Can you put a price on your friends and family?

December 5, 2011 — 0 Comments

How much are your friends and family worth? Those priceless memories and events are forever captured in digital form, until your hard drive dies, or your laptop is stolen. If you ask someone to put a price on their memories, most people say their pictures are priceless. Why then are people so reluctant to back up their photos and make sure they have saved their wonderful pictures forever?

In many people’s lives, they do not make backups a priority until they lose everything. Time after time, people bring me their computers to retrieve their data, only to discover their hard drive is dead. Many of these people end up paying thousand of dollars to get their pictures back; many of my friends are young and poor, can not afford the expensive recovery services, and end up losing everything.

   Backing up your computer and pictures has never been easier; we have many different options today, but I will go over the ones I recommend. When backing up, it is important to have at least four copies of your data. The first is the copy on your computer, this is often the first place you put your files and often your only copy. Your second copy is a copy in your home; I recommend Time Machine if you have a Mac and Windows backup or Acronis Disk Backup for those people with a PC. This is a great start on your road to backing up your memories but is still in the same location and can be stolen or damaged by a natural disaster. Your third copy needs to be a place where you can leave a hard drive, such as a friend’s house, your office or a relative’s house. Wherever you choose, make sure you will be there twice a month. This is going to be just like the drive at your house, but it will protect against fire and theft. Your fourth backup is off site or a Cloud backup. I recommend Carbonite Backup because it works on a Mac and a PC and is reasonably priced. With storage prices dropping, it makes sense to just backup your entire computer rather then spending time with several different backup solutions for each type of file. There are many ways to back up your data, but the most important thing to remember is you need to have four copies of your data.

I am a photographer and videographer; and my media is my life. I use DropBox in addition to the aforementioned products to backup all my media. With the rise of iPhone and Android phones now being able to capture great images, I’ve started recommending that people have some sort of auto upload of all their pictures. iOS iCloud is a great solution for backing up your pictures to your mac. If you use the Android Google+ app it has an auto upload function that puts all your pictures in a free, private Picasa album. Because your phone is always with you, it is the camera you will most likely be using on a day-to-day basis while your DSLR and video camera are at home.

The most important thing to remember is that your phone and computer WILL FAIL. You need to decide how important your information and media is to you. In my case, my livelihood depends on my media; so, it is a top priority for me to make sure I never lose my data. If you love your pictures or have important media on your computer, you have to decide what that data is worth to you. “We do not remember days; we remember moments.”  – Cesare Pavese

In Photography

My Favorite Things

September 19, 2011 — 1 Comment

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.” – B. Olatunji My life has been crazy over the last week. After reading a few blogs and articles about people that only own 100 things I put so much of my self worth in what and how much I had. I need to live a less consumeristic life and focus instead on my family, friends and community. The first step in this is to declutter my life. Every item counts each fork, every box of cereal, all your clothes and books and pens, everything. I don’t know if I can do 100 things, but I’m going to try and get everything I own into 3 suitcases. I love the freedom that comes with having everything you own ready to go at the drop of a hat. I would like to start traveling, and the idea that I could take along everything I own sounds so appealing. So far I’ve cut the amount of stuff I own in half but I still have four time the about I can fit into my suitcases. It’s going to be a hard learning experience and new way of thinking but in the long run I’m going to be much happier. Not being able to buy stuff has been so freeing its forced me to be content with what I have. I’m not focused on what I don’t have but how I can use my time and the little I do have to positivity impact the people around me. My goal is to be down to my three suitcases by Christmas, wish me luck. :D Do any of you have a “stuff” limit? Do you think you could live with only 100 things?

In Musings
old-school

Old School is Getting Old

April 19, 2011 — 0 Comments

 

I am really beginning to think the age of the degree is over. We have grown up in the age where people went to school just to decide what they wanted to do with their lives. School was a place to find oneself and to try out different majors. When one graduated, one had one’s life planned and would work in one’s field throughout most of one’s life. In the last ten years or so, it’s been more common to change professions after one no longer enjoys fulfillment from a job, sometimes this translating to going back to school for a master’s degree. Those days seem to be over. Our job market is so full of people with degrees and people with years of experience.

In order to get noticed by an employer, one has to make an AMAZING impression. Our country is run by small businesses; more than ninety-six percent of people work for small businesses and small businesses want to hire

people not resumes. Business owners work around a family atmosphere and want to find a person who will mesh with their company; you’re a name, not a number. Don’t get me wrong, I still want doctors to go to school, but, really, who NEEDS to sit in a classroom and “learn”. From my experience, the people who need to be “educated” should never hold a high paying job. I’m amazed they have a house to live in or that they have figured out how to pay their bills. If you’re talented, then you want to be good at your job, and school is not going to be your primary source of learning. We have the internet now. You can get information on anything you want, whenever you want, where ever you are. If you need to change you oil, you can. If you want to paint your house, you can. If you want to design your own website, you can. If you have an interest in something there is nothing holing you back from being truly amazing at your job.

Why then are we spending tens of thousands on school? I don’t really know, is it because that’s what you do if you want a good job? If so that needs to change. The state of Florida is paying for my school so I’m going through the system, but do I feel like it’s going to get me a job? I don’t plan on working for anyone after I graduate, but I would love to work with people as an independent contractor. I really feel like the age of the college educated corporate tie is coming to an end and the self-taught talented freelancer is just around the coroner.

In Rants , , , , , ,