In years gone by, storing your snaps was pretty straight forward. You took your roll of film to the chemist or pharmacy, they’d send it away to be processed, you’d get your pics back and either keep them in the envelope from the chemist, or put them in an album.
With the advent of digital photography, not only has the number of shots you can take proliferated to the hundreds (back in the day a film would take 12, 24, 36 or even 48 shots and that was it!), but finding a photo album to display them all is impossible. And while some shots were easily lost using the old film method due to over-exposure or during the development process, digital photography also has its traps – accidentally deleting them from your internal memory or SD/CF memory card; taking too many hope-for-the-best snaps, or never ever printing them out.
So what are the options for making sure you keep your precious memories alive? Here are a few ideas:
- Internal hard drive of your camera or compact memory card. This is probably the least recommended method as most cameras – even DSLRs – have limited internal memory. You can get a micro SD or normal SD card that can store up to 132GB of pics – which is a lot – but still might not be enough for all the shots you have taken.
- External Hard Drive. This is a good method in that it frees up space on your SD card and internal memory of your camera. You can get external storage devices with several terabytes, however a 1TB device should do the trick and it won’t break the bank.
- The Cloud. This is the ability to store files on the internet. This is a pretty good method for several reasons. It is not that expensive to get a good service provider, the amount of storage is literally endless (although the more storage you require the more you will have to pay), and if your hard drive on your computer crashes or is destroyed, your pictures are safe.
- Photobooks. Photobooks have been around for a while and, on the face of it, are a good idea. You basically make a book out of your photos, which means you can create a nice memento of that special occasion – wedding, birthday, baby, anniversary – or whatever. Also a great idea to send one to the grandparents if you do not live in the same town or city. However, do check out the various providers – the quality of some books can leave a lot to be desired.
- The old fashioned way! Yes, you can still get prints of your photos. Some pharmacies have the ability to process your pics, or have kiosks whereby you can do it yourself. This allows for you to pick and choose the best of your pics, and frees up space on your camera’s hard driver or SD card. Just be sure to check the pricing because it can get expensive if you have a huge number of snaps.
Imagine storing all your keepsakes onto one format and losing it! The best recommendation is to back up to at least two different formats. Here is an example of our back-up system: from the memory card > computer internal storage, which is also automatically backed up every hour to a time machine external hard drive > external hard drive and DVD (one DVD on site and one off site) > a second external hard drive with RAID (advanced backing up to multiple drives) > the “cloud”. Wow, what was tiring listing them down!
The JL Team
Storing Your Pictures
In years gone by, storing your snaps was pretty straight forward. You took your roll of film to the chemist or pharmacy, they’d send it away to be processed, you’d get your pics back and either keep them in the envelope from the chemist, or put them in an album.
With the advent of digital photography, not only has the number of shots you can take proliferated to the hundreds (back in the day a film would take 12, 24, 36 or even 48 shots and that was it!), but finding a photo album to display them all is impossible. And while some shots were easily lost using the old film method due to over-exposure or during the development process, digital photography also has its traps – accidentally deleting them from your internal memory or SD/CF memory card; taking too many hope-for-the-best snaps, or never ever printing them out.
So what are the options for making sure you keep your precious memories alive? Here are a few ideas:
- Internal hard drive of your camera or compact memory card. This is probably the least recommended method as most cameras – even DSLRs – have limited internal memory. You can get a micro SD or normal SD card that can store up to 132GB of pics – which is a lot – but still might not be enough for all the shots you have taken.
- External Hard Drive. This is a good method in that it frees up space on your SD card and internal memory of your camera. You can get external storage devices with several terabytes, however a 1TB device should do the trick and it won’t break the bank.
- The Cloud. This is the ability to store files on the internet. This is a pretty good method for several reasons. It is not that expensive to get a good service provider, the amount of storage is literally endless (although the more storage you require the more you will have to pay), and if your hard drive on your computer crashes or is destroyed, your pictures are safe.
- Photobooks. Photobooks have been around for a while and, on the face of it, are a good idea. You basically make a book out of your photos, which means you can create a nice memento of that special occasion – wedding, birthday, baby, anniversary – or whatever. Also a great idea to send one to the grandparents if you do not live in the same town or city. However, do check out the various providers – the quality of some books can leave a lot to be desired.
- The old fashioned way! Yes, you can still get prints of your photos. Some pharmacies have the ability to process your pics, or have kiosks whereby you can do it yourself. This allows for you to pick and choose the best of your pics, and frees up space on your camera’s hard driver or SD card. Just be sure to check the pricing because it can get expensive if you have a huge number of snaps.
Imagine storing all your keepsakes onto one format and losing it! The best recommendation is to back up to at least two different formats. Here is an example of our back-up system: from the memory card > computer internal storage, which is also automatically backed up every hour to a time machine external hard drive > external hard drive and DVD (one DVD on site and one off site) > a second external hard drive with RAID (advanced backing up to multiple drives) > the “cloud”. Wow, what was tiring listing them down!
The JL Team