A friendly reminder...

If you do anything creative involving a computer, make sure you back up your hard drives!

It is not a question of if your hard drive will die, or if your computer will get stolen, or if you will spill that coffee all over your laptop. It is a question of when.

I know a bunch of creative people who have had computers stolen recently. Sure, it sucks to get your stuff ripped off - but it would suck a lot less if you had backups! The real value of the computer isn't the hardware, which can run you a few thousand dollars. The real value is the intellectual property - your photos or music or writing. The stuff you spend hours every day perfecting.

It doesn't matter how careful you are - the technology used in making modern hard drives means that eventually, your drive will cease to function. Even if you don't drop it or drown it or overheat it, one day you're going to boot up your computer and nothing will happen - if you don't have backups, you're going to be screwed.

I'm super paranoid about this - so I have redundant backups like crazy. I go through hard drives faster than nascar drivers go through tires. I currently utilize over 6 TB of storage for my backups. It comes out to about 7 full backups of all my photos. I carry a 16gb flash drive with me around my neck so that even if all my other backups die, I've got my photography portfolios.

At minimum, I suggest you have two backups of your important stuff. Music, photos and documents. Keep one backup next to your computer. Keep the other backup in your office at work, at a friend's house or in a safe deposit box. This way, if your house is subject to a fire or flood - your other backup might survive. Switch out your off-site with your on-site backup every couple weeks, or after a big project.

Hard drives are cheap and they're getting cheaper. I saw a BestBuy ad selling a 1tb external drive for $79 - you can get them even cheaper at places like TigerDirect and Newegg.

Surely your photos, music, documents etc are worth more than $79 to you, right?

This week in photography

I had a really good week of photography. I was up until 2am editing - something I rarely do.

As usual, each frame can be clicked on and enlarged for your viewing pleasure.

I got a few more keepers, but I'm not as proud of them as I am of these - which I think make a fairly well-rounded series. I shot them over the course of seven days.

Camera Bag for everyday use

I'm addicted to camera bags. I admit it. I've gone through quite a few in search of the *perfect* one.

I store all my photo gear in what I believe is the perfect camera bag - but it is huge and weighs 50 lbs fully loaded. I definitely won't be carrying that with me wherever I go. I use the LowePro CompuTrekker AW Plus. Its huge.

When I first started shooting, I carried a camera with me at all times. Recently I've decided to continue doing that. My major problem - my camera is expensive and bulky. I don't want people to rip it off, and it is a PITA to carry around. Sure, the D300 is durable enough to handle everyday use - but it is righteously large.

My solution:

Its more like a man-purse *ahem* satchel than a messenger bag, but it is just large enough to hold the basics

• D300 w/ grip and 50mm f/.8
• Leatherman tool
• Spare headphones (I hate the apple headphones, but they work in a pinch)
• Glasses case
• Toothbrush
• Bandana and Scarf
• Extra 3" knife
• Lighter

Also, just in case I leave it somewhere, there is no doubt about who it belongs to

Of course, it holds an iPad perfectly in the back pocket so if I need to show off my portfolios, I can!

I think of this as my "oh sh*t" bag - I've always got it with me and I can live out of it for a few days if necessary - All I really need is a camera and a toothbrush. As soon as my new Lexar cards get here, I will relegate 8gb of old cards to this bag - I'll have 12gb in the bag at all times.

Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Why I quit my day job

Before this summer I had never worked a "real" day job. Since May 24th, I have been employed at a 40 hour/week desk job as a summer intern. I was paid $11/hour, which isn't bad money for a college student. I went in to this job cautiously - I didn't know whether I'd be able to handle sitting in a cubicle all day, five days a week.

It turns out, I'm not bad at it. My work was (most of the time) pretty good. I never had a reprimand of any kind from any of my bosses (everyone is the boss of the intern). I got projects done on time or ahead of time.

The problem was: I didn't enjoy it. Sitting at a computer is one thing - I do that all day anyway. But working in Excel or PowerPoint auditing data or changing animations is not the way I had hoped to spend my summer. What did I think they would have me doing? I had no idea.

completely irrelevant photo...

 I learned a few very important things about myself from this job though.

1) I do NOT have a big problem with authority: I worked well with my team. I don't hate my boss or the other members of the group. In fact, I've grown to like all of them.

2) I need detailed instruction before I begin a project. The less I understand about the end-goal, the worse I am at doing whatever task is set before me.

3) I work well with music

4) The clock is the enemy

This last one is important - whenever I'm doing work on my website, editing photos, or organizing my Vault Photography materials in Excel - the time flies. I'm working because I want to be working. I'm working for me. I know the end-goal and I've figured out how to get there.

When I catch myself looking at the clock every 20 minutes, hating how insufferably slow time travels, I know something is wrong.

Lastly - I'm young! I have essentially no overhead (at least while I'm living with my generous parents over the summer). This is my opportunity to enjoy life without NEEDING to work. I don't NEED to pay my mortgage or feed my kids or any of that stuff!

Essentially, I quit my day job because I don't need the money and I don't enjoy the work.

Very few people out there can quit for either of those reasons - many get stuck in jobs that they despise, but they gotta pay the bills and feed the kiddies, so they suffer through.

In my humble opinion, life is too short. I'm going to take pictures, go  biking and hiking, swim, read, and enjoy my summer. When I graduate college and I'm living on my own and I need to pay rent, I might get a "real" job. It probably won't involve sitting behind a desk though!

Until then, Thanks to Mom and Dad for letting me enjoy my summer burden-free!

Headphones: Altec Lansing

Once in a while I stray from photography to discuss hard drives or headphones or music or whatever strikes my fancy. Today is another one of those days.

In my quest for the perfect pair of sub-$50 earbuds, I came across the MHP216 Muzx earbuds by Altec Lansing. I think I paid $25 for them at Wal Mart.

They look ridiculous. Let me make it clear that the "large brilliant crystal" is NOT why I bought these headphones. I hadn't ever tried anything by Altec and I figured I might as well. I didn't read any reviews or do any research before my purchase - I blindly grabbed from the rack at Wal Mart (which didn't have much in the way of selection).

Turns out that was a mistake.

Here's why.

At first I was fairly pleased with them. After a night of playing randomly through my music to start the burn in, I put them through my completely arbitrary tests; playing a variety of music and determining whether it sounds good or not. They performed about as well as a pair of $25 earbuds could be expected to perform. BUT, after less than 2 months of everyday use, they broke. The glue holding the two pieces of each earpiece together simply fell apart. Kaput.

Looking through Amazon, I found that this has happened to others as well. The sound was pretty good, the isolation was decent, but when construction quality is that terrible - there's just nothing I can do. I won't be buying any cheap Altec Lansing buds in the future. In fact, I've already purchased my replacement pair from Amazon - the "JBuds J3 Micro Atomic In-Ear Earphones." According to user reviews, these do a pretty good job as long as they are burned in first.

If these new Atomic buds can stand my abuse, I'll be sure to do a post on them as well. Of course, if they flop tragically I'll end up doing the same thing.

Canonblogger contest

I dropped a photo into a contest on Flickr last month and didn't expect to see or hear anything about it ever again.

Today whilst checking my email, I found out that I won the contest, and that not one but two Lexar 4gb 300x cards are headed my way!

This is the second contest I have won that Lexar sponsors, and I'm psyched to get my new cards!

For the record, even when I pay for my memory cards, I buy Lexar. Everybody has their own preferences and brand loyalites, but I've never had a Lexar card fail me in any way.

Enough of my talking. Please click through to the Canon blogger website to see the photo I submitted and learn about their contest for July!

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