-drive within the Maxtor. The problem was the original enclosure and connections, which just simply stopped working.

An important part of working as a professional photographer in today’s digital environment is learning a thing or two about computer hardware. Just as important as the software, the drives and disks must be carefully managed and protected. All those original raw files are today’s “negatives” and “transparencies,” the lifeblood of the photographer’s workflow and subsequently, livelihood.

Here are some images from my recently recovered files.

Gem Real Estate Group » - Stock Licensing of Dayton Skyline by Jim Crotty

Other popular Dayton photographs by Jim Crotty that are available for stock image licensing:

More information regarding stock image licensing.

It’s still just as exciting to see my photography published today as it was when I first started Picture Ohio, LLC over five years ago, in April 2003. Whether it be in a book, magazine, newspaper or company brochure, there’s a tremendous feeling of self-satisfaction - as both an artist and a photographer - when I see the end-result of my work.

My most recent work that has been published is posted below, including the cover image of the July/August ‘08 Issue of Over the Back Fence Magazine and the new, full-color brochure for Dan De Vol Custom Home Builder.

My apologies to a few of my local competitors, but guess what ?!?  I’m staying in Dayton ! Yeah !

Yup, despite the challenges I’ve faced over the last five years (I started Picture Ohio, llc in April 2003), I have worked hard to build my reputation as a professional photographer here in Ohio. If anything, I think it has become more clear to me recently that I’ve been selling myself short when it comes to my reputation and the quality of my work.

Previously I announced that I was going to relocate to Dallas, Texas. But all those plans have changed.

I will still be moving out of my current retail space at the end of June. At that point I will be relocating my photography business to my home (which I’m currently searching for) somewhere in the Dayton area. From there I will continue to grow and develop my assignment and editorial photography services for publishers and corporate clients, provide on-location portraiture services, sell licensing rights for my stock images and begin marketing and conducting regular scheduled photography workshops, to be held in the field and at different venues throughout Ohio.

Sales of fine art prints of my work with Ohio nature, landscapes, wildlife and cityscapes, as well as other scenic locations throughout the United States, will continue by way of my online storefront, for retail customers, and direct purchase, for commercial art dealers.

Cool. Now I don’t have to change the name of my business to “Picture Texas.”

Many of my recent HDR photographs are being represented and marketed by Trigger Image - a not-so-typical stock photo agency based in England that places much more emphasis on unique styles of photography versus the usual and mundane. The contributing photographers chosen by Trigger are definitely more leading-edge on the creative scale of image making. I would venture to say that my work is more conservative as compared to the other contributors, however, it is still an honor to be selected considering the quality and originality of photographic work displayed on the Trigger Image web site.

Downtown Dayton Partnership

Yea, I like the look of their new site.

What I really like seeing are a few of my Dayton skyline and cityscape photographs used quite effectively for the visual impact of the site.

And what I love is that the Downtown Dayton Partnership is a paying client. So is the Dayton/Montgomery County Visitors and Convention Bureau.

I appreciate my paying customers. I also appreciate decency, honor and integrity.

Thank you.

One of the many advantages of Aperture over Photoshop - as far as pro photography is concerned - is the way the program organizes image files with minimum effort and time on the part of the user. Original raw files are securely stored away while the photographer harmlessly plays away with automatically copied versions.

In addition to the various project folders I’ve added to Aperture, the program also organizes images by date, automatically creating folders listed according to the year the photographs were shot, in the last week, in the last month and by photographer rating. The user interface of Aperture was specifically designed for professional photographers who manage thousands of shots.

In many ways the program is smarter than the photographer, because after all, most photographers fall within that realm of scattered brain, artsy-fartsy types who start to get pretty squirrelly if they’re not out shooting and instead are spending all their time behind the computer, present company included.

In those ancient days of storing away 35mm transparencies in plastic sleeves there was the possibility that some images that should have been selected as stand-outs are inadvertently filed away, forgotten and neglected. With digital image file management, and especially with programs such as Aperture, the photographer continually has opportunities to go back through and review old images, sometimes with eyes and awareness slightly altered over the months and years as creative vision becomes more well defined, or maybe perhaps when it starts going in a completely different direction.

This is the case with the following two images. Going back through my 2006 files I re-discovered one of the many shots I took of a Saturday night rodeo on a summer evening near Waynesville, Ohio. When I first did my initial edits I focused on the typical “rider and bull” action shots - the ones with the bull and rider in mid-air, dust swirling about and the look of determination in the rider’s face. I had plenty to choose from. But while reviewing the thumbnails in Aperture this one jumped-up at me. It caught my attention where it hadn’t before. Maybe it’s because I’ve been looking at a lot of candid portraits and street images lately, but then again, there had to be something about the scene that first caught my eye when I took the shot. It’s what I call a good “story teller.”

Crowd shots can be good at that, especially at sporting events where there’s lots of color and character - the attitude of the riders, stance of the rodeo clown, the looks on the faces of the kids, the low light of late day. The image tells the message of rural Ohio in summer.

Below is another “hidden gem” recently discovered. Why I first passed this one over I don’t know. It was one of many I took while hiking and photographing Dark Hollow Falls in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park in early April 2007. Most of my photographs of the area include the waterfall, but looking just across the stream I was moved to capture the still bare tree branches against the darkening sky with a cloud of mountain mist moving down slope. The lichen-covered rocks and fallen trees communicate that sense of wilderness in the landscape without distracting from the overall composition of the frame. What initially caught my eye - and the element that I wanted to emphasize - was the texture and feeling of the mist just above the ground and creating so much depth amongst the trees.

Tis a good one the more I look at it. What I love about what I do is my ability to instantly go back to the particular place and moment when each of my photographs was taken, and remember what I was feeling at the time and the thoughts that were directing my vision. I have close to 10,000 images in my stock library, and I can confidently say that I can go back and revisit each and every “shot-scene” and tell the story behind the photograph. That’s almost scary, but that’s the difference between the average shooter and someone who truly gets into and is passionate about his or her avocation.