November 2006

Heading Home Croatia

Early morning, dawn has yet to break. Just me and mother nature all alone with my camera mounted waiting to press the shutter. I’m not sure what I am after, but who cares when life is this good.

Sounds romantic doesn’t it?!

To be honest it is. But let us look at the reality. Well my version at least.

Before I begin, let me make it clear this is not a moan on my behalf, so please no emails. Digital photography is great but it seems we have more to do in this ever increasing digital age. Downloading and uploading images, converting Raw files, then key wording them.
Since my last trip to Italy back at the end of September, I have basically been going through a process of preparing files for submission to stock libraries. I have also been in the process of implementing a new workflow process, paying particular attention to the way I back up my files.
Currently I start by backing up the original Raw files to DVD, after saving them on my PC. Once these files are processed and key worded I store the images on my main PC, and another PC. Since October I have added two external hard drives to this back up process. One of which is kept of site.

Now some of you may think this is over the top. But the misfortune of a friend who lost about 70% of his work over the last two years due to catastrophic hard drive failure got me thinking or should I say panicking. Backing up files across other hard drives is crucial be it locally or of site. If I was to lose all my digital files at this stage, I would flip and my wife would probably run off with the dog in fear of their lives.

The digital revolution has real and truly arrived folks.

Backup!!!