Please view my digital story in the making. I have nothing to lose any more. My story is out due to my family not supporting me. I refuse to be a victim and will not let my Mother die when she was an innocent victim in a long line of victims. IT ENDS NOW!
Only $50 for booking session including up to 2 hours of photography and $50 for the images from the day including 24 edited images at 14.6 MP (full resolution images) ready for printing onto canvas or framed prints
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You don't have to put your canvas prints on your wall. This brand new mini canvas is 15x15cm, comes with a wooden easel and sits nicely on your desk, a shelf or the mantel. And as a special launch offer, you'll save 30%. They're now just $24.47 each!
Still prefer a wall canvas? Then go for the 30x30cm square canvas. There is 30% off this square canvas too this week.
Use coupon code SQCAN30SR10 at the Rabbit Magic / Snapfish checkout. Offer ends 19 July 2010.
Since joining the Digital Photography revolution in 1995 I realised one thing very quickly - it is all to easy to take 300 photos in a short amount of time. What do you do with all your images so that you can a) sort them for easy recall later and b) how do you back them up in case of technology failure. In the old days I would use a floppy disk, DVD or ZipDrive. These days I use a multi-pronged approach to backing up my files after learning some very expensive lessons.
One of the worst things you can do is go out and take a lot of photos and then store all the bad photos the same way you do the good. What if you had taken ten photos of a wedding cake but you only liked one or two? That's a 1 in 5 rate which means if you delete the 8 out of ten photos you have room for eight more good photos. Are you storing photos that should be deleted but can't be bothered? Imagine how you'll feel if you run out of external storage because you weren't able to take a small amount of time to sort through and rate your photos. I learned the hard way that without diligence you can often have folders of images that really should make way for new ones. Try to get into the habit of using a photo management software such as Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop Bridge or the software that came with your camera to view and filter your images.
Photos to be deleted (obviously faulty images beyond repair) rate a 1. Absolute best quality 'I'd print that' rate a 5. Delete the photos rate one and tag or label those that rate 5
I like Redbubble for this purpose. You have the choice of making it public or private and I am so grateful that I got into the practice of uploading my absolute favourite photos from each session because then I know I can print art quality prints, canvas and posters if need be. It doesn't cost anything to have an account and if the photos are for a client they will thank you for uploading the best photos that they can print via redbubble and you will be sent the commission amount selected by you for that print. I usually keep the rate at 20% which keeps the prices competitive with other sites like Rabbit Photo and Kodak Express. It is best policy to upload client photos as private until it has been approved to display their photo on the internet.
I have mistakenly imported photos from a memory card onto an external disk alone and cried into my coffee when a relative didn't close the lid of the coffee maker properly which caused water to spill on the bench which then reached the portable phone base which sent a surge through the entire house and caused the external hard drive to fail and portable phones to not work until it dried out. Unfortunately for me the data recovery company said that they were not able to recovery anything of the 1TB of data on the drive as the 'heads had hit the platters' which in analogue record player speak means that the needle that usually hovers over the CD like disk was instead gouging it and causing irreversible damage to the DVD disk or 'platter' which meant that data recovery was not a possibility. The 'zzt zzzt zzzt' sound I could hear before it stopped completely filled me with dread and I don't think I have yet recovered even though in a few months it will have been a year since it happened. All those files I was hurriedly backing up so that my laptop could work. All the photos which I hadn't uploaded to Flickr or backed up elsewhere. Over ten months on (since September 09) and it still haunts me and I hope you can learn from my mistake. Back up, backup, back up!
My favourite is Yahoo! Flickr which is free to use and for a small fee each year ($25US) you can have unlimited storage and extra features.
Other options include Google's Picasa off-line application or online galleries, Kodak Gallery , Smugmug and Snapfish (previously Rabbit Photo) Others can be found here.
Most professional and hobbyist photographers rely on external hard drives to store their photos. If you can I suggest you have at least two external hard drives. One which you use on a regular basis which may be plugged in. Another which is backed up once a month and then replaced once a year.
You may think that this isn't necessary but think how sad you'd be to have all your photo archive in the one place. If possible I would recommend a fire safe that is fire and waterproof in case of natural disaster or just bad fortune. Better safe than sorry!
The external hard drive that I lost due to a surge in September 2009 was a Western Digital Elements 1TB hard drive. Recently I purchased a newer version with SmartWare software to back up your computer's hard drive and to store data (documents, photos, movies etc) with easy to use backup software. If you have ever tried to use a computer with a full hard drive and little RAM you'd know how slooooow Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom and other large applications used for image editing can make your computer's performance and the more free space and memory the better.
I would recommend the Western Digital MyBook Essential
Elegant design. This book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf. | See your life safe in one place. WD SmartWare software - A visual control center with a single screen view of all your data. From it you can back up, retrieve, and secure your files. | Password protection. An extra level of security with password protection and 256-bit hardware-based encryption. |
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Futomaki photo by Vanessa Pike-Russell - Fotolia.com
I love taking photos of food. When my husband came home with a plate of sushi I marvelled at the colours, shapes and textures.
Rather than just eating it I often spend a few minutes or an hour photographing until I feel like I've captured the best image before my appetite overtakes or my family ask 'can we eat it, already?'. The photo above was taken in a room with a large window which provided natural light. I decided to turn the plate so that the lines of the sushi rows formed a pleasing image. I photographed it from all different angles and then finally ate my prop. I know it sounds funny but I almost feel guilty to eat something so pretty!
Here's what it looks like on Fotolia, an international stock photography agency that helps keep me in memory cards!
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