Data Back-up

Paranoia is a constant problem when it come to my photo archive. Awhile ago I was introduced to a program that would help with keeping my files synced on multiple hard drives. The program Carbon Copy Cloner looked to be just the thing that I needed. Plus it doesn't cost anything. It would just check to see if there were any changes made and then copy them over to the back-up drive. After the first back-up, which could take some time, only modified files would be copied over. This makes for quick back-ups between multiple drives.

The only thing that could have made this program better would be if it was cross platform compatible. Right now Carbon Copy Cloner is only for Macintosh computers. Since I only have PCs, it really didn't do me any good. I have been on the hunt for something that would be similar to it on the PC. Knowing that I need to back-up my files I keep searching for a program that would work. I spent a couple of months looking at back-up programs like Norton Ghost and a few others ,but they never did what I wanted. After almost giving up, I decided to start from ground zero. Unfortunately I was using the wrong terminology. I asked myself just what did the program actually do. Check to see if there were new files and then transfer them to another location. Once I started looking for syncing programs everything started looking up. I found Allway Sync.

It works almost identical to what I was looking for. Plus it too was also free. Now I have my photos on four separate hard drives and peace of mind. There is nothing better.

Capture One 5 Workshop

Since taking the Advanced Digital Workflow Class at Cypress College, I have been introduced to many new and fun programs. One of them being Capture One 4. It is a great raw processing engine for photos and with the pro version shooting tethered to a computer is a breeze. While surfing the net and Calumet’s website, I just happened to notice that they were have workshops on the new Capture One 5 software. The closest one to me is the Calumet Los Angles workshop on Feb. 1, 2010. After seeing the deal that everyone who takes the course gets a free copy of Capture One 5, I was hooked. The normal cost of the program is $129.99. Registration for the workshop is $49.99, so you get the software and two and a half hours of training on the software. If anyone from the Digital Workflow Class is going to be going let me now. Right now Grace and myself have signed up for the Capture One 5 Workshop.

Available Light Field Trip

A couple of days ago Clifford Lester took his Available Light class on a field trip. The trip was to a building he had found that was still under construction, but the walls there were great backgrounds for a fashion photo shoot. I came along because I wanted to see the class in action. While I was there I also worked as Cliff's Digital Tech for the first part of the class. It was actually fun being on location as a tech. Since we didn’t have any outlets, it was a new experience trying to set everything up and try to conserve power. Cliff had Krista and Chris scout the models that we were shooting that day. After Cliff’s demo I took part in some of the shooting. I mostly focused on taking pictures of Krista’s model Courtney. I really like the class and next time it is offered I will see about enrolling in it.

A New Use of an Old Toy

My friend Robert Williams needed some help with a project for the Advanced Digital Workflow Class. He needed a partner for the midterm practical and his schedule was booked solid because of work. I decided to help setup a shoot so he could tech for me. I really had no idea what I was going to setup for the shoot. He wasn’t able to make it to the fashion shoot that I setup with Krista Skustad, so that left me with one day to think of something. The day before Robert and I were going to shoot I received the Drobo that I had order a couple of days earlier. I had planned on replacing my HP MediaSmart Server with this new fine and shiny Drobo, which gave me an idea. This would be the thing we would shoot. After all, from the time that I got the thing, it was a little bit of a pain to manage. Most of the time I just left it shut off because I was tired of having to trouble shoot it. Now I finally manage to find a use of the old thing. As a Prop it worked fantastic. It never beeped at me, got angry and flashed red lights at me, or just constantly give me warnings that it processer was working at 183 degrees Celsius. Now I actually like the thing. More or less as a paper weight now.

Small Problem on the Set

Krista has been working on her portfolio this semester as part of her independent studies class. Where she has worked with many female models in the past, Krista has wanted to start working with more male models to diversify her fashion portfolio. This was the first shoot that I am aware of that she setup to shot with a male model. The start of the morning went great. We actually got to the school a little early that day. Krista’s wardrobe designer Nicci arrived shortly after we did and her model said that we was going to be running a little late, but he would be there. Since we were going to have some time before he arrived, Krista had us hold off on setting stuff up the background. She wanted to wait until she could see him and get an idea of his outfits. The time for the shoot was originally set to start at 11:00am and the model say he was going to be about fifteen minutes late. After an hour or so Krista tried to call him and see if he was still going to make it to the shoot. He didn’t pick up, instead he had texted Krista that he was on his way and would be there soon. At almost two hours late he called Krista because he had gotten off the freeway and didn’t know which way to go. After a bit of a struggle to get him turned in the right direction, he was on his way. By the time he had finally arrived it was past two hours late and Krista was not a happy person anymore. She had stopped really caring about how the shoot was going to go before he had arrived. Once he was there and the shoot started, that feeling really didn’t change much at all. He really didn’t take directions from her that well, and his phone kept going off while Krista was shooting. He even answered it while he was in front of the camera. This was driving her crazy. When I chimed in about tech issues where we might need to adjust the exposure slightly or maybe move a light just a bit I got the response of “I don’t care”. I really didn’t push the point to much after that because I did agree with her. The shoot was really finished even before it had started. All of our excitement was drained by having to wait of the model. Krista also mentioned that he just passed over the fact that he was late and didn’t really seem to care much about the shoot. Hopefully the next male model that Krista works with won’t be as bad. As for this one, I don’t think she will ever work with him again.

On most of Krista’s shoots that I work on with her it is hard to edit it down. There are a lot of good pictures and it comes down to just having to pick one moment in time over another. That was not the case this time. It was hard to find any really good shots from this shoot, but I did manage to find about a handful to post.

A little Less Fun with Cature One

Awhile ago, I worked with Krista on another photo shoot. This was the second time that I was using the software Capture One Pro 4 on a shoot. I was still excited about using it from the late photo shoot that I work with Krista on. Unlike last time though, I had a few more problems with it this time. Once I got everything connected, I found that the software was not detecting the camera. I tried restarting the camera and the computer with no luck. I then remember that Cliff mentioned that sometime the preferences can get corrupted. After taking a moment to try and remember where the file was on the Mac, I trashed it. Once Capture One started up again, all was fine for the rest of the night.

Krista’s shoot that night was to take some pictures of a drummer named Emilio who is a member of the band Fire Rocket Red. The set up with the dark background made for a great low key photo shoot. Emilio brought the props to help with the shoot.

A little while after that shoot, Krista was going to also going to do some head shots of Chris. If I remember correctly he needed some new head shots to try out for a part on the show Heroes. Here is hoping he gets it. All of these Images were shot by Krista and have my post processing added.

Fun with Capture One (Continued)

Here is a selection of Krista’s images from the shoot the other day. More can be found on my Flickr site.