Since the introduction of digital photography the number one worry of all photographers has been keeping the electronic images safe. And if you choose another photographer, then it should worry you also. The problem was (and notice I said was) how to keep images SAFE! Safe from errors, Safe from viruses, Safe from accidental deletion and Safe from computer or hard drive crashes. There has been in the past few years many a’ bride who’s heart sank on finding out that the digital image files captured on her special day where lost to an accident a crash or an idiot photographer who did not know what he or she was doing.
I will not deny that in the early days it even happened to me. Was I an idiot? Well if I am going to honest…then yes… I was. I, like other photographers was new to the technology. I did not take the time to research, study, ask questions of people far knowledgeable then me on what to do and how to do it. I was so excited I just wanted to get out there in wedding land and shoot pictures and cast my fate to the wind. Did I loose any images…well yes I did, one time to a bride who wanted me to take pictures with my digital camera in the rain. BUT…lucky I had a back up camera…and lucky I did not have all the images on one CF card. I learned the lesson of having a just as good camera for a back up a long time ago and learned that if I was going to be a digital photographer I had to come up with a permanent solution to protect my and your images.
BUT…the fear was always there and the question of how to eliminate it once and for all plagued me for some time. I wasn’t till 2006 ( and I was fully digital by 2004) that I finally came up with a solution to solve the fear of loosing a brides images to happenstance or plane stupidity. Is it time consuming and Expensive? Yes it is. Do I charge more for the service when other photographers are doing so and most of them are still wondering how to do it themselves or do not have the financial resources to do so? No I Do Not! I include it in my basic package and at my expense.
HERE IS HOW IT WORKS. I call it Manual Raid 5.
RAID. Redundant array of independent discs. And up a few months ago, Raid was exclusive to big corporations and servers, or to people who spend lots of money on state of the art equipment. Fortunately for you I am one of those people. As far as a computer is concerned a RAID backup system is an internal or external set of drives anywhere from 2 to 5 which mirrors any data to all drives simultaneously. It is connected all together by a Raid Controller Card which automatically does the task. So I decided to incorporate this technology into my photography work flow...manually. Yes..it takes more time...but aren't your images worth the extra time? I say they are.
HERE IS HOW I DO IT.
STEP ONE: Your images are captured on a Professional Compact Flash Card. ( I carry at least 5 of these cards and the minimum is One Gigabyte. The maximum is Eight Gigabytes) They are all high speed professional cards.
Second: I DO NOT SHOOT ALL YOUR IMAGES ON ONE CARD! Other photographers do this and I tell them they are crazy for doing it. I shoot your images on three or four cards depending on how many I need to take. I DO NOT REFORMAT OR CLEAR ANY CARDS DURING YOUR WEDDING! We will now call this RAID ONE.
Third: After a card is full, it is downloaded to an Image Bank (another external hard drive which is portable and carried with me at your wedding) We will call this RAID TWO.
Fourth: I then upload the image bank to my laptop. Either during the wedding or on the way home in my car depending on how things are moving along during your day. I do not clear the image bank...it is 40 gigabytes and will hold over ten thousand images. We will call this RAID THREE (your images are now on THREE devices and the odds of three devices crashing all at the same time is astronomical. But I don't stop here.
Five: I then burn all of your images to a master back up DVD from my laptop. This is RAID 4
Six: Finally I upload the master unedited DVD to my main editing computer. This computer is not an internet surfing computer. This one is solely for the purpose of image editing. It is a state of the art high end Gateway FX530XV gamer. It’s loaded with an Intel Dual Core processor, a Raid Zero 500 gigabyte 10,000 rpm Hard Drive with a Raid controller. It has 4 gigabytes of RAM memory and a 512 Crossfire Graphic Card. Combined with Dual Monitors one of which is a 21” Samsung Syncmaster with a 1000:1 contrast ratio. I can run three professional editing programs simultaneously and load 50 high res images on my palette at one time. IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS FOLKS! Your images are better protected with my Manual Raid 5 then if they where in Ft. Knox.
AS I SAID….I WILL SPARE NO EXPENSE….TO SAFEGUARD THE ELECTRONIC IMAGING OF YOUR WEDDING DAY! ASK ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPHER WHAT THEY DO!
Ben's photography will make your partypop!
