As a photographer for National Geographic during the past twenty years, Ira Block has become a master of "seizing the day." His art transports observers into beautiful, remote landscapes. It transforms ancient objects from mere physicality to evoke the time period from which they came. Block's experience and creative output is as wide-ranging as it is keenly felt. Recent work includes the race to save Incan mummies to documenting artifacts of the Japanese Samurai. See recent work on Block's Web site.

With such a rich background, Block is taking advantage of the latest in technical advances to work more efficiently. Like many professional photographers he has recently "gone digital." And like many of his colleagues, he finds digital imaging a double-edged opportunity.

...once he knew that he was going digital, Block asked colleagues to recommend media management software and the 'word of mouth' choice was Microsoft Expression Media 2 (formerly iView MediaPro).

While the technology permits more and faster experiments—for example, with digital technology he can try out various lighting scenarios in almost the blink of an eye—the same technology creates a management conundrum. Gone are the days when a photographer just labels the roll of film and sends it off to the lab. Now, in a sense, he "becomes the lab."

Anticipating this challenge, once he knew that he was going digital, Block asked colleagues to recommend media management software and the "word of mouth" choice was Microsoft Expression Media 2 (formerly iView MediaPro).

Block took time recently to speak with us. He said that he's noticed that the upgrades to the product "have consistently gotten better." He understands that keeping current with the latest in software is part of "the deal" in getting more computer savvy—and it pays off. But he's also observed that he wants to keep his computer time down, since that's not his primary "medium." His choice thus far: Expression Media 2 and Adobe Photoshop. The former he uses for viewing, sorting, and annotating while on location—as well as archiving. The latter he uses for working in the studio and for making final adjustments to images.

Block describes how in photography everyone has his or her own "habits," ways of working that they like. "And when you go digital, that tendency is magnified," he said.

"What's really important is that [Expression Media 2] allows me to rename and caption files so easily. Also, it allows me to attach all kinds of information, annotate the images, and develop an automated batch renaming method."

"The kind of work I do involves my going out on shoots for extended periods of time. I may go out for weeks or months. I don't edit in the beginning, though I may take a peek. What's really important is that [Expression Media 2] allows me to rename and caption files so easily. Also, it allows me to attach all kinds of information, annotate the images, and develop an automated batch renaming method."

"Another thing I like is the Autofill feature. Each story I do then can be automatically filled in with annotations. I may have to change a few things, like the name of the city, but that's easy with [Expression Media 2's] drop-down menu. And the ability to temporarily create catalogs that can be merged later is very useful."

"Back at the office (National Geographic), [Expression Media 2] is great for editing because you can color code selects, then create subcatalogs of the first set, and select from those. This process fits into the way the film editing system has traditionally been done."

Expression Media—the archiving tool

Block reiterates that "digital has changed everything." Whereas before he might have spent the day shooting, and then shipped off the rolls of film back to the magazine, these days he's at the computer when he gets back to the hotel. Block described for us his workflow—and the good news is that according to him, "My whole workflow at night is pretty quick."

• Download flash cards
• Capture date
• Rename
• Caption and annotate
• Synchronize
• Backup onto another second hard drive
• Burn DVDs every few days and then ship back to National Geographic

"Early on, I decided that since every computer program requires a certain amount of maintenance, I would use as few programs as possible. That helped in my decision to use [Expression Media 2] for archiving. I know a lot of people use Extensis Portfolio, but as soon as I learned that [Expression Media 2] handled keywords and searches, now it's my archiving tool. Interesting how I first started using it to do quick editing of photos and as a browser; then for renaming and captioning; and now, archiving."

When we asked Block about the learning curve for Expression Media 2, he told us he found that it allowed him to access the program pretty intuitively, but it was clear at the outset that he was basically, "scratching the surface." He told us that he and his friends continue to learn more about Expression Media 2, and that they continually share with each other "small tricks" or methodologies they've learned.

As he put it, "There's so much in there."