Life of My Traveling Camera!!

We just spent two days on the Canadian side of the Niagara gorge to help celebrate Canada's dropping ALL of their Covid restrictions for their and American citizens wishing to cross the border! We stayed at the Sheraton Fallsview hotel, within walking distance of the Rainbow Bridge, and with fabulous superb views! Drove the next day to Niagara-on-the-Lake to see Fort Niagara from the "ofther side" and it looked just as lovely, but renovations have been in progress on the French Castle, so it wasn't a very photographic subject....  

Snapped over 300 memories on the camera, including on the phone, then come home to find out I cannot find the images on ANY of the SDcards used, of which I only used two! Looking everywhere to see if a card got lost, got mixed up with other...  you know the nightmare. The next day after arriving home, checked the car. 

Nothing.

So this leaves only one course of action of take: undelete and recovery. This has happened before in my far past and recently even, but the most I ever had to recover was on an internal hard drive when I accidentally deleted over 30gigs while working on image files at 3am, still then in the San Francisco Bay Area! It took days to recover all that!

I use a great app that I discovered decades ago and have used it much and still. It's Puran software and they make a variety of apps including a handy-dandy app that allows right-click for adding a copyright, resizing and more to image files! It stopped worked about half a decade ago due to some updates/changes in Windows OS. I tested each app extensively but it would NOT work at all. A few months ago I upgraded to Win11 (which I tolerate and do not enjoy), and I rediscovered these right-click apps during a casual search of old files. Just for giggles I reinstalled them and voilà, it functioned superbly right off the bat without even having to reboot or anything!! WoW!!

Back to my current day nightmare of finding the Canada image files...  I went through a possible five cards that I just cleared of files yesterday; the culprit was the second card checked!

LUCK! As I type this, there are now 200+ recovered image files of our Canada trip restored! Whew!!

Another thing I have noticing is that MANY of my image files are fragmented, not due to being overwritten BUT because I don't simply delete, BUT move my image files off the SDcards used in my cameras. In doing so, I have created SD cards with a lot of fragmentation, which I am seeing now! So, to prevent this in the future, I will start formatting each card after the files are moved off the cards! I could suggest you do the same, but you are smarter than me!!  ;)

Again, the Puran File Recovery app has saved my Life and image files yet again!!

20 minutes later: over 1400 image files recovered! It seems since I started NOT regularly formatting my SD cards, the "image files" are still on the cards though not displayed! I finally stopped the recovery process after it had recovered and placed more than 1900 of these lost but now recovered files in a folder. Of all the image files recovered to this folder, only 1000 files were of our recent two-day Canadian trip. The others are all files moved from the card but never permanently deleted, and not formatted. So, I'll begin formatting my cards regularly very soon as I formerly did regularly a decade ago! 

Some of the files were even snowy scenes at the Falls recorded during the last Winter!!

Thoughts on a Cold Fall Morning

A Man without seeds sown, departing this Earth without Children, leaves an empty Destiny with no Meaning, Hope nor Future. All Species of this planet thrive on finding a mate to sow its seeds to continue its Heritage, and when that seed grows to finally lift its branches or eyes to the Sky and Sun, and in its own new Life will also one day mate and sow its seeds to look up and see the Sky. 

Life is to continue, NOT die without its Life continuing. 

Life is continuance.

These words are my own, not copied nor changed from someone else's mind. These words in whole or in part, cannot be copied or used without my advance permission.

Remembering Nature's Beauty!

 Isn't Nature just so lovely and BeautYful? Seen at Presque Isle State Park, Pennsylvania some time ago, and I just love how the wings of the Great Egret are in this captured movement. These days I am just reliving the memories! If you'd like to see more of my wildlife imagery, you can visit my wildlife gallery to see the various species my cameras have seen in my travels there and here.Thanks in advance!

Western New York Storms

I've been reliving my past histories around the world and seeing great hot weather, cold and rainy locations, and of course a lot of stormy conditions that I didn't mind at all - during those younger years - getting out into and splashing around!

Now in the current life on the East Coast, the memories of those vast and varied weather come to light, as the past mixes with the present. Does this happen to you too, when an event, a moment, or even clouds can spark a sweet (or not) memory for you? 

Here's a memory in the recent past, snapped as the pandemic was beginning. 

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/strike-one-at-grand-island-ny-fototaker-tony-lost-at-night.html

I just cannot resist the color, mystery, danger and beauty of a thunderstorm!

Still Charging up our Life and our Devices via Solar Power

It's been a while. Always too busy with our photography and it gets busier by the day. It's gotten to the point when we go out for the sunset, I'll not take a camera while Sheila will take hers. I'll have my SSG A50 so IF it's impressive and awesome, I can record the moment. The other day we were at the sunset and not only did I not take the camera, the phone was at home too!

About two years ago we picked up a small 21 watt folding solar panel. Yes, that small! We just wanted something small, light, and functional to use on our many trips around the area able to charge our phones and other devices while on the road.

The pandemic changed all that! BUT we still have it and just started using it again. In fact, it's inside our home and stuck to the window that's getting some good sunlight, and charging Sheila's phone. We recently picked up two more: A DOKIO 220W Solar Panel and a few days later a LIPOWER 100W Solar Panel. Both are portable and both fold its four panels into a compact size. We also picked up a 300watt Pure Sine Wave EnginStar Portable Power Station/Battery, and we have been charging that with either one of the two solar panels, while the 21w original one is right now serving as a functional backup. We've been both charging the solar battery with great results, and while the output from the solar panels isn't really high, it is charging! Using the fully charged solar battery everyday and charging it is an interesting project but a worthwhile investment into the future of solar power. So far we have solar power our 52" Sony flat screen TV, living room LED lights, yesterday an older model HP laptop, and more. If nothing else, seeing the wattage used in real-time really opens eyes as to how much we really use and are so dependent on elecrricity in this modern age! 

Are you solar charging your life too?

I will update this in the coming days.

Still alive into the New Year

I can barely believe we are into the 21st century, and now already into 2022! WoW!!

Sheila and I are well - thank goodness - and we still wear a mask at the ready hanging around our necks. That way we know the masks are readily available and easy to begin wearing; all we need to do is pull the mask up and viola, we are protected!

It's been a "mild" Winter in western New York, with little or no snowfall at all during the period of Autumn's end till the end of 2021. Though the Winter here was cold - it's been freezing even through the Autumn, it was eventually record-breaking snowfall in the area, though the highest snowfall fell close to the end of December and into January. In a normal area Winter, we'll get regular snowfall most every week, and the records show that in a regular Winter, we get an average of 63" of snow. This current Winter we got just a few snowfalls that started at the end of December and continued into January, but that amount we got in those few snowfalls totalled over 80"!! WoW!!

Yes, as you can guess, we got out into the snow to get a few snaps. Of course! Winter is absolutely a thrill to see and get out into, and though it's just a very few times I've lived in a snowy location, it is always nice. Last Winter of 2020-2021, I got what I thought was a bit of frostbite on both feet though the left foot was affected more. That kinda "healed" slowly and all was "well" by August. This current Winter the signs of frostbite returned - going out into the snow didn't help at all, and after having my poor black and blue feet almost healed, I had thought, but still looked as bad as it was almost a year earlier! My feet were seen by a foot doctor in early February, who did not say it wasn't frostbite, but didn't say it was. The doctor also pointed out a foot problem with both feet, probably attributed to my wearing sockless and archless footwear for a few years. I was then fitted with custom insoles for my shoes, and amazingly enough, though I've been using that new arch for just a few weeks, the arch and foot problem is healing quicker than I would have imagined! I started with those zero arch shoes about a decade ago, going from very thin and flat running shoes, and eventually moving up to flat archless hiking shoes. Though I felt NO pain in the arches of both feet, it eventually gave me problems that - though I never thought it was major - caused enough problems for me to see a doctor, and I am glad I finally did!

I remember the first year I began wearing those flat archless shoes while living on the West Coast. I took those shoes to Spain, where I have a few friends nearby my location in SW Spain who run on a regular basis, and they all stared at those flat shoes I wore, and warned of pain and bad arches! As I mentioned before, I've never experienced pain, but unknown to me, the problems were apparently building up! I haven't wore those flat shoes in many years, but am now feeling the distress of having worn them!! Beware!!

Otherwise, life is going as well as can be expected. We are grateful to be well during these past years, and I think good health should never be taken for granted. Hoping you and yours will remain safe, and till the next time!

    The river ice is nearly gone and daytime temps are warmer, Can't wait till Spring!