Category Archives: Photography

Related to Photography and taking or dealing with pictures.

Does your Backup System Protect your A$$

Posted on by

My backup system was put to the test this last week. I had my main photography desktop, an Apple iMac, it’s time machine backup drive, and two other hard drives containing pictures of family, clients, and my recent trip to India. I also had a laptop, an Apple MacBookPro with client info, documents, and some miscellaneous pictures. So, was this a disaster, or an inconvenience? How well did my backup system work? Was I prepared?

The answer isn’t quite so clear cut. It wasn’t a disaster, but I found out I didn’t have a perfect system. Lets look at what happened, and what could be done differently.

So what backups do I still have? Didn’t they take my hard drives? Well, they did take a drive that was my time machine backup for that machine. I have no backup for that. I have lost several documents. I had PDF’s of client contracts, bank statements, time sheets from my computer coding jobs, eBooks, and other things. Many of these things I didn’t have a backup for. Some of these I can re download, but some like the client contracts, I only have a paper backup. Good job I have that, but for something that important, I really needed an off site backup.

As a side note: I do have a password on my login, but none of the data was in an encrypted volume. I hadn’t anticipated that I would lose my desktop. I figured a laptop, sure, but how would I lose my desktop? This ostrich head in the sand plan isn’t a plan.

So, did I have any off site backup? Yes. But my system needs work. The hard drives that were taken consist of my RAW files, and I had off site backup of those. They are manually mirrored drives. Every week or so (I have to admit that the time could grow) I would bring the drive home from a remote location and use RSYNC to mirror the data, and then bring the drive back. I have family pictures in one off site location, and client RAW images in another. Problems with this: it relies on my getting the drives to and from home manually. I was also only syncing RAW files. That was all that was on those drives. I didn’t have off site backup for my other documents.

The laptop I got lucky on. I have a wireless backup through time machine to a Apple Time Capsule. It is not in the open, and wasn’t taken. I just got a new laptop, and was able to pull in the data from that time machine backup. I don’t keep as much on the laptop however, partly as a way to minimize loss if stolen. But at least it was up an running quickly.

I was also somewhat lucky in that I have a NAS. It was not taken, as it was not out in the open. This should be a spot that I keep much of my documents, but I still haven’t set something up to get data here easily, or automatically. It is really there so that other computers on my home network can share data. If I don’t need to share it, I haven’t been putting it there. Also, this set of drives is raided, but not remotely backed up.

So, do I have all my photography data? Sort of. There are three types of images in my system. The RAW files, the lightroom ‘developed’ files, and photoshop adjusted files. There is also other data in lightroom catalogs, and things like presets, and export and print presets are not saved in regular lightroom catalog backups.

I did have backups of my catalogs. There were also on my external drives, and I had a fairly recent version on my off site backup, so we were good there. But was it good enough? I had to postpone two client meetings where they wanted to order images, but I didn’t know what I had, and couldn’t show them the images on a computer. I didn’t have them with out my RAW images, and a Lightroom catalog, and LR3 to process them. What would have helped? Having jpeg copies of all my ‘finished’ client images. I will get back to that.

The last bit of my system is finished PDF files. Well, some of them are with my Lightroom RAW files. When I head to photoshop from Lightroom, the PSD (or TIFF) gets stored in the same folder. But, I have (had) some photoshop files that are composites, or HDR’s, or other images that didn’t start with Lightroom. Because they were not getting saved with my RAW files, they were only on my desktop (and the time machine backup that disappeared) and not synced to an off site backup drive.

As well, the presets that I had developed my self, and others that I had downloaded are gone. Same as the PDF files, no off site backups. I had recently read on the lightroom blog about syncing those to dropbox, but didn’t get around to doing that.

Ok, so what have I learned, and what can I do different? First of all, nothing at home (or an office/studio) should be considered safe. You need to have an offsite backup of everything. Just having a backup at the same location is not enough. It protects you from drive failure, but it will not protect you from theft, or a worse disaster like a fire. So how do we get all this data protected off site?

Well, lets look at where we can put our data. First would be a service like Mozy, or Carbonite (PC mag review). There are issues with using these for lots and lots of RAW files. First, they take a long long time to sync up. Second, they can get expensive. Mozy home might be free for 2gig, but move to the pro package or get 500gig of photos, and it starts to add up. I don’t think that it is a cost effective solution for a working pro and their RAW files. These systems are set up for home users with a few gig, not someone with lots and lots of gigs.

How about what ever web site you use? For example, I have a service with a web host and run my own blog, I could just put my RAW files there right? Well, look into the TOS. Most say that you can only put files there that are in support of the web site. Backups are not allowed. Hmmm… Well, how about Photoshelter? I have a Photoshelter account. How about putting full size RAW files there. Looked at their prices for add on data storage? Yikes. (Plans) I started putting full size images up there at first. Sounded like a good backup, but I was filling up my space too quickly. So, I have another idea. First, I am not sold on Photoshelter. It doesn’t work perfectly for selling events and weddings anyway. I am thinking of switching to Smugmug. One of the things they offer is unlimited storage of jpegs. So, what I am thinking is that I will export full size images of everything that I put up there, and I would put up images for every client, even if I didn’t intend to send them there. That way I always have a full size finished image backed up on the internet somewhere. I wouldn’t have been stuck like I was this week needing both my raw files and a light room catalog. I would always have images I can review with clients.

Ok, so having client images readily available is a good thing, but I don’t want to lose my raw images. I think that I will still need to follow my manual sync, off site strategy for these images. It is just too much data, and too expensive to save RAW files to the cloud. I just need to be more diligent about the backups.

Ok, what about the other documents? That is what I think I will use something like Mozy home for. I won’t have multi hundreds of gigs for regular documents. This will be an affordable use of these cloud services. This is where the presets and things should be synced. The other photoshop files need to get saved to the same drive I have my RAW files on so that they will get synced to an off site backup. Ok, so how about my NAS? It provides a great way to share documents on my network, store video, music, and provide local backup of files, but to get it backed up would be a lot of data. It will need to be a combination of manual off site hard drives for video and music, and then making sure that everything stored on the network is also on backed up into the cloud service from the computer I was using. The NAS can’t be the only location I have those files.

So, the biggest thing I learned was that I need to have off site backup for everything. That can get expensive. The solution is to figure out how to use hard drives manually, home cloud services, and a better thought out plan to make sure that everything is getting backed up.

What do you think? Are you backing everything up off site? What’s your strategy? What do you think of mine?

The Smoke has Cleared

Posted on by

The smoke has cleared, so to speak. I have my images and a working computer back and functioning. I had taken a bit of a break to let my images from Nepal breathe a little, but then got a bit longer of a forced break while I got my digital darkroom back together again.

Anyway, this was taken in Kathmandu, Boudha Stupa.  This man would walk around the Stupa several times a day, waving his incense around as he walked. He is facing the front right now, where on each revolution he would stop, and recite something.

I took quite a few pictures of him. So much so, that he would recognize me, and laugh when he saw me as if to say, “Not again, why do you keep taking my picture silly man?” I have no idea what he was thinking, but he seemed good natured about it. This is one of my favorites.

My Newari Potter

Posted on by

Newari Potter

 

I have been to see this man several times. He is a potter in ?Bhaktapur Nepal. He speaks no English, and judging by how he speaks and who he speaks to, most other Nepalese don’t understand him either. So far I have understood hand gestures for “come sit”, “give me money”, “I can’t work the power is out”, and “I am going on a smoke break.”

The above shot is not what I want. I want him working on his craft. He asked for this picture in fact. And then asked for a print. I am bringing it tomorrow morning. We leave tomorrow for our next stop as well. I have one more chance to get the shot I am looking for. I don’t want him posed. I want him working with some sort of expression or gesture that will help make the photograph. Pressures on.

There are a few other pottery makers around. I photographed a couple of others that occupy the stall next to him as well. But they were wearing American style T-shirts, didn’t have the Newari hat, and had no where near the great face that this man has.

I do have a couple of shots of him, but nothing that stands out yet. That’s how photography goes. Sometimes you get shut out, but there is always tomorrow. (Fingers crossed)

 

Kathmandu Butter Candles

Posted on by

The light from butter candles is so amazing. I wish they were out every evening, but they only came out a few nights we were there. Women would set up tables, and cover them with unlit butter candles. People would come to the tables and pay a small fee to light them, and say a short prayer.

I found myself hanging out around these tables a lot. I would light candles sometimes, shoot sometimes, and other times just watch the people moving around and lighting candles.

The first time I saw them put out, I just started firing away. They were interesting to see, but my pictures didn’t show much interest. It wasn’t until I slowed down and was more patient did I start to see the beautiful light, and start to wait for a subject that would show off this light. Waiting for the coming together of light, subject, and moment is what I am now looking for in my images.

Agra and the Taj Mahal

Posted on by

So, being in Delhi, and only 3ish hours from Agra (so said Google maps) and the Taj Mahal, and I figured that I had to go. A couple of people told me not to bother, but hey, its the Taj Mahal! I figured that if I could get there about noon, with really harsh light, all the better (there was heavy sarcasm in that last sentence by the way) I found 3 Scottish nationals (who were there for the Commonwealth Games) that wanted to go, so we rented a car and driver, and left at 6 in the morning.

Well, that was a fun ride. First of all, the roads had been ripped up to put a “Metro” into Delhi, and one of the above ground lines heads out of town along the way to Agra, and the road underneath had not been put back together again yet. Slow going. We finally got out of Delhi, and hit a nightmare traffic jam. We were stopped short without moving for 1/2 hour. Turns out that Saturday was a holiday, and one in which many many people like to go to the Taj. Sigh. We were closer to 6 hours getting there.

So, I got my wish of crazy harsh bright and overbearing light. It turns out that we picked up a guide in Agra that our driver hooked us up with. Every one has an angle to get paid in India. His is to take us on a tour and then tell us that he only gets paid by our tips. Nice. What it also meant was that I didn’t get to just wander. I was always running to catch up to the other 4. Oh well, I didn’t have great expectations of images from this place.

After getting a couple of typical from a distance shots of the whole building, I put my 70-200 lens on and got pieces of the Taj, that I like a little better. Seemed the best choice. Actually, I like the shot at the top, where you see the Taj Mahal through a tunnel that goes all black and made a nice frame. It’s far from original, but I liked it still.

I did take a couple of detail shots of the inlay in the marble. It’s hard to believe the work that was required to make the small pieces of precious gems that went into the outside, the inside, and everywhere that you see a surface.

So, we kind of joked, that if didn’t go we would have always regretted going, but after going, not sure it was worth 6h there and 4h back. It meant a missed day of shooting in Delhi that I really liked, but hey, it’s the Taj Mahal!

First Day in Delhi

Posted on by

My First Delhi post. How about that. My first non North American post I suppose. I don’t think I have blogged from a country other than the US or Canada. I don’t think I had a blog when I was other places….

Anyway, today was a pretty cool day. I went out shooting three times. I’m beat. This is not the type of shooting I regularly do. I don’t ask people if I can take their picture. If I am shooting a wedding, I just stick a camera in their face. If I am shooting a bridge at night, the bridge doesn’t care, and I just shoot. I got a fair number of “no’s” with a finger wag, but for the most part, people were OK, or happy to have their picture taken. These were all taken in the “Old Delhi” section from my first outing.

Pictures of a Yoga Instructor

Posted on by

Deb is actually much more than a yoga instructor. She teaches pilates, yoga, and alignment. She owns a couple of studios, such as Pilates Integration, and Pain Free Posture. Here are some images of her in various poses.

It was a lot of fun to photograph Deb. I know a little bit about yoga, having tried it a few times, which is enough to know that some of these positions are really hard to get into.

Anyway, these are just a few of the amazing images I got during our shoot. Deb is quite knowledgeable about what she does. If you are in need of some instruction, you should definitely check out how Deb can help you.

Thank you Kathy Keppel

Posted on by

Credit: Kathy Keppel

I just wanted to thank my second shooter, assistant, and VALS for Kim and Josh’s wedding, Kathy Keppel. Kathy doesn’t do weddings primarily, but I was in a need of a capable photographer, and she stepped up. Many photographers who work on their own won’t assist another photographer, so I am grateful that Kathy was willing to help out.

She is a very capable portrait photographer based out of the south metro (Minneapolis), and you can see her work on her own site at Kathy Keppel Photography.

Credit: Kathy Keppel

Kim and Josh are Married

Posted on by

We couldn’t have hoped for a better day, and what better way to start it off, than with a beautiful dress. We started the day by getting some pictures of the bride getting ready at her sisters house.

They have two very wonderful girls, and it was sometimes hard to stop photographing them, and remember that it was the brides day! Here we are at the wonderful Baker park for the ceremony.

The weather was quite perfect. We had a little bit of wind and blowing veils to deal with, but we couldn’t really have asked for a better day.

I was very glad to be apart of this wonderful day for Kim, Josh, and their whole family. Please have a look through the other pictures in the gallery below. If you know Kim and Josh, they will have access to an online album with many, many more pictures in it. Check with them for permission and the url.