How much do you value your photographs? If you have spent several hundred dollars on a camera – spent thousands of dollars on a trip to Hawaii and then you lose your Hawaii photographs because your hard drive dies then your trip was in vain and memories lost. If you keep your photographs on just one hard drive then you are going to lose your photos. You may be lucky and upgrade to a new computer before that hard drive fails.

Google, who stores their data and a heck of a lot of hard drives, has found that hard drives will either fail in the first month or they will last about 3 years and then every year after that 10% of the remaining drives will fail.

I use to have about 6 external hard drives and used Superduper to back up my data – and then I had 2 of those harddrives over heat and die in one day. I new I needed a better backup solution.

What do I do now? I use a Drobo which has 4 hard drives that share the photographs. If any of the drives fail then the data is safe. In fact, I have had one of the drives fail and I replaced the failed drive with a new one and the Drobo picked up the data protection.

Drobos allow you to use whatever SATA drives you have laying around and you can upgrade them. You can also share the drive on the network and act as a Network Area Storage device.

True back up solutions also require an off-site solution in addition to the Drobo I store the photographs on SmugMug. If a meteor ever hits the house or a fire consumes the Drobo and my computer at least my photographs are kept off site.

So backup your photographs and your data!

Excellent question and of course there is a small debate whether you should cover your LCD screen with a plastic protector. My Nikon cameras came with plastic covers and I use them ALL the time. If I want I can pop the cover off and put it back again afterwards. Over the years there are scratches, nicks, and even some dust.

I have had my Canon 5D Mark II for a week now and it did NOT come with a plastic cover and there is now a crack in the LCD screen. I am writing this post out of shear “ticked off-ness” cause it has only been a week and I am brought to great sadness. I’ll get it repaired – it hopefully will only be $15 to fix – but it is possible it’ll cost a lot more money. I am living with the regret that if I had found a 3rd party plastic cover my LCD screen would not be broken.

Do plastic covers get in the way? I don’t think so – I am use to them. And to be honest the best way to enjoy my photographs isn’t on an LCD screen – but on a wall print!

So here is what a broken LCD screen looks like – photographs are going to be so beautifully displayed with that scar running through the high definition display. Remember people, using a plastic cover on an LCD screen is like insurance (or using condoms) no one likes to use them but the are necessary to avoid accidents or in the case of insurance pay for those accidents.

Canon 5D Mark II broken LCD screen

Another view of my broken Canon 5D Mark II.

Canon 5D Mark II broken LCD screen

And here is my Nikon D90 – with the plastic cover. I have never had a problem with the plastic cover – I can see through it and I know my camera is relatively safe. This is how to protect your camera.

Nikon D90 with the plastic LCD cover

And this is my Nikon D90 without the plastic cover. It takes less than a second to pop off and a second to pop back on. Yes the images look great with the plastic protection, they look better without the plastic protection, and they look their best on a computer monitor or as a wall portrait!

Nikon D90 without plastic LCD cover

Get close, get close, get closer

I think I learned this tip from watching Oprah many many years ago. And that was “get close, get close, and get closer!”

Composition is important – you want to get as close to your subject as you can. Unless you are on African safari and the lions will eat you. Or in the case of sports photographers and their $10,000 lenses which let them capture the action at the opposite side of the field.

You however have a small point and shoot or a DSLR with a kit lens – you need to walk up to the subject and make sure that they fill the whole LCD screen with the person.

I remember seeing my mom take a photograph of her granddaughter – Julianne sat at the desk playing on grandpa’s computer. Looking at the photograph – there was 5% granddaughter and 95% office. Get close!

I love camera equipment. And yes, it probably borders the line of do I need it or do I want it. There have been plenty of times where I have not thought long term when I purchased a new piece of equipment. And I end up buying something that gets replaced by something shinier and newer at a later date.

I bought the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 lens and then a few months later I bought the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 lens and the 24mm sat on the shelf or at the bottom of the camera bag for several years. I think that might happen to a lot of people who invest in hobbies. We buy with what we can afford only to replace it a short time later with something better. It would have been better financially to have waited and bought the nicer item.

Nikkor f/2.8 24mm lens

Looking at my 50mm lenses. I have purchased one at f/1.8, f/1.4, and f/1.2. Each one got more expensive and each one was better than the previous model. And had I just saved up money for the high end model I wouldn’t have spent $600 on the lower end models. Yes, I can sell the low end models but we end up taking a little bit of a loss when we do.

And then there is the baby step model. Maybe we shouldn’t buy the most expensive lens until we are ready. We can always rent the lens and see what we need. There is nothing wrong with the kit lens and we can try lenses before we buy. And let your need determine your purchase – not just your want.

Hopefully this website will give more insight into what works and where you can invest your money – as a hobby or as a profession.

And if you want to find this lens new you can check it out at Amazon.com.

Photomatix Pro has been the choice of software for photographers for quite some time now.  I have tried a few other programs (everyone seems to have a free trial) and they all have their benefits and their downsides.

HDR is an exciting technology for photographers – and it is only going to get better.  Even today some camera manufacturers are building HDR into the cameras so you won’t have to bother with software.  Till then we have a multistep process to create our images.  But I don’t mind that.  Ansel Adams would photograph with his camera and then spend a great deal of time in the darkroom creating his images with dodging, burning, and other techniques.  If you look as his prints you see his creations.

The same can be said with HDR – yes there is a lot of photo manipulation going on.  I have heard people say that pixels are meant to be punished.  And like everything in photography there is a balance to find and Photomatix gives you the tools to find that balance.

There are really two adjustments in Photomatix Pro that are the most important.  They are the Strength and the Luminosity sliders.  These have the power to make the images more real or make the images more surreal.  And you are the artist – you are the one who can push that envelop or play it safe.

So if you want “realistic” you will keep the Strength slider low (towards the left) and you will keep the Luminosity slider to the right or a higher number. And of course if you want the Harry Potter effect you can switch that – try it out!