TWiP Talks

Are you interested in jumping into the world of drones and aerial photography? In this episode of TWiP Talks I put two drone experts on the hot seat!

Considering my relative “newbie” status with my drone, I decided to ask these guys questions from that standpoint. I’ve been flying my drone for about a month, and during that time several questions have popped up. Questions that you’d likely never think to ask unless you were actually piloting one of these aircraft.

These guys are experts, and are the perfect people to tackle these questions!

Trace VanGorden, also known as “VonQuad” is the Owner, Founder and Pilot at Charlotte Drone Works, an aerial photography and videography startup. He’s also the host of the Quad Talk Podcast, a new show focusing on the FPV (First Person View) racing quad industry.

Paul Alexander is Chief Pilot at The Drone U — a training community for UAV/UAS (unmanned aerial vehicle / unmanned aerial systems) education.

Connect with Trace:

http://www.charlottedroneworks.com

http://www.quadtalkpodcast.com

Instagram- @CharlotteDroneWorks and @QuadTalkPodcast

Facebook- Facebook.com/CharlotteDroneWorks

Twitter- @clt_droneworks

Connect with Paul:

http://www.thedroneu.com

Instagram- @Taitkenflight, @TheDroneU

Facebook: Facebook.com/droneU

Twitter: @TheDroneU

What happens when MacPhun and Trey Ratcliff collaborate on HDR software? An Aurora shows up! In this episode of TWiP Talks Trey explains the genesis of this new HDR software.

Aurora HDR is a co-project by Macphun and Trey Ratcliff, the world’s most famous HDR photographer. With this software they hope to simplify the creation of stunning HDR photos and streamline the process into a single workflow.

The company says Aurora HDR combines what the world knows about high dynamic range photography, and takes it further. They say it is faster, more powerful and more feature-rich

than any other HDR software available, and offers a completely new photo editing experience.

Trey and I discuss the inception and genesis of this new software and how photographers might put into daily use.

In this episode, I sit down with Richard Harrington to talk about a new app he’s cRaZy about, it’s called Lucid.

The basic premise is that you don’t have to be a pro photographer, own an expensive camera or spend hours editing to get great photos.

LUCiD was designed to help every photo look its best without the work. LUCiD’s goal is to help you improve photos in an instant, while you’re on the go, and share your improved shots with friends fast.

Lucid for iOS bundles the top fixes for the selfie set into a robust, intuitive interface for one-tap perfection.

And on the desktop, you simply load the plug-in and your selected photo(s) are corrected automatically. The company hopes Lucid will be the first step in your workflow, automatically correcting for camera limitations.

Check out all of Athentech’s products here: http://www.Athentech.com/Products

And check out Richard Harrington’s site here: http://www.RhedPixel.com

In this episode of TWiP Talks, I sit down via Skype with Internet marketing pioneer Jason Van Orden. Jason is co-founder of the legendary training resource Internet Business Mastery and is in part responsible for a countless list of Internet success stories. I personally count him as one of the key influences that helped me gain perspective, courage and the intelligence to make a go at building a non-traditional Internet based business.

Jason and I discuss some of the challenges facing folks looking to make the jump from corporate citizen to Internet rebel. He also shares some valuable tips that you can put into action today.

http://jasonvanorden.com/

Jason on Twitter @jasonvo

You might remember, a few months ago the Internet was taken by storm by the annual 5 Day Deal. It’s a bundle of digital products containing training, presets, and other resources by some of the best and brightest photographers in the industry. The 5 Day Deal team also donated a portion of the proceeds to several charities — as they do every year.

In this interview we have a “post mortem” discussion to see how the promotion went, and how much money they made (and donated to charity).

We also discuss what’s the team is working on next.

With the introduction of the iPad Pro, many creatives are beginning to see the power of a tablet-based user interface in a professional workflow environment. And Apple’s simultaneous introduction of the “Pencil” has put a “fine point” on how using a stylus can be much more accurate than using either the tip of your finger, or even a mouse.

However, even prior to the iPad Pro announcement a small company based in San Francisco, CA had announced a break-thru product called AstroPad. It’s a piece of software that allows the photographer to mirror and control full Mac apps from ANY iPad or iPhone… and they’ve even incorporated Apple Watch functionality.

In this interview, I visit with Giovanni Donelli, one of the principals in AstroPad, to discuss their application and get a look into how this software might help change the way photographers approach post-processing entirely.

In this interview, I sit down with UAV/Drone pioneer Eric Cheng. We discuss the rapid pace of drone evolution, and the current state of the industry. We also discuss where all of this might be going in the not-so-distant future, both in terms of technology as well as the unfolding legalities.

Eric Cheng is an award-winning photographer, technologist, drone expert, and author.

Throughout his career, Eric has straddled passions for photography, entrepreneurship, technology and communication. His work as a photographer has been featured at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum and in many media outlets including Wired, Outdoor Photographer, Popular Photography, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Make, ABC, Good Morning America, CBS, CNN and others. His video work has been shown on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, and on virtually every news network around the world.

He leads regular photography expeditions and workshops around the world, and has given seminars and lectures internationally at events including TEDx, e.g., the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_D-W8ZVPZ8,DEFCON, NASA UTM, http://www.photoshelter.com/luminance/videos/cheng, Photographers@Google, CES, SXSW, AsiaD, http://creativemornings.com/talks/eric-cheng/1, Tested.com’s Live Show, DEMA, and others.

Caught between technical and creative pursuits, Eric holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Stanford University, where he also studied classical cello performance. He publishes Wetpixel.com, the leading underwater-photography community on the web, and writes about his aerial-imaging pursuits at skypixel.org. In previous careers, Eric was Director of Aerial Imaging at ​DJI / General Manager of DJI’s SF Bay Area office and Director of Photography at ​Lytro.

Eric is on the advisory board of U.S. Association of Unmanned Aerial Videographers (UAVUS), Drone World Expo (DWE), and UAViators Humanitarian UAV Network, and is a mentor at Startupbootcamp. Eric is also a Field Associate with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California.

In October 2015, Peachpit published Eric’s first book, ​http://aerialphotographybook.com/. Eric’s photography can be found at http://echengphoto.com.

Eric lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Pam, and baby son, Mako.

In this interview I sit down with Randy dela Fuente, the Founder and CEO of Snapizzi – a company focused on helping photographers with their High Volume Photography (HVP) businesses. This is also known as event photography.

We discuss the stigma within the greater photography industry around event photography, and the fact that some even say it’s “not art”. Randy challenges this notion, then goes on to explain how he and his team work like a “well-oiled machine” on picture day to efficiently shoot thousands of professional quality portraits — sometimes within hours. The artistic part of it all comes in when the photographer is challenged to create a salable image, with only minutes of camera time with a given subject. Art — under pressure!

Then the obvious question becomes one of revenue. How much money can you make in this business? Especially given the high amount of stress, and of course the resultant business logistics of processing and selling thousands of images. After getting some experience, a good beginning wedding photographer might be able to command $3,000 to shoot a wedding. With a volume photography business, one account might yield 100 customers, each spending around $30.

Both scenarios generate $3,000 — but would you rather convince brides to spend $3000, on your first wedding, or have multiple customers spend $30?

Snapizzi is a service that helps event photographers streamline the process by adding a high degree of automation to photo day. Having spent 25 years as a high volume event photographer, Randy’s leveraged his industry knowledge and experience to build Snapizzi into a product he hopes will ease the business lives of many event photographers.

In this interview I sit down with data storage expert, Mark Fuccio to discuss some strategies that you can employ today to ensure your precious photos are available tomorrow — and beyond.

Mark has over 20 years of experience in marketing, sales, and general management in the interconnected semiconductor, computer, networking and EDA industries. He likes the thrill of developing new technologies and companies.

Mark is currently working with Data Robotics, helping them build awareness of their current product lines as well as developing and launching future products.

Connect with Mark on Twitter.