I made the mistake of selling an item to someone and accepting PayPal (I’ve actually been a PayPal customer since they first opened years ago and never had an issue like this!), and it’s been a miserable experience where PayPal’s completely enabled to buyer to take advantage of me. Personally, I plan on avoiding PayPal whenever I can, and here’s why you should, too.
Why Not to Use PayPal
October 22nd, 2011DSLRU Lessons Learned
September 6th, 2011
DSLRU
Unfortunately, we recently decided to shut the site down because we weren’t breaking even from it and didn’t see a viable way to increase our business. I wanted to share my experience in case anyone else finds it helpful.
Starting to Build the Arcticopter I
February 6th, 2011
Tinning the wires on a Turnigy Plush 12A ESC
Sachtler Cine DSLR and RRS Plates
January 30th, 2011I’ve been looking into fluid heads for a long time, wanting to buy one for video work but not seeing much that I’m happy with. Ideally, I wanted a lightweight one that had an integrated flat base (to work with my existing tripods) and could accept my Really Right Stuff plates, which all my cameras have. Oh, I didn’t want to spend tons of money, either. I recently decided to buy the Sachtler Cine DSLR, and while it’s not perfect, I’m happy with my purchase.
First Flight
January 23rd, 2011While I’ve been continuing to find time to practice with a flight sim, I decided that I wanted to try flying my Blade mCX2 for real. I have to say it was a lot of fun and easier than the TRex 500 I’ve been using in the sim, but there were still a few gotchas.
Aerial Photography with RC Helicopters
January 17th, 2011I’m looking at heading to some remote regions of the planet in the near future, and I want to do some aerial shooting. Unfortunately, in one location, getting a helicopter costs $100,000 for a week, and a hot air balloon costs $50,000. That’s more than I can afford. Instead, I’ve started to look into using RC helicopters to do some aerial shooting. With wireless video downlinks (so that you can see what the camera sees) and features like GPS hold (which will cause the heli to hold itself exactly where you put it in the air), it seems like the time’s right to use these guys for serious work. I’ll try to post what I learn here, as there’s a lot of info out there!
Offsite Backup for Photographers
November 7th, 2010We photographers have a serious problem. We’re generating hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes of data (even more now that our DSLRs shoot video), data that represents hours of hard work, and yet it’s incredibly easy for us to lose our Aperture and Lightroom libraries if a drive goes bad. There are ways we can setup our main workstations to limit our potential data loss, but we really need good, offsite backup so that we don’t lose everything in case of fire or theft. However, most offsite backup services aren’t aimed at people with terabytes of data. After a lot of investigating and trial and error, I think I’ve finally found a great, offsite backup solution with Amazon S3.
Iceland Late, Short, Trip Report
November 7th, 2010This is months late and not at all detailed, but let me just say that Iceland was really amazing. Even though the exchange rate’s better, it was still quite expensive, and shooting from a helicopter a few times was ridiculously expensive, but it was worth every penny, in my mind. Check out the gallery and let me know if you agree!
Japan 2010 Trip Report
March 6th, 2010We got back from Japan about a month ago, but this is the first chance I’ve had to write about the trip! It was a really great time on the whole, and I definitely got some shots I’m happy with.
Digital Photo Academy classes
January 18th, 2010I’m now an instructor for San Francisco with the Panasonic Digital Photo Academy, an impressive, nation-wide photography school run by some talented people! I’ll be teaching a great advanced photography workshop at Fisherman’s Wharf on February 13 and basic and intermediate classes in March. There’s more information (including registration instructions) on the DPA website.
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