St. Louis Photographer » A Journal by Holly McCaig

Today, I posted something on my Facebook status update about backing up my 2008 images on DVDs and it spurred a great conversation. So, I thought I’d elaborate on here about backing up files.

Here goes: I’m completely anal when it comes to backing up my image files. My clients have NOTHING to worry about, because somewhere, some how, I probably have some version of the files if that’s ever a problem. I’d even rather edit the original Raw files over again if it came down to it. At this point, I have not actually gotten rid of image files (except for a few). I most likely will only keep copies for a certain number of years as business grows and I take more and more images.

When images come home, I pull them off my Compact Flash cards onto my computer’s hard drive (one on my Drive 2 and one on my Drive 1 where I have my “working sessions” folder). I work with a Mac Pro tower that has two hard drives installed.

Then, I make a DVD backup of the Raw files. Even before I sort, I make a backup. I don’t delete the images from my cards until this is done. It’s important to have plenty of cards if you are a busy shooter! My friend, Rebekah turned me onto these DVD+R DL disks from Newegg. Expensive, I know, but they are 8.5 GB of file space! You cannot go wrong with that! I have had a few fail during burning, but others have not. I just don’t seem to have much luck with disks anyway, so I just live with it.

A copy of the client’s folder now goes on my Drobo drive. I use mine for file storage instead of a backup system. I have HUGE hard drives on here, so no worries on space for quite a while. That drive, as well as my working sessions folder on my computer get auto backed up to Backblaze.com. There are lots of online backup storage systems you can use. It’s just the one that seems to be working for me.

I’ve developed a pretty quick method for editing my photos. I can edit a session in a day, if not faster. Weddings, longer, but still faster than I used to. That’s another post for another time. So, a fresh copy of my edited files goes on the Drobo, along with my sorted Raw files – I’ve deleted the ones that I don’t want to use in this set. Then, those get burned to another DVD and a copy goes to the studio and one at home.

There, that’s it. It’s what I do. I will clean it off my computer’s working session folder. Just to keep my computer free and clear. I told you, I’m anal about backups. I have had drives fail on me with simple bumps. I just don’t want to risk losing my clients images, or the hard work I’ve put into them. I may be going completely overboard, but not relying on just one method is working for me – as a peace of mind.

There are lots of methods like RAID systems, and EHDs and all those things. Just find what works for you. My only recommendation is to make MULTIPLE copies of your backups and store one off site from where you normally work. What if your home floods or burns? It’s all just about peace of mind for you and your business.

Hope that helps a little!

Besides, who would want to lose the file of this adorable image?

I received a blog comment yesterday about how I process my iPhone photos – you know, these:

I do this now with all my seniors. Mainly because it’s something fun that I want to collect from all the sessions and can hang in the studio. And, it takes like five seconds. Typically, I’ll shoot it towards the end of their session.

I shoot with my 50mm f/1.4 wide open. I just focus on the photo I took of them on my iPhone that they are holding up and that lens provides such an amazing blur! I have a couple of more of these in my files so I’m excited to build a collage for the new studio! Get creative with your seniors!

Every year, we take a new holiday card photo. Sometimes, we try and look nice and civil. Other times, we do it up a little silly, and fun. I tried to go back and look up old ones, but I suck at locating disks of archives. I finally bought this hip disk cabinet thinga-ma-jig, but it sits empty. Resolution for 2010 perhaps?

Anyway, I’m not sure how we really came up with this idea. First we thought about doing shaped bokeh lights behind us. Then, it turned into using Snuggies. Then, into mocking the commercials. Just see for yourself:

Though, I’m not really sure what I was thinking I was mocking in the picture. Just being goofy, I suppose.

It got me to thinking about how I’d LOVE to get you all thinking about your holiday cards for next year. If you have a fun, zany idea that you’d like to shoot, we can consult and pre-plan. Heck, we can even schedule your session any time during the year. Get it out of the way, right. My prices are going up next year, but I’d like to make the offer now! You can bite on a $150 session with the digital image to use if you book before the end of January on your holiday card session. Take advantage of warmer weather outdoors, maybe do a Lollipop picture, or plan a fun set like we did. Depending on the actual setup you have in mind, it would just be $150 and then you can get your cards wherever you’d like. Get in touch with me about this!

A few of you may not have gotten your card from us yet – they’re coming!

I told my mom that I noticed that this year, there are WAY more houses decorated. More than last year, at least. I don’t think she agrees, but I am pretty sure of it. It’s beautiful. At least beautiful now that some of the neighbors actually waited until after Thanksgiving to put them up. Geesh.

We don’t hang holiday lights on our house. Not anymore. My dad used to do it all the time. It was like this ritual we went through. We had to decide what colors we wanted to do for that particular year. Then, each strand of outdoor lights was carefully hung on the house. Like perfection too. Each one was hanging just perfect. Then, my job was to hand my dad each bulb in the proper order as we had planned. Yes, we had a plan.

Now, mom hangs some little wreaths on the windows and we put the electric candles in the window sills. Simple. Not like our Halloween traditions.

I do love playing with bokeh shapes this time of year though. So, expect some of that when things slow down a little.

I get asked about bokeh shapes often. And, I thought maybe I would just share a couple of things here on the blog for you!

I got my photog pals, the Harringtons into trying this too…and they put together a little video showing how this works. We posted their video on the homepage of Pink Ink Studios if you’re ever missing this post down the road.

Rocks huh? I have played with some of this before – love it!

And, if you’re looking to get some amazing shots of your Christmas lights outdoors, don’t do it when it’s too dark! Get amazing ambient light and play around each day until it’s just perfect. This article from the Strobist is perfect for explaining this. I shared it a few years ago and it’s still a great reference! Now, go photograph those lights!

I do love albums. I love that when I’m shooting your session, I’m trying to tell a story. Your images can compliment one another on the wall, but when you want a larger collection, why not choose an album? I have a few, more luxury style albums available, but let’s face it, in this economy we want to be able to afford a beautiful keepsake and still get something that is a great quality.

Our Basic Albums are a new product for us. Each album contains a hardcover where your image is printed directly onto the hardcover with a durable matte finish. Each book is printed on 100# silk-finish premium paper (this is not the heavy-weight mounted pages in our premium books). Sized at 7 x 7 inches, albums contain 15 spreads (approximately 50 images). Priced at $250 (each additional spread is just $30).

The design process is pretty streamlined for our studio, and we can provide a draft in just a couple of days to you. Rush Fee on final album order designs not placed by December 5th. Deadline for delivery by December 24th is 12/7. So, if you’d like to open up an old session and have us design one of our Basic Albums for, just get in touch!

Here’s a quick slideshow of the album we did for Cherie + David’s session on Tuesday – the spine has text (the first slide is the cover design).