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Photogrpahy, Social-Networking, Tipps | Sunday, January 8th, 2012

Think about someone who takes a bunch of photos each week, preferably even each day. He is going to edit them, maybe even prints them. But the question is: are they worth anything as long as nobody sees those pieces of art the artist put hours into?

Well if you do not want your photos to end all dusty in your computer or on your wall: The best way is to share them. One of my new years resolutions is to share more. Not a 365 yet but I will see how it goes. Maybe it is going to be daily. Maybe just every second day. But the important thing is to publish. Get your word out there. Some ways to do so are listed below:

So here you have a list of sites to use to share your photos. Maybe the best is to start with the things you already have. In my case it is a transformation. I used to use Flickr a lot, started to use 500px just a few month ago. But the thing I was scared about to use was Facebook. I already have a Portfolio selection at my fan page but I was scared to use my profile because I have had a strange fear that people whom I know personally would react strange to it, dislike what I do or would be harsh in critics. A very stupid assumption and what makes it even more stupid is that I never tested that assumption. Actually it is the other way arround: more critics would be appreciated. So I decided to publish more and to more people!

Now I am going for it. I will start posting on Facebook much more in the coming weeks. And I hope you will get into publishing your stuff too!

New Year, New Ideas, New Goals and a Video to watch

Other | Sunday, January 1st, 2012

2011 is over now it is time to look at the new year: 2012.

This time I do not want to get into this looking back mood. Instead I would like to focus on the time that is coming. I have a plan for this blog. Ideas for projects. Lots of work to get my hands on and a hand full of habits I would like to change. For now: I will give you the following video to inspire for 2012.  I plan on watching it several times over the year. And why: cause it has 29 great ways to stay inspired.

So let’s celebrate an awesome up and coming 2012.
Have fun and do stuff!

~  Video by TO-FU TV

24.12.2011 Have a nice Day!

Other | Friday, December 23rd, 2011

Well, I am raised in Germany with a christian background. So we celebrate Christmas. And here it is. My Christmas post.

I wish you all a great day for Christmas (if you celebrate something different, I wish you a happy *insert your fest here*). Have a nice day, enjoy your holidays and some silent time. We will all need that to start 2012 big! And that is what we all should! Get going. Let lose the thoughts of ‘I can’t!’. So celebrate the last year for the next few days and kick ass next year!

 

That sad:

Happy Christmas!

Printing of the Photos in the Shop

News about CHRISSPdotCOM | Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Printing of the photos in my shop is done by White Wall in great quality. I own some prints done by them personally and they look just as I wanted them to. They also do the shipping for you. Here are some example photos of a canvas print that hangs in the living room.

They write about them self, that they print in gallery quality. And as far as I can judge that they do. So I am sure that they can provide the quality you demand!

 

Review: eReader Sony PRS-T1

Review, Tech | Friday, December 9th, 2011

Just one week ago I finally got my self an eReader. Since reading documents on a screen (even the screen of a Mac) is not what you intend to do for hours. In addition to that: most of what I read are PDF documents or other website contents. That lead me to the conclusion that a eReader would be a good choice. First I intended to go for the Kindle [ref] and it is a awesome device if you read a lot of ePub files. But I read mainly PDF and since in Germany the Kindle touch is not available, which would make zooming a little easier, the Amazon device was not an option.

I went with Sony

First I even thought about going with the OYO 2.0 by Thalia. But the problem is it is heavy, has a bad contrast and the PDF support is bad! But looking at the OYO 2.0 I had a look at the Sony which was next to the OYO and just released one week earlier. I lifted it and it is really light weight. The contrast is good. This thing has touch abilities and the zoom abilities with pinch two fingers is awesome (just like the iPhone). Decision made, device bought.

Features

Not to forget the Sony can do much more than display books. You can take notes, make bookmarks, organize Photos (in B&W still) and draw notes. But that is not yet all: it also has an integrated WiFi card and a browser to go into the internet and to Wikipedia or Google. You also have an included dictionary (English->German, German->English and many more).

Hard things

The problem which I faced than was how do I get my files onto that thing? And even worse: how can I organize them on that device?

I found a freeware program called Calibre. It is great for managing all your ebooks, pdf’s and other document files. In addition to that it can handle tags and is able to sync with the Sony eReader and many others. But I think it is not perfect yet.

I think it would be much nicer to be able to sort through the files like you do in iTunes. Where you have Playlists and different criteria. That is the bad thing about this device. But if you think about it and find yourself a system you can work pretty easily with a lot of books.

Conclusion

The Sony eReader PRS-T1 is a great device. I can handle my eBooks ok. Read with a great ‘screen’ and take my library where ever I want. And if need be, I can take notes too!

Software Review: DropBox

Review, Software | Sunday, November 27th, 2011

Today I would like to talk about one of the software products I use on a regular basis. It is called Dropbox and can be found at Dropbox.com [ref]. If you have not heard about Dropbox. This software is cross-platform (Mac / Windows / Linux / iPhone / Android / Web) and is used to share, backup and synchronizes files.

How it works

If you install Dropbox on your machine, it creates a folder for you which is synced to the web automatically via the Dropbox app running in the background. By default it creates two folders for you. The Photos folder and the Public folder.

The Photos folder

This folder is used to automatically create online picture galleries. If you create a new folder in it and put some photos inside, Dropbox automatically creates the web-gallery. If you right-click that folder and select Dropbox you can copy the public gallery link and open it in your browser. It is really easy to share files this way!

The Public folder

This folder is used to share files with others. You can simply put a file in there and right-click on it. There you will find the option Copy public Link in the Dropbox section. Done that? Share the link with the person you would like to show this file. They will be able to download the file or view it (works with files the browser supports like PDF, TXT, JPG, etc.).

The real neat things

Next to those two folders with special functionality you can also create your own folders which have no special functions but are just as great as the others. I use those other folders to sync my Documents folder between my two Macs and to access those files via my iPhone.

Versions

Other than sync you also get a basic versioning. You can resort old versions through Dropbox but it is quite limited (30 days as of writing this) with the basic free plan.

Backup

They not only keep versions of your files. They keep files you already deleted for an additional 30 days and you can restore those if need be. That saved my work sometimes already!

The awesome 2GB

Why are 2GB awesome. Because you get them for free! Just register at Dropbox.com [ref] and you will get two gigabytes and even better you can open as many accounts as you wish.

Referral

Why do I use referral links to point you to Dropbox? Because they have a referral system which allows you to get as much as 8GB additionally for referring friends. One referred friend gets you 250MB of extra storage. But it does not stop there. Using my referral link also helps you: they give you an extra 250MB too if you use a referral link!

Just in case: if you wish not to use my referral link, here is the normal link: http://dropbox.com

Conclusion

I found Dropbox to be a fantastic service. It is easy to use on a daily basis and provides some functionality which I never expected to find. Now I already use it for 1 year or so and am not going away from it!

Business-Card 2.0 (MOO)

News about CHRISSPdotCOM | Sunday, November 20th, 2011

2012 is around the corner and there is only a little more than one month left till the new year starts. So just some days ago I read an article over at Freelance Switch about getting ready for 2012 early and not taking it out till the last 5 days between Christmas and new years eve. One of the things they mentioned was a new marketing strategies.

That made me remember that I wanted to create some new business cards for over half a year now. At some point I already started but did not finish them all the way through till printing. That was good on one hand (I had a chance to rethink them again) but on the other hand it was bad because I visited a couple of events and conferences in between and the old cards still hold my old website and email address. Not all that bad since I still get the emails and the old website still referees to this site but hey: it is not who and what I am currently!

The new Business-Cards

But not enough about the old once. Here come the new once. I went with MOO.com to print those since I heard a lot about them recently and they have this great technique to print a different picture on the back of each card. I did not went all the way and chose over 200 pictures to print but I did chose 6 different pictures to reflect my portfolio a little bit. Also they have this nice little format called miniMOO which is a totally different business-card format.

Important for my impression are those two things: the business-card is different from others and it shows what I do!

And not to forget: the people over at MOO do a great job in communicating with the client. Their boxing is so sweet and the text on it is always a little bit funny! So check them out!

Here is a photo of my new cards.

The Print Shop is here

News about CHRISSPdotCOM | Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

I worked on this for some weeks but now finally I have a shop up and running. Now you can buy prints of my work!

For now and just until December 15th the price will be 70€ 65€, after December 15th it will be 80€.

The Print Shop

The missing Summer Trip Post

Summer 2011 Trip, Travel | Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Some time ago we arrived back home after more than 10k km through Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain and Portugal. Overall this trip has been a great experience with many photo-opportunities and some great things to see. We were able to grow in personality. Learn some new things about us and about the problems which you face on the road (most of which are more or less easily solvable). You get rid of fears and you learn that you can not plan everything first. But more on that over the course of this post.

Switzerland and the Ghost cities

Our first goal was to reach Switzerland to visit some friends for the first two nights. We arrived there and everything went fine till I noticed that I had left my wallet at the place where we stayed the first night. So that was the first time we had to replan the route  since we did not want to go back and forth too much. So we adjusted the route to match our needs and arrived in France after 2 nights in Switzerland. France was a little unexpected. We passed the border to France and all we saw were some lost villages, kinda ghosty. But absolutely beautiful. Sad enough that we had a goal to reach that day and had no time to stop and photograph that village a little.

France take one

Going on through France everything went fine and we just travelled a lot and photographed. Then we reached the sea and enjoyed some days around there. Went to see the Gorges l’Ardèche and two other Gorges which are phenomenal sights (even though a little overcrowded). Probably one of the most beautiful places we stayed was then Cerbère which is the most southern city next to the Mediterranean of France. Very nice with some beautiful bays and not too many tourists. But that city was also the one where I cut my foot and was no longer able to swim for the next days to come.

Spain ~ Mallorca

On our way down to Barcelona we visited Figueres and other than that did not much more. Then the most interesting night probably of the whole trip was the ferry ride from Barcelona to Mallorca. We slept at the top most deck under the stars and all went well till the sea-foam got a little too much and we got a little wet.

I had many thoughts about Mallorca and thought I would not like it there but that got proven to be wrong. Mallorca is an absolutely lovely island. If you keep away from those mass beaches you can relax very good. Alternatively you can get a bike and ride through the beautiful landscapes. Another really cool activity is kite surfing which I tried the first time in my life. I was surprised of how much fun this is (although falling into the water for 3 hours was not all that cool but fun!).

Spain ~ Gibraltar (UK)

Who thought you could visit the UK while staying on the European mainland? Well in Spain you can. The most southern point / Europa Point is part of the city Granada which is controlled by the UK. There you can find the Upper Rock which is fun to visit since there are a lot of monkeys running around free and grabbing your food. Well not that bad but you have to be careful that they do not get a hold of your stuff. Pretty impressive (in addition to the monkeys) is the view you have, since you can see Morocco (if the weather is good enough).

Also we met a very nice family in Gibraltar consisting out of mother, father and 9 children from Alaska. Pretty impressive to go all the way from Alaska to Frankfurt, Germany and then drive all the way to Gibraltar just to see the monkeys up in the mountains. They had been a lot of fun to play with and talk to. Sadly we had to say our goodbyes the next morning and each of us drove their way.

Portugal

Going back up at the Atlantic. This was the first time for me to see people actually surfing. This looked way more boring than to kitesurf since all those people sat there on the water and waited for the right waves to come. Since the weather seemed not that good for surfing they sat there for a pretty long time and just sometimes there was one who tried to ride a wave.

What fascinated me still have been the sunsets there. The setting sun over the water is something you do not get every evening.

Spain ~ Santiago de Compostela

My former goal to reach. Well on a different way I reached it. It was impressive to see the people arriving there actually by foot and I thought about the changes I did to this trip and felt a little regret that I changed it. But the next moment everything was fine again and I thought about the great time we had over the course of this trip and the great experiences we gained. So it was different for sure. But that different is OK and exciting.

Spain ~ Basques

On our way back to France we drove through the Basque area where the car stopped to work but got fixed by meeting a bunch of nice people who were able to help us really quickly. One night and one day later we were on the road again and heading to France.

France ~ Paris

Paris was one of the longest stays (with Mallorca and Gibraltar) in one area. We first visited the city center with all the important things to see like the Eiffel Tower, Louvre and Nôtre Dame till it was late night and we had problems getting to our car since the trains were out of service for the night. But we found a nocturnal bus and took that to get where we had parked our car. The second day was about sitting still and waiting since it rained. The next day we headed to Versailles and visited the castle and the gardens.

Luxemburg ~ Trier

Getting closer to our home country we met a friend of mine in Luxemburg and he showed us around the city for a walk and told us a lot about Luxemburg. A fascinating city since it is city and country in one. The night we spent in Trier where our friend lives. The next day was about heading home and arriving safely.

Home

After more than 6 weeks we arrived home and finally are able to enjoy some benefits of a home which you just get to know if  you get out of your normal habits. Some of the things I learned and would like to remember:

I will keep posting about this trip some more. Posts focused on details of the journey but spread over the next months.

 

Have a good Gear Insurance

Gear, Photography, Summer 2011 Trip, Travel | Monday, August 22nd, 2011

We were on our way to the ferry which would eventually bring us to the little insular Mallorca. But we had to repack a little to leave some of the gear and stuff in Barcelona so that we all (group of 4 persons) would just need one car. While we repacked, suddenly we realized that one of the rucksacks got stolen. In there we had the tickets for the ferry, a netbook with external hard-drive and some other paperwork. Luckily there were neither passports or credit cards nor mobile phones or glasses in the rucksack. But this tells us three things:

  1. watch your stuff
  2. backup your data (even if it is just personal stuff)
  3. have a gear insurance

You can get a gear insurance in all varieties but you should look out that you do not pay too much. Therefor you have to know what you want. One insurance I use costs 2.2% of the original gear price per year and protects my gear from theft and damage. The drawback is that it is not protected if I go into ‘hot areas’ like demonstrations or war zones — but currently I am not planning to go near something like that with my camera. The next thing you should keep in mind is the co-payment. The insurance above costs 250€ co-payment which means any damage that is less than 250€ to repair is not really insured but in case of theft 250€ is not that much to pay for a several thousand € equipment.

So keep in mind to backup your data and carry the backup somewhere else, watch your stuff and have a gear insurance in case your stuff gets lost/stolen or damaged!