A joy to receive the Travel Photographer Of The Year (Inspirational Journeys 11) book today. I was fortunate enough to have my image selected by the judges for a ‘Special Mention’ and was included in the very popular outdoor exhibition, by the banks of the River Thames outside City Hall.
My image was shot in the Tate Modern, using my Lumix G9 and the amazing Leica DG 50-200mm f2.8-4.0. The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and the monochrome treatment finished in Exposure X5.
The Club of Black and White Photography and NOIR the best of The Club of Black and White Photography curators have very kindly bestowed an award for best image of the month of August to one of my images.
The international group is comprised of 68,977 photographer members, so it’s nice to have an image chosen from such a talented and large group of people.
The image was shot as part of my reportage on the COVID 19 lockdown. It was made on my Panasonic Lumix G9 and an Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f1.8 lens.
My English Countryside Flowers photograph is available as a 50″x40″ stretched canvas print for a promotional price, 35% off, on a limited run of 15, for four days (ends September 10th).
The image was made in West Sussex, England, in a field of wild flowers, as the sun was beginning to set. Shot on a Lumix S1R, with a Lumix S Pro 50mm f1.4 lens.
With the constant need for more storage, when my current storage got down to a few hundred gigabytes of free space, the time came to expand. I was very happy to spot that OWC had brought out a new 8-bay solution, which I had somehow missed. So I ordered the OWC ThunderBay 8-Bay Enclosure to expand my photographic and video storage.
I’ve been using various OWC external storage boxes for many years now. My current storage for my picture library (including video) was residing on a four bay ThunderBay box, filled with WD 6Tb Enterprise class hard drives. These were all left as individual drives, connected via Thunderbolt 2 to my Mac Pro. Once the fourth drive was down to a few hundred gigabytes of free space, it was time to plan ahead and upgrade.
Before I continue, a few explanations on why use multiple drive bay enclosure boxes, over getting individual external drives. In a nutshell, its to keep things nice and tidy. Declutter. With a box storing 2, 4 or 8 hard drives, you only need one electricity plug and one connection cable to your computer, not 2, 4 or 8. It also means that my entire picture library is always available; many colleagues have to unplug and plug in various hard drives to try and find more historical work. Lastly, the constantly attached library also means that Cloud backups can happen fully and properly.
The ThunderBay enclosures aren’t hardware RAID boxes, but give you an option of using SoftRAID (a software RAID, available in two versions) by OWC. It’s not something I personally use. All my drives in my ThunderBay enclosures have always been used as individual drives (I do use hardware RAID 5 in other enclosures as backup boxes). These individual hard drives are then backed up to my RAID 5 box using Carbon Copy Cloner, backed up offsite manually (per assignment) and also backed up in the Cloud automatically, using Backblaze. Incidentally, that Backblaze referral link will give us both a free month of Cloud backup, if you’re a new customer.
Once the OWC ThunderBay 8-Bay TB3 Enclosure arrived, I simply shut down my Mac Pro, took out the four hard drives from my previous ThunderBay 4-bay enclosure, installed them in the 8-bay enclosure and added the fifth, new drive. Each drive screws into its own drive tray using the supplied screws. After some research, I also decided to try a Toshiba Enterprise class hard drive for the first time. I opted for the Toshiba 8.0TB MG05ACA Series SATA Interface Enterprise Class Hard Disk Drive, also available from OWC. This leaves three bays free in the box, for future upgrade needs. It’s an extremely elegant, practical and future proof solution for one’s never ending storage needs.
Something worth thinking about, if your current storage involves multiple external drives, with a spaghetti like tangle of cables. If you’re not worried about warranties, you are extremely careful and are happy to take the risk (there is always risk present in doing anything with the innards of computers and related equipment) is to physically transfer those individual SATA hard drives into a ThunderBay box. Declutter and become more efficient. The intelligent design also allows 2.5” drives to be used.
However, the best option would be to transfer the data onto new hard drives. I tend to swap out hard disks every 4-5 years, as they all have finite life cycles. Also it means that as hard drives increase in size, the physical number of drives needed is less.
Lastly, always backup your work. You need everything on at least two physically different drives, but ideally three. One set being kept in a geographically different location. Ideally, a final layer of safety would be a Cloud backup.
Very pleased to share a selection of my work is available through my gallery pages on Fine Art America. These images are available primarily as prints, but also as a selection of tasteful gifts and products for the home. I hope you can have a browse and support artists such as myself and some of the very talented colleagues also represented.
As always, bespoke, collector’s grade prints, signed, embossed and with a certificate of authenticity are available directly from me, from my archive. For these, kindly get in touch directly with your needs.
Very happy to share that a portfolio of 5 of my images has been selected for the next stage of the Urban Photo Awards.
Wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial khachkar (a carved Armenian Stone Cross memorial sculpture) took place after a remembrance service and prayer of intercession, to commemorate the 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of April 24th, 1915, when 1.5 Million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Empire. A member of the clergy swings a censer (a type of thurible) of incense. The usual wreath laying ceremony at The Cenotaph, attended by hundreds, was cancelled this year due to the COVID 19 lockdown and instead took place on church grounds. St. Yeghiche Armenian Church, Cranley Gardens, South Kensington, London, UK. April 24, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian Panasonic Lumix S1 with a Lumix S Pro 16-35mm f4.0 lens.
A portrait of Jim Connor (former picture editor, The Herald, Glasgow) enjoying a pint of Guiness at The Long Hall pub in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. January 17, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian Sigma fp with a Leica 35mm APO Summicron SL f2.0 lens.Opera singer Ida Ränzlöv (mezzo-soprano) in her dressing room ahead of her performance in Ian Page’s visionary MOZART 250 series, 1770 – A Retrospective. In conjunction with Classic FM. Wigmore Hall, Wigmore Street, London, UK. January 09, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian Sigma fp with a Lumix S Pro 50mm f1.4 lens.Fashion designer and independent British luxury brand, Joshua Kane, in his flagship store at 68 Great Portland Street, London, UK. July 23, 2019. Photo: Edmond Terakopian Panasonic Lumix S1R with a Lumix S Pro 24-70mm f2.8 lens.Easing Of The Coronavirus Lockdown In England begins today with non-essential retailers being allowed to open if they adhere to social distancing rules. Harrods opens it’s doors to shoppers who began queuing over an hour before the 11am opening of the store. Knightsbridge, London, UK. June 15, 2020. Photo: Edmond Terakopian Panasonic Lumix S1R with a Lumix S Pro 16-35mm f4.0 lens.
All the images were made using the L-Mount camera system. Three images were shot on the Lumix S Series with Lumix S Pro lenses and the other two images were shot on the Sigma fp with a Leica APO Summicron SL lens and a Lumix S Pro lens.
All photographs were from raw files, edited and processed in Adobe Lightroom and finished in Exposure Software’s Exposure X5, with the monochrome image being finished in DxO’s Nik Collection, Silver Efex Pro.
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