Sunday, May 27, 2012

Catching Up (notes on photos and backups)

red on grey horizontals

I have to apologise to those of you who follow me through this blog, since Facebook has proven a much easier way of regularly reporting on my happenings and sharing photos as they occur. I do realise that not everyone cares to join that particular social morass, though I find it has its uses. First, I have come into contact with many new creative folk (musicians, sound artists, and so on). Second, I have re-established relationships with friends from my past. And third, as mentioned, it's easy to share my newest Flickr posting or what have you.

I will continue to use this blog for more substantive posts, even if those are like the last article, a simple narrative based around some of my photographs. (But those who are interested can find my Facebook page through the link.)

So, what's been happening since I last dropped in here? First of all, I've submitted some nature photographs for a contest by a local conservation society. This was good fun as it got me out to nearby locations I had not previously visited. And of course I took a recorder, so I also ended up with some nice field recordings.

brown tessellation

I also chanced my arm with the annual print show, always a gamble as the work they choose is of high quality. A number of my photos have been licensed and I did a couple of event shoots as well. These always produce a lot of work after the fact. I don't think most people understand how much time digital development takes, especially factoring in file management, backups, and so on.

Speaking of which, I have just completed a large reorganisation of how I do my system backups. Previously I had two external hard drives plus a DNS housing two more. I am migrating this system over to one where each naked drive is stored as is, read through a simple hot-swap interface when needed. This saves me having multiple housings each with their own power supplies. I really hate dealing with power!

I was thinking of writing an article on that, but backing up is truly one of the most boring things ever. Suffice it to say that I have 6 TB internal storage and 4 TB external. Some of the internal is used as redundant storage. What surprised me was that despite the fact I have audio projects going back many years, it's my photographs that take up the largest chunk.

sewn is

Here I present three shots from the many I have recently been sharing on Flickr. Trips to different parts of Ireland always result in many new photographs, but that is only because I dedicate the time to it. When last in Dublin I walked for seven hours on one day; when visiting Drogheda for the first time I went out exploring for at least ten hours over three days. It's only by dedicating real time that I can find the little details of architecture and landscape that interest me.

But it's all good fun, and allows me to throw around terms like "psycho-geography" with impunity!

This summary article is partially inspired by the fact I am off to Canada this week. Besides seeing friends and family for the first time in years, I have two projects to work on. The first involves some photography for a book I hope to have out before the end of 2012. The second is a pop music recording project that will be good fun no matter what the results. It will be challenging to go back to thinking in terms of more song-oriented structures.

I have to thank Chris for making this trip possible.

In my next post I'll share more photos and say something about my recent compositional practice.

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