September 20, 2019
Line is one of the lesser studied critical aspects of photography and I try to make a point of talking about it. So in today’s video, we do. Make sure you sub our YouTube of you want more content like this.
I shot a while back in the redwoods of Northern California and recorded a video about using lines. I can’t think of any place better to demonstrate that than beneath the eaves of these giants.
June 7, 2019
War in heaven is a PPA Loan winner and one of my best night sky images. So for today’s vlog I dug into my field recordings and we’ll look at how I made as well as a bunch of tips for getting amazing deep field starscapes.. I’ll keep it brief. Enjoy – Gav
March 13, 2019
Facebook and Instagram, went down today and I was like, “my site is still up”. So I thought I’d share these 3 videos of varying lengths on 3 different topics to boost our creativity and understanding of photography in everything from light to our roots. I Hope you guys find something useful here. If you do share it on Facebook.. oh wait…
October 10, 2018
Due to my human rights activism, there are enough people out there who don’t like me to warrant paying attention.
So whether it was a bot looking to use server resources or a genuinely malicious act, our sites were brought to their knees during the launch of our new Harvest presets for Lightroom i can’t say. While the site is up, secured and the ship is tighter than ever, this has been a long week. I thought I’d share a few things I learned because I know a lot of you have sites of your own and anyone could experience this.
We have a VPS server from Known Host and we’ve spent the last two days trying to sort things out. After we restored from a backup and changed every possible password we thought all was well. It wasn’t. The next morning we were down all over again. The problem is web hosting companies are not staffed with programmers and while a good one will try to help, they tend to put a lot on your shoulders, even in a managed server environment.
We did NOT lose anyone’s financial data.
This is something we did prepare for. Our front-end site never sees payment info. You add products to the cart from our site but the transaction happens in a separate and secure DPD payment server that has nothing to do with the files on our site. Wow, was I glad this week that we kept that separation and it’s something I’d recommend to anyone else who sells online.
BACKUPS:
Most sites have PHP data and many people have an option to back that up. But that’s only the text of your content. All the files are on the server and you need to take the time to log into your web hosting Cpanel or call your host and make sure the server is keeping a complete backup. Many are not and you should not assume you are secure. I not only keep a complete server backup automated weekly but I also download the entire thing now and then and keep a local copy so that even if my hosting company was compromised I could restore the last saved version to a new server.
PASSWORDS:
We hear this a lot, but in the era of content management sites like WordPress, there’s a lock of hackers looking for an easy mark. Keep a good password or everything from your dashboard to your FTP and know who has admin access to your site.
UPDATE:
Likely the reason we lost control this week was because of an old WordPress install or plugin that had not been updated. If you use a totally managed system like Wix or Squarespace you probably don’t need to deal with this much. But if you like control over your sites and use things like WP, outdated software will leave you open. The fallout of this event (not to mention the techs at my hosting company) reminded me this week that that is a big deal.
Add-On Domains:
These phrases might not mean much if you have one site or if you are not a bit of a nerd. But if you have your own server space or account with a C panel you can probably make add-on domains having as many sites as you want within that account. I rent a VPS server which means I can have add-on domains but also make as many accounts as I like and even resell accounts to others, similar to what you might buy on common hosting providers for $10/mo ( I don’t sell hosting myself, however.)
The long and short is that if you have more than one domain in a user account that old site you barely touch anymore will mean everything is compromised. One of the big changes we made this week was to move every site into it’s own hosting (user) account. Each user account is like a sandbox and it means that even if the site in that user account gets compromised it cannot affect the sites in other user accounts on the same server. Has this been in place before, seimeffects.com probably would not have gone down. Now every site is in it’s own walled garden.
I hope what we learned this week helps save you from a frustrating mess down the road. In the meantime, our sites seem to be working well again and the new Harvest presets are as beautiful as ever.
July 26, 2018
Is this paradise of natural beauty, friendly people, amazing food and street photography? Or is this a place where cartels sell me to the highest bidder? I’ve been in Mexico for months and I’ve camped in beaches, at resorts, in parking lots and gravel pits. What I learned is that if you want to expand your photography and your sense of adventure, Mexico might be the best road trip you’ve taken yet. Be ready to bring a home amazing photos of incredible places you probably never knew existed.
We’ve spent hundreds of days camping in the last 5 years. But the USA is less than half of America. So now we’re in Mexico, past the border town and beautiful deserts that many think Mexico is made entirely of. We’ve towed our RV all over Mexico with our van and met many amazing people. On the coast, we found beautiful warm beaches in near peaceful fishing towns. Speaking of fishing towns, Yavaro is about 10 minutes from this spot and as you come into town there a little restaurant on the right with the most AMAZING shrimp platter you have ever had for about 5 bucks.
Heading inland we discovered everything from Jungles to mountains to water parks filled by hot springs. We found climates that are friendly year around and culture that is just as warm to our large family. I’ve heard lots of terrible things about Mexico while seeing them downplay the terrible things happening in my own country. What I did not hear, is what Mexico is really like.
We’ve traveled to about 10 States, including some of the ones our government says NEVER visit. Obviously, you should be careful, but that goes for the USA as well (here’s looking at you Chicago). I learned that propaganda is controlling us too much. Mexico is an amazing country with great people and a lot of freedom. In the USA there’s always a park ranger to harass us, or someone to bully for holding a camera. In Mexico, you just do your thing. If you are respectful, they are respectful. There are also far fewer rules in just about every area of life. Meaning if you can find an empty place, you can probably camp there.
If you’re uncertain about safety, find a campground or use an app like iOverlander for suggestions of safe places to stop.
But the violence Gavin? This is what we from the USA hear every freaking day. Less so if you live in other countries. Yes, there problems. But most of what you see about Mexico is propaganda meant to keep you in fear. Don’t join a cartel and you’re not likely to have trouble. In fact, us gringos are LESS likely to be murdered in Mexico than in the USA. Use your head just like you would boondocking it of the US.
The photo at the top might be a good starting trip. There’s beach access here at coordinates: 26.69624 -109.60719. We got stuck trying to camp on the landward side of these dunes and some locals helped us out. Super nice people for the 4×4 club. They suggested camping on the seaside and interior side has scorpions. If you want a little more security about 200 yards up the beach is the Hotel Miarador Campground. That’s where this photo was taken. Though we also boon-docked on the beach with no problems.
A new country with a new culture and a different language takes some getting used to. But what does not take long is realizing what a beautiful place this is to visit. You might even decide to stay.
Gavin Seim
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