My Memories are Safe

Recent stories from the East Coast after Hurricane Sandy focused on families returning to salvage what they could from the vast destruction.  Many homes and household items were destroyed either by flood, wind or fire.  Most people being interviewed said they were hoping to find photographs. They wanted very badly to hold on to their memories. When they managed to find a photo - they always smiled.

Memories are priceless. As I become more and more entrenched in photography, I learned about photo storage. I take digital RAW photos, download them from my camera onto my computer, then develop them into JPEG and sometimes TIFF files. These are very, very large files and take up a lot of space on my 8 year-old laptop computer.  The RAW files are deleted from the camera once I have them on the computer. A few months ago I purchased an external hard drive to store the RAW photos and backup up the JPEG & TIFF files. I also turn many of my favorite photos into prints either through Shutterfly or on my own printer. If they aren't in a frame being displayed, they are in a file drawer or closet staying safe...right?

Are my memories safe? Well lets suppose my home was flooded or burned down.  My computer would likely be lost; along with my external hard drive. And unless I gave away the prints and could get them back, they would also be lost. Not safe!

My solution is a Flickr Pro Account online for $29.95 a year.  I think that is a bargain.  Here's what I get:

• Unlimited photo uploads (50MB per photo)
• Unlimited video uploads
• Unlimited storage
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Archiving of high-resolution original images
• The ability to replace a photo
• Ad-free browsing and sharing.

As long as I can get on the internet, my memories are safe.  That makes me smile.