Backup, Backup, Backup.

I was sitting here at my computer this morning and realised that I hadn’t done a backup of the latest wedding to DVD.

Well, as you can imagine, it was done immediately.

I had a situation almost 4 years ago where my hard drive failed and I was unable to recover a lot of images. Fortunately, they were personal images and not business related.

What upset Angela and I the most about the loss of the images, was the loss of the one’s of my grand daughter taking her very first steps.

I was at her first birthday party and had the camera trained on her to take a couple of shots and as I pressed the shutter, she let go and walked. That was a once in a lifetime happening and it is now gone.

Since then, I have been very strict with myself on doing a backup everytime I have new images on my hard drive. I back them up to another hard drive and make a backup to DVD.

There has been a lot of discussion regarding the life of DVD’s and CD’s and I don’t think anyone really knows what the lifespan of these various type of media is.

After doing some research on forums and talking to other photographers, I have started using Taiyo Yuden DVD’s and CD’S, as these are considered to be one of the best on the market. There are other manufacturers, but I can’t think of who they are right now.

So, remember to back up your images as soon as you have downloaded them onto your computer. If you do, then you won’t have my horrible experience.

Now that I have decided to start my personal ramblings-

I really don’t know what to ramble about.

Well, I suppose that a bit about me would be a good idea:

I was born in South Africa many years ago. My father was from Aberdeen, Scotland and my mother was South African.

I have an elder brother and sister. My brother and some of his children now also live in the UK. My sister is still in SA and it is doubtful if she will ever leave.

But I digress, at the beginning of 1999, I decided that it was time for me to leave the sunny climes of South Africa. This was mainly due to the high crime rate.

First hand experience for me unfortunately, 9 burglaries in 5 years. All my camera equipment - the most devastating blow for me. No insurance to cover the loss, as in SA, after the third burglary, you won’t get any cover.

So, on 3 August 1999, I landed at Heathrow. I had never been to the UK before and said to friends before I left, that I would know whether I would stay within 2 weeks. Well, after a couple of days, I knew that I would stay.

Had a couple of various jobs to build up additional capital and eventually I was able to invest in a Canon 10D and then a Canon 20D and various lenses, Canon and Sigma.

I met my wife Angela in August 2000 at a barbecue I organised for my birthday. She was brought along by a friend of mine. We obviously immediately clicked and we were subsequently married on 20 March 2004. The third anniversary coming up soon. Mustn’t forget that!!

Friends of ours had seen my photography and persuaded my to take on their wedding photography. Having not done any weddings for a couple of years, I was not too keen. After much persuasion, I relented and did it.

I loved it and the passion was rekindled and the rest is history.

I am now a full time photographer and help out at a police station in one of the surrounding villages, three days a week. Lovely bunch of people there to work with.

Finally, we were blessed (well our daughter was) with a set of twins at the end of August last year. I will post some images of them at a later stage. They have an elder sister, who will be 5 in the beginning of August.

Our son and his girlfriend ( note I don’t say partner, can’t stand the word) have a little girl as well, she just turned 4 a month ago.

Well, now you know a lot about me, so I will end this bit.

Goodnight.