A WET AND DISMAL SEPTEMBER

Well what an end to summer a rather abrupt one wasnt it. The nights are now pulling in at 3 minutes per day and I must admit to switching on my central heating on a fair few chilly evenings and mornings.

The wet weather has meant a few rescheduled lifestyle sessions , and a few indoor sessions
One of my favourite sessions this month was a family and bump session we did actually manage a few outdoor  pictures in the harsh low sunlight until the dark clouds decided to water the grass yet again.

Now i am looking forward to shooting a new little person.

September sees me going out for some street photography both locally and in London and Brighton, capturing people  unaware complete strangers I will never know. I love this kind of photography and capturing  different moods of people, Its like a little snap shot on British life. I recommend going with a friend if this is not practical then  use a zoom lens so  your intended subject is not aware your near them.

Isnt it against the law ?I hear you cry, well no not if your in a public place, This excludes railway stations and underground, Most public places your fine in but you must not course a nuisance, Basically do not follow people around and dont be to intrusive with your camera distance is better then close up. There are plenty of websites offerring guide lines for candid/street photography.

Street shot Witham

Witham

Candid London

Candid London

Candid London

I have also been adding a little more art to my own images now I have CS5, This can be time consuming but great fun, 

An image of a street entertainer in London

mixture of 5 images 

A view of London and hand drawn window .

Also this month as you may have seen on my facebook profile. I had my picture taken with my daughter . Its not often I get my picture taken so Thanks to Robbo and the GNPC studio

My girl and I

So rolling in to October when mother natures studio is at her best, So why not put on your wellies hats n scarfs and book a fun outdoor photo session with the backdrop of golden Autumn hues. A few dates are booked on the mornings of the 24th and 25th as I am doing lifestyle session at Westonbirt The national Arboretum, supposedly the most spectacular Autumn colour in the UK. If your in the area and would like an afternoon session at the Arboretum then please do contact me  ASAP

Well bye bye September remembered for her rain and roll on October

The Day My MAC went wrong

We are all told and told again to back up our files, well I use two different back up options one is Time machine, the other is just an external hard drive where every image I have ever taken is stored in its raw state.

My external hard drive is spilt into  years so 2008,2009 and 2010
next it contains folders in months  for example JAN 2010, some folders have clients names on,
so you see I'm all backed up

Ok so here is what happened, I switched on my MAC in the morning to work on some images stored on my external hard drive, every thing was fine and in tact working well, I also had some CF cards with clients RAW images on so backed those up twice, Got a phone call from an old friend so shut down the computer unplugged every thing and went out.

That evening I decided to continue working on some clients images. Duly plugged in the computer and switched it on. Oh what's happening it seemed to take a really long time to load, and when my screen loaded it was a completely different background from the one I had in the morning?, The little rainbow wheel kept spinning and spinning, 30 minutes later it stopped but all my desk top icons were missing?

I clicked on my files folder and  rainbow disc kept spinning? Very odd, Then random files kept popping up on the desktop like 3d png more and more files kept appearing in random places, EEK

when my picture folders appeared they were all empty??!!!!

yes every single image had gone, I restarted the MAC guess what? it started fine this time, but not an image to be found, checked my back up all the folders were in tact but empty!

Decided to check my external hard drive on my other computer, At first I was like PHEW, every folder was there . BUT oh no when I clicked on any folder made in 2010, even if it just had a clients name it was empty.

Sensibly I had purchased the APPLE care plan, so  called them, they told me to insert the diagnostic care plan utility disc. This checks the MAC for faults well 30 minutes later every thing had passed nothing wrong.

The man talks me through a reinstall while preserving data , err this didn't work either

I then get an appointment at Thurrock only a 100 mile round trip to take my heavy MAC into the APPLE store (have you tried carrying a 21 inch MAC through Lakeside?)

Eventually I get seen 20 minutes after my appointment time, Little guy looks up my case number and says oh its over heating then?? err no I say, he does a trash and burn without any attempt to  find lost data, then tells me its fine nothing wrong,

I refuse to take the MAC home 3 days later Apple call me to tell me they have cleaned the MAC as it was dusty so this may have made it over heat, they have install snow leopard for me and Iworks, when can i come and get the computer?

Now my dilemma is what do I do next? Obviously  the external hard drive is going off to try and have the data retrieved, Yet talking to companies that do this there seems little hope as MAC is LINUX based and has  its own way of saving data.. Lost of earning for me is extremely high. So where do I go from here what do I do next

Answers please

FREE SESSION VOUCHERS

My free session vouchers are now available in many stores in Braintree, Join the baby club at Little Tinkers in George yard and you will receive your free session vouchers.
Image prices start from £15.00 lots of other options are available to keep those precious baby memories for ever including small photo books, or framed prints

Planning your wedding how about a free pre wedding session , when you book your wedding with me once you have paid your booking deposit you will get a free pre wedding session worth £75.00 . Also newly available this year is the wedding signature board your favorite engagement or pre wedding picture mounted in either a white board with a black pen or a black board with a silver pen, This makes a great option to the normal wedding guest books, Once signed the wedding signature board can be framed and mounted on the wall, prices start at £35.00

There will be some great new products and services added to our website soon