“Holly Batpac Robin! You mean we can shoot the Joker outside of the Bat Cave!?!?”
Posted on | August 26, 2010 | No Comments
 Conjuring up visions of one of our favorite super heroes, late last spring Profoto announced a new product called the “Batpac”. And after you read about what it can do you might think that this super hero might be able to help you out of a jam or two.
So much “studio” work is now done on location, and often power sources can be a real issue. So, the new Batpac is designed to power studio strobes and other devices out on location. It has two electrical outlets and can power up to four monoblock heads, or a 2400Ws powerpack (see Profoto Website for details) But the BatPac isn’t just for powering your lighting. It can also operate as a power inverter to juice up your laptop, camera batteries, and other essentials like your phone, wind or fog machines, etc… Very versatile! Profoto’s also built in safety and stability functions that control overvoltage, temperature, and low battery voltage to prevent damage to the BatPac and connected flash units. The versatile BatPac is essentially built into a easy to transport back pack and has a built-in shoulder strap and harness to provide the necessary support. The Batpac (cat# 901-124 ) has an educationally discounted price of $1258 and is available through your local Profoto dealer or www.MAC-On-Campus.com Check out the video. In my opinion it is a little “cheesy” but it does show the versatility of the pack (especially toward the end) Profoto Presents: The BatPac-Portable Power Source
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Tags: Batpac > Batpack > battery > on location > portable > profoto > Prophoto > studio lightig
A Costly Lesson
Posted on | August 16, 2010 | No Comments
Attached is a very informative editorial written by Iowa Senator Tom Harkin that ran in the Buffalo News on Sunday (8/15). It worth a read for anyone in Photographic education. Hopefully in the end this legislation will help weed out the “good” schools from the “bad” school- those that are actually training people for careers, from those that are merely collecting students/parent and federal guaranteed monies. In the mean time there are a great many scared schools and instructors. Hang in there!
Read the article below or click on the link to go to the Buffalo News A Costly Lesson
A costly lesson
Author: Brian Connolly
- Published Date: Aug 15, 2010 12:35 AM
- Last Updated: Aug 15, 2010 2:48 PM
Haven’t we heard this story before? It features a high-pressure sales force persuading consumers in search of the American dream to go deep into debt to purchase a product of often dubious value. Default rates are sky high. Taxpayer money is squandered. Top executives walk away with fortunes.
This sounds like a description of the subprime mortgage industry, which came crashing down two years ago. But what I just described is the reality at many for-profit colleges.
Their recruitment ads are ubiquitous, offering visions of a cap-and-gown graduation, followed by placement in a well-paying job. At their best, for-profit colleges deliver. Many provide top-quality, innovative options for students who want to pursue postsecondary education while managing work and family obligations.
But serious questions have been raised about some of the major players in this rapidly growing industry. Critics charge that many for-profit colleges employ overly aggressive recruiting tactics targeting low-income students. Students take on excessive debt, and though dropout rates are not available, there is reason to believe they are very high.
Tags: Buffalo News > for profit education > Photography Programs > Photography Schools > Student Loans > Tom Harkin
College of Southern Nevada and Photo Educational Community Suffers a Loss
Posted on | May 11, 2010 | 2 Comments
Sadly, last Friday, I was informed of the passing of Tom Myers. Tom was the Department Chair at the College of Southern Nevada, and dedicated educator.
Some of you may have had the good fortune to have met Tom at our Digital Summer Camp for Educators, or The Adobe Educators Summit in Santa Fe, or the SPE conference in Las Vegas. Tom had a long and successful career in Photography before going into teaching. His love, enthusiasm, and dedication to photography served him well as an instructor and department chair. You could always identify Tom from his bright smile, hearty laugh, and his unmatched interest in anything photographic. Like myself, Tom was a real “gear-head”. Tom continued to work as a photographer while working at the College of Southern Nevada. He also never stopped learning. He was always eager to attend The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, The Maine Photographic Workshops, or any other place where he might pick up further knowledge of the photographic world. I had the good fortune of getting to know Tom pretty well. We obviously worked together, but I also spent many a night in Las Veags just hangin’ out with Tom; often talking about the latest and great in photographic toys (and often over several shots of really good tequila). I consider myself fortunate to have called him my friend. He will be sorely missed!
Click here to view Tom’s Obituary.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to:
CSN Foundation
6375 W. Charleston Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89146
Attn: Shirley Carton
Super Cool “Behind the scenes” visit at National Geographic Society
Posted on | April 14, 2010 | No Comments
Jonathan Morales and Woody Wooden @ White House
Last week I was in Washington DC and had the good fortune to spend the better part of an entire day getting a very unique “behind the scenes” look at the National Geographic Society. I was joined by the educator and student whom had been chosen from users whom have posted portfolios to the new MAC-On-Campus.com site. The educator chosen was Woody Wooden from Northwest College in Powell Wyoming. The student attending was Jonathan Morales from the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. It think that it is safe to say that we were like a bunch of little kids in a candy store!
Stephen St. John, NGS Picture Editor, was kind enough to show us around the facilities. We got to go to nearly all of the places that were marked “authorized personnel only”. We started in the Archives, where I think that all three of us would have been
Looking @ images in the NGS archives
content to spend the entire day looking at their immense collection of images that they have accumulated over the many years! Later in the day we got to watch NGS staff photographer Mark Thiessen photograph a group of foreign editors. Afterwords he was kind enough to spend some quality time with Mark in the Studio checking out some of their gear and the type of work that Mark does in studio and on location. It was awe inspiring!
In NGS Studio with Staff Photographer Mark Thiessen
We spent the later part of the day running around the National Mall checking out the monuments before returning to NGS as guests at the release of their new film, “2501 Migrants: A Journey” a film by Yolanda Cruz, as part of the series All Roads Film Project. It was a long, but wonderful day! We all came away inspired, and with a better understanding of the challenges that a large organization faces in today’s world. Many thanks to the good folks at NGS and to Woody and Jonathan for being great companions on this trip.
Photo Educator Survey Results Revealed
Posted on | March 16, 2010 | No Comments
While at the recent 2010 Society for Photographic Education (SPE) national conference the MAC Group revealed the results of our ‘09/’10 Photo Educators Survey. There is lots of good data in the results, giving us some valuable insight into the trends in photographic education. Another interesting result was a pretty amazing list of photographic publications and website resources (pages 14-17). Click here to download the 17 page report. We used the data as the springboard to launch the conversations at the Photo Industry & Educator Forum. It lead to some very interesting conversations. Many of the educators were grateful to have some hard facts and figures to take back to their administration to argue for (or against) some of the changes being made at their school. I would like to thank the 572 educators who took the time to fill out this fairly lengthy survey. The dedication and commitment of today’s photo educators is unparalleled. It is to be commended. We are proud to serve you!
I would like to thank Richard Newman of Calumet Photographic, Terri Warpinski of the University of Oregon, and Virginia Morrisson of SPE, as well as Jeff Curto of the College of DuPage, and the many educators who helped write the survey. A big thank you to Jeff Curto for also moderating the forum, and the many educator and industry personnel who actively participated in it- especially Veronica Cotter of Harmon Technology, and Patrick DelliBovi of Freestyle for serving on the panel. I would also like to thank both the Society for Photographic Education (SPE) and Photographic Imaging Education Association (PIEA) for encouraging their members to participate in the survey. I would also be remiss if I didn’t thank Matt Hill at MAC Group’s marketing branch, MACMAR, for his efforts in getting the survey up on-line and his patience with my many changes.
While the results are strong and substantiated by the large number of respondents, admittedly the document produced is a little “raw”. We will continue to work on qualifying the data and may come up with a more polished report. Stay tuned….
Tags: Calumet Photographic > education > mac group > mac-on-campus > Photo > Photographic Education > Photographic Imaging Education Association > Results > Society for Photographic Education > Survey > Trends in Photographic Education
PIEA rolls out their premiere edition of their academic journal
Posted on | February 11, 2010 | No Comments
For well more than a year now, the folks at Photographic Imaging Education Association and more specifically, Janet Bonsall from University of Central Missouri, have been working on creating an academic journal to serve the photographic education community. Today they finally announced the release of their first edition of The PIEA Journal for Photography Education. It is an academic, peer-reviewed journal initiated to address issues related to teaching and learning within the context of Photographic Imaging, and I must say that it looks very good. I would encourage you to take a look at it. Click here to check it out. You might even find an article in there that yours truly worked on.
I would also like to encourage all educators to submit articles for consideration for the journal. To submit an article or images to the PIEA Journal, please send completed articles and /or images via e-mail to JournalEditor@PIEApma.org
I’ve been privileged to serve on their review board, and know what an arduous task this has been. So I would like to commend Janet for her dedication and all of her work in pulling this together. I would also like to commend Rick Rosen for his editing, and my fellow reviewers, whom I know had to review a great many articles. A job well done all around! I’m already looking forward to seeing the second edition.
Now is the time to check out the new PocketWizards
Posted on | January 27, 2010 | No Comments
In a bold move certifying the performance and reliability of the new MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 MAC Group, is offering an unprecedented 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee. Photographers can purchase the system, try it out for 30-days and if not completely satisfied, simply return it to their dealer for a full refund — no questions asked.
“We’re excited to offer professional photographers the unique opportunity to try the groundbreaking MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 system absolutely risk-free” noted Jan Lederman, President of MAC Group. “Our new 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee offer sends the message loud and clear that we’re committed to our customers, and serious about professional grade performance.”
To ensure the same level of unsurpassed performance to all existing MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 owners, PocketWizard is offering a free system check, with 24-hour in-house turnaround. Included is a free Version 5.0 firmware upgrade to bring them up to the latest standards.
“Version 5.0 is a very recent development that adds additional features for both new purchasers and current owners”, says Tim Neiley, President of PocketWizard. “A big advantage of the PocketWizard system is the ability for photographers to upgrade all of their MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 units to the latest operating system by simply downloading the latest firmware from the PocketWizard site.”
We are including a performance enhancing accessory, the AC5 RF Soft Shield with units we are currently shipping. The AC5 is a two-piece shield that isolates the RF noise produced by some Canon flash units to provide precise autoflash at great distances. We are also making it available at no charge to current owners. And now, with our 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee, there are more reasons than ever for photographers to step-up to PocketWizard.
Lederman added, “The Mini and Flex are exciting products. They’re easy to use right out of the box and offer many advanced features that improve the overall Canon flash system performance.”
The 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee offer applies to purchases made within the USA, and runs from February 1st to April 30th, 2010. For details, go to PocketWizard.com
Tags: 30 day guarentee > Flex > Guarantee > Pocket Wizard > pocketwizard > TT1 > TT5
A very BIG THANK YOU to the Photo Educators
Posted on | January 11, 2010 | 1 Comment
I hope that all of you had a fabulous holiday season and that 2010 is off to a good start for you.
I just want to thank the many educators who responded to the call to action and took time out of their busy days to complete the photo educator survey. Well more than 500 of you responded. We now begin the process of analyzing the data collected. We will process the info and let the result be known. With such a large number of respondents I feel very confident in the reliability of the results that we’ll have. Hopefully, it will help give us all some insights into the current trends and challenges faced within Photo Education. We plan on rolling out the results at the Educator & Industry Forum on Saturday (3/6) morning at SPE. The result will hopefully help lead the discussion of the forum.
At the same time that we’ve had this survey running, SPE conducted a survey of the Photo Industry personnel about services and opportunities available for photo educators and students. Calumet Photographic’s Richard Newman also surveyed photo students about their interests. These results will also be unveiled at the same SPE gathering- should be lots of terrific information!
I’m also hoping to make the School/Educators results available in the PIEA Journal. Of course I will also make a downloadable version available from this blog and the MAC-On-Campus site.
Thanks again to all who participated. Your love and dedication to the field of photography and your students never ceases to amaze me!
Sincerely,
Bill
“You can’t know where you are going, if you don’t know where you’ve been”
Posted on | December 4, 2009 | No Comments
If you are a photography instructor or student and you haven’t already checked out Jeff Curto’s podcasts on the history of photography, you really owe it to your self to do so. He has a terrific voice, great presentation, and keeps things moving at a good pace. Perhaps most importantly he manages to be very informative, while also being entertaining. Jeff Curto is a professor and the Coordinator of the Photography Program at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, where he has taught since 1984. He is also a very passionate and accomplished photographer. All of these things allow Jeff to bring a whole lot of insight, energy, and enthusiasm to his classes/podcasts. I often find myself listening to them as I plug away on my computer while sitting on the plane. The use of these podcasts is an excellent example of using technology to further your efforts in the classroom- something that Jeff has been on the leading edge of for quite some time. Jeff often presents programs about using technology and social networking in the classroom. I had the pleasure if sitting in on one such presentation while at Photo Plus East in NY in October, and got a whole lot out of it. If you get a chance to catch him you should!
Below is a very good description of his podcasts and how he uses them, as described on his site, photohistory.jeffcurto.com.
Tags: COD > College of DuPage > History of Photography > Jeff Curto > podcasting > podcasts > Technology in the Classroom
Putting the ColorChecker Passport to Work for you- A Special Webinar for Photo Educators!
Posted on | November 24, 2009 | No Comments
3 Passports showing the various features
In our first webinar for photo educators we’ll show you how easy it is to get good consistent color at capture. It used to be a very complicated and cumbersome process, but now thanks to the new ColorChecker Passport and its software it is easier than ever before. We’ll even show you how to work it into your Lightroom and Photoshop workflow.
Imagine a near-effortless perfect color workflow! Imagine having multiple cameras – even different brands, shooting the same event and color matching! Find out how to reduce your image processing time and improve quality control in your Raw workflow when you combine the powerful color capabilities of the ColorChecker Passport and Adobe Imaging solutions. White balance, while important, only assigns a neutral – we’ll take it to the next level and show you how easy it is to quickly and easily capture accurate color, calibrate your cameras, and instantly enhance portraits and landscapes with just a few clicks. With ColorChecker Passport you’ll easily be able to maintain color control and consistency from capture through edit.
At the close of the webinar, we’ll have a special offer just for educators, so register now for this free webinar! Two times and dates are available:
December 3rd, 2009, 12:00PM – 1:00PM eastern standard time
Registration link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/983883554
December 4th, 2009, 3:00PM – 4:00PM eastern standard time
Registration link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/564014186
Tags: Color Management > ColorChecker > Photo Educator > Webinar > X-Rite Passport