Volunteering for the good of all

This past weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer my time and skills as a photographer to  Rebuilding Together Peninsula on their National Rebuilding Day. This is THE big event of the year for the organization both here in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the country and I am proud to be a part of it. This year RTP did seventy-one projects for homeowners and not-for-profit groups, I am very impressed with the logistical skill displayed by this organization, it’s staff and volunteers.

This year I was assigned to photograph five different projects, I shot at three mobile homes, one homeless shelter and a pre-school. Throughout the day I also photographed the staff and volunteers doing their thing at the office in Redwood City that serves as the headquarters for the day and the end of day picnic. It was a big day, and in the end I had 684 photographs of the event. You can see the images at my gallery. I worked hard to try to meet the standards set by RTP and managed to process the images and deliver proofs to them by first thing Monday morning, it reminded me of my days working in the one hour photo lab back when I started my career as an architectural photographer.

It’s good to know you can make a contribution and I reccomend that everyone take a few hours out of their life and give that time and a little energy to making this world a better place by helping your neighbors.

SF/SPCA Feral Cat Volunteer Caregivers

Last week I had the opportunity to go out into the wilds of San Francisco to begin documenting the volunteers with the SF/SPCA who care for the feral cat population. I know it’s an odd thing for an architectural photographer to be doing but, I love cats and I want to make a contribution. This seems like a good way to do that.

In case you don’t know the SF/SPCA is a “no kill” facility. The goal of the organization is to care for the animals until they are adopted but sometimes adoption isn’t an option.

Feral cats are in a unique situation, most have never been a “pet” but are in fact wild, unfortunately many of them were pets that were either lost or in some cases dumped by the humans who were supposed to care for them. Feral cats if left alone will breed wildly and prolifically. This causes quite a few problems for the cats and the people who live near them.

The SF/SPCA has a trap, neuter/spay and release policy. Volunteers will care for the animals by feeding & watering them and ensuring they have some form of shelter available. They also use humane traps to capture the animals, give them medical treatment and to spay or neuter, and if the cat can be socialized they will bring it in and offer it to the public for adoption. Unfortunately many of these cats cannot be “tamed” and must be allowed to live out their lives in the “wilds” of the city streets, back alleys and parks.

I am setting out to tell the story not of the cats themselves but of the people who give their time, their energy and their love to these poor animals who have no one else to love and care for them. This is a long term project and I will be posting short episodes here on occasion and once the project is completed I will post a link to the final story of the remarkable people who go to rather extreme lengths to do the best they can for these most vulnerable citizens of our city.

Breakfast in the wild.

Registration is for Security not to get you to “Join My Club”

I want to assure everyone that the purpose of requiring registration for both the blog comments and gallery is simply one of security.

I did not require registration for the first couple of weeks and then I was “discovered” by at least one spam-bot. I really had no choice but to require registration, it was either that or shut down the blog and I don’t give up that easily.

But please rest assured that your e-mail address will not be visible to anyone on the blog and I’m an architectural photographer in the heart of the San Francisco Bay technology corridor I don’t do spam.  I do send out once monthly notices to all of my client’s about the photograph of the month but other than that any e-mails I send are strictly related to your needs and the projects you ask me to help you with.

As far as the registration at the gallery is concerned that is a different matter entirely. Proofs must remain confidential until after you have used them because my clients have first usage rights to the images I create for them. This is an industry standard “Best practice” and because of that I must password protect the proof galleries until after you take delivery of the files and use them.

By registering I can assign you to view galleries by group rather than by project, in example if your firm is ABC Design I can allow you to see all projects that i shoot for abc design and you only have to log in once. However, if I password protect each gallery individually you will have to enter your password each time you view another project. And I will have to expend considerable time and energy attempting to keep track of all the passwords manually.

I hope you understand that the registration procedures are intended to provide an acceptable level of professional security with a minimum amount of inconvenience. My goal for these upgrades is to help my clients by improving the customer service I give them. I will never send you unsolicited e-mails, or allow anyone else to gain access to the confidential, information you entrust to me.

April 2009 Photograph of the Month

Close-up photograph of a Baby Blue-eyes wildflower blossom

This month’s photograph is titled “Baby Blue-eyes.”  It’s a close-up of a Baby Blue-eyes blossom along the Maguire Peaks Trail in Sunol Regional Wilderness Area. Unlike most of the images in this series, I shot this one with the Photograph of the Month in mind.

I really enjoy spreading my creative “wings” to shoot things other than buildings. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing I would rather be than an architectural photographer in San Francisco, but there is a whole wide world out there with more things to see than the wonderful creations of the hand of man. And I have discovered that my talents and skills are very applicable to any shooting situation I have found myself in.

I guess after doing this for more than twenty years I have developed a degree of technical mastery that allows my talents to be expressed regardless of the subject matter.

I hope you enjoy this month’s photograph as much as I enjoyed spending the morning hiking through one of the prettiest parks I have ever seen at sunrise, and calling it work.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. You can click on the image to open in a new window or download; please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Signing up as a fan of Spaces Bay Area

I’m glad to become a part of Spaces Bay Area. I just joined up with them on Facebook.

They are a wonderful new magazine here in the San Francisco Bay Area that I have had the pleasure to work with on many occassions. As an architectural photographer it is important to have good connections with the local magazines, they’re the ones my clients’ clients’ are most likely to actually read.

Earth Day in Palo Alto with Canopy.org

Yesterday was the “unofficial” Earth Day Celebration in Palo Alto, the offiical Earth Day is April 22nd but this was the closest Saturday so the community held the event to make it possible for more people to participate.

I was on site to help show Canopy.org‘s commitment to the community and the environment by photographing the events. We not only did the ever important community outreach we also planted three trees in the park, with the city’s permission of course.

It was a great day, warm and sunny. There were lots of people and many environmentally oriented businesses and organizations. It’s surprising how thoroughly the green movement has been embraced here, but it is the San Francisco Bay Area so we tend to be on the leading edge of social and economic trends.

You can see shots from the event by following this link to my main gallery and I am sure Canopy will have more posted within the next few days.

Web site updates are complete

I pay close attention to what my clients say they need from an architectural photographer and what I can do to help them. My commitment to customer service is just one of the many things that help me stand out from my competition here in San Francisco. “Helping you is why I am here” is not just a tag line it is the core principle upon which my business model is built, if you tell me what you need I will do all I can to help you.

I have been making some dramatic changes to my website over the past few weeks, the implementation of the blog for communications and the gallery for proofing required completely redesigning the structure of my entire web site. Everything I have done has been based on comments made by my clients about difficulties and requests for additional services.

It has been a challenge, but now I believe things are pretty much set up for me to provide for the known, predictable needs of my clients for at least the next three or four years. Of course, technology will change everything tomorrow and when that happens I should adapt to the new environment with a minimum amout of hassle for both myself and my clients.

Well now it’s time for me to work on populating my new photo gallery with wonderful images so there will be photographs to be seen.

Oh and please note that I have added a larger more prominent “contact me” button. Please feel free to send me a note or you can always call me on my toll free number 866-499-8083 and I will do all I can to help you… “Helping you is why I am here”

Architectural Photography Portfolio & Proof Gallery

Some of my clients have mentioned that the flash based web galleries I have been using to display my portfolios and client proofs load slow at times. And many have commented that the security system I have been using leaves something to be desired.

Last week I began reviewing the various options that were available to address both of these issues and also create a stable on-line archival storage system so my clients can have quick and easy access to their images anywhere and any time. The gallery incorporates a security system that allows the individual users to select their own passwords and provides e-mail notification in the event you forget yours. Verification and admin authorization is required to gain access to the secure proofing areas of the gallery but there are public areas that are viewable by anyone at any time.

The gallery also provides the opportunity to rate individual photographs and post comments about them as well. I believe this will help us when we consult with an the agent, graphic designer and marketing director as well as the designer or architect because each of us will be able to communicate our ideas and feelings at our convenience whether we’re in the San Francisco Bay Area or not.

Today I am proud to announce that I have created a system that should provide for my clients needs and greatly expand my ability to respond to their ever evolving needs when using their photographs.

Please take a few minutes to look over  my new gallery and let me know what you think. I am still populating it with images but there is enough there to show case the new capabilities it provides. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments or offer suggestions about how to make this gallery work better for you.

Thanks,
Dean

http://www.djbphoto.com/gallery

Photo Galleries

I have been reviewing a lot of photo gallery software over the past few days. I have found packages that are elegant in their simplicity but limited in their application, as seen in the previous post. And I have found ones that offer so many different features and functionality I’m sure the designers modeled their efforts on Flickr!

It is positively overwhelming.

The simple solution mentioned previously is easy but it relies on referencing a secondary server for critical functions and incorporates third party advertising, neither of which is an optimal choice for a professional presentation.

And the large scale solutions have a host of bells and whistles that takes three to five pages just to list.

My goal is to integrate the display and updating of my portfolio with the digital proofing functions my clients need in one package. It’s going to take more time to simply evaluate the choices than I thought it would take to implement the solution.

I can see how this project could easily turn into a never-ending, time wasting nightmare if I make a bad decision. The trick is to keep looking at things from my clients perspective to ensure the solution I select is going to meet their day to day needs, both now and three to five years from now.

Wish me luck on finding a “middle of the road” application, written by a team who understands the time challenges we are faced with in the business and media worlds.

Check back in a few days to see what solution I have chosen.

edit: I could very easily rewrite the code for the simple solution of teh blog embedded gallery to resolve both of these issues, but that would constitute theft of intellectual property, which is unacceptable. And then there are other problems that still render this option ineffective as a solution that are simply to complex to bother communicating.

Feral Cat Caregiver

Tomorrow morning I begin shooting the volunteer Feral Cat Caregivers with the SF/SPCA.This is the beginning of a long term project to document the Feral Cat program and the remarkably dedicated volunteers who make the program work.

I’m looking forward to it and the challenges that I will be faced with. I’ll post more about the program in another day or two.