So, my intuition was correct. Apple released new MacBook Pros earlier this week. I’ve been using the now-previous generation MacBook Pro on my China trip for several days now. It’s proven useful as my mobile command center. With Aperture and Final Cut, I can work rip footage and process images with relative ease. With only 2GB of RAM and a slow hard drive, however, I can only do one of those things at a time.

When I was at the Shanghai Airport yesterday, I had to take my computer out of its case in order to carry it onto the airplane (I already was bringing along my Pelican case). At 5.4 pounds, the weight of the MacBook was getting to me. It’s not so much the weight, but the size of the computer which was annoying. I had thought about getting a MacBook Air at one point before the trip, but the photo above shows very clearly why I needed to get a MacBook Pro. Attached the computer are:

• FireWire 400: Sony HVR-V1U HDV Videocamera
• FireWire 800: SanDisk Extreme IV Card Reader
• USB #1: Unlocked BlackBerry phone running on China Mobile network
• USB #2: iPhone
• Ethernet: Internet Connection
• Macsafe Power Connector: The MacBook needs its juice!

There’s no way that I can do what I’m doing with the MacBook Air. The weight advantage is tempting, but man do I need those cables!

It’s 10:58 pm in Hong Kong right now. We arrived safely after a 16 hour flight. You can read about the trip over to Asia on The Qiu Jin Project website!

It’s less than seven hours before we board the shuttle to take us to SFO. Our flight is at noon today, but those international flights like you there hours earlier.

I’ll be posting most of my updates on The Qiu Jin Project website. The site is still a work in progress, but you can read up on the project, learn about the cast and crew, and watch the trailer in glorious HD.If I have good Internet coverage in China and copious amounts of free time, I’ll be posting photos and even the occasional video.

With regards to photography gear, I chose the following equipment:

• Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II DSLR: This was a no-brainer. It’s still one of the best cameras out there. I’m taking three batteries with me.
• Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi: I would have liked to bring another 1D-series body as my backup, but there was no space left in the case. The Digital Rebel will be an adequate compromise
• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS: This lens will see itself mated to the 1Ds about 90% of the time.
• Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L with EF Extender 1.4X: If I need to reach out and photograph someone, this is the lens to do it with. I chose this lens over the 70-200/2.8 due because of size and weight
• Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact-Macro: It’s small, light, and versatile!
• Canon 550EX Speedlite
• Canon Remote Timer and Controller
• Phoxle SpectraSnap White Balance Filter and Flash Match Filters: These will provide custom white balance for my camera and videocamera
• Gitzo 1128 Tripod with Acratech Ultimate Ballhead and Bogen Fluid Head: We’ll rent a heavier tripod in Shanghai, but in a pinch the light Gitzo could do the job.
• Sony HVR-V1U: I made my decision. We’re going to shoot in 1080/60i instead of Sony’s pseudo 24P or 30P
• MacBook Pro with Final Cut Pro Studio 2 and Aperture 2.0: Bought yesterday, this should provide us with enough processing power to handle photo and video work.
• Epson P-2000 Photo Tank: This will store a backup of my photos
• iPhone: I won’t be using it on China Mobile, but if there’s free Wi-Fi, I’m so there!
• Pelican 1510 Case: This case is designed to fit in carry-on, overhead bins.

See more packing photos below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve used pretty much every kind of white balance filter that’s been made. 18% Kodak Gray Cards, the WhiBal Card, and the ExpoDisc. For my upcoming trip to China, I’m taking a new product, Phoxle’s SpectraSnap White Balance Filter.

The SpectraSnap was designed by COBA member, Chris Pedersen. Chris has been coming to COBA for many years now, and he’s given some excellent presentations. Last August, he spoke about his early experiments with creating a white balance filter. It’s amazing to see his progress in just a few months. Fast forward to today, and he’s got shipping product!

What I like about the SpectraSnap is that it (1) is one-size fits all and (2) is a shoot-through filter. While convenient to use, I never had good results with the WhiBal card. With the ExpoDisc, it was always a pain to attach it to lenses less than the diameter of the disc (77mm). The SpectraSnap combines the best of both competing products. What’s great is that I can attach the SpectraSnap to my Sony HVR-V1U videocamera to get custom white balance that’s better than pointing the camera at a blank wall or piece of paper.

If you want to color correct for both ambient light and flash, Phoxle also sells Flash Match Filters. I’ll be testing both products with me in China, so more to come when I return!

The March meeting for the Camera Owners of the Bay Area (COBA) user group will be held on Wednesday, March 12, 2008, in Cordura Hall 100 at Stanford University from 7:30-10:00 pm.

Meeting Organizers

This month, Alvin, JC, Oliver, and Chris will be hosting the COBA meeting in my place. I will be finishing up my trip in China, where I will have been photographing and filming a documentary on the life and times of China’s first feminist.

The topic for this month is Making Money with Photography. We’ve got two great speakers who approach the business in different ways. Read on!

Believing You Can Make Money With Photography

As a nature photographer, Oliver Klink likes to dazzle his audience with unexpected beauty, expand their horizons, and reflect the natural diversity in the world. Concerned with our rapidly changing planet, Oliver has embarked on photographing animals in the wild to capture their behaviors and share a glimpse of nature often unseen by humans.

He teaches photography workshops in the Santa Cruz Mountains on hummingbirds, in Oregon on grebe courtships and Alaska on grizzly bears and eagles. His photographs are exhibited at various local galleries, with his next exhibit starting on March 7 at Modernbook (Palo Alto). In his presentation on making you believe that you can make money with photography, he will discuss:

• Starting a business
• Products (Prints, workshops, stock)
• Pricing
• Promotion
• Reality vs. Myths

Oliver Klink received a MS Physics from Queen’s University (Canada) and an MBA from San Jose State University.

His updated schedule can be found at www.incredibletravelphotos.com

Building a Photography Accessories Business

Chris Pedersen has been passionate about photography since he started taking pictures with an Argus instamatic in the early 1970’s. His passion has opened the door to his shooting NCAA sports while in college, meeting and photographing Ansel Adams in his home, and pioneering several imaging-related businesses while working at HP.

In 2007, he retired from HP, and took advantage of the opportunity to start several photo-related businesses and pursue his lifelong dream of making a living at doing what he loves. He is now the Chief Inventor and Founder of Phoxle Photo Accessories, a Senior Analyst specializing in imaging industries at DIGDIA, and the owner of his Corporate Event Photography business PQ Photography.

SmugMug Monthly Assignment: SPRING

Spring is in the air! The winner will get a free 1-year Pro account subscription on SmugMug for having the best photo of the group!

Only new photographs taken from the previous meeting date to the next meeting date will be accepted.

All the Mac news and rumor sites are pointing to new MacBook Pros in the very near future. For me, I couldn’t wait for the future on the eve of our trip to China, so I caved in and purchased a new MacBook Pro from the Apple Store at Valley Fair. Yes, the same Valley Fair where my hubcaps were stolen yesterday afternoon. This time, I went under the cover of darkness; if you can’t see my hubcaps, you can’t steal them!

There’s plenty of reasons why I need to bring a new laptop with me on this trip, the primary one being that we want to export HDV footage from our camera to the laptop for backup purposes. The stock 15″ MBP that I got has a 160GB hard drive, which is a little too small for my tastes. With all my apps installed, including Aperture 2.0 and a stripped down version of Final Cut Pro Studio 2 (no Motion, Color, Soundtrack, etc.), I have about 120GB free. That’s good for about 10 tapes of HDV footage, so it looks like I might bring an external hard drive with me on Friday.

After buying the MBP, I went to the Valley Fair Mall Security. I didn’t want to go walking around the mall with my new computer (the Apple Store didn’t have a large enough bag), so left it with Josh, the salesperson who helped me the day before, and went to the third floor where Mall Security was located. The security director was not there, so I’ll have to call him up in the morning. I did see all of the security monitors in the room. The lady working there said that they keep a rolling 30-day video archive. If my car was in sight of their CCTV, I might be able to see the evildoers who hijacked my hubcaps! Though I’ll probably never find out who did it, I just want to get a glimpse of them. I’ll be all Wrath of Khan on them if I ever see them, “I never forget a face!”

My first experience with the MBP tonight wasn’t very positive. I started a Software Update process and within seconds, I had my first kernel panic! After a reboot, everything was fine. Knock on wood before I go to China!

I’m doing some last-minute shopping for items at Westfield Valley Fair today. I arrive around 3:00 pm and return to my car at 4:35 pm. As I’m walking to my car, something just didn’t look right. The car and wheels looked darker than normal. As I got closer and confirm that it was indeed my car, I realized the truth. Someone stole all four of my hubcaps!

Now, my car isn’t some souped-up rice rocket; it’s a Toyota Camry from the 1990s! Who in the world would want to steal my hubcaps? There are several eBay listings for hubcaps of that model. Four of them will cost me between $50 and $100.

There were two potential witnesses whom I spoke with in the parking lot. The lady in an SUV parked in front of me said that she had just arrived and didn’t see anything. The person manning the Goodwill Trailer spoke little English but told me that she didn’t see anything either. She was standing directly in the line of sight of my car, so if anything had happened, she had to have seen it, right?!? How long does it take to remove four hubcaps? A minute? Two minutes?

Grrr… this is yet another reason why I hate to go to the mall! I guess my report will be appearing on crimereports.com soon. This site lists all crime activity in areas like San Diego and San Jose.

To the person who stole my hubcaps. Shame on you! May your wheels always fall out of alignment!

For the past several months, I’ve been working with Rae on her upcoming documentary film, Autumn Gem. The documentary will cover the life of China’s first feminist, Qiu Jin, with scholar interviews, moving pictures, and dramatic recreations.

We recently completed our teaser trailer, which is available on the project website. Next Friday, we’ll be leaving for China for three weeks, where we’ll be filming scenes for the documentary and interviewing academic and cultural scholars. We’re excited to be moving into the production phase of the project!

The next few days are going to be supremely busy. I’ve started organizing all of my technical equipment that we’ll be bringing with us on the trip. I’m in charge of videography and photography, which means I have some tough decisions ahead of me on what to bring and what to leave behind. The weather is really bad right now in China — the worst Winter in 60 years, I’ve read — which means weather-sealed lenses are a must. I recently purchased a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS. I have a feeling that’s the lens that I’ll use primarily on the trip. For longer shots, I’ll be leaving the 70-200/2.8 IS at home since it’s too heavy. Instead, I’ll take the 135/2.0 with a 1.4x extender.

One lens that is on the fence right now is my 24 Tilt-Shift lens. We’re planning to do a bit of architectural photography in China, both indoor and outdoors. The tilt-shift is a nice lens, but I’m wondering if I can get by with the 24-105 and doing any perspective corrections afterwards in Photoshop.

Of course, I can’t forget the videocamera too! We’re shooting the film on a Sony HVR-V1U camcorder. I must admit that shooting video is at least 23.97 times harder than photography!

More about the project in the coming days! We’re T-minus 6 days away!

Dan Frakes from MacWorld reviewed MsgFiler today and gave it a 4-mice rating!

Here’s a great quote from the article:

After using MsgFiler just a few times, it becomes almost instinctive. I’ve been using a similar add-on for Microsoft Entourage for years; the lack of something like this has been one of the things keeping me from using Mail as my main email client.

MsgFiler 2.0.2 has been released. This new update features a number of bug fixes and new functionality:

• Copy Messages: Now you can choose between moving and copying messages to the selected mailbox.
• Mark Messages As Read When Filing: When you move or copy messages, you can optionally mark them as read.
• MiniMail Support: MsgFiler supports filing in the latest version of MiniMail from OliveToast.
• Tiger Bug Fixes: The MsgFiler window now saves its size and location on Tiger. MsgFiler also files correctly when using the mouse on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

Version 2.0.2 of MsgFiler is a free update for registered users and still only US$8 for a license.