In addition Doug Peterson has been invited to tour the Denmark Headquarters of Phase One afterwards.

If you have anything that you would like us to research for you, please Contact Us. And if you have not already, please sign up for our RSS feed.

I’m more excited about this Photokina than I’ve been in a long time. I truly feel there will be some exciting announcements this year – please stay tuned!

The Phase One V-Grip Air is a vertical grip for the Phase One 645DF and Mamiya DF camera body. It is the first vertical grip to feature a wireless flash trigger, based on cooperation with Profoto.

Features

• Supports digital back batteries (Leaf, Mamiya and Phase One)
• Supports AA Batteries as a backup
• Ergonomic design
• Integrated Arca Swiss compatible L-bracket
• Allows easy updating of camera body firmware by USB
• Flash sync up to 1/1600 sec*

Availability

• Shipping towards the end of September

Price: $1290 – includes:

• V-Grip Air Unit
• L-Bracket Portrait Mount
• L-Bracket Landscape Part
• Leather Hand Strap
• One high-capacity battery
• Tripod Thread Reducing Adapter
• Screwdriver
• Documentation

Optional Accessories

• $199 – Profoto Air Transceiver (for strobes without built in Air Receivers)

*with fast-sync capable Phase One / Leaf back and Leaf Shutter lens

Buy Now

The Phase One V-Grip can be purchased at our Phase One eStore.

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Payment

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Option 2: Call 404-522-7662 and speak with Karen our wonderful accountant.

In Their Own Words

“Hedrich Blessing is a well known – 80 year old architectural photography studio in Chicago. About a year ago, we made the decision to convert our imaging process to digital. Once we made the decision to put away our 4×5 Sinars and Linhofs, we looked to the market for a consultant that could help us in our quest for equipment that would support our vision.

We were fortunate to find Capture Integration. They set about finding the right combination of cameras, lenses, and a capture device all of our photographers could embrace. Capture integration gathered equipment from multiple sources for us to test- and helped us make the best choices. Dave & Chris have gone the extra mile over and again. In my opinion, they’re the best people in the business- no question.”
hedrichblessing.com

Photos by Craig Dugan, Steve Hall, Kate Joyce, Scott McDonald, and Jon Miller of Hedrich Blessing

All photos in this post are © Bob Davis

Lights, Camera, Capture

Creating the light you want using small portable strobes

Lighting is easily the most important aspect of photography. I would even go as far as saying that lighting is photography: It is even in the word itself; “Photography” is greek for “Light Drawing”, or “drawing with light”. Without light, you cannot take photos.  It is perfectly possible to take amazing photographs with a very simple camera – as long as the lighting is good.  The opposite is true as well: If you are taking photos in a situation where the lighting is truly appalling, having the fanciest, most expensive camera in the world isn’t going to help you capture the photographs you want.

Become a seeker of light!  The most important thing we have to do is to learn how to “see the light”.

A lot of things will affect what the effects of a light source are, and how your photos are affected by said source. The brightness (or ‘intensity’) of the light source plays an important role, but, as we will explore in depth in the next chapter, is a lot less important than you might think.

The color of light is essential – and some of the biggest challenges you’ll meet in photography are the issues that arise when you start mixing different light sources. Sunlight, for example, has a drastically different color from the light that comes from your flash, the light that comes from car headlights, or the light in your house. While it can be incredibly difficult to get your photos to look “right”, light sources of different colors offer an opportunity too. With the right mixture of types and colors of light, you can achieve some beautiful creative effects that will make your photos really ‘pop’.

During the class we are going to through the evolution of light using small Speedlites, direct flash, bounce flash, multiple wireless remote flash, and creating studio quality light anywhere, anytime.

Bio

Capturing Michael Jordan’s career with the Chicago Bulls, covering national presidential elections, shooting Eva Longoria and Tony Parker’s wedding in Paris—it’s all just another (spectacular) day for Bob Davis. With a career that spans over 25 years, Bob’s subjects may shift from time to time, but his passion for photography is unwavering. In the wedding industry, he is privileged to photograph the most important event in a person’s life—knowing that what he captures allows them to relive the happiest time in their life. Some of his most recognized photographed events include, the Eva Longoria wedding, the Salma Hayek wedding and Oprah’s “A Bridge to Now” event. His work has graced the covers of numerous magazines, including Professional Photographer magazine, where he was the featured photographer of the issue. Bob is honored to be a member of the “Canon Explorers of Light”, an exclusive group of 62 of the USA’s best EOS photographers united in their love and passion for photographic excellence. He is also a proud member of the Apple® Aperture Advisory Board.

About the Canon Explorer of Light Program

Canon’s Explorer of Light program comprises 62 of the most influential Photographers in the world, each a master of their own respective creative specialty. The Explorers share their photographic passions and technical expertise with eager audiences of photography professionals, hobbyists, and enthusiasts of all levels.

Time & Date

August 19, 2010

5:30pm Open House at the Serenbe Photography Center
7:30pm Lecture by Bob Davis in the Pavilion of the Serenbe Inn

Location, Directions & Registration

You must register for this event at the website of Serenbe Photography Center.

Cost & RSVP

This seminar is $30. All attendees will receive a $30 credit towards the rental of any canon equipment from Capture Integration including bodies, flashes, and lenses.

More Photos By Bob Davis

In Their Own Words

We were dedicated to creating the most technically advanced studio in our marketplace and it turned into the single largest digital back installation in the history of our industry.  This isn’t something you go into lightly so there was never a question as to who we needed to partner with.  With an undertaking of this magnitude you simply have to partner with the best, and in our eyes Capture Integration stands head and shoulders above everyone else.  Everyone!  They aren’t a photographic dealer.  They’ve created a category all their own with the most professional attitudes, service and products available anywhere.  Frankly they became as integral to our operation as our staff.
vpstudios.com

In His Own Words

“I don’t remember how I heard of Capture Integration, I do know the first time I met them was at one of their free seminars they put on to educate us about digital products and software.

David and Doug have become my go to guys in regards to anything digital; be that a technical question that Doug (and no one else) can answer from the top of his head, or David’s impressive care of each and every individual client; Capture Integration treats its clients with an amazing level of customer service, the same way I strive to treat my clients.

That David goes to whatever lengths are necessary to help a client was shown again a few weeks ago: a missing cable in a rental kit threatened to stop my shoot, but David drove to his Atlanta office early that Saturday morning, pulled the piece, drove to the airport and rushed the cable to me via Delta Dash. A few hours after my initial phone call to him, I was up and shooting with a happy client.

This attitude is not the exception at Capture Integration – I am by far not the biggest client of theirs, but I am treated with the same commitment to more than perfect customer service as anyone else.”

depuhl.com

In Their Own Words

“Capture Integration are such important partners with us in the studio business. Having this relationship is so valuable and vital to our day to day business activity. Sure, one can order from other resources on the web, or from catalogs, but where are they when you need assistance? In our business, when we need assistance…we need it immediately! Where are the others when you’re in a bind and need technical support or need to rent additional, not good, but great and trustworthy equipment? I can always count on Dave and his team, whatever the need, when it comes to our photographic equipment. I can’t say enough about how much I value our relationship and the weight it removes from my shoulders just knowing that they are there standing behind my business.”
Diana Parrish Design and Photography

Foreword

Anytime an article on security is published it raises the question on whether the author should highlight weaknesses. My personal stance on this is absolutely firm: the people who want to bypass your security already know everything I’m writing below. Literally an intelligent 10-year old could find the information in under 10 minutes using google, and much of the information is posted publicly in Apple’s own help documents. This article is to help honest people understand what is needed to guard themselves against dishonest people.

OSX Password

All Mac user accounts must have a password associated with them. This password is required to make any low-level changes to the system like installing applications or changing important system preferences. If you’ve disabled “Auto-Login” in the system [System Preferences > Security] panel then the password is required to log into the computer. In addition [System Preferences > Security] can be set so that the computer automatically logs you out after X minutes of inactivity and requires a password to log back in. This is a pretty good level of security right?

Breaking the OSX Password

How long does it take to break past the OSX password? Using a good password makes it next to impossible for someone else to guess or “crack” your OSX Password. But they don’t have to. Anyone can change your OSX password by inserting an OSX install DVD and booting from the DVD. They even have a step-by-step guide to do this on Apple.com. Bottom line: if someone has physical access to your computer and more than 5 minutes then your OSX password is useless.

But I use a Firmware Password!

OSX allows you to set a “firmware password” which is required before a user can boot from a DVD. Since the procedure above requires the user to boot from the OSX DVD the idea is that the Firmware Password will prevent someone from subverting your OSX Password. Unfortunately it’s really easy to subvert the firmware password.

Breaking a Firmware Password

The Firmware Password can be reset by opening the computer and physically removing one of the sticks of ram, then booting the computer holding command-option-P-R (the shortcut to reset the PRAM). That’s it – the firmware password has been reset and you can boot from an OSX DVD to reset the OSX Password. If the bad-guy has physical access to the computer this entire process requires a OSX DVD, a screwdriver, and less than 10 minutes and your system is completely unlocked.

So what Can I Do?

So far as I can find, the only way to truly secure your system is FileVault. It may be possible for the NSA or CIA to crack a FileVault password, but as far as I can find, it’s impossible for any average bad guy. So unless you’re carrying state-secrets you’re probably more than safe using a FileVault with a good, hard to guess password. FileVault encrypts the entire contents of your home folder where the vast majority of programs store their data. Your Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, and Settings files are are located within your Home folder.

The Damage Possible

Nearly everyone I know stores sensitive information on their computer, even if they don’t know it. Here are some of the things a thief might do after unlocking your computer:

• Open and view all the passwords you’ve stored on the computer by selecting “Remember this password” in any application
• Read your email (if you use Mail)
• Send email in your name to your contacts (“e.g. Hey Mom, I can’t remember my ATM PIN – do you remember it??”)
• Check popular websites to see if you are auto-logged in (e.g. your gmail/hotmail/AOL email)
• Go to banking websites and use the “forgot my password” to email your secure passwords to your email address or initiate a password reset

Overall Recommendations

• Use a reasonably secure OSX password, set up a firmware password, and set up File Vault.
• Only store confidential documents in your user folder where File Vault will protect it.
• Turn your [System Preferences > Security] to disable automatic OSX login, and to require a password when coming back from a screen saver, set your screen saver to come on after only a few minutes of inactivity.
• Tier your passwords. Anything really important like bank accounts, tax information, etc., should be very secure passwords which are not directly related to your less important passwords. When creating throw-away accounts (e.g.  you have to create a username/password for a stupid giveaway) use a dedicated low-security and unrelated password like “nothing123″ so that anyone able to view such passwords cannot use them to access your important accounts.
• Do not use “auto logins” on any website or program which should be secure.
• Remember that many websites, even some financial websites, will email you your password with only a few (easy to guess/find) questions like date-of-birth. So whichever email address you use with secure accounts needs to be, itself, a high security password and should not be set to auto-login. For example a “hacker” (read: smart alec kid) gained access to one of Sarah Palin’s secure email address by using the “reset password” function which emailed the secure password to a much less secure email address.
• NEVER write your password down or type it into any document (only password entry fields). If needed write yourself clues on what the password is that are obscure/personal enough that they won’t be decipherable by anyone else. For instance if your password is “John4Galt2 you might remind yourself “Rand Also Can’t Remember” which easily jogs the memory of the originator but would be impossible to reverse engineer.
• If you ever suspect your computer or smart phone has been stolen immediately reset every password you have. If you have a smart phone which can be remotely wiped do so immediately as anyone who is stealing a phone in order to mine data off of it will know they only have a limited time to take advantage of it.
• If you have so many passwords you can’t keep track then consider creating an encrypted disk image file where you can type your passwords and other ultra-confidential information. Doing so in OSX takes only a few minutes.

Apple Unveils New Mac Pro With Up to 12 Processing Cores

CUPERTINO, California—July 27, 2010—Apple® today unveiled a new Mac® Pro line with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation.* Featuring the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD), the new Mac Pro continues to deliver amazing performance and expandability for the most demanding consumers and professionals.

Capture Integration is an Apple Reseller specializing in configuration and setting up mac systems for high-end photographic applications. Contact Us for advice in which components are worth upgrading through Apple, which components should be bought 3rd party, and how to set up your software and hardware configurations.

Visit the Product Page to browse possible configurations then give us a call.

Note the new Mac Pros were announced today (July 27) and pricing and specs have been released but they will not be available to order until sometime in August.