Today I had another email from a desperate client who had lost their Digital Files. To help prevent this tragedy from happening to you, I’m sharing my top recommendations for storing and protecting your precious photographs.

I’ve been photographing families for the last 14 years and in that time, I’ve met hundreds of families and delivered thousands and thousands of photos. During my time as a photographer in Perth, I have also had many instances of clients losing their photo files, and I haven’t always been able to recover them on my end! I have also lost an entire year of personal work on a hard drive that failed, Fortunately I made an album of that year before I lost the files.

Now I would love to keep every file forever, but I have used up over 10TB of storage space. Let me put that into perspective:

Imagine your digital storage is like a book library, where the capacity to hold information can be compared to the space on your digital devices.

1. Kilobytes (KB): Think of a kilobyte as a single page in a book.
2. Megabytes (MB): A megabyte is like a novel. It can hold a lot more information compared to a single page.
3. Gigabytes (GB): A gigabyte is like a bookshelf. It can store numerous books, allowing you to keep an extensive collection of novels, textbooks, and magazines all in one place.
4. Terabytes (TB): A terabyte is like an entire library. It has the capacity to hold thousands of bookshelves, making room for an enormous amount of information, including books, videos, music, and more.

I have over 10 Libraries of files!

As soon as I get home I download your files and then back them up in 2 other places, so at any time I have 3 copies!!

Upon receiving your photos, it’s essential to come up with an action plan for storing them. Some photographers deliver an online gallery, some provide physical prints, and others use a flash drive or another digital storage option. Regardless of the delivery method, here’s how to ensure your photos are safe:

PRINT THEM!!

1. Printing your photos should be your top priority. When you receive your photos from a session, I always encourage you to order prints right away. Seeing your memories beautifully displayed can bring joy and satisfaction that digital files simply cannot provide. If you are not a fan of wall art, albums are the best way to store your photos and are a beautiful way of looking back at them. Printed photos provide a tangible way to enjoy your memories and are less susceptible to technological failures.

DIGITAL BACK UP – My top recommendation is to save your photos in more than one location.

Cloud-Based Storage: Use services like Dropbox, Google Drive or  iCloud. These options allow you to store and access your photos from anywhere. They also offer the added benefit of sharing photos with family and friends. Just remember to manage permissions carefully to avoid accidental deletions.

Desktop THESE FAIL REGULARLY! More than you think! So I don’t recommend you DO NOT bank on them being safe here. I suggest an external hard drive.

My favourite is the 8TB Seagate Desktop External Hard Drive, which offers ample space and reliability. Remember, external hard drives should also be replaced every five years to ensure data integrity. (They can and DO fail)

Flash drives are another great option for photo storage. They’re durable and have a life cycle of about ten years. Flash drives are also inexpensive and easy to duplicate if family members want copies. However, modern computers are doing away with USB ports, so again, like floppy drives they may become redundant.

Why Multiple Locations Matter

This may sound redundant, but you’ll be thankful you took these precautions if something goes wrong. Devices can fail, get lost, or be stolen, and software issues can lead to data loss. Having multiple backups ensures that your memories are safe no matter what happens.