Digital Stills - deliverable ?

[howardwhite 5]

Jumptown (Orange, MA) is in transition between film and digital stills -- the current active staff is about 50/50.

When you shoot digital stills, what do you give the customer? Prints? A CD? If a CD, how do you manage burning them while getting ready for the next load? (Of course the same question occurs about editing videos.)

Do any of you use an online service such as Shutterfly to sell and deliver prints? If so, how is it working out?

Slightly separate question -- do you have a separate process for tandem landing stills? If so, same questions.

Input welcome, as well as pointers to relevant previous threads.

HW

[freefalle 0]

Let me preface this response by saying at our DZ, we mail out our videos after the end of the weekend. That being said some of the guys who are shooting digital will mail there photos out with the video. I personally like the idea of the customer leaving with SOMETHING that they paid for. Therefore, I burn my photos to a CD and give that to them before they leave. If time doesn't permit or if they don't have time to wait then I mail them too them. I'd like to get one of those devices that burn directly form a CF card to a CD but I need to learn more about them and where I can find one.


If you are speaking about landing shots Im assuming that you are speaking about someone who doesn't get video and still but would like a landing shot? We shoot a digital still of their landing one of the guys at the DZ has a printer there so he prints it out and puts it in a nice frame they leave with it and the charge is 15.00

Hope this helps

[Miami 0]

As for delivery of digital still to a customer, see this thread to start, plus there are a couple other posts on the subject.
Hope this helps...

Miami

[PhreeZone 15]

We are about 75% 35mm / 25% digital. I'm the only one shooting digital on a regular basis since I don't own a 35mm camera. Last year was a learning experience for me.

I did not have a computer at the DZ so I'd have to mail out the CD's on Monday. That lead to issues in trying to keep mailing labels correctly associated with a face to get the CD to the right person. Unless we are doing nothing but back to backs the customer walks out of the DZ with a video in their hands. That in turn lead to me spending the profit from the stills on things like cases, bubble envelopes and postage. I spent on average an extra $2 per still on deliverables to get it to the customer.

This year I have the Apacer CF-CD burner. Takes about 5 minutes to dump the entire memory card to CD and I'm good to go. I figure I'll burn one as soon as I land, and then as I'm editing their video I can burn a copy for myself to keep in case I see anything to go to Parachutist or into my portfolio. No matter what even on back to backs I can plug in the memory card, hit record and load a second card and go. At least they will get their stills and I'll mail the video later.

I hauled the still along on about 6-8 tandems where it was'nt requested and I ended up selling 2 5*7's and an 8*10 out of those jumps. I had lots of issues in this aspect last year including not having an effecent ordering system and no way of directing customers to my website to order pictures. Even with those issues I managed to post sell to 25% of those people.

I thought about selling prints but then that involves me spending the money on a printer, ink and a computer for the DZ to print from so I can do simple crops and things. Its just too many prints needing to be sold to reach the break even point for me. If I only had to do ink and printer... maybe, but then you have to worry about handeling transactions outside of the norm and if they want to pay by CC or debit do you pay the money to accept them?

I'm still looking for a service that will let me host the pictures on my personal site but will do all the payment and fulfillment on their side.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[pcalandra 0]

We are really mixed at Frontier Skydivers, we are a club and don't have a strict "format" policy in place and some ot our video people don't shoot stills either.

Last season was my 2nd season shooting digital stills by the way.

Our club offers video at 2 different prices, one of VHS and a higher one for DVD. If a customer wants stills we are charging $25.00 more and 100% of that goes to the photographer. If I get a "Paying" stills customer I burn them a CD when I and while I'm editing there video. Unless we are really backed up and short of video people our customers always leave with there finished product.

Now, that being said I always jump my still camera and take photos of every student even if they don't pay and offer them to them on ShutterFly. For me I've sold enough to pay for my Pro account and then some each year so far but I'm not making what I thought I would .

Heres a link http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/gallery.jsp?gid=768a5498ce7c30afb713 if you care to check it out. I don't bother photoshopping anything prior to uploading, the most I'll do is set the shutterfly crop feature.

With each video I give them them an sheet of paper with the link and a very soft sell sales pitch about sendig all their friends & family there to see "their skydive for free" I get tons of hits, but again fewer sales than I would like.

This year I'm working on either a business card and/or a way to print one quick 4x6 photo of them with that info on it. I haven't figured that part out yet and of course it means you need a PC

I really like the idea of the stand alone burner for 2 reasons, one is no PC required, 2nd save a step or 2 at the DZ and 2nd you can burn a CD for your customer and then keep a running archive for your self at the same time.

I saw 2 units I had an interest in:

http://www.aleratec.com/diphcocrdifl.html

http://www.lexmark.com/uncomplicate/product/home/50/0,7044,204816596_238081727_550954930_en_0_1,00.html

What I'm concerned with on that Lexmark product is the single color cartridge and it's cost compared to a photo printer that uses 6 separate cartridges.

Sorry for the long response, but hope it helps you!

[howardwhite 5]

Thanks for all the helpful replies and pointer to the thread I'd missed.

pcalandra: Jumptown is a club, too; our Otter and yours are just east of Jumptown at their winter home in Gardner, MA. (I saw Kevin McCole Saturday.)

I've picked up on the pointers to memory stick -> CD toys and will look at them.

Keep those helpful messages coming. Meanwhile, check out Jumptown's web site:

www.jumptown.com

and you can download the brochure there, with current pricing. The brochure (and pricing) are being redone for the new season.

HW

[ffejdraga 0]

http://www.aleratec.com/diphcocrdifl.html


Yeah that is the one I have, and it is aweomse.

You plug your card in , and 30 sec later all pics on a cd to a customer. These days, to process either a cd or film is the same to most processing places tandem students would go to.

Howard, in 2004, that is what I was using for all the tandems I did after Juneat Jumptown. It is the way to go. Then I did 300 video jumps at Coolidge using digital and that CD burner in 2005.

For the photographers, Cds are so much cheaper than film, and you have the added benefit of keeping whatever pics you want for yourself.

jeff d-16906

[NSEMN8R 0]

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You plug your card in , and 30 sec later all pics on a cd to a customer.

Hey how long does it really take?

I use this Roadstor

These go for about $90 on ebay, but it takes around 12 minutes to burn 60 or 70 large/fine jpegs from a sandisk ultra III 512M card.

Is the Alera really that much faster?

[bob.dino 0]

The Alera has a 32 speed internal burner, so if you're using CD-Rs, you can write a max of 4.69MB/sec.

[pcalandra 0]

Quote

Thanks for all the helpful replies and pointer to the thread I'd missed.

Quote

pcalandra: Jumptown is a club, too; our Otter and yours are just east of Jumptown at their winter home in Gardner, MA. (I saw Kevin McCole Saturday.)

Howard not to get off topic but we lease our Otter from Kevin also, & I was lucky enough to be a part of the 100 way record attempts there, I had a great time, your club & ours are very similar!

I've picked up on the pointers to memory stick -> CD toys and will look at them.

Keep those helpful messages coming. Meanwhile, check out Jumptown's web site:

www.jumptown.com

and you can download the brochure there, with current pricing. The brochure (and pricing) are being redone for the new season.

HW

[PhreeZone 15]

My Apacer is a 24X and I find it takes more time to finalize then it does to dump the data the majority of the time. And if you use the Rec/with Check option thats at least doubling the time.

I'm looking at needing to do just 30 tandems to pay off the CD burner vs the mailing costs, I better do at least that many this year.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[Miami 0]

I haven't actually timed it yet but my alera took something like 4-5 minutes (much less time than it actually takes me to edit a video) to burn about 80-90 large/fine pictures onto a cd. Camera is a 20D, card is a 1 gig sandisk extreme3.

Miami

[Zee 0]

I used to shoot film and just hand the roll to the customer. Customers eventually began to request digital stills as well as DVD's so I upgraded to all digital equipment. I still keep my film gear with me because many customers still like the idea of having a print to look at. When I do digital stills I burn them a CD and mail it out the following day. I just buy the shipping stuff in bulk so it doesn't really cost me more than a $1.00 a CD.

Peace,
Z

Action©Sports

[ffejdraga 0]

the Alera photocruiser takes me literally about 30 seconds per tandem jump. That is anywhere from about 20-30 pics per. Yes, it is really that much faster.

I am using a D70, highet JPEG setting (about 3mb each pic finished product), sandisk regular cards either 512 or 256 each.

HERE IT IS $30 cheaper now than when I bought this exact model.

According to bob.dino's specs, it is right on the money.
30 seconds. BEEP, it is done!

best investment I have made.

jeff D-16906

[ffejdraga 0]

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I still keep my film gear with me because many customers still like the idea of having a print to look at.

Hey, what do you mean by this?
You give them a roll of film, right? So off they go to get their prints made at whatever local place....

But with a cd, the same exact thing happens. They can either do it themselves from the cheap machine, or they can hand in the CD for processing, exactly the way a roll of film works...

same thing.

Digital all the WAY!!

Even when people said to me things such as " I don't have a computer", I would tell them that it doesnt matter, they can still take the CD to get processed like a roll of film, ask the film person at walgreens/cvs/rite-aid/osco/insert name of whatever photopharmacy they would go to here/, they will be glad to help.

IMHO, there are NO negatives to giving people a CD.
pun intended...

jeff D-16906

[goobersnuftda 0]

Quote

IMHO, there are NO negatives to giving people a CD.

And many more positives. Burn a CD with 100+ pictures on it. Todays digital cameras and in previous threads, 100-150 digital pictures can be taken on one tandem jump from exit to landing on that one in a lifetime opprotunity to get a photo.

In the old days, more film was lost trying to reload a 24 roll film in free fall just to try to get 48 pictures. Maybe APS made that process easier
The two method approach to warfare is:

(1) take hours and hours to perfectly plan your shot and get a dead center shot at the target range.

(2) generally aim at the target with a machine gun and unload with hundreds and hundreds of shots down the range. Odds are that you will get more hits than the single sniper shot.

Digital stills are free and can be absolutely free if you put your mind to it. Copy your pics to a computer and then your customer can take his USB thumb drive to dump them to and take them home. Then again, I am a computer geek and I have my USB drive in my vehicle where ever I go just in case.

[Zee 0]

Hey, what do you mean by this?

[ffejdraga 0]

Quote

Why not just give the customers what they want?

Because, sometimes, customers don't know what is best for them, and I feel it is our job as professionals to give them the best product for their money.

I used to have the same deal...I had both cameras, interchangeable setup, and I would ask people what they wanted. I found that people often wanted film too. I, at first, took that at face value. Later on, I would ask them, but also explain the benefits of having digital files on a cd (better quality, more pics, instantaneous viewing, email etc) vs a roll of film. Once they were educated on which is the better product, they happily chose digital.

Just my opinion.

jeff D-16906

[namgrunt 0]

I sell pictures printed while they wait.We have a high end printer epson R-1800 and computer with a very fast cpu and 4 megs of ram.
I edit and crop as orders are made.$5 for 4x5 0r 5x7
$10 for a 8/10

we have customers standing in line to order and purchas.

my web sight also takes orders but the price is aroung 50% higher and the sight had 105,000 hits last year.

the pictures I go after are sholders neck and head at the last 25 feet of landing. The concentration and expressions are stunning.

hi-res pics in the 3 meg each range with a nikon d-70 and sigma 50/500 lens

its paying for my wifes sport.
hope in another 3 to 5 years to be able to retire to doing this full time.
yes we travel and usually the oldest folks at the boogies. you young jumpers keep me young..thanks

my overall best customers are the video jumpers when they see what we have to offer.
we also burn pics to cd for $5 each

..

59 YEARS,OVERWEIGHT,BALDIND,X-GRUNT
LAST MIL. JUMP VIET-NAM(QUAN-TRI)
www.dzmemories.com

[bob.dino 0]

Quote

my overall best customers are the video jumpers when they see what we have to offer.

Are they getting photos for themselves, for their pax, or for something else I'm missing?

[namgrunt 0]

rarely do video folks get any pics of themselves thus when they see themselves in my pictures they are shocked.

you have to understand I feel my pics do not compete with theres.
apples and oranges.

I really zoon in on the face at this critical time of total concentration of the landing.

also very experianced jumpers will have me take 6/8 frames per sec. during swoop to see if they are shifting or turning in the harness.

team jumpers want advertiseing pics of canopy and jumper formation landings

500 mm at 25 feet type of pics
but I also sometimes use 12mm non fish eye

military loves 50mm accrucy landing with me just off the spot looking up at them as they land

burning pics to cd is the very best deal for customer
printing archival prints best deal for us

sorry i get long winded and my spelling sucks

59 YEARS,OVERWEIGHT,BALDIND,X-GRUNT
LAST MIL. JUMP VIET-NAM(QUAN-TRI)
www.dzmemories.com

[bob.dino 0]

Getcha. Sounds cool.

[Icon134 0]

He also got a great picture of the reunion between my pup Karma and me once I landed and was walking across the field...

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

[ScottyInAus 0]

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We have a high end printer epson R-1800 and computer with a very fast cpu and 4 megs of ram.

Holy shit thats slow...

Cheers,
Jason.

[NSEMN8R 0]

That's a pretty cool idea. Is this something the DZ offers up front along with regular video and stills or are you offering it to the customers after they have already decided weather or not to get freefall shots? Does the DZ take a cut?