British Rob's Blog

Mary and Eric Wedding: Goat Island Marina, Newport RI

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:02:12 -0500

Mary and Eric were married on a gorgeous July day in Mary's home town of Newport RI. I met with Mary's family and covered the preparations, while Mark covered Eric getting ready with his family just down the road.

With a charming family home buzzing with the chatter of Mary's sisters (x4!), there was never a dull moment! A little surprise in the form of a beautiful Packard drew up outside, luckily going unnoticed until Mary opened the front door.

After the ceremony in the Salve Regina chapel, we headed over to Goat Island Marina for a tented reception, with some great speeches (I always approve of a good grilling) as the sun set over the island.

All the best to the newlyweds and thank you for letting me be part of your special day.

View all of the images here: http://photo.brownphotographic.com/maryericwedding

Slideshow (with sound) - ask Mary for password

Steph and James, Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:30:00 -0500

Well, everyone says that you should never shoot a family member's wedding. In late June I went back home to Gloucestershire with my wife and baby boy for my big brother's wedding... and I shot it and still had fun!

When I mentioned to fellow photographers here about this, the reaction was of course "oh no - your shooting your own brother's wedding?"... but when I told them where it was being held - a 12th century castle in the Cotswolds, the response was always "do you need a second photographer?".

Given that nothing ever, ever happens in Gloucestershire, I was quite surprised by the long and eventful history of the place:

- Origins dating back to Norman times (1000's).

- Stone structure first built in 1154 to help defend / attack the Welsh and later finished by the Berkeley family in 1189.

- King John seized it in 1216 after the owners opposed him.

- Edward II, an unpopular King, was held prisoner here and was rumoured to have been murdered by his captors.

- In the 1640s it survived a seige during the Civil War.

- The very first American Thanksgiving was held by a Berkeley man.

- Adding to that fine list, James Brown was married to Stephanie in 2010 (my parents continue to deny they knew anything about THE James Brown back in 1976).

Traditional English weddings are a little different to the American events:

- There are the colourful hats, fascinators and penguin suits.

- It is rare to have any more than two to three bridesmaids and they follow the bride down the aisle.

- The speeches are usually extremely long and ~~embarrassment~~ humiliation is the number one objective.

- Lastly, the best part is they can last all day; this one was from 12 until 12. I never hear anyone complaining that they go too fast!

I won't say too much else about the day, other than it was an absolute pleasure being able to photograph the event for someone so close. It was wonderful to meet Steph's family who are now a most welcome part of ours and a delight being able to catch up with my extended family, who I rarely see. Most of all I'm overjoyed for them both, and so happy that Steph thought the Browns were a good clan to be part of!

GUESTS: you can view all of the photos and order prints here: http://photo.brownphotographic.com/stephjameswedding

To view the slideshow below, enter Steph's maiden name as the password:

Courtney and Bryan Wedding: State Room Boston

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:16:11 -0500

On a typically humid June afternoon, I travelled down to Needham for the wedding of Courtney and Bryan. A rather excited little dog greeted me at Courtney's mum's (mom) as I set to work and continued following me to ensure I didn't come anywhere near Courtney. The dress buttoning commenced.... and continued for quite some time! A little champagne was enjoyed for the bridesmaids (or at least it was a little by the time I left) as I headed over to the spacious St Joseph's church just around the corner.

I met with Byan who seemed a little nervous, but was put at ease by his Best Man little bro. With the ceremony running a little late, I sprinted to the car to get over to Post Office Square for the formals as the skies got darker and darker. Photos of the couple were moved inside, which actually isn't too bad inside the State Room! Some creative use of a long lens, a softbox and an ever capable Doug (everyone should have a Doug; sadly he's mostly shooting his own these days) holding the light made for some cool portraits in front of the Custom House Tower. The partying then commenced with the guests enjoying the incredible views as the pair received a classic grilling in their speeches before packing in the dancing.

Congrats to the happy couple!

View all of the photos and purchase prints HERE

To view the slideshow below, click play, then the full screen button in the bottom right (contains music)

Hannah and Tom Wedding, Harvard Faculty Club

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:41:17 -0500

A week before their wedding, I received a call from Honolulu asking about my availability. Now, such a last minute call honestly set my alarm bells ringing - arranging a photographer a week out from their wedding? After some back and forth with the lovely Lori (thank you Lori!) and eventually getting in touch with Hannah my concerns were immediately quashed.

With a small, intimiate ceremony planned for a park in Cambridge, followed by dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club, I travelled alone on an extremely humid Saturday into Harvard Square. Walking past the USA v England footie match (how embarrassing), the sky didn't look at all forgiving as I approached the Charles Hotel. After meeting with the bride and groom it was clear the day was to be relaxed and a close affair and their totally welcoming nature, along with the rest of their family made my day thoroughly enjoyable. As an aside, while downstairs snapping a few photos of Hannah's little Hawaiian niece and her mother, my always giveaway accent led us to find out that they had a vacation home just a few miles from my family home in the Cotswolds - we even go to the same pub - small world!

So the park ceremony had to be called off, so the beautiful venue of the Harvard Faculty Club was on stand-by as the heavens opened. Their closest friends and family looked on as the two declared their personally written vows to each other. We managed to sneak a few photos under some of the porches surrounding the club, then two proceeded on to enjoy a wonderful evening of fine food and great toasts.

It was an absolute pleasure meeting and photographing you and your family Hannah and Tom! I wish you all the best on your journey and with such fine company on your wedding day you've got the best companions to make it with.

View all of the photos HERE.

To view the slideshow below (contains music), enter Hannah's maiden name as the password (lowercase)

The New Look of Brown Photographic

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:01:21 -0500

To sum me up you could simply say "good is never good enough". I am a total perfectionist and just can't let things sit if I'm not completely happy with the outcome. However, there is just one thing that I always wanted to get to the stage of 100% perfection, something that when done just right should stick for a long time.

I've always been taken with companies that have solid brands that have stood the test of time - they have something great that shouldn't be messed with. Caterham Seven, Leica, Billingham... just a few brands I love or aspire to be part of.

Over the last seven years, I've constantly been fiddling with my brand, but never been totally happy. Although I quite liked my most recent logo, it just didn't resonate with me enough... and that to me of course means change.

While at a branding workshop in March hosted by Emile Sommer, the opportunity arose to work with her design studio Emilie Ink to not only come up with a new logo, but to provide a complete brand makeover - luxury stationery, patterns, colours... the works.

I set to work with the fabulously talented Christina over an introductory review to go through where I wanted the brand to be and after a couple of weeks the new logo was born:

It integrates a more designed version of the Brown Photographic symbol and provides a classier look that won't age.

The design of the stationery pieces then commenced, including letterpress business cards from Gus & Ruby, mini portfolio cards from Moo, a collection of note and gift cards and colour coordinated envelopes. All beautifully branded and incorporating my new colours and logo.

Take a look...

(letterpress cards still being lovingly pressed... blog post to come)

Thanks to Christina for all her hard work and talent - I'm finally in love with the look of my brand and this time it is sticking! Thanks also to the rest of the Emilie Inc team for their input through this process.

If you have a small business (of any kind) you should definitely check out Emilie Ink for some help polishing or redeveloping your branding. I'm over the moon with the result, but I was also extremely pleased with the whole process. I think a lot of folks worry that if they hire a team to rebrand, they will receive something that doesn't reflect their business. Not so with Emilie Ink - the experience ensures that the right level of input from you is received and heard and at every stage you can review and approve options. I also received a wonderful style guide that details how fonts and colours should be administered when producing new printed or digital materials. This is invaluable to keep the brand on track when producing ad-hoc material and updating websites etc.

They even work with the printers to get your stationery delivered to your door - now that's service!

I hope you enjoy the new, permanent look... leave a comment below - Thanks!

Half way around the Sun

Tue, 11 May 2010 08:41:31 -0500

It is hard to believe that Oliver turns six months today! His personality is starting to shine through (very determined) and he just can’t stop smiling! Although it has been extremely tiring bringing up Oli (and we still don’t get much sleep), we can’t imagine life without the cheeky chap.

Happy six months Oli!

Kim and Kevin

Fri, 07 May 2010 21:55:24 -0500

Engagement session season is in full swing now that the weather is finally a little more predictable. I met Kim and Kevin at their Brighton apartment, then headed over to the Charles River for a few warm-up photos before driving to Boston Common. Although I've shot around Beacon Hill quite a few times, the area is full of little gems, with great backdrops, beautiful long cobbled streets, gas lamps and shuttered windows.

You can view all of their photos here (password is Kim's surname).

(the last image is a bee buzzing around their heads, though it is more humorous to leave it up to one's mind)

Harvard Club wedding featured on Beantown Bride

Tue, 04 May 2010 09:34:03 -0500

Got to love Beantown Bride - finally some savvy wedding professionals in Boston created a wonderful, independant resource specifically for Boston brides, featuring real wedding stories, tips and trends. There's really something for everyone here - check them out!

Leah and Angus' wedding at the Harvard Club back in the fall was just featured this morning on Beantown Bride - check out their story here.

Take a look at their wedding slideshow below, and also their engagement photos here.

Kudos to Doug for the opening shot, groom prep and numerous others in the above slideshow. Doug came up with the British Rob moniker :)

Announcing the winners of the Facebook Self Portrait Contest!

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:24:43 -0500

It seems like forever since the launch of the self portrait contest on Valentines day. The contest ran for two months, with entries coming in (very) slowly to start, but with a bit of a late finish, by mid March there were 10 entrants. Big prizes were up for grabs!

Voting then surged as three leaders raced off into April. Honestly I don't know how these people managed to do it, but the top 3 contenders managed to rake in 924 votes combined! Just two weeks ago the maximum number of votes (Jenn and Scott) was 151, so the following winners' total vote numbers may surprise you (remember that each voter on Facebook was limited by the application to 1 vote per contestant, so these are impressive numbers!)

So, in order of the number of votes, here are the winners:

1. In first place, the winners of the grand prize (a wedding package worth $4150!) are Jessica and Rich with 563 votes! Congratulations!

Jess and Rich came in a little later in the contest, but pulled through in the last two weeks like a steam train! Just two weeks ago they were trailing behind the second place winners with just 139 votes, so how they gained over 400 in such a short time is astonishing!

I love their photo - it was refreshing to see an image that contained one of their interests: tennis. This is a shot from one of their bi-annual trips to the US Open; I love the framing of this.

Last week when they starting creating such a massive lead, I emailed Jess to find out a little about them:

Richard Tang and Jessica Cheung met during their last semesters in college at UMass Amherst. They were recently engaged on March 16th when Rich proposed to Jess on her front steps - their favorite place to chat. Rich, a software engineer, is originally from Wayland, MA and Jess is a physical therapist from Malden, MA. They both love to try new cuisines, play tennis and participate in other outdoor activities, and use complicated analogies in their everyday conversations. Rich and Jess send high-fives and hugs (respectively) and a huge THANK YOU to all their friends who voted.

Absolutely! Well done for getting so many people to vote for you! Including our good friends Kathy and Ray, who win $300 of print credit to spend in the online store!

They are planning to hold their wedding this coming year and are just finalising dates. Very much looking forward to shooting your wedding!

2. In second place are Jenn and Scott with 254 votes

It is hard to believe that it is a year since a slightly nervous Scott gave me a call about a portrait shoot. He was planning on proposing to Jenn while they had a photo shoot; while Jenn knew the shoot was on she had no idea the ring was going on! Photos of that moment are here.

I told the happy pair about the contest and they eagerly set to work and were out in front for most of the competition. If they won, they would have received a free upgrade to their already booked wedding photography package (their wedding is this summer).

Now the interesting thing is that they have already had one engagement shoot, but will receive another fun shoot plus an gorgeous engagement art book as their prize! Congrats!

3. In third place are Deanna and Joe with 107 votes

A lovely shot of Boston in the background here! Deanna and Joe will be receiving $300 print credit!

Deanna and Joe were referred by Jenn and Scott (Joe is Jenn's sister!), so Jenn and Scott receive $300 print credit (see! second place isn't so bad)!

So congratulations to all the winners, thanks to all those who entered and big praise to all those who voted!

Holly and Jeff Oliver, Nashawtuc Country Club Wedding

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:00:00 -0500

Reception and Ceremony: Nashawtuc Country Club, Concord MA
Event Coordinator: Tricia Keating
Dress: Yolanda's
Florist: Twigs and Sprigs, Concord MA
Hair: Jessica @ DiRe hair ltd
Makeup: Jai'me Perez
Music: Saigel Productions

When you book a wedding in early March in New England you pretty much expect snow, sleet, rain and a biting chill, or just all of the above. March 6 2010 was a little different! We were greeted with absolutely gorgeous weather, with 60 degree temps, gorgeous sun and a little flutter of wind.

Someone was definitely looking down on them!

I met with Holly at their beautiful home in Arlington for her preparations with close friends, family and of course loyal dog. Her late father's handkerchief was carefully tucked into her bouquet and Tyson walked over to lie beneath Holly's feet for a shot as the late winter light came through their dining room window.

I then sped around the corner to meet with (a little nervous) Jeff for a few photos as friends and family gathered in St Paul Lutheran Church for their ceremony. Both Holly's parents and Jeff's father had passed and emotions were high both sides of the aisle. A strong Holly walked done the aisle with a huge, excited smile, followed by a tearful embrace with Jeff. As the ceremony proceeded, directed by Jeff's and his brother John's uncle, there wasn't a dry eye in the church as the two exchanged vows, swapped rings (there was an oops - see if you can see what it is in the slideshow!) and then bounded up the aisle through their celebrating friends.

We then head over to Concord to the Nashawtuc Country Club, and drove through the truly gorgeous grounds to their reception. I met with Rich who helped to provide some skillful off camera lighting and we started with photos of them on the edge of the grounds, just for a few minutes so they could head off to be with their guests for cocktail hour. The light outside was simply gorgeous and the warm weather made a March outdoor shoot extremely pleasant.

With the guests well primed, the evening reception started just as the sun set over the golf course. Speeches, a wonderful dinner and dancing ensued as we covered the thick of the action on the dance floor.

Congrats again to the very happy couple! They are in good hands with great friends and family and I wish them the best for their adventures in life.

All of the images are available to view and purchase as prints here: http://photo.brownphotographic.com/hollyjeffoliverwedding/

Slideshow:
Put your headphones on and click the full screen button, bottom right for the best experience...

Home... is a little different

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:30:00 -0500

Here in Boston, summer is a little different to where I'm from originally. As the weather starts to warm up I thought it would be interesting for you to see what the environment around my home is like.

Being a lot further north, the days are longer, with a full hour more before sunset in the evenings. A full hour to play more football (that's soccer this side of the pond), ride through the fields and gather the harvest in. I returned to my Cotswold home last August just before the wheat was harvested and took a few photos on an evening walk:

This is just a little piece of what defines me as English: the Cotswold Countryside - nothing like it anywhere else in the world. The fields, defined by dry limestone walls; mile upon mile of country lanes; long, straight Roman roads; and of course that sky... I miss those clouds .

Is there something special about where you grew up? There are so many people around here in Boston and many, like me aren't originally from here.

Holly and Jeff Oliver Nashawtuc Country Club - Sneak Peek

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:01:54 -0500

I just got in from shooting a wedding on an incredibly warm, sunny day for early March. Here are just a few sneak peaks of Holly and Jeff's wedding...

Thanks to Rich Pizzuti for being a model human lightstand!

Lindsey and Adam Speidel Wedding, Granite Links Golf Club

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:05:00 -0500

Hair & Makeup: Salon Saveria - Walpole, MA
Dress: Allure Boutique - Westwood, MA
Reception and Ceremony: Granite Links Golf Club, Quincy, MA
Event Coordinator: Linda Blackmore
Music: Boston Music Works
Florist: Judy's Village Florist - Foxboro, MA

I learned about Lindsey and Adam through Suzanne and Todd who's wedding I shot back in '08. Back in late Autumn, Lindsey, Adam and I headed out to the Minuteman National Park and then into Beacon Hill for their engagement session. There wasn't one serious moment and that definitely set the tone for their wedding!

It was a cold, grey January day as I drove up the hills south of Boston to the Granite Links, with the clubhouse perched atop a northward facing slope towards Boston. I met with my assistant Doug (second photographer and man-with-the-light for the day) and we scoped the place out before meeting with Lindsey, who was relaxed as ever!

As the getting ready, ceremony and reception were all being held at the club, the preparations proceeded at a calm pace with no stresses about time or worries about traffic. Adam arrived downstairs at the bar, so Doug headed down there while I took some photos of Lindsey with her very attentive bridesmaids, before Adam popped out of the lift. Breaking with tradition, they decided to make use of the day and get some of their formals and couple photos out of the way before the ceremony, so after a non-teary, and funny first-meet, we dragged everyone outside into the cold for some shots on the hillside.

Alas (and for some reason often the case with winter weddings) the pathways to the best views weren't clear, but we found a good clear view of Boston with the bridal party on the grass and us shooting and lighting from a deep snow bank. I'm not really sure if snow in my shoes is the best way to start a wedding, but sometimes to get that angle you've just got to make sacrifices! With bad weather on the way and a rather damp chill to the air, we knew we wouldn't be outside for long and the party braved it for just enough time before we all headed back in as guests arrived.

A lighting-fast paced ceremony ensued with tears and a lot of laughing (do they ever stop?) from Lindsey and Adam as the sun went down. With plenty of time to spare after group photos, everyone headed off to enjoy their cocktail hour before making a very different entrance to a packed reception room that surprised their guests and ourselves.

After some cracking speeches the party and food ensued. I experimented a little with the 5DMKII's HD video capabilities and put a little surprise in the slideshow for Lindsey! During the course of the night, we headed out with the newlyweds onto a windswept balcony as the wintry elements rained down around us, before rounding out the evening.

Congrats to Lindsey and Adam and we wish you all the best on your journey together! To see all of their photos and purchase prints, click here.

To view the slideshow below, enter Lindsey's maiden name for the password. You can also see all of the photos in their online gallery by clicking here.

Slideshow (warning, contains music, so plug in the headphones! Click the button in the bottom right to go full screen).

Self Portrait Contest

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:28:02 -0500

Happy Valentines everyone!

As the wedding bookings flow steadily in I thought it would be great to offer a HUGE giveaway for future and past clients...

Well I said giveaway, but you do have to do a bit of work... just join the contest on Facebook (details below) and upload a photo of yourself with your better half. The little twist is that it has to be taken by yourselves... yes that means arms outreached, camera on a tripod or rock or whatever else you can find to rest it on (just not someone else's hands!). Of course it is tough to tell sometimes, but I trust you'll be good honest peeps and humour me with the best shot you've taken of yourselves. Your Facebook friends vote, then the winners are announced on April 15.

You could win one of these:
- Grand Prize: Custom Wedding Photography Package worth $4150!
- Second Place: Engagement Shoot plus a 9x12 art book.... worth $1000!
- Third Place: Online print credit worth $300!

The really cool thing is that if you win, the person that referred you on Facebook also gets $300 of online print credit! So even if you don't win, but you referred someone who did win, you could still get the $300 print credit as a referral prize!

These are the steps:
1. Become a Fan!
2. Enter the Competition and upload a photo of you both and read the Rules. Don't forget to mention who mentioned the competition to you, so they can win something too!
3. Get your friends to vote on your photo... they can vote only once per submission; a maximum of 10 votes.
4. Sit back and wait for the results on April 15!

So why a self portrait I hear you ask? Well I was scratching my head about how I could engage competitors' artistic side and try to get a feel for who they really are and allow people voting to immediately see who they were voting for. Words just seemed boring and a standard photo competition had been done, done and done some more... and I wanted something challenging.

So something I always have trouble with photographically is one of those 'reach out with your hand and shoot yourself' photos, especically with your other half in the frame. My wife actually has an uncanny knack for it... see this shot she took of us in 2006 when we were dating:

Yep, likely better than I could do, though I did shoot this with my hunker-lunker Canon 1Ds in one hand out of the window of a friend's Austin 7 driving around the Cotswolds...

So it doesn't matter what camera you take it with, you just have to take it yourself and get a ton of your facebook friends to vote for you in order to win one of these amazing prizes! The more you spread the news about the competition, the greater liklihood you have of winning the referral prize!

The sooner you enter, the more votes you can get, so get snapping!

Submissions for photos will be between today and March 14 2010
Voting starts today until April 14 2010
Winners announced April 15 2010

Just click here to enter the contest!

For rules: click here

Reliable data storage for photographers: video of a Drobo disk replacement

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:25:00 -0500

I have a number of different readers to my blog and they mostly fall into two camps: other photographers and my clients / potential clients.

My clients are of course rightly concerned that their precious images are held securely; my peers are often interested in the technology I use to store images on. So I thought a post about how I store my images would be useful. I won't talk that much about my actual procedures of backing up (that would bore most people senseless!), but more about the actual hardware technologies that I use. As a photographer, I am also an image librarian, ensuring that the images I take are kept safe and to do that I always ensure I am on top of the latest technology that will deliver the safest, most efficient solution.

Data storage is pretty cheap these days and you can almost guarantee that next year the same amount of storage on a hard disk will be half the price. Now, while folks at home and those shooting for fun may get away with just storing the images on their laptop disk or external drive, things get a little more complex and expensive when you regularly shooting two or three thousand images at a wedding. Not only does one have a huge amount more data to contend with - especially when shooting RAW with 17 and 21 megapixel cameras - but one also has to think about how to keep those images safe.

So there's the obvious problem of fire, theft or other physical loss and we can simply prepare for that by keeping our images duplicated on a backup disk(s) that we keep off-site. When I shoot a wedding or portrait session, after downloading my cards to my computer, I make an immediate backup and take the disk out of the house. So we've immediately doubled our storage cost.

Then there's the problem of data loss on disks. Now whatever medium you use, be it the classic magnetic hard disk, the newer 'solid state' disks, or on a CD or DVD, your data is never really completely safe. Just as your film or slides rot in the shoe box, data on a disk is not impervious to tiny errors that can cost you big.

Let's look at the method most of us use for storage: the magnetic hard disk. These disks have been with us now for what seems like an eternity, and while there have been a few changes to the basic interfaces, underneath the way in which data is stored on a disk as ones and zeros (a bit) has not changed. Each bit of data (see this description of how it works) is stored as north (0) or south (1) and with millions and millions of these bits being stored, one of them is bound to go wrong! Slight shifts in the earth's magnetic field, close placement to a radiator or loudspeaker, or someone dumping something magnetic right on top of your hard disk and you could be in trouble.

So here's where most of us go wrong. We use single disks to store our data and when that disk fails, either in a glorious puff of smoke or more commonly with just a few bits being messed up on the disk we run into problems. Sure, some of us run backups right? Well that's fine, but what if you run a backup each week, overwriting what you had on your backup disk... what if you overwrite it with data that's gone bad?

Enter redundant storage drives. Now these drives have been around for a while and are commonly referred to as RAID (redundant array of inexpesive disks). A bunch of disks the same size and type are stacked together in an array and a RAID controller, configured to one of several different options will allow you (under the right setting) to store your data across all of the disks as if they were one drive, plus offer redundancy. So if one drive goes down, you stick in a new one and carry on. Or if data goes bad somewhere on one disk, it can be rescued automatically from another. There are a couple of problems with RAID: 1. You have to know a little technical junk to get the thing to work for you in the right way 2. As you are limited to using the same sized disks, when you run out of room you are forced to buy a new RAID system (or a very large single disk), then copy the data over, then start again with larger disks.

Enter Drobo. This rather interesting device has taken the digital creative marketplace by storm. As people that often have huge files and many of them, we commonly require extremely large storage drives, but with a way of growing them. Very often we don't have a big IT support group backing us, so a) we don't have the money for a lot of storage up front b) we commonly don't know what a RAID is, but we hope it isn't a raid by the IRS c) even if we did have a RAID we just don't have time to administer it... and just what the heck is it anyway? So as a photographer a few years back and struggling with storage options myself (back when digital photographer had already taken off but the storage hadn't caught up) I came across a video on youtube about the Data Robot (Drobo) and instantly knew this was going to make waves in the photo community. It took a good few months in 2007 before it was available, but as soon as I could I purchase one, with four 500GB disks (each one a couple of hundred $!). I didn't want to throw in too much storage; I couldn't AFFORD too much storage, so 2TB it was, which gave me 1.5TB total storage with 500GB of protection.

A few years later (as in last week) and my Drobo was showing an orange light and it told me to replace the disk with the least space. I ignored it and the other day it turned red (meaning I was really running out and I'd better do something about it!). So I headed down to Micro Center in Cambridge, bought a couple of disks and set about replacing them. Below is a video of how I did this:

Edit:

As you saw, you have to hold the lever aside when inserting a new disk (duh!) - always read the manual, as they say :)
My 1.5TB Green Disks actually ran at $120, not $80 (getting confused with the 1TB price).
Also, when you replace drobo disks, do them one at a time only!
A solid red light denotes that you're lack of storage is critical; a failed drive flashes red.

So the Drobo is a pretty cool device and I've trusted it for a while to protect the important images of my clients. It isn't an entire solution - you still have to back-up off-site and you will most likely want to use the drive inside your computer for editing as it isn't that quick (at least the USB2 only option that I have isn't!). However, it does hold EVERY bit of data I have created since 1997 on it and it works away, even while the computer is turned off, constantly ensuring my data is safe from the dreaded bit-rot. When it comes to making an off-site backup, I can rest easy knowing that the original data on the Drobo is completely intact as it had started out life, making the off-site backup a lot less worrying

Drobos now run at just $350 for the standard Drobo with USB2 and Firewire 800 or for $795 for the Drobo S with those same interfaces and eSATA (50% faster than firewire 800). If you have a need for even greater storage, they also have rack mounted versions. You have to purchase the disks seperately, but with 1 to 2 terrabyte disks running at extremely low prices (between $80 and $200), you really don't have to worry too much about a big hit. My suggestion is to buy enough storage for a year, then when drives get less expensive next year, just buy a couple more when you need to.

Bottom line: Drobo is the best archiving solution for professional photographers in my opinion. Low cost in the long-run (you can mix and match drives), simple maintenance (you just leave it plugged in; you don't need an IT background), easily upgradeable.

... and my clients can rest easier at night knowing that I've invested a lot of thought and money into the premier storage solution for creative professionals.