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Show your stuff digitally
1 Oct, 2005 By: Patty Feldman Landscape ManagementTimes change, and when it comes to technology solutions, change comes fast. It wasn't so long ago that CAD was a groundbreaking new tool for landscape contractors. But technology marches forward and early adopters are now harnessing the advantages of not only digital cameras but also of digital storage devices.
 Whats this thing called an iPod? |
Affordable digital photography and portable digital show-and-tell MP3 players will be 2006's potent business tools.
Show 'em and tell 'em
For example, landscape contractors are now improving sales and marketing presentations with digital photos of the selected proposed landscape elements. With a palm-sized, easy-to-use digital camera, you can take snaps of specific softscape and hardscape selections at, for example, a plant nursery or stone supplier and show those photos on your laptop or on a TV as part of a sales presentation. If the plant and/or paver selections are "reserved" at the supplier until you present your proposal, the client will know exactly what he or she is getting.
This efficiency and accuracy of specification, without travel and multiple visits to suppliers' locations, could sway a proposal into your court and get that shovel to break ground a lot faster than other selling procedures.
A photo trail
Digital images offer advantages beyond the sales pitch. Landscape pros also use them in estimating, as a reminder back in the office of real-life jobsite conditions.
Some contractors are taking documentary photos that show projects from when the first soil is moved. In a dispute, dated photographs provide strong corroboration of a stated position. It can be a productive policy to use a digital camera daily as a jobsite tool, documenting delays caused by others, mistakes committed by others or jobsite conditions that affect a landscape contractor's productivity. A picture can be worth a thousand words in justifying change orders too.
Digital photos downloaded from the camera can be attached to e-mails and sent over the Internet to help back up any verbal or written explanation. They are also easy to upload to a company or project Web site.
The taking of the photos and the transmission of the images is a lot faster and less expensive than capturing the same photos on conventional film, developing them and then delivering the pictures by overnight mail or drop-off visit.
If you haven't used a digital camera yet, you're in for a pleasant surprise, starting with the sense of freedom it provides in comparison to the cost constraints of film. You can click away without limitation, deleting photos that do not show the subject in the right light (literally and figuratively) and allowing you to instantly retake the images until they do.
Invest in extras
Though the cameras come with some memory, it is usually just enough to whet an appetite for digital photography. Camera users buy higher capacity memory cards to store photos in any meaningful number. The higher the MB, the bigger the capacity. With a 256MB card (a fairly big capacity) and the camera set to a TV mode resolution, capacity is about 3,000 photos.
The marketplace is flush with affordable 5-megapixel digital cameras that offer features that have quickly filtered down from higher end digital cameras.
This season's crop feature larger LCD screens and typically include zoom lenses, automatic settings to accommodate varying photo-taking conditions and, in some models, manual controls that allow users to prioritize aperture or shutter settings.
They all have built-in flashes. Selected models have an integrated microphone so a user can attach short voice notes to any photo. Some cameras sport a viewfinder, which is helpful in bright sunlight, while others display the scene only on the LCD.
Most cameras offer 3X to 4X optical zoom, which translates to about a 100MM telephoto lens. Cameras with a 10X to 12X optical zoom equate to about a 400MM telephoto lens. The higher optical zoom permits long distance shots.
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