I realize it’s been a while (well over a week) since my last post… I have been way over my head this week with ‘technical difficulties’… luckily I think I’ve fixed everything… but I just had to come into the blog and just vent!!!

So a couple of weeks ago Ana upgraded to a new camera… which is wonderful since it takes great images and it seems to be a great tool for her.  Notice how I said it ‘seems’ – since I haven’t officially looked at any of her images yet!!!  This little innocent camera upgrade is the root of my most recent migraine… not that it’s Ana’s fault, or even the camera’s fault – but I do have a bone to pick with the manufacturers.  Seriously… why is it that you buy one thing and then suddenly you have to upgrade on absolutely everything else too?!?! 

Ana got to try out her new camera one week ago… at a beautiful casual wedding we did (I’ll show you guys images of those as soon as I can).  So during the week I am trying to open up the images to do my grueling process of color correcting each individual image, exporting them to jpegs, touching them up, etc.  That’s when I realized I CAN’T open up or even SEE any of her images!!!!!! Instant migraine right there!!!!  I spent hours on google trying to figure out why (I could see the images in my own camera, so I knew they were there). By the way… thank heavens for google… it really saved the day!!.  As it turns out a new camera automatically means a new computer system upgrade as well (or at least system updates, which of course there weren’t any for my current version)… why the heck didn’t I know that?!?!  It didn’t even occur to me at all!  I use photoshop to do all my editing –and I love it.  I was perfectly content using CS2… it was simple enough to do what I needed (even though it doesn’t have all the thrills and frills of the new versions, of course).  Now I had to find the new CS4 to upgrade my system.  After finally resigning to the fact that I now had to upgrade my software, and possibly deal with learning a new system (all while in the middle of the busy wedding season!!!!)… I broke down and purchased it. I installed it the very next day.

So that’s where it all went downhill.  I went through the whole installation process – and several hours later, I had CS4 – and I was able to view and even open Ana’s images!! YAY!!! I was so excited… I even forgot about my migraine for a few moments!  So that evening I went to bed peacefully, and happily, thinking that order had been restored to my workflow.  Boy was I wrong!!!  The next morning I was ready to dive into work and get these images processed… right?  I tried turning on my laptop – and low and behold – windows wouldn’t even start!!!! CS4 crashed my windows!!!!!!!! OMG!!!! I was in tears!!!! 

Luckily I do know a little bit about computers – not enough to be in IT, but enough to know that I need to run a system check and maintenance.  So I ran the check and restored my computer to the last time it worked properly.  That was another turning point for the awful week I was already having… because that’s when my computer decided to delete portions of the work I had already done in the previous week (not related to the new images, of course) PLUS portions of CS4.  So now I had to redo some work plus try to uninstall and then reinstall CS4 so that I can continue working.  To make matter worse, apparently the Adobe people get paid a ton of money so they figured out a way to make the whole uninstall process a virtual nightmare and basically impossible.  You try uninstalling, then you realize it left a bunch of files in your system that prevents you from reinstalling again.  I mean it was THEIR program that messed up MY computer and I have to fix it!!! And they provide no help, guidance, or support – why would they?!?! At one point I couldn’t even click on anything on my laptop without a warning telling me that some files were missing – basically telling me that I couldn’t access ANY files at all!  UGH!!! 

Once again… google to the rescue…

After countless hours (over 27 hours to be exact) of google-ing, about a full bottle of migraine pills, and visiting an infinite number of forums… I finally found a couple of scripts to fix the problems, completely delete CS4, clean up the CS4 leftover files, and finally reinstall the software.  Of course, those of you who know a little about installing software, you know that all sounds easy enough – but it took me well over a day to do all of that!  I swear I am missing a patch of hair from the back of my head from all the hair pulling that I did!!!!

So after a week of basically not having a laptop … I am finally back on-line and back to work!  CS4 is officially working properly now (of course, I still have not turned off my laptop yet since the installation, so I’m crossing my fingers here).  Now I’ll be swamped trying to catch up to make up for last week’s work plus all the work that I had already done that my system decided to delete as well.  I guess sleep will be out of the question this week.

So the moral of the story – they really should warn you when you buy new technology.  I mean I know we all need to upgrade our equipment… but they should give you a bottle of pain pills with every new purchase… you know?!?! 

I’ll get back to work… and I’ll do a photography related post on Wednesday…

Walking through downtown Riverside in front of the musem