PShizzy: The Blog

Tomorrow, November 18th, starting at 6am PST, you can get a free copy of Zonealarm 2009 Pro for free. Lifehacker, a favorite site of mine, has more info. As soon as the link is available, I will edit this post and include the direct link. For now, check out the article at Lifehacker, or the Zonealarm site.

Note, this is Windows only, which makes me a sad Mac. Not really though, because I have a PC laptop.

EDIT: Link is up. Click on the links above, or HERE.

Tags: business, general by PShizzy
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Another quick update for everyone. I got this note in my email from the folks at Adorama. Their online print shop, AdoramaPix, is offering 16×20 prints for 4.95. This is a great deal, and it gets even better. They offer this price for metallic prints as well. By comparison, MPix (also an excellent print shop) charges 19.99 for metallic 16×20, and White House Custom Colour charges 16.80 for a 16×20. Just click on the image to head on over to AdoramaPix.

And, if you look closely, the ad mentions prepaying. Lock in that price over 25 prints for 124.00, so you can still cash in on the savings long after the sale is over.

Of course, there are other factors to consider besides price. I love Millers lab (same place as MPix, but for businesses, while MPix is open to anyone), and their service and shipping time is superb. Still, a big metallic for five dollars is hard to beat. I would say that anyone considering the prepaid option should at least order one print up front, or a couple, and see how they like Adorama versus their current print shop.

If anyone has any experience with Adoramapix, please comment, I’d love to know more. I typically don’t print much of anything for myself (I’m more of a digital screen kinda guy), but if I do put in an order, I’ll report back.

Tags: business by PShizzy
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Luminous Landscape is an interesting site. While it may not be the common fare for a lot of photographers, because of the niche the site caters to, it’s still a great read. I especially like James Russell and his views. In the latest LL, he discusses a commercial shoot for Phase One, the digital back company. Think sensors the size of LCD screens. Think 40 plus uh, make that 60 megapixels. Think 30 plus thousand dollars. Ok ignore that last part, because it’s depressing.

I love how honest James is. He goes into the somewhat gory details of the commercial shoot, including the pros and cons of doing the shoot (I love how he mentions the low profitability). Later he talks about the adventure of getting to the shoot, and how unglamorous it is, which is refreshing. Often we may think of some photographers, especially at the higher end, as making a large sum of money and living it up, jet setting across the world in private jets and Maybach whips.

Not James apparently. He rolls to Paris (ok that IS cool) in a truck with his friend who doesn’t know that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, and drinks coffee that apparently is heated by a small nuclear reactor.

Oh, and he does actually talk about his steps in getting it all done, from start to finish. It also helps that James is a kick ass photographer. So, great read.

He has another article, about the D3 and his use of it for sports. Again, great read.

Two last tidbits: First, I’m sorry I haven’t posted recently. X Games was great, but upon my return, I’ve had to play catch up with the rest of my life. Secondly, the video of me cracking open an Airport Security bag like a camera piñata is on it’s way to me. I plan to post it as a mediafire download and a youtube video. If its treated like the Minitrekker video, I may end up dying in photographic infamy (again).

Tags: business, photography by PShizzy
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Most businesses owners are familiar with their Federal Employment Identification Number, or FEIN. What they aren’t familiar with is that this number does not give you any license to be in business. It only identifies your business with the federal government, similar to a social security number.

Most cities require businesses to have a city business license. Think of it as a license to drive your business within city boundaries. If you drive your business into other cities, you will need a separate license for each. You pick up most license applications at the city’s Planning and Zoning Department. [Read more →]

Tags: business by JTames
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I have a Mac Pro desktop, recently acquired, but my laptop is a Dell running XP. Yes, networking allows them to talk and share files, but it’s not always that easy. I like to consider them digital acquaintances. I need to connect to the network and sometimes enter my username and password to conect to the other computer. Not a big deal.

But it gets worse. What if I have a document, image, or file that I need on my laptop (which I worked on while I was out of the home/office), and I turned off the laptop. When I get home, I now have to get that laptop, boot up, log in, connect to the network, check to make sure my Mac can see the laptop on the network, then pull the file. Fun, huh? Even if I left the laptop on, I’d still have to log in, connect, check the connection on the Mac, etc. It’s not so much that it’s difficult, but it is tedious, and a waste of time, which I value very much.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just put my files on my laptop or Mac in a folder, and have that get pushed to the other computer? And I’m not talking about running a program, and putting a file in there, or uploading to an FTP. I’m talking about opening your standard Windows or Mac folder, and dragging and dropping your files in, and that’s it. Now you check your other computer, and it’s there. Better yet, what if I put the files in the folder, and then turned off the computer, but it doesn’t matter, because the other computer can still access the file? And what if I’m at a different computer altogether, and I need to access it via a web interface.

Enter Dropbox. They do exactly what I said, and more. Of course, this kind of timesaver is something I regularly find over at Lifehacker, and they are running a poll comparing five different file and folder sharing applications, which Dropbox is winning. The problem is that Dropbox is so popular that it’s now in closed beta. You can sign up at the Dropbox site, but only to be notified when they open the beta up to the public again. Or, you can be invited, if someone (cough cough, me) has invites to give.

Read on to find out more about dropbox, including a video that shows the features (oh, I forgot to mention, the file syncing is just one of MANY features Dropbox has), a chance to get in on the beta, and how I use it.

[Read more →]

Tags: business, general by PShizzy
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Took a trip up north as part of my July 4th weekend. It’s technically time off, but I’m shooting a fastpitch softball tournament this weekend. We decided to cover a junior all-star game between Show Low and Holbrook, in Arizona. The lighting, as is typical for night youth baseball, was atrocious. But you work with what you have. I actually didn’t intend to shoot, but ended up grabbing a 1D mk2 and a 300 2.8 IS, shooting at 3200 ISO all night. Because I hadn’t intended to shoot, I got to second shoot the game from 3rd base. When we cover a game with 2 people, we each have assignments. 1st base shooter really has to deal with the batters (since most are righties), plays at third, and anything facing them, like lefty pitchers.

3rd base shooter has it easier, dealing with only the left batters (on average 1-2 out of 9 batters), and spending the rest of the time dedicated to covering plays at 2nd, plays facing them, and baserunners. So, when you’re covering a lefty batter, with a man on 1st, and only one out, you see the double play waiting to happen. You also see the runner at first taking a huge lead. You see the defense tighten up, and the pitcher slows his routine. It’s all anticipation at this point. So where do you point the camera? You have to cover the batter, but you have to be ready to catch a runner trying to steal before or during the pitch. If you wait til after a hit, you know have to see if the defense tries to turn a double play, and if the runner can break that double play up by sliding hard. So how do I manage to do all this? Prefocusing. What’s that, you ask? Read on. [Read more →]

Tags: business, photography by PShizzy
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There is no clear-cut answer. The answer is depends. It depends on your knowledge base. It depends on you business experience. It depends on you comfort level.

Most people believe they can setup their Sole Proprietorship or LLC by themselves; install, setup and implement their QuickBooks program by themselves; properly account for all monies in and out by themselves; and transfer such business information to the proper tax forms to accurately reflect, “under the penalties of perjury”, their individual tax liability.

If you can do all of these, you do not need an accountant. If you need help with any of these, you might need an accountant.

The question then becomes not if you need one; the question is how often. [Read more →]

Tags: business by JTames
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The majority of non-profit organizations survive by receiving tax deductible cash and property donations. Many non-profits also survive by having professionals “donate” their time and/or services. However, this type of donation, while benefiting the non-profit, is not tax deductible by the individual or business.

Internal Revenue Service guidelines strictly prohibit deducting the value of services rendered. Why is this? Because while everyone’s time is valuable, there is no standard in determining what that time is worth.

[Read more →]

Tags: business by JTames
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