An oldie but goodie that set in motion an unfortunate series of events that came to a head last night.
A couple of weeks ago I received an image request from the American Bird Conservancy to use one of my raptor photos in their 2022 Annual Report. They needed a high resolution version of the image, which meant that I had to find the original RAW file, but it turned out that it was on one of my old computers and the hard drive on that computer was on its very last legs. After nearly 3 hours of trying to retrieve that image I gave up and told the Conservancy that it was a lost cause.
So this week I had that hard drive replaced with a new, larger one and all of those files are now backed up on the new drive. During the process I decided I needed a new monitor that I could hook both computers to and easily switch back and forth between them. That’s when everything went to hell.
I won’t go into all the details, except to say that right now my old computer won’t work at all with the new monitor and the newer one (the one I’m on right now) has lost all sound and won’t play video clips from any source. It doesn’t make any sense to me (other than some of it may be graphics card/driver related) but that’s what’s happening. There are a few other highly annoying hiccups too.
1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
This is the image that started it all, my favorite photo of a Golden Eagle. You’ve seen it before but it’s been the focus of my attention for a while and I think it deserves another look.
It also gives me an appropriate opportunity to forewarn my readers. If both computers end up in the shop soon, along with my new monitor, Feathered Photography may go offline for a few days. I dread the possibility, but it might happen.
I think of computers like I think of my aging sprinkler system. Can’t live with them and can’t live without them.
Ron
Update:
All of my computer gremlins have finally been banished, all except for a minor one. Sound issues have been fixed, both computers now work with the new monitor so I can easily switch from one computer to the other and most of my video issues no longer exist. The only glitch left is CNN videos not playing. Videos from other sources work just fine so I don’t know why CNN thinks it’s ‘special’.
But I’ll take it.
Awesome flight shot Ron, thanks for sharing!!
Charlotte Norton
I had a sympathetic blood pressure spike while reading your post. Thank goodness for the update. Whew! I have a very low tolerance for technology shenanigans. (I swear that a computer can sense fear just like a horse can — that’s why I always wondered how I ended up as the science teacher for the computer tech Small Learning Community during most of the 20 years I spent teaching at that high school.🧐)
I agree with the others that this Golden shot deserves its own annual post! She’s a beaut! ❤️❤️❤️
I could happily see that image again and again.
I am very glad that your ‘puter problems have been largely fixed. I STILL cannot access Feathered Photography on my preferred browser. Yours is the only site that refuses to load, but refuse it does. Hiss and spit.
Ron,
I share your frustration and had the same thing happen to me three years ago. I took the defunct hard drive with all kinds of family, vacation and work info on it into Apple and said, “If the plot to assassinate the president was on that hard drive….” And they fixed it.
When I sit at the computer today watching the dreaded wheel of death spin (either here or previously at work) I have to remember “back in the day” when we had to develop, print and publish. It could be worse and I wouldn’t want to go back.
(The work example was waiting for X-rays to load on a computer anyplace in the hospital, maybe 10-20 seconds. The alternative previously was walking literally two city blocks to the department and then wait for them to find the folders, etc, 30-45 minutes! Anyway, TMI but thank heaven for modern tech, even with the glitches.)
Stephen
That is a photo worth seeing again and again and again. In fact you should show it every year on its anniversary. Super photo.
I would bet without a doubt that I am the lowest tech person of all your followers. At 85 I am still using Windows 7, a $500 super zoom camera, have a flip phone, and drive a ten year old low tech Subaru Forrester.
Everett “Old School” Sanborn, I especially love that you’re still using a flip phone. I actually used to love my flip phone.
Thanks for all your commiserations and suggestions everyone! Please see my update at the bottom of my post.
Great shot. It’a always a big plus when the opportunity presents itself to photograqph a Golden Eagle.
Amazing isn’t it. I’me old enough to remember when computers were giant machines filling the entire floor of only one building on campus. Looking at and fooling with images at home was just science fiction. We all did just fine and never thought we were missing anything. Now that we all have personal computers we can’t live without them. I had to spend a couple of days without mine recently and they seemed like very long and unproductive days. Good luck getting everything back in order.
So sorry! It is never easy. I am so glad we have Eric! Jon and I are both late to the age of technology but my son was hard wired at birth.
Life with modern electronics can be our biggest challenge these days. Hope it gets resolved soon.
I dislike computers… luckily I don’t need to use one.
How disappointing not to be able to use this awesome picture😕
ron – you need backups my friend. actual real offsite backups. let me introduce you to https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup/personal – I’ve got ~~70TB of data (and ~120TB of disk) on one of my computers and it’s backed up with backblaze.
there are some caveats – external drives need to be reattached occasionally, and computers need to be online at least every few weeks – but it’s worth it.
as a mac user, I also rely heavily on time machine (mac’s built in local on-site backup system) – all of my primary machines have the “working” trees backed up locally with TM for faster recovery – but backblaze still covers that data as well.
I have a 3rd tier as well (using Arq and B2), but that’s because I’m professionally paranoid about losing data.
oh, also ron – you might consider shipping that dead drive out for data recovery. there are professional services who specialize in this. it might be easier than you think to get that lost image back. I can pull up some recommendations (I haven’t used them directly but know folks who have) if you need it.
David, it wasn’t completely dead. It took a few days but the shop was able to retrieve and save all of my files. Even the drive paths were maintained between my photo organizer and my photos.
I sympathize. I’ve spent more time than I want to think about updating and disposing of old computer gear recently. This involved copying all the files on Betty’s computers, destroying the disks and recycling the remains, replacing and recycling my ancient desktop to obtain a version that would accept the new Windows operating system, replacing and recycling my old laptop because repairing it would cost almost as much as a new one, replacing two old 24″ monitors with a single 27″ version, and transferring and backing up all the old files to external drives and the cloud. It is done now. Now I need to find an AI app to schedule my daily activities because I have forgotten how to do that myself.
Good luck solving your computer issues. I love the Golden Eagle shot.
There may be a few reasons why the new monitor doesn’t work. Depending on how old your older computer is, it may not be compatible with the new monitor models. The other reason may be that the drivers on your computer need to be updated to be able to view the new monitor. On the newer computer, the drivers may just need to be updated on the sound card and also the video card. If you’re not sure how to do this, you can either Google the request or have the shop take care of it for you.
It’s a good thing that you have someone to help you. I thought of a few more reasons why they may not work. Unless you can see the problem first hand, it’s difficult to second guess.
UGH! My BP goes up when having to deal with any of the modern electronics and computer issues REALLY set me off….. 🙁 Hopefully they won’t end up in the shop! Good luck!
Beautiful eagle that soothes (a bit anyway) 😉
That is a powerful image. Can see why any organization would want to use it.
Computer issues are always unwelcome and (as friends of mine would say) are frustrating enough to piss of the Pope. My sympathies.
I’m probably suggesting something you already know and do but here goes. I download all my camera images to a separate hard drive, and then back that up. But what I also do is archive my memory cards one they are full or near full. I number them and cross reference the card number with a date range on a tracking sheet. The cards are all neatly kept in a memory card case.
Best of luck with all that.
The eagle is stunning! As for your computer issues, I firmly believe that the software developers do not consider how their creations work with the older programs. Even adding the same brand to an old system can cause chaos. It has been my belief that we older computer users need grandkids or neighbors under age 30 who have grown up with computers and can operate, diagnose and fix them for us. My blood pressure goes up just thinking of my frustrations after upgrading to my new laptop. Even though Windows 10 was on both computers I could not get certain things to work and everything today requires expensive subscriptions to protect our files. Fingers crossed that your computers woes will resolve with an easy fix.
Melanie, last evening I’m sure my blood pressure went off the charts.
This morning I’m getting some help from someone far more knowledgeable about computers than I am so maybe there’s a chance that mine won’t have to go into the shop. Maybe…
Gremlins!!!!
Nasty ones.