Mélanie Doire | Wedding & Lifestyle Photographer

Great News!

We’ll be taking part of the Ottawa Wedding Palace Bridal Show this weekend, January 09-10 from 11am to 5pm at the Westin.

A last minute space was made available and we were happy to take it.

We’ll be launching our 2010 pricing and giving away some freebees, if you would like to see what we are all about come see us at our booth 223.

We look forward to seeing you there.

At Doire Photography “Our Focus Is You” and we want to make sure you never suffer the loss of your precious photographic memories.

In this article, I would like to discuss different backup methods for your family’s digital pictures.

I would be devastated if I ever lost any of my family photography, fun photos with friends or of my travels.

My recent computer crash at home meant I did lose some data. Fortunately, I didn’t lose any personal or professional photography because I have multiple backup systems for important files.

If I didn’t have this system in place I’d have been tearing my hair out, losing sleep and many people would be (justifiably) upset with me. Fortunately, this is not the case and nobody ever knew there was a problem.

Chances are your family has hundreds or thousands of digital pictures that are on a computer or a disc somewhere in the house. Ask yourself, ‘Is this the only copy of those pictures in existence?” There’s a good chance these pictures haven’t even been printed.

How would you feel if your computer was damaged or the disc was scratched and you lost your pictures? Imagine if you suddenly had no record of all the important events in your life going back to when you started using your digital camera.

If you have a backup system in place, that’s great. Count yourself as one of the few who do and keep reading. I might still give you one or two pointers.

The first thing you need to keep in mind is an important mantra I learned a while ago:

“A file does not exist until it exists in two places.”

That is vital information and the best guideline to help avoid losing digital pictures. Hard drives, memory cards and discs all fail eventually, it’s guaranteed.

Most of these solutions work on PC and MAC, are inexpensive, and allow you to store your backup outside of your home.

That introduces the second thing to keep in mind (and I really hope nothing like this ever happens to you): What if you have a house fire or your home office is burglarized?

Off-site storage is your insurance against the worst. Storing that extra copy somewhere else will be your strongest defence if something goes wrong. So, make a second copy and keep it separate from the original.

The simplest system I can think of is surprisingly effective: Every time you download photos from your memory card, burn them to a disc, label it and put the disc in a jewel case.

Then make arrangements to store it (and all other disks) with a friend or family member. Or even, tuck it into a drawer at work – so long as it is stored off-site. That way, should you experience the frustration and loss of a computer crash or memory card failure, your back-up is ‘safe’.

Now what if you have lots and lots of pictures? What if you don’t want to clutter up some other location with stacks of discs? Well there are lots of solutions out there for you.

The second option is to get a portable hard drive for your computer. Keep it in the same place you would have kept all those disks, and bring it home once a week (or once a month) and copy all your new pictures onto it.

Make sure the drive you buy has lots of space, and feel free to backup any other files that are important to you.

If you are unsure about how to go about doing this, then I’d suggest a neat product from Clickfree. It’s a USB cable that you plug in-between your portable drive and your computer. It’s a smart little thing that seeks out your important files without you doing the hunting, and then moves them all to the drive.

Clickfree makes many products, but I like that this one can be used with any USB storage.

If you are using one of the many popular photo organising tools, it probably has an option to export your pictures. You can choose to export them to the hard drive I just told you to buy, but, depending on the software, you might also be able to back up to a web album. If your software lets you, then backing up to the internet can be the easiest way to ensure the safety of your pictures.

Unfortunately, the storage space is often limited if free, and costs money for more space. It’s up to you to weigh the costs and benefits of getting your own drive, or paying for online storage. A huge benefit of the online galleries is that your friends and family can view the photos you open to the public.

Currently, the largest amount of free online storage is Skydrive from Microsoft (25 GB per account). It’s part of their “Live” package of applications. If you’re a PC user, it’s well worth checking out. If you choose to use the Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can even upload from within the photo viewer.

The last suggestion I’ll make is a comprehensive backup solution online. It is Carbonite. Carbonite is a small piece of software that will back up your entire computer (or parts of it) to the companies secure storage. They are extremely reliable and your data is secure from prying eyes.

The cost is $5 (American) per month for unlimited backups from one computer. They have a free trial period, and last I heard, when it comes time to sign up, if you use the coupon code TWIT, you qualify for 10% off for the life of your subscription.

Carbonite works anywhere you have internet access so it’s perfect for laptops and travellers.

In future newsletters I will be talking about different ways to organise your digital pictures and the programs that help you do this. All of the backup suggestions I suggest will not affect the way you organise your pictures.

If you’re not already following one of the suggestions I’ve presented (or other backup solution), please save yourself the heartache of losing all your family’s digital memories. In the case of a computer crash or burglary, I want you to be able to recover as much as possible.

If you have any questions or would like help with any of these (or other) solutions I would be happy to assist you or tell you where you can get more help.

If there is any subject related to photography about which you would like to learn more, please send them to me and I will be happy to include them in my articles so everyone can benefit.

Thank you for your interest and I hope my articles are useful to you.