Friday Happy Hour: Wedding Photographer’s Images Stolen, Learns Value in Backup Systems

Friday Happy Hour: Wedding Photographer’s Images Stolen, Learns Value in Backup Systems

It’s the middle of wedding season, and no better time to think about your backup systems than now. Hear the story of one wedding photographer who nearly lost everything – and his recommendations for backing up your work as soon as you’re done shooting.

Wedding photographer stresses importance of backup systems

Wedding photographer Matt Kennedy has the story of a lifetime: his studio was completely robbed – including gear and the external hard drives containing shots from his last wedding that he had yet to deliver to his clients. Miraculously, the memory cards were found (at a Home Depot, no less) two weeks later and Matt was able to get the images to his clients. So even though he had backup external hard drives, he nearly lost everything. Matt advises a four step backup system, starting from the moment you finish shooting.

“Something that we are responsible for is the proper storage of the images we take at a wedding or photo session. This is important because our clients aren’t paying for us to be present at their wedding (although that is part of it). We need to deliver a product along with our service. After all, they are trusting us with capturing the most important day in their lives.” – Matt Kennedy, wedding photographer

Read his full story and backup recommendations on Fstoppers.

Instagram introduces web embedding

If you’ve ever wanted to post an Instagram to your blog or website, then you’ve likely had to resort to the screenshot method to do so. This week Instagram announced the ability to embed public Instagram content (photos and videos). Simply go to your Instagram account via a web browser (i.e. http://instagram.com/photoshelter) and you’ll see an embed button. You can now also pull in your Instagram feed to your Beam website, hosted by PhotoShelter. (via Instagram blog)

Example of a PhotoShelter member using the Instagram feed on his new Beam portfolio website/Credit: www.jasonbleecher.com

Next celebrity bans photography at concerts

First Beyonce, now actress and indie singer Zooey Deschanel of the band She & Him has banned fans from using their cell phones to take photos and videos during her concerts. Sources say that five pre-screened photographers were given permission to take photos, but no one else. Is this appropriate or obnoxious behavior? (via Daily Mail UK)

Indie band Matt & Kim are part of a growing number of musicians who want fans to experience their shows live, not behind their cameras.

Canon 70D claims to revolutionize photo and video

This week Canon announced the EOS 70D, which they claim features a “a revolutionary autofocus technology” that captures video in Live View with smooth focusing similar to that of a camcorder. The camera also boasts 20.2 megapixels and a 3 inch LCD monitor with touchscreen capabilities. Plus, Wi-Fi for image sharing and remote camera control via your smartphone or tablet device. It’s currently priced at $1,200. Worth it? (via Mashable)

Nikon releases Facebook app designed to foster friendly competition

My Nikon World is a new Facebook app by Nikon for photographers to “share pictures, participate in challenges, and earn points and badges to help move up the leaderboard.”  There are pro challenges posed by Nikon shooters – like Rob Van Petten curating the best street photography – and Nikon created challenges that are more simple (i.e. upload your first photo). All images are uploaded to the app and displayed for fellow users to browse. Is this something you would be interested in spending time doing? (via PetaPixel)

Acclaimed documentary photographer starts blog series on Los Angeles Times

Barbara Davidson is known for her forward-thinking photojournalism work. We loved her talk at Luminance last year on her project documenting gangs in LA. Now she’s recently started a blog series on the Los Angeles Times website to showcase fellow fine art and documentary photographers’ work. It’s called “reFramed” and this week features Polish award-winning photographer Tomasz Lazar, whose “Theater of Life” series includes black and white photographs are meant to make us question the impact of technology and media on daily life today. See more of his work and the full interview here.

Photo by Tomasz Lazar

Stunning images of sand dunes at night

Photographer Russ Taylor shot the following images at Grand Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado using his Nikon D700. The star trails add an extra element to the well-crafted shot.

Photo by Russ Taylor

Photo by Russ Taylor

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  1. Alistair Cotton at 11:51 am

    WRT Matt Kennedy and his lost images I’ve just had to take a hard look at our own backup system and wrote about it here: http://www.durbanwebdesign.net/data-backup-and-file-server-options-for-small-business/ this weekend

    The real pain in the a$$ about backups is eventual realisation that you need to have everything in at least two places to avoid loss due to fire, flood and theft. Backup in one place to avoid just data loss is easy. Offsite backups for other disasters . . . not so much.

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