sdTechGirl

edit/update: before you go in and read all of this – note that if you want to use iPhoto the following text will be helpful, if you don’t want to use iPhoto, the easiest way to import images from your iPhone onto a Mac is to use the application “image capture”,  if you’re an Adobe CS4 user, open up Bridge and go to file>get photos from camera (thanks Steven & Dan) – be sure to have your iPhone connected to the computer first!

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I don’t know what it is about Apple that they think they have to hold our hands with everything!  Most of us are savvy enough to know how to use a computer and we can make our own choices, thank you very much!

So, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that the photos that I take with my iPhone cannot simply (automatically) be transferred or dragged from the iPhone to any folder on my computer that I want or accessed by any program that I want….oh no! Don’t let her touch her own photos!!!

You have to use iPhoto to import them..and then guess what Apple does for you? You helpless computer user? They create TWO folders, one called “originals” and then one called “modified” that has a duplicate of those images.  Now…not one of those images in the “modified” folder has actually been MODIFIED…they’re just duplicates.  Because apparently, we’re just too dumb to make our own versions when we modify them.

So why am I so PO’d that Apple would do this?

1. By creating an automatic duplicate file (modified) there is an unnecessary amount of my hard drive space being taken up (2x as much!).  I back up my own images to an external hard drive, thank you.
2. You cannot simply open a file folder to access your images…you either have to open the iPhoto application or you have to open a finder window, go to your “Pictures” folder (in Places), then to iPhoto Library, right click (control click) and choose “show package contents”. WARNING: if you want to use this method to move your images somewhere else….do not drag them out, make a copy…it’s all over the internets that doing this will damage the iPhoto database! geeze.
3. I don’t want to use iPhoto to sort/view/store/manipulate my images – I use Photoshop and Bridge to do that.
4. When you “move to trash” images in iPhoto….they DON’T GO TO THE TRASH, they actually stay in a folder called “trash” in iPhoto!  Which takes up more space on your hard drive!

My work around:

1. Connect iPhone & open iPhoto
2. Select images in iPhone and click import, after import is complete close iPhoto
3. Open “Originals” folder via the finder (pictures>iPhoto Library>right click and choose “show package contents”) select all images and hold the alt key and drag to a folder you have created where YOU want them.  (Holding the alt key creates a duplicate and does not move the images out of the iPhoto application.)
4. Open Bridge, navigate to the folder where you have your fresh copies, remove any images you do not want (much easier than doing it in the phone), move them around if you don’t like the order they are in, and then do a batch rename (exif data has been preserved so you can name the images using the date created, ie: iPhone_20081008_001.jpg).
5. go back into iPhoto, click the photo folder that you just uploaded and select “move to trash”, (remember that if you try to do this from anywhere else you will damage iPhoto database!)  By the way, don’t forget to empty that “trash” icon inside of iPhoto….otherwise you still have them on your hard drive….trust me, by the time I figured this out I had 5,000 images in there and I wondered why my hard drive was full?! o_O

Side notes:

1. Image sizes: I noticed that the images in the “modified” folder are slightly larger than the ones in the “originals” folder, for example…one was 576 kb in modified version and 420 in original – both were 1200 x 1600 and 72 ppi however – as viewed using the “file info” right click. When I viewed them in Adobe Bridge they were 574 & 416 respectively.  What the?!? Once the images are opened in Photoshop however, both show up as exactly the same size at 5.49mb!
2. Exif info: Viewed in Adobe Bridge the exif (file properties) info is confusing – the image from the modified folder shows that it is associated with the application Quicktime 7.5 & uses my Dell3007WP color profile! The image from the originals file has neither association.
3. Color/density: Preferences within Adobe Bridge seem to be ignored with the image from the modified folder (perhaps because it is associated with the Dell Color Profile?)  For reasons that I cannot exactly pinpoint, when images are viewed in Photoshop, the originals have better color & density (this is not true in preview however),  this is why I choose to copy the images from the “originals” folder.  Btw….I’m being VERY nitpicky here, you might not notice. (images are unretouched as viewed in Photoshop, image on left is from originals folder, the right is from modified folder).
   

While in Denver, CO last week visiting family I saw this August 2008 “5280 Denver’s Magazine” cover.  I recognized it right away as a Shepard Fairey design (or a ripoff off of his work…which happens quite often). Note that my iPhone seems to have distorted the red to an orange….which is actually more appropriate to Denver, since their Bronco’s colors are orange and blue!

Denver is getting ready to host the 2008 Democratic National Convention this month and 5280 hired Fairey, (supposedly at a discounted rate, according to foliomag.com) to create the cover image.

You would have to be living under a rock, or perhaps just not interested in politics to have missed the posters created by Fairey for the Obama campaign. The posters are in this same graphic style; “Progress” was sold directly through Fairey’s website and sold out the same day, “Hope” was created by direct request of the Obama campaign and sold through the Barack Obama campaign site and appears to no longer be available as well.

Campaign posters:
 

Fairey is a graphic designer who has a very controversial style, he is described as a “street artist” and has been arrested many times for his art (mostly for posting it in places where it was not allowed), much of his artwork is politically motivated and there is clearly a very communist propaganda poster look to some of his work,  he even uses the words “propaganda engineering” on his own website… not that there is anything inherently evil or wrong with that.

I experienced two immediate reactions to the cover:  I like it and it made me uncomfortable.  If you’ve seen any of my own paintings or graphic design work you’ll recognize that I am drawn to the “poster art” look and have a graphically bold style, so I am of course a fan of Shepard Fairey, at the same time I feel conflicted by the use of what I consider to be a design style that is derived from communism in support of a democratic nominee.

The content, colors and context are all appropriate for the magazine cover image: Obama IS the Democrats nominee, the Rocky Mountains and City of Denver are in the background, (the mostly) Red and Blue in the design are colors associated with USA and the elections, and Obama seems to be in mid sentence, which is appropriate as he will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention.

I’m not saying that I think this style should not be used during our elections, but this poster is supposed to be in support of Obama as a candidate? Isn’t this style more appropriate to use as a question of authority or suggestion of excessive control? Do the Democrats really want to send this message?

Communist posters:
 

It seems slightly ominous me to use a style that conjures up communism….isn’t this a conflict of interest? Fairey has definitely attained pop icon status bending communist propaganda to his will, but can the Obama camp use this pop culture twist on a idealistically opposing political idea to their advantage?

Downloads:

• 5280 Tabloid poster, letter poster & iPhone wallpaper of the magazine cover.
• Obama paster download from Obeygiant.com

Links:

• Great Newsweek article Expertinent: Why the Obama “Brand” Is Working, by Andrew Romano – interview with graphic designer and critic Michael Bierut, about Obama’s marketing & branding.
• Article from The Washington Post by William Booth Obama’s On-the-Wall Endorsement, with more background info on Fairey and his support of his design decision and  a collection of some great observations about the Obama poster from different sources.
• If you’re an artist and you want to get involved in the Obama campaign, Moveon.org is sponsoring a contest.

Last Christmas I designed a custom notebook skin for my niece Isabell
and had it created by skinit.com.

I’m visiting the family in Denver so this is the first time that I’ve had the chance to actually see it on her notebook.

It looks really great & she loves it! It’s been on her notebook for 7 months and shows no sign of wear or peeling, the color is really accurate, I highly recommend skinit.com!