Chris Marquardt

Bravo, STARCAR. AUSNAHMSWEISE.

2013-06-15T04:44:00.001-07:00

Hallo STARCAR,

für den Umzug meines Studios habe ich für drei Tage einen Transporter bei dir gemietet. Bekommen habe ich einen Mercedes Vito XL, ein gutes, sauberes Gefährt, mit genügend Platz für meine Ansprüche. Und trotzdem überlege ich mir nun ernsthaft, nächstes mal doch lieber wieder zur Konkurrenz gehen.

Warum? Schauen wir uns das mal etwas genauer an.

The Good

Ich habe genau das erhalten, was ich gebucht habe. Auf der Website stand Mercedes Vito XL und genau den habe ich in deiner Hannoveraner Niederlassung auch erhalten. Bravo, STARCAR. Bei den anderen Vermietern steht in der Regel das Top-Fahrzeug der entsprechenden Klasse auf der Website und im Kleingedruckten findet man dann Fahrzeug ähnlich. Und vor Ort bekommt man dann ein ganz anderes Fahrzeug. (So eben erst in Irland geschehen. Bei der Konkurrenz einen Golf (oder ähnlich) gebucht und einen Opel Astra bekommen). Bei Dir steht das zwar auch so auf der Website, aber das Resultat war deutlich besser. Das war eine gute Erfahrung.

The Bad

Ich ärgere mich immer darüber, wenn Kosten nicht transparent aufgelistet werden. Dazu gehören in deinem Fall die Versicherung und eine (später zu erstattende) Kaution. Im konkreten Fall sind das für die drei Tage knapp 50 Euro Versicherung und eine Kaution von 50 Euro. Beim Online-Reservierungsprozess hast du mir davon natürlich nichts erzählt. Oder wenn, dann nur im Kleinstgedruckten. Beim Abschluss in deiner STARCAR-Filiale fand ich dann plötzlich beide auf der Rechnung. Nun bin ich weder blauäugig, noch ist dies das erste mal, dass ich ein Auto gemietet habe. Trotzdem wurde mir hier beim Buchen ein günstigeres Angebot vorgespielt. Und das ist so nicht in Ordnung. Dafür bekommst Du einen dicken Minuspunkt.

The Ugly

Kommen wir jetzt zum saftigsten Stück, dem eigentlichen Vorgang des Vertragsabschlusses. Und der hat bei mir einen ernsthaftes Grübeln und ein sehr gemischtes Gefühl hinterlassen.

Konkret: nach dem ich online reserviert hatte und keine Bestätigung kam, hatte ich telefonisch nachgefragt, ob das Fahrzeug verfügbar sei. Nachdem mir das zugesagt wurde, habe ich nicht länger auf eine schriftliche Bestätigung gewartet. Diese fand ich heute in meinem Spam-Ordner, was schade ist und von deiner Seite aus vermeidbar gewesen wäre. Sag doch bitte deiner Technik, sie sollen sich mal in die Themen DomainKeys und SPF einlesen.

Auf den folgenden (hier sinngemäß wiedergegebenen) Austausch mit deinem Mitarbeiter hätte ich jedenfalls gerne verzichtet.

Ich lege Führerschein, Pass und Kreditkarte vor.

STARCAR-Mitarbeiter: "Ich brauche dann noch ihren Personalausweis."

Ich: "Habe ich nicht dabei, geht auch was anderes?"

Er seufzt: "Ich brauche ein Dokument mit ihrem Wohnsitz."

Ich: "Warum das denn?"

Er: "Das brauchen wir. Ohne vermieten wir nicht." Dann seufzt er wieder und fügt hinzu: "AUSNAHMSWEISE geht auch ein Fahrzeugschein."

Ich: "Moment, hole ich kurz aus dem Auto."

Ich hole den Fahrzeugschein und lege ihm den vor.

Er: "Da steht aber keine Hannoveraner Adresse drauf."

Ich: "Ich bin mitten im Umzug. Mein Auto habe ich deshalb noch nicht umgemeldet."

Er (untermalt mit einem weiteren Seufzer): "Na ja, AUSNAHMSWEISE."

Moment mal, STARCAR. Ist dir eigentlich klar, wie sich der Kunde nach so etwas fühlt? Ich darf also eigentlich nur bei Dir mieten, wenn ich den Wohnsitz da habe, wo sich deine Niederlassung befindet? Und dann darf ich AUSNAHMSWEISE doch buchen, weil du so gnädig bist? Ich darf also dank der Güte deiner Mitarbeiter, und obwohl ich offensichtlich so viele Fehler gemacht habe und obwohl ich nicht da wohne, wo es dir passt, trotzdem mein Geld über deinen Tresen schieben? Und muss noch dankbar dafür sein?

Irgend was habe ich da wohl nicht verstanden. Eigentlich dachte ich, die Rollenverteilung sieht folgendermaßen aus: Ich bin Kunde. Du bist Dienstleister. Ich gebe dir Geld. Du vermietest mir dafür ein Auto. Du freust dich, dass ich bei dir miete und nicht zu Sixt gehe. Und du zeigst mir diese Freude z.B. in Form guter Behandlung und zuvorkommender Mitarbeiter, die mich wie einen Kunden behandeln und nicht wie einen Bittsteller.

Ohne mich gibt es dich nicht.
Ohne dich gehe ich zum nächsten Anbieter.
Ich habe Alternativen.

Die oben wiedergegebene Interaktion mit deinem Mitarbeiter hat bei mir jedenfalls einen dermaßen öden Geschmack hinterlassen, dass ich das nächste Mal wohl lieber wieder zu Hertz, Sixt oder einem anderen der Großen gehe. Da ist vielleicht auch nicht alles golden, aber so etwas wie bei dir ist mir dort in all den Jahren zumindest noch nicht passiert. Und teurer sind die anderen auch nicht.

Ach ja, und Danke Danke Danke (mit Kniefall und Kuss auf die Füße), dass ich meine 50 Euro Kaution wieder zurück bekommen habe.

iOS 7 - denn sie wissen, was sie tun

2013-06-11T23:12:00.001-07:00

Die Neugier war schuld. Und der iOS-Developer-Account. Mein iPhone 4s wird seit gestern durch die erste Beta des neuen iOS 7 geziert. Ich weiß, ich weiß, so was tut man nicht.

Das Design ist neu. Die Oberfläche ist an vielen Stellen deutlich anders, als der davor. Und die Stimmen da draußen im großen weiten Netz sind entsprechend laut. Aber auch vorhersehbar.

Meine letzten vier Posts auf App.net spiegeln meine spontanen Gedanken zu diesem Thema wieder:

Wirkung ist doch in erster Linie eine Funktion des Empfängers. Ich habe hier Musik, die wirkt auf mich extrem beruhigend, da würden einige was komplett anderes sagen.

Der Sender hat selbstverständlich Einfluss, indem er sein Wissen über den Empfänger entsprechend einsetzt. Das gilt für alles. Musik, Fotografie, Design.

Man mag über Karten oder Cloud-Services sagen, was man will, aber Apple zu unterstellen, ihnen wäre das iOS-7-Design “rausgerutscht” oder “aus versehen passiert” halte ich für kurzsichtig.

Wenn überhaupt, dann ist das ein sehr bewusstes Wachrütteln mit sehr vorhersagbaren Reaktionen. Ich amüsiere mich jedenfalls aufs prächtigste über jedes weitere Blogpost, in dem Jony Ive Unfähigkeit unterstellt wird :)

Update:Hui, Resonanz. Ich glaube, ich habe in ein Wespennest gestochen. Hach, ist das schön, wenn die Leute anfangen, über Geschmack zu diskutieren. Wo ist mein Popcorn? :) Außerdem noch mehrfach die Rückfrage, ob iOS 7 beta 1 stabil genug sei, um es schon zu verwenden. Für Techies mit Springboard-Absturz-Toleranz ist meine Antwort ein vorsichtiges ja. Für die weniger technischen (und nicht-dev-account-träger): abwarten, speziell auf dem 4s ist der Speicherbedarf gefühlt noch deutlich zu hoch und damit die Stabilität nicht gewährleistet, wie mir mehrfache Springboard-Abstürze gestern gezeigt haben. Für alle, die nicht wissen, was ein Springboard ist: wartet einfach noch.

Post, wo soll das nur mit Dir enden?!

2013-03-04T06:06:00.001-08:00

Ab und zu lässt es sich nicht vermeiden, Briefe zu verschicken. Also solche aus Papier, auf die man eine Briefmarke kleben muss. Die älteren unter euch werden sich erinnern.

Als eloquenter und häufiger Nutzer der mir gebotenen Möglichkeiten der Onlinewelt frankiere ich schon länger meine Päckchen und Pakete zu Hause. Was ich bisher noch nicht versucht hatte: einen Brief online zu frankieren.

Dazu bietet die Post mittlerweile efiliale.de an - einen Service, über den sich die entsprechenden Marken in verschiedenen Größen und mit den dazugehörigen Codes generieren lassen, bequem zum selber ausdrucken.

Da ich das auch in Zukunft ab und zu machen möchte, habe ich mir dort jetzt ein Konto angelegt. Und weil dieser Vorgang so unglaublich reibungslos und völlig ohne Probleme vonstatten ging (sie spüren das Fünkchen Ironie, oder?), möchte hier mal eben darüber berichten.

Da der gesamte Vorgang von meinem Unterbewusstsein recht schnell in den Bereich verschoben wurde, der dem Verdrängen traumatischer Erlebnisse dient, bitte ich hier schon mal um Entschuldigung, falls ich das eine oder andere Detail nicht mehr exakt so hervorbringe, wie es geschehen ist. Ich schwöre aber, dass im Großen und Ganzen alles so passiert ist.

Hier die Schritte, die ich gehen wollte, und auch die, die ich nicht gehen wolle, aber gehen musste:

Schritt 1: Ich gehe auf efiliale.de und klicke auf Briefmarken selbst drucken, dann auf Anmelden und schließlich auf Ich bin Neukunde: jetzt registrieren.

So weit alles im Lot.

Schritt 2: Ich fülle das Formular aus: Vorname, Nachname, Adresse, Passwort (zwei mal), Geheimfrage für Passwort-Reset, Geheimantwort für Passwort-Reset, AGB-Box anhaken, usw. - ich klicke auf Weiter.

Schritt 3: Das Formular kommt weitgehend ausgefüllt wieder zurück, in roten Lettern begrüßt mich die Meldung Bitte korrigieren Sie die mit * gekennzeichneten Felder. Ich scrolle nach unten und sehe, dass die Geheimantwort wohl zu kurz ist. Aber mein erster Kanarienvogel hieß halt mal Flori… egal, ich suche eine andere Frage/Antwort aus und klicke auf Weiter.

Schritt 4: Das Formular kommt weitgehend ausgefüllt wieder zurück, in roten Lettern begrüßt mich die Meldung Bitte korrigieren Sie die mit * gekennzeichneten Felder. Ich scrolle nach unten und sehe, dass das Passwort und seine Kopie fehlen. Scheinbar wurden diese Felder im letzten Schritt gelöscht.

Ich seufze, fülle mein Passwort erneut aus und klicke auf Weiter.

Schritt 5: Etwas neues passiert! Das Formular kommt weitgehend ausgefüllt wieder zurück, in roten Lettern begrüßt mich die (diesmal neue!) Meldung Bitte überprüfen Sie die von uns korrigierte Adresse.

Aha! Das Formular hat möglicherweise einen Tippfehler in der Adresse bemerkt (Hinweis: da war keiner, höchstens ein Leerzeichen zu viel am Ende des Straßennamens). Ich bin not amused. At all. Ich seufze wieder und klicke auf Weiter.

Schritt 6: Das Formular kommt weitgehend ausgefüllt wieder zurück, in roten Lettern begrüßt mich die (wieder altbekannte) Meldung Bitte korrigieren Sie die mit * gekennzeichneten Felder.

Ja, richtig geraten: Das Passwort wurde wieder gelöscht.

Schritt 7: Ich wundere mich nicht mehr wirklich, warum es immer noch so viele Offliner gibt, denen der ganze Onlinequatsch zu kompliziert ist. Ich seufze laut genug, dass die neben mir schlafende Katze genervt aufsteht und den Raum verlässt, fülle mein Passwort erneut aus und klicke auf Weiter.

Schritt 8: Ich schriebe dieses Blog-Post.

Post, Post, Post, wo soll das in dieser modernen Welt nur mit Dir enden??!

Sicherheitsloch: Outbank schreibt Klartext-Passwort ins System-Log

2013-01-17T13:50:00.001-08:00

Ich nutze Outbank auf dem Mac für einfaches Banking und war bisher immer ganz zufrieden damit.

Nach dem aktuellen Update und der damit neuen iCloud-Sync-Funktion, die ich gleich mal ausprobieren wollte, hat sich das Programm dann allerdings auf meinem System etwas fehlerhaft verhalten und hat sich auf meinem Mac Pro beim Beenden aufgehängt.

Wie es sich für einen Geek gehört, bin ich bei der Fehlersuche natürlich auch im Sylog gelandet, denn dort schreiben viele Programme Hinweise über das, was sie gerade tun oder in welche Fehlermeldungen sie sich verheddert haben. Zu finden ist dieses Log und viele andere über das Programm Console, bzw. im Dateisystem unter /var/log/system.log

Zu meiner Überraschung (eher zu meinem Horror) steht dort jetzt mehrfach im Klartext (ja, KLARTEXT!!) mein OutBank-Passwort. Einfach so. Also ob es das normalste der Welt wäre, Passwörter unverschlüsselt in Logfiles zu schreiben.

Bin ich falsch informiert, oder ist dieses Vorgehen ein absolutes No-No? Zumindest fühlt sich das für mich wie ein scheunentorgroßes Sicherheitsloch an. Die zentrale System-Log-Datei ist kein Platz für Passwörter, schon gar nicht im Klartext!

Bis das repariert ist, kann ich nur jedem raten: Finger weg von Outbank!

Firma Stoeger IT, bitte umgehend reparieren.

Update: kurz nach meinem ersten Tweet hat sich Stoeger IT per Twitter gemeldet:

Es bleiben auf meiner Seite einige offenen Fragen: wie schnell kommt das Update? Was passiert mit den bereits in der system.log abgelegten Klartextpasswörtern? Wird das Update von Outbank die system.log "reinigen"? OSX komprimiert und sichert über einen bestimmten Zeitraum automatisch alte Stände der system.log, was passiert mit diesen Sicherungen, bleiben die Klartextpasswörter darin erhalten?

Bilder gratis? Ja, aber...

2012-11-12T14:25:00.001-08:00

Sehr geehrter Herr Marquardt,

wären Sie damit einverstanden, dass wie eines Ihrer Bilder für die Internetseite der Fakultät der Uni verwenden? Selbstverständlich würden wir Sie als Urheber benennen sowie einen entsprechendne Link bei den Bildnachweisen anbringen. Wir könnten uns vorstellen, dass dies auch eine schöne Werbung für Sie darstellt.

Es ginge hierbei um folgendes Bild, welches sich auf ihrer Happyshooting-Seite befindet.:

Ich freue mich auf Ihre Antwort und danke Ihne bereits für Ihre Mühe.

Beste Grüße,

---

Das Bild dürfen Sie gerne verwenden unter Angabe "Foto: Chris Marquardt" und Link zu http://www.chrismarquardt.com in direkter Nähe des Bildes.

Schöne Grüße,
Chris Marquardt

---

Guten Abend Herr Marquardt,

leider entspricht es nicht den Richtlinien zur Gestaltung von Websiten der Uni , den Bildnachweis direkt am Bild anzubringen. Wären Sie auch damit einverstanden, Sie - wie die anderen Urheber - im Impressum der Seite samt Link aufzuführen?

Mit Ihrer Zustimmung würden Sie uns wirklich sehr helfen.

Beste Grüße

---

Hallo Herr ,

leider entspricht es nicht meinen eigenen Richtlinien, Bilder ohne entsprechenden Link in unmittelbarer Nähe (zumindest auf der selben Seite) für eine Gratisnutzung zur Verfügung zu stellen. Ich lebe von der Fotografie und damit auch davon, dass meine Bilder mit meiner Person in Bezug gebracht werden können. Sobald die entsprechende Nennung oder ein Link in einen anderen Bereich der Website, z.B. ins Impressum, verschoben wird, wird diese Assoziation für den Betrachter unnötig erschwert bis unmöglich. Die Nennung des Rechteinhabers bzw. Urhebers in der Nähe des Bildes ist zum Beispiel in Zeitungen üblich. Falls das in Ihrem Fall nicht möglich sein sollte, müssen Sie leider verstehen, dass ich der Nutzung nicht zustimmen kann.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
Chris Marquardt

How Bugs Bunny Saved His Creator - Funny How Things Transcend

2012-11-08T02:27:00.001-08:00

I've been a huge fan of Radiolab for years. Great insights in every episode, wonderful stories and characters - Radiolab is always at the top of my list of must-listen-to podcasts.

But once in a while, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich release an episode that goes deeper, that touches on things that I didn't even know were there.

Like this one (I've just listened to it for the third time):

It's a deeply moving story about someone that pretty much everyone in the world had some form of exposure to: Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny. And Tweety Bird. Sylvester the Cat. Barney Rubble… the list is much longer than that.

Here's the catch though: I grew up in Germany and when I watched those cartoons as a child, they were always dubbed. I never heard the original voice of Mel Blanc growing up, instead it was always their German counterparts. You can hear an example here. And as similar as they tried to make them, they were obviously very different.

So why did this story still touch me at the level that it did? Is it because over the years I've had at least a little bit of exposure to the original voices by Mel Blanc? Or is it because of Jad's editing magic?

I believe it goes deep simply because it's a wonderfully gripping story that's masterfully told. Add in a splash of cultural knowledge combined with a healthy dose of curiosity and you've got a powerful mix.

Thanks Jad and Robert for Radiolab!

PS: while you're at it, why not help keep this a free podcast?

What I've learned from the painful Simplenote outage. The cloud is great when it works...

2012-10-29T05:38:00.001-07:00

It's amazing when you put things in the cloud and they just work. My email is in the cloud, and it works. A lot of my documents are in the cloud, and it works. The hiccups – if there are any — are usually rather small. Maybe an outage for a few hours that is quick to recover.

A few years ago, I was looking for an online solution to put my notes on. You know, small notes, little todo lists, no formatting, just text-based stuff. The kind of stuff you would usually put on Post-it notes and stick them to your monitor. That was before Apple introduced iCloud and had their notes working in that ecosystem.

That's when I found Simplenote. It comes with an iOS client, it has a web interface, and there are several clients on the Mac that work really well. Sorry, make that used to work really well. My client of choice is nvalt, a fork of Notational Velocity, Super simple notes editing, super fast and simple search, exactly what I was looking for in a notes client. And you can set it to save your notes locally as text files, which makes it really easy to integrate them into your operating system. Now spotlight also finds them. Oh, and did I mention Dropbox sync? You get the picture. Life is awesome!

I was so impressed with it, that I quickly signed up for a paid account.

A couple of weeks ago things began to crumble. First a few hiccups when syncing, then things got progressively worse until finally the worst happened: Simplenote syncing broke. Okay, temporary move to the web interface, right? That should be fine. No, it's not - lots of notes are duplicated and things are still crazy and pretty much unusable, it's a huge mess. The Simplenote team claims, this is down to Amazon Web Services having an issue, and in the case of nvalt, there also seems to be the Google cloud component involved, that has issues on the server side too. When it rains it pours.

My communication with Simplenote's premium support (the one for paying customers) so far resulted in excuses. And I'm stuck. I can't use nvalt because sync is very choppy. I can't use the Simplenote web interface as that's broken for me too. I'm stuck because I relied on a service that used to be simple and reliable but has gone bad because .. well, why has it gone bad?

I'm not sure what to make of all of this. On the one hand, Simplenote is basically a free service and free services need to be financed some way. This is why I quickly signed up for the paid account. I figured that such a great service needs to be paid for, so it stays around as long as possible and with as high quality as possible. Unfortunately it seems, that the service was built on a pretty unstable foundation.

On the other hand, can we fault the Simplenote team for trying to run this service as cost-effective as possible?

I think we can. If you offer a service, even if it's a free one, there will be expectations and it's your job to manage those. Especially, if that service runs flawlessly for years. Great performance creates great expectations. I'm in a good position though. Having lived in this online world long enough and on both sides of the fence, as a customer and as a service provider, I know to manage my own expectations. Which is why I did pay for the service in the first place. Others won't have the experience that I have, so as soon as they start paying for a service, the picture changes. And their expectations will be higher than they should be.

I'm sure the Simplenote issues could have been avoided if the team had set everything up with the required redundancy. And as a paying customer who doesn't have an IT background, this would be my expectation.

What can we learn from this experience? By all means, build your own redundancy! Whenever there is a free online service, I need to make sure to have that data around in some other way. My Google docs get backed up locally once an hour (using CloudPull). I did set up Simplenote to synchronize its data with Dropbox. You need to have a safety net if you put things in the cloud. I even do a local backup of my Dropbox.

The cloud is great when it works, be prepared for when it doesn't.

Little helper of the day: Keyboard Cleaner

2012-10-11T07:08:00.001-07:00

There's one small tool (literally, it's 32kb in size) that I've had on my Mac laptops since day one, it's called Keyboard Cleaner.

Now, it won't actually clean your keyboard, but it will serve one important function, should you plan to do so: it will turn off all the keys, so you can clean away. The only key combination that's still active is CMD-Q with which you quit the app.

It's tiny, and it's brilliant, especially if you're on a laptop.

» Keyboard Cleaner

Chris, when will your apps be available on Android?

2012-10-10T01:33:00.001-07:00

Every time I release an update or a new iPhone app, I get this question. Will there be an Android version? When can we have it?

It is very very flattering that you are so interested in these apps. I wish, it was easy to just write these apps for every platform. I would even like to be able to do them for PalmOS and WebOS. But it's a simple game of economics that keeps me from doing it.

Incident Light Meter is a hobby project, it's pretty much a very small niche app that I've written myself, in my spare time. Chances are that through app sales I won't even recoup the time that I have invested in the research.

The only reason I could do Incident Light Meter is because I already spent a lot of time to acquire the basic skills and infrastructure to write iOS apps (this includes a ton of paperwork). It was an interesting experience, and it was very much outside of what I actually love to do, teaching photography.

I actually spent time and tried to get comfortable with Android development, but got stuck fairly early in the process. Then there is fragmentation. Even if I could to develop an Android app, to make the experience as good as with the iOS PocketChris apps, I would have to have at least 5 to 10 different Androids devices lying around here for testing. Different screen sizes, different processor capabilities, different operating system versions.

The dirty truth is, most developers don't make a lot of money with their apps. None of the PocketChris apps are mainstream enough to be a big seller. And I don't have the marketing power behind these apps that others do. So in the end, they serve a small audience, and I am glad that they make just enough to recoup the development costs.

And it only works, because I do most of the work myself. Johannes might disagree, as he has written the framework for the educational PocketChris apps. But he only had to write that once. For every new educational PocketChris app, it is full writing and sorting and editing and picture editing effort for me.

So again, I wish I could do PocketChris for every single platform, but if I don't learn these skills myself, chances are it won't happen. And I don't see my core competency see in writing software, it's in teaching photography and making people better photographers.

… unless you are an excellent Android developer who wants to prove me that it is easy and that it can be done without much effort and with excellent results across different Android devices and OS versions.

It's official, we're going to Tibet in 2013 and you can join!

2012-10-08T14:22:00.001-07:00

I wanted you to find out first-hand: we're going back to Tibet in 2013 and we will again take a group of photographers! The adventures in 2009, 2010 and 2011 have changed my life. This is your chance to experience this too.

This will be the fourth Himalayan Workshop, and believe me, you'll learn lots - lots about photography and a lot about the Nepali and Tibetan culture.

It's a wonderful experience that you will remember for the rest of your life! It is also a photo workshop.

» find out more at www.himalayanworkshops.com

PocketChris Light Meter is ready!

2012-10-05T08:53:00.001-07:00

It's here, it's here! The PocketChris Incident Light Meter iPhone App has been approved and is available at the App Store.

It'll let you use your camera and a grey card to do what you usually need an expensive incident light meter for: metering in difficult light situations. Like a pro. Check it out!

» PocketChris Incident Light Meter website

One item per line into an iOS check list is easy

2012-10-04T07:38:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick life hack that has saved me tons of time in the past.

Sometimes I do checklists. Mostly for shopping. I've been looking for a way to combine the ease of quickly writing things into a text file one item per line and a simple tapable checklist app.

All other iOS apps seem to require some form of physical interaction between entering line items. Either you'll have to press a + button between items or something similar.

Enter Paperless, an iOS app that is available as an ad-supported free lite version or ad-free paid version.

As far as I know, there's no other checklist app that can handle the copy-paste of line-item lists with such an ease.

Bonus: dictating a shopping list with Siri is also easy this way, you just go "milk new-line bread new-line sugar new-line…".

» download the free version here

PS: yes, I know and used Taskpaper, but it never really worked this easily when dictating items.

An idea is born - PocketChris Incident Light Meter

2012-09-22T05:29:00.001-07:00

Good metering is essential for good photography. So are good composition, good storytelling and good colours. But metering is above everything else for me. Photography is painting with light and if you don't know how to capture light, your photography will always be down to a hit-and-miss approach, always at the mercy of what the computer in your camera thinks is right (trust me, it's more often wrong than you think).

I've been pretty fed up with the trial-and-error approach of digital photography for quite some time. Take a shot, look at the display. Is it too dark? Change the exposure, take another shot. Check the histogram. Is it too bright? Change the exposure, take another shot. Rinse, repeat.

What has happened to understanding light and getting exposure right from the start?

You know me. I'm all about giving control back to the photographer. I'm all about busting photographic myths. And most important, I'm all about empowering photographers through knowledge.

Let's look at a few facts:

Fact 1: using an incident light meter will make it easy to get near perfect exposures. It does that by integrating the light that hits your subject from different directions.

Fact 2: an incident light meter will easily set you back $300 or more.

Fact 3 (and this is a lesser known fact): You can use an 18% grey card (cost: about $10) and some nifty math to achieve virtually the same results. All you have to do: take a couple of measurements with your camera and do some math.

It's interesting though how I ended up at this realisation.

It all started several years ago, when I got my first grey card. An 18% grey card. It turned out that in addition to helping me get great white balance, the card will also help me with getting exposure right.

For the last two years I've been handing out grey cards at workshops, helping photographers understand how this simple tool can take their photography to the next level.

Last month I spent a weekend at After Dark in Kansas City, a photography event that you have to experience to believe. It turned out to be a highly creative exercise while also allowing me to work in studio and available light environments with other photographers for three days straight. Wonderfully Immersive! And in the process, I ended up finally buying a light (and flash) meter. A Sekonic L-358. It set me back $300.

But I knew that in order to get to the next step, I had to make an investment.

Later that night, I sat in my hotel room, with the light meter, a grey card, and my DSLR and I did the first experiments, comparing the measurements from my DSLR with those from the light meter. I ended up spending the next 3 hours far into the small hours of the morning, shooting tests, comparing results, spot metering with my DSLR, doing math, with sheets of paper and a spreadsheet on my computer. Imagine a mad scientist and you're not far off :)

Once back in Germany I continued the tests, and after a few days with some more experimentation, I ended up with some solid math that worked well.

Now all I needed to do is make it simple for the photographers, and this is where my experiments with iOS development in 2011 and the experience with PocketChris came in handy. So I sat down and put it all together in an iPhone app: PocketChris Incident Light Meter.

The app is now in review at the app store and should hit the shelves within the next week.

You can find out more at www.incidentmeter.com.

Links: After Dark

120

2012-08-30T09:24:00.001-07:00

An Incredibly Organic Process - Video from the Toronto 2012 4x5 Large Format Workshop

2012-08-29T20:36:00.001-07:00

I didn't expect this workshop to sell out, but it did so, and pretty quickly too. I had such a wonderful time, and judging from the feedback, so did the participants. Here's the official workshop video:

Toronto get-together TONIGHT! Please RSVP

2012-08-23T09:16:00.001-07:00

Yep, short notice, but let's say it's a test of how flexible (or how young) you still are.

It's pre-workshop night and that can only mean one thing: let's drink! (or eat, or just hang out)

I have made a reservation at 3 Brewers, 275 Yonge Street, Toronto, for tonight, 7pm.

Please RSVP! Click click here to let us know if you'll be there, so we can make sure we get a big enough table.

Hope to see you there!

Thirteen travel tips in case Air Canada loses your luggage

2012-08-22T12:34:00.001-07:00

So I've had this little incident where Air Canada lost my luggage. Happened to me before. Not with Air Canada, but with Lufthansa. In Germany. They got it back to me within 4 hours.

Not so with Air Canada. It's a long story, you can read the details here.

So just in case you end up in the same situation and Air Canada (or any other airline for that matter) loses your luggage, here are my travel tips in case Air Canada loses your luggage as presented via Twitter:

Travel tip #1 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: always have a spare pair of socks and underpants in your carry-on.

Travel tip #2 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: wear fast-dry trekking clothes. Helps if you need to do emergency laundry in the sink.

Travel tip #3 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: a flat iron doubles as a laundry drying device if you had to wash clothes in the sink.

Travel tip #4 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: keep any even remotely needed medication in your hand luggage.

Travel tip #5 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: if your shaver is in the luggage, pretend your beard is a fashion statement.

Travel tip #6 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: Febreze air freshener is a great stand-in for deodorant. Never mind the floral smells.

Travel tip #6b in case Air Canada loses your luggage: Go to hostel & get free food. You will look & smell like a tramp. (thanks Simon)

Travel tip #6c in case Air Canada loses your luggage: Underpants can be worn for four days. Inside out and back to front. (thanks Simon)

Travel tip #6d in case Air Canada loses your luggage: After 2 days, use fly killer spray instead of deodorant. (thanks Simon)

Travel tip #6e to avoid Air Canada losing your luggage: Send luggage using DHL or UPS, don't consign it to your flight. (thanks Simon)

Travel tip #7 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: if after wearing the same clothes for 50 hours strangers offer you money, take it.

Travel tip #8 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: do NOT check any bags. I repeat: DO NOT check any bags. Ever.

Travel tip #9 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: shaving your hair off before the trip will save you from having to wash it later.

Travel tip #10 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: now that airlines charge $25 per bag, sending via DHL might be a better deal.

Travel tip #11 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: keep your Twitter devices always with you (thanks dl1ely)

Travel tip #12 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: before you complain, make sure you actually checked a bag (thanks Sven656)

Travel tip #13 in case Air Canada loses your luggage: don't be ridiculous, there's no tip #13, airlines don't do #13

Photo Day LIVE on August 18 2pm Pacific

2012-08-17T08:30:00.001-07:00

It's another Photo Day and Chris has made his way up to the TWiT Brick House in Petaluma to talk photography with Leo Laporte and his guests!

The theme for this Photo Day is Photography outside the mainstream.

Among many other topics, Chris will hang out in studio to talk with Leo and his guests to talk about the origins of Tilt/Shift, taking pictures from kites, digging up 1850s photo technology to create true works of arts and - of course - he'll answer your questions!

Guests include Leo Laporte (Chief TWiT), Cris Benton (Kite Aerial Photography), Paul Sergeant (Tintype Studio) and Susan and Neil Silverman (travel photographers extraordinaire).

Tune in Saturday August 18, 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 23:00 Central European time!

Follow the show live at http://live.twit.tv/

Ask audience questions via Twitter (hashtag #photoday2012) or at http://tfttf.com/photodayquestion

4x5 Woes: Mills, Birds And A Leak

2012-08-07T14:22:00.001-07:00

You know, one of the most satisfying things for me these days is to spend a day at an interesting location and take six or twelve pictures with a 4x5 large format camera.

It's hard work. It means to carry a heavy-ish bag over your shoulder and a tripod with a big camera attached to its end. It means to thoroughly set up the camera, check the angles, open the shutter, stick your head under a black cloth on a sunny day with temperatures in the 90s. To focus on the focusing screen, you use a loupe that's hanging around your neck. It means to use a hand-held light meter, fish a film cassette out of your bag, load the camera, set the aperture, set the shutter speed, hope that you didn't get any of the steps out of sequence, pull out the dark slide and finally take the shot.

It's error-prone too. It means that there are at least 10 different steps in the process of making one exposure where you can mess up. Accidental double exposure? Been there, have even done a triple exposure once. Forget to set the right aperture after metering? Yep, I have my share of overexposed large format negatives.

If it's that hard work and that error-prone, then why am I doing it? The answer is simple: in the end it's one of the most fun and rewarding experiences that I've had in a long time. Nothing beats creating something with your own hands and finally holding the result of that work in your hands. Or post it online for the world to see. Much more rewarding than any digital shot has ever been.

Over time you get better. Most errors you only do once, as it hurts to lose one out of just a few pictures you'll take that day.

Last weekend I brought my trusty Grafmatic film holder system, a revolver-type 6-shooter that allows you to keep 6 shots in one magazine. Very convenient, but also heavier than normal double cassettes. Which turned into yet another source of error. I accidentally brushed the Grafmatic at the wrong angle with my arm, while the dark slide was still pulled. This resulted in a nice big splash of light pouring onto the exposed negative for a brief time. Long enough to ruin the shot. So I thought.

I ended up actually being quite happy with it. Is it because it's one of my babies? Or is there something about a perfect 4x5 picture seemingly ruined by light leaking onto it?

Let me know what you think.

Here's another picture of the same day. And another one.

TAB TWO: Not just a lucky job

2012-07-19T06:38:00.001-07:00

TAB TWO 2012

Sometimes you get lucky. In my case "luck" means that yesterday I got to shoot with TAB TWO, a band that has musically influenced me for over 20 years.

Scroll down to the end of this post to give them a listen, you might like it.

"Luck" also means luck in a photographic sense. As a photographer you sometimes need a bit of that, especially when there's no good way you can scout the location upfront. But then, I love surprises. They keep my on my toes, they keep me from relaxing into routine and they keep every job fresh and exciting. Exciting and just a slight little bit unpredictable.

Hellmut Hattler

With several ideas in mind already, a quick scouting walk uncovered a near perfect industrial-type area right next door. With colorful cargo containers.

The rest is putting the puzzle pieces together, finding the right light and shooting like a mad man.

Creative things happen when you put one and one together and end up with something greater than the sum of the two - and when you work with creative people, experimentation can quickly turn into a collaboration that ends with not-so-predictable but very exciting results.

Joo Kraus

Puddle - Hellmut Hattler

Mehr Info

The kind of HYBRID stuff we do on the weekends

2012-07-16T13:25:00.001-07:00

Had a blast on the last weekend spending two days of exploring all there is to making the best possible scans of your negatives. I'm wondering if we'll ever get enough interest to bring this workshop to a place outside of Germany…

Interview Shoot NOT Interrupted By Car

2012-07-13T09:08:00.001-07:00

I love to produce a workshop video for as many workshops as possible. They allow future workshoppers to get an idea of what it's like.

When we held another photo workshop in Hannover on the last weekend, we decided to make the workshop video into part of the workshop, shooting it together with a few of the participants, when something really funny happened.

While we shot one of the interviews out in the street, I could see a guy walk up to his car and get in. Usually that means that a starting car engine would interrupt the interview and we'd have to start over with that part.

To our delight, the car pulled away without the slightest engine noise. Turns out it was a hybrid and at this time it ran on battery. In a few years that'll be commonplace, but in this context I got a huge kick out of that.

Did I mention that I love electric cars?

Here's the resulting video:

My Aura

2012-07-04T06:21:00.001-07:00

Today was the second time I experienced what's called an aura. It is apparently linked with migraines, something that I'm glad I never had an issue with in my adult life. While I went through this aura, I decided to record what came to my mind, so here it is.

Also, learn how I found out how our eye-brain apparatus is one of the most amazing things on this planet, when I experienced myself how it can work as a kick-ass chromatic aberration remover.

Dear Tokyo Shangri-La Hotel - I Dont Have A Budget Either

2012-06-20T13:24:00.001-07:00

Dear Shangri-La Hotel in Tokyo,

when I received a Flickr mail from your Digital Marketing Manager I was positively surprised. He wrote about how they did a guest chef event at their hotel, how the guest chef was from Firenze (aka Florence in Tuscany, Italy), how he liked my Tuscany pictures on Flickr and how they would like to create a facebook album with a Tuscany theme, which my pictures would be a perfect fit for and if they could use my work in return for links and credit.

In general I'm not at all opposed to these sort of deals, I believe that there are a lot of occasions where both sides benefit from them. I've done my share of pro bono work and I keep doing it as long as it feels right to both sides. I trust my gut.

However, if the commercial interest on one side is fairly clear to me, I believe I have the moral right to ask for compensation.
So I replied to the Tokoy Shangri-La Hotel Digital Marketing Manager and told him that photography is what I do for a living and that therefore I couldn't just give the pictures away for free.

From here this could have gone several ways. The Tokyo Shangri-La Hotel could have made me an offer, or they could have declined.

They did the latter, but their reasoning really surprised me. The reply I received concluded with "We very much appreciate your offer, however, unfortunately we don't have a budget for this event."

Wait. Say that again. "…we don't have a budget for this event…" - No budget for the event? Really? Does that mean you can't pay the guest chef? And the waiters? And the kitchen staff? How about the sommelier? And the Maitre D'? No budget…

Luckily I did have a budget when I bought the camera and the lenses that I took these pictures with, when I spent years of my life training my eyes and gathering the experience that allowed me to take these pictures, when I bought the computer that I post-processed the pictures on, when I bought the software that I used to post-process the pictures with, when I bought the colorimeter to calibrate my computer's screen so the colors of the pictures would look pleasing, when I paid for my Flickr pro account that allowed me to host these pictures online, so you could easily find them and ask me if I would give you my photography for free.

Sorry, Shangri-La Hotel in Tokyo, but sometimes little things like this make me get up on my soapbox.

PS: when I come to Tokyo in January 2013, could I stay at your place for free for a few nights? I don't have a budget for a hotel and I believe you've got those rooms around anyway...

Bye Bye Drobo - Welcome Synology

2012-06-18T00:23:00.001-07:00

Bad blocks. On the disk in the Drobo. I've written about it here.

I'll make a long story short: after the incident I lost all trust in my Drobo and I replaced it with a Synology DS1512+. It's a different beast, it reads the S.M.A.R.T data and it has already protected me from one disk outage, as I experimentally put the bad disk in it that Drobo wouldn't recognize as bad. I received a prompt warning about the issues with the disk and the Synology Diskstation simply took it out of the loop. That's how I envisioned this to work.

It also seems that I'm not the only one who has retired their Drobo(s), Scott Kelby also did. Also seems that if you're high profile enough, Drobo's CEO will take personal care of you. For me it was a bit of a different story, guess my talking about my Drobo issues in public wasn't too much of a PR disaster for them.

Anyway, I'm off the Drobo and on the Synology and I am very (!) happy with my decision.