I know Hawkeye, just absurd. My Thunderbay 8 arrays are around 4 grand each, and I now have four of them, but they've been protecting my data for four or five years now. I basically add an 8 bay array every couple of years to refresh my data and drives so I guess my annual data storage costs are a couple grand vs 11 +.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
As you all are aware, storage , expedient storage, is a constant battle. I've gotten into the habit of ordering an 18TB hard drive every month from OWC and just putting them on a shelf in my office closet until there are 8 of them, then I order another Thunderbay 8 RAID enclosure. That kind of spreads out the pain compared to buying all of it at once. Backblaze sends me a storage e blast a couple of times a week, it's helpful because they rate the reliability of all different brands of drives and they have thousands of them running 24/7 so they have great data. Today's email discussed cloud storage and the associated costs.
I go through the mental gymnastics of my system vs cloud about once a year, this article made it real simple: ...Show more →
Thanks to your advice Jim, I have a few SanDisk Thunderbolt3 RAID arrays for storage. And of course when I wanted them everyone was out of stock except for the 36TB. So I had to bite the bullet to at least get a reliable backup.
I bought a smaller one 8TB for safe keeping.
Prices are getting beyond the point of absurd!!! And it is not just for "extras" I need or desire.
Have a great weekend!
RD
Good morning. I went to see the airshow rehearsal in Ocean City, MD yesterday. It was 74 degrees (F) with 10 MPH wind, just beautiful weather to be on the beach, but the humidity was too low for the most part for vapes making except for a very short burst from the F-18 Super Hornet. It was nice to see the Super Hornet in life action after watching "Top Gun II". Talking about that movie, I watched it in IMAX the second day after its release. My wife and I are going to see it again today in "ScreenX" format. I had never heard of this movie format until this morning.
Anyway, here are some shots of the F-18 and the A-10s from the Maryland National Guard. I am loving the closeup shots at 840mm. I haven't touched the Thunderbird pictures yet.
Here is one for you "Hog Lovers" out there. The Maryland NG sent 4 A-10s to the show.
BTW, I went to see "Top Gun II" this afternoon in"ScreenX" format. I can't say I liked it. I had never heard of it before so I wanted to try. Basically for some scenes they show contents on the wall on both sides of the theater. IMAX is much better IMO
Nice Douglas. One of my projects is at Martin State Airport where the A-10s are based, but I have never seen the olive drab plane. I know they had 10 aircraft deployed to Europe in May but they are probably back now. I might be back at Martin State later this week, but not sure yet.
Had a very nice sunset tonight over the local marsh as I was on my bike ride.
Thank you, Mark! Beautiful sunset with reflection!
There won't be another good show nearby where I can do a day trip until the Atlantic City show in Aug. I am still debating whether I want to drive 1200 miles (round trip) to see the Battle Creek show in Michigan at the end of this month. Sounds like a great show though, especially with the new Navy F-35C demo team, that's the main motivator for me to go.
Some shots from Friday's rehearsal. You all have a great week!
I think you have this pretty well nailed Douglas! How tight are those Thunderbird crops compared to the original frame? Trying to get a feel for the 600 +1.4.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
I think you have this pretty well nailed Douglas! How tight are those Thunderbird crops compared to the original frame? Trying to get a feel for the 600 +1.4.
Thank you Jim!
For the opposing passes I usually use the 200-600mm, and don't zoom in all the way to 600mm, fearing I won't be able to keep both jets in the frame. So the opposing passes are cropped quite a bit. For the 800mm+1.4TC shots posted, most of them were not cropped, all just cropped a little for composition. More often than not, the planes overfill the frame as they approach closer. Boy, I love those closeup. However, the first shot of the last post was cropped quite a bit because it was taken pretty far away. As they got closer the formation didn't look as "stacked" as the first one posted due to the change in angle, so I preferred the "stacked" one even though it required a fair amount of cropping. But with the Son A1' 50MP, the cropped JPEG image is still 13.5 MP. Here the uncropped version of the same shot.
Ideally I think a 800mm lens for the closeup shots would be perfect! 600mm is still too short sometimes.
Ray Swindle wrote:
Douglas...Your opposing shots...Wow!
Thank you Ray! Now I think for most of the opposing passes, I know which jet to focus on so it will be the the one in the front in the picture. Remember my little "project"? . The camera's 30FPS almost guarantees that I will get the opposing shots, as long as I can keep the jets in the frame. I am hesitant to shoot these opposing passes shots at 600mm because more likely than not I will clip them. Sometime if they do get clipped, I can crop them more to make them look like this.
Last evening Sheila and I attended the wedding of my good friend Tim's daughter. You remember Tim, he was injured when his helicopter crashed and exploded last year. Tim and Cindy asked if I would shoot the wedding and, tempted as I might have been, I declined. I just do not want the responsibility of being "the" wedding photographer, I have more than enough pressure in my life. I told Tim to hire a team to shoot the wedding and I would come and capture the images that will mean the most to him.
Everyone looks at an image differently, and I got some wonderful shots last night, but knowing Tim and Cindy and their struggles over the past year, I have to choose this one as the shot that touches me the most. They stepped out on the dance floor and the photographers snapped the typical mother/father of the bride dancing images, I waited for the one that told the real story...........
I can honestly say that I've not regretted letting my two R3's go when they came in, but I do yearn for the retina programmed focus mode that it offered. Last night at that wedding I was so wishing that I could choose my focus point by looking at it. I hope the 100MP version offers that feature, it was incredible.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
I can honestly say that I've not regretted letting my two R3's go when they came in, but I do yearn for the retina programmed focus mode that it offered. Last night at that wedding I was so wishing that I could choose my focus point by looking at it. I hope the 100MP version offers that feature, it was incredible.
It is great how technology is continuing to make leaps at such a rapid pace. I know Canon has had retina focus before, but if it was so great they would have built on that, so it must not have been up to industry standards. I don't know what camera to compare the R6 to, but at the price range it would be my 5D III. I have been very happy with the R6, and several times I have second guessed not getting the R5. Hopefully I will take care of that with an R5c...saving my pennies by not driving. Just think, at the rate this country is going, by reducing my driving a tank full per month would pay for a 12 month interest free loan for an R6🤪!
At any rate, I am amazed at the improvement from just a few years ago when I thought the original 5D was the cat's meow.
And it is not just for "extras" I need or desire.
. The camera's 30FPS almost guarantees that I will get the opposing shots, as long as I can keep the jets in the frame. I am hesitant to shoot these opposing passes shots at 600mm because more likely than not I will clip them. Sometime if they do get clipped, I can crop them more to make them look like this.
