Photography

Epic Fail #1

So, probably the most unprofessional thing a photographer can do in terms of maintenance and safe guarding their hard work is to not back up said hard work. Two days ago I discovered first hand just how devastating this fatal error can be, when my trusty MacBook Pro's hard drive died a rather unspectacular death, along with all my digital negatives, working files and basically a good few years worth of personal significance. Some of my work was backed up onto a hard drive, but most of it wasn't. Not only have I now lost countless images, never to be printed or shown by any means again, but I have lost the capability to process any image files, because my Photoshop et al went along with it. This part is only temporary, as I will no doubt transfer my Creative Cloud account across to the new hard drive that I will acquire (Solid State drive is where it's at, I'm told), however this highlights how unbelievably frustrating this situation is, on so many levels.

'Tis a cautionary tale for those too lazy or too cavalier about the need for an external hard drive in this day of digital IP. Back it up people, that's all there is to it. And I shall now take my own advice and invest in the best desk top drive I can afford...

North Head Light + Dark

This Easter weekend just been, I found myself lurking in the old North Head gun battery; a kind of uber-depressing rabbit warren. A bunch of kiwi WWII dudes lived in what can only really be described - as one passing visitor so eloquently put it - as 'basically rape dungeons'. True, that you wouldn't want to find yourself locked in this place late at night. The men sat there day in and day out, waiting for the impending attack from the Russians, which of course, never eventuated. If the Russians HAD arrived on these shores, I'm fairly confident that this little artillery would've folded upon first hit and we'd all be speaking Russian right now. Apart from the history lesson, these dingy corridors and holes in the rock made for some rather beautiful, eerie light with a subsequent chiaroscuro effect.