Storage, how safe is yours?

I heard a quote the other day, 'Your Hard Drive is either dead or about to die.'

Ever heard that one? Apparantly HDD are prone to just packing up, I've had one do it and amount of messing around by an IT professional got anything back. That tiny little disc is spinning around thousands of times a minute, is it any wonder it gives up the ghost?

So now I have your attention, how safe are your photographs? Do you back them up? I'm guessing the answer is no from a huge percentage of people, it's just too easy to download them and forget about it because it won't happen to you.

The film days were a bit more forgiving, you had your prints but more importantly, you had your negatives, a tangable piece of back-up that as long as you looked after it, was always there if you needed it. Now we have a whole load of numbers squashed together that make up your picture, one dead HDD and it's gone, forever. Or maybe they are on a laptop that you leave on the train, or gets stolen, or falls on the floor........

So take half an hour (miss some crap on TV maybe?) and back them up on DVD's or another external drive. You can get over 1TB of storage for about £75, that is such a bargin and all your photos will be safe. Drop the drive off at a firend or relatives house and if something terrible happens (fire, flood riot!) then all those pics are tucked up nice and secure somewhere else.

It makes sense, so do it.

After all, it's just memories that you felt were worth recording in the first place....

Two posts in one day?!?

This is a shot from a very recent shoot and I just love it.

The reason for the shoot was working with a MUA (Make Up Artist) to promote her work. She brought along four models who sat patiently while the make-up was applied (and while I drank coffee) and then I took a series of images to show off what she had done.

As a photographic job it's relatively easy, but the hard work comes in trying to create a series of images that are interesting ehough to hold the viewers attention (which can be said about any form of photography to be fair). All the models were just friends with no experience so that's also a challenge but it was well worth it and great fun.

So why the image above as my favourite? I think it shows the make-up well, the model is relaxed and there holds a bit of mystery in the single direction lighting. I used a single light fitted with a beauty dish placed slightly behind and to one side of the model, a white reflector just added a touch of light to lift the other side of the face.

What do you think?



Back again

Well it's been a while, best laid plans and all that never seem to work out do they?

I've recently realised that things do go full circle in the end, from fashion to football the ones at the top will work their way down and back up again.

I mention that as I've been doing more nursery and pre-shoots, which is pretty much where I started many years ago. It's a sobering thought when you realise twenty years have passed and you are still waving a teddy around trying to get a child to at least pay attention!

Of course things have changed dramatically, it was a RB67 I was using back then, a monster of a camera that took 100' of film at a time and took all your strength to get it on a tripod.

How does that rate to today's cameras? Well, it's a damn site easier to find out you have 'got the shot' today, often referred to as 'chimping', I call it checking for customer satisfaction because if little johnny isn't smiling, mummy ain't buying.