5 Easy Steps To Avoid Losing Your Pictures, PART II July 1, 2013

THIS IS AN UPDATED VERSION OF A BLOG WE PUT OUT AT EVERY HOLIDAY…WITH SOME NEW INFORMATION!

I have the tendency to reblog this before every major holiday. The reason I do it is because it’s always right before or right after, I get a rush of phone calls that sound like this…”I lost all my pictures Brian…I don’t know what to do!” “I thought format meant the style in which I wanted them to look” or my personal favorite “I washed the SD card doing laundry…”


As a photographer (and ultimately a historian) it stabs me in the heart to hear. Pictures of birthdays, holidays, vacations and all the stuff that happens in between (everyday life) are gone in an instant. Your family history captured in those images are now nothing more than stories…watered down with each telling because your memory isn’t quite what it used to be.


While digital cameras and smart phones have definitely made photography easier for everyone, they have also managed to put those images in peril more than in the past. Life has become digital. There was a time when you took a roll of film, shot it, took it to the local Fotomat, and got it back a few days later. You’d look at them once or twice…make some notations on the back and they’d end up in a box for posterity.


Nowadays, with phone apps like Camera+, Instagram, etc. etc. etc…pictures are taken on the fly (and normally with some type of a filter that oddly enough, makes them look like pictures from your youth), and forgotten about until you need to clear off your card, or you must make room on your phone for the latest version of “Candy Crush“. Never before has an accidental swipe of a button, or a pair of clumsy hands (or “fat fingers”) had such a devastating effect on family photos. How many times have you heard of your friends throwing their phone into a bag of rice, because it made an unfortunate journey into the toilet? (I for one don’t care HOW dried out it gets, there is no way in hell a “toilet phone” is ever going anywhere near my ears or mouth!)


But I’m here to tell you there are a few easy steps to prevent this from happening to you! I want to help ensure those pictures are there for your future generations.


#1 – DUMP DOESN’T MEAN WHAT YOU THINK IT MEANS!

When was the last time you actually transferred the pictures from your camera to your computer? Dump your cards regularly! “Dumping cards” is an industry term for transferring them to your computer. You should be doing this every time you shoot new pictures with your camera. I’m SHOCKED to hear from friends and clients that they’ve never done this! It only takes a few minutes at most, and ensures the safety of your images. IMPORTANT NOTE: When you do this, make sure you reformat your card. This too only takes a minute out of your time, and lessens the chance of card failure. It is also a good idea to have more than one card. There is nothing worse than having a card fail…especially when you’re on vacation!


#2 – CHARGE!

Recharge or change your batteries regularly. I personally use the Ray-O-Vac Hybird rechargeable batteries, and they’re fantastic. I’ve also been using the Sanyo Eneloops lately as well. Charge them up before your big event, and throw them in your camera bag. There is NOTHING worse than being in the middle of a big day, and having your batteries crap out on you. If you’re using a higher end DSLR, PLEASE make sure to buy and charge an extra battery that you keep in your camera bag. It’s not uncommon for you to go and charge your battery before a day trip, and forget said battery in the charger in your hotel room. DOH!


#3 – BACK UP! BACK UP! BACK UP!

Redundancy is your friend. Once you transfer your images to your computer, back them up to an external hard drive or to a CD. And once those are backed up…do it again and put them in safe place. Either a safety deposit box, or a fireproof safe. You can even upload them to the cloud if you insist. This is a good method if you’re an iPhone user…make sure you have your images being uploaded to your Photo Stream…which brings me to the BEST form of backing up:


#4 – PRINT!!!!!

Remember 3.5 inch floppy discs? Got a drive on your current computer to put one in? Exactly! Digital Media is always changing, and who knows what the future holds. That’s why it’s important to print out all the GOOD pictures you want. Remember I said GOOD, not ALL. While the fine people at Kodak or Shutterfly may not agree with me…it’s true. You don’t have to print out every picture you take. But you DO want to print out the important ones and put them in a box, or some other safe place. You future self and your children will thank you in 20 years. I PROMISE!


#5 – TOO LATE! I was doing what you just told me and formatted by accident!!!

Don’t worry. Even formatting a card doesn’t always clear every image from there. Here are a couple of great software solutions you can use:


If you’re a PC User (such as myself) you can try Card Recovery. If you’re a MAC user, then I suggest Card Rescue. I’m not promising it works every time…but it’s ALWAYS worth a shot.


Accidents happen, digital media will fail from time to time. It happens to us pros all the time, and it will happen to you. But there are small things you can do to help prevent it.


Besides…if you do this for no other reason…it’s always important to have that one embarrassing picture of a friend you can share with the Facebook populace. If I hadn’t printed this picture out from when I was a teenager, would I be able to share it with you now?

The two on the left are now prominent doctors, and your humble author is on the far right.

I encourage you to share this post with your ALL of your friends and family…after all…knowledge is power!


Do you have a horror story you’d like to share? Make sure you email us or comment on this!


 

About the author: Brian Miller an accredited photojournalist and the owner of Chorus Photography in suburban Philadelphia. He has won awards in the past, but doesn’t dwell on them much. He also has forgotten to do almost EVERYTHING you just read, which is why it’s important to learn from his mistakes.

The Life That Happens Outside Of Your 4 Inch Touchscreen June 10, 2013

I am a proud Gen-Xer. I grew up learning how to play Zork on my TRS-80, and I would go over to my friend Michael’s house to play the better games on his Apple iiE.

I’ll even go so far as to say I’m an outright tech geek. My idea of an awesome week’s vacation would be going to CES in Vegas (although my wife doesn’t see eye to eye with me on that one).

I love tech, and while I may not run right out and get every piece that rolls down the pike (I’m looking at you Google Glass), I celebrate the catalog daily.

With that being said, I also hate tech. I hate that it’s changed our life in ways that are glaringly obvious daily, and in ways we haven’t even comprehended yet. In short, technology has come a long way in a VERY short amount of time, and I don’t think we mere mortals are fully equipped to handle that which we invented from dreams. CBS Sunday Morning actually did a fantastic piece on this just yesterday morning.

You may have heard recently about the ENTIRE photography staff of the Chicago Sun-Times being laid off in favor of teaching their reporters the finer points of iPhone Photography. I won’t even get into how ridiculous that is. I would have preferred the owner(s) to just come out and say “digital is killing us and while we saw this coming years ago, we did nothing, so we offer you these photographers as our sacrifice since our smart phones have this awesome app which allows us to change all our pictures to black and white.”

This got me thinking about weddings and other events we document every year. No doubt you’ve seen countless pictures of what we assume is a very happy bride and groom amid a sea of iPhone screens. Brings a tear to your eye just thinking about it, right? Recently, even those waiting for the new Pope to emerge mostly saw the event through the people holding up THEIR phones and tablets in front of them.

The newest fad which I highly endorse at events like these are called “Unplugged <insert name of lifecycle event here>”. It’s where you’re asked to “virtually” leave your smartphone at the door during all the important parts of the day.

“BLASPHEMY!” you cry out. “I want the world to see real time how happy you are…even if they really can’t see from my picture how happy you are!”

But it’s not blasphemy, and I’m going to tell you why.

Because when you’re doing that, you’re not attending the event as much as you’re reporting it, or even corresponding for it. But the question really becomes…for whom? (Unless you actually happen to be the brand new social columnist for the Chicago Sun Times with a bitchin’ new smartphone.)

Let’s walk through the lifecycle of a picture you take at a wedding:

7:30pm – The image you’ve taken of the officially new “Mr. & Mrs. BFF” is Instagrammed, filtered and released on Facebook, including all the obligatory #hashtagwhatevers.

7:31pm – The only people liking the pictures are your 3 BFFs sitting next to you, who are already on Facebook uploading THEIR pictures to share with the world, and the mutual friend or two who know these people, but not well enough to be invited to take their own pictures to upload to Facebook.

7:33pm – Your picture is now buried on your newly married BFF’s feed because the other 150+ people have uploaded THEIR pictures on Facebook and appropriately tagged the happy couple as well.

2 weeks later – The freshly honeymooned BFFs see the pictures for the first time after they’ve been home for a week, opening presents and commenting on THEIR OWN uploaded pictures of the various drinks and food from some fabulous location in the islands.

See what I’m talking about? Your picture was seen for about 10 minutes and then buried on Facebook, buried on Twitter, and eventually deleted because you need to make room on your smartphone for the fabulous tapas you’ve just ordered at El Vez.

What’s the problem you ask?

I want you to imagine sitting through your favorite movie on TV, but only if you’re watching it through your camera app. What would you miss with your field of vision only focused on a ¼ of the screen? Magicians have been doing this for years. When your mind and eyes are focused on whatever it is they’re drawing your eyes to, you don’t see what’s going on elsewhere.

What about that great show you saw on Broadway…would you have been able to enjoy watching Elphaba defy gravity and rise to her true wickedness if you were only watching it through an Instagram square? What if Book of Mormon was “Vine” of Mormon? You’d have to watch the show in 6 second increments!

My point is that there is so much more to what happens at a wedding that you miss by having your face glued to your screen. You miss the true emotion of what’s happening at that very moment because you’re too busy trying to focus in. Then you’re adding whatever filters and uploading so the world can see the love. Except, unless you’re in the first or second row…you really CAN’T!

At our wedding in 2006, the videographer knocked over the Candelabra next to us during our vows, spilling hot wax all over himself. Had you been staring through your phone looking at us, you never would have seen that happen. Your field of vision would have obscured it. You would have missed the moment.

I’m not telling you that technology has no place at an event. It absolutely does. But the memory of what your EYES can see vs. what your smartphone can see are two totally different things. Your memory of an event will far outlast any picture you take with your smartphone. And if you don’t believe me…think about this.

Your memory never needs to be put into a bag of rice after it was dropped in the toilet.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences – EMAIL US!

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the author: Brian Miller is a multiple award winning photographer and photojournalist. He is also the owner of Chorus Photography in suburban Philadelphia

Why Professional Photographers are called Professionals May 20, 2013

Anyone who knows me and has seen some of the pictures I’ve taken can attest to the fact that I will never make a living as a photographer.  While I can see what I want to capture in my head, something happens to it between my mind and the moment my finger hits the snap button. I’m pretty sure snap button is not the official term for it, but you know what I mean.

Usually what happens in the moment of disconnect from mind to snap, results in something very different from my actual intention.  Sometimes I get lucky and the image is not blurry or off-center.  Usually though, I am either too far away, my zoom is too far out, or I am too close, zoomed in.  Any of those scenarios create odd photos with results that leave a lot to be desired and are nothing like what actually happened.

In my hands, photography becomes a lethal weapon. I cannot tell you how many people I have beheaded through photography. Nor can I explain why so many of my friends do not have feet.  We won’t even discuss the number of people I have squelched or cut in half.  Oh and yes, that is my thumb on the edge of the picture.  And I absolutely meant to include that lampshade in the picture.  Yes, one of my friends only has half a face and that is the back half of our cat.  Get the picture? Yes, most of us have a phone that can take pictures and we use it all the time.  Many of those pictures are fun to share on Facebook or among our friends but they are certainly not ones I would frame and hang on the wall.

 

All of this and more is why I know it is worth every penny to hire a PROFESSIONAL photographer when there is an event that I want captured for eternity or however long photos last.  A professional photographer knows what all the parts of the camera are AND HOW to use them.  A professional photographer will create pictures that are gorgeous and capture the moments I want and as I remembered them.  They understand lighting composition, how to arrange everyone for formal shots, how to capture great informal photos and how to make sure we do not all have vampire red eyes.  (Another effect I am really good at – or, there are some serious things I do not know about my friends.)

A professional photographer knows how to frame a shot and will shoot hundreds and hundreds of pictures to make sure I have many great photos from which to choose the perfect ones.  A professional photographer will capture moments I may not have even known were happening.  The photos will be clear, sharp, focused and everyone will have all of their body parts. The details will be covered, and covered beautifully.

They will create pictures that we will hand down to family, friends and loved ones.  Pictures we will frame and hang on our walls. I believe a good photographer is an artist – an artist at capturing moments.  It is an art to look through a cameras lens and see the moment and capture it; capture its brilliance, spontaneity, the swirl of life and light and movement.  That is why some photos amaze us.  The photographer caught something we felt, saw or remembered.  We respond to a good photo.  We look at it, talk about it, and appreciate it.

So when I want a photograph to laugh at, shed a few tears over, or simply just hold onto and remember, I want the person who captures that image to feel the same emotion I did in that moment. And I’m sorry, but not everyone possesses those skills.

Think about that the next time you have something important you want to remember. Some moments really are priceless.

 

 

Sandy White is Chorus Photography’s studio manager, overall glue that keeps the company together and relentless task manager to Brian.