Only two kinds of photographers...
posted by Gameshots, 9/24/2008 01:58:00 PM
THAT statement, although true, surely brings to mind many other analogies. The two kinds of photographers could be: Point-and-shoot versus DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex), or Amateur versus Professional, Action versus Architecture, and on and on...
However, the point should be well-taken. Until this summer, I was firmly in the camp of those who had not experienced a hard-drive crash. Having gone through countless laptops and computers in my lifetime of working in Information Technology, always being very careful handling hard-drives (especially when turned on and the hard-drive was spinning) I began to feel that I was immune to such problems. It was a problem for the careless. However, feeling immune breeds carelessness. Sure, I backed up my photos and files, but I often felt that I was too busy or put off the backups for a few days (or weeks). Talk about a rude awakening. My window of vulnerability was definitely open.
Natural disasters happen (as if we need reminding)...
This situation is very similar to experiencing a natural disaster (fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, etc.) moving through your area and destroying keepsakes and treasures that cannot be replaced (and are not insured). Memories are gone. If you are a professional, you could be in a serious situation (with liability) as you may be the 'keeper' of a freshly shot and undelivered Wedding package (or some other important and valuable image/memory).
What are some common causes for crashes?...
Several things can cause a hard-drive to fail. Any of these actions can be fatal: Dropping a computer (especially when turned on and the hard-drive is spinning), electricity surges (especially lightning) , temperature fluctuations (especially HEAT), and just not buying a top quality drive.
What happened to my laptop...
Although my computer was less than a year old, it malfunctioned and turned itself on and committed suicide due to heat. The laptop was securely in it's case (a very closed and protected environment that does not disperse heat well at all) and left 'Hibernation mode' and became active and produced heat - LOTS of heat. The laptop had not run long, something less than 45 minutes, but enough time to cause the hard-drive to begin failing and ultimately to crash. An aside, this shouldn't make a difference but my computers (and experience) is primarily with PC technology as opposed to Macintosh.
Backing up photos...
Whether you are a photographer shooting large numbers of high resolution images or the casual photographer shooting birthday, vacation, and holiday pictures (to somewhere in between) back-ups are important. Talking about somewhere in between, how about the proud parent with at least one child playing sports or cheering and every move must be documented!
A few things to consider. Remember the original point regarding hard-drives WILL fail? This applies to the external drives used for back-up as well. Thankfully, the cost of external drives is constantly falling.
However, remember that even though you can now get one (1) TB of storage for somewhere between $200 and $250, if that one TB of storage is all you have for your photos...you are definitely AT RISK. So, to simplify, you have two options. First, buy another similar drive and keep both drives in sync so that when (you have to assume 'when' not 'if' ) the drive fails, you have a copy. Second, you can copy the photos from the external drive onto a CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray disk.
At the very least, having an external drive connected to your computer AND programmed to automatically back up certain folders on a daily basis can help create wonderful peace of mind is something that I personally recommend.
A word on disc storage...
The capacity of a CD will not exceed 700 MB and a DVD has a much larger capacity (4.4 GB). Blu-Ray is five times the capacity with 25GB for a single layer and 50GB for a double layer disk. Definitely there is potential there for some serious storage! The general feeling is that the relatively new technology of Blu-Ray will be a great solution but the comfort level is not there yet for it to become the standard for the industry. Hopefully soon.
You will constantly hear this from me - Buy Quality! This applies to the disk media for storage of the images just as it does to the cameras and lenses that are used to take the photos. TDK, SONY, Gold are some of the quality brands. It is typically recommended that CD's and DVD's be re-burned every ten(10) years. However, there is a new DVD (that I plan to acquire, for obvious reasons) that is said to have a 300-year shelf-live. Do we see any labor-saving here even if we may be no longer living 300 years down the road?
A final note on disk storage. Do NOT use a Sharpie but use a CD Safe pen if you are going to write on the disks. Also, specify the LABEL and Catalog the files so that you can quickly go to the disk, insert it, and download the files.
It was mentioned in the asmg.org seminar that one individual would charge the client a $25 'Archiving Fee'. So if the client lost the image or needed it again, there would be no charge to produce it and forward it on and save the day.
Remember how 'delete' works...
When images are deleted from a memory card or a disk, the data is still there. The area is cleared, so to speak, and ready for fresh data to overlay the deleted data. This being the case, software exists to often 'rescue' the data that you thought had been deleted.
Data can often be recovered from a crashed hard-drive. But it is a very expensive process. Usually it will cost several THOUSAND dollars to recover the files and often what is recovered is simply the majority of the files in no apparent organization. This can be a laborious process to deal with. Considering the costs/effort to backup the data and comparing this to the anguish and expense and uncertainty of trying to recover the 'lost' data, time spent on file management and backing up can be a great investment.
File Management - Finding the image...
I have a photographer friend who has told me that he doesn't delete images because he never knows when they may be needed. Well, I do delete images and probably not often enough as each image takes up space and requires maintenance (archiving and backing up).
Another subject for future discussion is of what use is a photo from several years ago, if it can't be located efficiently. We'll also talk about various methods of archiving data, naming conventions, etc. File Management is important, especially when dealing with large volumes of sports images.
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It's been stated " There are only two kinds of Photographers, the ones who have experienced a hard-drive crash, and the ones who haven't yet had that experience!" I heard this statement most recently during the asmp.org seminar that I attended last Thursday and commented on in my Friday blog entry.
THAT statement, although true, surely brings to mind many other analogies. The two kinds of photographers could be: Point-and-shoot versus DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex), or Amateur versus Professional, Action versus Architecture, and on and on...
However, the point should be well-taken. Until this summer, I was firmly in the camp of those who had not experienced a hard-drive crash. Having gone through countless laptops and computers in my lifetime of working in Information Technology, always being very careful handling hard-drives (especially when turned on and the hard-drive was spinning) I began to feel that I was immune to such problems. It was a problem for the careless. However, feeling immune breeds carelessness. Sure, I backed up my photos and files, but I often felt that I was too busy or put off the backups for a few days (or weeks). Talk about a rude awakening. My window of vulnerability was definitely open.
Natural disasters happen (as if we need reminding)...
This situation is very similar to experiencing a natural disaster (fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, etc.) moving through your area and destroying keepsakes and treasures that cannot be replaced (and are not insured). Memories are gone. If you are a professional, you could be in a serious situation (with liability) as you may be the 'keeper' of a freshly shot and undelivered Wedding package (or some other important and valuable image/memory).
What are some common causes for crashes?...
Several things can cause a hard-drive to fail. Any of these actions can be fatal: Dropping a computer (especially when turned on and the hard-drive is spinning), electricity surges (especially lightning) , temperature fluctuations (especially HEAT), and just not buying a top quality drive.
What happened to my laptop...
Although my computer was less than a year old, it malfunctioned and turned itself on and committed suicide due to heat. The laptop was securely in it's case (a very closed and protected environment that does not disperse heat well at all) and left 'Hibernation mode' and became active and produced heat - LOTS of heat. The laptop had not run long, something less than 45 minutes, but enough time to cause the hard-drive to begin failing and ultimately to crash. An aside, this shouldn't make a difference but my computers (and experience) is primarily with PC technology as opposed to Macintosh.
Backing up photos...
Whether you are a photographer shooting large numbers of high resolution images or the casual photographer shooting birthday, vacation, and holiday pictures (to somewhere in between) back-ups are important. Talking about somewhere in between, how about the proud parent with at least one child playing sports or cheering and every move must be documented!
A few things to consider. Remember the original point regarding hard-drives WILL fail? This applies to the external drives used for back-up as well. Thankfully, the cost of external drives is constantly falling.
However, remember that even though you can now get one (1) TB of storage for somewhere between $200 and $250, if that one TB of storage is all you have for your photos...you are definitely AT RISK. So, to simplify, you have two options. First, buy another similar drive and keep both drives in sync so that when (you have to assume 'when' not 'if' ) the drive fails, you have a copy. Second, you can copy the photos from the external drive onto a CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray disk.
At the very least, having an external drive connected to your computer AND programmed to automatically back up certain folders on a daily basis can help create wonderful peace of mind is something that I personally recommend.
A word on disc storage...
The capacity of a CD will not exceed 700 MB and a DVD has a much larger capacity (4.4 GB). Blu-Ray is five times the capacity with 25GB for a single layer and 50GB for a double layer disk. Definitely there is potential there for some serious storage! The general feeling is that the relatively new technology of Blu-Ray will be a great solution but the comfort level is not there yet for it to become the standard for the industry. Hopefully soon.
You will constantly hear this from me - Buy Quality! This applies to the disk media for storage of the images just as it does to the cameras and lenses that are used to take the photos. TDK, SONY, Gold are some of the quality brands. It is typically recommended that CD's and DVD's be re-burned every ten(10) years. However, there is a new DVD (that I plan to acquire, for obvious reasons) that is said to have a 300-year shelf-live. Do we see any labor-saving here even if we may be no longer living 300 years down the road?
A final note on disk storage. Do NOT use a Sharpie but use a CD Safe pen if you are going to write on the disks. Also, specify the LABEL and Catalog the files so that you can quickly go to the disk, insert it, and download the files.
It was mentioned in the asmg.org seminar that one individual would charge the client a $25 'Archiving Fee'. So if the client lost the image or needed it again, there would be no charge to produce it and forward it on and save the day.
Remember how 'delete' works...
When images are deleted from a memory card or a disk, the data is still there. The area is cleared, so to speak, and ready for fresh data to overlay the deleted data. This being the case, software exists to often 'rescue' the data that you thought had been deleted.
Data can often be recovered from a crashed hard-drive. But it is a very expensive process. Usually it will cost several THOUSAND dollars to recover the files and often what is recovered is simply the majority of the files in no apparent organization. This can be a laborious process to deal with. Considering the costs/effort to backup the data and comparing this to the anguish and expense and uncertainty of trying to recover the 'lost' data, time spent on file management and backing up can be a great investment.
File Management - Finding the image...
I have a photographer friend who has told me that he doesn't delete images because he never knows when they may be needed. Well, I do delete images and probably not often enough as each image takes up space and requires maintenance (archiving and backing up).
Another subject for future discussion is of what use is a photo from several years ago, if it can't be located efficiently. We'll also talk about various methods of archiving data, naming conventions, etc. File Management is important, especially when dealing with large volumes of sports images.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
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Paul Collins. Paul has been a GamecockCentral photographer since 2005, with a focus on Gamecock football, men's basketball and baseball. He may be reached by email at paul(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.