Data Recovery/ Substitute Photographer

[JohnCainPhotography]

Hi all,

I am learning the necessity of backing up the hard way... Ironically, while I was backing up my external hard drive, it crashed.
Have any of y'all sent a drive off for Data recovery? Do you mind my asking how much it cost? I recently received an estimate for $1,400.00 ... YIKES!
Any advice on backing up photos and data recovery would be appreciated.


Secondly, I have a wedding contract that I can not perform. This has never happened to me, but my best friend in the Air Force has had to change his wedding date, and I am in the wedding. I generally pay my second shooter $200-$250 for 8hrs. of wedding photography, but how much would you recommend I pay someone to lead the wedding? The total contract was for $1,750.00.


Many thanks,
John

[Phanee]

John,

I use Back Blaze for online back up. It costs $5 a month. Can back up multiple drives, unlimited storage. Like any other back up service, initial back up might take a long time (mine took about a month).

Other than online backup, I keep my data in three drives while processing and once delivered to client, I keep it in two drives.

About the lead shooter, are you asking for the hourly rate just for shooting or shooting + editing?

[JohnCainPhotography]

Just the hourly rate for 'day of' shooting, I'd take care of editing. Thanks for the great recommendation for backing up!

[Phanee]

'I' think, about $400 - $500/8hrs would be a good pay for a lead shooter. Of course, this will vary depending on experience.

I mostly second shoot for weddings and my standard fee is $30/hr (varies sometimes).

Another question. :) Are you looking for a lead photog?

[JohnCainPhotography]

Potentially! Dates are changing this week, but if I need someone I will contact you. I have a few friends that I work with regularly, but thank you for asking and being willing.

[MicWayWal]

John,

I don't know how long you have been in business but if you have a contract with someone to photograph their wedding, I think you need to bow out of your best friends wedding and fulfill your contract. I know you will be disappointed but I know a real friend would understand.

I don't hire primary photographers because I photograph all my weddings myself. But I would pay them double what I pay for a second, and that is $600 to $800.

[GadgetVirtuoso]

Crashplan has been awesome. The family plan allows for up to 10 computers with unlimited backups. One cool feature I especially like is the ability to backup any of the computers to another computer on the account in addition to online backup. I have a Drobo on my Mac mini server that in backed up into the cloud but I backup my MBP locally to the store on the Drobo. This kind of backup makes restores a lot faster since they're local. I then let the Mac Mini handle the cloud backup since its always online and my MBP obviously isn't. Only my huge directories, iTunes library and photos, are backed up this way; everything else is backed up to the cloud directly from the MBP.

You can also share your account with friends, if you were so inclined.