Jim Larson Photography

The last time we were in Portland, Oregon, we went on a dinner cruise on the river.  After dinner we toured the ship and ended up at the pilot house where the captain gave us a quick tour.  Here is a shot using my iPhone camera showing the captain as he navigates the river.

This image is quite simple.  It is a goose feather floating on the water.  

The morning this photo was taken was pretty calm, so the water was quite smooth and almost soft looking.  Maybe the feather in the photo is what makes the overall photo look soft.

I hope you are all out taking photos.  I try to take at least one a day, even if it is with my iPhone while walking out to my car after work. Setting a simple goal like this will help you in looking for shooting opportunities.

This post really doesn’t have much to do with photography exactly, but more how to protect all those photos you have taken over the years. 

I found out last week that CDs and DVDs are not as reliable as I thought they were.  Actually, in my particular case, it wasn’t the actual CD, but the paper disk label attached to the CD that caused the problem.  The paper label shrunk over time actually warping the CD into a very slight dish shape.  If you set the CD on a flat surface, the edges of the CD were actually about 3/16 of an inch higher than the center.  My CD reader would read the center of the disk just fine, but it had big problems the closer it got to the outside edge of the CD.  Fortunately, I had a backup of the backup and was able to read “most” of those.  I’ll have to see about getting the label off the bad CD to see if I can read the data.

So, what is my solution?  Copy all of my photos to hard disk storage.  In particular to a new device on the market called a Drobo.  I purchased one and put 2, 1TB drives in it.  When I run out of space, I add another drive, or replace an existing drive with a larger one.  Very cool technology.

This isn’t my only solution.  I also use USB hard drives as a 2nd and 3rd backup for anything I consider important.  Lastly, I use a service called Carbonite to move the most critical data to an offsite location.

You should visit Managing Your Digital Life to read all about managing your precious photos and data.  They have some very good information on the site and you’ll see they love the Drobos as much as I do.

Keep everything backed up!

      Jim

This photo really not a field of blue, but a bunch of rooftops made out of blue tarps. These tarps cover some power boats as they sit in the water at a marina on Lake Coeur d’Alene in Idaho.

I like the dominant blue color and the nice angles of the rooflines.

I almost forgot to post Alle’s March calendar photo.  Here it is.

She was posing at a great place on our hardwood floor where a lot of lines point in right at her, directing your focus.

The photo was taken with an off camera flash, giving some shadows and an nice catch light in the eyes.