Scott Wyden Imagery - Blog

I am sad that JPG had announced that is is closing.  Then to everyones suprise a website formed called Save JPG!!!  The website took a poll of who would pay an annual fee for membership.  However much I loved JPG Magazine I would never pay an annual fee to submit when I am already a magazine subscriber.  If JPG Magazine made it so that you need to subscribe to contribute OR pay an annual fee then it would be a different story.  JPG Magazine recently announced they may sell to another company which would continue this wonderful sites existance.  This is what I am hoping to happen.  I will not get my hopes up, but we will see.

Reading Andrew Kantor’s ‘Legal Rights of Photographers V2.0′ made me want to share my recovery thoughts with everyone.  Working at a camera repair shop I deal with a lot of image recoveries.  As a photographer, you can sometimes get faced with an ultimatum of deleting a photograph or having your equipment taken.  We know police can not take our gear but we also know that if we are at a goverment owned property that clearly states no photography, one must obey.  I have never personally been given an ultimatum, however have in fact needed to use an Image Recovery software for my own media cards.  Back in the day I was using an Olympus C-4040 which used Smart Media Cards.  These were horribly designed cards and prone for failure.  I took a trip out to the Grand Canyon and had a huge photo project I was doing.  I took over 600 photos in 4 hours while walking around the Canyon.  When I got home from my trip and tried to download the photos they were all corrupted and/or missing.  Years later when software was released for recovery I gave it a try and managed to recover a few photos from the trip.  Unfortunatly none were from the Grand Canyon but I know the recovery worked even years later after not using the camera again.

What software do I like?

On a Windows machine I prefer Lexar’s Image Rescue 3.  It is much better than the previous RAM hog of version 2 and recovers like a champ.  Lexar gives the software free with their Professional cards.

On a MAC I prefer Prosoft’s Data Rescue II as it really gets deep into the data and even pulls up the camera’s temp files.  I have also used Lexar’s Image Rescue 3 on the MAC which runs smoother than on the Windows machine.

A great link which Andrew Kantor linked to in his PDF has a big list of recovery software.  Check it out
http://ultimateslr.com/memory-card-recovery.php

Scott

I found a post on Twitter a few days back about a new Twitter Mug that you can purchase for $14.  Yesterday I posted a link to it myself because it is pretty cool.  The site will take your twitter friends and put their images on onto the mug.  I’m not going to buy the mug but I figured I’d share it with everyone.

“CrowdedInk, a Social Media Swag site, has combined two Web 2.0 technologies to give you a mug wrapped with all the profile pics that your Twitter friends use.” - Mike Panic

Don’t forget to follow Mike Panic on Twitter.

Here is a screenshot of what my mug would look like:

“When we play out-of-state, the crowds love us and show it. When we play in Jersey the crowds just stand there like we are the Insane Clown Posse.” is a quote from an interview I did back in 2002 with Chorus & Verse

Fairmont - Transcendence

I was with Fairmont for a while back in college.  The music people liked was so different than what we were playing so the Jersey crowd didn’t really dig it, or even get it.  We were more like Nada Surf meets The Pixies.  However, when on tour people were loving  it, singing along and dancing to our music.

When I changed my major from music to photography I had to make a huge choice and left the band.  It was not a happy point in my life but it turned out well.  Do I miss it?  Of course I do.  But I am so proud of what Neil has accomplished and how the band has progressed.  When Neil first started writing as Fairmont his voice was unique to say the least.  It is one of the things that made me want to join Neil’s new project.  Was it bad? No.  Could it use work? Yes.  Well, it is now 2009 and I have never been more proud of something I was involved in.  Fairmont has released their newest album “Transcendence” which is getting great reviews.  Neil’s voice has become so strong and his confidence shines through the music.  With new additions to the band like Christian Kisala previously from The Finals, the music is brought to a whole new level.

I wrote a lot of songs for the band back in the day and co-wrote many with Neil.  Something that makes me even prouder is how Fairmont rewrote “True Love Waits” for the new album.  Neil and I wrote this together from scratch and to me is the most meaningful song I was involved with from Fairmont.  Take a look at an old video of when I was in the band compared to where they have progressed to now.  Artemis is a song I wrote that was extremely popular.  It was so popular that Neil recorded many different versions of it over the years.

Fairmont - Artmis  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3kpxNM6BuE
Fairmont - Nowhere, Mass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIe-s1pg7KQ

Read reviews of the new album

http://www.jerseybeat.com/fairmont_transcendence.html
http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=644012
http://cdbaby.com/cd/fairmontmusic4

Check out Fairmont’s site, download their old songs for free, b-sides and more.  I’m playing in A LOT of the recordings.  Don’t forget to follow them on Twitter.

Scott

Lately my favorite type of photography is nature photography.  But not animals as much as earth made structures, etc…

However, this holiday season was busy for me as far as family photos go.  I had some photo gigs in locations that aren’t very photo friendly.  A company holiday party in a really nice resturaunt’s party room which has 3 foot mirros every 2 feet around the room, photos in small & tight spaces and more.  Here are some of my favorites from this year

Happy Holidays Everyone & A Great New Year to All

Scott