Thursday, March 13, 2008

Colossal Blunder Thursday

This blog is not as chipper or happy as my past ones. It is to serve as a red flag, a warning and guidance to all of you up and coming photographers, as well as, the feet-planted-firm photographers.

I went on my business trip 2 Sundays ago and took some nice photos. Then, when I came back home I went to our local park and spend a good deal of time capturing photos of the wildlife. I edited them, posted them, soaked up the smiles and congrats from my wife, but I failed to do the ultimate thing. I did not back them up.

I preach to everyone telling them to back them up. Even my wife will tell you that I constantly tell her "You never know what can happen, so back up your stuff right away".

Well, I lost about 13 GB of photos yesterday. I honestly don't know exactly how it happened, but I have a good idea. I was trying to clean up my computer and I must have dragged one of the folders into my Trash without really focusing on what I was doing. Wednesday was not a good day for multi-tasking. I then emptied my Trash and last night when I went to find the photos the ENTIRE folder was gone. 3 searches came up with nothing.

Needless to say, today I am in a VERY bad mood. It is no ones fault, but my own and I am upset because I am the boy scout who is always prepared. Yesterday I was not. Fortunately I might be able to recover a few files and there were no paid clients photos in there. I back those up right away. No, it was my own personal photos that I failed to back up and it's upsetting.

So young and old - back up your photos right away. [b]ecker (a fellow photog) always, always talks about backin up and I always agree with him, but you still have to do it. Back it up on DVD, twice, then back it up on an external HD and then put them in separate places. Not in your home, but have another location set up in case your home is vandalized, burns down (God forbid) or any catastrophe happens.

This is my vent for today. I am off to work to try to recover what I can and get over being so angry with myself. I don't want anyone's pity, just make sure you back up your stuff. This should serve as an example to all of you out there. This Pupil now understands the value of backups.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

that sucks about the lost photos Al. My mom "lost" photos recently too but it was her fault. she was burning them on dvd but then decided to rename the folders and move them as they were copying. it corrupted all those files so they were useless.

when i have a large amount of images, i back them onto a hyperdrive, then leave them on there even after loding them onto my external until the hyperdrive fills up. i figure that if the external drive blows up before i back them up at least I still have them on the hyperdrive