Pat Ballard inspired me to write this. Read her blog entry first.

Archiving our work is a constant struggle. I do agree. I myself burn DVD's, have Seagate's Free Agent which is mirroring my main drive. So, theoretically, I have my images in 3 places. Not bad? Well, I think not good enough.

DVDs and CDs age. You keep them in a box, when you want to recover data from them, they can turn out to be unreadable.

Your main hard drive is the most likely to fail, when your system crashes.

OK, you still have the mirror. Let's hope it survives. But! It's physically just ONE disk! Connected to the system, right? What if THAT fails too ?

Disclaimer first - I haven't bought the ...

Every year I try to go abroad somewhere. This year it was a car trip - Germany, Switzerland, France. Apart from getting relaxed, it's a great opportunity to see places and take photos, of course.

It was just great. Switzerland surprised us most with its very affordable prices. It's due to the strong Zloty (Polish currency).

I run a blog page of all my trips, but it's in Polish only. See here.

Some photos from the trip have already been approved here, on DT, some are still waiting in the queue. I divided them into three collections: Germany, France

and [link=http://www.dreamstime.com/switzerland--rcollection7690-resi208938]...

For quite a long time I've been able to find some of my shots in action. Google search does wonders, provided the designer is kind enough to mention the credit line.

Here are the most recent of my findings:

The boy reading found here.

The sewing machine found here.

The Norwegian fjord found here.

Check these sites as they are have used more DT users' shots, maybe yours ?

While in Poznan, a Polish city, I noticed a large billboard. Then I had a 'click' in my head - "Wait a minute, I know this image!". I stopped my car, got out with my camera and snapped a photo, as I was sure I would be able to find the original image on DT, somewhere in my favourite photographers' portfolios.

The search didn't take me long. OK, so here are the images. Maxfx's photo and my finding.

I wonder how many of you have switched between DSLR systems. You have all that gear from one manufacturer and you suddenly realize you want to switch.

I, personally, haven't had that experience yet, but I was so surprised to learn that one of my favourites, a well known photographer Scott Bourne, a Canon user, decided to make a move to Nikon.

He justifies his decision in this blog thread.

Takes some time to sell stuff, buy and get accustomed to the new, for sure. But when you really know what you expect from the gear, it's never too late to change.

After reading the blog I carefully examined my own experiences with my Pentax system and (gladly) ended up with conclusion - I don't need ...

So, ChelseaFC lost against Manchester. I feel pity for Terry, he should've scored. Well, penalties are always a lottery.

Will Chelsea finally win the Champions League ever? Well, we will just wait and see.

Heads up, Blues, you played a great match today!

You have your DSLR. You have your lenses. Many of them. What do you do if you really don't want to take them ALL with you?

Well, there are things to consider - how much weight you are prepared to carry and what compromises you are ready to take.

My personal choice for ultra light traveling is taking a wide to telephoto lens (for universality) and a small fixed focal for bokeh and its light. So, in two lenses you have almost all you need.

My set : Tamron 18-250 and 50mm f1.7 (which, by the way, is so small I can carry it in my pocket literally).

Of course I wish I could have more lenses with me at times, but when you need to go light - that's what I recommend.

I was looking forward to that day - a serious (at least for me personally) milestone has been reached. I uploaded my 2000th photo on DT. I know, it's just a number, but such is human nature we distinguish and treat differently a 1876 and a 2000, don't we?

So, it happened today - thanx reviewers! :)

But, that's not all! For the first time I had my Extended Licence sell (P-EL) today. The lucky image included :)

Now heading to another milestone - 3000 :)

My recent blog was about how great an iPod can be as a portable data bank.

I feel obliged to write a follow up to that. Well the news about it is not good. I have just purchased the Apple Camera Connector enabling an iPod to "see" a camera and copy the images.

Well - it doesn't work for iPod Classic 80GB and 160GB. Apple messed something with the docking part and caused many external devices incompatible. There are numerous threads of complaints about that issue.

What is really annoying - on Apple's site there is no info (as for today) that iPods Classic won't work with Camera Connector. I telephoned their support, they checked and ... confirmed it wouldn't work.

The only hope is they can fix it with software update....

My Assignment trophy , Apple iPod, has just reached its destination, my hands that is :) (Thanks again Erin!)

It's the first time I actually touched an iPod ever. I used to think it's just a more sophisticated MP3 player, so I never gave it a single thought.

Well, I was so wrong! Apart from its obvious entertainment features, it's a very useful tool for photographers. You can use it as a reliable photo bank (80GB is a LOT). I already have a databank, but you are never too precautious when archiving your photos when on location.

I also discovered podcasts. There are numerous podcasts about photography, it's nothing new. But I always have so little time when at home......