What does Fall and Thanksgiving have in Common?...

CRANBERRIES!

I always thought that cranberries grew in water,bogs,something to be avoided during a full moon. Guess what...they don't, in fact they grow along the ground on vines,tight little berries that come in all shades,from pale red to purple.


Prior to this century they were harvested by hand, with a scoop which had 26 seven inch teeth sticking out from a wooden handle, sliding into the vine like a rake, plucking up the berries and often the vine with it. It was long backbreaking process and to get a real idea read http:www.unmassed.edu/specialprograms/caboverde/cranberry/semedo3.html a wonderful history or it all.

Ah...the mechanical era came along. and so did production. Enter "Wet Picking."

The vines growing in the marsh or bogs now could be flooded

and a motorized picker ,"Water Reel" or egg beaters could now be used to beat them off the vine and beautiful ruby jewel like marbles could float to the top...a man stands in front to guide and mark the place they left off and also feel for any deep holes( something you don't want to fall into with waders!) and they go round and round until all done. Oh yeah..how do they float to the top? They have small air pocket in the middle where the seeds are,







Then they are corralled together ready to











be sucked up into a waiting truck..that rinses and loads them ready to be delivered to the plant.

Each truck is weighed and product tested..


Before unloading, samples are randomly sampled for any pesticides or other contaminates..
then unloaded by dirving up on a ramp that tilts the truck back to dump out the berries onto belt system sorting for sizes and later determined for usage eg. juice,frozen,packaged etc.


So the next time you slide out that familiar red log of cranberry jelly for holiday turkey or chicken, ( mmm duck as well) or any other kind of cranberry sauce item you might have in mind, think of the process it took to take it from here to your table. To me they will never look the same.


For more images.. http://www.matthewpace.com/cranberryslideshow

Everything Old is New Again...

Deafened by the whirl of digital advancements happening so fast that all my time went to upgrading both my equipment and brain with programs and drives, that I almost forgot what photography was all about.... from a top shelf and from inside I heard its voice..a 1932 Agfa box camera called out..("got $20.00 bucks? buy me)..no programs included. So I did.

I took it along a trip to France, the Loire Valley and yes of course I did back myself up with the big guns as well. The Box, takes 120 roll film, remember that? Some form of exercise in patience and the anticipation of seeing images a while after you forgot them only to rediscover the thrill and agony of why did take that. Even at times seeing something you didn't think it would work only to discover a whole new movement in your work and vision.

It gets 8 shots, 6x9 if you can line up the roll correctly at the start. Exposure is simple, press here. I used Tmax 400 most of time and sometimes Tmax100. The small viewer on top and on the side for horizontals darkened by age, appear larger by wearing magnifying glasses on top of my RayBans, a comical sight helping to label me a tourist even further than the photo vest holding my film and back up camera/lenses which I hardly pulled out due to the relaxed fun I was having with the Box. In fact, it made me take pictures once again, not figure out programs.

The image here, shot in the rain, is Chenonceau."The Ladies Castle" something you might not see on This Old House. The soft tones around the edges are the character of this camera, not sure if it is age or if it was the state of the art in its time, but to me,perfect for this look. The exposure,aperture,lens choice...well,who cares,can't do anything about it anyway, just snap away and hope to correct it later in Photoshop, which brings us to the present.

Back at base, scanning these allowed for corrections and at times they were needed other than the usual dust. Toning, burning , dodging, (sound familiar? ) with some negs. was in need but a small price to pay to fall back in love with things again.

Now don't get me wrong, I am fully equipped and knowledgeable with all of today's things and I do use them in my commercial life, but I would love to find a place for the Box, apart from my art life and apply it. Sometimes the further we go in one direction, the more around we come in another,

In a way the old has married the new and a new series begins.

More to come soon...

Yet Another

 To add to my previous post yet another image of this popular subject...the "Z Tree"  by Dennie Cody. Taken at a different time of the year, the wet season in the Everglades, his view shows it in full splendor within its now green surroundings. 

The beauty of art is the endless ways each artist sees it. Everyday objects are not as everyday as we think. They do change continuously , if not physically. then from our point of perspective.

   

 

6 eyes,1 tree,3 points of view

                   

We are three friends. We are also three photographers who at times compete for the same clients.We have three ways of seeing things.

On the left is Paul Morris, the middle is me, the right is Robert Klemm

You often hear " That's been done before. "  It is the chant and motto of the discouragement fraternity whose numbers,especially in this field, grow by the day. To the young, thank God,it falls on deaf ears. To others it resoundslike an echo in a canyon and if we pay too much attention to it, numbs us to the point of internal stagnation. 

Here we three were in the Florida Everglades at a very familiar spot for locals who tread there, the "Z Tree," a bald cypress who took a strange turn due to a force in nature. Many have stopped there and I have a host of images of this tree. 

Paul chose to work with his pinhole camera and Polaroid 55N film. From his view, the tree becomes part of the heavens reaching up connecting earth and sky. It was a brilliant day and through his lens, this tree celebrates it.

Robert, chose to work with a Deardorff   view camera scaled for 4X5 B&W film. His graphic silhouette of the tree quickly brings out the name it bears and accentuates a sense of power that gives reason to why it has endured whatever mishap fell on it. In a way it speaks for the power of nature with its resiliency of survival.

I chose to work with a Canon 5D  and a LensBaby. For me the tree was the main subject in a painting of an environment that exists no where else on earth. It's warm colors muted by the len's effect and its focus directed to the subject at hand was my interest. 

We could have had 50 photographers on that site that day and probably would have 50 different images produced with no two alike. Besides the beauty of the images, there are lessons here to be had. For me the lesson learned is about individuality and how, like the tree, one stands unique, despite it all. A different vision is in each one of us but it's often blinded by the myriad of negatives that place blinders on it. Like snowflakes, no two will ever be exactly the same and that shouldn't stop us from doing and re-doing things, with our own expression.

" That's been done before "......maybe, but not this way. 

matthew pace

Who Knew Then,Treat it Serious Now

That's my dad, Raphael and his partner Leroy. That's a Tommy gun on the right. That's a riot gun on the left. That's the third largest diamond ever found in the raw, handcuffed to my dad. 

Found in South Africa when a woman tilling her field sat on it by accident, later sold to Harry Winston, it was shipped via the United States Postal System. The Two in the picture, a team of Postal Inspectors had the honor of receiving it and transporting it to Harry Winston in NYC. Harry took advantage of the best and lowest price escort by insuring it via the US Mail, but that's not what this story is about. 

It is about the importance of archiving photography, for a future we can't see now and not judging what has or doesn't have value. 

On route to Harry. they stopped to check in at their office and another inspector there asked them to stop and pose for a quickie Polaroid. A fast snap taken to show the folks back home, me included who at the time was a young photographer with my bathroom darkroom setup and my new MamyiaRB67 . It was another assignment in my dad's work but one that needed some extra copies to send to the rest of the family. The original must have been 3x4 apprx. and he asked if I could make a copy. I did and a few negatives at that. I stored them in an archival glassine, gave one to them and filed the others.

35 years later, the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC wanted to dedicate a section to the Postal System and its great Postal Inspection Department. Also known as a secret service that took no credit for the myriad of cases both local and international, it gave away the accolades to the other departments that enforce the law. Its history is rich and its reputation among the inside law enforcers and breakers was outstanding. They were the final word...FEDERAL.

The Smithsonian searched for a definitive picture that would speak for the whole of who they are and after many thousands of edits stumbled on this one long gone faded Polaroid but from a print done from the copy neg, chose this. With today's better equipment. I scanned and cleaned negative and gave them a reproducible  file to turn into this card,calendar, and permanent display in the museum. 

Often we pass over many images that we deem as no real value. In our haste we discard or misplace the many images, particularly in today's digital world seeing them as non-important,a happy snap,something that we don't even consider. This one thirty some years ago could have been just that...a " hey guys, look aver here" and time would have moved on as this would have faded away. Luckily it didn't. It, while who knew then, now belongs and is part of history. 

From this point of view, we are more than jsut photographer, we are the in a way the gaurdians of history, no matter how big or small the events we record. To that end, our responsibility to the future is our approach to the present and what we do as photographers, happy snaps or major works takes on a different meaning.         

Hopping truths in the News..?

Here's a funny story that happened some years ago when I first started to shoot food.

I was called on by an editor of some popular "rag sheets" that you find at the checkout counters in the supermarkets. They wanted to do a story about frog legs and asked if I had any in stock. I didn't but living here in South Florida at that time provided no problem .

A local fish market had a supplier who hunted frogs in the Everglades, big ones too and that afternoon I got some of the best. I prepared them myself, some I had to eat of course...and photographed them as well. Sending up the film..(ah the good old film days when I wasn't in front of the computer all day for every thing I now do, when I dropped off my film,had lunch with others while we waited the 3 hours or so,had food,beer/wine and talked about everything, about being and having a HUMAN touch ).. excuse me I digress... anyway, they selected this and a verticle shot as well to see how it would lay out.

I had asked about the story but they were vague, she was simply the photo editor doing her research etc... about a month  later I am in a local super market and I spot my shot very nicely reproduced with all appropriate bylines, and paid for of course, under the headline.. " Scientists have found why the French make such great lovers"  semi quoted here...why ,the story asks..because they eat Frogs legs and frogs have been found to feed on flies, the aphrodisiac ones that they pass on in their meat.Since the French are known to eat them...VOILA..cum eere ma cheri!!!  Now I may be French and on occasion eat a couple, I always thought it was my je ne sait qua ...  

Now a couple of months go by and I am at the photo show in NYC at Javits. I go to a local market and there in another newspaper I see the shot again, this time..." Man sues famous restaurant in France over a heart attack, when his diner of frogs legs gets up and dances in his plate." wow...Fred Astair and Kermit rolled into one... 

Both stories in separate papers used this image, created in my kitchen supplied from the Everglades. Now, I know about freedom of the press and artistic license but this was absolute parody or should have been. 

While it didn't make me hopping mad, it did make me laugh for a long time. If you have a similar story email to me to post it here...   

Time,Reputation,Family Portraits

This is my Dad, Grandmother and Uncle. The location, Tampa, Florida,1938, actually Ybor City. My grandmother had a hard but happy life. She never had much, having gone through some of the tougher economics times of this country but one thing she did have, invested in, and handed down were photographs...professional ones that she had taken with her children,family and later me whenever I visited her from New York. She had a favorite studio in Tampa, where an excellent photographer exercised the perfection in his craft,you see here. 

His canvas background and various chairs that appear in other photographs he took of us through the years were his only special effects, long before PhotoShop. His concentration on his view camera,lighting and his subjects all the while putting up with us and the demands of her added to the treasure chest of memories and recordings that made up her trove. Her documentation, ink, who knew?

Her importance to these sessions were equally met by her photographer and maybe that is what this post is about; the importance of time, the one we take, the one we share and the one we leave for those who couldn't be there. Some things are worth doing, unaccountable to dollars but to the love of what one does and this shows it. Looking at this family portrait,we see a classic Black and White of its time, perfect posing ( a little stiff by today's standard ) perfect lighting,exposure and expression, not something that he pumped out because the next 40 were in line. This was an important moment for all. You can see he took it seriously because it was important to her, his client and him, his reputation. He didn't measure her wallet,it wasn't that big. He weighed his reputation and it weighed much more than whatever she could given him. This was Angelo's Studio and the approach wasn't about immediate money buta personal worth over the course of time.    

A few short years later, my dad on the left went to the Army and my uncle, the chunky one, went to the Marines, both went to war and made this image and this photographer's skill and attention to the details much more precious to her and to those of us who will carry on.   

 

Power/Responsibility/Orphan Works

 In a great scene from Spiderman, Uncle Harry turns to his nephew Peter Parker, yet to be become the super hero, and says " With great power comes great responsibility." Later , Peter now Spiderman, learns the depth of that statement.

This is my mother, in her youth , right after World War ll in France. 

It is an honest portrait showing a strong beautiful girl not trying to project anything but her strong presence in the moment of who she is,  unknown to another viewer all the experiences of World War ll   that she endured during the German occupation. Technically, flawed by a cheap camera  it still holds her real self, even now as an elderly lady, as I know her. It speaks for her in that moment, sure of today with no expectations of tomorrow. It is a time piece.

A few years later, early 50s, arriving in New York City, a professional photographer took these next images. While they are technically perfect with all the high grade professionalism and beauty of classic photography, they are someone else that I never knew but only discovered in my teens lying in a draw.While I recognized her as my mother, this was a woman I never knew existed, or could. For all purposes, it was my mother being someone else. It doesn't have the honesty about her but obviously it was not meant to. It was a projection of someone else. 

60 years ago, neither photographer probably had any knowledge of where or who these distinctly different images of the same person would wind up nor whom would view them. Luckily both had some knowledge of how to preserve them and both these time pieces endured and hopefully will continue for the future generations of my family. 

As photographers we are not Spiderman, but like him we also share an awesome responsibility because like him, we wield an awesome power. The power of stopping time and holding it in one place. It is something that we don't think of each time we push the button.  but exists in the future of the viewer whose life is affected by it. Sometimes its history, sometimes its personal. Always it is a powerful thing that affects both the viewer in the present and more so the one in the future  

In a previous post I spoke of Orphan Works, a very hot item among us photographers. Luckily I knew the first photographer, my dad. The second one unfortunately is lost. I would have loved to have met him today if he is still with us just to talk about the entire series of images he made here. With his forgiveness I am showing his work here with admiration.

In our possible future, images will contain an image footprint much like a finger print where no two are exactly alike, due to the digital information contained in both its metadata and the very pixels in the scan or digital file itself that make the image.This footprint would be recorded and housed so that by sending this image to that house would show me who,what and where this image came from. Were that the case,I would have been able to look him up, contact him and chatted, or at the least with whomever owns this image today.

Our responsibility will lie with a serious approach of entering and registering as much info that is possible with whatever new digital programs are yet to be written. In our near future and their distant one, we and everything about what we have created will further that awesome power as long as we can further our responsibility.  

On the subject of Orphan Works,    John Harrington, voices his opinion on his blog, well worth reading. 

Pictures/Images..and Orphan Works

 I want to talk about old pictures and images for some. This is my aunt, Lilly,early 1930s, photographed in Lyons,France where I am from. In its original print before this scan, it was silver and black  that looked as though it was printed on metal paper. The lighting, the hair, the style truly captured its time and becomes a classic beauty, a real jewel of photography. It is for all purposes a great Stock shot with many potentials not to mention a period piece.

I said in the opening, old pictures, images for some and that some is today's photographers. In her era, prints were about the only medium shown, and reproduced from. Professionals had labels, signatures, embossed or inked stamps to say who they were and whom to contact. 

Today, images are in many forms, digital being dominant and for professionals we have metadata that not only say the same things but add much more info, including copyright the new challenge being threatened. The threat....Orphan Works    

In brief, it says that if every attempt to locate or find out who the photographer was fails, then it is open market to a third party user. This picture has no marks nor signatures. It is almost 80 years old, now an orphan except than in actuality, I do know who the photographer is, my grandfather, who is no longer behind his camera. 

The case rests on a premise ( a revamp to copyright law) ...would images like these and those with historical value be lost, unusable, no longer seen unless you are viewing the original in a museum or collection, if its creator could not be found, under current copyright law?  

What if in todays images the metadata were stripped away or unreadable by tomorrow's tools, would they in the creator's lifetime be open game to a myriad of users? with the Orphan Works, by the current wording, yes..as well. Theoretically you could post an image or through a third party ( a client using a website, it gets downloaded by another and reposted) your metadata stripped, and now it is an orphan, open game.      

ASMP is trying to fight and re-word Orphan Works but that alone will not protect our images from becoming lost/orphaned. Technology must come to the rescue by creating a permanent non-strippable way to keep all info within the image itself and not a side issue. 

With today's technology we share knowledge openly. Like launching a message in a bottle in hopes to reach the right receivers but little control on where it lands. With our hope, comes its threat. For our future, must come a new defense. We can not lose what is in the past nor give up what is in the present. Join and support whatever photo group fits you best and help to bring some solution.

 

        

            

New Brush 2

..OK...so the first rule of thumb with a G9 camera from Canon is..CHECK THE BATTERY STATUS first...it loves the juice.....

After a false start, due to to the above fact learned the hard way!!! I came home and decided to use it where I would normally use my BIG GUN camera. This is fine for me here since my final intention was to produce the result on the web rather than on a page..(yet to be tested).

So for my other blogsite...http://www.matthewapcefood.blogspot.com
where the recipe and layout is

I shot this image,"Cilantro Shrimp in Plantain Cup" hand held, under a low lighting condition. The anti shake feature came on automatic and the result in Raw seems fine. I also shot a small jpeg with to see how the camera program would interpret it, which it also did very close to my taste. My next trial will be on an assignment....

Eager to try the new Canon G9, I went to Miami Beach in the morning. This top left image was originally shot Raw...100ISO..the next converted to BW in CS3, and the third with filters applied, cross strokes and water colors..all images here are at 72ppi jpeg for the web..

IMHO..the original file is very sweet at 12mp...tight and smooth. The ease of the camera was easy once I sat and read the extensive manual( good thing I already have some Canon savy) I chose to program one of the custom settings C1 to my preferences in color,format etc.

Now the part about the new brush...If I had been carrying my Gear, I might not have stopped to set up. Here during a quick walk by I spotted this image. Taking a glance down at the back,camera in hand, I made the shot. Because of this shot, I will return to continue along this point of view and see where it takes me. 

 

Inspiration

Just when my eyes were getting too bleary and my brain too swollen from looking at all the new images being put out as " wonderful , ponderous , insightful, "..but somehow not inspiring, I was sent this link from a friend and over coffee the next morning, I sat breathing deeply.

 http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=28163893

Don't get scared by the time, invest a little..

A New Brush

Lately there has been discussion on one of my favorite sites...http://www.luminous-landscapes

about does the camera matter. It summarizes that different cameras as in 4x5 or holga will lead that photographer to a different point of view and that difference will help to create different work.

That being said, I have picked up a new brush, because I believe that this theory is somewhat correct. Of course Ansel Adams would still have seen Half Dome whether he was using an 8x10 or a 35mm, but maybe he wouldn't have stayed so long to study it if he used the latter. 

After a few years of digital, I returned to my 4x5 field with Polaroid's 55N film for a personal project I am shooting. Processing in the field, another subject, I find my view of each image a timely and studied approach, not the snapping away from varied angles and lenses choice. I took my time to see it,feel it and watch it at first. I framed it through my 4x5 matt to find the view and after tweeked the camera to bring into focus what I want looking at the ground glass and seeing it on paper, the pre-visualization often talked about. Reviewing it later on after the rapture passed, I see that I made the right choice for that subject or at least, once divorced from the subject, I discovered an image that might not have been the same had I used another camera. To my mind, I had the right brush and it did lead me to that canvas.    

I have searched for another brush to see if I can produce a different view for my commercial side or simple how I see it and now I just picked up Canon's new G9, a great little (sort of point and shoot) digital camera...info= 

With it freedom from my  camera bag...from suspicious looks..a new sense of play and hopefully a newer look...

I will provide a page with results soon ..and welcome comments.

 

Does Size Matter?

Just an interesting observation here....

It seems that the bigger the digital file sizes get like 18Mp and up....the smaller the usages are being asked for as in...web, blogsites, my space,etc.

anyone else see this? 

Shooting Raw ??? "will it make me sick"

I never studied Geek in school therefore I don't understand it when it is spoken. I wish I did but my language is Streetaleese, so forgive this basic approach.

What is Raw and why is it good for me??

First, digital sees in black and white, like your meter sees. It measures the given differences of shades of gray from 0-255 ( look at your histogram). 100 is sort of middle ground or mid gray kinda of like the old zone system of 0-10 with 5 being mid point and somewhere between 5-6 the old graycard, most skin tones.

Digital cameras have in a way their own programs  to assign their given color to the pixels measured and in combination make up the many shades and tones of the color spectrum. It knows that if a given measurement is this then it must be this shade of green etc.

Raw is what the camera has metered and captured...jpegs and anything else is how it interprets that capture into its idea of color. 

In Streetleese, Raw is the musical score and the rest is the performance you ear from the orchestra you are listening to. With just the score, you can play it any way or in any translated tempo or with another instrument if you like, and not affect the original score, in case you would like to play it differently later on.  With the performance, you chime in with your Oboe or flute and try to change the tempo or a different note, but might risk throwing the piano off beat for a while and once the performance is done unless you record it on something else, it is out there...done.

Raw take up more space,not more time with the right workflow and programs however you come to it. No one shoots that perfect and if you do you shouldn't be reading this anyway. 

With Raw, like a musical score, you can translate and re-translate it any way and in any form ,jpeg,tiff,DNG whatever you like and still have the original untouched and ready for the next performance. 

So....real men shoot raw!   ...so far...

  

Digital Work Flow/ MYWORK FLOW....

First know that I am not the seat of knowledge nor a product genius. I have no fancy tittles other than just a working photographer in the trenches, who faces many of the same problems as you. I have attended many seminars, lectures, read manuals but in the end, learned by the school of hard knocks. This post isn't perfect, but it is how I think and organize and hopefully, might help your organizational skills by giving you a starting point.  

Also note that there is no such thing as the end all, all in one, final answer, program, handed down to Moses on Mt. Sinai, here to cure all your ills and with no work on your part operates all by itself while you sunbathe on the Riviera. They want us to think that, but we know better and once we have accepted that, Photo life gets better. 

There are however from ADOBE...CS3/Bridge/Lightroom ( which is what I am talking about and use). Three great products that have made the world of digital easier. I want to stress easier not perfect, maybe that lies somewhere else. If so, Let me know please! Why these? Simple..they wrote the book and they are seamless with excellent support. They are the benchmark so far. Using the strengths of each in harmony with each other is my work flow.  

That being said:

Before we get into workflow, a much talked about thing, let's assume that we all know and are using raw files here. For those who don't get it yet, click here to see why for the most part, that is the best way to capture image files. Photographers who shoot weddings, PR, coverage and any other form that might require producing 600 images and up at a clip ...well jpegs might be better just for the sake of disk space only. Although we could debate that as well.

The very first and foremost thing is to have a calibrated monitor!!!  Why? In simpler terms, If everyone had the same grey card, at least we would all know which grey we are talking about no matter where we are looking at it from.

 

Let's start with your camera format settings. I use raw and sometimes a small jpeg file as well in case I need a very fast " take a look at these" first. If I am not shooting into a laptop, I download my folders via a card reader, into ( in my case) my mac. Where? Anywhere you can find it, it really doesn't matter at this stage. Once done, I might name the folders according to client/job/year,month,date,maybe subject name..example= WackyMag-080324-JoeLabatts. Is it the right way? Who cares it works for me. You can change the order if you like but what I like to see in the many folders, I gather is who and when. Any subfolders can be named differently in relation to the main one. 

I start in Bridge. One cool feature in Bridge is in Tools, up top. You can create a Metadata Template ( your info that you want to go with each image file), save and name it to reflect that job,a body of work,a client, whatever. I recommend creating a standard, basic one that applies to all situations, then adding to it later with every different job or subject. Mine has,my name,phone number,websites,,copyright notice, email ( by the way, my email is my web address since I will always have the same URL). You could include your address but since I have moved a few times. it is pointless. I save that basic template as matthewpace template. You can create as many templates and save them under different headings as when you have an ongoing client that might need separation with ID and save as "WackyMag"  

Now to the job downloaded:  

I call up Bridge and open the downloaded folder for  editing, applying my Metadata,and renaming my files. I keeo my thumbnails to the left by twos, a larger viewing window to the right and a smaller Metadata window below. However YOU prefer to see Bridge eg. filmstrip,bigger window, contact is up to you..play around with the different setups at first and you will discover how your brain prefers to see it. There is no right way.  

Go to Edit and select all. Yes there are keyboard shortcuts, but lets go the universal route for now. Then go to tools( I ) select Append Metadata to apply my template to all. That done, I keep  all selected and click inside the Metadata tab, into the IPTC Core,and click my pointer in whatever box I wish to add info to such as Description..Joe Labatts, Headline=Joe sitting on throne, Keywords if any= heart surgeon, millionaire, fat guy whatever.. thenperhaps location and city/country,and most important job identifier= year month date/and whatever  else like the folder it is coming from # 1...perhaps job, ( although you might resell this later to another one so this is really an option, one I don't use) 

If all your images are the same subject,  go down to the lower right corner just below the Metadata and click the check mark to "apply". If they are not all the same then click the first image that applies to that description you just added, and holding down the shift,click the last in the same subject series then click the check mark. If you have varied subjects, click the ones which are the same,one at a time, and drag them to gather them in one area in the "Content" side, the side with the thumbnails, so they are now all together. Go to Edit=unselect all first then select just the different subject ones you gathered and go back in your Metadata tab area, delete info that doesn't belong, add the new info,  and now apply the new info to the different subject selected.  Repeat as many times as there are different subjects that might need different info, like names, places etc. not stupid things like " looking right,left sitting at desk) remember we want to sunbathe in the Riviera not pale in front of the monitor.   

You should now have all you metadata down. Time to edit...First.go to..Edit=deselect all. 

I use a simple Label method. Set it up first.Once set it should remain that way as a default, until you reset it later.  Go to Label and click Select... Then go to View=sort=ascending order. Now one at a time on the thumbnail section, select the image you like, apply a label..on my Mac=Command 6 and a color label will appear, dropping the image to the bottom of the Content side. If there is one you really like you could also apply a star to it as well. The more stars , the more you like or suggest to your client. If you can't keyboard it, it is under Label,up top,click label and if wanted, stars.

Now once all done with selects... I create in that folder a subfolder called Selects..then I go to the first labeled image at the bottom and holding the shift down, I click the last one to select all labeled images and drag them to that folder,  Selects... I repeat this process with whatever folders as I have downloaded being careful not to mix up the folders. Then click on the select folder, and go to edit=Select All, go up to the top, Tools=Batch Rename...

A box appears asking for info...Destination folder=is where you want to send this batch of re-named  images..I leave them in the same folder.  Next, New Filenames is asking how to rename them. I put four digits sequence numbers and within one job if there are a few folders I let that part start at one and don't change that until all the folders are done and renamed. Then I put Text=matthewpace (so they really know who shot it) then date created which is the also the "Job identifier in your metatdata, if you got to it right away...year/month/date .If you didn't, then click the down arrow next to Date Created and pick eg. yesterday or date modified.  I leave the New Extension  as Type Extension and then click windows compatibility for those who are using some silly ass program later in an older, collectors item PC. 

Below you will see how the original filename looked and how the new one WILL look.If you don't like it, you can go above and change it. This works for me and most who seemingly can't read a file number and say things like " it's the third from the bottom with his hand waving"..

At this point, I am done with Bridge. I know this sounds complicated but believe me it is very easy and once you get the hang of it,and have you template,batch rename preferences in place, its almost automatic...you can start to get out your suntan lotion.. Once you have your Metadata template and Batch Rename in place that can apply to all jobs, a 2 gig raw folder might take around 10 minutes to process unless you are a huge admirer of your own work and stop to linger and ponder on each image as to whether or not Joe Labatts is better with his left foot out rather then his right . 

Now the real fun starts: 

Call up Lightroom.. go to=library and click on the bottom left side Import and find the "Select" folder(s) one at a time of course. Hit choose and a box comes up =File Handling, I select at their current location, I also click Don't re-import suspected Duplicates, in case I added  small jpegs to my raw files, in my camera format  and now don't really need them..Information=Develop none...AND METADATA=NONE ( since we already have that from Bridge.) click import. 

I go to Develop and below in my filmstrip I select the first one.  I make all my corrections on the right side,temp/exposure/color/whatever and then I click Copy on the lower left side making sure all boxes are checkcd , ( default). If the next image to the right looks like it needs the same corrections then hit paste....if all need the same, then select the first one corrected  and holding down the shift select the last one and click Sync to the lower right side and click the blue lit Synchronize button. If not, correct the one in contention and copy that. Move to the next that look like it needs the same correction and paste or sync a string of similar ones as long as they are all in a row... once they are all done go to the top edit=select all and go to Photo= save Metadata to file...on Mac, keyboard= Command s...

Now with all selected, go back to Library and Export ..in the box that appears, Export Location=  is when you want to send and save the files=   new folder you create in your computer, an external drive, etc...Under File Naming, Template= I choose  Filename, (since that has already been done previously in Bridge when we did batch rename)...now select your File Settings = eg tiff, jpeg etc.... then under Image Settings= Color Space...Adobe98 for most things that will be reproduced...srgb for the web.. Bit depth=16bit if you are going to retouch or go further in CS3 or just 8bit for Jpeg (for web,email,FTP to a server etc)  or OK tiffs (for printing or burning to disk). Pick your Resolution according to your usage..72ppi=web...300ppi=reproduction 

I don't select anything in Metadata and unless I am only doing a few images that needfurther work in CS3 as in retouching, I select After Exporting=do nothing..If I have a few that I want to enhance or retouch,  then choose "open in CS3" If they are perfect ( yeah right)  "burn cd" ...

At this point I am done unless I need a web Gallery...another POST TBD. Any image you open

should show in file info all the metadata you created from Bridge; your personal file image name etc.

A 2 gig card in raw should take around 20 minutes if all is right..like you exposed from a meter correctly, not too many lighting changes or the take is consistent good or bad.

In the next TBD post, I will talk about how I make things real easy in color/exposure/etc. corrections.. 

good luck, good shooting..don't get sunburned