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I had two external drives failing in the same way. One was a WD, the other was a Lacie. Both network access drives.

They both stopped showing the disk in explorer, but I could retrieve the hard drive and plug them into my computer. With UFS explorer, I copied all the wanted files from the hard drive, with no errors. Then formated the hard drive (the one inside the Lacie box). The WD was more recently and at work, I still have it plugged inside my computer if anyone needs anything from there (which I doubt, since I copied most important stuff already).

The Lacie box actually had a WD hard drive inside, which I still use today as a regular internal HDD.

Now, if they actually show in explorer but you have errors, then maybe it is actually the hard drive failing.

My advice: uninstall CCleaner, copy over the files you need, if you can, and format the drive. If the issues persist, like slow access, error copying files over, do one last thing before you trash it: plug it into a diferent sata port. If it doesn't read well, forget the disk.

I always use Saal Digital. I have used ZNO too. Both have a great quality at average costs. They are not too expensive and they are always giving away discount codes, and in the end, it makes your order have a very nice cost-quality ratio.

When I started to post photos of models and landscapes, I used my own profile in Facebook. I just used dedicated albums for each subject.

But I early noticed it wasn't very good in the end, for the client side (as if I had a client side back then).

So I knew about Facebook pages and created one. Now, I only post "work" in my page, nothing really personal. Maybe a few selfies here and there, when someone catches me shooting or so.

I prefer to split it up and have the possibility to share links and photos between my page and my personal profile when I want to.

I use several drive services like Google Drive, One Drive, and even Dropbox if needed.

Now, I do share the folders to whoever has the link, they are not exactly public, but depending on the context and client / final user, they can share among themselves. Imagine a wedding where I send the photos to the bride and groom. They are free to share that link with the guests if they want. I have the photos for sale in my website anyway (print sales, not digital downloads or whatever).

This is more than enough and everyone can open and download the photos with quality and not worrying about spamming or sharing your email.

For domestic prints, don't worry about color profiles or setting any other micro-detail. Just crop the photo to the same aspect ratio. Do not bother calculating the print size vs pixel size. Use all the resolution your photo has, and the RIP and print process will do the rest for you.

For a good quality print, use photo paper, gloss or mate, but the specific settings will depend on the printer itself and from which software you are printing too.

I work in the printing business for large format vinyl, paper and mesh prints. I rarely worry about a photo color profile. Even with a big printer and RIP software, the images are printed with great colors.

And this reminds me, set your monitor colors to neutral. Do not use "warm" or "cold" color schemes in the monitor menu. Use your operating system color calibration utility and you"re set.

I charge 100 eur for the booking, and the remaining they can pay in several parcels or all at once at the end of the day, whatever.

Most annoying that happened, I talked to the bride and groom, they were about to book their day with me, and we talked about a second meeting where I would take my digital albums so they can take a look and choose one of their liking. They told me someone has offered them the photography service. I hadn't booked the day yet, but is still annoying.

Another time, I was asked by a model I know to shoot her wedding as 2nd shooter. The pay would be a dinner. Yes, she wanted to pay my *secondary* work with a meal.

Well, I am sure the main photographer did charge her wedding, but the nerve to ask me to shoot the wedding and get paid with food was outrageus. I told her a round "no, thank you, I can't" even tough she reminded me of the several shoots we had (not many, I think two, and she was always bailing out of her pregnant shoot I was willing to do her for free).

It actually depends on the scenario and lighting position. And personal taste.

If you like and have the chance to shoot with some light, and if they wear white umbrellas, you can get a nice luminous image. A bit of glow, but thats part of the magic in the scene.

If they have black umbrellas, they can contrast better with the sky; unless the sky is dark too.

There's a few variables here, and some you can't control like the weather specifics.

Both have the ability to provide great photos in the end.

Block them in your social media.

Ask them for that point in the contract, if any.

If they don't change, you must take the leap and stop living sad. Search for other job, where you can freely do what you want to do. Gather a few bucks in that job while you search, but think outside the box... Nobody can stop you from posting on YOUR pages, YOUR personal work and free time photos, YOUR style. If you let them do it, you are already bending to their will, and now it may be harsh to turn it around.

Just be clear with them, or follow up the suggestions here. Shoot anything they will surely dislike and post. Make them taste their own rules...

I am not changing my way of working due to AI. I know it can remove a watermark, but that is a lame excuse. Anyone with a minimum of editing experience can remove a watermark.

I do watermark my images for the visual identity, not so much for protection. For paid jobs like weddings and aniversaries, I deliver the photos without watermark, but I do use it when I post them in my social media and website.

The internet is an ocean of content and I'm just a small grain of sand in the middle of it. If by any chance, one of my images end up being used without my permission, I will take action depending on the context. For now, I am not worried, because my photography is not so fantastic to the point someone is interested in stealing it anyway...

As for the issue of watermarks for proofing, I provide images in my website for people to buy their prints, not the actual digital photos. If a wedding guest wants a digital photo, they can simply ask the bride and groom for it, since they get all the digital photos. I charge for the prints, not the digital photos, so again, I'm not worried about AI on this regard.

That concept is not photography-friendly. I once shot a wedding during the day, and I was planning to do the group shots right after the cerimony with plenty of light and everyone was roaming the place for snacks and talking. It was the best time of the day for that. The mood was nice, the weather was great, but then... The bride and groom, specially the groom, a close friend of mine from high school, told me "we're running late, lets go inside for lunch and we do the group shots later".

He always told me from the start that those "standard" photos were not their priority, they prefer casual, candic photos. I'm fine with that, but I told him to remember the 100s of guests they were having, and people ALWAYS loved to have group photos. If not for themselves, for the guests. The old people, grannys, uncles, aunts, and so on. They ALWAYS want the traditional group photo with the bride and groom. As for the rest of the photos I was more than happy to shoot as they wanted. In fact, they loved how the photos came out in the end.

But we had that issue of the group photos. They posponed them for later, but "after lunch" was actually AT NIGHT! So I got a hundred guests wanting to take photos with the bride and groom.

I had my flash with me and I used a fixed lamp near a wall of stone. Was a nice scenario, but I felt the light was faulty. I managed to carry out the group photos with a mix of luck, skill in the lighting and people position.

Guests knew the groom was the one to blame, so I was not subject to the guest's pressure for the lack of quality of the group photos. The groom also told the guests that was his fault too so they don't blame on the photographer...

Anyway, the photos came out relatively nice for the scenario and I even got a bunch of print orders from guests.

Photos at night need a LOT of light. Ideally, without flash so you don't depend on batteries. Get permanent light, with tripods or lamps, whatever. Just get some light spots to make the scene well lit. Remember: there is no such thing as too much light... (during the night, at least).

Well, there are many things to consider, but I will list a few on example.

First, explore the location. Be it a beach, a garden, an abandoned building, make sure to cover several angles and landscapes to fully max your experience.

Then, as for the model, tell her to makeup and use nice outfits. Many models make the mistake to not bother with makeup or clothes, but those details are not easily fixed in post-production. So tell her to makeup as if she were going out with friends. In a model photoshoot, we want the model to stand-out; her face and expression must have something the others don't have.

Take a few example shots in your smartphone. Ideas for poses, but don't try to replicate everything. Just the pose and feeling to get you both inspired, and you do the rest.

Now, about your gear, since you didn't tell anything about it, I will just type some general tips. Make use of bokeh, if you have lenses for it. Use the maximum aperture available. 1.8? 2.8? But if you happen to have a telezoom lens (200, 300 mm) that could work too, if you shoot her from a distance. Just need to have a steady hand and a LOT of light. Don't be afraid to shoot her portraits (face only, or waist-up only) with that type of lens. If you don't have a prime lens with a large aperture, these focal lengths can get you a similar effect.

If your lenses are limited and you only have the stock type 18-55mm, zoom up to 55 and use that for closeups.

Final: shoot RAW, if you don't do it already. It will allow you to adjust under exposed, and over exposed images with ease.

I keep them all. Every. Single. One. Of them.

I've reached my limit for hard drives inside the PC case, but I'm about to buy an external network rack to add more hard drives. And since they are becoming larger, I will not need so many of them in the future (I currently have 1 TB, 2TB, 3TB sata drives and that space alone could be alocated to a single hard drive with today's market).

So get an USB My Cloud device if you don't want to bother to open the computer and add an extra hard drive, and when you feel the time is right, get a network rack and build your photography storage device.

I do paid jobs, mostly photo with video too, and the required space can be insane. My camera only has 24MP, and I shoot RAW + JPG. My video camera is not a top notch, 1080i 59fps 8 bit AVCHD, so I'm not the one to require a LOT of new hard drive space per year, but still its an average of 3TB / year I need to fit into my current system. Professional photographers and videographers need way more than this, but general rule of thumb, we save everything. We never know how and when we're going back to an old shoot and re-edit a photo for some reason.