Iceland - Part III

(all shots made by Daniëlla with her iPhone and some funky iPhone post-processing apps)

We have returned from Iceland and it was absolutely wonderful. Can't wait to go back again! So let me share with you our last ten days.

In the north there was still a lot of snow, which prevented us from visiting some of the places we had in mind. We wanted to go to a nice waterfall, but it was located along a treacherous small road. When the road turned into a trail through a grassland, we decided not to test the car again as there was no other traffic around to pull us out of the mud. But there were some nice Icelandic horses. They stay out in the open all year round, so they get this beautiful furry coat. Really fluffy and good looking. And they are very docile too. So Marsel picked his target and decided to lie flat on his tummy in the snow. Brave man :-) The horses however were so curious, that they constantly came too close to get a sniff at us and they even followed us around when we went walking. They make nice subjects, looking very handsome in the snow. 

Although they are small in size, the Icelandic horse is very strong and can handle the cold weather very well.
But don't make the mistake of calling them ponies. They will start kicking & screaming!

For our last week in Iceland we wanted to return to the south again, because we skipped a lot of good spots there at the start of the trip. They say about Iceland that the wind always blows and the rain always falls horizontally - well... they are right! It was raining so hard when we were there early March, that it was not possible to make any shots at the time. 

We rented a small cottage, so we did not have to adjust to a schedule for breakfast or dinner at a hotel. Luckily for us, the weather around Vik was dry, so we were able to scout the area very well and take some nice shots.

We went back to Skogafoss, one of the well known waterfalls in Iceland. Although we were there in the middle of the day and the sun was out, we had a great time. Funny how you can shoot in Iceland practically all day long. As long is it is relatively dry, it works. The sun played with the spray of the waterfall and gave us a gorgeous rainbow. Did you know, that if you move closer to the waterfall, the rainbow becomes smaller and changes shape? I didn't. For one of the pictures Marsel took, he wanted me to stand really close to the waterfall. I got very very wet from all the spray, but also saw a circular rainbow. No, no picture. My iPhone would not have survived all that water.

Skogafoss, one of the most famous waterfalls in the south of Iceland.

There are a number of very well known sea scapes in the south as well, which make nice subjects for sunrise or sunset.... provided there is one :-) But we also discovered some very nice caves on the beach with beautiful basalt columns. Always wonderful to work with and to shoot details. You have to watch out for the tides in order to ge there, so it involves some planning to go.

When driving in Iceland, it is hard to keep going and not stop for something that you see along the way. One thing we noticed is that there are a lot of abandoned or run down farm houses. Here I have included one, while taking a picture of a waterfall, just to show you some of the surroundings and the atmosphere of the country. 

Another absolute highlight of our trip were the glaciers. There are many of them and Europe's largest glacier is in Iceland. Although it is very tempting to go and walk on them to get a closer look, it is very dangerous. At one of the glaciers there was a plaque mentioning two men that went for a walk and never returned. So if you'd like to do some glacier walking, book a guided tour!

When the sun is gone, the blue ice of the glacier can give the clouds a blueish tint.
All the blue colors in the ice and the sky reflect nicely in the still water.

If you have never seen a glacier with your own eyes (like me) it is quite overwhelming. The size, the colors, the shapes, the high mountains in the background. Really impressive. It makes you feel very small and humble. 

At the end of a glacier, there are usually lakes formed by the melting water and chunks of ice that break off where the glacier ends. The glaciers recede each year, so it will all be different next year. But I am sure it will be just as spectacular!

We will show you some of Marsel's images from Iceland and my video in our next post, when we announce the Squiver Photo Tour in Iceland, which will start end of February 2013. Are you ready to go to Iceland? Join us! A PDF with a detailed tour schedule, tour photos and a video impression of the trip will all be posted on our website and this blog within the next two weeks. So keep your eyes open and make sure to make a booking - we expect the tour to fill really quickly!

Second post from Iceland

(all shots made by Daniëlla with her iPhone and some goofy post-processing apps)
We spent a number of days at the glacier lake, hoping to get some good shots of the northern lights with the huge blocks of glacier ice that were lying on the beach. But it was very hard. The weather in Iceland can change in 5 minutes from clear to completely overcast with a blizzard blowing right into your face. And there were a lot of clouds hiding the northern light from our view. During the day we visited the glacier that produces all the ice blocks in the glacier lake. The colors on the glacier were beautiful.

It is amazing to see the blue and black ice of the glacier Breidamerkurjokull
that expands into the glacier lake Jokulsarlón.  

During our stay at the glacier lake it was full moon, which helped a lot with bringing out the ice blocks on the beach at night. As the northern light seems to come and go really quickly here, we didn't want to miss anything and decided not to have dinner in the guesthouse, but to take hot water with us and have noodle soup in the car. When the moon was out, we started working on a composition, hoping the northern lights would cooperate and appear at the right spot. It was freezing cold and the wind was blowing hard, and we had to wait a long time in the cold, but in the end we got the shot we were looking for. Patience is key. Oh, and lots of warm layers to avoid you from freezing :-)

Speaking of freezing.... we are so glad we came to Iceland at this time of year. The frozen water on all the waterfalls really adds character and makes this beautiful country even prettier to photograph! The spray of the water clings to the rocks and the most interesting ice formations and patterns are formed on the rocks. A real feast!

The half frozen Selfoss waterfall had amazing ice sculptures on both sides.

Last week we traveled to the northern part of Iceland, to well known places like Lake Myvatn and some of Icelands most iconic waterfalls: Dettifoss and Selfoss.

It is always nice to see a location from various sides, as it clearly changes your view on it. In most cases, you just walk to the other side, but with a waterfall.... hm... different story! Below you can see Dettifoss from the east side. You can see the full scale of the waterfall, but the view is somewhat obscured by the snow on the side. But you can also use it to frame your shot :-)

Dettifoss from the east side, where they made a new road in order to give easy access for everyone.

Visiting Dettifoss on the west side was another story. It was quite difficult to get there, as there was a lot of snow. But it was interesting to see it from both the east and the west, as the perspective on the waterfall was quite different. Below is a small movie clip that I made with my iPhone, showing you the view from the west side, where you can get very low and close to the waterfall.

There are several craters in the Myvatn area that you can visit. It is not easy to climb to the rim when the tracks are covered with snow and ice, but the view is worth the effort; both on the crater and the surroundings. Unfortunately, Marsel didn't know I was photographing him, and the distance was too great to shout at him and ask him to stand still, so he is a bit blurry in the shot. But it does give you an idea of how big this crater is. 

Apart from the beauty of the ice and snow, another advantage of traveling here in winter, is that there are hardly any tourists around. In summer it can be really busy in Iceland, because all the roads are easily accessible during the milder summer months. This means that you can visit the highlands of Iceland, which are in the center of the island. However, we prefer the current weather conditions and solitude. We often had the most spectacular locations all to ourselves. A very nice experience.

The only time we were extremely happy to see other people, was when we got stuck! 

We were exploring the back country to look for interesting locations off the beaten track for next year's photo workshop in Iceland, when we suddenly sunk deep into the snow. Hidden underneath it was a large pool of mud that was way too deep for our jeep. Reversing only resulted in spinning wheels and mud being thrown up into the air and onto the car. After various attempts with floor mats, we gave up. Luckily, there was a nice Icelandic man that spotted us waving for help and he offered to pull us out with his big jeep with huge tires. That did the trick. 

The lava from age-old eruptions has solidified and left interesting formations and rock arches behind.
 I swear the arch in the middle is trying to imitate Turret Arch - one of the most iconic arches in Utah :-)

We are glad we have taken the time to do the scouting, because it is actually quite difficult to stick to our plan of getting somewhere around a certain time when we travel. We see so many interesting things along the way, that we stop after driving for just 10 minutes for something that we want to photograph or have a closer look at. No, I am not complaining about it - it just shows how beautiful this country is.

As we were traveling north, the river next to the road gave us a spectacular sight: once frozen over, the water level had risen and all the ice broke. At the curves it was all pushed on the shores by the force of the water, forming two more rivers of ice :-) We drove back and tried a small road that was on the other side of the river, which came much closer and lower to the river than the main road. We asked a farmer for permission to walk on his land and went down to the river. The blocks of ice where huge and stacked up about 3 meters high. We had to be careful walking on the ice, as there were big gaps in between them. And needless to say - the ice was quite slippery.

We are currently staying in a wonderful guesthouse near Godafoss and had another great morning shoot. We left before sunrise and made our way to one of the most impressive waterfalls Iceland has to offer. In order to get a good perspective of the waterfall, we had to climb down, which was a huge challenge. The snow made it difficult to see where we were putting our feet, and at some parts the snow had accumulated, so it was extremely deep and our legs sank right in at times. Getting down to the river's edge was very steep, but we made it... and it sure was worth all the trouble! 

Godafoss is one of the waterfalls in the Skjálfandafljót river.
It runs across a lava field, which is approximately 7000 years old. 

The canyon just below Godafoss is about 100m wide.The waterfall is shaped in the form of a horseshoe and divided into two main falls and a few smaller ones, depending on the amount of water flowing through the river. 

Tonight we are going back to shoot Godafoss after sunset. Northern light predictions are good, so we are planning to stay out for a long time, hoping for the sky to clear a bit later in the evening. I am already looking forward to it :-) 

Daniëlla

First post from Iceland

We are currently in Iceland, where we will be setting up a photo tour for next year, to photograph this amazing country in winter time. 

Marsel photographing an artistic viking ship at sunset.

We started our trip with a few days in Reykjavik. It is a very small city and the old center has some interesting buildings. There are a number of nice locations to shoot in and around the city. 

Left: the big church in Reykjavik is set up high on a hill in the old city centre.
Right: When the tide is high at night, the shallow edges freeze, forming white cracked ice balls where rocks and seaweed are, when the tide gets low again.

The third night we already saw the northern lights, so we headed out to a location we had photographed earlier that day: a nice site with white houses and water in front of it. We were very happy we bought insulated rubber boots at a local fishing store, so we could stand in the water while shooting and not get cold feet! The aurora borealis turned up really early and the spectacle started at 8 o'clock at night. It was quite static, but in the perfect position and we could make a really nice composition with the green band of light framing the houses and reflections in the water. 

This photo was taken with my iPhone, photographing the back of Marsels camera.

Weather conditions can be quite harsh, with lots and lots of wind, clouds, rain, snow - we have had it all in our first week. But it is worth it, because if you can shoot, the landscape is just wonderfully rough and the snow really adds to the beauty of the scenery. 

You can't go to Iceland and not visit the many waterfalls it has to offer. There are some that are really spectacular when it comes to their height, width or the amount of water that goes through them with great force. Impressive to see them. 

At the moment we are staying at a glacier lake, with a black sandy beach. The lake itself is probably more impressive in the summer, when more pieces of ice break from the glacier and icebergs float around in the lake. 

Unfortunately the panorama app on my iPhone had some glitches, so it's not perfect, but MAN... what a surreal place!!!

Now it is more ice plates that flow with the tide in and out of the lake, but the blueish chunks of ice that are scattered around on the black sand of the beach make it all very pretty! Now only if that aurora will come back tonight and do it's thing at the right spot :-)

Daniella (all photo's in this post were shot by me on my iPhone)

Squiver Review: Gura Gear Chobe laptop bag

For years I thought I had a camera bag fetish. Whenever I walked into a camera store, I would spend considerable time at the bags department - picking them up to feel the weight, opening and closing the zippers to see whether they ran smoothly, counting the amount of compartments and dividers, and eventually: trying it on. It turned out I didn't have a camera bag fetish after all, I simply wasn't happy with the bags I had been using and was constantly looking for something better. When I first saw the Gura Gear Kiboko bag on one of my workshops, I was fascinated by the revolutionary butterfly design, the incredible amount of stuff that fit in there, and the supposed low weight - it sure looked like the perfect bag. I decided to get one my self, and I haven't been fumbling other bags since. The Kiboko bag is not perfect, but it's close enough for me.

When I travel, and I tend to do that a lot, I bring a lot of gear. The challenge photographers are facing all the time is how to fit everything in your cabin luggage. I am fortunate to be able to travel with Daniella on almost all trips, and she also has a Kiboko bag for her video camera and accessories. With all her stuff in the bag there is still an entire compartment that is empty, and I usually put some of my gear in there. Especially when I go on safaris this is really necessary, because I then not only bring my 200-400, but also my 600. The 200-400 can fit in the Kiboko bag easily with a body attached, and even the 600 can fit in it, but without the hood. However, if I were to put both in my bag, there wouldn't be any space left for other items - Daniella gets the 200-400 plus body, or the 600. All the cables and chargers go in my laptop bag, and the only thing that goes into my checked luggage is my tripod and my Wimberley head.

A few months ago I went on a trip to Antarctica, without Daniella. I didn't want to bring my 600, so luggage was no problem. Two weeks ago however, I was on assignment for National Geographic Traveller in India, also without Daniella. On that trip it was vital to bring my 600, so I had a logistics problem. I knew I wouldn't be able to fit everything in my Kiboko, so that meant I had to somehow fit either my 200-400 or my 600 in my stylish Oakley laptop bag. Yep, not very likely. Enter the Chobe laptop bag, also by Gura Gear.

The Gura Gear Chobe laptop/camerabag

The Chobe laptop bag

My first introduction to the Chobe laptop bag was probably one of the most surreal product demonstrations I have ever witnessed. I was leading a workshop in Kenya, when I ran into Andy Biggs, founder of Gura Gear. We were all sitting in our Jeeps, waiting for the wildebeest to cross the Mara River, so Andy decided this was the perfect time to give us a demonstration of the new Chobe laptop bag. And it worked, because I got one myself a few months later and I now use it on every trip.

What's so great about it?

The great thing about the Chobe bag is that it has the same characteristics as the Kiboko bag. That means it is very light, has lots of space inside, is made of the same material, and has a very clever design. Let's start with that last one.

Expandability

At first sight the Chobe bag looks just like any other laptop bag - it is black, it has more or less the same dimensions, it has handles and a shoulder strap, as well as a few external pockets. But the Chobe bag can do something no other laptop bags can: it can turn itself into a camera bag. By unzipping one of the center zippers, not only does the middle compartment becomes twice as wide, creating enough room for more stuff than you'll need, but with the included insert you can turn this bag into a serious camerabag with space for a few camera bodies and lenses. This means that the bag is compact when you don't have a lot of stuff to carry around, and that it is bigger when you do.

When I travel by plane, I like to bring everything on board that I need for my photography - my check in luggage does not always arrive in time, and when I'm on assignment that would be disastrous. That means not only cameras and lenses, but also all chargers, cables, remotes, filters, ballheads, flash, etc. all go in my cabin luggage. When I don't bring my long lenses, there usually is enough room in the Kiboko for everything I need, but when I decide to bring my 200-400 and my 600, things get really complicated. On most trips I travel with Daniella, so any excess camera gear can usually go in her bag (thanks honey). In those cases I only have a laptop and a few external drives to fit in my 'one personal item'. However, when I travel alone and need all my long lenses, it's a whole different story.

One of the great things about the Kiboko bag is that I can fit my 600mm in it. It will fill one compartment together with my 70-200 (I know, it's incredible). That leaves the other compartment for three bodies and three short lenses. The 200-400 does not fit in the bag anymore. A lens of that size is not something you would normally consider trying to get into your laptop bag, but with the Chobe bag you can.

When I was on assignment in India for National Geographic earlier this year, that was exactly what I did. My 600 and 70-200 in one compartment of the Kiboko, the D3, D3s, D3x, 14-24, 24-70, 17-35 in the other. The SB-900 and remote also fit in there, but that was about it. Enter the Chobe bag.

I simply expanded the middle compartment and put the insert in. I then could have taken all the dividers out and put the 200-400 in, because it really fits, but I decided to use the dividers to design the layout of the insert so that it would fit all the smaller items (external drives, cables, chargers, GPS) - neatly organized. I then put the 200-400 on top of that, and I could still close the zipper without any problems. Amazing.

Size and weight

Photographers are obsessed with weight. This is completely understandable, as everything seems to get lighter and lighter, except for professional cameras and lenses. On an average trip I bring at least two bodies (a D3s and D3x), a 14-24, a 24-70, a 70-200 and a 200-400. Add to that a flash, spare batteries, and chargers, and you're already talking about some serious weight. Getting that amount of weight onto an airplane as cabin luggage is already stressful enough, so you don't really want your 'one personal item', usually a laptop bag, to be so heavy as well. Well, no worries there, because the Chobe bag is really light - a mere …grams. With just my Macbook Pro, charger, a Wacom tablet and some small loose items, it feels as if there's hardly anything in there.

Very old Samsonite laptopbag

The size and weight are comparable to an old Samsonite laptop bag I've been using lately, but the Chobe is a bit wider and much better designed. But just as with the Kiboko bag you can't imagine how much actually fits in there until you try to fill it up. And even when you do, it will still easily fit upright in the overhead luggage compartment of most airplanes, or you can stow it underneath the seat in front of you.

The design

In terms of looks the Chobe bag is no stunner - it just looks like a laptop bag. Personally, I'm happy it's not too flashy or techy, because that could draw unnecessary attention to the bag that usually contains my most important items: laptop, external drives, passport and money. Of all the three bags that I travel with (check-in bag, Kiboko camera bag and Chobe laptop bag), it is the Chobe that I always keep my eye on. Of course it helps to know that my Kiboko usually weighs around 20kg when fully packed, so a thief that tries to make a run with it won't get very far.

The largest outside pocket can also be used for an iPad

On the outside there are two large pockets. The largest one I use for my Wacom tablet and lots of small items. The smaller one I use for flash drives, pens, business cards, connectors for my MacBook and other small stuff. A nice touch is the rubber protection piece that covers the metal zipper so that it can't scratch anything. The latest version of the Kiboko apparently features this as well - good thinking.

The right pocket features lots of space for small items

On the back there is a large zipper that gives access to a pocket that you can use for documents, but officially it is designed as a travel sleeve - you unzip it and slide it over the handles of your roll-on. I use this only before check-in on my big bag. After that, it's just an extra pocket.

The zipper of the travel sleeve is located at the bottom of the sleeve and protected by velcro

On the left side there is a water bottle sleeve that, when unzipped, fits a 1 liter bottle. This is perfect, because I like to bring lots of water on the plane, and it doesn't even cost any space inside the bag.

The water bottle pocket - it's only there when you want it to be

The opposite side features a cell phone pocket. You have to know that it's there, because it doesn't look like a pocket at all. It's very tight and does not have a zipper, and so far I have not used it for my iPhone for that reason. I'm often waiting in crowded airports with people standing close to me on all sides, and I like the idea of having at least a zipper to prevent pickpocketing. Dust is another issue. I mainly use it for wet wipes.

The mobile phone pocket is not easy to recognize. The bag is zipped to the most compact size.

The laptop pocket is just what you expect: my 13" MacBook Pro fits in there nicely, even with the bulky sleeve around it.

The expansion zipper is located on the bottom right side of the bag. When you unzip it, the bag expands an additional 2.5 inches. That may not sound like much, but it is. You suddenly have tons of extra spaceYou can then add the photo insert and turn your laptop bag into a serious camera shoulderbag. I prefer to keep the middle pocket unzipped and travel with the Chobe at the maximum size with the photo insert added. Even when I don't need it for camera gear, I still like having the possibility to use the dividers to custom build the interior of the bag. It's a nice way to keep everything organized and not have it move around the bag constantly. It's only on short non-photography trips that I remove the insert and zip the bag down to the smallest size.

Chobe expanded without the photo insert

The photo insert is included with the Chobe bag. Lots of inserts too.

Chobe with the photo insert inside

Conclusion

This bag is the near perfect solution for any photographer that has to deal with the complicated logistics of having to travel by plane with lots of camera gear. Great built quality and flexibility, very lightweight and lots of space for both camera gear and non-photographic items. It's an impressive bag with clever design, especially considering this is version 1.0. So is it perfect? No, there are a few things that could be improved upon.

First, the handles have uncomfortable sharp edges on the inside, and you feel this especially when you're carrying heavy gear inside it. I'd prefer the handles to be much softer and gentler to the hands, because most of the time when I'm traveling I'm wearing the Kiboko on my back and using the shoulder strap of the Chobe is a bit too much on the shoulders. That shoulder strap is very comfortable, but I don't like the rather flimsy connectors that are used to attach it to the bag. On two occasions I've had one of the connectors open during transport because something pushed against it. In theory the bag could fall down and damage the gear, but I'm lucky that hasn't happened yet.

The shoulder strap is very comfortable

The zippers are smooth, but I'd like them to have some sort of locking feature, for instance to be able to use a small padlock. I know it won't stop determined thieves, but it will give me some peace of mind when I'm in very crowded airports or when I leave my bag in the hotel room. A small extra piece of metal with a hole in it on the existing zipper is all it takes. I would also like to have this feature on my Kiboko bag.

Finally, everything on the bag being black, it's sometimes difficult to find the zippers. The zippers now have small pieces of flexible black material attached to them, but I'd prefer them to be brightly colored so that I can find them easily, especially in dimly lit situations.

That said, this is the bag I have been searching for for many years, and this is the bag I will be using on all my future trips. Gura Gear did it again.

Marsel

New Puzzle now available

Marsel's famous photograph of a giraffe at sunset is now available as a jigsaw puzzle here, here, here, here, here, or here :-)

Electronic games are so 2011, really. Old school jigsaw puzzles are the bomb!

Second Namibia Tour added!

Soon after this year's Namibia Untamed tour filled up, we received emails from people who were very disappointed that the trip was full and that they would have to wait for next year's trip. We don't like to disappoint people, so we pulled some strings in Namibia and managed to set up a second tour.

This second tour will start 14 June and ends on 27 June 2012.

If you were too late for the original date, this is your chance to join us to fabulous Namibia! Don't miss out this time and make your reservation here.

Naturescapes Images of the Year Awards

We're proud to announce that for the second time in a row Marsel was successful in the Naturescapes Images of the Year Awards. After last year's First Prize in the landscape category, Marsel got an Honorable Mention in this year's competition. What makes this result extra special, is that it's in the Avian category for one of this favorite bird shots.

Here is the caption that goes with the image:

"The birds are very small in the frame, you can't see their heads, eyes or beaks, there's no spectacular feather detail, no action whatsoever, and no thermonuclear colors in the sky. Yet that is exactly why I took this shot. Every year on my Japan Squiver workshop we have on average one or two days with hoar frost, in my opinion one of the prettiest winter conditions you can get. On this particular morning we had left our ryokan long before sunrise to see the whooper swans wake up and watch their fascinating morning rituals. When we got closer to the lake I noticed the hoar frost and decided to take the group to one of my favorite and very quiet spots. We had to walk through a strip of trees and dense vegetation, which would normally create a lot of noise that could wake up the swans. The snow was about three feet high though, and the perfect natural soundproofing. When I reached the shore, a few swans looked up and then went back to sleep again. I set up my tripod, took this shot, and then just sat there for a while - amazed."

If you would like to join us on our next Japan tour to photograph whooper swans, cranes and eagles in the most amazing winter scenery, please have a look at the White & Wild Japan page on our website for more information and some really cool tour impression videos.

Squiver Session: seminar workflow nature photography

Last weekend we hosted a seminar on Marsel's workflow: nature photography from the basic idea to the final print. We had over 130 people that attended the seminar and it was a great success. Marsel explained what he carries in that very heavy photo backpack of his, how he prepares for shoots, his settings for wildlife and landscape photography, what to look for in an image, how to make them look so clear, vibrant and crispy, the best way to get your shots onto the computer, back-ups, raw conversion, and Photoshop tips & tricks.

Because everyone was so enthusiastic and this one sold out very fast, we decided to do the same seminar again later this year and add another one fully dedicated to post processing and Photoshop. Marsel will then show in more detail how he works on his images - from RAW conversion to all the steps in Photoshop. The seminars will be held in the Netherlands and Belgium. So sorry - for Dutch speaking people only.

More info on: www.squiver.com/sessions/

Waiting for the seminar to start :-) 

Review: DroboPro

When I first started with photography, I shot mainly slides. I framed them, put them in a box, and the box went into the closet. After a while I started scanning some of my slides onto my computer for some additional work in Photoshop, and suddenly I had a digital backup of my best pictures on my Mac. But shooting slides was a pain, so with the introduction of digital photography I simply couldn't wait to jump to the other side.

My first DSLR was a 6MP Nikon D70. It took some time to get used to the flat and uninspiring RAW files compared to the high contrast and vibrant Velvia slides, but I soon realized there was no way back.

Initially, the size of the RAW files coming straight from the D70 seemed to be an improvement compared to the drum-scanned slides that were a 100MB each. But with slides I didn't shoot much, as it was rather expensive. RAW files don't cost a thing, so I shot much more than before and as a result my computer started filling up quickly. At the same time I also realized that my images were pretty vulnerable in case of a hard drive failure.

I decided to get myself a new computer with more internal storage, and buy an external hard drive to backup my images. This worked well. Every now and then I just updated the data on the external drive and I felt pretty well organized and safe.

I then upgraded to a 12MP Nikon D2X. I also started traveling more, shot considerably more images, and the computer was filling up again. So I added a second internal drive and bought a second external drive for backups.

And then I bought a second body, a Nikon D2Xs, shot more images than ever before, and in no time I was facing the same problems again. I needed more disk space, and I wanted more processing power to handle my every increasing Photoshop files sizes. So I bought a new MacPro. Four internal hard drives, 1TB each. The external drives had to be upgraded as well, so I bought four external drives of 1TB to mirror the content of my computer. But what if my house would catch fire, or if I got burglarized and someone took all my computer stuff? I needed a second backup to keep off-site. More external drives.

Part of my external hard drive collection.

By the time I had stored all my data in three different places, the whole backup thing had become very time-consuming and confusing. Using ChronoSync helped to make the process go faster and easier, but it became clear to me that if things continued like this, I could build my own Great Wall out of external hard drives.

I managed to keep things going until last year, when my MacPro was getting full again - the result of traveling most of the year with a Nikon D3, D3X and D3s. Three of the four 1TB drives were full, only the HD still had some space left. I like to keep all my images inside my main computer, so I had to do some sort of upgrade again. The internal upgrade was not a difficult one - simply replace all the drives with 2TB versions. But the external upgrade had to be changed once and for all. No way I was going to buy more external drives. I had been looking into multi-drive RAID boxes before, but it was all very intimidating and I like to keep things simple. That's when I read about the DroboPro - its seemed like the perfect solution to my problem.


Storage that manages itself

The DroboPro is basically an 8-bay external hard drive that can dynamically expand storage any time, and that is self-managing and self-healing. That almost sounds too good to be true, so how does it work?

The DroboPro uses Data Robotics' BeyondRAID technology. It lets you add hard drives on the fly to increase your storage capacity when needed. This means you can just buy the storage you need now and change it as your data grows. Not only that, it doesn't even matter what size, speed or brand the drives are, and you can add, remove or replace a disk at any time. Virtually any 3.5" SATA drive can be used - simply plug in a few drives and the DroboPro automatically starts doing the work. Redundant data protection without the complexities of traditional RAID setups, which require the use of equal sized drives.

The dynamic storage expansion and the fact that even I could understand how it works made me want one.


Packaging and unboxing

My new DroboPro arrived in a sturdy box that was at least twice as big as the product itself. Once opened, it was clear that Drobo doesn't trust couriers to handle packages gently, and rightly so. The DroboPro itself was surrounded by a good amount of black foam and had a smaller box on top with the cables, manual and setup guide.

Box contents:
-DroboPro
-Two power cords
-USB 2.0 cable
-FireWire 800 cable
-Ethernet cable
-User Guide and Quick Start Instructions
-Resource CD (Drobo Dashboard application and Help files)

You open the box, and you're welcomed - nice.

All the smaller items are neatly organized.

Resource CD, Drobo User Guide and instruction card.

Underneath the smaller box lies the DroboPro itself.

The Drobopro is protected by an extra cloth wrapper.

The DroboPro is a well designed, somewhat heavy machine. All the vital parts are behind a black metal sheet, the front and the back have glossy plastic covers. Normally, you would instinctively try to hide your backup system under your desk or behind the closet, but the DroboPro is so good looking that I decided to put it on my desk. And yes, those lights look pretty cool.

You've gotta love the design.

The front cover is attached to the main body with a magnetic strip - to remove it is a breeze. Behind the cover you can see the 8 bays where the drives should go. And it's as simple as it looks; just slide it in and you're in business. On the inside of the front cover is a handy reminder of what the different lights mean - good thinking.

Behind the front door of the DroboPro.

The backside of the DroboPro.

Getting Started

Unpacking the DroboPro was the easy part, the serious bit was next. Luckily, according to Drobo's website, this should be just as simple. "If you can figure out a traffic light, you can figure out a DroboPro" is what they say. What they mean is that the green, yellow and red lights on the front tell you exactly what's happening and what you need to do.

The lights work the same on all Drobo models.

I'm lazy by nature, so I decided to not read the manual and only have a quick look at the Quick Start Instructions and install the Drobo Dashboard application.

Hooking up the device to the computer took under a minute, and so did installing the software. I switched on the DroboPro, removed the front cover, and opened the Drobo Dashboard application. All the lights underneath the 8 bays turned red: add a drive here. I took one of the four 2TB drives that I bought (the same as the ones inside my MacPro, but this is not necessary) and pushed it into one of the 8 bays. Immediately the little light underneath the bay started flickering yellow and green: don't remove this drive. The DroboPro had started initializing the drive. I then added the remaining three drives and waited until all lights were green.

Meanwhile I had a look at the Drobo Dashboard user interface. This turned out to work just as intuitive. I created a single volume on my desktop and called it "Drobo". As a maximum capacity I entered 16TB, even though at the moment I only inserted 4 drives with a total of 8TB. The DroboPro separates the capacity of the arrays from physical capacity. You specify the capacity of the array when it is created, but this capacity has nothing to do with the number or size of drives installed. You set your volume size once and you create your partition on that volume size once. If later on you want to expand the available storage by adding or replacing drives, it will never require the extra steps required by a traditional RAID system. With the DroboPro there is no need to predict the exact right size in advance.

As I work with four internal hard drives, I decided to create four partitions on the Drobo volume: three for my image drives, one for my main hard drive containing my system and applications. You have the choice of Single Disk Redundancy (protection agains a single disk failure) and Dual Disk Redundancy (protection against two disks dropping out). Earlier, I had calculated the difference in terms of available storage with the Capacity Calculator on the Drobo website. This was just a matter of dragging the drives sizes that you are planning to use onto the bays. Dual disk redundancy is obviously safer, but it takes up a lot of capacity, so I decided to go for single disk redundancy.

With single disk redundancy I have 5.44TB space available. 

You can combine different sizes and brands.

With dual disk redundancy half of the capacity is used for protection.

With all lights green and and everything ready to go, I went to DroboCopy in Drobo Dashboard and started the copying of my drives. I did this manually the first time, but you can program DroboCopy to to make backups automatically at any given time.

As simple as everything might be, there will always be stuff you don't understand or would like to know more about. The Drobo site offers a wealth of information. You can learn how to get the most from your Drobo through their Video Learning Center. I particularly found the digital photography workflow video on the Drobo Broadcast Network very interesting, as well as some of the Drobo In-Depth videos.


Performance

Copying over 3TB to an external device can take a long time, and it did. I don't work directly off the DroboPro, so it wasn't a problem, but it took longer than I thought - a few days. My guess is that for a large part this is caused by the fact that not only was there a lot of data to be transferred, it also had to be organized and redundant across the drives. After the initial synchronization was completed, I changed the DroboCopy settings to let the DroboPro automatically backup my drives at the end of each day. This worked like a charm. All the consecutive backups were fast and flawless.

A simple pie chart shows the status of the DroboPro capacity

No complaints then? Well, there is one thing that I don't like about the DroboPro: the sound it makes. It is supposedly "desktop quiet", but I'd say it's a bit noisier than that. It's not so much the fans that create most of the noise - I don't think I've even heard the fans at all - it's the drives themselves. Sure, I expect the thing to make all kinds of sounds when it is working, but even when the backups are finished the DroboPro keeps producing sounds. My guess is that this is caused by the fact that there is simply a lot of empty space inside the device, because in my case it's only half full. That empty space turns it into a subwoofer and emphasizes the sounds coming from within. I expect to hear a lot less when all the slots are full.

That said, the sounds from the DroboPro are constant - it never stops. I expected the machine to become silent when there's no activity, but it doesn't. It makes me wonder what the DroboPro is actually doing when I'm not doing anything. It doesn't have a sleep mode, so you have to turn it off completely to make it stop. This is not a major issue though, because I have programmed the DroboPro to start working when I have stopped myself.

The DroboPro in the lion's den.

Conclusion

There's a lot to like about this black beauty. It is incredibly simple to use and involves zero management. Single and dual disk redundancy with a click, flexible "pay-as-you-grow" expansion, and no need to predict the exact right size in advance. If you're looking for a simple, safe, flexible and scalable solution, and you don't want the complexity and restrictions of traditional RAID systems, then the DroboPro is the way to go.