Friday, July 9, 2010

No man is an island..

My long national nightmare is almost over.

It all started when I decided it was time to replace my antiquated computer with something more capable of running the barrel of graphics programs that I require to be the world's greatest photographer.

I ordered a new computer with all the bells and whistles.  My previous computer was hand built by yours truly and I have a bit of a "thing" for fast rigs.  Yes, I'm a geek, I've never tried to deny it.

My new computer arrived and I inspected it only to discover that the hard drives had completely collapsed inside the hard drive enclosure.  They were now a stack of drives resembling a game of Jenga made from 1 terabyte drives.

So, I sent it back for repair.

Then, the same day, my old computer finally gave up the ghost.

So, for the last two weeks I have had only the small computer that I keep in the studio to keep me connected to the outside world.  I transferred my email to it and was able to conduct business but I didn't even attempt to install all the heavy-duty graphics programs that I use on a daily basis.

Finally, after two weeks of agony, my new computer returned.  I opened the case and discovered yet another game of hard drive Jenga.  So, I boxed it and sent it back for a refund.  Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice and I want my money back a-hole.

(Note: Hard Drive Jenga would be a great name for a band...)

Today I went to CompUSA and bought a new computer off the rack, something I haven't done in well over a decade.  I had to get up and running fast because, as luck would have it, I have a lot of orders.

I'm still one program short of being able to fully resume retouching (it's Noise Ninja which won't accept my key code because I now need the 64-bit version of the software).  I have a letter in to customer support and as soon as I get that fixed I will be designing wedding albums for the next two weeks.

I also have quite a bit of blogging to do.  I want to show off some weddings I have shot this summer and I also plan to do a step-by-step breakdown of a shoe shot.  I'm going to show each shot I took and what I was thinking that led me to the final image of a bride's shoes.  You'll be surprised to discover how much work this seemingly simple shot can take.

Watch this space.... more on the way I promise.

Booray is a wedding photographer in Tampa Bay