Why Backing Up Your Professional Photos Is So Important
When you invest in professional photography, you’re not just paying for digital files. You’re investing in a professional experience and in images that capture an important moment in your life or business. Those professional photos have lasting value, and they need to be protected.
As a professional photographer, I often hear from past clients who have lost their photos due to computer crashes, failed hard drives, or accidental deletions. They reach out hoping I can replace their images, which I’m always happy to do when possible. If you’ve ever purchased photos from me, please know this: I never intentionally delete client photos.
However, I can’t guarantee that I’ll have your images forever.
I do have a photo backup system in place for client galleries, but technology changes, files can become corrupted, and accidents happen. No digital storage system, even professional ones, is completely immune to failure.
Why You Need to Back Up Your Photos
There is one thing that is guaranteed: every hard drive will fail at some point. It’s not a matter of if, but when.
Personally, I’ve had several hard drive failures over the years, and I’ve accidentally deleted some of my own family portraits. The photo at the top of this blog post is one of the last family photos I have before my dad passed away. During that session we took photos of all my siblings families. Unfortunately, I somehow deleted half of them and I had no backup. I was devastated! Life lesson learned.
That’s why backing up your photos is critical. Once your images are delivered, your personal photo storage system becomes the best way to protect them long-term.
The Best Way to Store Digital Photos: The 3-Place Rule
To safely store your digital photos, I recommend keeping them in three separate locations:
On your computer
This allows for easy, everyday access to your images. I store all my photos on one internal drive so they are all in one place.On an external hard drive
An external drive protects your photos if your computer crashes, is lost, or is damaged. If you can afford two external hard drives, do it. The more backups, the safer they’ll be.In the cloud
Cloud photo storage adds an extra layer of security. It’s always a good idea to keep a copy of important photos in an off site location in case of loss or damage to your home. I personally use Dropbox, but there are many reliable cloud storage options available. If you can’t afford cloud storage, and option would be to share your photos with a trusted person so there is another copy of your photos in an off site location. I have all my family history photos shared with my sister, so we both have copies in case of computer crashes.
The most important rule when backing up photos? Never rely on just one location.
Protecting Your Photography Investment
Your photos can’t be recreated. Taking a few minutes to properly back up your professional images now can save a lot of stress and disappointment later.
If you’ve lost any of the photos you’ve purchased from me, please contact me. I’ll do my best to help you recover or replace them if possible.
