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Mobile Monday is a weekly collection of iphone photos and twitter captions from Anne's daily adventures.

Not quite boat weather yet in Boston.
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I wish I could remember where I found this, but I love it. It's a mini movie and it really speaks to photographers and anyone in the pursuit of happiness.

One of the things that happens to me when I photograph people is that I start to “fall in love” with them. It's a platonic love like you would have for your best friend, but that love makes me want to do anything and everything I can for them. I don't know if there's something romantic about looking through a lens, after all it can be quite cinematic when the only thing in front of you is viewed through a black tube, or if it's the process of getting to know people in a way that just isn't possible on a wedding day. I'm pretty sure it's the getting to know people- that's always my favorite part.
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(ed's note: This post is a continuation of Anne's Mobile Monday series.)

This last week was kinda slow because I was really sick with a wicked flu and ended up having to cancel a lot of appointments so I wouldn't cough all over people and gross them out. I didn't have much of a voice the entire week, and thus didn't feel much like venturing out too often unless I really had to. My poor husband was forced to make a few calls on my behalf and to be my translator when I sounded like I was speaking alien. If it weren't for having a meal with the interns and needing to take Misty out, I probably wouldn't have left the house at all. I really learned to appreciate not talking, however I still had hundreds of emails that required my fingers to do lots of walking. This week I'm happy to say that I have my voice back and I'm about 95% healthy again- just a few sniffles here and there which I'm keeping under wraps with some antihistamines. Technology also seems to be back on my side once again, so I'm looking forward to lots of productivity this week!! Woo Hoo!!

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When I found out that the Wedding & Portrait Photographer's International Convention was going to be held in February, around Valentine's Day this year, I decided to make the most out of my obligation to be in Las Vegas by starting a documentary project on the Las Vegas Wedding Chapels, called the Vegas Wedding Project.

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(ed's note: This post is a continuation of Anne's Mobile Monday series.)

Truth be told, I'm actually posting this around midnight on Thursday - but it's only because it has taken that long for technology to agree with me this week. I have yet to figure out this phenomenon that I'm starting to see as a pattern every December-March. I'm not sure exactly what kind of electromagnetic forces are at work, but computers and I have a much more difficult relationship in the winter months. Two years ago I didn't notice it, last year it seemed like a fluke, this year it feels like a pattern. All the more reason I can't wait for spring to be here!!!

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ed note: This post was written by Anne's intern Alexis.

Before I got to work cataloging Anne's hard drives last night, she was kind enough to take a look at some images from a dog portrait session that I did this weekend. She gave me some great feedback, and suggested a couple easy ways to improve the images. I thought I'd share a before-and-after with you and show you the steps that I took.

Internet, say hi to Gunner. Isn't he handsome? Except for some minor tonal adjustments in lightroom (mainly exposure and contrast), I haven't done anything to this image. Not bad, but we can make it better.

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Confession: I use my iPhone camera more than any other camera I own. Why? Because it's always on me.

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ed note: This post was written by Anne’s intern Alexis.

Alexis: I don't think this hard drive is going to mount. It's been spinning for 5 minutes and I don't see it on the desktop.
Anne: Ok. [Takes hard drive and puts it in the freezer]
Alexis: Does that really work?
Anne: Hopefully!
Misty: [snore]

What's the moral of the story?

• Yes, freezing a hard drive can actually work.

• Always, always, back up your data! Anne's storage is…well, a little scattered at the moment, but she has everything, in more than one place. If that hard drive had failed to mount even after its stint in the freezer, it would not have been the end of the world. Precious wedding memories would NOT have been lost forever. Not only should the data be backed up, but you should know where it all is. That's something I'm helping Anne out with right now - cataloging her many, many hard drives. When I'm done, she's going to have a monster file that will tell her exactly what is on every single folder on every single hard drive.

• RELAX. Freaking out about the hard drive really wouldn't have accomplished anything. To say that I'm a bit of a worrier is just a *slight* understatement. The whole point of having a good backup system, however, is to alleviate that worry and turn it into an annoyance at best. If you don't have a reliable system, the point at which your freezer becomes your best bet for data recovery might be a good time to start panicking. I'm just saying. Otherwise, just breathe. Anne is very much a roll-with-the-punches type of person, and I hope I can pick up some of that.

• Bullet points make everything look more official and give the illusion that you know what you're talking about.

Do you ever have those days when everything seems to go wrong? Well, I've been experiencing a full month of technology failures. First I had a hard drive crash on me (nothing original was lost, just a ton of time and work that I had put into a lot of images). That didn't surprise me though, since hard drive crashes happen at least once a year with the amount of heavy work I do, which is why I'm religious about backing up everything in multiple places.

Then, while I was at WPPI, several of my email accounts just turned themselves “off”. This has never happened to me before, so it took me a while to figure out what the problem was and when I went to restore the accounts, a whole bunch of old emails that I had already dealt with swamped my inbox again and now it's hard to figure out which way is up in my inbox.

As if that wasn't enough, my phone just loaded a bunch of voicemails that I never received dating back almost two weeks. I seriously feel like I'm being Punked! This feels much too bizarre to be reality. Alright Ashton, where are you hiding the cameras?

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