Night Photography Tips and Tricks

Photography at night can yield amazing results if done right, but it is also a major hurdle for beginners in photography. Instead of blaming the equipment, let's look at refining our technique. In this article I will suggest a few settings for night photography.

Fireworks Photography

A typical picture of fireworks is taken with a technique involving holding a black card in front of an open shutter. In manual exposure mode, set the shutter speed to 20-30 seconds (or use bulb mode), an aperture of F11 to F16 and an ISO setting of 100 or 200. Using the bulb mode on your DSLR, you can get the shutter to stay open as long as required. If you are using the bulb mode, a remote shutter release is very useful to avoid getting camera shake (yes it can happen even on a sturdy tripod). If you don't have a remote release, you can also use your DSLR self timer, set it to 10 seconds so that you can give it time to settle down any minute shakes, if any, triggered by pressing the shutter button.

The black card is used to block the lens during any intervals when the fireworks are not showing in the sky, so that the long exposure is optimized to record the fireworks and not over-expose other parts of the scene. The second reason is so that you don't record any smoke caused by the fireworks. Take care not to accidentally touch the lens, or you might cause some movement which will lead to camera shake.

Timing is Crucial

The single most important tip I can give you regarding night photography is to get a good tripod. With a sturdy tripod, you can use the most basic camera and lens and come out with a winning shot. Armed with a tripod, the next thing to do is to scout for a good location where you can set up your tripod and wait for the twilight hour when the amount of ambient light matches the amount of artificial light. This creates pictures where the sky is a deep blue color, perfect for offsetting the man-made lights in the scene. If you are shooting a low ISO setting like 100 at this time, and your aperture in the F11-F16 range, your shutter speed will drop to a level where it is not possible to hold your camera steady. That is why you need a tripod.

A tripod is useful for shooting stationary subjects, which is why wedding photographers rarely carry tripods when they are on the move, shooting moving subjects.

If you are shooting a scenic night landscape, forget about using flash, unless there are human subjects within a few feet from the camera. Your flash unit, typically a speedlight, will only be effective within a few feet. It will not be able to illuminate a night scene that is 800 metres away. Besides, shooting with an on-camera speedlight rarely results in a natural looking outdoor night scene.

Shooting Light Trails

Use a small aperture (which means a big F-number like F16) to get starburst effects on street lamps. Not only does a small aperture give you more depth-of-field (which means objects are sharp from front to back), it also enables you to get longer shutter speeds, which contribute to the long red lines created by the tail-lights of passing motorists. Or white lines created by their headlights. The easiest mode to shoot this is Aperture Priority.

The Right Technique Makes the Shot

You don't need high-end equipment to take nice pictures. All you need is the right know-how.

TOFT COSTA RICA PHOTO WORKSHOP

Take a trip through the rain forest of Costa Rica on this photography workshop adventure. Roy Toft describes his recent trip through the rain forests of Costa Rica as you explore the wonders of Costa Rica. The stills and images of the biodiversity of this very special part of the world are self-explanatory--a trip of a lifetime whether you are a photographer or just a nature lover.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nI5tvwTXJU&hl=en

Improve Your Portrait Photos Fast - See the Light!

Tired of seeing black eye sockets and whitened out faces in that last series of snaps you took at the family outing? It's easy to get a much better result if you just look at the light. No light, no picture, but what counts is the light quality and direction. And the good part is you can use natural lighting just as effectively inside as well as outside. A little careful seeing before you click the shutter is all that's required.

Light has quantity, quality (contrast), direction and color.

Generally, the more light there is, the better. The greater the quantity the faster you can shoot. Too little light causes problems with long exposures (movement shows in your picture), and in really low light levels in digital cameras "noise", little specks, can appear in the shadows. A good amount of light gives you more control over how you interpret your subject. You can capture an image in low light conditions by increasing the ISO number, but that brings more noise and usually an unsatisfactory picture. The "snap" goes from the "snapshot".

Quality. Hard? Soft? Somewhere in between?

In a nutshell, find a soft light coming from the side. Hard, contrasty light (direct sun) is the enemy of successful people shots. Overhead it causes dark eye sockets and unwanted textures on the face. Full on the face gives squinty eyes as the subject finds the light too bright to look into. Both positions give nasty, hard and unflattering shadows. And make sure there are no streaks of hard light and shadow across the face.

This high contrast between the light and dark parts becomes too great for the image recorder in your camera to handle, so the bright bits white out, losing detail, and dark bits go too dark, ditto. If you try to compensate on one side, the other becomes even worse. Professionals have special reflectors and diffusers for light management, but there are other ways.

How to control light direction

As it's hard to shift the sun, shift the subject. The idea is to stop direct light striking the model, so find a shady area, under a porch, tree, beside of a house, where the sun is no longer directly involved. The light will still have direction, but now is much softer and more flattering. Another idea, if the sun's not overhead, is to turn the subject's back to it. This is bit more dangerous as sunlight in the lens causes flare, with loss of contrast and colour, so make sure there is no direct sunlight into the lens.

Now the model's face may be a bit too dark, and to overcome that your camera could well have a backlight compensation setting on it. This opens up the lens a stop or so to let more light in. If not, find the exposure compensation control (read the handbook!) and add a stop of exposure yourself. The rewards can include a nice halo around your subject's head. But many problems are solved if there are clouds around. These are great light softeners, and if it's a partly cloudy day, you're in luck.

Color and how we see it.

Color temperature is too big a subject to explore here, but you have around seven controls for color balance on your camera. Sunlight, shade, tungsten and the others are all there to allow catering for various colors in light. The human brain does not interpret color changes very well, and provided the red, green and blue frequencies that make up white light are there in reasonably similar amounts, you see white, even though your camera may see something else. With portraits a slightly warmer color is always better than a cool or blue tinged one. Experiment to see under what conditions each setting is most effective.

And what about inside?

The laws of physics never change, inside or out, film or digital. Soft light is good, and the best is from a window. Put your subject close to it. You can have them looking outside, or perhaps turned towards you. Use a piece of white card or similar to reflect a little light back into the face from the darker side. And there you have it.

Now go shoot some

So before you next have to face a crowd of family and relatives all wanting a fine picture of themselves, spend a few minutes with a willing helper and try a few ideas out. Really look at the results, and figure out how they can be improved. Is the light coming from the right direction? Is it soft enough? No hard shadows? Flattering? Experiment. You will be amazed how a little investment of time will show up in vastly improved images. Portrait shooting is fun and a successful one is a great reward for yourself and the model. Happy shooting!

How to Photograph an Airshow

Each summer, at air shows across the globe, awestruck spectators enjoy the power and precision of aerial demonstration teams and individual performers. In addition to what is happening in the air, there are often static displays on the ground. For photographers, these events provide outstanding photographic opportunities. After you shoot your first air show, you will likely return each year as I do. The tips below are based on my experiences at air shows around the New York area.

Day of the Show

It is recommended that you get to the show at least one hour in advance in order to find parking, and a shooting location. Air shows can be very crowded, with numbers reaching into the tens of thousands. By arriving early, you may be able to set your gear up in a prime area. Generally, the performers enter from the left and right, with their stunts done at "show center." A good viewing spot is important, as it allows you to focus and track the incoming jets. When possible, I try to pick a place that's in the shade with a full view of the show center. However, many airports and military bases do not have trees to block the sun. To protect yourself from the elements, I strongly urge you to bring sunscreen.

Lens Choices

When I photographed my first air show many years ago, I used a 28-135mm lens. Yet, unless the plane was flying directly above me, I found that much more reach was necessary. Today, I use a 70-200mm for action that's directly overhead, and a 400mm for tighter shooting. My camera does not have a full frame sensor, so a 400mm with a 1.6 crop factor is actually an effective 640mm lens. Just remember, air shows are usually several hours in duration, and longer lenses can get quite heavy. Image stabilization is a nice feature, but a tripod will give your arms a break and allow you to create sharp images consistently. While the majority of my aviation work is shot with longer lenses, I find that wide angle lenses are also useful for performance teams that are spread out in wide formations. By utilizing a few different options, you can capture more of the action, and will come home with a diverse collection of images.

Shutter Speeds

Attempting to freeze the motion of something traveling over five hundred miles per hour is no easy feat. In order to achieve this, a fast shutter speed of around 1/1000 is recommended. Yet, like most aspects of photography, there are exceptions to this. With older planes, a shutter speed of 1/1000 will freeze the propellers. The effect actually reduces the appearance of motion, and gives the image an unnatural look. To show the movement of the propeller, a shutter speed of 1/90 is a good starting point. However, you may have to adjust it slightly to 1/60th or slower, depending on the speed of the plane. Of course, with these slow shutter speeds you will want to pay close attention to your camera technique to ensure sharp images.

In-Camera Metering

Even today's sophisticated DSLR metering systems can be tricked by certain situations. When exposing a jet against a clear blue summer sky, automatic camera settings will often properly expose the sky, and leave you with an underexposed plane. In order to have full control over the camera, I prefer to use the in-camera spot meter along with the manual exposure mode. Semi automatic modes can be effective as long as you are utilizing your histogram, and making adjustments as needed. Most often, I find myself around 1/1000th, ISO 400, and f5.6. Of course, this can change drastically depending on the weather conditions of that particular day.

Focus

Rather than trying to frame the perfect shot, I like to use a high speed burst mode and fire off many frames for each pass. This technique increases the percentage of keepers. Following high speed objects this way takes some getting used to. Thankfully, most cameras feature continuous focusing, also known as AI Servo. This mode will allow you to continually focus on moving subjects. To use this feature successfully, keep your center focusing point over the aircraft with your cable release or shutter held halfway down. As you follow the plane through your viewfinder, the camera will automatically adjust the focus as the aircraft gets closer. When you are ready to make an image, simply press the shutter all the way down. Luckily, air show organizers often arrange "photo passes," where the pilot flies at a reduced speed. Don't get too comfortable though, they return to full speed after just a few slow turns.

Memory

With all of this high flying, fast-paced action, you will likely go through many memory cards rapidly. I bring a portable hard drive with me, and download the contents of the card while continuing to shoot. Once I'm sure the images have been safely written to the drive, I format the card in camera and reuse it. I like to shoot in RAW format whenever possible. However, if you are short on memory cards, and don't have a portable hard drive, you may want to consider shooting in the Large/Fine JPEG format. This will allow you to fit more images on the card than RAW.

What to Look For

Smoke trails and after burner effects are great additions to an aviation image. Be ready for them, as they happen quickly. The trails of white smoke are actually created by pumping oil into the exhaust pipe. This is particularly interesting when used by an entire formation of planes. The patterns of smoke can be used to make for a more artistic composition. In addition, it adds a bit of contrast to the otherwise plain blue sky. I also look to capture the interaction between two planes. When pilots are flying side by side with their wings nearly touching, a great deal of tension is introduced to the photo. By freezing this moment in time you are also showcasing the precision, and skill of the daring pilots.

Enjoy the show!

Photography Backdrops Make Pictures Come Alive

Most of the time in artistic photography, appearance is enhanced by hanging pieces of clothes with various designs in the background which makes a great impact on the photos. These designs may vary from buildings, country side landscapes, cityscape, sea or other different representations. This is commonly known as photography backdrops. Their choice of use depends on the artists intention, purpose or theme of the picture being taken.

Simply we can say that use of backdrops makes pictures come alive. By this I mean it brings life, color, glow and creativity. This greatly ensure that pictures contain special aesthetics effects and themes. They can also be used where there are cluttered backgrounds which may loose luster due to lighting or other aspects.

In digital photos, use of a computer makes it easier to create a personal backdrop using already existing pictures. Adobe photo shop and Corel draw are some of the software that are used to customize photography backdrops after taking the picture. Its good to note that one should be creative in selecting color of background. However, using backdrops when taking indoor photos is the most effective.

Depending on the artistic impressions that you aim to achieve, you can choose backdrops that may range from simple to complex and elaborate ones. Most amateurs and free lancers will prefer to use plain photography backdrops but its necessary for work shop that carries professional photos. Backdrops definitely do add more authenticity and therefore effects from use of flash ought to be thought of well.

Say Goodbye to Boring Holiday Photos

The one thing about coming home from vacation that everyone looks forward to is to SHOW OFF their photos. It's also the one thing your family and friends DREAD. Let's face it, holiday snaps can be pretty boring.

Check out these 5 steps to go from boring to incredible, creative and even interesting holiday memories that you and your friends will want to see over and over again. These are the 'secret' techniques that the professionals use so shh...don't tell anyone.

1. Composition
One of the biggest mistakes amateurs make is that they rush the shot and don't take the time to look around. This is really the most important part of taking a great picture instead of a boring one. Take a little time to consider what you are trying to capture.

The scene needs to have a subject, be it a boat, sunset sky, land mark, tree or building. This is because you are aiming to a) show off your photo and b) remember what caught your attention. What is the subject of interest in the shot you are about to take? If there isn't one, then there will be no interest in the printed image!

Work out the best angle to capture the subject by moving around, getting up high or down low and tying both horizontal and vertical options in the viewfinder. Always look up, down and behind you. This can help make a much more dramatic image and sometimes you will see things you didn't notice. I was once taking some nice sunset shots over a lake, only to turn around just in time to catch a massive orange moon rising up behind me.

It's a great idea to get some good shots of the scene as you remember it to file away when you get home, but then get the shot with you and your travel companions in the shot.

Place your person (subject) in the frame but to one side so that they are facing the way you want the viewer to look. Depending on what the background is, you may even like to try to play around with the aperture to get the background slightly out of focus. (Look for an aperture setting of around F16 or less as an average, or you may have a setting that is for 'landscape with people'). This works well when the subject is very close to the camera and the background doesn't need to be the main focus.

Now here's the trick. Using the auto focus, focus on the person by half pressing the shutter button while aiming directly at them. Then, while still holding the button half down, move the camera so that the subject is now at the side of the scene. Push the shutter all the way and the picture is taken. (You may like to practice this before you go). The subject will stay in focus but they will be at the side of the photo, while the background will be slightly out of focus. Find the scene, find the light, and then put your subject into it. Location, location, location.

2. Self Timer
Get yourself in the picture. Don't come home without PLENTY of shots with YOU IN THEM! This happens all the time. Don't forget, if they wanted to see a photo of the Eiffel Tower, they could buy a postcard. It's much better when you're in the picture.

Learn how to use the self timer before you go on holidays, and then get into the picture with your friends or family. For holiday snaps, keep it simple. A pocket digital camera is all you need. (Try to get a camera with some settings such as Aperture and Shutter Speed). Don't set the timer pause for too long or you'll have everyone looking in different directions by the time the shot is taken. You need just enough time to get yourself back into the scene. A good idea is to count out the number of seconds you have from the time you press the shutter so you and your group will know when to 'say cheese'. The countdown will often get a good laugh out of everyone as well.

3. Travel Tripod
Professionals always use a tripod for low light shots such as at sunrise, twilight, sunset, evening shots and also fireworks and city lights. You can use this valuable piece of equipment too, but without having to carry heavy equipment around. What if I told you that you can get a tripod the size of a credit card. More on that in a minute, but first, why use a tripod?

I'm glad you asked...because understanding this will give you an amazing advantage over other photographers that don't see the necessity. When you take a photo in low light (even with the setting on auto) your shutter speed will slow down. This means that when you press the shutter button, and the shutter opens, it will stay open longer to allow more light onto the sensor to enable the scene to be visible in your image. This also means the camera will capture any movement and blur the shot if it's not held still. It is virtually impossible to hold the camera steady for the length of time the shutter is required to be open for these low light shots.

One tripod known as Fozi Tripod is plastic and will fold down to fit into your wallet. There are also stronger metal mini tripods that fold to about the size of a ruler and mini fold down versions of the larger standard tripods. Do your research and check the internet and local camera shops for more info before you go away.

4. Get in Close
You want to show some emotion on faces, details in the architecture and the beauty of a tropical flower. What were the things that you were doing that made your trip memorable, besides the scenery? It's not always about where you were, but what you were doing. Was there dancing with local tribal people? Was there a warm fireplace? Did you relax on a tropical beach? Why not try taking a close up of some deck chairs and a palm tree with the water and sand in the background, and not worry about getting the entire scene into the picture.

Sometimes, by photographing only part of an object or building, the image is much stronger and more pleasing to the eye. Do you really need to show the entire scene to portray cocktails were being consumed? These close up shots will make a stunning collage and tell a great story when you get home. (Take the entire scene as a reference, but don't include it in your 'show off album').

5. Copy the Pros
This one is simple. Check the postcards in the shops nearby and then imitate what they have done. The professionals know when and where to get the best shots so use them as a guide. You need to put your own flair into the shot to make it personal.

I know I said it's simple, but you still need to think about what the camera sees. Here are some of the things to look for and consider in a good postcard style shot:

- Where has the picture been taken from
- What angle was used
- What time of day was it
- Is the shot wide angled or tightly cropped
- Could I take this at a different time of day to make the photo even more interesting
- Would this shot work with me and my friends in it
- Would the same subject look as good or even better if I took it from a slightly different angle
- If it's a night shot or other low light, do I need a tripod

Don't forget: Keep the story of your holiday exciting and never boring. Pick out the most interesting shots and file the rest away just for yourself. Choose the photos that have lots of people in them and put them into an album or make a coffee table book. Let the images tell the story of your trip of a lifetime!

Take plenty of batteries and rechargeable if possible. (Don't forget to allow for the different power outlets in other countries). You'll need lots of storage space for your images. Either take lots of flash cards with plenty of space or use a portable device such as an Image Bank which allows you to insert your flash card, store the images and reuse the card again.

So...here's to the holiday of a lifetime and the reward of wanting to show off the photos for years to come.

Cutting Glass For Your Framed Photographic Art - A Real Challenge

If you regularly frame pictures for your hobby or business, you know how troublesome cutting glass is. Let's look at the challenges to cutting glass manually. If you use a straight edged ruler, and a handheld glass cutter, you will experience some or all of the following problems:

Accuracy - It is quite difficult to hold a ruler securely so that it doesn't "slip" while cutting. Making sure that you hold the glass cutter at the exact angle throughout the cut can be difficult. As you cut larger pieces of glass, these issues become more pronounced.

Cutting Work Space - Do you have the workspace to cut glass efficiently? It takes a good deal of room to lay out the glass and operate effectively. Consider the surface that you cut on. It must be large, steady and extremely flat. If the surface isn't sufficiently flat, you will likely unintentionally break the glass when you begin to cut.

Safety - When you have to work on a large sheet of glass, you open yourself up to potential physical damage. You might slip and cut yourself. You might drop the cut off piece onto your foot and cause damage to your foot or toes. You might have the large piece resting over the edge of the work table, and your customer or workmate might walk into the corner of the glass. These accidents happen.

Time - It takes time to measure twice and cut once. If you are accurate in your measurements, you don't let the ruler slip, and you hold the glass cutter at the exact angle throughout the cut, you will expend an inordinate amount of time to accomplish this task. Inefficient activity causes waste of time, money and it is trying.

Cost - Because you cannot cut glass efficiently, you will very likely make mistakes in measurements. You will have excessive breakage. You will cut glass that is not exactly the dimensions you intend. Consequently, you will end up trying to cut off an eighth inch of glass or make small trims to the glass. This is dangerous and is fraught with failure.

Methods people use to solve these problems - Buy pre-cut glass - If you don't have large volume needs, you can order glass cut to the exact sizes you need from your glass supplier. They will cut it professionally, and it will most likely fit. The cost, of course, will be higher. You won't be able to salvage larger cut off pieces for smaller framing jobs. Finally, you will have to wait until you get delivery - wasting time and money.

Practice with the ruler and handheld glass cutter until you get very skilled - If you have the time and physical strength, you can get very good at cutting glass with the ruler and straight edge. Many framers and framing shops do this as their normal method of cutting glass. It is a viable method of cutting glass - no doubt.

If you are serious about your business, or serious about your hobby, then buy a wall-mounted glass cutter machine.
A wall-mounted glass cutter will increase your accuracy because you don't have to worry about the measuring, holding the straight edge or how you hold the glass cutter.
Cutting large pieces of glass will be just as easy as cutting small pieces.
Glass cutting machines will be safer for you to operate, too.
It will take much less time to cut glass and your breakage costs will fall.
Certain models of glass cutter machines can not only be wall-mounted, but they will have a stand that will allow you to perform this operation away from walls. (In some smaller workshops, there isn't any wall space left.)

A good quality machine designed to cut glass will probably last a lifetime. If you buy one that is intelligently designed, you will be using it for years. Each cut you make will save you time, money, and frustration.

Smoke

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_14RCDj8LY&hl=en

Some Lighting Tips in Photography

Lighting is one of the most important factors in determining the beauty and attractiveness of a photo shot. It gives certain mood to your photo, such as cheerful, dramatic, playful, and many more. In contrary, improper lighting will surely ruin the composition of your photo and it makes the picture looks bad. Therefore, if you are interested in photography, you need to be rally careful on this certain factor. You can get some useful information about photography lighting in this article.

Photographers, particularly the beginners, need to learn some different types of lighting. It will be very useful for them to learn getting the best composition for different kinds of photographs. For example, lighting for still life photography will be different with the lighting of portrait photography.

If you are going to take photographs of people, the best lighting that you can use is soft natural lighting. This kind of lighting will be perfect to create different effect. Then, it will be better for you to avoid shooting any subject in direct sunlight. The light might creates some unexpected shadows that will ruin your pictures. In order to handle this problem, you can simply aim the flash at 45 degree angle before taking the picture.

As it are previously stated, different types of photography needs different kinds of lighting. For example, one of the best lighting tips in portrait photography is choosing a setting that has maximum light. In this kind of place, the subject will be illuminated well so you will get the best photo result. However, you need to avoid places where the subject gets too much direct sunlight. You can also try to give diffused lighting in order get beautiful soft pictures. This is the most preferred techniques in wedding photography.

If you are interested to photography, it will be better for you to learn more about lighting in order to increase your skill and ability. You can simply join a club or course and attending some trainings or workshops. It will be perfect to help you gain more knowledge about photography techniques easily.

SmartCarving - The Key to Recovering More Photos

Recover More Photos with SmarCarving Technology

This article describes SmartCarving, a new recovery technique that improves the recovery rate of deleted files by actually analyzing the contents of each file. This greatly improves on the signature based techniques used in current recovery products, as they are unable to handle files that have been fragmented or corrupted.

In addition, SmartCarving techniques allow for the validation of deleted files, therefore, greatly improving the ability to determine which files are complete and which files are partial or broken. What does this all mean? It basically translates to 15-20% more files recovered on average when compared to existing photo recovery products.

How Does Traditional Photo Recovery Software Work?

Recovery of deleted photo or image files is accomplished by a technique called file or data carving. Traditional data carving, attempts to find the unique header associated with a photo or image file type (for example - "FFD8" for jpegs) and then assumes that the remaining parts of the file are stored consecutively on the disk.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a photo or image file is sequentially stored on a disk. This is because, the file storage may be fragmented (1 or more pieces of the file are stored in different areas of the disk), or worse, part of the file may have been over-written by another file.

This means that most recovery tools show corrupted or garbage images when showing a recovered deleted photo or image file. A common misconception is that since the image is not seen the rest of the data is not present. However, the rest of the data may be present, but since most recovery tools are unable to handle fragmented data the user is never aware if the file can be recovered or not. That is until the discovery of SmartCarving technology.

SmartCarving Technology Breakthrough

Lately there is a new carving technique called SmartCarving which recovers files not based on their starting signatures, but based on the actual contents of files. SmartCarving analyzes files block by block determining if and where files are fragmented, and by looking at the actual content of the data determines where the next pieces of the file are. In essence, SmartCarving attempts to solve the digital equivalent of mixing hundreds of jigsaw puzzles together and reconstructing each one.

As each disk block is analyzed it is compared against that of the previous block to determine how good a fit it is. For photos this involves looking at the boundaries formed when adding a new block and determining the likelihood that the block belongs to the photo. In other words, not only is the structure of the photo used to recover, but individual photo contents are used. This is in fact very similar to how a human would recognize a corrupted photo. Research has shown that on average up to 15-20% more photos can recovered by SmartCarving technology compared to any other technique.

While all this sounds interesting what is the science behind it and does it really work? SmartCarving was researched and presented as a paper to the Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DRFWS) in 2008. It won the best paper of the conference award, and therefore, has the recognition of the foremost forensic scientists in the world.

Another product called Adroit Photo Recovery incorporates SmartCarving for jpegs. While currently only photos are supported, future products will support SmartCarving of additional file types. Adroit Photo Recovery is free to try and can easily be downloaded from Internet.

Living on the Edge With Your Data Backup and Recovery Strategy?

One of the biggest risks you can take is not backing up your data. Sure, you may never experience a disk failure, but if you do it will be a disaster. Ask anyone who has suffered a data loss and they will tell you about the distress and panic when they realized that the data was gone forever. Data loss can devastate your operations and cripple your organization. But for a problem with such disastrous results, it has an easy fix.

Backing up data is relatively easy and economical on the front side and provides an easy recovery method in case of a disk loss or failure. Backup costs are a fraction of recovery costs and sometimes no amount of money or effort can recover data from a severely damaged disk.

Today's technology provides many cost-effective ways to protect your data. For a business system, start with a strategy that uses the concept of redundancy to duplicate data, employs a serious backup method and includes disaster recovery. Your data backup strategy should be proportional to the value of your data. Don't cut corners, be sure to include any data that is essential to your business or would be difficult to reconstruct.

So why doesn't every business have a good backup plan that works? Either it's too expensive or too complicated. Backup doesn't have to be expensive, but it has to be executed and verified on a regular schedule. If you manage and verify your backup daily then you can choose less expensive technology.

Backup doesn't have to be complicated, but automated solutions cost more. If you want a solution that takes most of the guess work out of backups and gives disaster recovery protection, they are available but will cost considerably more.

It is important to choose the technology and strategy that works for you. Always be diligent in performing and storing your backups. Below we discuss some of the most used concepts and technologies.

Disk Redundancy - Writing to two or more disks at the same time, provides data protection in case of a disk failure. A redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) will divide and replicate data so that a single or minority of disk failure does not cause data loss. RAID technology is mostly employed on servers and data storage devices. It can be hardware or software configured. Although RAID does give a level of protection against data loss, it does not replace backing up your data.

Primary Data Backup - The data storage or repository can be tape, disk-to-disk and/or virtual tape using an external drive (SAN, NAS or USB) used to store the backup. The backup scheme can be full, incremental, differential or continuous. Each scheme has individual requirements that may include software to create the storage archive.

Secondary Data Backup - This is usually an offsite disk-to-disk or online backup plan, but can be another method that gives a second copy of the repository. Online backup services are very affordable and keep a near real-time copy of files. A limitation of online backup is bandwidth. For large stores of data, the initial upload can take considerable time. Some services allow you to send a disk with the base files then only changes are uploaded.

Disaster Recovery - This allows you to build your system from the ground up. Often a disaster recovery plan includes an image (complete and exact copy of the disk(s) on your system) and a current backup. Images include the operating system, configuration, licenses, applications and data. Images are often called a "bare metal" restore because they allow you to overlay the image onto a new system without any prior installation of an operating system or software.

Protecting User Data - Users should save data to a shared network drive and be included in the backup. If there are files that are only on a laptop or desktop, they should be backed up individually. This can be done easily with an external drive or online file backup.

A common data backup and recovery configuration for a server:

Data Redundancy as RAID 10 - Mirrored and striped sets in a 2 disk array.
Primary Data Backup - Network Attached Storage (NAS) using Windows Server 2008 Backup.
Secondary Data Backup - Online backup service backing up all critical files.
Disaster Recovery - Full image stored offsite.

This is not an exhaustive list of available backup methods. Data backup has many parts, facets and options. For a good data backup strategy, start with an overview of your system and decide your level of involvement. From there, you can build a backup strategy and disaster recovery plan so that in the event of a data loss, you are protected.

Email Archiving and the Dilemma it Poses for Records Managers

Records managers face a very difficult dilemma today and frankly, I do not think there is a solution yet, or a silver bullet. I believe that some company, or a brilliant records manager, will find a solution in the next few years and become the hero of the industry. Until then, we will continue to see articles written like this one that discuss the importance of the silver bullet solution to email archiving and records management.

In case you have not caught on to what I am talking about, here is the problem: After the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was amended to include ESI, or electronically stored information, on December 1, 2006, the discovery of email messages became a reality, and a nightmare, for companies. And here is the rub: Companies were not prepared for this amendment and even 15 months later, many companies are scrambling to decide how to marry records retention schedules to email content.

Some of the solutions proposed to date include but are not limited to:

Save all email - courts love this solution because it can be easily shown that the company is violating its own records retention schedule;

Buy an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution and write complicated formulas for matching words and phrases with words and phrases found in the records retention schedule. Currently, this "Automated" solution only has a 78% success rate according to recent studies. Imagine telling your management that you can solve your email archiving problem with only a 22% error rate. I can hear the gasps now;

Set up an email folder structure system in the current email system (e.g., Outlook or GroupWise) and ask employees to drag each email to its appropriate folder based on the contents of the records retention schedule. Yikes. Studies have shown that employees may rebel and find alternate ways to write email if they have to drag every email, every day into individual folders based on a records retention schedule that covers all identified record classes at your company.

Use a Combination of items 2 and 3 above. At present, this is the solution most often advocated by ECM vendors.

Large companies send and receive millions of emails daily. Even small companies get an overwhelming number of emails daily. A typical email message can be a few sentences to several pages, and, optionally, have one or more attachments. In terms of records management, let us explain what constitutes an email message: Is it the body of the email? The subject line? The distribution? The attachments? The metadata? Well, the answer is, "YES," to all parts of an email message. Now the question becomes, "Now what?" I am with you. I frankly cannot see a good solution. While I believe it is possible to create complicated formulas to improve on the 22% error rate, there will be no good way to prove it one way or the other.

To set a records retention period for an email message, the Records Manager should take their authorized records retention schedule (and yikes, 59% of companies do not even have a retention schedule) and figure out a way to relate content to all parts of an email message. I can think of two solutions to this dilemma, both of which are ridiculous:

The company gives the Records Manager unlimited funds and personnel to review every email (you can understand why this will not happen) or
The company communicates a mandate that email messages must not be used as a storage device but rather as a communication delivery method. Naturally employees would rebel at this solution.

Conclusion:

The dilemma of setting records retention schedules for each email still exists today and there is no solution on the horizon that makes sense to employees and to the bottom line of companies. Do not get me wrong: There are companies that will attempt to use an automated solution and then there are others that will attempt to use the drag and drop methods but these methods are not likely succeed in the long run. Companies are likely to give up when employees rebel and the training costs go through the roof, to no avail.

So what should Records Managers do?

Records Managers should continue to gain as much knowledge as possible about email archiving and records retention systems. Records Managers should listen to webinars, attend workshops and conferences, and keep abreast of emerging technologies and companies in the area of ECM and Email Archiving. Records Managers should be ready when a solution presents itself.

Fixing "Cannot Record" Error in Canon DC10-DC20

Canon DC10/ DC20 camcorders are one of most widely used devices, used both in homes and workshops. These portable digital camcorders provide superb handling and excellent video recording experience. The recorded videos are stored in a DVD or dedicated SD (Secure Digital)/ MM (MultiMedia) card port. The above storage medias can be easily corrupted due to various reasons, such as, interrupted read/write operation, virus attack, and file system damage. All the videos or any other multimedia files become inaccessible once the storage media gets corrupted. In most of these storage media corruption, you receive an error message, which does not allow you to save any new videos. To access all the saved videos on the storage media, a fundamental way is to restore the videos from an adequate backup. But, with backup inaccessibility a common scenario, the photographer needs to use an advanced Video Recovery Software to recover all its videos from corrupt storage media.

As a practical case, while you were recording a video from your Canon DC10/ DC20 camcorder, the digital device switched off due to empty battery. However, when you attempt to restart your camcorder and try to record a video, the below error message pops up:

"Cannot Record"

After the above error message appears, the data saved in the memory card becomes inaccessible. Additionally, no more videos can be recorded.

Cause:

The root cause for the occurrence of the above error message is corruption of memory card due to interrupted read/write operation.

Resolution:

To isolate the above problem and record new videos on the memory card, you will need to format the memory card. But, formatting also has a disadvantage of erasing all the previously saved data from the memory card. For easy recovery of all formatted videos, you will need to search for a third-party Video Recovery application.

Easily downloaded from the Internet, a Video Recovery Software embeds advanced scanning procedures to recover lost, formatted, and deleted videos from the memory cards. With easy-to-understand user-documentation, the recovery process is like a child's play.

Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery ensures complete recovery of lost, deleted, and formatted videos from almost all storage media, including memory card, memory sticks, and IBM Micro drives. The Video Recovery utility supports both Windows and Mac OS X. The recovery tool is intuitively designed that enables even a new user to perform recovery.

Data Recovery Can Solve All Your Problems

Let's go through a few data recovery tips that might help you recover those accidentally deleted files and stay you from deleting them again.

Loss of data is a plague that can hit anyone and anytime, regardless of technical ability, conducting care, operating system or hardware configuration. In many cases, data loss is caused by factors that are out of our reach and unfortunately, in some of these cases data recovery is impossible. A scorched out hard disk is the clearest example that comes to mind. It's often not your fault that it breaks down and data recovery is impossible. This is a rare case still and most data loss problems can be fixed with the help of data recovery tools, professional software, some technical knowledge and a bit of common sense.

Guidelines to prefer a suitable data recovery company:

1. Sufficient Amenities: Constant and organized facilities is the only way you can save some data that would be otherwise impossible to recover, due to a physical problem like the one described above. Do not endeavor any form of data recovery on your own unless you are a professional. Messing with the hard drive or other constraint of your computer can intensify any data losses you may have already experienced. Have patience. Remember to think sanguinely and get your computer to a repair tech as soon as possible, and chances are your data will be salvageable and safe.

2. Corporation and Collaboration: The conclusion is yours to make, but unless you absolutely know what you're doing and know how to use the data recovery software by yourself, its best if you employ a specialized company to do it for you. Don't build a technical ego just because you supervise to install Windows by yourself, with data recovery, you'll be dealing with much more sensitive matters. If you fumble up your Windows installation process, you can simply start over. If you have a numerous drive setup and your computer boots up fine, then it will merely be a case of getting the downloaded software to read the files and then copy them to another drive - make available you have a drive with enough space on it. If not, you'll need to attach the hard drive to another machine with enough spare aptitude.

3. Be acquainted with your requirements: Whether the data on the hard drive can be recovered or not depends on the degree of the dilemma. A hard drive can be dented due to firmware altered form, electronic malfunction, mechanical breakdown or a logical collapse. Many times your hard drive may lose data due to the combination of the above mentioned factors. A hard drive may also develop bad sectors due to which the data on those sectors is lost or becomes unreadable.

4. Take Professional Help: In case of data loss it is fundamental to call the data recovery experts. In most cases, the information on the hard drive is important and you cannot bear to lose it. The experts enhance the possibilities of hard drive recovery in the case of failure of hard drive due to software malfunction, virus attacks and other reasons mentioned above. The experts may take the hard drive to their workshop in order to recover the lost data and then return it to you in a few days. Most of the data recovery experts have their own laboratories that are involved in testing the hard drives and repairing them.

Wildlife Photography - A Guide for the Common Photographer

We have all looked at National Geographic Magazine with absolute wonder of the photographic quality contained in the pages of that remarkable magazine. Many of us have dreamed of creating photographs that rival those astonishing pictures. But the idea of producing such a great capture and the reality of it are two completely different things. Some of us have gone to great efforts to get good compelling shots of wildlife only to return hungry, sore, tired, and defeated. I am one of those people and the only place I have had any success is in Africa.

In this article I would like to share with you how I suddenly came up with an incredible portfolio of wildlife that was worth every penny. Shockingly simple but a tad bit expensive, I'll also share how I got over my morale objections to this method.

Taking good pictures of wildlife is a challenge the average person has no understanding of. And to be more specific, my desires for wildlife photography are large predators. I can get close to deer, elk, moose, etc. And I can even reach out and touch a buffalo! But how often do I see a Bear, Wolves, or a Mountain Lion? Fleeting glimpses at best and I have never seen a Mountain Lion in the wild. I have jumped up and down with glee at that mere discovery of a track but I've never seen one.

It should be noted that I'm using a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens so I have to get very close for that frame filling shot.

Some time ago I was at a Photoshop workshop hosted Lewis Kemper. Lewis is a world renowned nature photographer who has made it into National Geographic. And he was using some beautiful shots of Mountain Lions. After the workshop, I cornered Lewis and asked him how he got the shots. He admitted they were captive animals. His answer didn't surprise me as I had done a lot of research on the subject and it all was coming down to that.

I must confess that I had a certain disdain for photographing captive animals in wild settings and then passing them off as authentic. I also had plenty of concerns about the conditions the animals live in. But I decided to set my apprehensions aside and find a place that provided such services.

Simply by typing "Game Farm" into a search engine gave me several choices. I chose the Triple D Game Farm in Kalispell, MT because of the variety of species to choose from and their understanding of my concerns. I have often wondered how we can say what emotions an animal is feeling but I must say these animals were happy. Additionally, they have several endangered species which are part of a worldwide captive breeding program. There is a lot more than just feeding and setting up for the next photographer going on at Game Farms.

I went during a scheduled photography session and I was shooting with six other photographers. They also schedule private sessions but those are considerably more expensive. The sessions were not too early or late and the size of the group made for comfortable shooting. The handlers were very professional and accommodating to each photographer's needs and the animals were just hams in front of the camera.

So if you are looking to take that stunning shot of a pinnacle predator but don't have the resources to get it done the old fashion way. Consider a Game Farm. I did and I could not be happier.

Small world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kdzS4oLX_M&hl=en

30 minute "Backlight challenge !"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYV-SXONvNU&hl=en