Last week when I was shooting yet another wedding, during the “bride getting ready” part of the day, the bride’s parents were telling me about their experience with their wedding photographer. They had no wedding pictures because the photographer’s photo studio burned down after their wedding. When they were married, in the mid ‘80s, everybody still used films. It was impossible to quickly back up photos, and copying them one by one in the black-and-white laboratory was the only way one could duplicate the photos. Additionally, films burn very well, so it was indeed a tragedy how so many people lost their wedding photos and photos from other equally significant life events.
Listening to their story made me feel uneasy. It is 2015, most photos today are digital and it’s a question of minutes (OK, sometimes maybe hours) to copy hundreds of pictures. After a long day of work, I resisted falling in my bed right away and turned on my workstation to make two back-up copies of my photos. I wanted to eliminate the chance of losing the important data due to a technical failure. And it is a truly beautiful privilege to be listening to the 4 am birds singing and knowing that I can feel a lot safer than a photographer in ‘80s.
Back when I was a kid, I would occasionally torment my mother with yet another “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do!” She would always reply with the same old, “read a book!” I would end up going through our big box of photos (though truth to be told, I loved reading books too). Our family archives were kept in a big cardboard box that used to hold a plate and bowl set. The box might have easily been my parents’ wedding gift – slightly pink and big enough to hold all the photos that hadn’t found their place in the albums. The box is still being used as a photo archive to this day.
The digital world is just combinations of 0s and 1s that create the digital picture; if there is no electricity, the photos will disappear. Will we still have our hard drives full of pictures 50 or 100 years later? There is a data storing theory that focuses on multiple date copies where multiple data carriers are physically stored in different places. For example, you keep one hard drive at your place and second hard drive at your Granny’s or somewhere else safe.
Unfortunately it works in theory but in life you don’t visit your Granny often enough so the data doesn’t get added and doesn’t get refreshed. This is where the Internet comes in to help – I recommend using any of the very easy-to-use cloud-servers that store photos and other important data in a virtual internet drive. I myself use BackBlaze; it provides an unlimited and safe storage for anyone who has compiled a mountain of data. Also, other great options, perfect for daily use, are the well known Dropbox or Google Drive. As the joke goes: all hard drives will eventually fail, it’s just a question of when and whether there’s a second copy.
One of the safest ways to ensure that the photos don’t disappear is to print them. Printed photos have been found to withstand the wear of dozens and dozens of years. I once found old photo albums at my friend’s place that had belonged to his Granny. Those photos are of a unique quality that sadly cannot yet be replicated by any digital camera.
Photo printing is still very much “in” despite the development of digital technologies. Moreover, one can even print photos at home. However, the quality will be that much better if it’s done at professional-quality laboratories.
I enjoy creating the wedding photo albums too. It gives me an immense sense of gratification. Also, an album is one more physical copy that lets you return to your special day and get carried away in its memories at any time.