Josh McCulloch's Photography Blog

Post Production Workflow Follow-Up

2008-04-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

I've had a few questions about my previous entry about my Post Production Workflow, and thought I'd take a few minutes to address them here.

Josh, thanks for your excellent write-up. I'm also looking for ideas for a rating system & your mention of being critical with ratings caught my attention. I'm sure you apply strict criteria for the 1-5 star ratings ... wonder if you could share that :)

I do indeed have a reasonably strict rating system I use, though I haven't actually sat down and written it out, so I'll try to here...

When I rate images during ingestion process, I only use 0, 1 or 2 stars for my images. Images that are pretty plain, boring, and otherwise uninspired get 0 stars. Anything above this, that I think has value to me gets 1 star. If there is a stand out in a series of images, it gets the second star. Some shoots gets a few one star images and nothing more, sometimes I'm passing out 2 stars like I'm a kindergarten teacher. Though I try to resist at this point, if I see an image that looks like a portfolio piece, it might get a 3rd star. If I'm shooting for a client, 1 star images are ones I will show to the client from a job, and 2 star images are the best of the shoot that I would recommend to the client.

Once ingested, processed to DNG, and added to iView, I'll re-sort the 2 star images into 3 or 4 star images, but only if they warrant it. Even with my growing archive of about 30,000 images, I'm still reserving the 5th star for down the road, and currently only have six 4 star images. I try to follow Peter Krogh's suggestion to have the number of images that get each additional star rating be 10% of the rating below. For example, if I have 10,000 1 star images in my archive, I try to have 1,000 2 star, 100 3 star, and 10 4 star images. This will keep the rating system working like it should. If you're passing out high ratings to too many images, the point of having a rating system at all goes out the window...

I'm also looking for ideas on how to manage offline backups. I appreciate that hard disks are getting cheaper everyday but so are file sizes as new (camera) bodies come out. The other thing is that hard disks can fail ... which is why we burn to DVDs etc. Could you also share how you catalog offline images?

As this topic can get pretty in-depth, I'll split it up into two sections for clarity:

1) Backups of my images

All of my DNG images are saved to a 500GB drive in an old Dual G4 PowerMac I'm now using as a file server/backup machine. This is the primary place my images are stored, and are "online" (as in accessible from my workstation) at all times, or at least when I'm in the office, and connected to the network. The files are always available to me to work on, view etc. I make a backup of this drive to a 500GB external drive every time I add new images to it (this is the 2nd copy of the files). I use a cool little app called ChronoSync to do this. You can have it do all sorts of cool stuff, but I use it to make an exact copy of this drive, so that if the internal 500GB drive fails, I can just hook up the external and get on with life (and eventually replace the internal drive and copy all the images back to it from the external).

As I am using the "Bucket System", I burn a DVD of each bucket as it fills, which becomes my 3rd backup copy, and I store this off-site. DVD's are an essential part of a good backup system because a) they can't be overwritten, and b) they aren't susceptible to viruses. DVD's are not an option, the are a requirement.

I backup my Working Files (images that are in the process of being ingested/rated/adding metadata, etc) in a similar way. I have another 500GB drive in the ol' G4 that is specifically for these files, as well as holding most of my other important files (Word Docs, etc). As these files change often, I have another 500GB external drive I leave attached to this machine all the time, and again use ChronoSync to make backups. You can schedule ChronoSync to run as often as you'd like (the options are near limitless), and I have it run a backup of this drive every evening. I have it set to move deleted/altered files to a special folder called "Archived_Files", so that if I accidentally delete a file from this drive, it will still be recoverable (as opposed to my main image backup, which is an exact mirror of the internal drive) from the "Archived_Files" folder.

(As the question was about offline images, iView will allow you to view offline images in an iView catalog. It even will allow you to store a screen res preview of the image in the catalog file itself. You can view all metadata, and even edit it, without actually being connected to the image file.)

2) Backups of my computers

All this image backup is great, but what happens if your main boot drive in your machine spins down? If you're working on an assignment and your computer goes kaput, how will you finish the job? I use another cool app called Super Duper that is capable of making bootable backups of your computer's hard drive. I have a 200GB external drive (lots of drives involved...) that I've partitioned to allow me to make bootable backups of all the machines in the office. If you have a boot drive failure, just plug-in the drive, press the Option key (Mac, of course) while you press the power button, and you will now be able to choose this drive to boot from. All of your e-mail, applications, preferences, fonts, etc will all be where they should be, just like nothing happened. Back to work you go, and deliver the job. Then you can replace the internal boot drive, copy the boot volume back to the internal from your backup, and it's as if nothing ever happened...

Bottom Line: Not cheap, not (super) easy, but absolutely necessary. Go run your backups!

Questions, Comments? Fire 'em below.

Cheers, Josh
Copyright © 2008 Josh McCulloch.

Post Production Workflow

2008-03-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of questions from other shooters about digital photography, and the technology behind it. I was writing a long e-mail about post production image workflow to a colleague of mine this morning, and figured there are probably a lot of people that could benefit from this stuff, so here it is.

Here's what I do, mostly learned from Peter Krogh's book The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers:

STEP 1
Software: Image Ingester Pro (The website is a bit cluttered, but the application rocks)
What I do with it:
- Ingest from memory cards to folders. It makes a backup of the files on a second drive during the import process
- Adds a metadata template (that I created in Bridge/Photoshop) to each image with all of my copyright, contact info, etc
- Adds a Camera RAW preset I created that sets basic exposure/colour/sharpening/etc to all of my files. (Note this helps greatly speed up final touch-ups)
- Batch renames on import to my file naming system (very customizable)
- Automatically opens the folder with the ingested, renamed, batch colour-corrected, annotated files in Bridge once it's done
- It can do more than this, but I stop here.

STEP 2
Software: Abode Bridge CS3
What I do with it:
- Add bulk metadata (location, keywords, caption)
- Check Sharpness
- Rate files with the star rating (I am very critical with my ratings)
- Once I have rated the files, I open the best (usually 2 star+) in Camera RAW direct from Bridge, and do further exposure, colour correction, sharpness, CA reduction, etc in Camera RAW. Once done, I click done. This makes the changes to the files, nothing else.
- Return to Bridge, select all the files, open them in Camera RAW, where I click "Save..." and save all the files as Adobe DNG RAW files (this takes LOTS of time, I usually cue up a bunch and let them run overnight). I use DNG files for a few reasons:
1) It stores all metadata/image adjustments, etc inside of the file itself, not in an XMP sidecar file that can get lost.
2) It can store a full-res JPG preview of the colour corrected RAW file inside the file itself, which makes batching out lo-res very fast (see Step 3)

Thumbnail View

Checking Sharpness

Camera Raw Adjustments

STEP 3
Software: iView MediaPro (now Microsoft Expression Media)
What I do with it:
- Add further, more detailed keywords and captions to individual, high-rated images (optional)
- Organize images into iView's "Catalog Sets"
This basically completes my capture-to computer workflow. iView is now the basis for everything I do with my images. I use it to:
- find files for myself and clients
- batch out lo-res JPGs (I can batch out 400 DNG files to lo-res JPG in 2 minutes for agency submissions, and because of the rating work I did in step 2, I can quickly find my best)
- send files to Photoshop for more critical colour work. Any changes made are reflected back in iView
- pretty much everything else

iView's thumbnail view. You can see an overview of the ratings of all of my files on the top left, an overview of all of my "Catalog Sets" center left, and the actual folder structure where the images are stored on my hard drive bottom left. Catalog sets are like virtual folders, an image can live in as many of these as you'd like, without affecting where the physical file is located on your hard drive.

iView's Media view. Here you can view images as full screen or actual size, and you can also see all of the EXIF & other metadata on the left.

Note that my RAW (DNGs of course) file structure is based on Peter Krogh's "Bucket System". Basically I make a folder called RAW_001, and fill it until it is full. How do I know when it's full? When it's the same size as the backup media I'm using (currently DVD+R, which are about 4.5 GB). Because I'm doing all of my organization in iView, I am free to use my folder structure as a platform for simple backups. Once a bucket is full, I back it up to DVD, make another folder and put any new files in there. Repeat as necessary! It was odd to switch from descriptive folders and filenames to functional ones, but once you let go, life is much simpler.

My RAW folders

My folder structure for files that are newly ingested and haven't been converted to DNG's and/or imported into iView yet is a bit different.

My working files folders. I rarely use 1_RAW, 2_Renamed is where the files get saved to during the import process with ImageIngester, 3_Ready for DNG are files that have been rated, batch colour corrected, checked for sharpness, etc, 4_Converted are where the files are saved to after converting to DNG, and 5_Transferred to Archive are DNG files that are done, and have been copied to my main image drive. They live here until I have made a DVD backup of the bucket they were copied in to. Once copied into the current bucket, I launch iView and import them.

It took me months to learn all this stuff and then implement it on about 20,000 old scans and dis-organized digital files, but now keeping up with high volume shoots is much more manageable. Questions or comments? Fire them in the comments below.

Cheers, Josh
Copyright © 2008 Josh McCulloch.

New Published Work 2008-02-14

2008-02-14T12:47:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd pass along a couple of recent tear sheets, enjoy!

This is from the recent winter issue of Island Home and Style Magazine.

Special thanks to James at Blue Planet Kayaking for the help getting this image!

Feel free to see more of my published work here.

Cheers, Josh
Copyright © 2008 Josh McCulloch.

Photography Quick Links 2008-02-07

2008-02-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

A few blogs I read send out quicklink posts, and I always get something good out of them, so I thought I'd start sending out quicklinks of my own. These are tidbits (or large chunks) of great photography related info. WARNING: These can eat up some serious time. Best to read them while at your day job.

- Meta-Metadata: This article written by Marc Rochkind is for those of you that are serious about analyzing your images.

- Speaking of Marc, his attention to detail (as noted above) is just what you want in a software developer. Marc makes a slew of great, small apps for photographers like ImageIngester, ImageVerifier, and ImageReporter (the software referenced in the previous link). ImageIngester (I use the Pro version) is a critical part of my digital workflow. Check out his software site here.

- It must be Marc Rochkind week on the web... Got a question about backing up your data? (you are backing up everything, aren't you?) This article is for you. A great breakdown of all the threats to your data and how to manage them.

- This great post by Ed McCulloch (not related) will help you keep a positive outlook. Ed runs a great blog about the business of photography and is worth checking out.

- Leslie Burns Del-Acqua has just released here latest Manual over at Burns Auto Parts. Leslie is a presenter at the ASMP Strictly Business conference, and publishes monthly manuals for free to help you grow your photography business. Check it out, and while you're there make sure to find out why her business name is Burns Auto Parts...

Cheers, Josh
Copyright © 2008 Josh McCulloch.

Canada's West Coast Card Series

2008-02-05T22:30:00.000-08:00

As I alluded to in an earlier post, I have been working on a couple of big projects as of late, and one of them is a new greeting card series I am producing themed "Canada's West Coast". After nearly a year in various stages of concept and production, the cards are finally off to the printer this week...

The series of fine art cards features 24 of my best west coast landscapes, and were designed and produced by myself here in Victoria, BC. The cards are being professionally printed in Vancouver, BC on a high quality 50% recycled FSC certified paper. In addition, each card will have a hi-gloss laminate over the image and title and a matte varnish over the remainder of the card to produce a striking contrast in both colour and texture, making these the finest greeting cards available showcasing the beauty of Canada's West Coast. I am very excited about them.

Here are a few of the card covers for you to check out:

The back of each card will have a crop of the front image, along with 2 paragraphs of text about the image and the location where it was taken, as well as other interesting facts abut Canada's West Coast. Here is an example of the back of the Sheringham Point Lighthouse card shown above:

The cards are going to retail for $3.95, and will be available to retailers at wholesale prices. Anyone interested please contact me directly. While I already have a distribution plan, if any of you would like to suggest a good venue, I'm all ears! Please check out the full Canada's West Coast Card Collection here at joshmcculloch.com.

Cheers, Josh
Copyright © 2008 Josh McCulloch.

ASMP's Strictly Business 2 Review

2008-02-04T15:51:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my previous post Off to Los Angeles for ASMP's Strictly Business 2, I attended the SB2 conference last weekend in Torrance, California. Here I've put together a summary of the weekend's activities for y'all, and to share my thoughts about the conference.

After a rather boring plane ride (2 actually), I arrived at LAX Thursday evening around 6, and made my first stop the Apple Store in Manhattan Beach. I have never been to an Apple Store, so I made sure to visit one while in LA. Very cool. They had every mac model available in multiples to play with, including about 20 iPhones on display. As previously confessed, I am an Apple junkie, and have been wanting an iPhone ever since it was announced at MacWorld 2007. Along with a copy of Office 2008, I got my iPhone and headed for the Conference Hotel and some room service.

Friday morning I was up early and headed for registration. Though the conference doesn't officially begin until the Friday evening reception, some of the presenters are available for one-on-one 30-minute consultations on Friday at the rate of $75 each. I had booked 3 consultations, one each with John Harrington, Judy Herrmann, and Leslie Burns Del'Acqua. Being able to sit down for 30 minutes with each of these people and discuss just my business and the topics I wanted to discuss was worth the trip alone. Here is a quick breakdown of each discussion I had:

Judy Herrmann: Judy is the current president of ASMP, and a very talented and successful photographer to boot. We discussed general topics related to my business, such as general direction of my business, marketing options, goal setting, etc. Judy was my first consultation on Friday and our talk was a good starting point for the weekend.

John Harrington: John wrote "Best Business Practices for Photographers" (if you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it), and is a guru on the subject of Business, especially as it relates to photography. In his book he shares, and encourages the use of his contract as a template to develop your own. Previous to owning his book, I had no contract (a big no-no), and John's book set me on the right path to getting my paperwork in order. I had a few questions regarding my contract, invoice and model releases that John was able to answer, and he also shared information from his experience to help me answer these, and some other questions that came up during our discussion.

Leslie Burns Del'Acqua: Leslie is a former Photographers Rep turned Photographers Consultant. She runs a very successful consulting business and is a great resource for marketing information related to photography. We had an in-depth look at my website from an Art Buyers/Editors POV, including ease of navigation, portfolio galleries, etc. As I do my own web development, I look at my website from my POV, not from the outside, and Leslie's input, though hard to hear (you're always sensitive about your own work), was very good advice. Look for some improvements to joshmcculloch.com in the near future as a result of Leslie's advice.

Friday evening brought the opening reception, and the first opportunity for attendees to meet each other. One of the biggest benefits to attending SB2 is the other photographers you meet there. The opening reception is a great icebreaker, and about 20 of us headed out for dinner after the reception.

Saturday was the official start to this two day conference, and was a long, info-packed day. Breakfast at 7, with the first presentation at 8. About 8 different presenters throughout the day covered topics including image licensing basics, copyright info, necessary paperwork, current digital topics including metadata, a discussion of UPDIG and PLUS, marketing yourself, and more. Different videos were shown throughout the day with interviews of other well-known photographers talking about the each of the subjects we were covering that day. Saturday's last presentation was an inspiring keynote by award-winning photographer Sean Kernan. Following Sean's presentation was an informal Q&A with all of the presenters, which was a great opportunity to ask questions and expand further on topics covered earlier in the day.

Saturday evening there was a reception hosted by Digital Railroad, and another good chance to network and meet other photographers. As I mentioned above, one of the most valuable benefits to attending SB2 is connecting with so many other talented photographers. The contacts I made there will last a lifetime, and will surely help my business in the form of information sharing, giving advice on jobs, contracts, pricing, and marketing, website link exchanges and more. This is something you cannot put a price on... After the reception, a few of us we were off to explore a great little restaurant in Redondo Beach, where I had a great dish called Poulet au Poivre.

Sunday was much more hands-on than Saturday, and began with a presentation and discussion about negotiating. Negotiating is one of those skills that takes much experience to learn, and that experience usually comes initially at the cost of lower creative and usage fees, copyright transfers, bad contracts, etc. Three groups of two presenters acted out typical scenarios for us, with one playing the role of the art buyer/editor, and the other as the photographer. It was great to see them challenge each other, and their responses. One thing I certainly took away from the negotiating was to understand that in a negotiation, at least one involving a client, is that the person you are negotiating against is not an enemy, or your competition, they are your counterpart, a partner in a deal that (generally speaking) both side want to work. Negotiating is a give and take, and each side needs to feel as though they are getting good value from a negotiation. In this type of negotiation, there are no winners and losers (negotiating the price of a vehicle on the other hand, is usually more adversarial in nature, with each side wanting to win).

After the negotiating demonstrations, we split into small groups of about a dozen and were given written examples of actual inquiries from buyers to act out. The person playing the buyers role was given the details, and the photographer had to work from what the buyer told them, and attempt to get as much information from the buyer as possible, including timeline, budget, rights desired, etc. This was a great opportunity to work on negotiating skills without the risk of giving away the farm or losing a client. Negotiating is a difficult skill to master, but I certainly feel more prepared now when a client calls.

After lunch on Sunday, we were given the choice of attending two of four different 90-minute workshops, based on what subject we were most interested in learning about. I chose the following two workshops:

John Harrington - Business Workflow to Bring You Profits In this workshop, we covered the need for clear estimates, writing good emails, delivering and billing for files, registering your copyright (which is a different situation for us canucks), building a stock file, managing finances, and nurturing clients. John is a master at business, and while I have read his book, and actively follow his blogs, I learned much from this workshop and have further refined my paperwork and general business workflow.

Blake Discher - Is Your Website Doing All It Can to Get You Work? While I handle all of my own web development, I am always looking for ways to improve, especially when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I follow this stuff pretty carefully (see my post Website Basics for Photographers for more info), but I was able to glean lots of useful information from Blake's workshop that I plan to implement on my site. Plus, having over 200 photographers to network with means lots of link exchange potential...

So, that's it, a short wrap-up of SB2. My advice: If you are new to the business of photography, are just getting started, or wish to refocus your business, SB2 is for you. If you live in or near one of the conference cities, sign up right now. If you live somewhere that requires you to fly (like me), the cost can be significant, but the cost of not going, in my opinion, is much higher. I can see what I have learned at SB2 already beginning to make positive change in my business, and it's only been a week. Not bad. Now go sign up and better your business...

Check out SB2 on the ASMP website for yourself. Here are the upcoming SB2 dates and locations:

February 22-24: Atlanta
March 7-9: Philadelphia
April 11-13: Chicago

Cheers, Josh
Copyright © 2008 Josh McCulloch.

PS: I returned my iPhone, as it was Firmware 1.1.3, and as yet, not unlockable. Alas, the wait continues.

Off to Los Angeles for ASMP's Strictly Business 2

2008-01-23T21:40:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

I have been very busy as of late completing a few big projects, one of which I will be telling you all about next week. In the meantime, I'm off to LA tomorrow morning to attend the ASMP's Strictly Business 2 conference...

Here's the 411 about SB2 straight from ASMP (I love acronyms):

"Take control of your career. Attend the American Society of Media Photographers' weekend conference series Strictly Business 2. Learn to negotiate your prices and contracts. Get answers to your marketing questions. Prepare yourself to build a successful and sustainable business. Don't miss this rare opportunity to gain first-hand experience from the experts.

ASMP’s Strictly Business 2 is a weekend conference that will teach you real-world business skills and help you thrive in our highly competitive industry. SB2 brings you consultations, lectures, video presentations, a keynote address, workshops, hands-on negotiating training, and social gatherings to share and learn from your peers. This weekend will change the way you look at your business."

In addition to the conference, I have signed up for three 30-minute consultations with leading photographers, and photographers consultants to help me in some specific areas. I will be meeting with John Harrington to discuss contracts, forms and the logistics of running the business itself, Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua to discuss my portfolio, and Judy Herrmann to talk about my marketing and business direction. I think these consultations will be invaluable.

I have been working hard this past year growing my business, and learning as much as I can, and I am hoping this conference will be another step in this direction. I'll make sure to post some details here about it when I return!

I'm also very excited to check out an Apple store while I'm in LA. Any of my readers from Canada want me to pick up an iPhone for you? :)

Cheers, Josh
Copyright © 2008 Josh McCulloch.

Thanks for a great year!

2007-12-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

Before I sign off for the Christmas holidays, I wanted to take a minute to thank all of my friends and family, my clients, and you, my blog readers and commenters for all of your help and support this past year. 2007 was a great year for Josh McCulloch Photography, and 2008 is looking to be the best yet!

Merry Christmas to you all and best wishes for 2008!

Cheers, Josh

Websites for Photographers - Update

2007-12-17T20:52:00.000-08:00

Just when you think you're on top of your game, showing other photographers how you make your own website, this happens:

I guess things like this are good to keep you on you toes. This is what the homepage of my website looked like on Internet Explorer 6 (PC) this morning just after I made my previous blog post Website Basics for Photographers. This is not pretty... This is an example of what happens when you don't write your Meta tags properly in an HTML document. Lots of CSS code, and an ugly page. I just happened to be around a PC today and thought I'd check out my recently updated pages in Internet Explorer 6 on a PC. If there is anything wrong with my code, IE will show it, and show it it did. I almost had a heart attack on the spot!

As it turns out, I had some Meta tags without the proper closing tags, and IE didn't like it. I had to spend most of the day knowing visitors, and potential clients, were looking at my site like this, as I couldn't get back to the office to fix it. I'm quite sure I have it fixed now, please let me know if you see anything strange.

On a related note, I found a great online tool for emulating web browsers called Browsercam. I searched it out after fixing my HTML code in the home page of my site today, as I wanted to make sure I had fixed it properly. Browsercam is able to emulate almost every web browser on any platform, and show you the results immediately. This saves webmasters from having to own multiple computers running many different web browsers. They have a 24hr free trial, and plans range from $20 for one day, to $60 per month, and an annual fee will set you back $400. Not cheap, and certainly not in my budget, but a great tool, and if you do enough work on your website, it may be worth it. It would have saved me from a near cardiac arrest...

Below are some screenshots showing the Browsercam interface:

This is the Browsercam page where you can pick what OS/Browser choices you'd like it to emulate.

This is what Browsercam spits out as the results. You can click on each thumbnail image to see a full screen preview of each OS/Browser combo.

This is what the homepage of my site looks like on IE 6 on a Windows XP machine now, all fixed! Keep in mind, I'm on a Mac running Apple's Safari web browser. Very cool!

Cheers, Josh

Website Basics for Photographers

2007-12-16T23:12:00.001-08:00

One of the most common questions fellow photographers ask me is how I make/manage my website. I have been doing some updating to my site in the last few weeks, and thought that this would be a good time to share a little of the behind-the-scenes info...

I originally started my website using a program by Apple called iWeb. It comes as part of the iLife suite of programs, and is a WYSIWYG HTML program. Basically, you drag and drop different images, graphics, and text on a page, then hit publish, and voila!, instant website. Of course, nothing is without it's drawbacks, and iWeb has a few. The three things I found annoying are as follows:

1) Updating your site means opening up the software, making the changes, republishing the entire site (you cannot do one page at a time), adding meta tags (see #2 below), then uploading it to your webserver via FTP. Not the end of the world, but a pain nonetheless.

2) Pages made with iWeb don't have Meta Tags of any value. Meta Tags are important to search engines and help get your pages found by Google and other search engines. I did find a way to do this, using a find-and-replace software called MassReplaceIt, which has become an invaluable piece of software for me. You can use it to replace meta tags, links, file extensions, etc, on multiple files all at once. Great tool, but a pain to do each time I exported the pages.

3) The last big drag about iWeb is the pages it produces do not work well with Internet Explorer, which is unfortunately the browser of choice for over half the users on the internet (I have no idea why, I think it sucks). Pages elements are improperly displayed, colours and links are not right, etc. Not the best thing when you are trying to look professional.

These problems left me frustrated, and searching to find a new solution. For those of you starting out, and have an Apple computer, I'd recommend starting with iWeb. You can have a site up in an hour or two which is pretty amazing, given what it took to make a website even a few years ago. But it's not the magic answer; it has some issues.

My current website is made up of three main components. The main basic HTML pages, my Blog, and my stock licensing section. I will go over each section here, to give you a better understanding of what each does, and how I made them.

My main HTML pages

I now use a free HTML text editor called Smultron to make the bulk of the pages on my site. It is a text based HTML editor (Mac OSX only), but has some very powerful features. As I tried different options for making my website, I picked up some basic HTML along the way, and I can now edit my own pages reasonably well. I originally bought a few books on the subject, but as with most things, I learned better just by doing it. I found that looking at the source of web pages was very useful, and would copy and paste HTML code from other sites I liked, and then modify it to fit my site. In most browsers, you can view a page's HTML code by accessing the "View" menu, then choosing "View Source".

I use Adobe Photoshop CS3 to make the graphics of all my pages, and the same goes for all the images I use on my site. I use PS to crop, downsize, colour correct and otherwise prep them for the web.

For my portfolio pages, I opted to use flash based slideshows embedded in a standard HTML page. I found a great little piece of software called SWF 'n Slide Pro by Vertical Moon software to make the flash slideshows.

You can see samples of pages made with Smultron (just basic HTML) here:
My Homepage
My Portfolio
My Bio

You can see samples of my portfolio pages made with Smultron and flash shows by SWF 'n Slide Pro (just basic HTML + Flash) here:
Nature Portfolio
Lifestyle Portfolio
Sports Portfolio

My Blog

I chose to add a blog to my site for a couple of reasons:

1) I really enjoy sharing my knowledge, and have made it part of my business goals to do so as much as I can.

2) Blogs are great for search engines. Google and others index blogs faster and more thoroughly than other basic pages.

3) Sharing and teaching helps me to reinforce what I already know, making it stick, further enhancing my grasp of a subject.

Though there are a number of blogging platforms out there, I chose to use Blogger for a couple of reasons. Blogger is now owned by Google, meaning they will a) probably be around in 5 years, b) it's free, c) Google indexes it very quickly and d) it integrates very nicely with other Google tools, which I'll get into shortly. I use a modified Blogger template (again, basic HTML) to make it look and feel exactly like the rest of my site. This helps with branding my site to keep a constant look and feel.

I also use Blogger's FTP publishing, meaning that instead of having all of my blog pages hosted on Blogger's servers, I get it published to the same server that the rest of my basic HTML pages are hosted on. This keeps the web address constant for visitors. Instead of going off to bcoutdoorphotographer.blogspot.com, visitors just go to www.joshmcculloch.com/blog.

To learn more about my blog, go to Josh's Blog Basics 101

My Stock Licensing section

I wanted to be able to have searchable image galleries on my website, and e-commerce was another feature I had on my list. These two things came together in the form of Photoshelter. Photoshelter is an online archiving, file delivery, and e-commerce solution developed exclusively for photographers. My account allows me 35GB of storage space, and 20GB of client bandwidth per month (My own uploading, downloading, general web traffic, and image licensing bandwidth is unlimited), and all this costs me $30 per month (plus Photoshelter takes 10% of all sales I make, which is better than the 30-80% some agencies take). They have dual, redundant data centers on the west and east coasts to make sure my files are safe. I can make unlimited image galleries, and can set the visibility of those galleries (public/private/password protected). I have automated Rights-Managed and Royalty-Free images available 24/7. Clients can search for a file, price it out for the usage they need, purchase it, and download it all within minutes, and completely automated. I can be out shooting and making sales at the same time.

I use Photoshelter's customization tool to make my Photoshelter archive look, feel and act like my site, just as with my blog. As there are some advanced features, I opted to have the good folks at Photoshelter perform the customization, as it was out of my HTML league. I paid $400 US for the customization, and it was done within a week.

Have a look around my stock licensing section to see what it can do: Josh McCulloch Stock Collection

Google Tools

As I mentioned above, I use some Google Tools to analyze and publicize my site and site traffic. They are:
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Analytics
Feedburner

These tools help me find out what pages are viewed most often, what keywords people are using to find me in Google and other search engines, where my visitors live, what browser and screen resolution they are using, etc. Check them all out, they are worth using, and like Blogger, they're free. I've said it before, and here I go again: Google, you rock.

Other Miscellaneous Info

For my web address registration, hosting, and e-mail, I use Go Daddy. They are cheap, and pretty helpful.
For my FTP uploading to my webserver, I use Fetch.

Questions, Comments? Fire 'em below, so others can see and learn from them...

Cheers, Josh

Nikon D3 vs Canon 1Ds Mk III

2007-12-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

I read a great comparison of both these cameras by John Harrington on his blog Photo Business Forum. Check out the actual comparison directly here.

It is a 12-part article, and goes over some of the main aspects of the both the D3 and 1Ds Mk III, including noise and resolution and how they compare. Enjoy it!

I have been really busy lately working on a number of projects and as a result, haven't had a lot of time to post anything, but I have a couple of great (and long) gear related posts coming down the pipes, so stay tuned.

Cheers, Josh

New Lifestyle, Sports and Nature Portfolios

2007-11-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

Up until now, I have been using Photoshelter to host all my image galleries, including my Portfolio. While my Photoshelter galleries are exactly what I want for my stock photo licensing, they aren't the best platform for viewing my portfolio. The combo of caption, keywords, licensing info, etc created a bit of a cluttered area to showcase my best work, so I decided to fix that by adding 3 flash based portfolio slideshows...

You can find my new Lifestyle, Sports and Nature Portfolios HERE. You'll see some new work, as well as some old classics in there. The portfolios are also available from almost anywhere on my site by clicking "Portfolio" at the top of the page, as well as using the "My Portfolio" link on any blog page. Enjoy! Comments welcome, post 'em below...

Cheers, Josh

Non-Profits & Pro Bono Work

2007-11-21T21:53:00.000-08:00

I often get requests from people asking if am able to donate my images, or take an assignment at a discount for a good cause, usually from a non-profit group or the like. I like helping others, and do my part to help where and when I can, but this does not mean that I give away my images for free every time I'm asked.

This is also not to say that I don't do Pro Bono work, or that I don't rcommend it, because I do. What I'm saying is you should be the one that decides to call up the organization or your choice, that you feel strongly about, and offer your services to them then.

When I get a request from someone asking me to donate my images, I will take a few things into account. The first is whether I personally believe in what this particular group is doing, and what they stand for. If I don't, I stop right there. No point in doing something for free for someone or something you don't believe in.

If I do like what they do, things can become a little trickier. One thing many people don't realize is that not all "Non-Profits" are charities. In fact, most Non-Profit organizations are not charities, they are businesses, and in order to maintain their tax status cannot post a profit. They have employees that get paid a salary and benefits, they pay for office supplies & company vehicles, they pay their rent, phone, hydro, and water bills, and pay for extravagant get-togethers to thank their supporters. With all this, for some reason, they never seem to want to pay for photographs.

When get asked if I will trade an image (or ten) in exchange for a photo credit or website link, the first thing I usually will try to find out is if the person calling me is a paid employee of this organization. If their answer is yes, the odds of getting anything out of me for free just dropped to nil... What do you think that employee would say if their boss asked them to work for free for a week as a donation to the organization? I am much more likely to work at a discounted rate, or for free if the person calling me is donating their time and energy too.

Do you think someone from this organization would consider calling up their landlord to ask them to donate a months rent in exchange for a link on their website? How about the local office supply store to see if they can donate their copy paper and toner? Maybe Petro-Canada would like to give them free gas for the company vehicle? And while they're at it, maybe their insurance company will insure them for free too, since they're a "Non-Profit". Not likely, so why should photographers?

For those of you reading this that are photographers, especially those of you that are new to the business, do yourself a favour and get over the thrill of being asked to use your images. The fact that someone is asking to use your photo for free usually means that they either a) don't value what you do and the talent you bring, or b) have been turned down by other photographers before you that realized the value of their own work. On a rare occasion they are truly ignorant, and have no idea what we photographers do what we can bring to a project. In this case, try to educate them, let them know what you do, what you charge and why. I highly recommend a book by John Harrington, Best Business Practices for Photographers, it will get you well on your way in the business of photograhy, and has a great section covering this topic. Then check out his blog on the business of being a photographer.

Photography is a business, just like anything else. Profit is not a bad thing. It makes the world go 'round. Non-Profits sometimes forget that profit is how people can afford to make donations to them. Profit is what puts food on my table, and if you want to make it in this business, make sure you're making a profit too. And once you've made a profit, call up the organization of your choosing and give some back.

Cheers, Josh

New Work 11-14-2007

2007-11-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick hit to show some new work I produced a couple of weekends ago.

As I mentioned in my previous post Canadian Rockies Photos, I have set out to pursue a more commercial spin to my photography, with the goal of expanding into that part of the photography market. I recently purchased a lighting kit geared towards location work to help with that goal, and I am currently putting it through the paces and seeing how it works out. Lighting enables you to work through less-than-ideal lighting situations by controlling the light, which is key when you can't wait out for the best natural light, such as on a commercial job where budget and time constraints sometimes do not allow waiting a day or two. Even with great natural light, additional lighting can be a good tool to utilize.

For those of you interested in my gear, and the techniques I use when shooting, make sure to check back soon as I will be blogging about my lighting kit. Better yet, Subscibe to my Blog Feed and get notified as soon as I update my blog! These are some of my first images using my location lighting kit.

Here are a few more of my favourites from that weekend:

Thanks for dropping by, hope you enjoyed! Comments? Post 'em below.

Cheers, Josh

Blog Basics: Josh's Blog 101

2007-11-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd give all of my readers a quick overview of my blog, to ensure no one is missing some of the cool features and interactivity of my blog. I'll start with the basics for you:

1) What is a Blog? - A Blog (short for weblog) is a website, or a portion of a website where a person (a.k.a. a "Blogger") will write a "Post" about a topic that interests them. In my case, I'll be posting about photography related topics, like photographic gear (See my posts Waterproof Bags for Outdoor & Kayaking Photography and Mac vs PC), my own photography (see Prairie Light and Canadian Rockies Photos) and the photography industry.

2) How does a Blog work? - A blog is interactive. The blogger writes a post, and the reader reads the post, and then may comment on the post, pose a question to the blogger, etc. The more you put in, the more you get out. Join in. Learn. Explore. See the link(s) at the bottom of each post where it says "Comments". Click and add yours.

3) What makes blogs so special? - One of the best things about a blog is the ability to be notified when a blogger writes and publishes a new post. This is accomplished by the use of "Feeds" (a.k.a. "RSS Feeds" "RSS" etc). Blogs, and other news sites often publish feeds that viewers can "Subscribe" to. Once a viewer has subscribed, they will be notified when a new post is published. There are two ways for you to be notified, depending on your preference, and the options available from the site or blog you would like to subscribe to.

Option 1: Subscribe to the feed in your "RSS Reader" of choice. RSS Readers are programs, or websites that monitor feeds you've subscribed to, and alert you when a new post has been published. Here are links to some popular web-based RSS Readers:

Google Reader
Yahoo Reader
NewsGator
Bloglines

There are lots more than this, but these will get you started.

Option 2: Subscribe with software on your computer, usually RSS capable web browsers, like Apple's Safari which is also available for you poor Windows users (see an interesting article on using Safari for RSS feeds Here), or Mozilla's Firefox. Microsoft's Internet Explorer also has RSS available in the new version 7, but do yourself a favour and ditch IE for something a little more "21st Century", like the browsers listed above.

If this has you all confused, not to worry. This YouTube video by Lee LeFever will straighten you out in no time:

Now that you're RSS savvy, why not Subscibe to the Josh McCulloch Blog Feed? And for those of you that still think this Web 2.0 stuff is all hogwash, just pop your e-mail address into the form on the top right of this screen and click "Subscribe". New posts will be delivered straight into your e-mail inbox, and you can opt-out whenever you want to, Spam Free!

4) Other Cool Stuff on my Blog - Make sure to check out my Portfolio, and Published Work, available from the links on the right side of this page, and the rest of my site with the links available from the top off all the pages on my site.

Lastly, if you come across a post on my blog you think someone you know would enjoy, click the "Email this" link at the bottom of the post and pass it along!

Happy Blogging!

Cheers, Josh

Waterproof Bags for Outdoor & Kayaking Photography

2007-11-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts Location Laptop Case, I travel a lot with my photography, and being primarily an outdoor photographer, much of my time is spent outside (really?!). Additionally, living on the west coast of Canada I am predisposed to being out in some of the worst possible weather, year round.

As some of you are aware, and much to my wife's dismay, I am a gear ~~nerd~~ connoisseur. Few things get me more excited than checking out the latest offerings from Apple or Nikon, and even things as seemingly boring as camera bags get me all fired up. I am always on the hunt for an easier, lighter, better, faster, smarter, more protective way to carry my gear. Generally speaking, camera bags fall into one of two categories. Convenient or Protective. I have yet to find a bag from a photographic company that covers both categories, which seems baffling to me. Not that I have the answer, but if they can put a man on the moon...

One company, totally unrelated to the photographic industry, seems to be bridging that gap for me.

Last year my friend Alex Matthews (who writes articles for many fine kayaking publications, and I shoot with on assignments from time to time), told me about waterproof bags from a company called Watershed. Watershed makes a wide range of bags, from duffles bags to backpacks, and even gun cases (yee-haw!). Their smaller duffles and backpacks have become my go-to solution whenever I am heading out into wet weather, or onto the water to shoot watersports.

Firstly, let me say that these bags are absolutely waterproof (not just dunk-proof). Last year I was out shooting kayaking on the Cowichan River in November for a local tour tour company Kindred Spirit Kayaking. I was paddling in an open top inflatable kayak with my gear in a small Watershed duffle strapped between my knees. Though I didn't flip, I was regularly swamped as I paddled through rough water, and this bag was submerged numerous times that day. This past summer I was shooting sea kayaking out in Clayoquot Sound near Tofino, BC for another client and local tour company Blue Planet Kayaking. I had some of my gear in a small Watershed duffle in the cockpit with me, and the rest in a slightly larger Watershed duffle strapped to the deck in front of me, completely exposed to the elements. The result both times? Dry gear. Here is one of their bags in action on Vargas Island this summer:

(Full Disclosure: I recently licensed 2 images to Watershed, including this one shown here. However, I was a user and a big fan long before they became a client!)

The Watershed bags waterproofing comes from the use of an advanced Ziploc-like closure system. There are 5 interlocking rubber ribs that seal the bag completely, keeping out sand, dust, water and more. As long as you make sure to go over the seal twice with your fingers, you should be good to go. Unlike roll-top drybags (very common in the kayaking world) they are not restricted to having the bag filled completely to keep the closure working properly and water out. A few other nice features are the multiple reinforced lash points for strapping down your bag, solid webbing carry handles, and fabric coated with polyurethane instead of enivironmentally unfriendly & toxic PVC like most other bags. Here is a detail of the opening with instructions:

Watershed makes 4 bags that I think will be of particular appeal to photographers. First are their small backpacks, specifically the Big Creek, and the Animas. They are 20 and 54 liters in volume respectively, and have removeable shoulder straps and waistbelts if you need to stow them. Second are their small duffle bags, specifically the Ocoee and Chattooga which are 15 and 30 liters respectively. These two duffles work well separately for small jobs, or together for larger shoots or longer trips. They also have longer opening than the backpacks, and as such I use them whenever I don't have to carry my gear a long way. I have also started using my Chattooga around town to carry my portable lighting kit. I can fit 2 compact light stands, umbrella swivels, 3 SB-24 flashes, Pocket Wizards, clamps, various snoots, grids, gobos and gels inside this bag with room to spare. I plan to use this setup for most of my shooting this winter, especially out in the snow shooting skiing and lifestyle, so I can drop my bag in the snow and not need to worry about it getting damp.

Another nice feature is the optional liner that is available for all sizes of their duffle bags. I have liners for both my Ocoee and Chattooga. The liners are nylon shelled, foam padded, and soft fleece lined. They also have their own carry handles so you can remove them with your gear still inside for easy transport. When shooting paddling and other watersports, I will take my bags with the padded liners, and leave all other camera bags/protectors at home, with the exception of cases for individual lenses, and RoadWired R.A.P.S. wraps for my flashes and other small fragile items. While you certainly can't be tossing your gear around, it will absorb most impacts, and for me the flexibility of an easy to access, supple, waterproof bag outweigh the lack of high-impact protection. Here are a couple of the bags, with the padded liners:

If you spend much time shooting in wet weather, give these bags a hard look, I think you'll be as pleased with them as I am.

Cheers, Josh

New Published Work 10-27-2007

2007-10-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

Just a quick hit to share a few of my most recently published images...

These two images were featured in the 2007 Adventure Kayak Photo Annual, which is currently on newstands (unless of course, my mother has beaten you to them... seriously).

The top one is my wife on the West Coast Trail. As you may be able to tell from the streaming TP, things were somewhat urgent...

Of course this wasn't really the case! I made her run past at least 20 different times until I got the frame I wanted.

The second is my friends Alex and Rochelle paddling in Victoria's Inner Harbour during the 2005 Tall Ships festival. Alex is a very accomplished paddler and author, and his most recent book, Sea Kayaking: Rough Waters, is available from the Heliconia Press here.

Cheers, Josh

Canadian Rockies Photos

2007-10-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

I have recently set out to actively pursue a more commercial spin to my photography, as the market is much larger for that than the market for prints of landscapes, etc. As a result, I don't shoot nearly as much "Nature" type photography as I used to. I almost always try to include people in my images now. People want to see people in ads, and people sell.

On my recent trip to the Canadian Rockies (See my post Prairie Light for another post related to this trip), I shot a lot of landscape images and remembered how much I enjoy it. While I certainly don't enjoy getting up at 5AM (I'm definitely not a morning person), the results can certainly be worth it. The following image was taken just after sunrise at Cavell Lake in Jasper National Park:

Another ~~torture session~~ early morning took place at Moraine Lake. I have travelled to the Rockies many times, but had never sought out and shot the classic Rockies images. I decided I should, and did on this trip, as someone will come asking one day...

A few more highlights, these are from the Maligne Lake area. This boathouse is a classic, and has been there for many years:

And of course, I continued to shoot my lifestyle images. Here are a few of my wife hiking, the first from Lake Ohara, and the second from Sentinel Pass near Moraine Lake:

And this is a gem I got from the Icefields parkway near Jasper. Sometimes I'll pull the truck over when I see a scene I like. I'll usually shoot the scene as I first see it, and then wait to see if anything interesting comes along. In this case, I waited about 5 minutes and nothing happened. I almost left, and then saw these guys coming down the road. This image is one of my best from the trip. Patience pays off again!

Feel free to check out some of my other landscapes in my Nature Photography Fine Art Prints gallery, as well as a selection of my Canadian Rockies Stock Photos.

Cheers, Josh

Mac vs PC

2007-10-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

Ask anyone that knows me well, and they will tell you I'm nothing short of outspoken when it comes to your choice of computers.

Macs Rule, and they're only getting better.

I could go on and on about the ease of use, their clean uncluttered design, the solid, secure UNIX base it's built on, the common sense of Apple to ship an OS with ports in it's firewall CLOSED (duh!), and so forth. But instead, I'll refer you to a few experts who have weighed in recently...

A recent CNET news article slammed Microsoft to give up on Vista stating numerous issues. In some cases, users were reverting to Windows XP because Vista was so bad! A quote from the article:

"The road ahead looks dangerous for Vista and Microsoft must realize that. With Mac OS X hot on its tail, Vista is simply not capable of competing at an OS level with some of the best software around. If Microsoft continues down this path, it will be Vista that will bring the software giant to its knees--not Bill Gates' departure.

Of course, categorically dumping an operating system is quite difficult and with millions already using the OS, chances are Microsoft won't find a good enough reason to do it. And while I can understand that argument, there's no reason the company can't continue to support Vista and go back to the drawing board for its next OS. Even better, go back to XP--it's not nearly as bad as Vista.

As a daily user of Mac OS X, Ubuntu and Vista, I'm keenly aware of what works and what doesn't. Mac and Linux work."

I especially like this video by a Mac user showing off Mac OSX features that have been around for quite a while, with audio from Microsoft descibing the same "new innovative features in Vista" that some of which have been in the Mac OS for coming up on 3 generations!

Maybe the biggest indicator is the number of students that are moving to the Mac. Check out this article from Princeton University's student newspaper stating that Mac sales to students from the campus computer store this Fall accounted for 60 percent of all sales! A MacWorld article reports the total Apple notebook market share of 17.6 percent.

Then again, maybe all we need is proof like this, an image from a recent lecture hall at the University of Victoria:

Click image to enlarge

Make the switch, see the light.

Cheers, Josh

Prairie Light

2007-10-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from a couple of weeks of shooting in the Canadian Rockies. To say I had a great trip would be an understatement, but then again, getting out of town to shoot is always fun. Trips like these are always too short. I always seem to feel like I'm just getting into the groove and it's time to head home.

I thought I'd share a few images with you from a part of the country I hadn't been to before, and a few thoughts about pre-visualizing photos.

Pincher Creek is a small rural community in southwest Alberta, and is home to some of the largest wind farms in Canada. I had done some research on the area before the trip and wanted to head there to photograph some of the turbines. I shoot a lot of stock photography (for those of you that don't know what stock photography is, see this Wikipedia Article) and had drawn up a few ideas of concepts I'd like to shoot. I was thinking of ways to show our dependance on energy, and it's relationship to things we use in our everyday lives. Usually tying in things from pop culture adds to the saleability of an image, so I was going to shoot a model (my lovely wife, of course) using a laptop, listening to an iPod, etc around these turbines. Alas, Mother Nature must have thought that there were already enough images of iPods around and made other plans. As we drove south from our campsite at Chain Lakes Provincial Park, the sky got progressively darker until we got to Pincher Creek.

The results? Nothing short of pure Prairie drama. This is the kind of light You just don't get on the coast...

Here are a few images of the wind turbines I originally came to photograph:

The lesson here? While it is great to plan ahead and have some ideas of what you want to shoot, don't let it get you down when it doesn't work out. These images are some of my favourite from the trip, and I certainly hadn't thought I'd get anything like them before I left.

And then came the rain...

Cheers, Josh

Location Laptop Case

2007-10-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

I travel a lot with my photography (well over 30,000 km in the past 2 years) and of course this means that my gear must come along for the ride. One of the most important pieces of gear a travelling digital photographer needs is a laptop computer. Without one, you are limited by the amount of storage you have with you, which can come in the form of Memory Cards, or fancier items such as the Epson Viewers. A laptop can also help you manage your post-production work while out on a shoot, saving you lots of time at the computer when you get home. If you are a location photographer, your laptop may go beyond merely backing up your images and being a time-saver, having to work with an Art Director editing your take in the field.

Commercial location shooters often work in places fairly inhospitable to computer gear. Water, sand, rocks, bumpy roads, falling off a boat, they can all happen, fast. Enter the Location Laptop Case, developed by Chase Jarvis and his crew in Seattle. Being the gear nerd that I am, I will be setting myself up with one of these ASAP, and I wanted to share my enthusiasm with all of you. Chase combined a Pelican Laptop case with some great accessories to create a tough waterproof case for his Powerbook. Enjoy this one!

Cheers, Josh

Updated Blog

2007-10-05T00:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I last posted anything at all, and I have a really, really good excuse.

I've been busy.

Now that I've explained myself, I'd like to point a couple of things out. Firstly, you probably have noticed that my old blog pages are gone. I have been using Apple's iWeb to build my site, and though it is really easy to use, I had really begun to see the shortcomings of iWeb's built in blogging feature. I got a bit of a bee in my bonnet tonight (those of you that know me well know that once I start something, I can't let it go until it's done) and decided to tackle it. I have integrated my Blogger blog onto my site, and it's looking "Prettyyyy, Prettyyyy, Prettyyy, Pretty Good" as Larry David would say. This will bring all sorts of yet-to-be-discevered functionality that I'm looking forward to exploring in the not-so-distant future. I think I have got everything moved over that I need, though a few of my old blog postings didn't make the cut. No big loss, they were filled with selfish Josh McCulloch Photography propoganda that really served no useful purpose. This brings me to point #2..

Up until now, I have been using my blog to shamelessly point out my achievements in photography. Though there is nothing wrong with this (and I will continue to do just that in moderate amounts), I will also be sharing other various tidbits of photography information with all of you. Everything from techniques and gear I find useful, links to other great photographers, and industry information and trends, to name a few. I'd like to start this off by pointing you to a photographer named Chase Jarvis. Chase is a commercial advertising photographer from Seattle, WA. A good friend of mine worked with Chase on a couple of shoots, and I recently saw a webcast of him giving a presentation at the Photoshelter Photography 2.0 Town Hall in NYC. Well worth the time to watch, as Chase provides some insight into the "Black Box" that is the Commercial Advertising photography industry. Chase strives to share his passion and knowledge with other photographers, and he has inspired me to do the same. Enjoy!

Cheers, Josh

West Coast Trail Updates

2007-06-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

Good news on the West Coast Trail! It will be open this year starting May 15. While this is two weeks later than normal, it is much better than what many predicted for this season, which was that it wouldn’t open at all!

Here are a few details from the West Coast Trail section of the Parks Canada website:

• The opening of the West Coast Trail will be delayed for public safety reasons.
• Parks Canada is asking individuals planning to hike the trail in May to reschedule their trip for May 15th or later.
• Repairs to the Logan Creek suspension bridge will be completed by May 15 th
• Klanawa cable car crossing repairs are still required. A boat will be available, May 15 th, to ferry hikers from one side to the other until repairs are completed.
• The north end of the trail will be accessible, May 1st to kilometer 15, for day use only.
• Parks Canada regrets any inconvenience to visitors that this delay may cause and looks forward to welcoming overnight hikers on May 15th.
• Celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the trail will take place later this year.
• Parks Canada will continue to keep the public informed of progress.

Also keep your eyes out for the new Official Parks Canada West Coast Trail map this year. It will feature First Nations place names for a number of locations on the trail, as well as some updated tide information. The new map will also be featuring some new Josh McCulloch images (see one of them above!). Watch for them!

Make sure to bookmark www.joshmcculloch.com and check back for updates on the West Coast Trail.

Cheers, Josh

BC Stock Photos

2007-06-10T23:49:00.000-07:00

More news on my BC Stock Photography front!

I have recently launched www.BCstockphoto.com, a gateway into my new searchable online E-Commerce stock site. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, search here for Royalty Free BC Stock Photos, or BC Rights Managed Stock Photos. The stock photography site www.BCstockphoto.com will also have links to my Alberta Stock Photos gallery, my Washington State Stock Photos gallery, my Oregon Stock Photos gallery, my California Stock Photos gallery as well as my Utah Stock Photos gallery. Also available are more specific galleries such as my Vancouver Island Stock Photos gallery!

See you out there!

Cheers, Josh