How I Recovered Data from a Failed Disk

I recently upgraded to an Apple M1 Mac Mini after running various Hackintosh capable hardware configurations for nearly 15 years. A Hackintosh is MacOS installed on non-Apple hardware – something which was easily possible on Intel-based PCs. Starting with certain models introduced in late 2020, Apple began the transition from Intel processors to Apple silicon in Mac computers. The M1 is the first generation Apple silicon chip and offers several speed and power advantages over Intel based chips.

In all my years of using a Hackintosh, I never faced any kind of hard disk failure, and consequent loss of data. However, within a month of purchasing the M1 Mac Mini, two of my 3.5 inch hard disks which were in an external hard disk enclosure (DAS), failed.

Before I get into the details, let me clarify a few things:

I am not implying that the M1 Mac Mini had something to do with the hard disk failure/data corruption. However, in all my Hackintoshes, the 3.5 inch hard disks were directly connected to the motherboard. This meant that the hard disks always woke up and shut down with the computer. My Hackintoshes also had high quality power supply units, providing stable power to all components.
The two hard disks failed one after the other, and not at the same time. One of the hard disks was a 12TB EXOS from Western Digital, while the other one was a 6TB Western Digital Black hard disk. They were both inside a Terra Master TD2 Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, configured in single-disk mode. This means that the disks were not in JBOD or RAID configuration.
According to the compatibility matrix on the Terra Master website, the EXOS 12 TB is not compatible with the Terra Master TD2 Thunderbolt 3 enclosure. The EXOS 12 TB was the first one to fail, so I attributed this to the incompatibility. However, the 6TB Western Digital Black is compatible with the Terra Master TD2 Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and it failed after a few weeks, thus leading me to conclude that hard disk compatibility had nothing to do with the failure.
The Terra Master TD2 Thunderbolt 3 enclosure is a DAS (and not NAS). It is connected to my M1 Mac mini via a Terra Master provided Thunderbolt 3 cable.
The hard disks already had data, before I put them inside the enclosure.

Hard disk failures can be of two types – physical failure of the disk, or corruption of the file system. Physical failure of hard disks can be fatal for the data in it. Only professional hard disk data recovery companies can retrieve the data from such a disk. Also, it is very difficult for an ordinary non-technical person to ascertain the cause of failure. But I was pretty sure that the hard disk did not have bad sectors or physical damage. This is because they both stopped working suddenly, with no clicking sounds from the hard disk. When a hard disk makes weird noises, it is generally indicative of a physical failure.

With the failed disks in the DAS, every time the Mac Mini powered on, I would see a message, “The disk you attached was not readable by this computer.” The only options I had was to initialise the disk, eject it, or ignore the error message. I had no access to the data in the disk!

Imagine, 6 TB + 12TB of data going bad. Luckily for me, the 12TB EXOS hard disk contained data which was completely backed up in another hard disk. The 6TB hard disk had media from a recent photography assignment, which was not backed up. I was yet to deliver the images and videos to the client, so I had to access the data on the 6TB hard disk at any cost.

Here are the steps I followed to get my data back:

I tried the ‘First Aid’ option in the Big Sur Disk Utility app to see if the partition can be repaired. This did not help in any way. I find the dumbed down version of Disk Utility in Big Sur pretty useless.
I put the hard disk in an external USB hard disk enclosure to rule out any issues with the Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. This did not make any difference either.
After googling for solutions, I came across a free MacOS software called TestDisk. Among the many things which TestDisk is capable of, it can fix a partition table and/or recover deleted partitions.

Unfortunately, TestDisk can only run from the Terminal. It is a command line utility. However, there is a paid companion app called Disk Drill Data Recovery Software, made by Clever Files, which has a UI. Disk Drill is based on TestDisk.

Disk Drill, like TestDisk, can do many things, including data recovery of deleted files in Mac OS X. I used it to successfully recover the assignment files which were not backed up from the corrupted partition of my 6TB Western Digital Black disk.

Disk Drill works by running different levels of scans on the hard disk. It is quite comforting to know that Disk Drill will show you the failed partition, while Disk Utility or Finder will not. A Deep Scan runs for several hours, and is your best bet to find all the files from the damaged partition.

After Disk Drill ran for a couple of hours on my hard disk, I noticed that it reported plenty of orphaned files. This lead me to conclude that the file system failure was pretty severe. The problem with file system failure on a disk which contains thousands of images is that you will never know if every recovered file is intact. It is hard to test the integrity of the recovered files when there is a large number of images. Luckily, I was able to retrieve the data which mattered to me the most – files from my photography assignment.

Why did the data on my hard disk get corrupted? Why did the partition fail? Was it because of the Terra Master DAS? Honestly, I will never know. I only know that in all the years of using hard disks directly connected to my motherboard, I never faced any problem. Also, what should I do to prevent such a failure in future? Of course, ejecting a disk before removing it from the Mac is something everyone should follow. Is it safe to keep the DAS running always, even when the Mac is shut down? Can I eject the disks from Finder, but still keep the DAS running? I wish had answers to these questions.

I did ask in the Terra Master forum as to why two of my hard disks failed after putting them in the DAS. The reply I got from the support team wasn’t satisfactory. They asked me to follow best practises such as formatting the disks in HFS+ or APFS format, and safely unmounting/ejecting the disk before removing them. From what I remember, I have never removed the hard disks without ejecting them because the DAS is always connected to the Mac Mini.

I have stayed away from a real Mac for many years because I was never comfortable with external hard disk solutions. The world of technology is very confusing and misleading. There is a big push for NAS systems but honestly, not everyone needs one. The NAS world is ridden with confusing terminology. NAS systems also come at an unnecessary premium. At the end of the day, all I need is a computer which allows me to work on data which is important to me. Management of that data shouldn’t really be such a big headache.

My worst fears of using external disks came true within a month of finally buying a Mac Mini – my first real Mac. Luckily, thanks to Disk Drill, I was able to recover my data. Going forward, I am going to take data backup more seriously!

A trip to Drongo Nature Camp in Uttara Kannada District

The year 2020 will go down in history as the strangest in the memory of many individuals. For me, 2020 was when so many things fell in place, thanks to the pandemic related all-India lockdown. I’ve always wondered why we city slickers waste time in traffic, causing stress to oneself and pollution to the environment. And it took a pandemic for the authorities to realise that life is beautiful minus the stress and grind of commute. Sure, the lockdown was hard on Indians for financial and personal reasons, but I think a majority of the people in bigger cities enjoyed working from, or staying at home.

Having spent 4 years of my academic life in a small village, a lot of things that the lockdown taught the world came naturally to me. I have always enjoyed silence. I was at my happiest during the lockdown when there was absolutely no traffic on the roads, and very few people moving around. The air was cleaner, the birds were happier, and I was busy doing what I love in the extra time I had on my hands. This was exactly how my life was during my engineering – far away from motorable roads, surrounded by greenery, and long days where time moved slowly.

Paddy fields near Sirsi

But once the lockdown was lifted, this beautiful phase of calmness became a thing of the past. The yearning to reconnect to nature only grew stronger. Luckily, I discovered a place where one can experience unspoilt nature without missing on the comforts of modern life. Drongo Nature Camp is situated in Uttara Kannada district, near a small town called Banavasi. It is not too far from the bigger town of Sirsi, either. In fact, it lies on the road connecting Banavasi and Sirsi. Suhas runs the place, and Omkar Pai is the naturalist.

A view of the paddy field near Drongo Nature Camp

Cottages at Drongo Nature Camp

Banavasi is famous for the Madhukeshwara Temple built in the 9th century. We visited the temple the same evening that I arrived at Drongo Nature Camp. I have been to this temple before, but it looked beautiful that evening at sunset. The Nandi statue carved from stone is one of the I have seen.

Madhukeshwara Temple in Banavasi

Nandi Statue inside Madhukeshwara Temple in Banavasi

I have been making annual visits to the popular waterfalls in and around Yellapur, since 2013. I conduct a landscape and waterfall photography workshop in the month of October or November. During the workshop, we visit Sathodi, Magod and a few other cascades in the region. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 edition of the workshop was called off. My intention to stay at Drongo Nature Camp was to visit places in Sirsi I hadn’t been to before.

Sunset with orange and red colours

It was 2 pm when I arrived at the property, after driving from Bangalore. We were welcomed with a local herbal drink, which tasted unlike anything I had before. This was followed by lunch. The spread consisted of locally sourced ingredients, and the dishes were all from the Uttara Kannada district. Needless to the say, the food was both healthy, and tasty. If you have not eaten local household Uttara Kannada food, Drongo Nature camp is where you must go to experience food which is seldom available in restaurants.

Closeup of paddy crop

When I had called up Suhas, the properer of Drongo Nature camp, to make my booking, he had told me that the Camp premises is a great location for birding. The property is on the edge of a forest, and he said I needn’t have to go far for bird photography. Since I am a very opportunistic bird photographer I pointed my lens towards a branch only when I had nothing else to shoot. So, I was quite content with the limited number of birds I photographed at Drongo. The place had other surprises in store for me. I was told that dedicated birdwatchers have known to spot more than 30 different types of avian life in Drongo.

It is quite well known that the Sirsi-Yellapur region is home to numerous small and big waterfalls. Thanks to Omkar, I learnt that this part of the Western Ghats is also a macro photographer’s paradise. In the right season, snakes, frogs, toads, butterflies and a whole lot of small living things come out in the open. The rainforest becomes the macro photographer’s playground, much like Agumbe, which holds the crown for herpetology. In November, we did not find snakes in the wild, but I did manage to photograph a few frogs and toads. Again, owing to a shift in what really interests me these days, my focus on macro photography was fleeting.

What really stood out to me at Drongo Nature Camp was the stunning night sky. Once the sun went down, which happens early in November, I was overjoyed to the low levels of light pollution at Drongo Nature Camp. I did not have to go far for astro photography, as the surroundings of Drongo Nature Camp was sufficiently dark. Gudnapura lake which is only a few kilometres away also seemed like an excellent location for night sky photography when we were there the previous evening. But fogging of the sky and lenses is a common issue in winter, so the frames I shot at Gunapura did not turn out nice.

Over the course of my stay, thanks to Omkar, I got to shoot some really nice frames of the November Milky Way from just outside the premises. Just like how spotting a certain species of bird is thrilling for the birdwatcher, catching a gimplse of the Milky Way on a clear night excites me.

Milky Way near Sirsi Karnataka

Astro photography near Sirsi

Not wanting to give up on my quest to see a new waterfall during this visit, I visited Burdue falls on the second day of my stay. It was a 2 hour drive through beautiful village roads. The route which Google Maps suggested wasn’t part of the main highway, so I pretty much had the road to myself. However, a few kilometres away from Burude, I sensed that the route shown by Google Maps is incorrect. Upon confirming with a few locals who asked me to retrace my steps and follow the signboards to Burude, I was on the ‘official’ road to the waterfall. The locals told me that the route shown by Google Maps also lead to the waterfalls, but the approach is not good.

The official route got progressively narrower and the last stretch is most likely untraversable by four wheelers during the monsoon. Luckily, it wasn’t raining and my Maruti Brezza did not have any problems tackling the rough patches. At one place, a rat snake causally crossed the jungle path, and I braked in time to watch it slither away into the bushes.

Burude was more massive than I had imagined. It is like a lady with a flowing gown. Although situated deep inside the jungle, the Tourism Department of Karnataka has attempted at developing it into a tourist spot. But in their infinite wisdom, a concrete stairway that seemingly goes down towards the base of the falls, stops abruptly midway as you start descending. You are on your own after that. A big sign board warns visitors not to go down further, but at the river bed, I saw a life guard waiting for a us to go down below. However, I did not go further because I did not want to risk life and limb. It was also going to be impossible to climb back up with a camera backpack.

I was content with the mesmerising view of the grand waterfall from above. I was well aware that the real treat to the eyes is from the base of the waterfall. The color of the water there was turquoise, and for a moment, I envied the lifeguard’s job.

It is increasingly becoming evident that most people in India don’t see nature the way I do. For many, a waterfall or a river bed is a place to have fun irresponsibly. It is public property after all. Almost every scenic spot in the region is filled with trash. For this reason, the locals of Sirsi-Yellapur hesitate to reveal the coordinates of lesser known waterfalls, to outsiders.

On the other hand, I am always on the lookout for pristine locations which don’t show signs of human activity. Nature awes me without the need for intoxicants. I find natural beauty to be the best inspiration. But alas, thanks to my fellow Indians, who are highly immature and irresponsible, this is getting difficult with every passing year. The irony is that the internet, where this blog lives, is the very source of destruction. Any natural location which gets popular due to a viral post on social media becomes a big dump yard in no. time. The instagramming crowd is oblivious to the destruction because a selfie for social media is their only motive. So, maybe the Tourism Department’s idea of truncating the stairway to Burude isn’t such a bad idea.

On the way back to Drongo Nature Camp, I stopped at Bheemangudda – a popular hillock in the outskirts of Sirsi. This sunset viewpoint offers a panoramic view of the rolling hills and highlands. The forest department recently started regulating entry to this place, so at 6 pm just when the colours in the sky started to get vibrant, a guard came and chased us all away.

I checked out of Drongo Nature Camp after a 4 day, 3 night stay. My advise to you, dear readers, is to stay for a minimum of 3 nights to experience what Drongo and the nearby places have to offer. During my stay, I saw only 2 waterfalls, but there at least 6 well known cascades worth visiting near Sirsi and Yellapur. Ask a local, and he will tell you of many more, but they can be approached only after a trek.

The drive back to Bangalore was pleasant, because most of it was on AH47. Suhas’s hospitality extended beyond my stay – he packed food for me to have on the way back to Bangalore! This kind gesture should be suffice to tell you how much he cares about his guests. I thank Suhas and Omkar for the memorable stay at Drongo Nature Camp.

Popular OLX Scams and Why They Still Work

Olx is a website where you can put up new or used stuff on sale. I don’t think Olx really monitors the quality of the items you post, so you could claim anything in your ad. .

Scammers are always on the prowl on Olx. Whether you are a buyer or seller, it won’t be long before you come across someone trying to rob you of your money.

Olx Buying Scams

Here is how con-men start their conversation when you have something on sale:

The seemingly harmless message is start of a long scam where you are tricked into sending your item to an address outside your city before receiving payment. And the money for your item? It will never reach you. But the con-men will send you screenshots of fake bank transfers to show you that they have paid you. This is an old trick, and I generally just delete these messages.

Olx Selling Scams

Then there is the other type of scam – where you are the buyer and you come across a product and the price is tempting. In fact, it is too good to be true. For example, this camera and lens is selling at half the price of what it is supposed to be selling for:

Just to see how far this seller would go, to scam me, I chatted with him on WhatsApp. The conversation that ensued was full of inconsistencies. Of course, I knew this was a scam, but I was curious because the seller’s ad on Olx mentioned that the product is in my city.

In the first two screenshots, the seller tries to convince me that he is selling a genuine product. He says he can deliver it to my place. He even shows me the bill.

The items in the bill did not match the products he had advertised for, but let’s not kill the fun right here, shall we?

After a lot of insisting that I would like to inspect the product, the seller relented.

He very confidently asks me to come to Arunachal Pradesh to inspect/buy the camera. Maybe he thought I’d fall for the authenticity of his words. But I did not, because he had told me he can deliver the product from Arunachal Pradesh to Bangalore in one day. So I asked him.

I decided to let go at this point of time because clearly, he was being very stupid. The distance between the address he mentioned, and my house, is 3000 km. And there are no direct flights.

Why Are There So Many Scams?

There are so many scams on Olx because there are a LOT of very stupid people on the internet. When I sell stuff on Olx, I always come across such people. Some are ill-mannered, some can’t read, and some just have a lot of time on their hands.

Here are the types of buyers have come across on Olx.

The Ones Who Lack Manners

These types of people are the most popular ones on Olx. In the recent times, thanks to low-cost smartphones and cheap Internet, a lot of Indians have gone online. And the way we Indians behave online for everyone in the world to see. I think as a nation, we are by far the most ill-mannered people.

On Olx, you will find a lot of people who don’t believe in greeting, thanking, or closing discussions. Their messages are an example of how our education system has completely failed in teaching us about basic courtesy.

Not closing a discussion is very common on Olx.

The Ones Who Try to Act Smart

This is the second most popular category of Olx buyers. They think they are smarter than you, but their words and actions don’t really prove so.

The dumbest of this type goes to Amazon, types the name of the product you are selling, and tries to prove to you that your product is over priced. Until now, all the people who have behaved this way with me have either not looked for the correct product, or not included everything I am offering on sale when searching. And it is not like Amazon is the hallmark of safe buying. There are sellers on Amazon who ship from overseas, but don’t mention that clearly in the description.

Another way of trying to act smart includes comparing products purchased in India with Indian warranty with prices abroad. For example, if you are selling a product which was purchased in India and has local, country specific warranty, it is not fair to compare the price of the same product in the international market where the price might be lower, but there is no warranty available in India. So it is never an apples to apples comparison.

The Desperate Ones

I feel sorry for these guys. Because they very badly want what you are selling, but don’t want to pay for it. So they first lowball, and then try to justify their price.

These guys all have some theory that if it is a second hand product, the cost automatically drops to half or lesser, even if it is a day old.

The Ones Who Cannot Read

Even after you take great pains to put up all the details about your item in the Olx description, there will be people asking you very basic questions. I wonder if these people have a language problem, or reading problem. Here are a few examples.

Does it Have to be so Taxing?

The reason why I created this blog post is to show how a useful platform where buyers and sellers can meet to mutually benefit from each other’s needs (of selling and buying) has turned into a complex and dark place where Sigmund Freud would have loved to hang out.

When a seller puts something on sale, all they expect is to find someone who matches his expected price. If he doesn’t find such a buyer, it is up to the seller to lower the offer price or decide not to sell the product.

Thanks to the kind of people I have come across, online selling is a mentally draining activity. One must be prepared to get cheated, offended, abused and trolled by people who just don’t understand basic decent behavior and courtesy. All this only ends up sucking you of your energy and time.

But this is the direction in which all social media networks are headed, right?

I Lost Access to My Instagram Account

Instagram can be addictive. What happens if you are locked out and you cannot get your daily dose of the gram? It happened to me over a weekend. It was my own doing, but I also realised that Instagram has an unconventional way of verifying an account to restore access to it.

Before continuing, here is my Instagram handle. Follow me for photos from the beautiful outdoors of India. https://www.instagram.com/pixelshooter/

So here is what happened.

Instagram Two-Factor Authentication

I turned on two-factor authentication for my instagram account a month ago. I access my account from multiple devices (home, work, phone etc). Sometimes Instagram goes overboard with anti-spam protection and prevents me from performing legitimate actions. I even got shadow-banned for accessing Instagram from my desktop, but I fixed that problem. If you are interested in knowing how, drop a comment down in this article.

So with two-factor authentication, I not only wanted Instagram to secure my account, but I also wanted those silly “Action Blocked” messages to go away.

Instagram’s two-factor authentication requires you to enter a code in the authentication screen, after you log in using your password. This code can either be sent to you via text message, or is generated in an app such as Google Authenticator.

At first, I choose SMS based two-factor authentication. But due to delays in receiving the SMS, I turned on Google Authenticator based two-factor authentication. When I did this, Instagram sent me backup codes. Backup codes are to be used when you don’t have access to the authenticator app. And I did not save the backup codes. This proved to be a grave oversight on my part!

I had to reset my iPhone which is the primary device where I have the Instagram app installed. All data, including the Instagram and Google Authenticator app was wiped out when I reset my phone. After reinstalling Google Authenticator I could not complete the setup process because I did not have access to the Instagram app. This meant that I was effectively locked out of the app!

Instagram Support Interaction

I contacted Instagram via the login screen on the app. I promptly got an email which had an amusing set of instructions.

They wanted to see my selfie! And if my Instagram account had no pictures that showed my face, I would never be able to access my instagram account!

Now, this is a really strange way for a company to offer support to its users. What if you are a photographer who posts all sorts of photos except one of yourself? Or what if you were handling the account of a popular brand? How do you prove to Instagram that you are asking for legitimate help? From this email it was clear that Instagram expects you to have photos of yourself in your account. Who would have thought so!

Luckily for me, my feed had 2 photos where my face was clearly seen. So I emailed them a selfie with a piece of paper that had the information they wanted.

I immediately got another email asking for more information. This included details which I had to recall from memory.

At this point, I had many questions.

How will non-technical users of Instagram know details such as whice Operating System they used to sign up for their account?
Does Instagram actually expect us to remember such details?
If Instagram is meant for selfies, why are they so big on security? After all, their own two-factor authentication scenario did not take into consideration what happened to me.
Why can’t they just send a code via SMS to complete the authentication process in a situation where the user does not have access to Google Authenticator?

Actually, I don’t remember when I signed up for Instagram. I certainly don’t remember what OS or device I was on. So I provided them with information on how I currently access Instagram. As of now I am waiting for a reply to my support query. I may never be able to access my account. I will update the outcome here.

UPDATE:

So after another email where Instagram said some idiotic stuff, I got access to my account. I would like to believe they relented because I questioned their logic – what’s the use of protecting the privacy an account that may never be accessed ever again?

Bastar, Chattisgarh

Update: See my travelogue here: http://www.pratapj.com/travel/waterfalls-bastar-region-chhattisgarh/

I’m sitting in a railway station in Jagdalpur. My journey thus far has been great. I wanted to see a few known and lesser known waterfalls in Chattisgarh and I was able to so without hiccups.

Given my luck, I consider this an accomplishment. Two months ago I missed my flight after being stuck in a landslide. And a few months prior to that, I got to witness exactly what I wanted to, but I wasn’t prepared with the the right kind of gear. And I don’t know how it would be from now till I reach home in two days.

My train is already late by an hour. And it takes 10 hours to cover 400 odd kms. Not something I’m looking forward to. This journey to Chattisgarh could have been planned more efficiently, if I had the right kind of information to go by. Every tourism board wants to promote destinations within their state, but there is seldom enough information for travellers like me to make bullet proof plans.

Bloggers, backpackers and intrepid travellers are supposed to fill this void. But we live in times of shallow travel blogging, with influencers and social media PR agencies killing the spirit of self publishing.

Given the scarce information on how to easily visit the Baster region in Chattisgarh in three days, I’m much obliged to come up with a post on www.pratapj.com. I did this trip solo, with a heavy pack full of photography gear. For now, here are some iPhone pics and vids till I get back to my computer.

20 Photos from The Last 6 Months

Just like that, six months of this year has gone by. In terms of photography, it has been pure joy. I pursued new genres of photography which demanded a lot more time, patience and planning. Over the past couple of years, I have been shooting only landscape and outdoor photography exclusively. This year I deviated from the usual ultra-wide-angle-on-a-full-frame style to do a few new things (some of which involved an ultra-wide-angle-on-a-full-frame 😀 )

Here is a look at how 2018 has been so far and some of the places I visited.

January

As winters in Bangalore get warmer every year, we go further away from the city to find the old charm of foggy mornings. I shot this aerial image in a lake near Dodballapur:

In the same month, Pradyu and I went to Ramnagara looking for the traditional practice of making livestock jump over fire, but we ended up shooting this beautiful scene of a temple lit by a 100 (or so) lamps:

Later that month, some friends and I went to Badami on a recee trip to design a unique photography tour. We found excellent opportunities and here is one shot of star trails above the rocky hillocks of Badami:

The drive to Badami also took us through some scenic routes like this one:

And how can a trip to Badami be complete without capturing the way locals live amidst the splendid ruins of the Chalukya empire:

If you thought I was done with road trips in January, you are wrong. Friends and I went down South to see the beautiful big temple at Tanjore and visit nearby places:

And here is an aerial view of paddy fields from the country side:

February

The astro photography workshop that I mentored happened in the second month of 2018. We had a full house and the participants enjoyed capturing the night sky. Watch the video I made after the tour:

Later that month, I did a solo trip to look for the Milky Way. In the wee hours of the morning, I looked up at the sky after driving 70km and was rewarded with this beautiful sight:

In February, we earthlings got a chance to witness a rare celestial event – the blood red super moon. We traveled to a location near Tumkur hoping to get clear skies and a chance to witness this spectacle. It was a bit of a disappointment though, as the moon rose early in the evening. I shot this star trail after the moon rose:

And here is a day-old super moon photographed with a Canon 500mm:

March

While I was enjoying my newfound love for astro-photography, I soon realised that my Sony A7rII wasn’t the best camera for this job. I borrowed a friend’s 6D to try it out. While it has an outdated sensor for 2018, it performed quite decently for landscape photography.

Using the 6D took me back to my Canon days. I knew I had to get back to using a DSLR, so I tried the Canon 5D Mark IV when a bunch of astronomers and astrophotographers went to a farmhouse near Kanakpura to shoot the Milky Way.

By now, I was shooting a lot of time-lapses. I purchased a Syrp Genie and Genie mini and was shooting panning and linear time lapses with a slider. Watch a YouTube video of this outing here.

April

I decided to travel to the Gharwal region of the Himalayas to shoot nightscapes under clear skies. In the high altitude of Nag Tibba, 4 hours from Mussourie, I got a chance to see the Milky Way in all its glory. The only problem is that the Milky Way rises very late in the night in the early part of the year. Staying up way past midnight, I captured this:

I traveled with my Sony A7rII and a borrowed Canon 5D Mark II. Unfortunately the Canon 5D Mark II was too old for astro photography while my A7RII wasn’t suitable for time-lapses. So once I came back to Bangalore I purchased a Canon 5D Mark IV.

May

I did a few small trips to test out the 5D Mark IV. The performance far exceeded my expectations. I realised how overrated YouTube videos of people reviewing cameras are! Everyone in the internet loves to trash Canon and praise Sony. The truth is that the Canon 5D Mark IV is a fine camera and much more user friendly than the Sony.

I was back to shooting macros too.

A friend of mine even shot a feature film with my Canon 5D Mark IV. His camera man was given a choice of using my A7rII and the 5D Mark IV (with C log) and he chose the Canon. The industry is pretty much still with Canon.

I visited Padubidri to watch his shoot when I captured this crab on the beach with a Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D.

June

Monsoon season brought interesting cloud formations in the sky. On two visits to Mysore and places nearby, this added the necessary drama to my photographs. Here is an aerial photo of a farm near T Narasipura:

By June, I was using the 5D Mark IV almost exclusively. I even created a corporate video with it. Reality check: 4K video is not the yardstick to measure everything!

The 30mb files from the 5D Mark IV is a perfect combo of quality vs resolution. I always had a tough time batch processing 45mb files from my Sony A7rII. The 5D Mark IV is a lot more versatile. Here are some timelapses that I shot with it:

Lightroom Workshops – Six Years and Counting

I conducted a one-day workshop on Lightroom/Post-Processing in Bangalore on May 5th. As I was looking at the course material, I realized that it was my sixth year of mentoring photographers in Lightroom. Our initial few workshops included both Lightroom and Photoshop, and spanned across two days. We converted it to a one day Lightroom-only workshop because Photoshop is not something that you can cover in a weekend.

In these years, Adobe has made quite a few significant changes to the software to simplify it, but the core concepts still remain the same. With Lightroom CC, the app that we once knew has actually become a ‘classic.’ Lightroom Classic CC is what Adobe calls the software that desktop version. Lightroom CC is now for the ‘mobile’ crowd and uses the cloud to store images.

In this class, we had 9 participants, two of whom were French. We also had many participants who had either traveled with Darter on our tours before, or had attended our other workshops. This is certainly encouraging for us – people come back only when they are happy.

The venue for our workshop was the Honeycomb – Video Production Bangalore, Web Design office in Koramangala. It was great to work in a space dedicated for photographers. In case you weren’t aware, Honeycomb makes archival photo prints on imported media. We had at least 50 prints hanging on the walls of our classroom. Honeycomb also offers services like image retouching and website development. Do check out their website.

Lightroom can be both easy and daunting. A common question that I get asked always is – when do I stop editing? How much of Lightroom should I use to edit an image. This question is challenging one for me, because like the question itself, there is no definite answer. The best thing would be to use a number of examples to show what can be achieved. As a mentor, I always strive to get the participants to understand the tricky topics like tonal correction first. To do this, I use some of my own photos as examples. As someone who loves landscape photography, I use more of such images for demonstration. However, I also recognize the need to have a variety of sample RAW files.

One collective feedback that I received in this workshop was to split the session into two days. What do you think? Should a Lightroom workshop be for one day or two days? Comment below and let me know.

If you are interested in a future Lightroom workshop, visit http://www.darter.in/ and stay connected through our Facebook page.

Testing the Syrp Genie for a Milky Way Timelapse

I got to test the Syrp Genie, Genie Mini, and my Carbon Fibre slider this week. Using the three, I was able to achieve a timelapse that had linear and panning motion.

I wanted the timelapse to show the transition from night to day. I had been researching on tools that would help me automate the exposure correction required for a timelapse that runs from dark to bright or vice versa. If you are wondering why – the settings for a timelapse when it is dark cannot be used when the light changes and becomes bright (or vice versa). Such a timelapse involving exposure changes is called the ‘Holy Grail’ timelapse. The right term for this kind of exposure change is ‘ramping’. You either ramp the ISO, Shutterspeed, Aperture or all three depending on the situation.

The best method to automate and achieve the holy grail technique is by using an app called qdslrdashboard. Unforunately, it is Android only, so I had to borrow a One Plus One phone to try it out.

So yes, I was able to make the Syrp Genie, Genie Mini and QDslrdashboard to work together. I almost did not get a chance to do the timelapse because of bad weather. Thankfully, the skies cleared up after 1 am and the stars showed up. It was not the darkest of nights and the skies were hazy after the rain.

I set up the genie, mini and the slider first. Once connected together, the Genie and Mini connect to the phone via bluetooth. The camera can connect to the phone via WiFi but I connected it via USB. I set the whole thing up for 4.5 hours. I realized later that this was a mistake. Why? Because:

Qdslrdashboard had a setting which determines the longest shutterspeed. It was set to 4 seconds. This prevented the app from increasing the shutter speed correctly once the night turned to day.
The slider and panning movement was controlled by the total duration of the timelapse. So by the end of 3.5 hours – when it had turned bright and I realised that the frames were overexposed, the slider had not reached the end of the track. So the end result does not show much of linear movement.
The interval between shots was set to 30 seconds. This interval was fine when the expsoure was 25 seconds at night. But as it got brighter and the exposure time decreased, the interval became a little too much. Not that it mattered – I was just getting impatient 🙂

Another challenge I faced for lens fog. I had to clean the front of the lens in between the timelapse which introduced some shake in the time lapse.

It took a bit of an effort to shoot mid-week at a remote location, staying up almost through the night. This is what it takes to learn something by doing. Here is the end result. The Milky Way is faint. But you can see it rise and disappear as the night turned into day. And a bunch of us running around with flashlights 🙂

Not many get to witness the movement of the Milky Way in the sky. Enjoy it here in the timelapse. More stuff to come when I get a chance to go out and shoot.

Dynamic Timelapses with a Syrp Genie

I like shooting timelapses. It compliments my love for landscape photography. Timelapses help me show how dynamic nature can be over a short period of time.

But shooting timelapses of nature is hard work. Adding motion – linear or panning – to a timelapses is not only more hard work, but even heavy on the pocket. I am learning the video side of things – which is what most timelapse equipment is based on – after I purchased the Syrp Genie.

Wait, who?

The Syrp Genie is a device that helps you pan your camera when mounted on a flat surface, or move your camera in a linear direction when mounted on a slider. It uses a rope and pulley system to move in a linear direction. A slider is a track for the camera to move. The distance that the genie can travel is limited by the length of your slider or length of the rope that you have.

I just got the Genie and tried out a panning timelapse. I don’t own a slider yet. Looking up sliders online is making me sweat – they are mighty expensive! Plus, sliders are not very portable. And in India, you need to travel long distances or hike for days, to shoot nature in its purest form.

Today, I tried out the Genie to capture a panning timelapse. It is easy to shoot a panning timelapse, because all you need is to mount the Genie on a tripod. The genie connects to the camera via a cable. It controls the panning movement, and triggers the camera as per your settings. Because the Genie is in control, the camera will not fire when the Genie is moving. You will not have blurry photos. This way, you can use the Genie to take timelapses of celestial objects at night. Something that I have been dying to do ever since I got into night scapes. I have tried static time lapses of the stars at night. Now, I want to take it one step further and add a panning or linear motion. For inspiration on the possibilities, check out this tutorial from Syrp.

Here is my first timelapse that I shot with the Syrp Genie, today:

Equipment used:

Syrp Genie with Photo Clam Gold ball head
Feisol 3441T Tripod
Canon 6D
Irix 15mm f2.4 lens

And oh! Found some interesting places to shoot the Milky Way today. Looking forward to next week.

A Group for Landscape Photographers

When I started photography, JJ Mehta Photograpy Forum (JJMPF) was a great place to hang out. Along with Bangalore Photography Forum (which is now extinct), JJMPF was where many of us used to post photos for critique. After almost 10 years of interacting with members there, I finally met a few of them today. The meeting was planned on a Whatsapp group. We visited a beautiful lake off AH 48. I had previously visited a hillock near the lake on Jan 31st for a super moon/lunar eclipse shoot (video here).

The idea of forming a Whatsapp group for nature and outdoor photographers occurred to me when a post of mine on JJMPF saw queries about locations to shoot around Bangalore. These days here in India, WhatsApp groups are where the action is, albeit mostly the spammy kind. Unfortunately many of the photography groups have too many members with various agendas. I wanted to create a group for only like minded photographers. Having visited numerous lakes and hillocks, I have a fair idea of places for landscape and nature photography within 100km from the city. So after the interactions on JJMPF, I created a WA group and added photographers with the intention of planning and going on shoots together.

Now, unlike regular photowalk groups, were a bunch of people get together and walk the lanes of Bangalore and shoot street photos, nature/landscape/outdoor photography is a different ballgame. For one, it involves heading out for shoots at unearthly hours (I was up by 3 am today). Since we go far away from the city, transport is something each person needs to have figured out. Lastly, it is difficult to shoot photos of nature when in a large group. Outings I have been on have always been in twos, threes or fours at the most.

Today for the first time, I was part of a larger group. We first did some planning on Whatsapp using Google maps. After checking out the blue hour and golden hour timings, we met up on the highway after the Tumkur Road toll booth. We were 7 of us in two cars, coming from different parts of the city. After chai on the highway and quick introductions, we continued to our location, even overshooting a right turn and missing our intended route. After making a U turn, we were back on track and at our destination by 6 am.

It was a rather quiet and uneventful sunrise. I got to test the 6D which I have in mind as a second body (last week, I tested the 6D Mark II with my Irix 15mm f2.5 lens). I used the A7rII for shooting a time lapse.

Here are two photos from today.

Personally, I am quite pleased with the results from the 6D. I even got a chance to fly my Mavic. One of the photographers in the group was shooting with an IR modified camera.

Unfortunately, summer is almost here. The transition from night to day and vice versa will only get increasingly quicker. The skies will mostly be boring. The next three months are not going to be conducive for landscape photography. Our only option would be to shoot the night sky. Places such as the one we visited today are potential spots for future Milky Way shoots. Let’s see if forming a group is going to help in going on more such fruitful trips. Definitely safer to be at remote locations at odd hours when in a larger group!