Or, so I thought.

I suspect some of you may have experienced the horror that follows.

Last night, I went to pull some images from the external drive. I plugged the power adapter into the wall and immediately heard a dull “beep…beep…beep.” Hmmm, that doesn’t sound good. My anxiety level went up a few more notches when I noticed that the drive was not recognized on my computer. Now while I like to fancy myself as an advanced amateur IT guy, I had no clue what to do next other than unplug the power supply and plug it back in.

“beep…beep…beep “

Ah man…this is NOT good.  Even though ALL my image files are saved on this drive, I decided not to panic. I will do some research, and solicit help from my friends. Sure enough, within moments, I had a couple of photography friends on Twitter as well as a workplace friend offer advice and recommendations. Before consulting some of the “third party” services for data recovery, I thought, “Why not contact Seagate? It’s their faulty hard drive that is the source of my angst.”

I will let the chat with the service support person speak for itself:

Michael Carter: Thank you for contacting i365, A Seagate Company – Professional Services , my name is Michael Carter. How may I help you today?
matthew : Hi. I have a FreeAgent 1.5 TB external drive that is beeping when connected to a power supply and not showing up on my computer. I fear the drive is damaged in some way. Before sending it back, I wanted to inquire about data recovery.
Communication with the RightNow Chat service has been lost. Please wait while attempts are made to restore the connection.
Disconnection in 240 seconds.
Connection resumed.
Michael Carter: We can certainly help you recover the data off the drive however be informed that data recovery is a premium paid service which is not covered under warranty.
Michael Carter: May I know your geographical location and phone number?
matthew : I understand that it’s not covered under warranty. I am in Washington DC. My number is _______
Michael Carter: Thank you.
Michael Carter: To understand it better and to help you with this issue, may I ask you few questions ?
matthew : certainly
Michael Carter: May I know if your Computer can still view the Storage device?
matthew : no
matthew : it doesn’t show up
Michael Carter: Does Bios recognize it when the computer boots?
matthew : I can’t recall. Unfortunately, I am not at my personal computer and external Seagate drive at the moment.
Michael Carter: Is the drive making any Abnormal? eg: clicking or grinding noise.
matthew : it makes a steady, muted beeping noise about every 2 seconds. it will do this for a while and then it appears the drive shuts down.
Michael Carter: Is it a Single hard drive or is it connected to a network of Server ?
matthew : single hard drive. it’s the Seagate FREEAGENT DESK drive 7200-RPM USB2.0 1500 GB
Michael Carter: Was the hard drive opened by any other Data Recovery Center or Was there any Recovery Attempt made ?
matthew : no. yesterday was the first time it didn’t work, and i am exploring options for data recovery before sending the unite back for warranty replacement.
Michael Carter: Which Operating system do you use ?
matthew : Windows Vista
Michael Carter: May I know if this data is for Personal or Business needs ?
Michael Carter: Thank you for all the information.
matthew : both
Michael Carter: Based on the information given, there should have been some sort of physical damage occurred to the hard drive.
Michael Carter: We have two services a priority is where you get the data in 2-5 Business days economy it is 2-4 weeks.
Michael Carter: We are looking at a Range of $399- $2500 depending on the questions answered I will give you a fixed quote.
matthew : wow! what determines where the cost begins on that scale (other than priority)? There’s a variance of $2,100.
Michael Carter: The economy service would cost you $1,600.00 USD and the priority service is $2,300.00 USD.
Michael Carter: We always offer a “no data, no charge” guarantee – if we can’t recover your data, there is absolutely no charge to you.
matthew : what happened to $399?
Michael Carter: The $399 quote is only applicable if the drive is recognized by the computer and does not make any abnormal sound.
matthew : ok. well, that should have been ruled out based on my responses. Is there service level between $399 and $1600? Seems like a big leap
Michael Carter: There is a form online which you to fill and submit.
Michael Carter: The inlab range starts from $700 – $2500 USD, for a physically damaged drive $1600 USD is the starting price.
matthew : what if the drive is just malfunctioning…no fault of mine. you’re saying that i have to pay extra for Seagate’s bad drive?
Michael Carter: I understand your concern Mathew, Seagate can replace the drive free of cost if drive is under warranty but not the data on it.
Michael Carter: I can walk you through the paperwork to proceed with the in-lab recovery.
matthew : right, but do you see my issue here? I’m trying to give you a hard time, but I’m at a loss as to why I am paying for data recovery on a faulty drive, not to mention having to cover the extra cost for damaged drive repair.
matthew : i meant to say that I am NOT trying to give you a hard time
matthew : it’s just unnerving to think I have a malfunctioning drive (Seagate’s issue), but I am responsible for footing up to $2500 to recover my data from this failed product.
Michael Carter: Due to highly expensive nature of the service and the infrastructure it needs data recovery is a paid service.
matthew : I appreciate your time explaining what’s available. I think that I will shop around for other data recovery services before committing.
Michael Carter: Sure, you can take your time to decide on it, but ensure the drive is not opened by any other data recovery as the cost could go much higher.
Michael Carter: I can also send you an email with the instructions to submit the form.
matthew : go higher with your services right? Will do. I plan to have this drive opened, and recovered, only once. Thanks. Please shoot me the email in the event I chose to use Seagate’s data recover service.
Michael Carter: That is correct.
Michael Carter: I confirm your email as ___________.
matthew : that’s correct.
Michael Carter: Sure will send an email.
Michael Carter: Is there anything else that I may help you with?
matthew : No. That’s it. Thanks for sharing the services and costs
Michael Carter: Thank you for contacting i365, Have a great day.
Michael Carter: Bye.
matthew : You too. Bye.

I got home last night and made my first attempt at making some adjustments to a photo using Capture NX2. Here’s what I did with the image below. I started with correcting the white balance and setting picture control. I followed that with a slight nudge of the slider on the highlight side of the histogram. I made a slight adjustment to the warmth of the entire image. Then, I put a color control point near the left side of the seat of the kayak. Using the sliders available, I added brightness and a little warmth to reveal the detail that was previously obscured in the shadows. That’s it. Well, that was a lot, but I have to admit that it was pretty cool to look at the original and adjusted image side-by-side.  Having spent some more time with the program (at the time of this post), I would have retained some of the warmth of the kayak. It’s a little blown out in the adjusted image.

Untouched RAW Image

Image Adjusted Using Capture NX2

Image Adjusted Using Google’s Picasa

With Picasa, I hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, added a little warmth, sharpening and slight bump of shadow. 

I can already tell there are a lot of tools in Capture NX2. Google’s free Picasa program does a decent job, but notice the loss of detail in the water breaking against the shore, as well as the non-selective warming (the whole picture goes brown). So, with just one photo I can see the ability to more accurately and precisely handle images with Capture NX2.

I will post more before and after images, along with a description of the steps I took to refine the image. For those who have an “I told you so” primed and ready to launch…I hear ya!

One thing that has actually made me quite passionate about using Twitter is the community of photographers that I have befriended. The great thing is that many of the photographers are at different stages of their careers. I’ve met beginners, hobbyists, new professionals and seasoned veterans. Each has a different and/or unique perspective of photography.  I’ve come across people who photograph babies, seniors (I keep thinking I’m going to see pictures of AARP members), weddings, food, architecture…you name it.

What’s interesting is that I have only met a couple of the people I’ve “befriended or follow online. Most of my interaction is done online — by way of tweets, @___ replies, direct messages and profile posts. Back in February, Gary Vaynerchuk admonished my wife to “get in the trenches,” as it related to social media and online marketing. Though the advice was not directed to me at the time, it has stuck with me. My goal, at this point, is less about marketing, and more about learning, growing and connecting. Being at the nascent stage of my photography career, I’m humble enough to know that I’ve got a lot to learn.

I admit that I got on a Twitter as a lark. It was really an extension of my Facebook activities. One of the initial perks of Twitter was that I could update my Facebook page with my status updates. Sweet, I thought. I could kill two birds with one stone. Little did I know the power of networking and community lurking right beneath the surface. I am frequently online looking at the work of many photographers. I noticed that an increasing number of photographers had a Twitter icon on their site. Not soon after following two or three photographers, I started to see tweets with links to the works of other photographers, articles on photography, events and exhibits, etc. The beauty of the 140-word updates is that you can quickly scan them, and extract useful information.

Just as with forums, it does take some work to be active on Twitter. If you have more than handful of people you follow, it can take good amount of time to read through updates that trick in throughout the day. In fact, I’m amazed when I see someone following thousands of people. I don’t know how it’s done. At the time of this post, I follow about 160 people. A good number of these people do not update their status with any particular frequency. There are some high-volume tweeters on my list, and I can count on seeing their face easily filling up a page. As the saying goes, you have to separate the wheat from the chafe. Most of the tweets I get are from people sharing incredibly useful information. Many of the people I follow have returned the favor by becoming a follower. It’s like a little gift when I receive a response or direct message with comments, feedback or links to information.

Because of sites like Twitter and Facebook, the paradigm is shifting. Now don’t get me wrong. I am the same person who, several threads back, talked about the reticence to use post-processing software. I also stated that I am not a full-fledged Luddite. It’s selective. I am incredibly excited about the prospect of having my photography career blossom with the assistance of Twitter and Facebook. Clearly, my success or failure will be defined on the quality of my work and the receptivity of people to that work. The networking through Twitter (and other sites) is already paying dividends by expanding my community of friends and colleagues. I’d like to think that I am approaching Twitter with the right spirit. Meet, join and become active in a larger community.  That’s what it’s all about—to me. If I had to guess, those who are on Twitter with rather transparent marketing goals, will wear on people and are really missing the point and power of Twitter and the exponentially-growing community of Twits.