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Cinque Terre

23 Oct

I’ve done my share of traveling. Had lots of fun. I’ve seen a lot of amazing things. But when I think back to the places I’ve been, I can’t help but think about the one place I really want to go back to. I was talking with my friend Peter the other day and I didn’t mention anything about my recent thoughts about traveling and the places I’ve been. I asked him a question, “If you could go back to anywhere you’ve already been, where would it be?” He said, hands down, without a doubt, with now reservations or hesitations – Cinque Terre. And those are my thoughts exactly. I don’t care about anywhere else. I just want to go back.

Vernazza - Cinque Terre © Andrew Johnson

There are so many places that I haven’t seen. Things I haven’t done. But I don’t care about those places or things right now. I just want to go back to Cinque Terre. Why? Is it because it has great shopping? No. Is it a huge city? No. Is there a lot to do there? No. Are the roads fun to drive? No (there are no roads). Is it exciting and busy? No. It is none of those things.

It is, however, an authentic Italian experience with authentic people, food, wine, and landscape. Life slows down, and happiness goes up.

So, I’m just putting this out there. Letting the world know. Making an open offer. If you are getting married in Italy, I will shoot your wedding at no cost if you pay for my flight to get there and back (Vancouver to Rome or Milan). Email me if you’re interested (andrew at bigpicphoto dot com).

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Posted in Personal, Photography, Travel

Backing Up Your Life [your digital life]

21 Oct

I’ve been debating about a lot of things to do with backing up my digital files from my various computers. I think my main problem is that I have a LOT of data to back up. Pictures and video take up a lot of my hard drive space (especially 1080p video from my Rebel T1i), so I really need an optimum way to manage all that, have access to all of it, and have it backed up in two places as well.

As far as I can tell, the best way to deal with it is to throw a LOT of money at it. Getting something like a Drobo that will house several hard drives and make sure that all data is recoverable if one drive fails seems like a good option….but an expensive option.

Purchasing a whole bunch of external hard drives and backing up everything twice seems like a more affordable option, but I can see myself backing things up on a semi-regular basis at first and then starting to slack off later as time goes on. So then I’ll have some backups of my old stuff, but still be in trouble if my laptop got stolen or damaged and the data on it was not recoverable.

There is some free Microsoft Software (called SyncToy) that can help with that kind of thing. It helps you sync your files to an external drive without having to do much work other than hooking it up and hitting start. It does cut down on the work, but it also requires diligence to do on a regular basis. I often lack diligence when it comes to things like that.

Another option is to build my own computer/server that can have a whole bunch of hard drives in it that are running in a RAID configuration so there is more than one copy of data at any given time. The problem with that is it takes a lot of time to setup and I still am not able to have an off-site copy of my data in case there is a flood or theft of the machine. That being said, I could probably hide the machine somewhere in the house and not have to worry too much about a thief finding it.

So, I’m not really sure what I should do going forward. I guess it’s a balance between cost and effort. Any suggestions for an optimum solution?

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Posted in Personal

Shooting 50mm

24 Sep

When I go to a party, I often like to bring my camera and bring only one lens: my 50mm f1.8 prime lens.

I use that lens for two reasons:

When I have a fixed lens at 50mm I am forced to find interesting angles and I am forced to move to get the kind of shot that I might want. The picture ends up being either pretty good or really bad; there’s rarely a so-so picture.
It’s often pretty dark at a party, so having a lens that can bring in as much of the ambient light as possible is best. The f1.8 is great for that; it allows me to take great pictures without the need of a flash going off…and when you are trying to take pictures of people when they are acting natural, it’s important that they don’t know you’re taking pictures. Most people are camera shy.

A few weeks ago there was a bit of a reunion of sorts at the Daigles house. Danny, one of my old high school religion teachers, was in town and wanted to get everyone together. Danny is actually the reason I decided to get my Bachelor of Education; he inspired me by his way of teaching and passion for youth and their development. He inspired a lot of people, actually….and he still does while teaching at St. Andrew’s High in Victoria BC.

Here are some shots I took at that party. They really capture some moments and give you an idea about what the party was like.