I’ve always been a fan of Dana Neibert’s work, and I recently came across his new kickstarter project called the DigiPlate. What I love about this is that it solves a lot of problems we encounter on set, and I’d love to see this product come to life.

We’ve been using a laptop bag for digital teching, and pretty much the only one we’ve found out there and it is awful, but what can we do? One of the major problems we encounter on a 10 hour day, is the laptop overheating in this case, which the DigiPlate not only mounts the laptop, but acts as a heat sink and helps pull the heat off the laptop. It also allows you to attach the station to different types of stands some cable management.

Enough of me explaining. Get all the details and support it on Kickstarter here. You can see an in depth description and videos. Check out the updates page for a video where they mount the laptop to the roof of a car and drive 80mph.

I have to say, I wouldn’t blog about it if I didn’t back it. Back it with me so we can see this product come to life!

Check it out!

Skydiving is one of the most amazing feelings ever. I would much rather jump out of a plane than bungee jump. The rush of falling at 180mph for 60 seconds is incredible. You actually feel like your flying. I just went for the 2nd time in Byron Bay, Australia this week. I swear I could get addicted to this.

We jumped from 14,000ft which is the highest package literally, but worth the extra freefall time. If you pay extra, you can get a dedicated photographer that jumps out of the plane with you and shoots photos of your short lived journey to the earth. I was curious of how they do it, and I learned about a cool little piece of photography technology that is interesting to share. They use mouth trigger that they can fire the camera by biting down on it as they’re falling through the sky(see the pic below. He’s holding the mouth trigger in his left hand). The dSLR camera is mounted to the top of his helmet(unfortunately he had a garbage Samsung camera inside).

Unfortunately most of the images were terrible. Due to a couple reasons. His camera settings were wrong, and he was using a Samsung camera. If he was using a Canon and set it right, 90% of them wouldn’t have turned out blurry. At least I got a couple decent ones that I had to really doctor in PS.

I wanted to tell you guys about a recent other blog I’ve just launched called SLICE. Being that I’m into a lot of other things than just photography, I wanted a place to curate and distil the things I like since curation is the name of the game these days as we are bombarded with an over saturation of everything. Pulling the best out of the mess what we must do now a days. Tumblr is a great way to sift through content, and tumbl/reblog your favorite stuff, then have a place to go back and refer to it in the archive.

SLICE is a collection of snippets of some of my favorite photographs I’ve shot, other photographs I like, tech gizmos, music, food, great design & culture pieces.

Check it out here. http://www.nickonkenslice.com Tumbl and follow

I recently picked up an iPad due to the influence of my friend Mark Leibowitz. I was originally on the fence because I have so many freaking Apple computers in my house already that my friends make fun of me for it. Why do I need one? Well, it is a shiny new toy but the purpose? 2 of them.

Number 1: Showing more images, but never to take the place of a printed portfolio. I don’t think the printed portfolio will go away completely(at least I hope not). Most of the art directors and art buyers I talk to WANT to see how your work is printed on paper, and most say this won’t go away. It’s a tangible and tactile piece of your craft that represents to them how you put your craft out there. In addition, if they are creating print ads, they want to see your work in printed form, because that’s what they will hire you for. Will print completely go away? I don’t think so and knock on wood, it won’t. I think like most of us we love tactile things in our hands. So, back to the iPad. My point on this is the iPad is great for walking into a meeting with in addition to your printed portfolio to show images beyond it. Images do look quite stellar on the device. If you shoot video along with stills, it’s an excellent way to show people. The screen is much bigger than an iPhone so it changes the whole viewing experience. The backlit screen even gives your imagery a different dimension.

Number 2: Media research. I truly believe that the niche for the iPad (and other tablet devices) is INTERACTIVE MEDIA. From the internet chatter, and recent conversations it feels like people haven’t really caught on to this idea. While it won’t completely replace the magazines we’ve grown and loved, it will save them. I’ve downloaded a couple like GQ & Interview and the interaction with them has much more dimension. Photo Editor has a more indepth review with a couple of cool videos here. The touch screen interaction takes the media to a completely different level. It bridges the gap between an actual magazine and going the magazine’s website. I’m never sitting in front of my computer reading a magazine looking online for the things that I find in the mag that interest me. With this device, it’s one tap and you’re exploring further. We are in the early adoption stage where everyone is trying to figure out what to do with it, but just wait. Media companies are already jumping on and beginning to create great content for it, and that my friends is where we come in. The iPad will be yet another we will be creating content and where stills meet video in an interactive experience. The bigger screen(than the iPhone) completely changes app interaction. Adapting to where technology is moving is greatly important in this day in age. Look how the world of media has changed in the last 5 years since digital has entered the market. It will continue to change at a rapid pace, and we must adapt, and use it to our advantage to survive and succeed. That said, another big reason I picked this bad boy up is to get familiar with it and generate content ideas.

All in all, there are still bugs in the apps, and a few other kinks to be worked out but it will get there. I was totally skeptical until I went to the Apple store and held one in my hand. It truly is a sleek little device. Check out APE’s demo videos. I understand the beef everyone has with the whole non-integration with flash, but I’m starting to realize that the media will be all about the apps which in the end has way more functionality. I’ve hardly found myself web browsing on the device. That’s what a computer is for. Why did they not go for OS X? Because it’s a device that is not about that. It’s not a work horse, it’s an INTERACTIVE MEDIA reader. It’s also NOT an iphone. Right in between. My beef as with with all of Apple’s newest screens is the the gloss factor. While images look ridiculously amazing on them, the glare is quite obnoxious. Love it & Hate it all at the same time. Since it’s just a consumption device it’s fine. I don’t have to worry about color calibration and the gloss jacking up post processing. NEXT project, is an iPad friendly website. Adapt and change.

Today is the official launch of my new website that I’ve been working for the past 7 months, and I’m super stoked. It was designed by my peeps over at Knowawall who designed a number of talented photographers. My background in design influenced many logical points that were thought about going into it. I thought I would share some of those with you.

The first perspective was the state of the industry and where it’s headed. As this website was a pretty penny, and a huge investment for me I didn’t want to take it lightly. I have a feeling that the printed portfolios will diminish in 5 years. Right now the printed portfolios are still very much in play and website portfolios are creeping their way in. Will printed portfolios completely go away? I doubt it, but photographers are getting booked more and more straight from their websites. Why not make it easy for potential clients to see big images, and fast?

Taking that into account, we broke it all down to those objectives(big images & fast). Having that design background has given me the ability to look at it from an Art Director/Art Buyer’s(my target market) receiving/viewing perspective. I do it all the time when looking at other photography sites. There are so many sites that my adult ADD quickly vetoes(chasing thumbnails, single loading images, crap design, etc.) I’m sure most AD’s & AB’s have the same issues. The first thing I took into account was my target market. Art Directors, Art Buyers, and Photo Editors at ad agencies and magazines. They are super busy people, and they don’t have much time to make their way through a site that is hard to navigate and slow to load. They are typically working from a fast broadband connection with at least a 20 inch screen. Sometimes smaller, but a majority have at least that. And the last thing, who doesn’t want to see HUGE images?

In my brief to the design team, we created the site to that target market. The site is a combination of flash and PHP scripting which allows url linking to specific galleries and parts of the site. The flash allows the images to be scaleable based on the viewer’s monitor, whether it’s a 13 inch laptop or a 30 inch cinema. (which is awesome when you land on the home page and click the full screen button. The site becomes a screen saver with full screen images) The developers created a special algorithm to have the images loading ahead of the viewer, and following them where ever they go in the galleries. We developed the horizontal scrolling stories because it compliments my story driven work. The design is intentionally minimal visually because it is really all about showcasing the images. The navigation shows in every part of the portfolio website.

Here are a few features I’d like to highlight and why we did them.

•Full Screen(button top right next to search, subtly there without being distracting)
This feature is a definite must with flash capabilities. It creates a dynamic user experience not having to view it in a browser window. Try it out. It also works as a great branded screen saver if you leave the site on the home page in full screen mode)

•Keyword search
Including a keyword search, is partially for my own use in addition art directors and art buyers. There is a database of 2400 images on the site that can be searched through. This was a huge undertaking in that my whole library had to be organized and keyworded. Even at that, we still ended up having to blanket shoots with certain words pertaining to that shoot.

•Lightbox
The lightbox feature works in conjunction with the keyword search. It’s for both me and clients, and anyone for that matter. You can create your own lightbox of images to send to a friend, or for art buyers to send their art directors, etc. I can create front end lightboxes to send certain potential clients looking for certain images.

•Easy navigation
Simple navigation is the most key thing you can integrate into a website. Make it EASY for your viewer to get through your site. Have it static in every page, don’t make them chase things, and make it intuitive for a 3 year old) In the gallery nav, we included many options. You can click the next arrow, which snaps to the next image, you can use your arrow keys, you can click anywhere on the thumbnail bar, or grab the box as the scroll bar without having to chase it. You can also click on the “view all” to see all the images in the gallery. Click on any image and it will take you directly there.

•Social Media
As Social Media is rapidly integrating into our web 2.0 world, I wanted to integrate into the functionality. You can now tweet, facebook, stumble upon, and/or email any link within the site as well as tweet any image. I’ve also included links to my facebook public profile, and twitter pages.

•Image Download
Many clients like to comp ad mockups with your images if they’re considering you for a campaign. Regardless of how you do it, people are going to snag your images whether that’s saving them or screen shotting them. I’ve made it easy by including a download option that lets the viewer download a watermarked image for comping purposes. I’m not a fan of watermarking images on websites. It takes away from the image.

•Image license request:
Licensing images is another great source of income. I want to make it easy for people to inquire, if they are interested in using an image. Clicking the “license” link will create an email to me with the image ID info. I can then have my agent negotiate the licensing if it’s an advertising use. (if the image is licensable, the word “license” will appear in the image rollover nav.)

•Video galleries
As we all know, video is creeping into our little photography world. As I’ve only done a few stop motion projects at this time, I wanted to make room to grow and integrate video into the brand.

•News, Behind the Scenes, and Profile
I wanted to create a news section to showcase any press or exciting new endeavors that may come about. Behind the scenes are always fun and a great way for clients to see what it’s like to work on set with you. It’s also a great brand extension. The profile page has a great new cheeky bio written by my copywriter friend Dave.

•Blog
The new blog has new functionalities, that I will specially highlight in an upcoming post. It was created by my homies over at We The Media in Portland. They can do some insane things with Word Press.

•Backend Content Management System(CMS)
The biggest asset of this site, is the part you can’t see, and a majority of why it costs a pretty penny. The whole backend allows me to have a database of images that I can create galleries on the fly, update and change content, add new news clips, behind the scenes videos and pics, etc. It’s all keyword searchable and makes it so I can update all the content myself without having to get the developers to do it every time I want to add something.

•iPhone Website
As we all know, so many creatives out there have iPhones, and I wanted to make my new site iPhone friendly. I hired my friends over at AG Design in Mexico to cook up a special iPhone website that draws the galleries from the main website. It’s great because all I have to do is change the galleries in one place. When you hit my website from an iPhone it automatically redirects you to the mobile site.

Nothings ever perfect, but I am super excited to have this site working for me. Think ahead, take your target market in to account when building your site and make it easy for them to understand what it is that you do.

I've had many of conversations with different people lately, and I'm starting to see a trend. New School vs. Old School. The biggest thing I've realized over the last year is that the times are changing. Technology is changing, and changing the game. Social Media is blowing up. Twitter and Facebook are becoming household names. Which by the way if you haven't seen this video on the Social Media Revolution, check it out, the stats will blow your mind. The internet has created a gateway for anyone to be an expert at what they do. It's created a platform for anyone to enter the the world of getting their work out there. This IS an amazing thing… IF you use it to your advantage.

New School vs. Old School. There is a ton of truth to both, and you need a fair amount of the old school to carry into the new school. In the Old School photography world it's about having amazing work and creative, which in turn gets you jobs. Which is 100% true. Hone your craft and do it well. Make amazing images, and someone will recognize you. Ten years ago, hell even 5 years ago it was much harder to get in the game. The internet didn't exist(with the capabilities it does now) which meant to get your great work into the eyeballs of the right people, you had to send physical portfolios, post card promos, prints, and be seen in printed magazines. A rep that was hitting the pavement with your portfolios all the time. This is all VERY expensive. Getting into the game COSTED a lot.

This is exactly why the "Greats" don't all have websites(or have terrible ones). Annie Leibowitz, Ellen Von Unwerth, Patrick Demarchlier, etc. EVERYONE knows who they are (that hire them at least). They've been in the game for years. They ARE established. Being published in all the major magazines is their portfolio. (don't get me wrong would it benefit them to adapt and spend of their cash reservoir on a web presence? of course.)

Now enter the New School: Getting someone to recognize honed craft. With all the benefits of the digital revolution and the ease of putting your work out there into the world wide web of eyeballs, we've encountered a downside. It's made it extremely cheap to get into the game. Let me rephrase that. It's made it FREE to get into the game. In turn, the downside is the volume of people that are doing it creates white noise. Everyone is a "photographer" these days and images are flying around the web like nobody's business. Having amazing work has now just become the entry way to getting anywhere. Anyone not at the "greats" level are struggling to adapt to the times. The older folks who choose not to learn the digital media opportunities. The ones in the game for probably 5-10 years that started in the filmic old school world and just got used to it before it changed. These are the ones that are getting left behind should they not choose to adapt.

Creating your "Personal Brand" is the key to getting anywhere. Create a voice that people remember your work by. Not only graphically, but what you project through social media outlets. The content you put out there to the world creates people's perception of you. Consistency of brand creates longevity.

What am I saying with all this? Move with the current of technology. Adapt, and try to get ahead of where technology is moving. Then use it to your advantage. Use social media and internet connectivity for your business. "Old School" is also a mentality. It really comes down to a choice as all things do. Only YOU can make S#$@ happen.

It's where the world is moving and if you don't get on the train, you may get left at the station. Be a game changer.

For those of you wondering about the 5D, my buddy Leo just informed me of some rumored info for the Canon 5D MKII that is expected soon.

Check it out here: http://gizmodo.com/367086/canon-5d-mark-ii-rumored-specs-and-details

to information. Content is the name of the game now. Web 2.0. is all about user driven content. Blogs, news, imagery, videos, etc. at your fingertips that becomes viral. People can share their voice, gain readership, and even make large amounts of money. (I heard boingboing.net makes 6 figures a year) It’s even becoming more of bigger venue for advertising. Companies are now creating viral content specifically for the 2.0 world. Content that people get behind and pass on to their friends.

A few weeks ago I posted on the RSS reader called Net News Wire, which now that I look back at was pretty much geek speak to most of you. I posted right when I discovered the application, but now that I’ve had a few weeks to use it and get completely sucked in, I am reposting on it. I can’t get enough of it, and it makes it ridiculously easy to obtain current posts and information. You can subscribe to your favorite blogs, news sites, and anything that has an RSS feed.

Below is a screenshot of NetNewsWire:

On the left you can organize the subscriptions and blogs. The top middle shows you the titles of the post, and in bold are the posts that are unread. When you click on one, the post shows up in the bottom preview panel. You can click on the post link if you want to read more, and it takes you to the actual web page right within the application, then puts a tab with a thumbnail on the right column if you want to go back to it. You can also sign up for NetNewsGator which allows you to sync all your subscriptions between computers.

The whole thing is fantastic, and I am addicted. It makes reading all your favorite blogs easy as pie!

Download it here.

My boy George Huff over at Eleven 3 turned me on to this little app called Net News Wire. If you are reading this blog, you’re at your first step of learning about RSS feeds. Or, you’re web 2.0 savvy and already know how to use them.

Basically you can have all your favorite blog content feed straight to your browser, or in the Net News Wire case, it’s a separate application specifically for RSS feeds. You can stay up to date with feeds coming in, usually the instant someone makes a new post. Learn more about RSS here.

Net News Wire is going to be my new reader instead of Safari’s native reader. Check it out!

Pumped through the pipe of APE, I saw this article this morning. Canon just filed a patent on a new copyright protection system that watermarks your images by appending an image of your eye’s iris in the metadata of an image.

Pretty nutty. Read more about it here on Photography Bay.