The other day, I was thinking about how fragile the photographs we take every day are and,
“I’m so thankful I had a childhood before technology took over.”
It’s so true.
I feel really fortunate to have the photographs of my childhood all printed.
But also to have a manageable amount of those photos.
With digital photography comes convenience but the downside is the sheer volume of digital images we have in our possession nowadays…it can be overwhelming.
For me when I’m overwhelmed, I tend to put off organizing, printing, and…backing up.
As a photographer, I should have been as careful with my own photos as I am with the photos of my clients.
But time got the best of me, I didn’t keep up with backing up my phone and one day, my phone fell out of my hands.
You know, it happens.
Some days I feel like I have the dropsies and this definitely was one of them.
So I picked up my phone off the ground and this time when I pushed that power button back on…nothing.
Yeah…it was a pretty awful sinking feeling in my stomach.
Life is hectic and I guess you just don’t think it’s going to happen to you.
And when it does, your mind rapid fires thoughts like when did you back up last, do you have copies of those images anywhere, will this be fixable?
But in this case, this was during the days of flip phones — before auto-backups and protective cases where the norm.
So…a huge chunk of photos I didn’t not have any copies of….all gone.
It still upsets me thinking about it.
Moral of the story is…
This is your reminder to organize, backup and print if you don’t already do so!
Especially when we want some favorite memories to make it to future years.
So this has been my latest routine:
- Backup my phone through google images, and my computer with an external hard drive.
- Delete as many images as possible on an ongoing basis because honestly I refuse to upgrade my digital backup storage. Personally I feel if I can’t meaningfully enjoy my images, then I have too many. So organizing has been a work in progress.
- Print the ones I love as physical backups. A printed collection can feel more manageable and sentimental too since it’s a nice nostalgic way to pass those memories on.
But going back to the start of my story.
Some of the photographs and videos I ended up losing were of our two cats when they were teeny tiny kittens. I had the sweetest photos and clips of them playing and snuggling together from when they were just 4 weeks old.
Thankfully I was able to eventually find some on other devices and my husbands phone so I absolutely cherish those.
As for the future…
Who knows how technology will change over the next 10 to 20 years and beyond and what electronic things will or will not still be accessible — meaning old phones, USBs, CDs and so on.
Plus there’s just something heartwarming and sentimental about having your best memories in a photo album or a keepsake box.
I sure do hope this inspires you to organize, backup and print or to continue doing so!
And as always thanks for reading <3
HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT PRESERVING YOUR PHOTOS OR ABOUT FAMILY PHOTOS IN NEW JERSEY? SEND ME A MESSAGE, I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!