An Aside: Info on old hard drive can't be recovered!

Well, it's official. All of the information I had on my old XPS 710 hard drive can't be recovered unless I'm willing to pay an arm, leg, several toes and maybe an ear to get it fixed by a RAID 0 recovery specialist.

Of course before this whole catastrophe struck, I had no idea that my hard drive system was a RAID 0, nor did I know what a RAID 0 meant. I'm not very computer savvy, but I'll tell you what...becoming a photographer has definitely forced me to become more technologically sound than I ever thought I could be. I just wish all my new learning didn't come at the cost of so much loss and heartache.

To try to understand exactly what happened with my old computer, I turned to my trusty photo colleague Sean Donnelly who has always been an walking encyclopedia for all things photography/computer/technology related. Sean is definitely a "teacher in the making" because if he can get my feeble brain to understand his techno-babble he can teach anyone!

So my initial system on the XPS 710 was a: RAID 0 which sounds like a good idea on paper. You use 1 or more smaller disks to make 1 bigger one and get a performance gain because it can read from 3 different disks. But there's a big downside. There are now also 3 points of failure for the volume instead of 1, and even though RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, RAID 0 had 0 redundancy. So if a RAID 0 fails, it can not be rebuilt or recovered. Sure, it's a great to have with gaming machines because of the performance increase, but it's a really poor choice for archiving and storing things I care about as a photographer, including contracts, invoices and of course PHOTOS! EEEEK! Two drives acting as one means the chance of losing everything increases with no redundancy in place.

And that's exactly what happened! When my motherboard died in the old XPS rendering me unable to even turn on my computer, the data on my hard drives because virtually unrecoverable. The Geek Squad said I might be able to send to a data recovery service, but it would likely cost me more to recover the data than I spent on it.

Thank God I had just taken the time to backup all of my photos on two new external hard drives. And the most recent shoots I had were still on their original CD cards, so they were easy to recover. Unfortunately, I lost all of my contracts and invoices dating back from 2008 and about 3,000 songs. Most of those contracts were printed, so I can scan them in and resave them.

"I would never put anything I couldn't easily re-install on a RAID 0. Programs that I can re-install or re-download fine. Music, photos, things I can't replace? Never," says Sean.

Of course I went to the manifest for the new Alienware Aurora Dell replaced my old XPS 710 with and discovered I'm cruising for yet another bruising unless I make a change. Yep, it's a 1TB Raid 0 2x 500GB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache HDDS. Basically I'm in the same boat even with a new computer!



Sean suggests a couple of options to protect my data.

1) Add an additional 1 TB drive to an empty bay (I have four more empty slots in my Alienware!) and use a Carbon Copy Cloner type of backup to make identical and bootable backups of my RAID 0. That way if it fails, I have an exact clone I can replace it with. This can also be achieved with an external drive.

2) A second option is you could buy 2 more 500GB drives and set up a RAID 1+0 array with the 4 drives. This is basically two RAID 0 arrays mirrored as a RAID 1. In this set up one RAID 0 mirrors the other, so you have redundancy if a drive fails.

3) A third option would be to make a clone type backup to an external drive, convert the two hard drives to a RAID 1 and restore the clone back to the RAID 1.

4) A RAID 1 setup. While it halves the capacity of the disks (ie, if you use 2 1 TB drives you only end up with about 1TB of storage), there is redundancy, so if one of the two drives fails, you simply replace it with a new one and the RAID is rebuilt.

"In any case you definitely want to have some sort of constant clone type of backup for a RAID 0, because while slightly faster, they are a problem waiting to happen," says Sean. "Honestly I would rather have 1 single 1TB drive than a RAID 0. RAID 0 has double the chance to fail with only about a 10% performance gain. Unless hard core gaming is all you use the machine for, it isn't worth the trade-off."

So here's what I'm gonna do: I will get an extra hard drive and then use the Carbon Copy backup since it's the cheapest and easiest one I can work with right now until I can afford something else better. Carbon Copy works for Macs, so I will try Arconis instead for the PC. Arconis does disk imaging (carbon copy clone) and constant backup! Works for me, especially at only $50! Check out this great website to get more tips on how to prevent a hard disk failure. I totally agree that "Prevention is better than a cure!"

I'm loving this system from LaCie. I might consider getting this later on.

This Weekend: WWA Night Photography With a Holiday Twist

Tonight, my friend and fellow photography Sean Donnelly and I will be attending a Night Photography class hosted by Working with Artists. The class will be held at Hudson Gardens and Event Center where we will be learning how to mix ambient setting sun sky light with an artificial holiday light display. I'm excited about shooting in a location I've never been before. Instructor Ellen Yeiser, known for her boundless energy, hopes that we will be able to do some shooting in downtown Littleton as well, given time constraints.

At just $25, this affordable course is an amazing deal, and I appreciate my buddy Sean letting me know about it. I haven't yet had the opportunity to take a class with Working With Artists, although I've had one of my photos on display there in it's gallery in the past. If I like this class, I intend to join the WWA's recently organized camera club called "Click!" that hopes to inspire passion for photography through outings and in-house programs presented by its members and visiting artists. For $35 a year we get:

Lectures presented by artists engaged by WWA to present workshops, local celebrity photographers and members
Peer critiques of favorite images
Photographic field trips followed by critiques of images taken on the trips. Examples of photographic outings include the Denver Botanic Gardens, the Denver Zoo, the Denver Art Museum, Hudson Gardens and so much more...
The WWA Photography Book Club
Periodic competitions
And Wine!

Meetings are planned for the third Thursday of each month, from 6 - 8 pm. Outings will usually occur on the weekends, with critiques following at the next third Thursday meeting.Dues associated with the club are as follows: Membership is $35 per year. Membership will be automatically included in a $100 membership level to WWA. To become a member of Click call 303 837 1341 or email click@workingwithartists.org

NEXT MEETING: November 19th @ WWA

Socializing: 6pm
Meeting: 6:30p - 8:30p
Program Agenda
2 Member Portfolio Critiques
Excective Committee Reports

This Weekend: Bridal workshop and senior portrait session

This weekend, I have two shoots scheduled, a bridal workshop in Colorado Springs on Saturday and a senior portrait session at the Lair 'O the Bear Park in Jefferson County.



The bridal workshop will feature several photographers from the Mile High Photography group shooting about three brides who will be modeling their dresses for us in a park in downtown Colorado Springs. My new friend and photography colleague Kristi Crosson said she was so inspired by a similar workshop I organized last month photographing engagement couples that she wanted to do the same thing with brides! I'm glad to be able to concentrate on shooting during the workshop whether than run and manage it. I think I did more directing than I did shooting!



It can be easy for photographers to get into a rut when they shoot session after session of clients. But being able to see what posing, lighting and editing techniques other photographers use while shooting the same subjects is extremely motivational and educational, helping to keep all our ideas and our imagery fresh. Plus, it should be fun to work with a model who is relaxed whether than overwhelmed (which is usually the case on an actual wedding day). I can't wait to experiment and try using my Speedlights again.

Then on Sunday, I will be shooting Lukas, another senior from Dakota Ridge High School and close buddy of Jordan, whose senior portraits I shot last month. Lukas and I were suppose to have this session late in August, but storms rained out out plans and forced a rescheduled. So far, Lukas has been the only senior this year to request an outdoor "green" session rather than an urban/cityscape one, so it will be fun to try out a new locale with my friend and colleague Sean Donnelly who will be my second shooter/assistant for the day.



Since Jordan referred Lukas to my studio, he received a coupon for $25 off additional prints or his next photo session. Turns out that Jordan's mom took the coupon so she can use it off a family portrait session she has scheduled for this fall! Who doesn't love happy, repeat customers!!!

Get Connected: Paying homage to my wedding assistants

Sean and I in our matching Domke photo vests.

I wanted to dedicate this post to Christine and Sean, my wonderful assistants who helped me shoot last Saturday's wedding for Julie and Joe. I am so thankful to have had them with me, as I STILL don't know how one photographer can cover an entire wedding alone. Having three very different photographers focusing on specific aspects of the wedding made it easy to document this couples' "story," and I just know that if I had been forced to shoot this alone, details would have been missing.

Christine working the church floor. Photo by Sean Donnelly

Christine was responsible for capturing detailed shots, including the rings, the shoes and bouquet. She was also the only photographer stationed on the floor of the church and thus took numerous wide angle, story telling shots. I was behind the altar and Sean was upstairs in the choir loft shooting down. Having us all in different places using very different lenses (Christine shooting wide and with a standard 24-70 and Sean and I using largely telephotos) meant we got great angles of important parts of the wedding, including "The kiss," the ring exchange and walking down the aisle together as a new married couple.


Photo by Sheba Wheeler

Photo by Sean Donnelly

Photo by Christine Tydingco

It is fun to be able to see us all developing our own signature styles. Christine's images appear to be becoming very "illustrative" as opposed to traditional or photojournalistic. Illustrative wedding photography is known for really unique and unusual lighting effects and angles that make the image stand out from the ordinary. The photographer is given more ability to improvise and use his/her artistic sense to create the story of a wedding day rather than take images of individual moments that build up to the story as I like to do as a photojournalistic photographer. Here are some of my favorites from Christine:


Photo by Christine Tydingco


Photo by Christine Tydingco


Photo by Christine Tydingco

Sean focused on the groom, getting formal portraits of relatives and groomsmen. I love his edgy, high contrast style and lensbaby-effect which I think worked great for shooting the men. Here are some of my favorites of Sean's work from the day:


Photo by Sean Donnelly


Photo by Sean Donnelly


Photo by Sean Donnelly

I think Julie and Joe got a great collection of images to cherish for all time from three equally talented photographers, and I couldn't thank Christine and Sean enough.
Photographers have different ways of working with assistants. In some cases, a lead shooter will request that the assistants simply handover all of their unedited images so he/she can edit them for a consistent look. Since I had a wedding on Saturday and another on Sunday, I decided to let my assistants cull their own work down as well as edit them, giving me only their best 50 or so.

Now, are you guys ready for another wedding? :)

Congratulations! Social group peers get sales during benefit exhibition!

Featured: photographers Jim Murphy, Sheba Wheeler (me), Sarah and Sean Donnelly, Paul and Amy Martin

As "Group Mom" of the Mile High Digital Photography School Social Group, I am proud to announce that several members of the group sold prints last night at the Art for Endometriosis benefit! Not only did they make a sale, but this was the FIRST time they ever displayed their work in a public setting like this. Congratulations to Sean Donnelly, and Amy and Paul Martin! Plus, a minimum of 40 percent of their proceeds were donated to a great cause supporting research for endometriosis, a disease that attacks women's reproductive system.

I wanted to let everyone know about this because I think there's a valuable lesson in this experience. When my friend Sean first asked members of the social group if they would like to submit some pieces to the benefit, he was disappointed that no one originally responded. He knew I was on board because I was the only one in the group who had had previous experience showcasing my work since Jeffrey Rupp created some opportunities for Denver Darkroom students to show their work. I think others might have been intimidated and/or maybe they thought their work didn't measure up. (Note: since this blog post, I received a comment from a group member that lack of time and a busy schedule prevented her from participating inspite of her willingness to do so).

One of the members that night admitted what many of us were feeling: it is very intimidating and nerve wracking to have strangers (made up largely of other photographers who submitted their own entries) pouring over your work. During the evening, I stood upstairs and watched below while people looked over several of my images. What I found interesting was the way many women reacted when they saw my artistic nudes/boudoir shots. Most of them skimmed it and looked away quickly. Others were fascinated by them and I got several comments about how lovely and classy they thought the photos were. Overall, the experience made me wonder if I should have submitted more landscape shots instead of the boudoir photos that have sold so well in other settings. Sarah Donnelly said she thought the boudoir images stood out and made a great statement among the sea of nature and wildlife shots. Sean told me that there's another benefit for a women's shelter that needs art donated that I could enter my images in there as well.



Amy and Paul both decided to submit two photos taken from their travels in Thailand. Less than an hour into the event, one of the Martin's photos got a coveted "SOLD" in bold letters! Before the end of the evening, the second photo was being considered for sale as well. What's also interesting to note is that Amy told me during the event that one of those shots was a last minute "I'll just snap this real quick" before being forced to continue on with a tour. She didn't even realize what photo she had captured until much later during the editing process!



Meanwhile, Sean sold a great shot of some Spaulding skis! It's funny because he wasn't even sure he should have submitted that entry because it initially seemed out of place with his other landscape images. As it turns out, you never know what image will resonate with a client! That photo was snatched up to with a resounding "SOLD!" too.



So what am I trying to say? Be willing to take a risk and put your work out there for people to see and experience. It's a great boost just to be able to watch and hear what people think as they check out your work. It can help you grow as a photographer and help you gain confidence. You can also learn a ton about how to properly display your work. Sean had a heck of a time trying to figure out aspect ratios, printing and matting. Here's what Sean said he learned about his experiences: (and for the record Sean, you did an amazing job!)

I learned I really hate pre-cut mats. Seems different places have a different idea of what is meant by X by X opening.

I learned I really don't like Costco Photo Processing except for things like classwork. They seem to have their own ideas about auto cropping and enlarging despite me checking the "do not correct box."

I learned to never choose any of the "border" options with Costo printing. doing so will rescale your image to allow the border to fit.

I learned to pay attention when selecting and pasting photo "A" and pasting it onto background "B." If they are not both the same dpi the imported photo will automatically rescale to the same dpi. This can lead to unpredictable results.

I learned from submitting my own photos that you need to give yourself at least 3 weeks lead time to get them done the way you want, particularly if ordering larger prints or uncommon sizes.

I learned that Canvas has to be stretched onto a frame which is also a custom order. If you don't pre-order the frame you are putting it behind glass which, while nice, takes away from the objective of printing it on canvas to begin with.

I learned that when you pay for 1 or 2 day shipping on prints that only means 1 or 2 days after they print it. They may not get around to printing it for 3-7 days.

All in all getting stuff prepared and delivered to Audrey has been very time consuming, frustrating and (in the case of my work) expensive. I didn't realize the costs I was setting myself up for when I chose to make big prints that would require custom matting.

On the bright side though, it was one of those "life experiences" where you at least no better about what to expect in the future.

Friday Funnay

Friend and colleague Sean Donnelly shared this video "101 Photoshop Tips in 5 Minutes" with members of the Mile High DPS social group, and it's made me laugh every time I watch it. Times are hard for many, but humor can help us all cope. Enjoy!

Congratulations January Photo of the Month Contest Winner: Amy Martin

Congratulations Amy Martin for your winning entry in the PYWP Photo of the Month: THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS. This month's poll was another tight race with only four votes separating the top entries shot by Amy and Sean Donnelly. The topic was difficult but fun, giving the photographers who entered a chance to stretch their creative muscle.

Since this the second contest Amy has one in a row, she has promised us that she will host a session on shooting pets. Pet photography is definitely something I've been wanting to learn how to do better. Besides bragging rights, Amy gets to choose February's monthly assignment, which will be announced tomorrow! So make sure you come back to see what the topic will be!

December Photo Assignment Topic Announced: The Decisive Moment

Sean Donnelly, winner of November's photo assignment, has chosen December's photo assignment topic.

The topic is THE DECISIVE MOMENT

(C) Image by Henri Cartier-Bresson

"There was a plank fence around some repairs behind the Gare Saint-Lazare train station. I happened to be peeking through a gap in the fence with my camera at the moment the man jumped." - Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22, 1908 - August 3, 2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the "street photography" style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed. Cartier-Bresson is now synonymous with the term "the decisive moment" -- "There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment."

"Photography is not like painting," Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."[3]

Sean, who takes photography classes at the Denver Darkroom, struggled with capturing this assignment given by instructor Nick Reti, so he's curious to see what others can come up with. Reti described the assignment as: "The defining moment or passing time. Time can be shown in many ways in a photograph, a person can define time, a group of people, the seasons, time of day. In this assignment challenge yourself to define a moment or passing of time. Rusted fences, seasonal references, peeling paint. Take a photo that defines a specific moment or passing of time."

So there you go. Those explanations should be more than a enough to get you started. Just follow these guidelines please:

The rules:
1) The image must be taken between NOW and Dec. 28. The goal of the monthly topic is to get us out there shooting new subject matters on a regular basis. Interpret the topic as you wish, as long as the window is the main subject. Submit a photo related to the topic to my email at shebawheeler@picture-yourworld.com.

Please have EXIF intact. Photos not taken during the time frame will not be included.

Please send photos no larger than 1MB and add a watermark if you see fit.

Now, GET OUT THERE!

Congratulations November Monthly Photo Contest Winner: Sean Donnelly

© Image by Anthony Sean Donnelly

Congratulations Sean for winning November's monthly photo assignment contest! The theme was WINDOWS. Sean gets to choose December's topic, and I will post his choice on Monday.