DJ Paine

i could write pages and pages here on my experience with Telstra Bigpond over the last 2 weeks. it wouldn’t be pleasant reading. i will sum it up:

Telstra Bigpond is horrible. Every part of the experience was shoddy. The only upside was when i actually got normal customer service. In light of that i want to to point out the two people at telstra who have kept me going this long with them {2 weeks}. The original sales guy who was funny and promised me the moon {at least 30 MBS download!} , and Andy and his crew on the @bigpondteam twitter account who actually cared enough to try and help. *Note to Andy* i picture you in front of a PC with a twitter search open bring you the latest results for Telstra and Bigpond – what a depressing job! i cannot imagine seeing the endless complaining on twitter that comes up about bigpond and telstra! good luck man}. Everyone else i have dealt with at Telstra was pathetic.

anyway.

The proof is in the pudding as they say and in this case the pudding is SPEED. So as i have the both Telstra Cable and AAnet ADSL on here at the paine HQ at the moment, i’ve run some tests:

this is a speed test from University of Queensland:

TELSTRA BIGPOND EXTREME CABLE:

AAnet ADSL2

——————————————-

this is a speed test from OZspeedtest:

TELSTRA BIGPOND EXTREME CABLE:

AAnet ADSL2

——————————————-

this is a speed test from speedtest.net:

TELSTRA BIGPOND EXTREME CABLE:

{sunshine coast}

{sydney}

AAnet ADSL2

{sunshine coast}

{sydney}

——————————————-

this is a speed test from Speakeasy speedtest:

TELSTRA BIGPOND EXTREME CABLE:

{from Seattle}

{from Atlanta}

AAnet ADSL2

{from Seattle}

{from Atlanta}

——————————————-

so what would you do if you were me?

correct. cancel telstra.

long time no post… what can i say i’ve been crazy busy!

but let’s cut to the chase: BACK UP.
Backing Up Your Mac’s….

here is what i have:

PHYSICAL Back Up:
Righteo! Hard Drives. at the moment you can get one TeraByte drives for $99 Australian from the mighty nerd store Umart
i have about 9 drives- 3 of them are what i call “master” drives that are kept here in the office, 3 of them are copies of those masters that are kept here in the office, and finally 3 of them are copies as well but are kept in a pelican case offsite {at my parent’s place to be exact}.
my drives are all “naked” off the shelf “internal” sata drives {i prefer silent samsung drives} – i do not have enclosures on them. instead i use a hard drive dock. at the moment i have a DUAL dock from vantec {once again from umart}

i also back up some “important” jobs to DVD {weddings}, but i am trying to totally ween myself off this practise… they take up too much space and are a total hassle to catalogue… but i’ll probably keep doing it for now.

CLOUD Back Up:
i have decided to go with BACKBLAZE for my online no brainer back up. Don’t be put off {like i was} with the stupid “i’m so confident in my online back up i can set fire to this 20 year old laptap i found at the tip” video they have on the front page. here’s the deal: it works with Snow Leopard, it also backs up my external drives and it’s cheap. if you want to use them use the coupon code “online10″ for 10% off – so that works out to a total of $45 a year for unlimited online backup.

i also use DROPBOX for another type of online back up. it’s what i call online backup and synching, and it rocks the casbah like nobodies business! The great news is that you can use dropbox 100% for free for up to 2 gig, if you have friends who might use it, refer them and you get more space for free! SO PEASE SIGN UP USING THIS LINK: https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTI1Njk5
anyway, you download dropbox to all your machines, sign up for an account and then on each machine you have a Dropbox folder, and whatever is in this folder is synched over all of your machines over the internet.
The files are in the folder are downloaded onto each machine, so you have a local copy of everything, as well as a copy on dropbox online. This is perfect if you have any apps like 1Password or Things that you want to synch over multiple machines, just place the app’s library/background goodness onto your dropbox and booyeah you have the app synched over the machines. i LOVE ME SOME DROPBOX. been a big fan of these guys since they started, seriously check out their tour and then sign up using me as a referal so i can get more space to back up my Chick Tract collectable list.
anyway – check their awesome tour here getdropbox.com/tour

i also back up a LOT of personal photographs on my pro accounts at ZOOOMR & FLICKR – i set them as private so only i can see and download them.
i do the same with video on my pro/plus account at VIMEO

so there ya go. anything i’m missing? what are you doing? let me know!

in light of me writing to all these photo storing / sales websites and getting back some great / good customer support responses… i turn to a company that has probably the very worst in customer support and general helpfulness: Yahoo!.

For starters let me state the obvious: the user experience with Yahoo is HORRIFIC. the main yahoo home page is like someone ate every magazine and newspaper in the store and then threw up a website. it is totally confusing, services all over the place, news, weather, ads… but the worst thing is the stupid “region” thing. i get to experience the scintillating “YAHOO!7″: australia’s version of yahoo. i don’t want to experience the dumb aussie site just because i am in australia! anyway, i don’t want to talk about that today, i want to talk about my experience with Yahoo! 360°….

when Yahoo! 360° first started i joined up and played with it for a few months, got bored and then i deleted my account. {mistake} but recently, due to great usefull services like Ping.fm, Yahoo! 360° is looking like it might be fun to use. so i head over to sign up and basically i can’t {details later}, so after trying everything i can, i look for help and the closest thing to help i can find is “Yahoo! Answers”, where yahoo get’s everyday schmucks to answer their help calls for them. i could find people who had the same problem, but nothing i could find in the “answers” actually helped. so i asked my own question {after being forced to “join” answers} – and you can read it “after the jump”-

(more…)

DSLR-killer… – Reduser.net.

if you have nor idea what a “red” movie camera is then head over to red.com

anyway, the dude who created red cameras posted on the red user forums the following:

it is way past due time for me to get my clients online photo experience too the best level possible! i am sadly still using flickr for a lot of my online needs – which is fine for my personal / social needs – but not great for clients… and with almost 80,000 items on flickr {& nearly 200,000 views} it’s time for me to dive in to the wild world of online photo ocean!

here are the 5 players:

zenfolio.com

smugmug.com

bigblackbag.com

exposuremanager.com

redbubble.com

and here is the opening play: my introduction letter to them:

G’day!
my name is dj paine and i am a professional photographer from the Gold Coast, Australia. i shoot people. weddings, families, kids, music, portraits in a {hopefully} creative and fresh style. i shoot canon {5D} for digital and lot’s of lomography cameras for film. i run apple mac only. i have a good fast fat connection to the internet and use the net a lot!
i have my business website {that is going through a drastic overhaul} www.djpphotography.com – and i will use that for information, contact, sample galleries etc.
i have just registered a new domain – www.photographsof.me  – and i want to use that as my client galleries.
i have been searching online, asking friends and generally just going crazy trying to work out what companies out there would be best to “partner” with to do everything i want to do with my client galleries.
so… i have lots of questions that i am hoping you can help me with.
i am more than happy to call you on the phone / skype / ichat to ask these questions in “real time” – i just need your details and a good time to contact you.
but if emailing / online is the best way, that’s cool too.
but if you reply to my questions with “just look at the website the answers can be found there somewhere….”, then you have lost me already.
if you reply with direct links to the website that answer my questions, great, but i don’t want to go looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack…
{sorry to sound negative, i’ve had some bad responses – and good ones too! – from emailing companies for help.}

so… questions:
{in no order of importance}
1} private client login
2} can i use my own web address {as mentioned?}
3} what is the domain name structure like – i’d love to use simple domain names for my clients. for example: wwwphotographsof.me/clientname  -  wwwphotographsof.me/johnnyb   -   wwwphotographsof.me/bobby
4} how much space does you company provide?
5} how flexible are your “slideshows”? are they embed-able?
6} self fulfilment, how easy is that to do? what percentages do you take for that?
7} i know anyone can do a screen capture of any images online, but how do you protect my images online? can people just right click and copy?
8} do you do “sets within sets” – or “albums” within “sets” – for example i would love to have my long term clients have multiple sets online and the domain name structure make sense for that – so if my client Susie Q. knows her page with me is wwwphotographsof.me/susieq and she comes to me every year so her albums / sets are under that umbrella – example wwwphotographsof.me/susieq/2008 wwwphotographsof.me/susieq/2009 – hope that makes sense…
9} can i sell my images as digital downloads?
10} payment methods- how easy is it for my clients to pay online and offline?
11} how do i get my money? how do you pay me?
12} custom price lists? how easy is that to do?
13} can i upload my original raw images for back up? size limits for uploading?
14} i am on the Gold Coast of Australia, how would that hinder or help my experience with you?

and finally….
15} why should i choose you?

let me apologise for such a long email, once again, i’d be happy to call you and talk in person.
please be as detailed as possible, and explain everything as simply as possible…
i am looking forward to hearing from you and establishing a great partnership with a company that take me to the next level. i am using flickr for alot of my online photo needs – i currently have almost 80,000 items on flickr & nearly 200,000 views. So i am not new to “being online”…
ok that’s enough for now, let’s get the ball rolling….

thanks
d.j. paine
djp photography

ok… there ya go.
my journey has begun. i hope you stick with me as we decide on where to go…
any suggestions, ideas etc – let me know!

this week i have had my future told! early 2009 i will be rocking the following tools in my camera bag:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
read more about specs here.
read initial review here.

Canon PowerShot G10
read more about it here.

these two bad boys along with my trusty 5D {mark 1} will work together quite nicely….
also on my list of camera gear “to-do” is:
a couple more canon lenses… i am still determining exactly what i should get and what i can afford… and i will be building my own “strobist” kit. 3 more flash/speedlight heads, some umbrellas, stands and triggers…
i have some serious equipment goals for 2009, i’ll keep ya updated.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II: 21MP and HD movies: Digital Photography Review

21MP CMOS sensor

an expanded ISO range of 50-25,600  

full 1080p HD movie recording at 30fps

live view, 3.0″ 920k dot LCD

DIGIC IV processor

increased battery capacity

sensor dust reduction

Body-only prices: US: $ 2,699

WOW.

from this blog’s feed…

see the big size here.

monday 28th july 2008 – pownce…. getting there. from djp on Vimeo.

check this bootleg clip:

i remember clearly when TRON came out in 1982 / 1983. i was 10. i loved that film. i still do.

years ago there was news about Tron 2… there was a weird cryptic website for a while… a bubble of hype and then nothing…. until now.

“tron 2″ now being called TR2N {which is totally nerd cool hipness}. Jeff Bridges makes a comeback, which is totally awesome, he is one of my favourite actors. also starring RICKY GERVAIS!!! words cannot express how keen that makes me for this flick. also has Jada Pinkett Smith, Karl Urban, the always scarey John Hurt, and Sean Connery as the voice of M2P. so… put this on the list of films i hype for…. in 2010!