Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Storing and backing up efficiently and securely more than ten years of photography is a complicate technical task.
At the center of my setup I use a Synology DS1515+ NAS, with 8 disks configured in Raid 6 for a total of 14.54TB of available storage.
I wrote about this set up a year ago, but I recently updated it to be more streamlined and secure.
This is an interesting little product. Reclouder is a “personal hybrid audio recorder” that saves audio to an SD card but also automatically uploads it to the cloud. It’s a 2-channel recorder, meaning you just get left and right stereo sound, but it can take its input from 3.5mm mic sockets or through a pair of line/XLR combo sockets (one with 48v phantom power).
At the moment, it still seems to be somewhere in the development stages but is expected to go the crowdfunding route at some point for a very reduced $129. The regular retail is expected to be $199.
The blend of instant cameras and modern technologies opens up a lot of creative possibilities. Martin Fasani has created FS2, a simple DIY 3D-printed instant camera. But instead of printing your images – this camera sends them to the cloud straight away.
You already know how important it is to back up your files, and cloud storage should be a part of your backup system. If you’re a student or alumni, I’ve got great news for you: you can get unlimited Google Drive storage, for free. I know it sounds too good to be true, but it’s real.
With Amazon killing off their unlimited storage, and CrashPlan ditching consumers in favour of enterprise level clients, more were bound to follow. Google is now shaking things up, announcing that they’re ending Google Drive in March 2018. The difference, however, is that Google don’t seem to be screwing their customers over in the process.
For Google Drive users, Google Backup and Sync will be the replacement. For commercial G Suite customers, Drive File Stream is the new main system. But as of this moment, Google Drive for Mac & PC is officially deprecated. Support will end on December 11th, 2017, and it will shut down completely on March 12th, 2018.
I love the irony of their tagline. “Protect yourself from the inevitable”, which in this case is the closing down of their “for Home” service. This was a service for consumers, hobbyist photographers and the like to store their data online in the cloud. This way, when the inevitable happens, and they lose it locally, they still have a copy safe and sound floating around the Internet.
Now, users will have to find a new home for their data. Starting yesterday, CrashPlan are no longer renewing or accepting new subscriptions for their “for Home” service. They are honouring current subscriptions, but when they’re over, your data’s gone. So, you’ll want to find a new service and back up to there as quickly as you can.
If you’re a travel photographer or just someone who wants to keep your photographs safe and secure while you’re in the field, one of your biggest challenges is copying and backing up your travel photographs and travel video as it’s captured.
My top three travel photography backup challenges are:
To simplify this task, I decided to try out a 3TB WD My Passport Wireless Pro (more info here). In theory, the WD My Passport Wireless Pro, with a built-in USB port and SD card reader is perfectly suited for this task. However, in practice, it doesn’t quite manage to live up to it’s potential.
In this article, I will take you through my setup of the WD My Passport Wireless Pro for travel photography and travel video and my recommendations on the suitability of using this drive for backups while on the road.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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