I’m revved with anticipation about MacWorld. But it’s not for the same reason that most of you might be. Sure, I’m looking forward to the iTV, some sneak peeks into Leopard, some new hardware, and maybe a new phone. But, what’s really fueling my excitement is that I’ve got a`n awesome photo gig lined up to shoot some material for a client at MacWorld. I simply can’t wait to get on with it.
For this shoot, I’ll be using Aperture as an essential part of my workflow. And, I’ve decided to take you behind the scenes as I work this gig and provide day-by-day postings throughout MacWorld. My hope is to offer you a glimpse into what it’s like using Aperture in such an environment and document some of the ways in which I move through the mountain of data that comes off of my camera while working such a gig. And maybe, since this is the first time I’ll be writing about workflow publicly while in the heat of a shoot, I’ll identify some areas in which my own workflow can stand a bit of improvement.
Today, being the Sunday before MacWorld, my thoughts are all about preparation. Of course, I’m thinking about the camera equipment I need to have, as well making sure that it’s all clean and ready to go. Just as important, however, is the computing part of the equation. I used to show up with just my laptop and a card reader, but experience has taught me well to have a few more things with me.
Here’s my checklist for the computer equipment I’m bringing along to MacWorld:
- 17″ MacBook Pro, it’s the best mobile system going for running Aperture on. I’ve found the big screen to be lovely for editing images on and the system pretty much travels in my bags just like my previous 15″ laptops did. It’s the older Core Duo model (not the Core 2 Duo), but it gets the job done.
- External FW 800 100GB drive, for storing my primary Aperture library on. Putting the images on a secondary spindle means that Aperture doesn’t have to fight any disk accesses the system might be doing, especially to virtual memory. Every little bit helps when you’re trying to move fast in a portable setup that’s limited to 2GB of memory. The drive I’m using is the LaCie drive I wrote about in November on this blog. So far, it’s working well.
- External FW 400 100GB drive, because you don’t know when a drive will decide to stop working and you never, ever, ever want to lose the RAW images for a shoot. Clients tend not to like that. The best bet is to duplicate the images as soon as they come off the Compact Flash cards.
- Gretag Macbeth Eye-One Display 2, for updating the profiles on my system when I arrive at my hotel room. I’ve become fastidious with color profiling in the last few years and even though the 17″ MacBook Pro display gamut isn’t that of a Cinema display, having a good profile maximizes its utility when editing images. I certainly don’t want to hand off images to my client that have some odd color tinge to them because I wasn’t taking advantage of all that ColorSync has to offer.
- Lexar Professional FW CompactFlash reader, to get images off of the flash cards and into Aperture and onto the backup drive as fast as possible. I’ve owned cheap CompactFlash card readers before and they are no fun. Spend the money. Get the good stuff. Trust me on this one.
- A power strip. Hotel rooms are infamous for only giving you one plug when you need three or five. It’s no fun juggling plugs to get everything charged up before the next morning.
- DVD blanks, just in case the client wants to get copies of the images right after the shoot to take with them.
- Mac OS X Tiger, Aperture, and Photoshop installation disks and serial numbers. You never know when a system will go boom on you and you’ll need to reinstall. And you’ll certainly want to be able to get up and running on a new system if your current one gets run over by a truck. These things do happen.
- Power Supplies. You’d laugh if you knew how many power supplies I’ve bought because I’ve left one behind in a hotel room or at home. Ok, I’ll spill the beans: at least 4 or 5 a year over the last few years. It’s just my way of contributing to Apple’s bottom line. So, now I seriously check and double check for my power supplies before leaving home.
- Last, but not least, my iPod. I can’t edit photographs well without good music. Sure, I could use iTunes, but I’d rather give Aperture as much of my system resources as I can. That way, I can let the CPU spend all of its time opening up RAW files instead of spending a bit of time decoding an AAC stream.
That’s pretty much it. That’s my mobile Aperture workflow platform as of January 2007. Now, let me ask you: What do you take on the road with you when you go on a photo shoot? What little bits and bobs do you find essential?
I would make sure that the power strip has built in surge protection. Last time I stayed at a hotel and had the laptop plugged in overnight, the power supply was dead in the morning.
Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.
The GIGA Vu Pro Evolution (GVPE) has been selling out at B&H (etc...) very fast. I just got mine last night and the screen is very nice. I'm hoping I'll get a chance to test it out this weekend. If you're ever in the Phoenix area, shoot me an email through flickr or whatever.
Andrew: That's a darn good suggestion--especially when you are in an unknown situtation. Or even in a hotel room. Hrm... I may have to add that to my arsenal.
KG: Sometimes I'll use tons of Gaffers tape. Sometimes not at all. I've used it to strap a light onto a post when a clamp broke. I've used it to modify the way clothing hangs on someone. I've even used it to strap down my camera when set up on an intervalometer for time-lapse work which helped keep it from getting bumped about by other people. When you need it, it's perfect stuff.
The GIGA VuPro looks pretty cool. It's something that I'd like to play with for sure and see how it works. What you describe would definitly fit the bill of being able to have your photos on two drives while out in the field.
As far as hard drive speed, the best that can be said is that YMMV. From everything I've read, there's not a bunch of difference in the speed when you're doing lots of random access. But when you're pulling a bunch of linear data of the drive at once, the 7200 drives are noticeably faster. YMMV and all that. :)
How often do you need Gaffers tape? What do you find yourself using it for the most? Just curious as I've never had a need.
I'm just starting out, but I just got a Jobo GIGA VuPro Evolution (enough names?) and Lacie ruggedized 80GB HD (only 5400rpm USB2). I'm thinking of returning the Lacie for the 7200rpm drive, but is it necessary? Is the HD speed really a bottle neck at 5400rpm?
Btw, Rob Galbraith did a review on a preproduction Jobo GVPE last year.
http://robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-7892-8176
As always, thanks for sharing your insights on Photography, James.
I bring a cable lock for my laptop. It would be no fun to come back to my room or car to find my laptop missing.
Thanks! So far, so good today. There's been a few catches, but nothing hardware or Aperture related yet. That comes later today...
Thanks for the catches.
Interesting - can't wait to hear what goes wrong that you haven't planned for! In bocca al lupo (good luck).
Gio
btw "all of it's time" should be "its", "loose the RAW" should be "lose", and "publically" should be "publicly".
Oh, I've got Gaffers tape with me. I always have it in the camera bag. The last time I was at K&S down in Palo Alto, I found a little mini roll of it which is the perfect size to fit in my carry bags. In the big bag is the big roll of Gaffers tape.
The camera equipment checklist would be a dooozy indeed, but Gaffers tape would be near the top.
You forgot Gaffers tape. Make sure to bring some Gaffers tape! Don't leave home without it.