Moving Day

Wonders of wonders, I have found a way around the China censorship and all is well with my network world.  Ah, the wonders of modern, subversive technology.

China is nothing if not about manual labor.  With 1.4 billion people in the country, labor is cheap and there is not much incentive to automate, or to make anyone’s life easier.  Got a load of furniture to move?  The picture above pretty much says it all.  I don’t know how this guy got it all loaded, or how he keeps it balanced, but he does and the furniture gets moved.

I am off to Xi’an on Sunday.  The terracotta warriors, the great mosque, the city wall and lots of Feng Shui.  Should be fun and I may even find time to shoot.

In China with no Pictures

I am currently in China, where, in the Chinese government’s infinite wisdom, they are blocking the WordPress blog sites. Not just mine, but everyone’s. So, no pictures and I will have to wait until I return to the US at the end of next week to do another post. Sorry.

Best of Intentions

I did have all good intentions of posting as soon as we returned from our trip, but life intruded and if just didn’t get done.  To make matters worse, my imaging computer is down, as my office is completely torn apart while we redo the place.  My old workspace was not set up for efficient workflow and print production, so we ripped everything out and we are redoing it.  Hopefully, the cabinets, desktops and shelving will be done this weekend and I can get my images back.

In the meantime, above is a picture, taken at Yellowstone National Park on the day before we headed home.  Fall in Yellowstone is always a great time.  The combination of colder temperatures and mist from warm springs and creeks make for great photography.  I shot more images in one day in Yellowstone than during the entire rest of the trip.  This is off the west road, south of Mammoth Hot Springs.

I am leaving for China on October 20th, so with luck I will have some interesting pictures to post.  I will be in Hangzhou, Xi’an and Shanghai this trip.  Also, a week after I return from China, Susan and I are heading for a long weekend in London.  Not sure how much photography I will do there, but I am sure I will take some pictures.

In the meantime, it’s Fall, so get out there and take some great pictures.

It’s a Dog’s Life

We left East Glacier early this morning and ran route US 89 down to Gardiner.  It is a nice secondary road that runs through the Lewis and Clark National Forest, which is a really nice scenic route.

After arriving in Gardiner, we stopped for a late lunch just outside Yellowstone National Park.  We saw the dog above soaking in the sun, while, we assume, waiting for his owner.  Nice to be able to take it easy.

After lunch we drove into the park to the Mammoth Hot Springs village.  We had fun watching the whack job tourists pester the elk feeding there and the rangers having fits trying to keep the fools from getting hurt.  Some people just don’t think.

We also went over to the Mammoth Hot Springs themselves, which turned out to be a strange experience.  When we were here five years ago, the springs were active, with a lot of running water, pools and steam.  Now they are almost completely dry.  It looked more like cement terraces than a geothermal site.  It demonstrates the changes that have been happening recently in the park.  The park has always undergone changes, but over the past several years, the pace of change has accelerated.

Part of the west road in the park is closed for the season, due to road construction.   That will force us over the east side of the park tomorrow, which means more wildlife and less geothermal attractions.  Not what we had planned, but it is go with the flow for now.  If I have Internet connectivity tomorrow evening, I will post a final entry for the trip.  Otherwise, I will post one when we get home Saturday.

That Bloody, Bloody Wind

Tuesday morning we  woke to more high winds and cold temperatures.  After a really good breakfast at the Park Cafe in St. Mary, we drove up to Babb and then over to the Many Glaciers area in the park.  We pulled in to Many Glaciers Hotel to find even more wind and a dropping temperature.  There is a huge fireplace in the lobby and it seemed that the entire clientele of the hotel had decided that it was a fine day to sit by the fire and read a book.  We decided that was a fine idea and did the same.  It was just way too cold and windy to make any kind of hiking comfortable.

The weather on the east side of the park is anything but friendly.  I gather that for a good chunk of the year, it can be a brutal place to be.  For all that, we saw one grizzly bear feeding up on a hillside and a number of mountain goats moving around the upper reaches of the surrounding mountains.  They, at least, did not seem to be bothered by the cold.  Tress, on the other hand, were bent and there were a large number of dead ones, standing stark against the sky.  The one on the picture above was along the road to Many Glaciers.

This morning we slept in, as the wind was still howling.  After finally getting up, we drove back to the Park Cafe for breakfast (the fruity french toast is awesome) and then drove over route 89 and 49 to the entrance to Two Medicine Lakes.  There was a short trail to Running Eagle Falls, which was nice, but not much else.  The camp store and tour boat at the end of the road had closed right after labor day.  At least the wind was gone and the temperature was climbing again.

From there, we heading into East Glacier, to the Glacier Park Hotel.  By far, this is the nicest place we have stayed in so far on this trip.  Our room wasn’t ready, so we ran route 2 to Essex and then on into West Glacier, stopping at a picnic area for lunch out of our cooler.  After some poking around in stores (everyone of them have the same tourist s0uveniers), we drove back to the hotel and took some walks.  Not much for photography, but relaxing (this is a vacation, after all).  We found a good Mexican restaurant, Serrano’s, which, when they say hot, they mean hot.  My dinner was wonderfully flavored, but so hot my eyes were tearing.  We cooled off later with huckleberry ice cream.   So much for any kind of healthy eating.

Tomorrow we are off for Gardiner, Montana, which is at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park.  Probably no pictures, as it will be a long drive.  If I have connectivity, I will post something Friday night.

Hidden Creek Cascade

I did have the best of intentions to post an entry last night, but the Park Service does not have either cell phone, or Interet service within the park.  As we were staying at Lake MacDonald Lodge, well within the park boundaries, there was no chance to post.  The same will be true for tomorrow night, when we  are at Many Glaciers Hotel.

We arrived at the park yesterday to find clouds and some rain.  However, by dinner time, the clouds had blown through and the sun came out.  Unfortunately, while Lake MacDonald is quite something to see, the sunset wasn’t very good, so the pictures were mediocre.  We did drive up the road a bit to Sacred Dancing Cascade, which was quite beautiful.  As with most glacier fed streams, the water was crystal clear and a brilliant blue.  Once I get home and have time to process the pictures from the trip, I will put some shots up on the website.

This morning was cold and cloudy again, with the threat of rain.  After breakfast, we started up Going to the Sun Road.  As it was a holiday, there was no construction, so very little hold up on the drive.  After a quick stop to shoot some more at the Sacred Dancing Cascade, we stopped to walk the Trial of the Cedars.  This is a short loop trail through stands of cedar and hemlock and mostly boardwalk.  At one point, we passed over Hidden Creek, which runs into Avalanche Creek.  Right upstream was a small and very nice cascade.  One of the pictures from there is above.

We continued up the road, stopping at Logan Pass Visitor’s Center.  Naturally, right at that moment it decided to start snowing and the wind really picked up.  We scratched the short hike we were planning to do and sat in the car and ate lunch.  We then continued on our way, stopping to admire the views.  We actually saw a single mountain goat, sitting on a rock, watching the whacky tourists below.  Too far away for a picture, even with a long lens.  Farther down, above St. Mary Lake, we ran into a small traffic jam.  There was a young black bear on the side of the road eating some sort of a plant.  The bear was on Susan’s side of the car, so she got a picture, but I didn’t get anything.

We finally arrived a St. Mary Lodge, our stopping point for the night, and decided some downtime was warranted.  If not mandatory as there isn’t anything in St. Mary, or the surrounding area and the wind was cranking at about 40 MPH.  At least it gave me a change to catch up on email and picture editing.  And getting a blog post out.

Tomorrow it is off to Many Glaciers and Wednesday it’s down to Two Medicine Lake.  Hopefully I will have Internet on Wednesday night and be able to post another blog entry.  See you then.

On the Road Again

Susan and I left this morning for a week long road trip to Glacier National Park.  I am sitting in a hotel in Bozeman, Montana as I write this.  The entire 10 hours of driving today was done on interstate highways, so no pictures.  However, if I am not too exhausted at the end of the day, I will post a picture each eveing as we travel through the park and on the one day we will spend in Yellowstone National Park on the way home.

One thing about Bozeman.  It has a wonderful tapas restaurant, Over the Tapas.  Cutesy name, but incredible food.  The bacon wrapped duck medallions were to die for.  As well as being a photographer, I am also a foodie.  Susan and I were amazed to find something this good in Bozeman.  Shows how much we know.

Tomorrow we are off the interstates and on back roads up to the park.  We are going to go lodge to lodge while in the park, staying in a different lodge each night.  Should be a real kick.   I know there will be good photography to be had, but I am not too sure about the food.  I imagine we will find something good.  We always do.

New York City

Susan and I were in New York City this past weekend for a family reunion.  I imagine that most would not find the reunion pictures interesting (we are all getting way too old), but I did get some time to wander around Central Park and do some shooting.

It is amazing to me that you can find such a beautiful and (sort of) natural park in the middle of Manhattan, but it is a great to stroll around and enjoy the good weather.  Lots of scenic areas and the usual varied complement of people that you always find there.  For all the times I have been in the park over the years, I still enjoy it and always find something new.

This bridge has been photographed a million times by just about everyone, but it still always calls to me to make a shot.  The flowers were in full bloom and that just makes it nicer.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Susan and I finally got some time to play on Sunday, so we left early in the morning and headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The park is pretty crowded during the Summer, particularly on Trail Ridge Road.  However, if you get there really early in the morning, things are pretty quiet, at least as far as the tourists are concerned.

We had planned to drive up Fall River Road, which is a one-way dirt road that goes from the east side of the park up to the Alpine Center.  However, heavy rain on Saturday night left the road pretty muddy, so we opted for Trail Ridge Road.  Good thing we did.  You never know, in the park, what wildlife you will see, if anything, but on this day we hit it big time.   We saw marmot at the Forest Canyon Overlook, multiple heard of elk and down in the valley on the west side, a moose cow and her calf feeding near the beaver ponds.  All in all, a good day for pictures.

The picture above is one of about 10 elk bulls that were relaxing along the side of the road.  The antlers are pretty big now, but still fully covered in velvet.  They are used to people watching them and as long as you don’t get close, you can get great views and even better shots.

Shoe Boxes and the Digital Age

With the exponential increase in computer use over the past 20 years, the vast majority of data throughout the world is stored digitally.  The problem is that much of this data, including really valuable information, is being lost due to technology shift, lack of backup and lack of any coherent organization of the data.  This is very true of photography.

With the advent of digital photography, fewer and fewer people are printing pictures.  Instead, they download them to their computer, email a few to their friends and family, or maybe upload to a photo website, and then forget about them.   In essence, the computer has become the proverbial shoe box that we all used to throw our negatives and prints into.  Just about everyday, I hear a story about someone who had all their images on their computer and experienced a hard drive crash.  The obvious first question is, “did you have a backup of the images?”  Of course, the answer is usually “no.”

Which brings us to the reason for this entry: image protection and backup.

Let’s face it, the images we all take, whether they be family snapshots, or fine art, at the end of the day, constitute wonderful visual memories of our life.  They remind us of people, places and events that we experienced over time.  We all take these seriously, when we think about it.  Talk to someone who has had to evacuate their home, or have come home to a fire, or other tragedy.  The first thing they look for are their photographs.  Most other objects can be replaced, but how do you replace a lost image?

Protecting your images does not take a degree in computer science.  Just some common sense and some relatively simple technology.  At a minimum, all you need is an external hard drive of sufficient space and a backup application.  Often, the application comes with the hard drive.  In its simplest form, simply attach the hard drive to your computer, either with a USB, or Firewire cable, depending on your computer and what drive you bought, and copy your images over to the external drive.  You now have two copies of your images and unless both drives fail at the same time, you have a fair degree of protection.

The problem with the above scheme is that it requires you to manually back things up.  Over time, that is not a good idea.  The next step is to add backup software that runs at scheduled times.  This automates the backup process and you don’t have to remember to do it.  You should remember to periodically check to make sure that  the backups are running as scheduled and have completed successfully.  You can even extend this to backup your entire computer.  I use a package called Retrospect Pro, which maintains a mirror copy of all hard disks in my computer on external drives.  That includes not only my images, but any other data I may have, such as financial records, documents, etc.  External disk drives will cost anywhere from around $50 to $200, depending on how big and how fast you need the drive to be.  Software runs from free to around $100, depending on how much functionality and automation you want.

The shortcoming with a single backup set is that it does not account for physical disasters.  The next step up is to add another external drive.  This one stays disconnected from the computer and can be stored off-site, or in a fireproof safe.  Simply connect the drive once a week and run a backup to it, disconnect it and store it away.  It is this scheme that I use to protect my images.  The incremental cost is not much and the extra redundancy, coupled with physical separation, provides a great amount of data safety.

Backup on a regular basis and your images will always be around to remind you of past times.  I find as I get older, that is a pretty good thing.