Vu Bui Blog

Don’t Alienate Your Existing Audience | Twitter Badgering | Facebook Fans

Vu Bui — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:22:16 +0000

I am all for marketing yourself in the smartest and most creative ways possible. I think people need to stand out in a sea of competition… show their personality or whatever else makes them unique and attractive to hire.

We all already know that Facebook and Twitter are great for this. You get to build a fanbase who is at least interested in the little things you have to say… your blog posts (Twitter feeds are the new RSS, unfortunately)… your photos… pretty much all the stuff you upload, be it personal or business related.

The problem is with people who don’t understand what to do with their existing audience and instead of offering something of value to them… or strengthening their bond and loyalty and “fandom” of them… they instead alienate them with constant badgering and repeat messages.

Yes, it’s true that they used to say you have to repeat something 7 times in a commercial (I think it was 7) in order to get people to remember it. Yes, it’s true that the reason you see a commercial more than once on television during the same 30 minute show is because people get convinced of things through repetition. The difference is that people are willing to deal with those ads as a “payment” for watching an entertaining (hopefully) show. What are you offering them to follow you on Twitter or be your Facebook fan?

What Value Do You Offer?

Are you only posting things about yourself? Are you only posting notices about your own business and your blog posts and the last photos you shot? If your intended audience is your family and you just want them to know what you’re doing in life… that is fine. If your intended audience are true fans of yours who hang on every detail in your life… well that’s weird but it’s also fine. But if you’re attempting to build a follower base who you can sell your products and services to… basically building a client base who will know about your latest and greatest… you’re going to need to do more than just promote yourself.

I used to follow too many people on Twitter. I say too many not because I think there’s a threshold over which you can’t successfully pay attention to… but because I was following people that my eyes would automatically skip over in my Twitter client because I knew without reading their tweet that I wasn’t interested in what they were saying (most likely because you always say the same thing or only talk about you, you and you). So… that made no sense and I eventually just got rid of them. If they had ever offered anything that entertained, educated, inspired or somehow moved me… I wouldn’t naturally skip over them at the sight of their avatar.

I am not saying I’m an expert at this. I am guilty of the same sometimes. I’m definitely not saying that I entertain, educate, inspire or move people… but I do try. And considering that Mr. Tweet shows me that for every 30 people or so who add me, around 10 drop me… I know I’m not always successful (though at least half of these are marketers trying to inflate their numbers by following loads of people and unfollowing the ones who don’t follow back).

Twitter Badgering

So you have a new product or service… or a new contest… or a new whatever… or maybe not even something new… and you announce it on Twitter and see that 10 of your 1,000 followers responded in some way. Awesome!

So later in the day you announce it again to get the people who weren’t paying attention in the morning… and sweet! Another 4 people responded.

So late that night you again announce it… so you can reach the followers who are night owls and don’t pay much attention to Twitter during the day. 1 more response, not bad!

Ok… now STOP. At least for a while.

Three times in the same day is already pretty bad for the same exact announcement unless it’s something amazing… but it makes sense when you’ve got something big going on… however seeing people post the same thing day after day after day is just extremely annoying, and puts you in the category of people I will start to automatically skip over in Tweetie when I’m reading tweets… and you will eventually be cut when I do my quarterly cleanup of my following.

There are lots of exceptions to this… ongoing contests being one of them. Especially ones where you need daily votes. There’s still a point at which it’s too much, but I appreciated when Mike Ambs was doing this every couple days or so to get Babelgum votes because I did want to vote but without his tweets I’d likely not remember… or more recently Brigitte Dale is promoting her daily need for votes to win the “Good Mood Gig”. These contests allow people to vote over and over every day… so a daily or so reminder through the short duration of the contest isn’t a bad thing.

Announcing the availability of a workshop as the seats fill up is also a pretty decent exception in my opinion… but again you just need to not overdo it. Once you’ve said something 3-5 times on Twitter you can trust that most of the people who care at all about things you say have seen it.

There are lots of other exceptions… and I think that uncommonly used thing called common sense will be able to handle your decisions on these on a case-by-case basis.

Facebook Fan Invites

Facebook fan invites are the reason I started typing this blog post… after venting a bit on Twitter and creating my new rule.

If you send me an invitation to be your fan when I’m already your Facebook “friend”, I’m going to unfollow you.

This makes sense to me. I’m already your “friend” (I put that in quotes because a large portion of my Facebook “friends” are people who I don’t know but who added me because I am part of their industry and have many OTHER “friends” in common. I’m totally cool with that… it’s a good way to network and see what’s going on in your industry and I enjoy having the extra base of people who will see a certain percentage of my updates). Being your Facebook friend means I will see your announcements and new photos and other things you post about. I’ll see them and I’ll act on them if I choose to. That means I’m already part of your audience.

Don’t Ruin a Good Thing

If you’ve already gotten me (and all your other “friends”) to accept your friend invite… you should be pretty happy. We are now a part of your audience. Build upon it, cultivate it… and help it grow. You are NOT going to make me happy by now trying to get me to become your Facebook “fan”.

By sending me notices every week or even month to become your fan you are essentially alienating me, your willing audience, and creating a barrier between your information and my desire to receive and process information. It’s annoying. It’s bad business. It’s essentially not very smart.

Use that effort instead to try and convert people who AREN’T your audience into Facebook friends or fans. Otherwise you’re just ruining a good thing you already have going with people you are already connected to.

BUT don’t ask me how to do it though, cuz I have no idea. I am identifying what’s wrong here (and it’s still just MY opinion)… but have no solution to offer another route. Do you? I’d love to hear it in the comments below.

Dropbox | Free (or paid) Online Storage and File Sharing

Vu Bui — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:18:14 +0000

Although pretty much all of my recent clients know about Dropbox (because I pretty much force them to use it so they can get their deliverables) I feel as though there are still tons of people I know who do not… and this post is for them. Or perhaps I should say it is for you, reader, if that suits you better.

Dropbox is a file sharing service that’s also an online backup service that’s also an online gallery/proofing service that’s also… well it’s pretty much whatever you want it to be.

It works on Mac and Windows (which is perfect since I run Windows 7 on my netbook and Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro and Leopard on my G5) and has a web interface as well as a desktop component… and they recently just released their extremely useful iPhone app. All of these elements are important in their own way and I use them all. I’ll try to sum up how in a short-ish post.

How I Abandoned Mobile Me

Mobile Me is awesome. Mobile Me sucks. As a place to safely store files online, available anywhere… it’s great. Upload/download speeds are always great, I have access to files anywhere… and I can even upload files and send out links that will expire in a certain amount of time.

The thing I used most is the gallery feature… their galleries are the BEST for delivering client proofs where you’re not trying to get print sales from the photos. They look good, are easy to navigate, and allow people to easily look at large numbers of photos in a variety of ways.

There is also the Find My iPhone feature… cool and sometimes really useful, especially if your phone is stolen.

The rest of the service isn’t so great for me. I don’t use the email… the syncing is replaced by the free (and so far more reliable and open) Google Sync (computer to computer to iPhone)… the web interface is ALWAYS ridiculously slow… and it costs $99/year for all that greatness.

Enter DropBox

DropBox offers 2GB of storage on your account for free. It shows up as a folder in Finder (or Explorer) and you can create subfolders just as any other folder.

Store and Sync

The main feature of Dropbox is the automatic sync of all the files and folders in your dropbox with any other computers which you have dropbox installed. Drop a file in dropbox and in the amount of time it takes to upload to the server then back down to your other computers… it’s there. (ok that sentence actually made it sound like a long time, but it’s not)

What I use it for, however, is mostly for collaboration and for delivering client files. Every folder in your dropbox has sharing rights… and you can right click (ctrl+click) the folder and choose to share… it will open the web interface and allow you to send invites to whoever you want to share it with. This means when you drop files into the shared folder they will automatically download to the folders of everyone that folder is shared with, and they receive a notification on their screen.

Keep in mind, everything you are currently sharing in your folders AND your clients or colleagues count towards your total usage. You get 2GB for free and can get additional 3GB by referring other users (hint hint, yes that was part of my motivation for this post, 250MB additional for each person you sign up). Or if you need lots of storage you can pay $9.99/mo for 50GB or $19.99/mo for 100GB.

Versions

Another great feature of Dropbox is that it saves each version of each file you upload. So if you are collaborating on a file with someone and editing straight out of the folder… if you make any mistakes you can just go back into history and pull the version you want. These versions are stored for a month! Which means you also have…

Backup

Not only are you able to back up important files (2GB worth or more, depending) but even once you’ve deleted them from Dropbox, they remain in backup for 30 days. It’s like an online Time Machine (the Apple kind, not the HG Wells kind).

iPhone app

The iPhone app for Dropbox was recently released, and is pretty darn awesome. Multiple times I’ve dropped a huge file in Dropbox but needed to leave right away… and wanted to be able to send a link to the file once it was uploaded. When on the road I was able to check the status and then send a sharing link once it was up. Nice.

You can also view content and mark files as favorites for frequent reference (pricing lists, contracts, etc…), and there’s an upload button that allows you to upload photos and videos directly from the iPhone.

Viewing photos is also made super simple from the app… just open a photo and you can easily navigate from photo to photo using the navigation at the bottom of the screen… or by the standard swipe gesture.

Send a link to any item via email… and Dropbox automatically creates the link and sets it to expire in a month.

Galleries

If you create folders in your photos folder that comes pre-created in Dropbox and fill them with photos… you get instant galleries that you can share. They galleries aren’t quite as cool as Mobile Me galleries… but they are fast and easy to navigate. They work great for proofing and easy image sharing.

Download Dropbox

So… like I said… download Dropbox… and get your friends to join… and your clients… and your mom. Share files with ease.

These are the ways I use Dropbox, do you have any to add?

Aardvark | Are We Really This Lazy? | Google Fu

Vu Bui — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:17:39 +0000

image by Chris Bartnik

Aardvark

Aardvark is a service that allows you to ask a question to the community… and it will send that question to someone who is available and might know the answer (based on categories that its members sign up for) and then typically provides you an answer within 5 minutes by one of these other community members. They have a nice little iPhone app that makes asking these questions pretty easy wherever you are.

I tried out the service for a little while… but I never actually asked it a question… though I was able to provide answers to a few.

While some of the questions I saw were really legitimate things you’d need to ask in order to find an answer… MANY of them just pointed to a bigger question…

Are We Really This Lazy?

I knew there was something wrong when most of the questions I didn’t have answers to I knew I could find with a quick Google search… and I did. I found that I could answer quite a few of the questions with a simple Google search (though in my frustration with these “lazy” people I didn’t answer the questions for them, yes cuz I’m a jerk). Other questions, like “is anyone hiring in Chicago, IL?” or “what is your favorite song this year?” seem to be out of place on the site… which left less than half that I thought needed to be legitimately answered on Aardvark by someone else (some questions asked for specific recommendations for products and services… and these seemed totally useful to me if you’re the type of person who doesn’t LOVE research like I do).

The people asking these questions are already online, obviously know how to use the internet… and have enough time that they can log on to the site and ask the question and wait 5 minutes or so for an answer… so couldn’t they just Google it?

Google Fu

I have been using the internet since 1995… and I’m fairly geeky. I’ve Googled (yes I’ve been using it as a verb forever) things thousands of times… and perhaps I’ve gotten a lot of practice. They say it takes 10,000 hours to become a true master of something… and I wonder how many hours I’ve spent searching for things on the internet… but I really don’t feel that my Google skills are so much more powerful than the average internet user. Still, these questions are being asked on a forum

I can’t remember, however, the last time I had a question that I couldn’t answer with a Google search. Obviously there are types of questions that can’t be fully answered with facts… but I’m talking about questions that have simple, factual answers.

We Are To Blame

I am definitely not blaming Aardvark for this problem. I think their service is really great… and I haven’t spent THAT much time on it so I have probably not been exposed to the many great questions that probably exist on the site. My frustration is more with people in general. The truth is that I’ve felt just as frustrated with people on forums and other places where these questions typically surface… I just never really voiced it until now.

I do think services like Aardvark and specific forums like the new videoWTF are awesome places to learn from others and get questions answered for things that aren’t so commonly documented online… and there are a lot of those things when it comes to really specific industry or trade related questions (I’ve answered some tough questions on videowtf.com)… but I get really annoyed when I log into Aardvark and see someone asking “what’s the capital of Alaska?”.

Or am I wrong?

Zombies Have Trouble Eating

Vu Bui — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:41:08 +0000

Tracie did an amazing job on my makeup… and she’ll be posting a video about how she did it soon… but good or not, it was hard to open my mouth wide enough to eat with my fake torn lip and protruding teeth. :P

Lan shot a whole set of photos… here is one of the cooler ones. You can see the rest HERE.

TiltShift iPhone App First Look | Mini Review

Vu Bui — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:55:52 +0000

Click for HD

I heard about this iPhone app called TiltShift this morning (though it’s been out for some time now)… and had to try it out for myself. From what I’ve seen there are a few of them out there… but this one looked to me to be the most interesting one. It’s $1.99 on the Apple app store… so you can see my first impressions here before taking the plunge. ;)

Tilt shift movements in photography were originally provided on large-format view cameras… then Nikon introduced a lens for 35mm cameras in the 60’s and Canon in the 70’s. It was originally used to correct perspective shifts in photography such as in architecture… but most recently tilt shift used much more often for creative effect. When used properly you can make real-life scenes look like miniatures or toys… which is fun.

Unfortunately tilt-shift lenses aren’t cheap. Canon’s tilt shift lenses are both over $1k and I’m sure Nikon’s are around the same. So… people usually resort to Photoshop. You usually can’t get the same effect out of your images… but if they are shot perfectly and Photoshopped perfectly… you can get the tilt shift look without having to actually buy the lens (and learn to use it properly).

Enter the iPhone and the billion apps for it. Now you can do tilt shift photography right on your phone… and it actually looks pretty neat. Not perfect, not professional… and certainly not like a real tilt-shift lens. It is, however, very cool for something that can take less than a minute from capture to Tweeting your latest faux tilt shift masterpiece… and all from your beloved iPhone.

Check out the TiltShift app on iTunes. For $1.99 it’s pretty darn cool.

These are images I shot today at Disneyland and edited directly in the TiltShift app.

Hawaii Scenery Video – by Tracie Cotta

Vu Bui — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:59:24 +0000

Click fullscreen to view in HD!

Tracie put together a nice video compilation of some of the different places we visited on O’ahu… using footage from the Canon T1i, her little point-and-shoot Canon SD800IS, and my iPhone 3GS. The underwater scenes were shot with the Ewa-marine underwater housing on the Canon T1i.

She made the music in Garage Band using Magic Garage Band. If you have never used Magic Garage Band… give it a look. We have used it many times to create music for videoblogs, with great results. It’s quick and easy… and offers really high-quality results, although not that much in terms of variety.

This is a nice preview of some of the videos you’ll soon see coming from our trip… explanations and tutorials on how we shot!

This post is part of the Hawaii Fusion Trip 2009.

This video is brought to you by:

Special thanks to Know How Cafe for providing accommodations and tech for the trip.

DIY flash grid | Straws + Glue + Time = Cheapo Perfect Grids!

Vu Bui — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:56:13 +0000

click fullscreen to view in HD

In keeping with the low-budget nature of the Hawaii Trip, I decided to actually make some of my own gear. I didn’t get to do everything I had hoped (time has a way of slipping by quickly when you’re planning something big) but the flash grid project I was able to do the night before we left.

The grid actually worked out PERFECTLY. I was amazed at how great it was. I am making two more, one with longer straw pieces for a tighter beam, and one that’s a little wider as well. The one I made was right in the middle… and ended up being perfect for a general flash grid that lasted me the trip.

What you’ll need:

black drinking straws (I got mine from Panera Bread)
Quick Grip glue (I got it at Michael’s)
black duct tape (I bought black Duck Tape from Michael’s)
cardboard (I used thin product packaging cardboard
scissors
a ruler is good, but I didn’t use one
black marker (I was going to use it to black out the edges of the cardboard, but didn’t show that in the video)

The Quick Grip Glue was very key to the success. I’ve read a number of posts (the one I used to make mine was HERE) and a lot seem to have trouble with durability. The glue I used made this thing nearly indestructible, it’s holding up perfectly by being completely strong without being brittle… and using the duct tape around it makes the cardboard somewhat tear-proof.

This first example showed me that if you truly value your time and don’t have a lot to spare… this probably isn’t the most cost saving project. If you have a little time on your hands, however, you’re easily able to make 3 of these in less than a couple hours… saving about $70. To most amateurs and even quite a few professionals this is TOTALLY worth it.

You might also be worried that the final product will look too unprofessional… but if so… you’re likely worried about the wrong things. Cover it with black and it’s good enough, no one will look closely enough to see that it’s homemade… and if they do you tell them that you make your own because no one out there makes exactly what you need. If YOU are professional… and you deliver professional results… that’s truly all you need to worry about. Pros jimmy-rig things all the time, it’s a constant necessity.

Here is the glue I used (I get 4% of purchases if you buy):

Quick Grip Glue 2 Ounce

If you prefer purchasing grids and want the same results, I recommend HONL Photo’s grids. You can purchase them below through Amazon:

HonlPhoto Speed Strap for Shoe Mount Flashes – you need this to attach the grids to your flash
HonlPhoto 1/8 grid
HonlPhoto 1/4 grid

Stay tuned for actual results from the grid in Hawaii!

This post is part of the Hawaii Fusion Trip 2009.

This video is brought to you by:

Special thanks to Know How Cafe for providing accommodations and tech for the trip.

Ewa-marine Underwater Housing First Test | Mini Review

Vu Bui — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:29:04 +0000

click fullscreen to view in HD

Click to play in HD

Tracie and I took the Ewa-marine underwater housing out for a first test in the swimming pool in my apartment complex. The video above should show you everything you need to know to get started with it… and know if it will work for what you want it to do. We will have more examples of photos and videos in future posts, but this is a quick review to show you all the features and our first use of the bag.

We needed an affordable underwater housing for the Hawaii Fusion Trip, and although I considered purchasing a point-and-shoot underwater camera to accomplish this goal I wanted better quality video and more control over the photos I’d be taking. Shooting underwater will degrade the quality of what you are doing already… first of all because of debris and light-loss… but also because it is mainly blue light that is allowed to travel through water… blocking out the rest of the visible spectrum quickly as you get further from your subject. We wanted to have the highest quality capture possible, so we went with the full housing. The Ewa-marine is actually the most affordable by far, yet it still performs very well within its own limitations.

One of the biggest benefits of the Ewa-marine housing over others, besides the price tag (just $269!), is the fact that you can use it on multiple cameras. Especially if you don’t use it much… the housing will likely outlast the camera model you have… and all the hard plastic housings ($1,000 and up) are made with specific buttons to fit each individual camera model. The Ewa-marine is essentially a plastic bag, so as long as your new camera fits in it… you have full use of all the functions.

Pressing the buttons inside the bag proved to be a bit difficult, but with practice it ended up being just slightly slower than usual. Practice definitely improves your performance with this thing… and quickly. Underwater photography is difficult for a host of reasons, which I found out later during a snorkeling trip, but results can be amazing, especially when you have a fantastic video DSLR.

We made a few mistakes our first time out, and there are a few things to note:

You need googles if you plan on seeing the screen AT ALL. This might seem obvious… but I totally forgot to buy a pair.
Water magnifies everything… so if you have a plan to use a certain focal length, keep in mind that it will be “zoomed in” about 30%.
Keep the lens as CLOSE to the front glass of the housing as possible, or you can get reflections in your images of the lettering on the lens. Blacking this out with tape can definitely help.
If you have sunscreen on your face and chest… it’s going to get on the bag, and will make it really hard to see through it, because it won’t wipe off easily.
Light bends all over in water… mainly when coming through the surface of it, so direct sunlight will turn into lots of streamy bands of light all over.
Focusing isn’t easy to do, and isn’t easy to verify… but with practice autofocus still does a pretty good job if you can stay still long enough to lock
People like to breathe, and breathing causes bubbles, so coach your model in not exhaling while shooting, because bubbles coming out of their nose isn’t attractive, unless you’re going for that.

All-in-all I was extremely pleased with the initial results of the housing, and have a great full shoot to share with you soon!

Shortly after tweeting about the housing, where I actually mentioned the full name “ewa-marine underwater housing”, I got a reply message from a gentleman from Germany (I think) with the Twitter name @ewa_marine. It was a small exchange but very welcome and it shows that the company is looking at what people are doing and saying about their product, which is awesome. He even asked for me to send over a link to examples when I have them. How ’bout that?

NOTE: in the video I mentioned that I didn’t find the manual… it was actually in the front pocket of the case. I forgot to mention that I had found it!

You can purchase an Ewa-marine housing through the following links, the first is for smaller SLRs (fits Canon Rebel series or Nikon D40 or D90) and the second is for larger bodies (up to the 5DmkII size). If you buy it through this link I get a nice little 4%, and will love you for it.

Ewa-marine U-A Housing f/ small AF SLR Cameras w/ a built in Flash

Ewa-Marine Underwater Housing for Large DSLR Bodies like EOS 5DmkII, 7D; Nikon D1, D2X, D300

This post is part of the Hawaii Fusion Trip 2009.

This video is brought to you by:

Special thanks to Know How Cafe for providing accommodations and tech for the trip.

Crepes at Le Creperie at Paris Las Vegas

Vu Bui — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:37:23 +0000

Crepes at Le Creperie in Paris Las Vegas with BonnyBonny and Tracie.

This is my first videoblog post created, uploaded and posted entirely on the iPhone.

Hawaii Photo Fusion Gear Bag

Vu Bui — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:31:04 +0000

click fullscreen to view in HD

This video shows and explains all the gear I brought on the Hawaii Photo Fusion trip.

Everything was selected specifically for low-budget shooting. I was confident that even with the entry-level gear I was bringing that I’d be able to do everything I wanted to do as a professional.

Below is a list of all the items I describe in the video… with links where they can be purchased. The ones through Amazon will use my affiliate link and if you purchase I get like 4% (that’s my disclaimer).

Gear List

This post is part of the Hawaii Fusion Trip 2009.

This video is brought to you by:

Special thanks to Know How Cafe for providing accommodations and tech for the trip.

Sailing Lanikai | Photo Fusion Workshop Live Demo

Vu Bui — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:51:42 +0000

click fullscreen to watch in HD

This video was edited (using iMovie), scored (using Magic Garageband) and uploaded (to SmugMug) during the Hawaii Photo Fusion Workshop in Honolulu in less than an hour!

The video and photos were shot with the Canon T1i and kit lens (18-55mm f/3.5-5.6IS) in an Ewa-marine underwater housing. It was my first attempt at shooting with the ewa-marine underwater housing, and it performed very well. I still need work in using it efficiently, but overall it was perfect for what I was trying to do.

More great video tutorials and fusion work coming in the following days!

This post is part of the Hawaii Fusion Trip 2009.

This video is brought to you by:

Special thanks to Know How Cafe for providing accommodations and tech for the trip.

DIY Dress Alteration | Wedding Dress for Hawaii Photo Fusion Shoot

Vu Bui — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:22:10 +0000

Tracie shot a nice, simple and quick tutorial on how she altered the wedding dress that we will be shooting during the Hawaii Photo Fusion trip. This is the first of almost 2 weeks worth of daily videos we’ll be posting. Enjoy!

Coming next, a first test of the Ewa-marine underwater housing in a regular pool.

This post is part of the Hawaii Fusion Trip 2009.

This video is brought to you by:

Hawaii Fusion Event | Shooting Professional Photos and Videos on an Entry Level Budget

Vu Bui — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:34:23 +0000

First of all I want to preface this post with the magic word… FREE.

WHY

I often hear some of the same things when people see some of our (The Bui Brothers) work or the work of some of the other photographers currently producing great photo fusion videos…

“I could do it if I had nice cameras like yours!”

“On my budget it isn’t possible.”

“Video editing is complicated.”

I don’t blame people for thinking, feeling and voicing these things. Many of the recent technological advances have been so fast and sudden that people don’t realize the quality of gear that is within their reach. They also have no idea how amazingly easy some of the recent video editing software releases have made things for the everyday person.

Photo fusion isn’t even an everyday term yet (Lan and I recently had a discussion about what photo fusion is HERE). Many people have no idea what it is or what can be done with it. Here’s an example of photofusion the way that The Bui Brothers present it… behind the scenes of the photo shoot of television and web celebrity (House, Dollhouse, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) Felicia Day:

WHAT

I teamed up with SmugMug and decided to create a project to show everyone JUST how easy it is to create beautiful work… with some of the most affordable gear available. I’m going on a one week destination photo fusion trip to O’ahu, Hawaii… bringing a camera and lens combo that’s less than $1,000 and a set of accessories and gear that is also just around $1,000 (in addition to some home-made DIY items!). The point will be to not only show what is possible with this entry-level gear, but to detail how I do all of the shoots that I’ll be doing during the week.

I’ll be announcing the gear list in a coming blog post, but we’ll basically be doing a variety of photography and video shooting using a consumer DSLR, natural light, wirelessly triggered small flashes, affordable underwater equipment and a few accessories.

What you’ll see:

DIY tutorials – Before the trip I’ll be posting videos of the preparation for the event, including how I make a number of Do-It-Yourself items that I’ll be using during the week for both photography and video.
Photography Tutorials – We have 4 photo shoots planned and will be shooting behind-the-scenes fusion videos of each one. These will look in detail at the wardrobe, the locations, the lighting and even some of the camera setting choices we make.
Photo Fusion Videos – We’re going to produce a couple photo fusion videos just to share. We’ll have behind-the-scenes videos of these as well.
Video editing screen capture tutorial – watch how I edit a photo fusion video from start to finish.
Videoblogs – We’ll be videoblogging daily from O’ahu… personal videoblogs that will allow you to follow our short adventure. Hopefully they’ll be funny and entertaining.
Live workshop in Honolulu – We’re going to be giving a live workshop in Honolulu to a limited number of people, and some of what we do there will be recorded and shared. (more info HERE)

WHO

We have a tiny two-person team for the trip… which is being sponsored (along with the fantastic entry-level list of gear) by SmugMug. All of the media we post from the trip will also be hosted by them, which is a really easy way to show you how cool their services are. I’m mostly excited about the HD video streaming, which is fantastic.

Vu Bui – photographer – You can see some of my work at The Bui Brothers Blog. We shoot photos and videos for professionals, and we create behind-the-scenes videos of almost everything we do. You can follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vubui
Tracie Cotta – model – Tracie is a model and makeup artist from Orange County. She was the makeup artist on many of our recent high-profile shoots (including the Felicia Day shoot in the video above). You can see her model mayhem gallery HERE. You can follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/traciecotta

A quick video of us talking about the event:

WHEN and WHERE

The event (I’m calling it a mini-tour, even though it’s only to one island) will be from September 20th to September 26th. The videos will be posted during our stay and will continue afterwards as we get everything edited and completed.

We will be staying in Kailua on O’ahu in Hawaii. We’ll be shooting at various locations on the island, starting at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world… Lanikai Beach.

View Larger Map

The live workshop will be held in Honolulu and details about it can be found at the Hawaii Photo Fusion Workshop announcement page.

SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES

Sign up to receive email updates from me about this tour, future workshops and the video tutorials to be released in the future.

You’ll also have the first opportunity to download the final tutorial pack which will include some of our $50 video editing and blogging tutorial videos for free.

FOR MORE INFO

Live workshop in Honolulu – get details about the live workshop which will cover the basics of creating photo fusion videos… everything from video editing to photo lighting.

More photo fusion from The Bui Brothers -

iJustine – photo shoot at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel with behind the scenes video.
Veronica Belmont – photo shoot in the basement of the House of Shields bar in San Francisco with behind the scenes video.
Micah Lee – photo shoot in Old Town Orange with behind the scenes video.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments at vu@vubui.com or you can use my contact form.

This event is brought to you by:

O’ahu Hawaii Photography – Fusion – New Media Workshop

Vu Bui — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:59:49 +0000

WHY

I am visiting O’ahu for a week as I do the Hawaii Photo Fusion tour with the wonderful model and makeup artist, Tracie Cotta. We are being sponsored by SmugMug to come out and spend a week shooting photos and videos to create a series of video tutorials and behind-the-scenes looks at some of our lighting, posing and shooting techniques.

I did a small photography and lighting workshop in March of 2009 the last time I was out here… it was literally thrown together at the last minute at the request of a few people… and I was happy to have had 26 people attend and spend a few hours with me at Magic Island, Ala Moana Beach Park, as the sun set. This time I thought I’d go all out and cover everything I think is necessary to light and capture great photos AND videos and meld them together into what is now being called photo fusion videos.

WHAT

The workshop will begin indoors at the ING Direct Cafe in Honolulu (map), light refreshments will be served and we’ll spend a couple hours in-class. We’ll then head outside for a 2.5 hour hands-on lighting workshop.

Bring your camera, we will have a live model (the gorgeous Tracie Cotta) and you’ll be shooting her in various scenes using some natural light, some flash-lighting. (you can also see Tracie in the iJustine video above, she is the makeup artist!)

Fusion Workshop

“Fusion” is probably a term you’ve heard a lot recently. With the proliferation of DSLRs with video features it’s now easier than ever for photographers to capture GORGEOUS video while shooting photos without worrying about taking along an additional device. This allows for the simple “fusion” of photography and video for wonderful videos of weddings, events and photo shoots.

We (The Bui Brothers) also use it in other ways. The last few high profile photo shoots we’ve done we’re accentuated by behind the scenes videos that have actually gained more attention than the photos themselves. We actually attribute more than half of our recent photo business to these videos. When watching them, potential clients are able to see not only how we work but also who we are.

Here is the behind the scenes video we shot during our photo shoot of iJustine at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Beach:

CONTENT

photo editing workflow
basic video editing software (iMovie)
video editing techniques
how to create simple music for your videos (Garage Band)
how and where to find legal free music online
how to publish your content on SmugMug and share it on your blog or other sites

Photography Workshop

The questions we get most often from people are regarding the lighting techniques we use in our photographs. We typically do outdoor shots using a combination of ambient and flash lighting supplied either from small flashes or Alien Bees lights.

On this trip I’ll be shooting with two Vivitar flashes and a brand new set of Radiopopper JrXs. They are all as affordable as it gets! I’ll also be using some homemade modifiers to properly control the lighting, and will spend a couple hours setting up multiple sets for you to photograph.

In this part of the workshop I will show you exactly how to light your subject and why I make certain choices to get the effect I want. You’ll have the opportunity to photograph Tracie in each set with the lights I set up.

CONTENT

choosing your location using the available light
using flashes to fill against the sun
using a single light for portraits
posing your model
using direct sunlight to backlight your subject
using light modifiers for complete control
a bunch of other stuff that will come up as we work

WHERE

Fusion workshop (1st part of the workshop)
ING Direct
1958 Kalakaua Ave.
Honolulu, HI 96815

View Larger Map

Photography workshop (2nd part of the workshop)
Fort DeRussy Park
right across the street from ING Direct

WHEN

The photo fusion workshop will be held:

September 24th – Thursday
2:00 PM – 7:00pm (it may go a little later)

RESERVATIONS

In keeping with the low-budget nature of my trip and this workshop… I’m pricing it at an absolute no-brainer $35.

Due to the size of the venue and in the efforts to keep this workshop reasonably small and intimate, seating is limited. Click to reserve your place now:

Note: Purchase is non-refundable.

SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES

Sign up to receive email updates from me about workshops and video tutorials I’ll be releasing in the future. I don’t email very often because I hate annoying emails as much as you do.

MORE INFORMATION

Visit the Facebook event page
Visit the upcoming.org event page

Hawaii Photo Fusion tour
Ritz Carlton Photo Workshop
The Bui Brothers shoot Felicia Day

This workshop is brought to you by:

10 Reasons to Upgrade to Snow Leopard | Review

Vu Bui — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:13:00 +0000

After using Snow Leopard for less than a night… these are the reasons I am actually happy to have spent a whopping $29 on the upgrade.

It’s friggin’ $29! (or $25 if you buy HERE)
Space savings – While a 6GB or so savings doesn’t SEEM like a lot… it can make a big difference on a laptop, especially a laptop used for photo and video editing. I have a 320GB drive and with all of the apps and support files I have I average only 80GB free space when I’m keeping it CLEAN. I regularly run out of space when working on projects, but now I’ll have 6GB more!
Quicktime – Wow. It LOOKS cool. And it plays with no borders. There is no longer a Quicktime Pro. This is cool for most people. There is a new share menu and you have your standard iTunes-Mobile Me-YouTube options… but you are limited to them and the save for web (which is great for quick iPhone exports). The downside is that there are no professional output options… luckily during the upgrade you can choose to keep Quicktime 7 for that stuff.
Screen Recording – Yeah this is another Quicktime feature but it’s AWESOME and thus deserves its own place on the list. You can do screen recording now, so making simple tutorials, etc is a lot easier. I use Screen Flow for the more advanced stuff but sometimes I just want to do a quick capture, and now I can use Quicktime instead of iShowU.
Wake up FASTER! – Although I had little to complain about Leopard’s wakeup time… Snow Leopard is twice as fast. I pretty much never shut down my laptop, I just close the lid and open it to use… sometimes to use quickly… so this is great for me. Shut down time is also faster, though I don’t really care.
iChat in Hi-Res – I use iChat for lots of things… not usually chat. I share smaller files, talk to people via video chat, and preview documents and videos to clients and colleagues. This is a big upgrade for me because I was previously limited to crappy video quality when video chatting or especially when sharing videos and images through iChat Theater. Now it’s 640×360, and that’s pretty sweet.
Finder – Yup, it’s faster. Not so blazingly fast that I was as wowed as when I first used the iPhone 3GS after the sluggish-in-comparison 3G… but you can tell it’s a little more zippy. You can also customize your Spotlight searches… which is something I’ve wanted for a long time… and you can undelete items straight back into the folder they came from… instead of having to figure it out and drag it back.
Stacks – One thing I used to hate about stacks from the dock was that it would only show so many files… then you had to click the arrow to see more, and it would just open a new Finder window. It sucked once you had lots of files in your Downloads folder, and weren’t looking for something recent. Now you can scroll right in the stack!
Expose – I use active corners on desktop and all the wonderful multi-touch features of the pad on my MacBook Pro, but it’s nice to have new options… and now by clicking and holding the dock icon for an app you can see just the application’s windows in Expose. Small but cool feature.
Faster Time Machine – Time Machine is cool, and Time Machine is slow. While a REAL upgrade would be the ability to actually travel through time with Time Machine… Snow Leopard supposedly runs 80% faster (I haven’t timed it). That’s cool, cuz until they build a real time machine… time is pretty short.
Automatic printer driver downloads – Ok so this is number 11, because I’ve already got everything written for 10 but Lan just showed me something cool, and everyone likes a freebie, right? When you install you can choose to install NO printer drivers, which saves almost a GB, then when you connect to a printer the drivers will automatically be pulled for you. This ain’t Windows!

While I’ve heard a few reasons NOT to upgrade just yet due to incompatibilities with software by some 3rd party companies who haven’t updated yet… as long as you’re not using any of those you should cough up the cost of a basic lunch for two and upgrade to get your mostly-small-but-much-appreciated new features.

EDIT: There is a wiki set up with a compatibility/incompatibility list of apps for use with Snow Leopard here: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Compatibility List.

NOTE: If you are using a 3rd party hard drive or a replacement drive you may need to update your partition map scheme before you can install Snow Leopard. (you’ll know if you get an error saying “”HD” can’t be used because it doesn’t use the GUID Partition Table scheme”) If you have your original Apple-installed drive on an Intel Mac you will be fine, those come with a GUID partition table. If not then you’ll need to reformat your drive, which means you need to back everything up first, format your drive, then install. Or do what Lan did and back everything up using Carbon Copy Cloner, reformat the main drive and change to GUID partition scheme, then restore your carbon copy clone, and upgrade to Snow Leopard normally. Takes a few hours but is clean and fairly simple.

If you buy Snow Leopard on Amazon by clicking the little banner below, you’ll save $4 and pay only $25 AND I’ll get like $2.23, which will make me much happier than you’d think $2.23 would.