News and events from snapfactory

We just have a few hours of 2008 left and I thought I’d take a moment to review the year from my perspective. 2008 brought some big changes to SnapFactory and 2009 looks like it’s going to be even more exciting. Here are a few of the hits and misses for 2008:

• We moved in to our new, larger, studio. The new studio allowed us to improve our workshops and gave us a permanent home for our video projector. We added new furniture and finally got a real coffee bar.
• Diane had a great year shooting for several magazines including Desert Living, Perfectify, and Runway. The 8-page spread in Runway is on store shelves right now.
• I challenged myself with some architectural photography and was pleased that the photos ran full page in Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine.
• Our entire web presence got an upgrade. We upgraded our blog, gave our website a facelift, and created a new easy-to-use enrollment system for our workshops.
• We were able to make it out to New York City a few times where we were able to connect with some great clients, make some new friends, and check out some awesome galleries. We did not go to Paris this year. Boo.
• Two of our workshops were cancelled due to lack of interest: Photoshop Basics and our screenwriting workshop. Darn recession!
• Our new On-Camera Flash workshop sold out in record time and we had standing room only; two people had no chairs – sorry Jeff and Craig. The next round in February is nearly full already. Take that recession!
• Diane launched Red Lion Photo, a company dedicated to her family and kids photography. Families all over America are loving the memories she captured. Her Christmas cards were a HUGE success. Way to go Diane!
• We created 6 new episodes of Digital Photography One on One. Our series has now passed the 1 million view landmark. With over a million views we’ve had some very interesting comments on YouTube and other sites about our videos. To all the people who sent us great questions and gave us constructive feedback, thank you. To the few who did not like the videos – your refund check is in the mail.
• Diane was able to invest a lot of time volunteering at the Arizona Humane Society. Many of the animals she photographed were adopted. Her tireless work has saved the lives of dozens of animals this year. She’s a real superhero.
• I spent many hours talking to artists about a new way to use art to change the world. The Artists Group at SnapFactory was created and will launch in March 2009.
  

A very special thanks goes out to a few people who went above and beyond to help us out this year. In no specific order thanks to: Erin Markis, Jeff Carolli, Craig Bolton, Daniel Anderson, Yasmin Besonia, Phil Bradon, Brandon Bohling, Matt Hill, Ray Vitiello, Ed Hidden, and Bill Crawford.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I started shooting a some new footage for the next Digital Photography One on One video. In this video I’m going to be showing you how to use PocketWizards to control your camera. I thought it would be a blast to shoot Luka (our dog) from a very low point of view so we could see the world through his eyes.

Shooting mobile just a few inches from the ground required me to create a rig that would allow me to run while holding Luka and my camera and also let me take pictures. The PocketWizards worked great. Here’s a sneak peek at the next video and some of the shots from today.

Luka-Cam from Mark Wallace on Vimeo.

Luka checking out a tree.

Luka “getting some sniffs”.

More sniffs.

Jeff shooting the video.

A shot from our second setup when we had the camera mounted outside of my truck. I was able to shoot pictures of Luka while driving.

About a year ago my friend Craig was telling me how uninspired he was about his photography. He had his new 1D Mark III and was telling me that there wasn’t much to shoot. I challenged him to a friendly duel. I told him there’s always something to shoot and told him to grab his camera.  We walked outside to a dreary drainage area and I proposed the challenge: 5 minutes in the pile of rocks, my iPhone vs. his fancy camera, may the best man win.

The scene of the photo challenge, just a pile of rocks in a parking lot.

As we shot I encouraged Craig to look for pattern (that’s easy in a pile of rocks), unusual point of view, rule of thirds, texture, line, form, etc.  Here are my results from worst to best.  Remember, these were all shot with an iPhone in about 5 minutes.

My shadow.  It’s not very original but I couldn’t resist.

Dried mud.  It’s a bit out of focus but I like the texture.

Tree from below.  Check out that blue!  The iPhone doesn’t have great white balance.

Rule of thirds from a nearby wall.

This is my favorite.  Some dead leaves on concrete.

Well there you have it. You can find a photo just about anywhere you look.  Now it’s your turn, take the 5 minute challenge.  Go out to your parking lot, back yard, park, etc and make some photos.  Post the URL to your shots in the comments section.  Let’s see what you’ve got!

Click here to see Criag’s photos and read what he had to say.