CDs & DVDs are of a limited capacity and will eventually have problems with reading them. Online storage websites are cheap if you only have a few gigabytes of data, but for us photographers it usually hits the a few terrabytes, tape drives are obsolete and horrendously slow, so that leaves us essentially with hard drives. While they work most of the time, there is always a possibility (correction, a definite point in time) when the drive will fail.

We all have heard (or worse) experienced the agony of having a hard drive fail on you.The files, the videos, the music, the photographs and more importantly the memories that go along with that drive failure.

Hard drives, a timebomb waiting to happen… Unless you RAID them!

I personally have had 4 or 5 drives fail on me before and after the first one died and I had to pay $500 to retrieve the data, I made it a point to make sure I run redundancy.

So off I went to find a solution to my ever pressing storage woes. My first solution was a Stardom RAID 1 casing. It essentially mirrors two hard drives back to back automatically thus if one fails, you can replace it with another without losing any data.

Well I bought 2 such casings and both have failed. One was during the warranty period and as such it got replaced, but the other is now a paperweight. (The one that’s still working is exceptionally noisy due to the fans!!)

I also have a buffalo terrastation NAS. While it can store >1TB of data, it’s HORRIBLY SLOW. It’s so slow that I’m reluctant to use it. Not to mention it cost me a fair amount of money. The terrastation also has one major flaw, should one drive fail, you cannot replace the drive yourself. In addition, should more than one drive fail, you practically lose all your data.

When my second Stardom passed on, I started my search once again for another off the shelf remedy to my storage woes. I then came upon the Drobo. Lots of positive reviews and the ability to use any drive you want. But the lower end drobos were USB 2.0 only (groan) and the higher end ones cost >$1000 just for the casing. And should the casing fail, you have no chance of retrieving your data short of buying another Drobo.

So what now…

After some googling I came across a software known as unRAID by Lime Technology. Essentially it’s a RAID OS that you can purchase (or use for free with certain limitations) to build your own DIY NAS (network attached storage).

What drew me into it was the fact that I could expand my storage as and when I required. I could just upgrade my 500GB drives to 2TB drives in the future, or I could even add up to 20 (yes TWENTY) hard drives in a single array (if you buy the Pro licence). On top of that, user reports have stated that the transfer speeds are comparable if not faster than off the shelf solutions. In addition, should any component fail, I can just go to the store and buy the component!

It sounded too good to be true… but more googling later and being the tinkerer that I am, I was ready to do it. I was ready to build my own DIY RAID NAS!

Here are the components I bought to build the NAS:

So I wired up all the cables, followed the unRAID installation procedures and managed to fire it up without a hitch. I managed to access the server and I tried copying over a large file. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw that I was hitting 50-80MB/s transfer speeds onto the NAS!

All wired up!

However my thrill was shortlived. I soon realised that while I could transfer data onto the NAS, I couldn’t even open a JPEG without the server jamming up. I tried just about everything, reformat, change cables, change router, only to realise that the Gigabit LAN port on my motherboard was somehow not compatible. I replaced it with a seperate PCI Gigabit NIC and everything is up and running again. Mind you this took me 2 days to figure out!!!

Now I have 4TBs of protected storage space (1.5TB reserved for parity, 0.5TB for cache) that’s expandable to 8TB (or more!!) should I need to in future!

I’m still setting it up but since I’ve started I’ve added more fans to my casing (try doing that on a Drobo!), installed an app that e-mails me when a drive goes down  and streamed video wirelessly from the server to my TV in the living room (via a Western Digital Live TV player with attached wireless USB dongle)!

PCI LAN cable added. (Notice the half dead Stardom RAID1 casing on the left)

My completed Do It Yourself (DIY) Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) Network Attached Storage (NAS)

I’ll try to post some updates once I’ve used it for a bit longer but so far I’m just thrilled that I managed to find a solution that won’t leave me stranded once something goes wrong.

If you are interested in building one for yourself, I strongly suggest you read as much as possible from the unRAID website & forums before embarking on this. I also strongly advise that you choose a motherboard that’s been tested to be compatible with unRAID.

(By the way, I have no affiliation with the folks from Lime Technology at all, or any other manufacturer for that matter, just wanted to share some info to fellow photographers (geeky or not)).

UPDATE
The TP-Link PCI Gigabit Network Adapter works fine, BUT it doesn’t support Wake on LAN, that’s a problem.

Traditional external hard drives keep the drives spun up at all times and this results in heat build up and eventual drive failure.

The NAS that I’ve built (and I believe other off the shelf NAS) spin down the drives when they are not required. This not only helps extend the lifespan of the drives, it also saves energy.

Now, to save even MORE energy, I wanted to have the array go to S3 sleep when it wasn’t in use, and I wanted it to go to sleep automatically. At sleep it draws <10W of power and should be able to be woken up by a magic packet sent via the LAN network.

The problem with the TP-Link NIC that I bought was that it somehow refuses to wake the server, I had to swap it out with my Dlink card from another computer. I even bought an Asus NX1101 but that does not work with unRAID.

So now with the cache disk, I’m getting an average of 50MB/s transfers into the NAS. That’s about 10x more than on my store bought Buffalo Terrastation!

A new collection of photographs has been put up for sale, check it out here.

These are for the Singapore Biennale’s Container Art Pavilion by Japanese Architect Shigeru Ban

These were for an article showcasing the megastructures of yesteryears

Another two megastructure photographs. I took a whole week to wait for the light to be just right only to have them print my 20+ megapixel photograph at the size of a postage stamp.

This was for Duxton Plains, the mega public housing project by HDB just outside the CBD, these photos were mostly shot on the Olympus E-P1. I was assuming we would have 2 days to shoot, so I brought the E-P1 for the first day’s recee but the images turned out so to be good enough that the 2nd trip was unnecessary.

Another article I shot with the E-P1, reason being I needed a little more “stealth” when I roamed around the malls. Didn’t want to draw to much attention to myself and the style of the photographs the writer was asking for was definitely more casual in nature.

I recently photographed the Resorts World Singapore as well, but that article has yet to be published, I’ll post up more images when I get the article.

]]> http://www.ervinelin.com/?feed=rss2&p=769 0 http://www.ervinelin.com/?p=755 http://www.ervinelin.com/?p=755#comments Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:02:52 +0000 ervinelin http://www.ervinelin.com/?p=755

I made 3 different trips in 2009, Bali, Shanghai and Thailand. While I took a fair number of photographs from each location, I didn’t feel comfortable releasing any one of them as a full collection, so I decided to merge my favourite photographs from them to offer them up for sale.

—————————————————————————————————-

01. Sunrise on a Farm in Pai, NorthWest Thailand
I got out of bed before dawn to roam around the guest house that I was staying at. While I was photographing the cows in the farm (see 09. Cow Resting Under Tree, Pai, NorthWest Thailand), I turned around and noticed this silhouette of a tree at the edge of the farm with a pastel outline of the mountains behind it. I knew then that it would make a great photograph.

—————————————————————————————————-

02. Wooden Pier off Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, Bali
High up in the hills of Bali lies Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, one of the famous temples in Bali which sits on Lake Bratan. Its so high up the hills that clouds form just over the lake. This wooden pier was situated a short distance away from the temple and serves the local boats.

—————————————————————————————————-

03. Rice Fields in Mengwi District, Bali
Although the path through the rice fields looks pretty distinct, we soon realised that walking through a rice field meant getting your foot stuck in mud half the time. This particular stretch was one of the dryer ones as the fields had been abandoned by the farmers due to a rodent infestation.

—————————————————————————————————-

04. I Double Happiness Shanghai, Tai Kang Road, Shanghai
Carved out of old and existing settlements, the art district in Tai Kang Road is a real treat for any photographer. Traditional Shanghainese dwellings juxtaposed alongside high end lifestyle shops selling everything from period souvenirs to modern furniture. It’s one of the few places in Shanghai that I really like.

—————————————————————————————————-

05. Yet to be Converted into a Cafe, Tai Kang Road, Shanghai
With places like Tai Kang Road, it’s beauty stems from the fact that half of the buildings are still occupied by the residents themselves. However I fear that in a couple of years, the original residents will be muscled out of the way to make way for more cafes, furniture shops and other “more profitable” ventures. I’m glad I managed to catch it before the full transformation took place.

—————————————————————————————————-

06. Skyscrapers in Pudong, Shanghai
Just a few train stops away from low rise shop houses and crumbling dwellings, the skyscrapers in Pudong tower over everything around them. As with all major cities, the skyline is “manicured” to look as photogenic as possible.

—————————————————————————————————-

07. Ancient Temple in Old Sukhothai I, Central Thailand
Small temples dot the area around Old Sukhothai in Central Thailand, most of which have crumbled so much that only the base of the temple still remains. While far from being as grand as Ang Kor in Cambodia, the place feels idyllic due to the lack of the hordes of tourists you see at Ang Kor.

—————————————————————————————————-

08. Ancient Temple in Old Sukhothai II, Central Thailand
One of the larger temples in the complex now home to many roosting pigeons. Oddly I think there were more pigeons on the temple than in the trees.

—————————————————————————————————-

09. Cow Resting Under Tree, Pai, NorthWest Thailand
I shot this just as the sun peeked over the horizon on a farm in Pai. I think I used up at least 2 rolls worth of film on this shot alone but ended up choosing one of the first shots I took. The cow looks more peaceful in this photograph as opposed to the later ones when it got startled by my presence.

—————————————————————————————————-

10. Pang Oung Lake, Mae Hong Song, NorthWest Thailand
It took us a full day on motorbike to ride up to Pang Oung Lake, dubbed the “Switzerland of Thailand”. When we got there I was so surprised to see that it looks almost exactly like the reservoirs we find back home in Singapore! Still the journey up was an unforgettable one as it was the first time I rode a motorbike.

—————————————————————————————————-

11. Bridge in Pai, NorthWest Thailand
I never found out what lies beyond this bridge. The moment I stepped on it I could hear a pack of dogs barking and see them scampering up and down the road on the other side of the bridge.

—————————————————————————————————-

12. Pam Bok Waterfall, Pai, Northwest Thailand
I really hate lugging around tripods when I travel but I do have a tiny tiny table tripod which I keep in my bag for “emergencies” like this. The mini tripod allowed me to slow the shutter speed enough to show the movement in the water, something which my shaky hands would not have been able to do.

—————————————————————————————————-

Pricing

Limited Edition Canvas Prints
- Printed on high quality canvas certified archival to 100 years
- Protected with a polyurethane based laminate with mould inhibitors
- Prestretched around a custom moulded kiln dried meranti hardwood frame
- Rated to last between 75 and 200 years without visible fading

36in x 36in –  $1800 (5 editions)

Matted Prints
- Printed on high quality Harman Glossy FB AI paper
- Cut to size & matted before shipping out
- Optional Framing

6in x 6in – $80
(10in x 10in inclusive of matt board)

12in x 12in – $240
(20in x 20in inclusive of matt board)

Ordering

To place an order, simply e-mail me at ervine@ervinelin.com with the following details:

Name:
Contact Number:
Address:
Name of Prints:
Quantity:

Payment

Payment can be made through interbank transfers (Singapore only), Paypal, cheque or cash-on-delivery.

A minimum deposit of 20% is required for all orders.

Delivery

Delivery within Singapore is free for orders above $200 and $10 for orders below it.

Optionally, customers can choose to pick up the prints when they are ready from 6A Lim Tua Tow Road.

Please e-mail at ervine@ervinelin.com should you wish for the print to be delivered outside of Singapore.

After a few days of scanning, editing and adjusting the photographs, I’m finally done with my photographs of Thailand. You can see the rest of the photographs here: http://www.ervinelin.com/?p=740

I hope you like them.

It was time for that year end trip again, this time we went to Thailand. Flying into Bangkok, we made out way up to the Central Plains and visited Sukhothai (the capital of ancient Thailand) then up into the far northern highlands of Mae Hong Song.

We hiked up waterfalls and through bamboo forests, rode a motorcycle for the first time in my life, ate fried crickets, met interesting locals, met even more interesting fellow travellers, took almost every kind of transport that was available (train, bus, tuk tuk, taxi, motorcycle even an electric bicycle), survived a 16hour bus ride back (almost couldn’t make it back to Bangkok as all the flights and buses were fully booked, we managed to secure the last 2 seats back) and so on. Overall it was quite an adventure.

Here are some of the photographs I took along the way, starting with the 35mm photos shot with my Voigtlander Bessa R3A but this time instead of using my 15mm (one of my favourite lenses), I forced myself not to bring it and instead went with the 25mm F4 Snapshot Skopar instead. Since I’ve bought the lens I’ve hardly used it at all, so I figured it’s about time to wipe off the dust that’s been collecting over it. Along with the 25mm I brought along my next favourite lens, the 40mm F1.4 Classic Norkton. I would have brought along the 75 as well but I wanted to reduce the number of lenses I was carrying around as there was still my Mamiya 6 to be packed into the bag.

Anyway here are scans of the 35mm photographs, shot on Kodak Gold 200 and Ultramax 400. Consumer grade film that have really nice saturated colours, a very forgiving film latitude but at the expense of some serious grain.

I’ll give  a quick visual run through of our journey through Thailand. The medium format photographs are at the bottom of the page.

Taxis are relatively cheap in Thailand, just be weary of the traffic. The taxi ride from the airport to the hotel took longer than the plane!

In the middle of Chatuchak weekend market, shot from the thigh with the 25mm prefocused.

There wasn’t much to photograph in Bangkok itself, partly because my hands were often ladened with shopping bags. Here’s a shot just before we boarded the train in Bangkok to make our way to Phitsanulok in Central Thailand.

Once in Phitsanulok, we took a Song Thew and then a local bus ride to New Sukhothai and from there another bus to Old Sukhothai (the capital of ancient Thailand). There scattered among the grounds were small ruined temples, some which have been restored slightly.

Nice quiet place to cycle around, but nothing compared to the temples at Angkor in Cambodia. At least it wasn’t swamped with toursits.

We stayed at New Sukhothai, the town an hours ride away from the Old City. It’s a small town but you can get most of your supplies here including surprisingly well stocked pharmacies.

The local market district is worth a quick visit in the morning.

Roadside food stalls.. yummy..

On the map, our guesthouse was near a river. Unfortunately we didn’t realise that the river was actually more of a concrete lined canal. Yet people have found a way to do some fishing in it.

Our second day in Sukhothai was a bit more interesting, we went to hike up a waterfall. It wasn’t in any guidebook, luckily our guesthouse recently started organising trips to visit it. Coincidentally there was a big gathering of local scouts and girl guides who were setting up camp at the base of the falls.

There were a few different falls, this being one of the smaller ones.

I took a dip under the rainbow soon after I took this photo..

This is the main waterfall which took us a good 2-3 hour hike to climb up to.

Our next destination was Pai, up in the mountains in the North West of Thailand. Another train, another bus, a whole day’s journey to get there.

Our first day there we borrowed electric bicycles from our guesthouse, but soon realised that they weren’t powerful enough to tackle the hilly terrain. I got off my bike to take this shot only to have the bike fall on me, scratch up my ankle and at the end have that eyesore of a post block my view of the sheep being herded back from the grazing.

Kids playing basketball on the other side of a Chinese Village

This shot turned out surprisingly well. I was worried that the film latitude wasn’t enough, but it’s so amazing what can be captured on negatives as opposed to slides.

Unfortunately, we never got to stay by the river. But there were just SO MANY local tourists perhaps it was better if we didn’t.

Lots of dogs running around on the streets. I almost ran into two myself. These couple of pups were growling over a few chicken scraps.

Would have been a nice place for a beer or two.

Heard so much about it, but was really put off by the sheer number of local tourists that swarmed the tiny town of 3000. I literally mean swarmed.

This was the closest we got to seeing the fabled long neck women. I’ve visited them before but it felt more like a zoo, so much so that I seriously don’t recommend anyone to visit them.

For the most part of the trip, the sunlight was just incredibly harsh. Hardly a single fluffy cloud in the sky, and as a result the only time it was suitable to take some colour photographs (with slides) was at dawn or dusk.

A really sweet elephant we met. Works only a few hours a day taking tourists down to the river and through the jungle. Too bad she was off duty when we visited.

Pai Canyon. Quite a sight really. A single path that cuts across the landscape with sheer cliffs on both sides.

More waterfalls of course.

We had enough of the crowds at Pai and we moved on to Mae Hong Song town. This is the lake in the middle of town at which the night market will be centered around. Wat Chong Klang and Wat Chong Kham are in the background.

Wat Doi Kong Mu overlooks the entire town. Well worth a visit in the morning or evening.

The view’s pretty amazing at the top of the hill, you can see the surrounding mountains all the way to Burma.

What’s a visit to a town without visiting it’s local market.

We rode a motorbike for 3-4 hours to get to a lake up in the mountains called Pang Oung, famed as the “Switzerland of Thailand”.

Unfortunately it was lacking the snow capped mountains in the background to complete the “Swiss look”.

I saw this vista as I was riding up to Pang Oung and I knew that I needed to get a shot when I came down. This is an overview of the town of Naphapak, a half-Hmong, half-Thai Yai village where thankfully there was a shed that sold gasoline (we were down to a quarter tank by the time we reached Pang Oung).

The last day in Mae Hong Song didn’t allow for much photo taking. We went trekking through the hillside jungles and through bamboo forests. Wasn’t the easiest of treks and as such wasn’t the most conducive time to take photos either.

I’ve never seen bamboo that was so thick before, I think they were about 6-8 inches in diameter!

After a winding 16hour bus ride, we were back in Bangkok to usher in 2010 and pack our bags to return to sunny Singapore.

Here are the photographs taken with my Mamiya 6. All the colour photographs were taken with Kodak 100VS while the black and white ones were with Fuji Neopan Acros 100 or Neopan 400.

Like I mentioned previously, the only time to take photos with colour slides was at dawn or dusk. The light up in the mountains in the rest of the day was just ridiculously harsh. As a result I took mostly black and white photographs for the majority of the trip. These are the few which I took during dawn or dusk.

The cows weren’t too pleased that I was there.

Just after sunrise with a little bit of fog still in the air. Perfect for taking photographs.

A pair of Nagas (correct me if I’m wrong) overlooking the surrounding hills atop of Mae Hong Song town.

Wat Doi Kong Mu

There are even more lanterns released at night from the temple.

The sound of a bamboo forest creaking in the wind was one of the most peaceful sounds I’ve ever heard.

Remains of an ancient temple that once stood in Old Sukhothai, the ancient capital of Thailand.

This is one of my favourite photographs of the series. In the background another ancient ruin with a reconstructed statue of Buddha.

I took a few minutes waiting for the pigeon to fly by to complete the photograph. See if you can spot it.

Wasn’t sure if waterfalls look good in black & white, but this turned out pretty well.

This was the waterfall I took a quick dip under.

Even at 100ISO, F22 and a ND filter, I think I could only get it down to 1 second as the sunlight was just so strong. Thankfully I still managed to get enough movement in the water. I used my tiny tiny 10cm tripod for this.

Never found out what was beyond this bridge, on the other side were 3-4 dogs who were barking at me even from this end of the bridge.

I shot this from a far, before I startled the cows which made them stand up.

This was the oldest cow of the lot, look at it’s wrinkles! It was also the only one who didn’t budge when I got near.

The elephant from Joy’s Elephant Camp in Pai. Really friendly girl (or lady, she’s 36yrs old). Really hungry too!

Pai Canyon in B&W. I wonder if anyone has cycled that route.

Pang Oung, the “Switzerland of Thailand” just before sundown.

The village of Naphapak about 40km away from Mae Hong Song Town.

Again using my minuscule tripod to slow down the shutter in order to show movement in the water.

This was the very last B&W photograph I took of two buffaloes grazing by the river just before sunset.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my wedding portfolio. Here are two pre-wedding photoshoots I’ve done recently.

——————————————

Wilson’s a fellow photographer and cyclist, it’s an honor to have another photographer trust you with his wedding photos.

He borrowed a vintage Mercedes for the Pre-Wedding Shoot. Awesome!

Did I mention the interior of the car is just super retro?

Old Seletar Camp, too bad some buildings have been demolished since the last time I went there.

Okay the plane is not our prop.. hehe

I photographed Jan & his family many years back when I just started full time photography.

Wonderfully easy going couple!

Shot at the CIP Airport terminal, had to do an indoor shoot because of the rain.

Moved to Terminal 3 after that

Ice cream break!

Hope you like the photos! I’m packing for another wedding shoot tomorrow!

It’s been quiet a while since I posted any photographs. I’m hoping to make it a point write more in the near future. In the meantime, I just visited Shanghai last month with my usual film cameras in tow. The photographs from the trip have been uploaded here: http://www.ervinelin.com/?p=710. Do check them out.