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OK, so bad Neil Sedaka reference.

For some reason, people seem to not make backups of their drives. I fear this becoming a problem for many.

I am more concerned than ever about people not realizing that they have to be diligent in making backups of the media being loaded onto their computers lest they lose it in a drive failure. I’ve known people who’ve lost all the physical photographs of their children before by fire, theft and divorce, though, the number has been few. I can just imagine how many will lose the digital photographs and videos of their families by blindly trusting a hard drive. After all, they can always make a print later.

I also think people don’t realize how much content they have and how quickly they accumulate it.

So, if you’re reading this and you’ve never made a backup or have seldom backed up, it is time to learn how.

First, do you have a functioning DVD or at least a CD burner in your computer. If not, please get one.

Secondly, you’ll need some software to burn the DVD. Use your editing software if there is backup support. If not, there are a million titles. Nero is one of them. You should have this so you can back up any other documents you have as well.

Third, you’ll need to plan what you need to backup on your computer. Installed software, if you have the installation media, isn’t necessarily important to back up.

If you have have videos, pictures, downloaded e-books, licenses, school projects, work projects, or just about anything in your or your family’s My Documents directory, please consider backing these up. It’s tragic to lose something on which you’ve spent part of your most valuable commodity, your life.

Years ago, I was working with someone at my University who had one copy of his PhD thesis that he was working on and he lost it. There was nothing left. A couple hundred pages gone in a blink of an eye. I don’t know what happened to the guy. Hopefully he had printouts. That could be you without backups.

Here’s an assignment for you and it may be more important than you think. If you know how to back up files, and you have any family or friends that aren’t savvy, can you please check to see if they need help learning to back up their content? They may thank you some day.

I’m probably in the minority, but I still like shooting continuous lighting in my home studio for photography as well as video.

I have a few reasons.

1) I also shoot video. I use a mix of Mole-Richardson and LTM Pepper continuous lights. They give me beautiful light.

2) I don’t shoot photographs or video in long sessions so I don’t worry about heat build-up from the tungsten lights. Also, my space is large enough that heat dissipates easily.

3) Since I shoot video fairly actively and I’m lazy, I have a semi-permanent set and several lights up on Matthews light stands at all times. I love Matthews light stands.

4) It’s darn predictable even if a bit dim for still photography.

5) Did I mention that the light is beautiful? These have been used to create the best in movie and TV for years.

6) I don’t have to deal with much movement in my still photography.

7) I’m always prepared to interrogate someone. 😉

A few safety notes:

I don’t deal much with child photography, unpredictable people, or the general public so I am a little less concerned, but no less cautious, about someone getting burned. It is important that anyone you may have on your set understand that tungsten lights can cause serious burns.

I never leave my lights unattended once lit.

I don’t touch them without leather gloves once lit.

I sandbag the base.

I leave plenty of head-room between lights and ceiling.

They’re great instruments. Just be careful.

I was in the mood to view Michael Kenna photographs this morning. That of course led to a couple good resources.

Obviously, his site, www.michaelkenna.net, is well worth visiting.

Here’s a video from youtube about him. I enjoy these and am very thankful that youtube exists.

He also just published a new photography/poetry book with Bianca Rossini called “Love in black and white”