I'm always looking for topics that would be important to everyone and data storage and back-up in this day and age is vital to almost everyone. Families no longer have a box a negatives sitting in a closet somewhere (at least the young ones) where they scrounge up to make additional prints of important family photos, now everyone has digital images. In some ways this is a superior format and in other ways it is not. We've all seen color photos printed in the 1960s & 1970s that are now fading. Digital files retain the same color from year to year, however the way we store data can become damaged leaving many people without their cherished memories. I'm adamant about backing up photos, especially because data loss has even happened to me! I've been super religious about always backing up my client's images, however not as good about backing up my own personal photos and that became my Achille's heel when I had a hard drive go down and lost all of the images I had been taking of my kids for over five years! Guess who became even more crazy about the back up process after that?! It's been an expensive and heartbreaking lesson to learn.
Here are the four main reasons you need to have a back-up plan in place:
1.) Protect Against Accidental Loss - Devices can fail and files can accidentally be deleted. Technology is not flawless and hard drives can fail without warning.
2.) Guard Against Theft & Disaster - Computers and hard drives can get stolen. Fires and floods are always a possibility no matter how small the likeliness of a loss like that would be.
3.) Preservation Over Time - As technologies change so do the ways we store and access our data. Having multiple formats and regularly updating your images on new formats will help preserve your memories for future generations.
4.) Access & Organization - Implementing a great back-up plan also leads to proper labeling and organization of your files which in turn leads to easier access of the images when you need them. Additionally if you use online storage you can access the images from anywhere.
We suggest two if not three back-ups of all your important photos because of the redundancy you are sure to not lose your important images. Your professional photographer will usually keep back-ups of all their work, but not always and usually not forever. Take the security of your family heirlooms into your own hands with these examples of data storage:
1.) Offline: Computer, External Hard drives, USBs, or burnable media such as CDs & DVDs (the last suggestion is quickly becoming an outdated format, but I still like it because once the images are burned they can not be easily erased)
2.) Online Cloud Storage: Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
Offline media. When you receive your professional images from your photographer or even the photographs you take yourself you should probably have a back-up hard drive that you store your images on. Suggestions would be to download the photos that you will want to view at the time on to your computer for quick usage, but always have a separate device that you store unaltered copies for yourself. For really important images (like the ones you just spent $3K+ on for your wedding) we suggest making extra copies of the photos on USB drives and giving duplicates to important people like your parents because not only will they thank you for their own copy of the images, but they will also have a back-up should anything happen to yours. If you don't have a trusted family member that you'd like to give a copy to then make a duplicate USB and place it in a fire proof safe with all your other valuables.
Online storage. Cloud/Online storage offers the advantage of remote access and protection against physical damage or loss. While you do have to have an internet connection to access your files at least you will be able to access them from anywhere in the world and should something happen to your physical storage devices.
I hope this article will get you thinking about ways to safeguard your memories!
Best Wishes,
Jamie
