Call Me Ed

I Have Another Blog

Erik — Mon Jul 14 23:11:00 -0700 2008

A long-time goal of mine has been to launch a christian blog where I can write about my faith and related topics. Of course, being the entrepreneur, procrastinator, and procreator that I am, I've put it off for quite some time. Until now, that is. Head over to ebispo.com and you'll find my (currently sparse) new blog. Be sure to add the feed to your RSS reader. I can't promise you'll agree with everything I have to say. Heck, if you're really sensitive, I can't even promise I won't offend you. Nonetheless, everyone is welcome and I love intelligent comments from all viewpoints.

Baby Boston is Here

Erik — Tue Jul 01 09:36:00 -0700 2008

7lbs 7oz 19.5 inches 8:12am Lots of hair Babies are cool

We are at the hospital

Erik — Tue Jul 01 07:31:00 -0700 2008

We got to the hospital at 5:30. We are all prepped and Kate will be wheeled into the OR in a few mins. This hospital has free coffee and free WiFi. This is my 3rd C-Section. I think I could DIY this by now.

Looking for some destination wedding photographers

Erik — Fri Jun 27 15:42:00 -0700 2008

I'm slowly working on a side/pet project and I'm looking for a few photographers who have experience shooting destination weddings in California or Hawaii (experience is the key word, not just a desire to do it). If this is you (or someone you know), please get in touch with me via email (erik-dot-dungan-at-gmail-dot-come). If you know of similar vendors (DJs, florists, cake builders, etc.) even better. Thanks.

It aint Martha Stewart Living, but it's a start

Erik — Wed Jun 25 00:01:00 -0700 2008

If you happen to be in Central Oregon–which I must admit, I don't know the official boundary of–you can currently find some of my images in 2 local magazines. I've got some garden images in the current issue of Gusto, our local foodie mag. I also have an editorial spread in True North, a new parenting magazine. Anyway, pick one up. They're good mags, despite having my pictures in them. If you're in Bend, they're in just about every store in town.

My Santa Barbara Destination Wedding

Erik — Tue Jun 24 23:43:00 -0700 2008

Ceremony: Santa Barbara Courthouse Mural Room

Reception: Stella Mare's

Preparations at: The Eagle Inn

I recently had the pleasure of shooting Nicole and Nohel's wedding in Santa Barbara, California. Pretty much everything was turning up Dungan that weekend. The weather was perfect. Everyone looked amazing. The ceremony and reception venues were tip-top. I rented a Canon 14mm lens. Budget upgraded my rental car to an SUV for free. (Apparently when gas in LA is $4.60 a gallon, everyone rents economy cars.) I could go on-but you'd rather see pictures.

Here's a few of my favorite images of the day.

Thanks for visiting. 2 down, 2 to go for 2008.

T-Minus 7 Days

Erik — Tue Jun 24 13:32:00 -0700 2008

T-Minus 7 Days

Free eBook on word of mouth marketing. Check it out.

Erik — Mon Jun 16 11:49:00 -0700 2008

Free eBook on word of mouth marketing. Check it out. http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1087-the-word-of-mouth-manual-volume-ii

My Smoothies are Better than Yours

Erik — Sun Jun 15 13:33:00 -0700 2008

I never brag about my photography or my cooking–I can hold my own in both arenas, but I have a long way to go and I'm surrounded by craftsmen whose talent far exceeds mine (espcially with photography). However, one area in which I know no equal is smoothie making. Breakfast smoothies. Fruit smoothies. Protein smoothies. You name it, I dominate it. My wife and daughter have tried to imitate, but they just don't have the magic touch. Someday, I'll share some of my favorite smoothie recipes here. Until then, feast your eyes on this. Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there.

Practicing With My Lights: Jessica

Erik — Fri Jun 13 19:54:00 -0700 2008

Practicing With My Lights: Jessica

Speaking of Backups ...

Erik — Fri Jun 06 10:35:00 -0700 2008

Recently, I've been testing new backup procedures on one of our BIG Folio servers. Its working quite well so far. For those of you who have dedicated servers, large hosting accounts, or use *nix-based servers in your studio, this might be interesting. In fact, with some tweaking, this could apply to Mac users as well. Most hosting providers will offer a tape-based or managed backup as an option with a dedicated server. While its essential, it can also get expensive and chew up a lot of bandwidth. Here are some DIY alternatives. Be warned, these techniques can get a bit geeky and I take not responsibility if you blow up your server. Database backups Our sites–and many other photography sites/tools/blogs–rely on MySQL databases to store vital information. Here is a nice tutorial on dumping your MySQL database daily (via cron) and then syncing it to a remote location (via rsync). File backups As I mentioned in my previous post, I backup high-res JPEGs of all my photography to an Amazon S3 account. Well, there is a sweet little Ruby script called s3sync which basically mirrors the functionality of rsync but will sync files to an S3 bucket instead of a remote server. Using this forum thread and this article, I was able to install Ruby 1.8.6 and s3sync on a RedHat Linux server. I then wrote a small shell script which looped through all the sites on the server and synced each one to an S3 account. The initial sync takes quite a while, but subsequent syncs are fast (since only changed files are transferred). The great thing is, you can access files backed up in this manner FAST. Some FTP clients like Transmit support S3 connections, allowing you instant access to your S3 buckets. No more waiting for your hosting company to restore a backed-up folder. I'm going to explore backing up a Mac using this method and report my results. It should be fairly straightforward since Macs now come with Ruby pre-installed. Anyway, there you have it. Some nice "roll your own" backup methods for linux-based dedicated servers. YMMV, natch.

Why I don't backup my laptop (at least not the way you think)

Erik — Tue May 27 11:35:00 -0700 2008

A friend asked me today if I use Mac OS X's Time Machine for backing up my MacBook Pro. I don't. For most people, including my wife and other people I work with, Time Machine is ideal. For me, it's not really necessary. Here's why. All my photography (weddings, portraits, commercial stuff, etc.) is stored on an external hard drive and backed up to my personal Amazon S3 account. If my MBP is blown up, all I lose there are my Aperture previews, which can easily be rebuilt. All of our BIG Folio projects (website, control panel, templates, NextProof, bighelp, etc.) are stored in Subversion repositories on a server. No risk there. All of our custom work (custom sites and updates) is stored on a company file server. All my email is IMAP based (via Gmail and Google Apps). If my MBP is run over by a train, my email is still available online. So, what's left? My iPhone images (in iPhoto), my iTunes library, and an assortment of non-critical documents. I rsync those to a small, portable hard drive every week. But, even if I didn't, I could survive without those things. There you have it. If I accidentally took my MacBook Pro in the shower at 7am, I would be back to work on a new one by lunch time.

Eggs

Erik — Tue May 13 01:14:00 -0700 2008

Eggs

Breakfast

Erik — Sun May 11 21:02:00 -0700 2008

Breakfast

Taylor caught her her 1st fish, on her 1st fishing trip, on her 2nd cast

Erik — Tue May 06 15:27:00 -0700 2008

Taylor caught her her 1st fish, on her 1st fishing trip, on her 2nd cast