Category: Photography

MacAdmins Podcast, Episode 240

A few months ago I was invited to be a guest on the MacAdmins Podcast to talk with the crew about Apple Business Manager. I’ve been listening to “the pod” for years so I was honored to be asked.

October is busy with playoff baseball but the scheduling worked out and we recorded on the ALCS travel day after Game 2. So of course we talked about baseball photography a little as well.

It was my first time as a podcast guest but Tom, Charles and Marcus made it easy plus James did a great job editing out my flubs!

macOS Monterey was released between when we recorded and when it published this morning, so some of the new features we talk about as “coming soon” are now available. MacAdmins finally have the ability to add off-the-shelf Macs purchased at retail into ABM using the new Configurator for iOS app!

Hopefully we answered some questions, shed some light on potential pitfalls and provided helpful information for anyone who uses ABM or needs to set it up for the first time.

If you don’t already subscribe to the podcast head on over to the site to listen:
MacAdmins Podcast, Episode 240: Kevin M. Cox on AxM

Deploying Photo Mechanic 6 with Munki

Photo Mechanic 6 (PM), released last year, is a major overall to the venerable software used by photojournalists worldwide. It is now 64-bit for compatibility with macOS Catalina and includes a number of other changes from PM5.

Thankfully the ability to programmatically activate and deactivate is still there so only a few changes are needed in our Munki scripts.

What follows is basically the same as my post from last year, Deploying Photo Mechanic 5 with Munki, without all the background details, so read on if you want to see the changes needed to the scripts.

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Deploying Photo Mechanic 5 with Munki

Photo Mechanic 5Photo Mechanic (PM) has long been the software of choice for photojournalists worldwide. It has unrivaled speed for downloading, sorting and captioning images on deadline. I have been using PM for almost 17 years and it is an essential part in the workflow of our photographers here at the newspaper.

As our staff has grown so has the need to automate installations of software. In the past we simply emailed the registration information for PM to staff as needed. Of course this is an awful practice in regards to securing our paid licenses.

Thankfully we can programmatically activate and deactivate Photo Mechanic when employees install or uninstall the program via Managed Software Center (MSC). Read on for the details.

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Lexar Workflow card reader speed tests

The “deep hibernation” of Rob Galbraith’s Digital Photography Insights website, including his CF/SD/XQD Performance Database, in 2012 left a huge void in the resources available to photojournalists. For as long as I can remember that was the definitive reference when trying to find the fastest flash cards and readers for use by working photojournalists and sports photographers.

I used to love spending time talking with other photographers on the Galbraith forums and comparing the data compiled by Rob and his team. We purchased the Lexar Professional Workflow system here at the newspaper this year and in the spirit of those old times I decided to test out the speeds when connecting it in the various configurations available. Read on if you’re interested in the results.

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