If you'd like to view the storyboard video or the edited movie, it's online at my MobileMe Galleries. You'll need a login and password to access it (remember how easy it was to create those in Aperture?):

user = webinar

password = Aperture3

The summer is actually only going to get busier from here. I have a lot of stuff planned - from a trip to Montana, an Indianapolis Final Cut Pro users group meeting, the Indiana State Fair photo contest, a number of semi-pro football games to shoot, several home improvement projects, Chicago Bears training camp, go-karting (both shooting and driving on two separate occasions), and hopefully squeezing in some time with my daughter to do a few fun things!

Stay tuned for more great Aperture and Final Cut Pro tips - I'm going to post some things I've learned soon!

In the next week or two I've lined up some friends and we are going to be shooting brand new footage (to go along with Canon 5D Mark 2 footage seen in the preview video) that will be included in the bonus material available for purchase. I'm also going to be providing a couple screen capture tutorials on how to do a few things I just won't have time to cover during the webinar, but that I think are important. Access to watch and participate in the live webinar (which is free if that is all you want), download it for later viewing, and getting the bonus material is a pretty good deal for $25. Hopefully you agree.

I'll post some more details about some of the footage and bonus material as we get closer to the seminar.

I had hesitations about the new keyboard at first (I chose the wired version because thats the only way to get the numeric keypad). After using it for a day however, I found I really liked it. It is much quieter, feels good, and is much easier to keep clean.

The biggest issue I have had with the setup so far is the Magic Mouse. Still trying to get used to it. I love the scrolling of it, I just miss my extra button for activating Expose. It's also a lot thinner than my previous mouse, and seems to get lost in my hand at times. 

I haven't done any serious editing or anything that would tax the processor yet. Aperture 3 absolutely flies on it though, and working in full screen mode with the HUD controls for image adjustments over on the second monitor makes editing and tinkering with photos fun. So slowdowns waiting for things to catch up like on the G5.

So far it is great, and I don't miss having a tower one bit. 

About a year later, I began having problems with my video card and a firewire port. Luckily I had a spare video card, so life continued on. Then last fall the G5 was crashing randomly, and almost every time I restarted it. I thought it was bad RAM, as System Profiler was reporting back 3GB, when there was 4GB installed. After getting replacement warranty RAM, the problem persisted. Since Christmas though, I haven't had any problems with it... until Monday.

It was crashing left and right Monday, making for a miserable day. I tried swapping RAM around, trying different slots and different combinations. A couple times it seemed like it worked, but no more than 10 minutes later... hang. Reboot, hang. And so on.

So after two days of frustration as my poor G5 sputtered towards the end of it's usable life, I decided to put it out of it's misery, taking it off life support, and pulled it's plug.

----^v----^v----^v---------------------- (long beep)

How will I ever recover? I think the new 27" iMac (the i7 version with 8GB RAM & 2TB hard drive) I ordered last night will help the pain subside. I'll let you know next week when it arrives. 

After searching around their site and not seeing anything about a photographer mentioned, I sent an email asking if they had one, and if not, that I would be interested in the gig. A few back and forth emails later, and I'm now the official photographer for the Madison County Pirates semi-pro football team, in the Interstate Football League. I will be on the sidelines for their 5 home games at least, as well as several practices and their Red/Silver scrimmage, where I will also take player head shots for the programs and a team photo.

In order to make some of the photos I take available to the players, their families, friends, and fans of the team, I've set up a pro account with SmugMug. I will be making my sports, landscape, and nature photography available to purchase at various sizes, with safe and secure online purchasing, with professional prints delivered right to your door. I also purchased a new domain name to make it easy to find that site - RobChinnPhoto.com. You can find links both in the navigation bar across the top of the page as well as to the left in the Where to Find Me section.

I'm really excited about this opportunity to be on the sidelines shooting football! They say shoot what you know or shoot what you love - this will be an opportunity to do both. It gets rolling in June, although I'll be attending a few May practices before that. Stay tuned for photos and stories.