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 Back in September, I approached the booth at Photoshop World where the Drobo was humming along quietly. I was interested in the box, and thought it might be a solution. I asked a few questions of the booth attendant, and she just didn't know the answers, and the guy that did was talking to the person next to me about all sorts of non-Drobo things, as far as I could tell. After about 10 minutes waiting, I decided that I would do my research online instead. What did I find? Beware the results. (Continued after the Jump)
The immediate deal-breaker for me is it's proprietary file system, and I couldn't find anywhere that gave a justification for this, in fact, it seemed to be glossed over.
What is a proprietary file system? Well, back in the days of VHS vs. Betamax, VHS was an open system, that anyone could use, hence the broad adoption of VHS. Sony, on the other hand, developed Betamax, a proprietary way of playing tapes, and no one else could use it. So, Betamax died. Just as with this, if you have a drive on one computer, you can unplug it, or take it out if it's an internal drive, and plug it into another brand of computer, and the drive will work. With Drobo, if you're not plugging your drive into another Drobo, the data is just plain inaccessible. For me (and many others), that's just a deal-breaker.
There are, as you probably know, two types of people in this world - those that have had a hard drive fail, and those that will. If the you're the former, you'll question seriously a proprietary file system. If you're the latter, you'll be taking risks for which you don't know the consequences, until you have had a failure, and then you'll get religion.
But what other problems are there?
ZDNet did an interesting review, but they say "Another consumer friendly innovation is that the Drobo doesn’t require the user to pick up a screw driver to put the hard drive in to a carriage bay." Sorry, this isn't a selling point for me, in fact, owning professional drive systems from places like Wiebetech, OWC, and so forth, not to mention Apple's expensive RAID solutions, require that users can wield a screwdriver.
The review correctly criticizes the speed, at between 11 and 16 mb/sec. So, when you shoot 500 images on an assignment with a D2X/Mark II or better, be prepared to wait a long time just to copy your files over, open and update raw files with camera raw, and write them back. A FW800, GigE or SCSI connection will serve you much better.
What surprised me is that the reviewer says:We can build a server that supports this configuration with gigabit throughput for about $600 including shipping and that lets you serve data on the network at 70 MB/sec or more out of a single Gigabit Ethernet adapter which can be shared by all the PCs on the network. That does however require some skill or at least willingness to learn how to build a PC. But this isn’t the market that Data Robotics is targeting; they’re after Photographers or other professionals that just want something to work out of the box without having to mess with all these settings let alone build something. Those people lose money by the hour and they can’t afford to waste time building or learning about this stuff. The reality is, with the S L O W throughout, you'll be losing money by the minute as you wait for massive amounts of images to be copied to and fro, and this will add up - I promise you.
Photographer Doug Plummer reported on his problematic experiences with the Drobo and the good folks over at Luminous Landscape are (and have been) debating this for awhile too.
Don't trick yourself into thinking there is an easy path to effective storage, where you don't need to understand the behind-the -scenes issues at hand. You had to learn things like depth of field relative to focal length, and flash duration. So too, do you need to understand how to do effective image archiving and storage, and why the Drobo, as a turnkey solution (or any solution) just is not a good choice, in it's current incarnation.
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 The French, they have Visa pour l'image, known to most just as Perpignan (for the city where it's held each year), which is a gathering of top photographers and photo editors from around the world. Closer to home, we have the second incarnation of what is the first of it's kind in North America - what I think will be the US version of Perpignan - Festival of The Photograph, in Charlottesville Virginia. Last year, I wrote about it ( Off to Recharge My Batteries, 6/7/07) and this year, the dates have been announced, and it's June 12th through the 14th. (Continued after the Jump)
Last year was an amazing experience, with interesting presentations throughout the day, and then a monsoon of a rainstorm that gave the first night's party an otherworldly feel (with most people remaining dry, save for a projector!), followed by a surreal theatrical presentation in the Pavillion the following night.
With Charlottesville only about 3 hours away, and such a refreshing experience last year, I'd be foolish not to head back, and you'd be foolish to not make your own journey there, regardless of the duration of your travel. It was billed last year as three days of peace, love, and photography, and it certainly was, so how can you go wrong? Who doesn't need some extra peace and love?
Tickets are limited - click here to get yours ASAP!
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 Well, Adobe's foray into stock photography is ending, and today, they've announced: "Effective April 1, 2008, Adobe will discontinue operations of Adobe Stock Photos, its royalty free image service for creative professionals. Adobe Stock Photos will remain operational for customers using Adobe Bridge enabled applications within Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Adobe Creative Suite 3 software until March 3, 2008 when the search and comp download features in the service will be disabled.
All other functionalities including viewing order history and re-downloading and purchasing of images will remain available until March 31, 2008. Discontinuation of the service will not terminate valid license agreements for royalty-free images already purchased. To purchase content from the image suppliers that were included in the Adobe Stock Photos service, please visit their websites directly.
For additional information, visit http://www.adobe.com/adobestockphotos or call 1-800-685-3505. Adobe Stock Photos customer support will be available until June 1, 2008." I am glad to see this remove a distraction from Adobe's other endeavors. (Comments, if any, after the Jump)
Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.
 Over a decade ago, I sat in a seminar and heard photographer Charles Lewis talk about the risks of putting copyrighted music on videos you are delivering to clients - the chief risk being - it's a breach of the music owner's copyright, and good luck getting permission. Lewis offered a collection of music - on tape at the time - with all the necessary clearances. Times they have a changed, and now what options do you have? (Complete post, after the Jump) Enter Triple Scoop Music. These guys have some awesome music for all sorts of uses to accompany your photography, from slide shows to client CD's/DVD's, and so forth. All of my podcasts/equipment presentations use their music as background audio, and the titles where chosen by me. Their fees are extremely reasonable ($60 a song), and the depth of their collection impressive. Here's the meat of their 99-year license:FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS:- Photo Slideshows for you and your photography clients
- Photo presentations on CD
- Photo presentations on DVD
- Website-based photo galleries/slideshows
- Powerpoint presentations
- Portfolio presentations
- Music for your personal or commercial website (one domain per license)
- On-hold music for your business
- Podcasts
So, go check them out, and see what they have to offer. They are good people making good music, and their contribution to your visuals will make a difference.
Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.
 So, last year, at about this time, we wrote about the laughable Five Point Productions, who sought fame and fortune ( Free photos (and $13 Superbowl ads)) "winning" a Dorito's contest. Their last blog entry was from a year ago, where they were ever so excited about all their media appearances, which translates into more advertising exposure for Dorito's. I'd say that's because they're so busy they don't have time to blog, but judging from their portfolio, I highly doubt that's the case. (Continued after the Jump) On their blog, they note: "This whole experience feels like we've just won the American Idol of the business world... and in a big way." No, atleast the American Idol winners get some money and a record deal, you get nothing of the sort.
What have they done since then? Well, an ad for the "Wedding Chapel of Love", a local A/V company, another religious chapel, and, a "proof of concept" (read - not really a paid ad) for a local auto dealership.
Wow - these guys have really swung into the big time since a year ago! What happened to all their big dreams? Crashed in the crush of a $13 superbowl sucka-punch from corporate America.
Welcome to the real world, and thanks for further devaluing creativity.
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 After fits and starts, calls for a digital Leica, and then missteps, Leica finally announced their M8, back in September of 2006. Following problems with the camera with color offsets because of a bad infrared filter, Leica finally responded with a "fix it yourself" mentality and put out two firmware updates back in March of 2007, as well as it's UV/IR filters. Way to go for a $5k camera, touted by many as jewelry. (Continued after the Jump)
It seems that, (Leica rolls out M8 hardware upgrade program -- for a price) as with Apple's iPod scratch issue, so too does the Leica have one with their LCD screen. Further, all you beta-testers of the M8, you can get an "electronically-controlled metal-blade slotted shutter that offers less noise and vibration." Doesn't an issue that needs that level of attention cause your beautiful Summicron-M glass to become about as sharp as a Nikon/Canon lens?
The Leica forums (Rangefinder Forum, and the L Camera forum) are, rightly so, chock-full of complaints about this, and Leica should be listening.
Further, I know of several Leica professionals (yes, that would be people who actually use the Leica for paying work, not as an accessory to their Aesculapian staff) who are selling their M8's (for a loss, no doubt), and have stated their intent to wait until Leica produces a professional camera that's ready for prime time.
Dear Leica -- when you come this late to the party, you need to step up to the plate and hit it out of the park. So far, you're at risk of being sent back to the minor leagues.
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 I found myself taking full advantage of my high speed data lines in my new Macbook Pro enroute an assignment in Philadelphia last night and was peddle-to-the-metal (well, atleast, cruise control set to 65) and listening to the Getty Images (GYI) earnings call on the laptop via their webcast. Sadly, right when I thought they'd get to the good stuff- you know, where we stop hearing all the back-slapping and huff-puffing and the real green-eye-shaders got to ask their pointed questions, when, all of a sudden - my screen shuddered, dimmed, and died. I caught just the first question, asked by J.P. Morgan about the upcoming sale, and JDK demurs "The very first question is one that I am not at liberty to answer. I would stress that at no point has Getty Images talked about a sale. We have talked about strategic alternatives." Right. Let me know when the rest of the Brooklyn Bridge is for sale! So, I calmly waited for a few down moments later last night to read what my colleague Daryl Lang over at PDN had digested, and low-and-behold, somehow, Daryl had live-blogged the call! No new announcements, of course, as if we expected a major announcement when they're readying themselves for a sale strategic alternatives. (Continued after the Jump)
In a slightly unusual twist, JDK keeps talking up all things "sequential", as if that's going to cover up their failings.
A bit of a reminder, from the good folks in the UK - Money Terms, regarding "Sequential growth": The advantage of looking at sequential comparisons is that it can help in spotting recent changes in trends. The disadvantages are is that it is easy to mistake mere fluctuations for trends, and that the need to adjust for seasonal variations. In other words - the recent changes in trends is that we now have more RF and a silly $49 "revolutionary" new product, and the fluctuations will continue downwards.
Seems that others saw the writing on the wall...
RTT News reports "...Getty Images Inc. (GYI) reported a decline in its fourth quarter profit on higher tax expenses...." what's that you say? You have to pay taxes? Yes Jonathan, you're not in England anymore.
Conde Nast Portfolio's AP story lead with "Getty Images Inc. said Thursday its fourth-quarter earnings declined almost 8 percent as rising operating expenses and income tax costs overshadowed a jump in revenue."
Those operating expenses to store all those $1 images sure do mount up, don't they?
Reuters reported "...Shares of Getty are down almost 50 percent over the last year due to disappointing earnings results and a slowdown at its core rights-managed pictures business..." which is what happens with you're converting RM clients to RF and iStockphoto clients - you diminish the higher dollar sales, and moreover, teach people how to devalue photography in general.
The blood-letting was less severe than it could have been had it not been for the weak dollar, according to a Seattle Times article - "Sales rose 7.1 percent to $218.1 million, beating the $210.2 million average of 11 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg News after a weaker dollar increased the value of the revenue Getty got from international customers."
Even my good friend and long-time colleague David Burnett is poking fun at Getty! Goetze cites Burnett's blog, where he JOKINGLY says "Another Big Purchase? Why Not!" that Contact will purchase GYI, but Burnett goes on to make many thoughtful points about what is wrong with Getty's mentality.
With the mystery out of the way, how low will it go today, Friday? One can only hope low enough that someone gets the balls to tell the emperor he's got no clothes, and to move on to wrecking the next industry he stumbles upon.
Andy Goetze, over at StockPhotoTalk has a great breakdown of all that is GYI, and cites Klein - "The year ended well", but "we are not declaring victory", no, it's just one more day in loser-ville.
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NOTE/REMINDER: I never have, do not now, nor ever plan to hold GYI.
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