A funny thing happened on the way to...

I forget exactly where I was going, or what I was doing.

I just looked and thought;
Huh, I'm stopping here and looking inside.

One man's junk, another man's treasure. I wandered around looking at all the stuff. Some things I had no clue what they were for, others, were a blast from the past. I love going to these and seeing all the stuff, the imagination goes rampant (I could use this in the kitchen, oooo I remember my grandmother had one of those...)

I looking around, and out of the blue:

wait.....no that's not right...

ahh, that's more like it...

Sitting in a dusty case, in a dusty store, I sat down on the dusty floor. 

That's expensive I thought. I don't know if I can justify the cost for something that is not guaranteed to work. Quickly I researched the Welta, yeah, it's old. But I couldn't really tell much from the phone search, so it was time for a gamble. When the guy let me negotiate down to ¥10,000 I motioned to the Diana and said "Together?"

Beautiful typical Japanese response of the sigh, eh-to, and the head cocked to the side (he did this the whole time I was looking at the camera, nervously trying to make the sale.) 

'OK' he said. 

Wait, did I just score TWO cameras for $100? I did...wait....yeah he's dusting them off (LITERALLY) and putting them together...holy cow. 

I feel like a criminal.

Not really.

So, the Welta Welti is at the youngest, 1950. There doesn't seem to be a solid way to pin down the exact date, and honestly I haven't worked that hard to figure it out since I wasn't sure it would work or not. The Diana Mini is pretty much a current build used by instagram hipsters who want to feel cool and shoot film. I shot film. In 1980. I don't really know when I stopped, probably when I had to get a job and pay for college and things. Kept shooting though. MANY rolls of film never seen again as at one point I moved 8 times over a period of 5 years, by the time the moving was done, I didn't have much to speak of.

I digress. Hipsters, yeah. Go ahead, because an old guy is back with film cameras, and he's proud of his photos from two cameras he never used before, that he took a gamble on, that he picked up from a junk shop, that work. Photos below same ones on my flickr.

First photo with Welta

Welta2

Welta3

Welta4

Welta5

Welta6

Welta7

Welta8

Welta9

Welta10

Welta11

Welta12

Welta13

Welta14

Welta15

Welta16

Welta17

Welta18

Welta19

Welta20

First photo with Diana Mini

Diana Mini2

Diana Mini3

Diana Mini4

Diana Mini5

Diana Mini6

Diana Mini7

Diana Mini8

Diana Mini9

Diana Mini10

Diana Mini11

Diana Mini12

Diana Mini13

Diana Mini14

Diana Mini15

Diana Mini16

Diana Mini17

Diana Mini18

Diana Mini19

Back-up: The Great Photo Loss of 2013

If you're reading this, all I can say is BACK-UP your stuff.

There's a sinking feeling you get when you realize a mistake has been made, but it goes deeper when you realize there's nothing you can do.

Except with MORE technology. I was in the process of transferring 'older' photos from one drive to another. No big deal, been done hundreds of times. Formatted the new drive, set it up and everything was ready to go.

I select the stuff to send over so I can back it up.
I send it.

disk drive: Wow, that's alot of stuff.
Estimated time: 1 hour 45 minutes
disk drive: To much....can't....stuff...it.....take...
Writing

Cool, I'll make some coffee and head to work, leaving the computer to 'do it's thing'.

computer: Take it! It's data, you're ready for this!!
disk drive: No...to much...so fast...trying...

Go about my day, come back, no errors or anything on the computer. GREAT!! now I have more space on the first drive to work with and won't lose everything, and I just happen to have a couple hundred MORE photos...soooo.....

1st disk drive: heh, heh

Take more photos, load more photos, go about my business for a few days, staying busy with projects. Finally get some time and want to show my wife some of the old photos so we can reminisce...wait, I thought I put it here...

disk drive: Files? Hmmm...no...I don't remember any of those....
computer: Yes you do, the shortcut says it's right here. Look, there's even a few bytes left, you can't say it's not here.
1st disk drive: Whistling looking away.
disk drive: No, I distinctly recall not having them here.

Now, I thought I put them here. Let me check the other hard drive...not there...(sinking)...hmmm

1st disk drive: Huh? Wha? No buddy, nothing here to see, move along.

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Ok. Remain calm. Data in - data out. If I haven't done to much work since the initial transfer...well, it has been a week, and I have been working on timelapse projects...That's only 2000+ more photos...and there was that night shoot...

Gone. Nothing there to find.

So, expert time!! Wait, that was supposed to be me. Wife's solution, buy a computer and drive just for photography. Awesome idea, except I barely make enough to contribute to the house account, and I'm not making any money on the photography yet. Oh, and the material I was using for the book, that's gone now.

See, this is when ADHD is a curse. Projects were in various stages of creation, even now I just realized that some of my video projects were in the transfer... (further sinking).

Ok, enough, back to expert time. Hello internet!!

Found a couple of programs:
First: Undelete Plus - all it did was give me a report of what is recoverable. For $40 it can recover it, maybe.
Second: PC Inspector File Recovery - wouldn't work. Period. Would scan, then close. Scan, then close. Scan...
Third: Restoration - This file appears malicious... I've already got enough problems, sorry....
Fourth: Piriform Recuva - Scan and...wait....hey look, some of my files!!
Finally: Mini-tool was the best recover program I found, even though the primary scan took....TWO DAYS!!

1st disk drive: Hey, that tickles.
disk drive: whoa, what's that noise?
computer: Told you guys, he built it, he fixes it.
1st disk drive: giggle...make it stop...giggle

First scan was mostly successful, unfortunately many of them had already been overwritten. So, gone, forever.

But wait, there's a 'deep scan' option. This brings images of comatose people and zombie-like stares to mind. What the hell, let's give it a try, I've already recovered 3000+ photos...

09Mar2013: I held off on publishing this as I kept running scans and did an audit on how it all went down. Long story short, back your stuff up. I ended up with 30,000+ photos recovered; estimated loss of 100,000+ and videos. By the time I got to the two day scan, I had some recovered, but the last scan, taking two days, was the most fruitful.

Make sure you back up, and if you are going to backup a drive to do a hardware refresh...back up in parts and pieces, don't try to be overly efficient like I did.

Goals...and time.

Wow. That was a busy week of nothing done. Ever had one of those weeks where you look back, and see nothing accomplished? I mean, things were done, tasks completed more than the day-to-day chores, but it feels like nothing was done. Frustrating.

There was a seawall cleanup. I worked with our 'competitor' and helped with the event. Mostly I brought a few people and helped pick up trash. Alternatively, I got to talk to a couple people and show myself and mingle...and listen to people talk about how we should all just get along, even when they have said otherwise in my presence (not knowing who I was).

We weren't able to dive, which significantly reduced overall participation, particularly on my end since most of the company I keep is divers and photographers. Water was not our friend that day, unless you were a surfer!!

The surf was beautiful. I've never seen the surf so clean on a day where the wind was light, and there was no rain.

Got to go to the Museum of the Ryukyus (Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum), and they happened to have the Marie-Antoinette exhibition. There were paintings and money and pillboxes and clothing and...hair pieces... yeah..

Secret shots, shutter noisy...

The one thing that occurred to me was, we were looking at letters, art and dresses that was over 200 years old, and looked beautiful. I wish I could share, but some of the areas were no cameras allowed and my hip shooting was crappy, but I will practice...don't worry.

They're working on the last portion of the Sunabe Seawall modernization project. I'll have an entire photo essay on this one. I missed a good portion of the work, but the impact it's making on the diving area is significant. The primary site where 90% if not more of NEW divers enter is currently closed, so diver traffic is being diverted to area that normally don't see that much activity. I'm noticing more broken coral and less natural settling of bottom substrate.

Finally, I continue to explore and see new things. I have traveled all over the southeast US and haven't seen as much concentrated culture as there is here. The spectrum from new to old is extreme, only comparable to the early 1990's in Charleston SC where you would have an abandoned house across the street from a beautiful new Charleston Single House.  

No diving this week, but as usual, pick up that trash both on the surface, and down below!!

Pick it up, leave only bubbles!

Negligent posting, or just busy?

I missed last weeks post, so I'm trying to get a jump start by writing first, then adding photos so we'll see how this goes.

Firstly, HOLY COW!! I've shot over a thousand photos (yes, 1000+) in the past week. I think the camera is protesting as now it has dust on the mirror, but I'm also hard on things, so who knows for sure. Going the next day or so to get a cleaner for the mirror artifacts, which only show up on long exposure.

10sec exposure showing artifacts

Leather Base in Depot Island

During all the shooting this past week, had to pamper the camera so I bought a custom strap for it. There's a little shop in Mihama (American Village = tourist trap) where you can get all kinds of things made from leather (Leather Base). I was originally hoping they could make a protective case for my camera, but they don't have the tools. So, just the strap please. Turned out pretty nice and is very comfy. Besides, can't go wrong with handmade leather!!



There was a Cherry Blossom Festival in Nago (sakura no hana) , and a Sunflower Festival (himawari) near where I work (shot that for about three days!!)



I'm tired of flowers. Now I know why other photographers despise flowers. There's only so much you can do, and they don't really do anything. With this in mind, I took this photo (insert faded beauty). Maybe I'll start shooting flowers in 'repose'.


Of course I say this as the azalea festival gets ready to start...




Got back to shooting in the water. I've been in the water this whole time, but mainly teaching and I don't take a camera or anything as it is distracting to the students and Divemasters. Students can have cameras, but only on their last dive and only after any left over skills have been completed.

Slight increase in number of nudibranchs in the area. Robert THE Divemaster has a identification goal for the little sea slugs and with me looking for sponge, lets just say there's going to be plenty of slow, photographic dives.


Expanded my training abilities and added Search and Recovery Specialty Instructor and Underwater Photographer Instructor to my repertoire. Obviously I'll be adding more as the money comes in, but that's slow coming here. I'll keep working at teaching scuba and doing photography. Looking at doing stock photos to make a little side cash, and maybe revisit some online consulting I used to do.

Exploring time lapse photography over the next month or so, so there will be videos eventually. More planning and gear involved here, and the spending of money of course. I'm going to try and DIY most of it, but motors are complicated, so I'll get off the shelf for that.

Well, back to more photos!!