Tech Wiz Soapbox – BACKUP YOUR PICTURES!!!!

Online storage is an interesting question. I know, for example, that I use Amazon Prime’s free photo storage (Did you know about that? If you are a Prime Member, you can upload all your pictures to Amazon and have a cloud backup of your pictures, for only the cost of the Prime membership. Which, for the most part also gives you free shipping (two-day). I know, as much s we buy from Amazon in the year, that we pay for the Prime membership with just shipping. Video, music and photo storage are value adds at that point. As a Tech Wiz, I have to tell you, have multiple copies of your families digital or digitized pictures. The more copies you have, the better you will be in the long run! I also have a copy of my pictures on Microsoft’s one drive. Plus I have a copy on Carbonite. But my three online (and four offline) copies are more because I lost some pictures many years ago. I have vowed ever since then to never go through that again.

I lost around 1200 pictures. Now that seems like a tiny amount. But they were the only digital pictures we had from several events. There are film pictures we’ve scanned from that period, but some of the most pictures were originals.

I know, I have harped on backups for a long time and three different blogging sites. I cannot tell you the impact of not having pictures. I am sure most of you have experienced it. Lost pictures and video can be painful. Both from a not having it anymore, but also not being able to share it with other people. Backup your photos, trust me, so when you think about it next. Spend 12 dollars and get a 50 gig drive on Apple, Microsoft or Amazon (or use that aforementioned free service).  Now, if only I could go back in time to that young IT person and warn him of how stupid it was to move all the family pictures to an external drive that was roughly five years old already. The smell of smoke the next morning was devastating.

The reality of digital images isn’t that we lose them. The reality is we have many more to lose. I can’t you how many times they cut to a person whose house just burned down. We made it out alive, but we lost everything. Sure, we can replace the things, but not the pictures.

plus the reality of digital images, if you take many more pictures. We are not limited by the cost of film or the 24 or 36 pictures on a single roll. Remember the days of carrying 2, 3 or 4 rolls of film? That film takes up physical space. Now, we simply point, shoot and then copy to our computer. Some cameras even have built-in wi-fi connection. Icloud, OneDrive and others allow you to automatically copy your pictures to the cloud. Amazon provides free cloud storage of all your phones for Amazon Prime members. The resources are there, back your pictures up!!!!!