Friday, May 09, 2008

Confessions of a Picture-Taking Junkie

Last weekend, while celebrating my dad's birthday, my brother and I were discussing photos.

Rather, I was describing how incredibly slow my laptop was performing and how I thought it may have something to do with the fact that there were about 7,000 pictures taking up space inside it's computer brain.

"How about keeping them off-site, like in a Flickr account?" My brother suggested.

I, being so incredibly simple-minded and, well, old-fashioned (I even write the occasional check - yes, the kind in a checkbook that you actually have to fill in at the grocery store while all the people in line behind you sigh and wait for you to finish completing your caveman-like method of payment), explained to my brother that I wasn't interested in bringing a third party into my photo sharing mix. I told him that it would just mean one more step for me. I told him that would require one more username, one more password and one more account to keep track of.

The last thing a mother of three needs is one more thing to keep track of.

And what would become of my precious photos if the hosted site experienced some sort of breech? Would prison inmates everywhere have access to my family's treasured memories, including all the photos I've take of my wrinkles?

It just seemed like too much work.

A few days later, after many long and arduous hours of contemplation and comparison shopping, my shiny new computer was purchased. To say that I'm doing the happy dance is an understatement, as I am beside myself with everything about this new model. And as soon as I figure out all the bells and whistles, I'll be even more pleased.

But a problem remains - a problem 7,000 sizes too big for my teeny tiny, extremely non-tech savvy mind.

Those photos.

How the heck am I going to get them from my laptop onto this new thing? More importantly, what is the best way to store them, NOT on your computer and NOT at a remote location, which to me, seems like outsourcing my memories to Mars.

I want to know what YOU do with your photos!

15 comments:

Mel said...

I back my digital photos up by putting them on CD-ROMs. I usually burn two CDs with the same content; in case something happens to one, I still will have those shots on another CD!

musingwoman said...

I transfer my photos to CD, too. Family shots and also my awe inspiring collection of pics featuring my favorite rock musicians. :)

Grim Reality Girl said...

I broke down last summer and bought two external hard drives. The plan is back up the photos to the external hard drive -- then do it again and keep the 2nd drive off site (in case a tornado or fire takes my house). I was diligent at first but need to set up a reminder (monthly?) to make myself keep up the back ups. I also need to scan my precious pre digital photos so they are backed up too. Yes, I'm obsessive about photos and wish I had more free time to secure my peace of mind!

kirida said...

I would say go buy an external hard drive. I think I saw a 1 Terabyte one at Costco for 200 bucks.

LindaJ said...

You are so silly....You trust blogger to keep your blog safe, but not flicker? If you can be a good girl and burn them to a CD everytime, I would do that.
As for me, I spend 400.00 at the geek squad to restore my laptop because I didn't back up.

Valarie Lea said...

I have this problem also, so I think I am goingto get an external harddrive to keep them on and put them on CD's.

Sunshine said...

I, too, have about that many photos. And have not been good about sticking them elsewhere. I did start keeping them on Shutterfly in folders since that is where I do my developing.

I'm also going to buy a external hard drive to store photos and video. Doing the backup to CD also seems like a very good plan.

Anonymous said...

My external HD cost less than $100 at Costco. Of course, I haven't done a thing with it yet.

And as you know, transferring all 6000 photos from my old Mac to the new one turned out to be a big problem. They photos are there, but only in unorganized jpg files...Thank goodness your bro helped me get my new stuff to download!

Oh yeah... I also have bunch of CD's made. Can;t be too careful.

Still resisting Flkr.

xxxooomom

Anonymous said...

I second (or third, or how every many...) the external hard drive idea. It's really easy to manage, you just plug in, drag & drop. I (ok, Chris) transferred my entire hard drive onto it including a ton of photos and my iTunes. Super easy.

xoxo

The Family said...

We have an external hard drive that was $150 and has my entire hard drive backed up on it. And I also make a copy of all my photos on CDs and put them in a fire-proof safe.
And I print the ones I really like and put them in photo albums.

But my pictures are worth more than anything else, and I'm really OCD.

Cathy said...

I organize and rate my picture in Memory Manager (a software sold via Creative Memories). I make CD backups of all the one's I've rated 5 stars. If I lose the others I'd be upset, but not terribly. I don't delete pictures ever - even bad ones. So, I back up only the good ones, which is still a lot. I try to back up every three months.
BUT - most importantly - Print Your Pictures. Print the good ones, the best ones, put them in an album (doesn't have to be fancy, just slide them in). An actual print of a picture is the only thing that you can actually hold and look at without needing another source (computer or whatever). Things change and who knows if you'll be able to view all the backed up pictures that you have. But real prints - you can look at.
Okay sorry - I'm just a little passionate about this. Just a little. =)

painted maypole said...

although I do use winkflash to print my pictures, and so they can be stored there, too, i don't delete them from my computer, either. We have an external harddrive, which has all the pix from my previous 2 dead computers on it, but I am thinking of also making copies of all the pix onto DVDs, although that will take quite a few DVDs, as even my "best" pictures from my England trip last year couldn't fit onto one.

alice c said...

I think if you do decide to use Flickr you have to be very careful about which pictures are public access and which pictures are rated private. I don't use Flickr because I don't want other people accessing the images in a public forum. The pictures on my blog that are accessed via Google image search are very few and I can keep track of which ones are popular.

Carrie said...

My photos are on Snapfish and (I think) backed up to our external hard drive, which we got for $40 or so and back things up to occasionally.

By the way- Happy Mother's Day, and I love the name of your blog now!

Becky at lifeoutoffocus said...

all of mine are on flickr! lol i'm totally with your brother on that! although i do mark most of them as private. i occasionally back them up on disks....but for the most part flickr is my friend.