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Several months later
1 min read
Went from having 2 to 3 shows organised, lost 1, gained yet another and doors open for others. Admin doing my head in. Plenty of quotidien type work but creatively constipated. Reaching for the prunes...
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Rabbit222
1 min read
Things are looking up. Invited to show, with one other photographer at 2 exhibitions. Lots of head scratching happens.
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2011
1 min read
less roller-coaster, more merry-go-round please.
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Happy hunting
1 min read
Still hunting those old files... This week I´m also chasing photo accreditations for this Summers festivals, some old and new clients including one who wants some wacky apples...
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A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (15++years ago, London) I had the chance to do some album cover artwork. Of course I took this very seriously and still consider it with some pride. I was a big fan of the music and the art, and read all I could about Roger Dean, Storm Thorgerson etc.
From the business pov a recurring theme seemed to be the anguish and trouble of original artwork getting accidentally lost or destroyed. How could they make this foolish mistake? I would not make this mistake. Hell, I´m almost 100% digital, everything would be backed up all over the place, nothing of mine would be lost. Ever.
In the all the years I have been creating digitally I have gone through I don´t know how many pcs, laptops, and hard drives. Most of them died, some belonged to others some are still with me (12 year old Dell laptop, still good!). Apart from the basic hardware I have used floppy disks (of all sizes) Zip disks, dat tapes, Syquest cartridges, cds, dvds. Everything was backed up to the point of obsession.
This week I´ve been given cause to dig real deep into my archives. My life has changed dramatically in the last 10 years and apart from the records and cds, I´ve not looked at those original files (or the mountain of accompanying material) in almost all of that time. Guess what?
I haven´t been able to put my hands on 95% of the stuff I´m looking for and half of what I have found is lo-res for ye olde web.
So far in four days I´ve trawled 9 old hard drives, there are at least another 9 to go. Note that these old drives are IDE or SCSI 1/2/uw, not SATA. Then there are the old boxes of cdrs, zips, dats and syquests. A cdr is possibly the worst backup medium ever devised. I´m sure most fairground goldfish have a longer lifespan. My original 2x scsi writer is the only drive capable of reading maybe half of them (and it will only work under Win98 with it´s own `special´ scsi card). There is a chance I´ll be able to lay my hands on a Zip drive; as for anything backed up to dat or Syquest I can pretty much give up all hope (possible but ++time+$$$).Then there are the forgotten file formats (FFF*#!), lost installers and the frankly ridiculous way I used to name files/folders. I also had a hd stolen in a burglary.
Fortunately these days, file storage/formats and transport is a lot easier. File sizes haven´t changed too much (at least for me) and storage is bigger and cheaper. Cdr/dvdrs are crap, usb keys are unreliable and online storage is a big unknown in the long term (big companies go bust too). Don´t think your clients will keep your stuff forever either. File formats change as technology changes, interfaces change. One day the only place you will find usb or sata is the junk shop. This years mission: transfer everything to sata, at least twice and place one copy in the hands of someone else.
The good news is that I have found lots of cool, old stuff that I had completely forgotten about. Touch wood and cross fingers that this is all just a big pain and not a wild goose chase.
Meantime keep all your 0s&1s safe. x
From the business pov a recurring theme seemed to be the anguish and trouble of original artwork getting accidentally lost or destroyed. How could they make this foolish mistake? I would not make this mistake. Hell, I´m almost 100% digital, everything would be backed up all over the place, nothing of mine would be lost. Ever.
In the all the years I have been creating digitally I have gone through I don´t know how many pcs, laptops, and hard drives. Most of them died, some belonged to others some are still with me (12 year old Dell laptop, still good!). Apart from the basic hardware I have used floppy disks (of all sizes) Zip disks, dat tapes, Syquest cartridges, cds, dvds. Everything was backed up to the point of obsession.
This week I´ve been given cause to dig real deep into my archives. My life has changed dramatically in the last 10 years and apart from the records and cds, I´ve not looked at those original files (or the mountain of accompanying material) in almost all of that time. Guess what?
I haven´t been able to put my hands on 95% of the stuff I´m looking for and half of what I have found is lo-res for ye olde web.
So far in four days I´ve trawled 9 old hard drives, there are at least another 9 to go. Note that these old drives are IDE or SCSI 1/2/uw, not SATA. Then there are the old boxes of cdrs, zips, dats and syquests. A cdr is possibly the worst backup medium ever devised. I´m sure most fairground goldfish have a longer lifespan. My original 2x scsi writer is the only drive capable of reading maybe half of them (and it will only work under Win98 with it´s own `special´ scsi card). There is a chance I´ll be able to lay my hands on a Zip drive; as for anything backed up to dat or Syquest I can pretty much give up all hope (possible but ++time+$$$).Then there are the forgotten file formats (FFF*#!), lost installers and the frankly ridiculous way I used to name files/folders. I also had a hd stolen in a burglary.
Fortunately these days, file storage/formats and transport is a lot easier. File sizes haven´t changed too much (at least for me) and storage is bigger and cheaper. Cdr/dvdrs are crap, usb keys are unreliable and online storage is a big unknown in the long term (big companies go bust too). Don´t think your clients will keep your stuff forever either. File formats change as technology changes, interfaces change. One day the only place you will find usb or sata is the junk shop. This years mission: transfer everything to sata, at least twice and place one copy in the hands of someone else.
The good news is that I have found lots of cool, old stuff that I had completely forgotten about. Touch wood and cross fingers that this is all just a big pain and not a wild goose chase.
Meantime keep all your 0s&1s safe. x
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