Colorati Blog | Shoot more.

For years Western Digital has been the best choice for portable USB hard drives and we’ve endorsed them openly for the drive of choice to send orders to Colorati. They’re reliable, you can buy them anywhere, the price is right, and they’ve always been Mac & PC ready.

Well… things have changed a bit and we no longer feel it’s the best choice. Why? Two reasons:

1) Out of the box formatting (No longer Mac & PC ready.)
2) Multiple interface options

A house divided
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Here’s the deal: Western Digital is now selling hard drives specifically formatted for your operating system. For the most part, this is a great thing!

However, in our environment it can create some potential hiccups. We are a Mac environment (HFS format) and we can copy data from of a Windows drive (NTFS format) but we can’t copy anything back onto the drive.

Technically, we could but we’d have to reformat your drive to FAT32 which is universal. We prefer not to reformat your drives. It shouldn’t be your only backup, but many times it is and we’ve seen far too many of them come to the rescue.

Drive Interface
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Western Digital Passport drives are USB 2.0 only. Nowadays there are so many options available for multiple interface drives. They have come down in price and it’s a nice feature to have.

Here’s the advantage: speed. In a Macworld speed test with an OWC hard drive, a 1GB copy showdown looked like this:

USB 2.0 1GB file copy: 0:52
FireWire 800 1GB file copy: 0:35

That’s significant when you average between 15-20GB or more per event! Many of you send us us over 30 events a year plus engagement sessions.

So what do we suggest?
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Glad you asked! Remember, the biggest issue we have right now is the formatting straight out of the box. So our recommendations below will be for drives that are Mac and PC ready- no special formatting needed! Interface is secondary.

Having said that, if we could have our pick, it would simply be any drive with FW800/400 and USB 2.0. The following three drives meet both requirements for formatting and interface. There’s also one bonus feature: drive speed. Most portable drives spin at 5400 rpm. These drives are much faster at 7200 rpm.

Multi-Interface options:
A nice choice in the performance AND aesthetics department would be the G-Tech G-Drive mini. At $120 for high performance, multi-interface, and a 3yr warranty, you’re in good shape.

The LaCie Rugged has been around for a long time and has many interface and capacity options. We’ve had great success with this model and it also spins at 7200 rpm. (Starts at $99 for USB only, FW+USB starts at $129.) 3yr warranty.

As mentioned, the OWC Mercury. I’ll admit, it’s not the prettiest drive, but it does perform well in speed tests. Cost: $129, 3yr warranty.

USB Only:

If you want to save a few bucks, you can go with the USB only drives that are under $100.

LaCie has been a long time performer in external drives. Here are just a couple options:

LaCie Rikiki: $74.99, 2yr warranty.

LaCie Petit: $74.90, 2yr warranty.

Afterthoughts:

- 250GB is PLENTY for most orders, even if you are sending 2-3 complete events. Buying any more than that is unnecesary.

- Don’t store files on the drive that you don’t have backed up elsewhere.

- Use this drive exclusively for sending and receiving orders with Colorati. Sensitive files like tax documents, personal photos, etc are best kept on your system at home.

- If you are a Mac user, then the formatting is a non-issue. Also, if you are a PC user and use our Standard Color service but request XMP delivery only, then the formatting is less of an issue since we email your XMPs back to you.

Western Digital is still making awesome, reliable products. However, with the options and pricing that is available today, we think there are some seriously competitive options that may just make things run a little smoother when sending your orders to Colorati.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you.

Come kick off the week in Vegas with us at the Airhorns + Lasers Party Sunday night, March 7th. Get your tickets soon, because they are going FAST!

http://airhornsandlasers.eventbrite.com/

If you think Seattle is cloudy, cold and wet, you ought to check out Michelle’s site. By the looks of her work, you’ll no doubt discover that wherever she shoots, life is bright and beautiful.

Michelle is a fashion and senior portrait photographer who has carved out a name for herself and it’s our pleasure to share this video interview with you.

In this video we talk about:

• How she balances doing smart business without killing the artist inside

• How she sets herself apart from her competitors

• Her experience discovering Colorati and using our service

• Things she now does instead of doing post production

• How she developed her processing style

• Sources of inspiration

Chat with Michelle Moore from Colorati on Vimeo.

No doubt, these are two fun ladies from Georgia that you should take a moment to meet! If you haven’t heard of Smitten Photos, you should do two things immediately:

1) Set your RSS feed reader to their blog
2) Follow them on twitter: @smittenamber | @smittengreta

Watch these girls this year- because they are going places! Though they just completed their first season together, they are stirring things up and show tons of promise sure to inspire.

In this interview we (loosely) talk about:

• Complimentary roles in their studio

• Transition from moonlighting to full time

• Working as a “momtographer”

• How Colorati has changed their business

• Flourishing with Twitter

• Finding your identity in your market

• Advice for new photographers

• Setting expectations with your clients

Enjoy!

iChat with Smitten from Colorati on Vimeo.

The boys are at it again, friends! And already- the shenanigans are in full effect!!!

Tune your RSS readers to the MAMMOTH MEN site for your daily injection of creativity.

We are proud sponsors of this trip and are GIVING AWAY something seriously fun this week- so do stay tuned. (Hint: It’s not photo or Colorati related, but something very fun for your spare time.)

Hey gang! We think you should know our office manager, Katie. She’s a fabulous person and really knows her stuff. So here’s a quick interview we did to help you learn a bit more about the person you talk to on the phone!

Enjoy.

Well, friends… our superstar Office Manager Melissa is all packed up and ready to head out. Monday she leaves Colorati for her next adventure and we want her to share her story. Grab some coffee (or tea!) and join us…

Parting words from Melissa:

(By the way- stay tuned to meet our new Office Manager, Katie! We think you’re really going to like her too!)

What a pleasure it is to link up with Nate Kaiser from The Image Is Found and the Mammoth Men crew! Recently, we became official sponsors of both blogs and we are stoked!

Seriously, if your creative juices aren’t flowing, stop reading this post and go IMMEDIATELY to both sites and get seriously inspired!!!

Mammoth Men just launched trip number 4 and are about to drop some serious shenanigans on Park City, Utah!!! Stay tuned to the blog and Twitter!

Thanks to Nate and all the Mammoth Men for a chance to be involved! Have a blast, guys! We can’t wait to see the creative collaboration from this adventure!

Holy smokes! I’m not kidding when I say we have the coolest clients EVER!

Just last Friday this showed up on my radar:

Thanks for the shout, Nate!

In addition to Twitter, people have been hitting our Inbox with some really nice things to say. Here are some recent “love-themed” quotes!

Dear Colorati Team-
THANK YOU.
from the bottom of my heart

I don’t know if I’m more thrilled that I didn’t have to spend hours at the computer, or that the images look AMAZING and so consistent with each other. Either way – I am beyond thrilled.

Thank you for such a quick turnaround. I can’t wait to SHOOT MORE because I have so many more hours to spare during the week.

Sincerely,
rebecca-linh rodgers

Well, it’s no secret we love you guys We just wanted to spread the love!!!
Jeff

Hey -

Have I told you guys today how much I love you?!

Thanks,
Andrea

We met so many amazingly talented, ultra-creative people in Vegas it’s not even funny! Here are a some of my favorite things I’ve seen on the blogosphere.

First up, Sam gave us a huge shout out and had some fun with our stickers!

What a great night at the Rouge!

This one’s just begging for a capture contest…

For a great look at WPPI check his complete post:

Viva Las Vegas With Your Neon Flashin’…

I thought Jen Harris did some cool stuff at the Neon Boneyard shoot. Cool models! Go check it out:

Of course, you’ve already seen Melissa McClure’s seriously cool shot, but it’s worth repeating!

And Melissa, if you’re listening… how ’bout tracking down the high rez versions of these other Colorati girls in the collage? I count two others!

Last, I just want to give a huge high five to every one of you who wore your Colorati shirts on Tuesday! We gave out over 40 prizes on the spot! Enjoy!