Preserving Memories - the high-tech way

Wow, you guys, it's been a minute, huh?

A lot of my news and updates have been taking place over on my Facebook page (you know you want to like it) but I did want to take some time out and write a post about backing up.  I was reviewing my blog and remembering the sheer anguish I went through when my hard drive died with all my photos on it. I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, if I had read a super helpful blog post from a photographer who had been around the block, maybe that would have never happened.

So, I wanted to take a moment and review the process I use to back up my images. While nothing is fool-proof, I think my process is fairly comprehensive and should safeguard against any lost images (knock on wood).

My 3-Step Back-Up Process:

Step 1: Buy good CF cards and don't reformat them until the final images from the shoot are burned onto the clients CD or USB drive.

Available at B&H Photo

I use SanDisk extreme 16gb cards. I won't shoot with cards any larger than 16gb. If i'm shooting a wedding (during which i usually shoot about 100gb of images), and I only use one card, and it craps out... well, i'm screwed, and worse, so is the client. 

These cards sit in a little coaster on my desk until i've completely processed, and burned images, onto another drive (CD or USB).  This means that at all times, the raw images are in at least 2 places (actually, with my process it means they are in 4 places, but we'll get to that).  

Step 2: Use a good external hard drive with RAID-1

I use a Western Digital My Book with Raid 1. This is a very key step.  This means that the hard drive actually has TWO separate hard drives in it. 

Let's say, for example, you buy a 2TB hard drive. This means that inside the drive there are actually two 1TB hard drives. You can chose to use it as a 1TB drive, and have the drives automatically clone one another (This is called RAID-1), or you can use it as a 2TB drive. Don't' be stingy. You want this to use the RAID-1 feature. Yes, it cuts your memory in half, but it also cuts the chance that you'll lose your data in half, unless the whole drive somehow gets ruined (fire? someone spills a drink all over it?).  

In fact, this brings me to another rule I have in my house. No one, except for me, is allowed to put a drink on my desk. Having a party? Unplug your drive and set it, ever so gingerly, in a closet somewhere.  Just get that thing the hell out of dodge. 

Western Digital My Book
Available at Microcenter

 Step 3: Use an online back up service like backblaze.com

The third step is a last defense that I haven't yet had to rely on, thank god. My entire hard drive is backed up in real-time by backblaze.com.  It's unlimited storage, and as soon as I put something new on the drive, the little backblaze elves get busy backing it up. But Lindsay, you say, isn't that expensive? And i've already spent all this money on these great CF cards, and this awesome WD External drive?! Aspiring photographer, I say to you, it's $5 a month, so go sign up immediately.

Hopefully, someone somewhere will see this post, follow this process, and be saved the heartache that I went through when I lost my data.

In the meantime, here is an adorable picture of a baby that I photographed yesterday. They don't make 'em much cuter than this! Oh yeah, and this photo, just like all my other photos, is backed up in triplicate. :)

To any aspiring photographers out there, feel free to email me if you have questions about backing up your data - lindsay@lindsayammons.com.

A Moment in Time...

One of the reasons I love photography is that it captures a moment in time that will never exist again.  My most recent shoots have been especially memorable in this regard, very small puppies, 6 month baby shoots, etc.

I recently experienced every photographer's worst nightmare when I plugged in the external hard drive that holds my 'moments in time' to find that it didn't want to mount on my mac.  I took it to my bang up IT team who, with pity in their eyes, let me down easily and told me that the data was unrecoverable.  I dropped my head... and cried. Like a baby.

I had just moved my images to this drive and was gearing up to back them up on the interwebs (backblaze.com to be more specific) but just hadn't hit that step yet.  It was truly one of the saddest days of my life but taught me a very important lesson about the trust we have in our devices vs. the lack of trust we SHOULD have in our devices.

I did have one shoot on my card that I hadn't deleted after importing, it was for one of my favorite clients, Raegan.  Raegan is a 6month old baby whose wonderful parents, Steve and Jamie, have had me shoot her 3mo, 6mo, and soon to be 9mo milestones. Each time I see Raegan she has grown so much, so I was especially happy not to have lost these precious 'moments in time'.

This last shoot was particularly fun because she was sitting up on her own and reacting to her parents silly faces, and making some of her own.  This day I shot this set of photos was one of the worst summer storms and Steve and Jamie were very concerned that the light wouldn't be good enough.  I told them not to worry with visions of my speedlight dancing in my head.

The shoot ended up going great, and we got lots of great photos.

 I absolutely love this photo because it's a baby just off in her own little baby world.  

                

   

Happy girl.

Such a beautiful family.

Have you ever seen a happier baby?