This is a problem that I have been facing for some time and the amount of data that I have is just growing with every shoot … the joys of a 21 megapixel camera.  So I looked around for an online backup solution that is both reliable and affordable but didn’t seem to be able to find one.  Then one day I was listening to one of the many photo podcasts that I follow and a company called Backblaze who offer unlimited backup all for US$ 5 /month per computer.

It has been several months since I have subscribed to Backblaze and I am backing up my main PC with all my photographic library on plus my laptop.  The Backblaze software runs silently and effectively in the background without interfering with your use of the computer.  The initial backup takes a while (depends on how much data you have & your internet connectivity) but once this is done then the Backblaze software just figures out new & modified files and backups them up in the background.

As always with backups, it is a good idea to test a restore before you need it so you are sure that the backup is working.  On this front, I have to say it was very easy and quick to restore a group of files as well as individual files.  In the event of an absolute disaster, Backblaze can restore your data to a USB drive and then ship that to you … an option I hope I never need but it is really good to know it is there.

Congratulations on a great service to all the team at Backblaze and keep up the good work.

I have now shot all 258 elephant around the streets of London that form the Elephant Parade London 2010 and have been brightening up our fair city since the beginning of May.

The 258th elephant was the elusive “Phoolan”, elephant no. 66, (pictured right) who has travelled around a bit and have even been seen on the back of a pick-up truck.  I finally caught up with Phoolan at the Natural History Museum on Museum Lane.

See all 258 elephants in my Elephant Parade London 2010 gallery.

What seemed like an impossible task when I started back at the beginning of May is almost done with only four elephants still to be photographed.  The remaining  elephants are:

Phoolan (66) who was missing from Natural History Museum on Sunday but is supposed to be back there now at the junction of Exhibition Road and Museum Lane.

Gerald (135) who featured in the London Evening Standard because he had to be removed from Selfridges and has now been relocated at the Soho night club Chinawhites.

Mason (159) and bird (191) are located that the House of Barnabas on Soho Square which is only open Monday to Friday.

Hopefully, I will be able to get these last 4 elephants before they are removed from the streets next Sunday (20th June) prior to the grand exhibition of the herd at the Royal Hospital Chelsea ahead of the auction.

You can see the 254 elephants that  have captured in my Elephant Parade 2010 gallery.

I have been waiting for along time for Adobe to upgrade Lightroom.  First we had Apple releasing Aperture 3 (no good for us PC folk) and the Adobe looked like they might have been releasing it with Adobe CS5 but it turned out to only be a second beta.  Anyway, on Tuesday evening (at least here in UK) finally slipped Lightroom 3 out of the door. I have taken the opportunity to purchase both upgrades to Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 Extended so I could claim the 30% discount on Lightroom – pity the discount wasn’t the other way round.

As always there is lots to get your head round so I have started by focusing on the new noise reduction processes which everyone has been raving about during the beta.  From the RAW processing that I have done tonight, it is a massive improvement over the previous Lightroom.  I definitely need to find some photos I have shot at high ISO (preferably 1600 ISO) to really test it out but that will have to wait until the weekend.

The way that you can upgrade whole collections to the new processing is also very good and much less time consuming than I expected.  So I have converted all my galleries but exporting and publishing them all is going to have to wait until Saturday otherwise I will be up all night … not for the first time either.

Given the long apparent delays in Canon releasing the updated Canon EOS 1Ds Mark IV, I decided to purchase a new lens which I have been looking at for a little while now.  For as long as I can remember, it has been said that every photographer should own a 50mm prime lens.  Now I know that it is not that simple in the digital world with cropped sensor and vastly improved zoom lenses  but I use a full framed sensor and liked the idea of a very fast lens.

Last week I took the plunge and after a lunchtime trip to Fixation near Vauxhall, I became the proud owner of a new Canon EF 50 mm f/1.2L lens.

I had to get out that evening and test it out … obviously it was an opportunity to get a few more elephants including this one outside the Tower of London.  The depth of field is so shallow which gives me more artistic possibilities!  I was also lucky enough to be at a wedding on Saturday where I exclusively used this new prime lens – it makes you think more.  I am still working through the post processing of these photographs.

I have been looking for a new, bigger camera bag for sometime when heard an interview with Andy Biggs on the TWIP Podcast #126 which aroused my interest … a camera bag actually designed by a photographer because he couldn’t find his ideal bag.  It is quite expensive at around US$ 400 so I pursued my wife to buy it for my birthday back in April.

Now that I have been using the Kiboko for a few months I thought that I would share my views with you.  To start with the bag is incredibly light (when empty) weighting a mere 4 pounds because it is made out the same material they use on the fastest sail boats in the world.  It’s design is nothing short of brilliant – it is size to maximise that amount of kit that you can carry on an airplane and the straps & belts can neatly be packed away so they don’t catch on the overhead storage bins.

The main compartment is spilt into two half with butterfly flap access system which easily allows you to get to all your kit which can be very extensive … at  the moment I can get my Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, 6 lenses (EF 17-40, EF 24-104, EF 70-200, EF 100-400, EF 50, EF 180 macro), EF x2 convertor and Speedlite 580EX and there is still some room for more kit!

the only compromise that I can think has been made is that there is no room for a laptop – this is by design and I’m more that happy to carry a small separate laptop bag with me when I travel.

Great work Andy!