Over at Lightingmods, Rui M Leal has produced a lovely detailed guide to how to clean your camera gear. It covers both lenses and sensors - good stuff & well worth reading.

All I need now is a guide to get sand out of tripod legs and how to clean your whole camera just after you have gone head first into some Thames mud and I'll be sorted!

Labels: Cameras, cleaning, Equipment, lenses

It's quite a surprise to me the huge influence this little blog can have.

First I wax lyrically about how much I like my lensbaby and what happens? Mr Lensbaby himself, Sam Perdue, comments on my blog!

Then I create a check-list for photographers and what happens? Microsoft decide it's such a good idea they want to copy it.

But now, no sooner have I waxed lyrically about how wonderful craghopper furry trousers are but they need a leg pocket, when what happens? Through the door comes a parcel containing some of the very same trouser but now with the requested pocket!

Hmmm, I think I best only use these powers for good.

Labels: Equipment, Humour

I don't know you come up with a simple idea like an equipment checklist for photographers and what happens your idea gets pinched by Microsoft. What don't tell me I wasn't the only person to have that idea, I knew I should have patented it!


Well anyway Microsoft have adapted Outlook for photographers:

"Microsoft has released a free Outlook plug-in to help photographers remember which equipment to bring to photo shoots they've scheduled with the calendar and contacts software."

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Related Posts

Landscape Photography Pre-Fight CheckList
Bill Speaks Detailed Packing List

Labels: Equipment, Taking Pictures

So here in the Northern Hemisphere it is winter. Though with climate change it can be a little confusing as some days can be very warm.... but stand by the coast before the dawn comes up and you know it's winter.

So my current favourite bit of equipment is not a camera or accessory but a pair of trousers! The Craghoppers kiwi fleece lined trousers are a god send this time of year.


On a cold winters morning fleece is your friend and combined with a practical outer shell they are perfect for standing leaning on your tripod and wondering if the sun will ever come up.
The slightly baggy fit is ideal for those really cold mornings when you need thermals underneath. I love em, if only they had cargo pockets to put your filters in like the standard Kiwi trousers do, they would perfect.

Highly recommended to keep your uglies snugly.

Labels: Equipment

Sunday morning I got up early (4:30am) and headed down to Heybridge Basin to see if I could get some dawn shots. Heybridge basin is where a canal (the Chelmer Navigation) meets the tidal estuary of the river Blackwater. A sea-lock connects the two, when there is a high tide.

The river itself is surrounded by high sea walls and for most of the time the tide is out. So it is not an easy location to shoot, but I had planned my shoot for a time when high tide coincided with dawn.

The night before was the Saturday nearest to Guy Fawkes Night, which means an awful lot of fireworks. I'm sure this is a lot of fun for a lot of people but for us it's a pretty retched time as you try to comfort two terrified dogs, who get really stressed out by the bangs and occasionally throw up with the stress...which is nice. In the middle of this mayhem I was trying to pack my gear for the following morning.

I packed carefully, following my checklist, but when it came to the point of checking if the batteries were fully charged I looked at the camera and it said 3/4 full plus I knew I had a spare battery in my kit so, with all the rest of the hassle that night, I didn't bother....big mistake!

Things started off well with me perching on the edge of the lock to get an image as the sun started to rise over Northey Island.


Then the most remarkable thing happened, as the tide started to rise the place burst into life, the lock keepers appeared & started to open the lock, boats started to move and even the pub opened..all at 7 o'clock in the morning!

Obviously high-tide is the only time that boats can get in and out of the basin and so people have to build their activities around it. Realising that it wouldn't be long before a boat made it's way towards the lock I positioned myself on top of the rear lock gates and waited till the boat came in to the exact position I needed it to make the composition I had set up complete.


Now all I needed to do was wait for the boat to come in to the lock and I would get a nice series of pictures of the boat locking in fantastic light. At precisely the wrong moment my battery ran out. So I quickly opened my pack and got the spare out...which was flat too!

I had no choice but to pack up and walk away, muttering to myself about the one that got away. Lesson learned - always check your spare battery has charge. I hope you can learn from this and don't suffer a similar fate yourself.

Labels: Equipment, Taking Pictures

Occasionally you come across a bit of kit that is brilliantly simple yet works perfectly. The Grepe Card Safe is just such a thing.It is really nothing special, just a plastic box to put your memory cards in, but the manufacturers have actually thought about how people will use it.


If you use the "face up = empty, face down = full" method of organizing your cards then it's little windows that allow you to see the cards are rather useful; no need to open the case to see what it contains.

More importantly they are pretty shockproof, waterproof and they float. This came as an absolute relief to me when shooting at West Burton Waterfall, clambering about on the rocks I looked down in to the stream and saw my cardsafe slowly floating down the stream! Luckily I managed to grab it before it disappeared out of site, over the lower falls and out to sea. The cards inside were completely safe and dry..marvellous.

Highly recommended for the disaster-prone outdoor photographer.

Labels: Equipment

So now you know what's involved in mount cutting, framing & generally presenting my prints for sale. If you are thinking of doing something similar, it is important to ask yourself if it is worth doing; You can buy ready cut mounts cheaply off the internet and there are plenty of picture framers out there needing the work.

The choices come down to the following:-

Get someone else to do it all
Outsourcing your framing/mounting to a trusted local supplier is a very attractive option. The advantages are you should always get a professional job, you don't have to invest in training and equipment upfront and of course you don't have to spend time framing when you could be out taking pictures.

The disadvantage is that the cost per picture will be more and the lead-times may become a problem if you have found yourself a good framer who is consiquently rather busy.

Do some of it yourself
It's possible to buy ready-cut mounts off the internet or from a framer and assemble the frames yourself. The advantages are that you save yourself the purchase of a mount cutter and holding stocks of mountboard.
This needs to be played against a lack of flexibility that may be required for more odd-shaped mounts. Again lead times may be unacceptable and you don't want your exhibition delayed by a post strike. You will still need to put the image together frame & wrap the image yourself so you are not saving a huge amount of work.


Do it yourself
The start-up costs and initial investment in time for the DIY approach can be onerous at first, but when you have got past these they offer a flexibility that is extremely useful. Streamlining the process, means that for me waiting for the print to come off the printer is the biggest time lag in my processes - framing and mounting have a relatively low amount of my time devoted to them.

In addition, mount cutting is a useful skill in it's own right and as you become involved in producing finished prints you gain an insight in to framing & presentation that is difficult to acquire otherwise.


That's All Folks.
I hope you have found these blogs on framing & presentation useful. If you have, or you would like to know more, please leave a comment. I love reading the feedback I get on this blog.

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Other posts in this series (Mounting and Finishing Photographs)
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Preparation
Part 3 - Mount Cutting
Part 4 - Final Assembly
Part 5 - Framing
Part 6 - Equipment
Part 7 - Conclusion

Labels: Equipment, framing, mating, mounting, Mounting and Finishing Photographs, presentation

I have had a few questions about the equipment and suppliers I use so here are a few details for you. If you need to know anything else..just ask.

For cutting mounts I use a mat master 860 - from FrameCo. The squaring arm (I added the extended one a while back) makes cutting backing boards and mats to size a doddle. Frameco give great customer service: my first cutter developed a fault (well out of warranty) , I phoned them up and they were happy to send me a replacement.

For sticking the mat to the backing board then its a very good idea to use an ATG Tape Gun, so much easier and quicker than using double sided tape.

For embossing the limited edition certificates, I use a stamp from oyez which is individual engraved with my company name & "Limited Edition". I was really impressed when this was delivered less than 24 hours after I ordered it.

I buy all my framing Supplies (mountboard, foamboard, blades, tapes, wire,etc) in bulk from Lion.

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Other posts in this series (Mounting and Finishing Photographs)
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Preparation
Part 3 - Mount Cutting
Part 4 - Final Assembly
Part 5 - Framing
Part 6 - Equipment
Part 7 - Conclusion

Labels: Equipment, framing, mating, mounting, Mounting and Finishing Photographs, presentation

Framing
For exhibitions I buy my frames in bulk from lecira. I find that a wall of pictures that are all framed and mounted in a similar way, looks much more cohesive than lots of different mounts/frames and concentrates the eye on the images, not the presentation.

In addition I find a high percentage of images I sell at exhibition are framed, but sales are not evenly distributed, one image might sell lots of pictures, yet others won't sell at all. If I could work out which ones would sell at each exhibition I'd be a happy man! Being able to reuse the frames to meet orders is a godsend and saves keeping loads of extra frames in storage between exhibitions.


To frame a photo, the picture is dropped in to the frame and the back held in place with flexipoints. The frame is then turned over and checked for dust and hairs. Once I am finally satisfied that everything is clean then I add the hanging equipment (hooks & wire). I use flat D rings that slip on to the backingboard and Super Softstrand wire for hanging as it is very easy to work with and gentle on the fingers! The back of the frame is sealed up with framers tape to prevent dust getting in the frame. Finally the certificate of Authenticity is fixed to the back of the frame.

All frames are then finally checked and wrapped in bubble wrap to prevent damage during transport & storage.

Wrapping
Mounted pictures are wrapped with clear polythene wrap to protect them and this stuck together with 3M crystal tape and makes for a very attractive package. I intend in future to use clear plastic bags but am at the moment unable to find a supplier who will do them in the sizes I need.

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Other posts in this series (Mounting and Finishing Photographs)
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Preparation
Part 3 - Mount Cutting
Part 4 - Final Assembly
Part 5 - Framing
Part 6 - Equipment
Part 7 - Conclusion

Labels: Equipment, framing, mating, mounting, Mounting and Finishing Photographs, presentation

Final Assembly
The final package is a sandwich of foamboard, photograph, and windowed mountboard. To produce this first the photograph is hinged off the backing board with two small pieces of tape.


Then the mount is sandwiched to the foam board using ATG (Adhesive Transfer Gun) tape (ATG is basically double sided sticky tape dispensed from a gun). The hinging allows for expansion and contraction of the paper due to atmospheric conditions. The ATG tape holds the whole thing together into a solid package.


Each print is signed & numbered and the details entered into my Limited Edition management system: Lemon

I use lemon to generate a certificate of ownership which is embossed by a limited edition seal, signed and then taped to back of the picture

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Other posts in this series (Mounting and Finishing Photographs)
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Preparation
Part 3 - Mount Cutting
Part 4 - Final Assembly
Part 5 - Framing
Part 6 - Equipment
Part 7 - Conclusion

Labels: Equipment, framing, mating, mounting, Mounting and Finishing Photographs, presentation

Mount cutting

First I need to calculate the size of the window I will cut in the mat, a useful aid for this is Mat Works! - which is a great little free program for sizing mounts. In fact it's so good I even paid for it!


As I have all my boards cut to size, cutting the mount it is simply a matter of cutting the window for each image in the board, and I frequently break this process down into marking out & cutting - so that I mark up a batch of boards then cut them all which saves changing from pencil to cutter each time. Breaking the processes out into steps and performing each step on an entire batch is quicker and more accurate than cutting the mat to size, then cutting the window for each one individually and having to resetting the mount cutter and tools each time.

Learning to cut mounts

I taught myself to use a mount cutter following the manual. I went through a lot of mount board at first, though its one of those things that once you've got the hang of you can't see how you ever managed to have difficulty with it in the first place.

For cutting a single mount it is just a page of instructions and not too difficult. Though I would think a course would get you up to speed a lot quicker and would take you through the whole process of matting a print. I learnt a lot of things the hard way..making sure everything is exactly aligned, keeping your work area scrupulously clean, etc,etc,

How to cut a mat (pdf)
How to cut a mat (video)


Mount cutting tips

Labels: Equipment, framing, mating, mounting, Mounting and Finishing Photographs, presentation

The advantages of always working to a standard size is that it speeds up my processes immensely.

When I get a box of foam board & a pack of mountboard delivered, the first thing I do is spend a short while cutting them all down to my standard size, then pop them back into the box for storage. I have my mount cutter pre-marked with the standard sizes I use, this speeds things up and I even have two cutting blades (one for foamboard & one for mountboard) so I don't have to reset the blades.


On the foamboard (which is used to provide the backing to the picture) I use the mountcutter and a pencil to draw a line at 2.5 inches in from the bottom and one 2.5 inches from the side. If you place a sheet of Super A3 against these lines it is completely centred..magic!

Its a good idea to prepare a clear clean work space in which to work as mountboard can take up a lot of space. A large table makes an ideal work surface but in addition I also need room to store prints that are drying, mounts that are in progress and a storage space for tools. Even if I only used the area the day before, I always take the time to dust all the work surfaces as working with white board means dust can mark the face of the boards all too easily.

A habit I adopt is to regularly change the blades on the cutter, as soon as they become slow or "snaggy" I replace them. Blades are a lot cheaper than mountboard.

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Other posts in this series (Mounting and Finishing Photographs)
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Preparation
Part 3 - Mount Cutting
Part 4 - Final Assembly
Part 5 - Framing
Part 6 - Equipment
Part 7 - Conclusion

Labels: Equipment, framing, mating, mounting, Mounting and Finishing Photographs, presentation

Most of my pictures are sold as mounted prints and I usually do the mounting myself. Please Note: Rather than "mount", my American friends tend to use the term "mat" . I use the terms interchangeably - I'm like that. I also work exclusively in metric apart from for picture framing where inches just seems easier!

I print all my images on Epson Archival paper using an Epson 2100 with genuine Epson inks, this combination is supposed* to have a life of 75 years without fading., which I think is a good thing if you are selling your photos. Images are sized to 11" x 17" (well at least one of those two dimensions) and printed on super A3 paper (19" x 13"). Finally I mount all my images to a finished size of 18"x24". This gives a rather pleasing minimal mount of 3 inches with a half inch of clear paper before the image.

*honestly, how do they know - the printers only 3 years old!


In the next few blogs I will be covering the process I go through to produce my matted limited edition prints for sale. I will cover Preparation, Mount Cutting, Finishing and Equipment.

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Other posts in this series (Mounting and Finishing Photographs)
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Preparation
Part 3 - Mount Cutting
Part 4 - Final Assembly
Part 5 - Framing
Part 6 - Equipment
Part 7 - Conclusion

Labels: Equipment, framing, mating, mounting, Mounting and Finishing Photographs, presentation

I'm running out of space in my brain, every day more and more trivia fills it up, I'm worried that if I keep learning stuff it'll push out the important stuff and I'll forget where I live or my wife's name!

It's amazing the complete tosh in there, from my days (many years ago) working in PC support I still remember such trivia as how to get a pound sign on lotus 123 release 1 (Alt + F1 L = if you are interested...I know your not) and what all the error numbers on an HP Laserjet 4 mean! With rubbish like that in there it won't be long before my brain just packs up from storing too much useless information.

The thing is, a large complicated product like Photoshop is just much easier to use if you know the shortcut keys. But you have to remember those keys and there is just no space left in my head to remember them all. So I decided I needed a photoshop keyboard to save on all that brain space and leave me room to remember where I left the car keys! The problem with this idea is that these are really only aimed at desktop PCs or Macs and I wanted to use them on my Dell Laptop.

So I decided to try EditorsKeys which is a set of sticky labels you can put on the top of your existing keyboard - ideal for laptop users. The stickers cost nine of the queens pounds, so I placed my order and the goods arrived the next day...brilliant!


Well the good news is that the stickers work well, this is not the cheap or shoddily made product that the word "stickers" conjurers up. Application is easy: first clean the keyboard with the supplied cleaner and then with the help of their neat little applicator thingy stick the labels on to your keyboard.

One small issue occurs if you have a laptop: many of the laptops functions are accessed by various special key combinations which are usually marked on the key tops. If you put a sticker over them you lose the indicator of how to change those laptop functions. So you need to decide if the laptop functions are more important than the Photoshop functions...looks like you can't get away without remembering something!

In use, they do exactly what they say on the tin and speed things up as you can find keys really quickly and easily.

As for downsides, first all your keyboard colours have changed - it's still taking me a while to get used to the shock when I look down at the keyboard! To be fairyou should really expect that though! Occasionally the edges of the stickers slightly catch my fingers as I am typing which is a bit irritating but is already starting to disappear with a bit of use.

The thing I have realised I would want from EditorsKeys is an extra sticker/card covering a lot of the other commonly used shortcuts that are got at via the ctrl & alt keys. There is not room on the keyboard to show them all but I would like to have them readily to hand as these are even harder to remember.

I would recommend EditorKeys as they work well and are a great talking point when you open your laptop.

If you would like to try to remember some useful Photoshop shortcuts why not take a look at these two links:
Photoshop Shortcuts
More Photoshop shortcuts

Labels: Equipment, Keyboards, Photoshop

Whilst away last week I had a revelation*, it occurred to me that I had been spending far too much time concentrating on post production whilst playing with Lightroom and Capture One v4.

I spent a day walking and enjoying the beautiful countryside of the dales. It shouldn't be too hard to create beautiful images in such a lovely environment, yet I found that every time I was taking an image I was looking through the viewfinder thinking things like:
"I'll crop that out"
"I'll clone that"
"I should be able to recover that highlight or shadow detail"
"If I increase the saturation on this, It'll look great"

Once I got a chance to review the images that even I can say quite categorically that everyone of them was irredeemably shite! It dawned on me that instead of working out why I was taking the picture and what it was I wanted to show I had instead become obsessed with the process.

After this I decided to slow down and consider each image as though pressing the shutter release was the absolute final moment of the process. The quality of my images improved dramatically.


Maybe it's a good idea to forget about the technology and just concentrate on the stories you wish to tell with the images you create.
*that's when an idea comes to you, as opposed to a revelsation which is what happens when you put a choccy in your mouth and discover it has a coffee centre not peanut.

Labels: Equipment, Taking Pictures

I, like a lot of photographers have a love/hate relationship with my tripod. I love the way I get sharper pictures,the way I have to consider my shots and the way it slows down my picture making. I hate lugging the thing around, cleaning sand out after a day on the beach and the way it slows down my picture making.

One of the joys of this here internet thingy is you can come across detailed articles about the minutia of life. One of my very favourites is this page on how to carry your tripod, don't say it's not educational here.

Labels: Equipment

OK I am officially confused by monitors and colour calibration.

The trouble all began when I accidentally managed to select the wrong profile in Capture1 without noticing. My images colours had all gone wrong when I got them into Photoshop.

The problem was occurring on my Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop, so I used my spider monitor calibration system and colour plus software to recalibrate the screen. Since then things got worse and worse with images looking fine on the laptop but lacking completely in contrast when viewed on other screens.

The most obvious way to see how the monitor was performing was to use the Monitor Black Point tests. Performance was frankly poorer than a Enron share holder. I tried a few things:

• Setting the right profiles in Capture 1
  
• Removing the monitor profile
• Adjusting Screen brightness
• Uninstalling the Colour Plus Software.

Only the last one actually solved the problem. So what exactly is the monitor calibration software for? If it makes things worse, what exactly is the point of it? Anyone less confused than me?

*It's driving me nuts!

Labels: Capture 1, Colour Managment, Equipment, Workflow

I've just got back from a great week in The Lake District, whilst the rest of Britain was being hit by torrential downpours the wettest place in England was pretty dry!

I did have one disaster though, like an idiot I placed the camera in the top of my rucksack without doing up either the camera case or the rucksack. A short while later I went to remove the rucksack and the camera and lens (Canon 20D & 17-85EFS) went crashing from shoulder height on to the concrete carpark. It made a horrible smashing noise...Eek!

On investigation it seems the only damage was to the battery compartment door which had flown of and exploded and the rear LCD has been knocked out of alignment. I but the battery compartment door back together easily enough but a tiny spring has gone missing so it doesn't always stay shut. Other than that the camera still works and the lens is as sharp as ever.

Quite frankly I'm amazed how strong the camera and lens are - top marks to Canon for building such strong kit.

Labels: Cameras, Equipment

The thing with landscape photography is that you have to get up early, real early. Ideally I like to arrive at the location around 45 minutes before dawn or "blimey its early" as its known to its friends! To arrive at that time it’s best to leave the house at "stupid o’clock", having woken up at "no the clock can't be right".

Southwold Sunrise
(Click to view large)

In order to get some sleep its best to pack your gear the night before as you don't want to be running around looking for memory cards at 3 o'clock in the morning. Another thing I find worth doing is making sure the settings on the camera are setup for the following morning as when you are half asleep its easy to forget that you left the ISO set to 1600 and the white balance to fluorescent.

Too many times have I arrived at a location to discover that some vital piece of equipment is sitting at home in my other camera bag, so to make life easy for myself I created a "Pre-flight checklist". I have this on a small printed and laminated card that I keep in my camera bag. Hopefully you will find it of use, and save someone else sitting on a beach at 5:00 in the morning looking for a filter ring that is actually a 100 miles away!

Pre-flight checklist

• Battery fully charged ?
• Lenses clean ?
• Lens filter rings fitted
• Filters Clean ?
• Camera Settings: ISO, Drive, WB, Metering

Packing:

• Camera
  • Card
  • Battery
• Lenses
• Filter holder
• Filters
• Remote release
• Memory Cards
• Spare battery
• Cleaning cloth
• Spirit level
• Tripod
• Hat
• Gloves
• Drink/snacks
• Head torch
• Mobile Phone
• Camera rain cover (carrier bag)
• GPS/Map/compass/Location Details
• Tidetimes/weather forecast
• Appropriate Clothing

Update 27 March 2007

Bill Speaks has a much more detailed packing & to do list list on his site which should give you a few more ideas of what you require. Ohh...and some very nice shots in his gallerys too!

Labels: Equipment, Taking Pictures

Quite a few people have asked me if the should upgrade to the latest version of Windows- Windows Vista.

Before I answer the question I should state my position on Microsoft. You will find an awful lot of rabid Microsoft haters out there who seem to see MS as the root of all evil and that all software should be open source and free. Another school of thought is that "no one got sacked for buying Microsoft" and you will find an awful lot of IT managers in this category.

I try not to fit in either camp, and would much rather take a pragmatic approach based on what works for me whether it is open source or not. My view of MS is that when faced with competition they can produce some of the best software out there, but when they don't have any competition they will sit back and not bother.

A prime example of this is Internet Explorer. Whilst MS were in the "Browser Wars" with Netscape they first produced a "me too" product, then continually developed and refined it till they produced a much better product than Netscape. Microsoft then sat back and relaxed for a few years as they dominated the browser "market" completely. Firefox then appears on the scene and starts to make inroads into that market. Lo and behold, Microsoft frantically rush to catch up with IE7.

The reason for this is simple economics, Microsoft don't charge for IE its only value is as a platform for MS to project its products into enterprises and homes. Investing money in a free product for no return would be tricky to explain to shareholders. MS are responsible to their shareholders at the ed of the day.

So, should you upgrade to Vista? My answer is an emphatic NO.

Vista is only an operating system. How much time do you actually spend doing useful work in the operating system? Not very much I reckon.

All most people use it for is starting their applications and occasionally organising their files. Most of your day is actually spent in the applications: your web browser, email, office, photo processing applications, etc,etc.

Improvements in the operating system aren't going to impact your productivity very much at all.

Upgrading the OS is usually a week or so of mucking about learning the new stuff followed by a week or two of going "oh is that it".

If your existing OS works fine why pay good money to upgrade it, when it will actually make very little difference to your life. Much better to invest that money in something useful like Raw Processing software, or a new lens, or beer, or fags.

If you buy a new PC and Vista comes on it that is fine, stick with it and learn of all the joys that Bill G and the guys have built in to this new wizzy version. I'm quite positive it is better in most respects. Just don’t bother to upgrade your existing machine..it won't enhance your life.

Labels: Equipment

Adobe Lightroom has just been released (I refuse to add "Photoshop" in the title as its just plain confusing). Version 1.0 is now available as a 30 day trial download.

Lightroom promises a great simplification of the digital photographers workflow. I intend to download the trial and give it a try out. I wasn't too happy with the beta releases but I intend to look at the entire thing afresh and take the time to work through some tutorials too.

I will let you know how I get on and what I learn. Why not try it out yourself and let me know how you get on, I would love to hear from you.

Labels: Equipment, Lightroom, Photoshop

Regular readers will know of my shiny new pair of buffalo, that are the basis of my new image backup solution. They are set up so that one backs the other up every night.

It struck me that having them next to each other was probably not a good idea as fire, theft and other disasters are likely to wipe out both in one go, thus completely negating the point of the backups.

So I decide to move the backup drive as far as possible away from the main drive. Now I could have run Cat5 cabling across the house and down a floor but that would involve a lot of disruption and even (heaven forbid) ..decorating!




All I had to do switch it on, and tell my wireless network about it, then it was up and running perfectly. I plugged the second Linkstation in to it and I now have a backup which is reasonably remote from the main system.

Having sorted out data and backups I found I had 2 external USB drives that weren't being used any more. This is where the Buffalo solution comes in handy again as I have plugged one of these drives in to the second Linkstation, to provide another remote backup drive for email & documents.

Unfortunately connecting a USB drive to the Linkstation requires you to reformat it otherwise the Linkstation can't share it out. But once I had, I set it up as a backup target for my documents and emails using a simple xcopy batchfile.

In addition I have used Norton Ghost V10 to take an image of the boot disk of each PC which should make recovery of those PCs much simpler.

As for the last drive I have dumped all my images down to it (they just about fit into 250GB at the moment) and I will store this round my parents house to give me a remote backup.

Finally I am happy that I have a full backup solution...hurrah!

Labels: Equipment

Psst...wanna buy a hard-disk?


If you are reading this then you almost certainly have something that needs backing up: Photos,documents,address lists,email.

Even if you only use email and the web,you still need a back up. Imagine yourselves in the shoes of some friends of mine, two days before their holiday their PC crashed, taking with it all the Ryan Air booking information that was in their email folder. Luckily we recovered it in time for the holiday, but it was a lot of stress they could have done without.

If something is of any importance to you, than you MUST have a backup. You can be lucky for a while, but one day your luck will run out and then you will really wish you had a backup.

There are so many ways to lose your data, and they fall into three groups: hardware failure, software failure and user error.

Hardware failure

A hard disk drive is a series of platters spinning at 100s of miles an hour with heads that "fly" just above the disk Which makes them really rather fragile indeed.

All drives have a MBF rating, which stands for "meantime between failure" (100000 hours would be a reasonable MBF). Did you get that? Meantime between Failure - so they are expecting the drives to fail, they just don't know exactly when! Also it's an average, it could fail tomorrow or never ever fail in its working life time.

It is actually guaranteed to fail just before you were about to do a backup.

Software failure

All computer programs have bugs (mine have more than most) and it could just be one of those bugs that destroys your valuable data. On top of this the interweb has far far too many spotty teenage boys who can't get themselves a girlfriend writing viruses and spyware targeted at your machine and precious documents.

Don't let these low-life's have the satisfaction of destroying your data, make sure your machine is secure and backed up.


User error

How many times have you accidentally deleted something? It's oh so easy enough to make a cock-up and delete stuff. Maybe you could undo your mistakes, but what if you didn't notice for a few weeks? Then it's bye bye precious data.

Alternatively, you could knock the drive of your desk, spill water on it or even some thieving swine will break in and steal your PC. Failing that there is always fire, flood, storm,earthquake,Yeti attack, etc, etc.


The Bottom Line

Bottom line is that I have had to explain to people too many times that all their data is gone - trust me its not a nice thing to tell someone.

Labels: Equipment

Over the last few weeks I have been carefully documenting my photographic workflow. As I looked at each part of my process I kept checking that everything is backed up and safe.

Looking at my archive of images for the last 5 years I realised that I was on the verge of running out of disk space as I had room for just a month or twos shots left. I make that time to get me a pair of Buffaloes.

The Buffalo Linkstation Pro is a network file-server in a box. I got myself two of the 500GB version which should give me plenty of room for my photos for a few years.

I'm sure many of you think "two 500GB drives - that's a terrabyte" - well actually it's not. It's one 500GB drive with a backup to mirror it, I stopped buying hard disk drives in ones a few years back when I kept getting asked to help people who had lost loads of important documents due to a hard disk crash. Now I always buy drives in pairs so I have a live and a backup, a 120GB internal drive and a 250gb USB drive to back it up for example.

My first impression of these drives is that they are a real quality product and the people at Buffalo have really thought about what you might need from an external drive.

Installation is a breeze:

• take it out the box
• plug it in to the mains
• plug it in to the network
• Switch it on
• Sorted!

You don't really need to install the client software, but it's worth doing just so that you can find and rename the Linkstations to something more memorable.

Configuration of the backup is done through your web browser. I had a little bit of a problem with this and in the end was forced to read the manual that comes on the CD. The trick is to first configure the backup target share as a "Disk Backup" (you will find it under Shared Folders set-up>Shared Folder Support). then go to the primary drive and set-up the backup to this share.

What is really neat about this backup is that the drives do it themselves, even if my PCs are switched off the drives will still back themselves up every night...cool!

I'm currently looking for a good location for the backup drive as I've just realised that it is directly under the cold water tank in the loft. I will try to ensure that both drives are as far away from each other as possible to increase security a little in event of a flood.

A real quality product...I'm impressed.

Labels: Equipment, Workflow