Thomas Hawk has a great post up that outlines his current photography workflow. It ‘s very detailed and covers everything from how he captures images (including what equipment he carries every day) to how images are transferred to computer (and what hardware and software he uses) to how he develops, exports, marks with keywords and geotags, and publishes his work.
Who ‘s Thomas Hawk? A great photographer who I ‘ve only relatively recently discovered via Friendfeed (though I ‘d heard his name a lot beforehand). The image at the top of this post is from his recent ‘Bay Bridge ‘ set on Flickr. Actually I think saying he ‘s a photographer probably doesn ‘t begin to do him justice “ he has a unique approach to his craft, which he talks about at his site ‘s About page.
Here is an excerpt from that About page:
Sometimes I like to think of myself as a photography factory. I see my photographs mostly as raw material for projects that I plan on working on at some point later on in life.
My statement as an artist is to outdo New York ‘s Little Angel Angelo Rizzuto, who between 1952 and 1966 documented New York City with over 60,000 photos. I admire the work ethic of people like Rizzuto or other photographers like W. Eugene Smith or Andy Warhol.
We all have but a short time on this earth. As slow as time can be it is also fast, swift, furious and mighty and then it ‘s over.
When I ‘m not taking or processing the pictures I ‘m mostly thinking about the pictures. I ‘m trying to publish a library of 1,000,000 finished, processed photographs before I die.
The absurdity of my obsessive compulsive view on photography is not lost on me. But it is the absurdity of life that I find most beautiful of all. Where Sisyphus had his stone I have my camera and a bag full of lenses.
Document, explore, lather, rinse, repeat. Photography for me then becomes a kind of hyperactive life documentary, loosely arranged and presented. My work is less about individual images and instead more about the power of a massive amount of excessive and disjointed images where stories, characters and places sometimes stay and other times reappear or disappear entirely for no good reason at all.
I was trying hard to trim down that excerpt, but for a guy whose real craft is a visual art, the prose is just so elegant that I didn ‘t manage to trim much.
Thomas is also the ‘Evangelist and CEO for the photo sharing start up Zooomr ‘.
Anyway, back to the photography workflow post. Here ‘s a slice of that on his archiving process:
Step Eight. Archiving. Once a days photos are done, I will transfer the day ‘s RAW file folder onto my PC and on to a Drobo. I like to use Drobos because my images are then replicated across multiple drives protecting me in the event of a single drive failure.
I presently have four Drobos with about 10 terrabytes of storage. I will then take my finished JPG files and divide them into two categories ‘A ‘ photos and ‘B ‘ photos. I have another folder for A and B finished JPG files on one of my Drobos.
I am a lousy photographer and don ‘t have it as a hobby at all, but I just found Thomas ‘ post fascinating anyway because I love getting a (very detailed) glimpse into how some one very skilled in an area like this goes about his work. For any of you who are into photography at all, this should be a must-read type post. Check it out HERE.
In the meantime, here ‘s one more image of Thomas ‘, from a great series called ‘$2 Portraits ‘ “ this one is ‘Joseph ‘
Did I mention that Thomas is also an iPhone user? – though somehow I imagine not for its camera 🙂
Thomas ‘ main web site is Thomas Haw ‘s Digital Connection “ check the about page for lots of links to places you can keep up with his photos and projects, Flickr, Zooomr, Friendfeed and so on
Continue reading:
- Everything New Apple Just Announced (Septembe
- Apple Watch Pre-Order
- Apple Research Kit launches with 5 Apps
- Apple TV now only $69
TAGS:
