2013- wrapup

I haven't been exactly attentive to this photo related blog. Tis true. I also haven't felt super inspired either for the past month or two. So I wanted to reflect on some of the photos I took over the past year, at least publicly shared photos. I realized when I went through my photos that I felt pretty darn good about those I posted.

First however, a small follow-up to my cold archiving debate I was having. I finally decided to nab a 3 TB Seagate external drive for $105. A great combination of space, storage, and ability. The blu-ray disc solution was daunting as I would have to baby sit the burning, whereas I if I needed to I could plug, copy, and come back in a day if I needed to. I am not saying it is the best solution ever, but it is the one I was able to justify for the cost and effectiveness.


Photos I enjoyed from 2013, one per month:

January:


February:


March:


April:


May:


June:


July:


August:


September:


October:


November:


December:

Cold media archiving

I am soul searching here.

I do not know which way to go for future archival of media. Media in my case is the raw images I shoot in, videos, backups of old family material like photos from devices.

What to do?

I have a 1.5 TB media drive in my machine now. It holds lots. However, it is getting full. In the past I have burned off to DVDs. That is becoming problematic as several times I need to span a single days worth of material on to multiple DVDs. A pain.

The next step for me is to find a bigger solution for holding "cold" backups.  (not on-line, have to be pulled or found off disc or other non-active storage)

For my hot, or current, back-up solution- I am using BackBlaze. Love it- unlimited backups incase things go poof.


I also realize I am not an amazing corporation or super talented photographer. So elaborate rotation and backup is not the way for me to go. If I had my way, I would have a HUGE local NAS (Network Area Storage) with super on-line backup. However, money and effort being what it is- this is not a goal or need for me. Well, until I win the lottery.


I have found two possible solutions:

#1 Blu-Ray disc backups. A single layer, Blu-Ray disc can hold up to 25GB of data. Pretty good. The drawback- I don't have a blu-ray burner. So thats about $65 for the cheapest on NewEgg right now. Next is the cost per disc, which for a spinel of about 50 discs runs about $30. ($0.60 per disc of 25GB, or about $0.024 per GB)

#2 External hard-drive. There is a 3TB drive for $120 right now. ($0.04 per GB) Plug in, copy, paste- unplug and store.


The question for me is- what do I believe will fail? Spinning platters of the drive, or optical media? Both will not be moved. Both will sit until needed. Both have ups and downs for each.

I cannot figure out which way to go for cold storage back-up! UGH.

Photos of my kids

I have two young children, and I take a lot of photos of them. There are many that are pretty outstanding.(tooting my own horn)  I also like to get feedback on those photos, because I have an ego and sometimes need that feedback to know I am producing stuff people like. Its a fault I admit!

So, the question of the day is- How is the best method to show off the photos I have taken with people who might be interested... in this case only family and friends.

    My wife and I determined VERY early in their lives that we were going to try to shield my kids from the Internets. Limit exposure really. We didn't want their images plastered all over the Internets, or their names known on blogs, etc. This is why I don't mention their names on my regular blog, and why I don't post their images on Flickr.

     As an example of one way to share, would be to use Flickr. I have been on there since about 2000. I know the communities, I know the interface, I know how it works. However, I would need to set all those images to private, then have everyone I want to see them to get an account and 'friend' them so they can see those images. On top of that, they would need to check in or keep up on my account for new kid photos. Not the world's greatest method. Not easy. Little too restrictive.

    Ultimately, we went with the world's most popular social media site- Facebook. The photos put in there, will automatically be populated to friends' news. No work, no fuss by me. I can restrict the level of access. I can do various other methods to see if someone can see it or not. I don't post on FB, and 99% of what I put on there is photos of my kids. Thats what I use my account for now-a-days.

Do I wish there might be a better way? I am sure... however, I don't even have a wallet photo of my kids to put in my wallet. I am more likely to flip out my phone and use that.

Then again, I am just as happy to have my very best/favorite photos of them printed and posted in the hallway of my house. I have no problem with that at all... makes me smile when I see them.


[update September 6th]

Found an interesting post about why some parents don't post ANYTHING about their kids.

And the very interesting counterpoint.

8 Years of the Killers

I first saw the Killers in 2005 at Merriweather Post. I had my Canon S70 for that show! Look out
photographers world wild- I've got a camera! (thats all I can say about that camera.)

The images I took were grainy, no great shakes... this was likely the best of the lot.

(no set, but photos from the concert)







Then I saw them again in 2007 in NYC at Madison Square Garden with my 30D and the 50mm lens. I did a HECK of a lot better with these shots.
Composition, technique, images in general were just so much better.

(the full photo set)




Then again in 2009 again at Merriweather Post with my 30D and just a 50mm lens. I wasn't nearly as happy with the results as I got to the venue right before the band took the stage... bad spot, not very motivated, and the ending photos showed my lack of motivation.

(the full photo set)

And finally in 2013, I had a decent position but moved cause I am getting old and didn't like the mass of humanity.
Had my 7D and two lenses... I was going to take my 70-200 with me but chickened out because I didn't know if security would ask me to leave. I should have just taken it, and I could have used it as it turned out... oh well.
(the full photo set)

Relatable images

I try to stay up on what other people I know who photography are doing. In other words, what sort of photos are they taking? I look for techniques, locations, subject matter, etc. How did they produce that image? At what lengths did they go to get it?

There are times though, that I have a VERY hard time looking at the images. Why though? Most of the time, I have a hard time relating to the image at hand.

For example, I will look at photos of Philmont for days. Even though they might be some pretty boring and tell very little of a story, it is the subject at hand that keeps me going.

Conversely,  I've seen photos of the Dew Tour- guys with skateboards or bikes, and I just am not interested. I don't care how the image was shot, what magic lighting conditions were done, or extreme effort was put forth. The subject matter bores and really does not engage part of my brain to have me explore more.


So my question is- how much of a photographic lesson am I missing out on if I do not relate to the subject?

Auithentication for printing?

While, as a photographer, I can appreciate the effort, the implementation of the method is laughable.

Let me explain- when I go places with family, I usually take photos of everyone. Just the way it is, and I very much enjoy doing it. On a recent trip, I took a series of photos of the children there and shared with the family members involved. One of those family members took a copy of the image to their local Walgreens, and wanted it printed. Walgreens said, (paraphrasing here) "This is a professional photo and we cannot let you have it until we see you have permission to have it printed."

Huh.

The photographer in me thinks this is a good thing. Stops idiots from just stealing images, getting them printed, and re-selling without permission.

However the computer geek in me laughs, almost cries at this. They accepted an email from my account saying I took the photo and the family member had permission to have it printed. Seriously- that was it. There is no method, nor will there ever be for Walgreens, to understand true authentication of the image release for use. There is no nationally secure photographers release location for printing. If all it takes is an email, how hard is it for anyone to sign up for a fake photographer email address and send yourself emails saying you have permission to print the image?


Walgreens- all you are doing is stopping the idiots who don't understand you can have more than one email account from getting prints. Whats worse, if a grandparent comes in with an image for their grandkids given to them from a family member... and it is professionally done, they don't have the 'release' to get it printed. It is simply preventing someone from getting that image printed of their grandkids.

Could not agree more

Scott Bourne was exactly on target with his post, "I Only Shoot With Natural Light." I read it and couldn't help but smile at my own ignorance back in the day.

Here is what I wrote up regarding how I was dealing with light sources back in December of 2011.

I fully admit I did not look at alternative light sources because of a lack of knowledge. I was afraid, it was easier to just work with what was there. I couldn't see the image because I didn't know. I did not work towards 'crafting' an end result. I only was taking photos because they were interesting results. Now I see images in my head, and how the results should be. As an example, this past December I was asked to take a couple photos for/of a magazine. I thought about it, and the method of lighting the scene, and the results came.

Do I wish I had dove right in to lighting and such? Probably not. There are stages of learning required for various things. Some people understand things naturally and can process multiple points all at once, for the rest of mortals, it takes time. Like understanding the rules of photography through practice and trying. Then once it is understood, you can break the rules for reasons that are understood regarding impact.

Whats important? The image, only the image. As Scott accurately points out.

Memory

(been way too long since my last post- been lacking motivation to post)

Today I am wondering how much memory should I have with me? Well, that's a tough one for a very enthusiastic amateur to know. My shooting style can range from a shot of a caterpillar on the back deck to vacation with family, to a local sporting event.

I recently came back from vacation where I was shooting family fun. I was restricted in backups or archiving. Lots of chimping and deleting as we progressed to recover memory. I was shooting RAW, my default file format. I had two 8 GB cards, and a 2 GB card. For a grand total of 18 GB memory.

Yet I ran out. Even with all the clearing and such... I did not have enough storage. For the record, it was north of 700 RAW photos in about 4-5 days.

What should I do in the future to not run out of space? Here are the options I have:

• Buy more memory. It is 'cheap' enough now... a 16 GB card is about $40. Bringing my portable storage to 34 GB. About 1300 RAW photos.
  
• Buy a portable memory cell. A 320 GB one runs about $136 from B&H. Thats the cheapest one, and smallest. I could dump images for days with this. They have a 1 TB for $619.
  
• Use a laptop for portable storage. Problem is, I don't own a laptop... I don't know about packing and caring for a laptop on trips. Even a refurb'd, generic as heck, Dell runs $579. (500 GB) A refurb'd MacPro is over $1,000. MacAir doesn't have enough storage to make it feasible at the price.
  
• Don't take as many photos- thats just despressing.

I don't know what the answer is right now. Anyone want to be my corporate sponsor and provide me with more storage? I got a big Disney trip this fall, and I refuse to run out of memory!

How to keep active?

This problem plagues me- how do I keep active shooting and expand my knowledge/experience of photography? I know that looking and reading can only take me so far in my attempts to stay ahead of loss. I know that I am better than I was last year.

Over the past two weeks I haven't done much of anything related to photography. There have been sick kids, school work, regular work, and generally other things to get in my way and distract me from hauling out my camera.
One area which has been a bit of a downer is that I haven't made it to my regular gaming group on Wednesdays. I usually show up with the goal to get photos, not to play games. That has allowed me the excuse to shoot as I see fit, and to take in some of the games.
A second area I have been missing out on is my weekend walk with my dog along the Gunpowder. I missed a weekend and this past weekend there wasn't much to shoot at all. A bit of a drag.
Third is my kids, I photograph them when I can. I finally broke out my backdrop for some regular photos of them yesterday, and used a new piece of gear! The Shutterboss remote timer camera trigger. It turned out to be wonderful and is perfect for getting ME in the photos with my family. I just wish someone told me that my eyes had some serious bags under them. Ugh.

I think for my next area of need is to take some time out just to shoot something outside of my comfort zone. To get me thinking about photos different. A photo shoot for friends, or to find a photo gathering to talk shop... something other than my regular set of subject matter. Not that there is anything wrong with any of them, just that I need to get kicked in the butt for motivation.


Until then- keep looking, getting motivated, and keep shooting.