Your digital images?

[jymbee]

As many here obviously take digital images, I'm wondering how & where everyone keeps & protects their images? In the days of olde, when folks used something called "film" and "prints", most families kept their most memorable photos in albums (or shoeboxes!) that they could easily take out at family gatherings. We're all seem examples when, faced with a potential disaster such as rising water or fire, one of the first things people grab before fleeing are these types of family photos.

Today more tech systems such as computers, smart phones, tablets, social media etc. seem to dominate in place of the traditional photo album.

How do you suppose future generations will be able to view the digital images you've taken that are now tucked away in a computer folder, or some type of electronic device? A question I haven't been able to answer myself...

 

[sseelhoff]

As many here obviously take digital images, I'm wondering how & where everyone keeps & protects their images? In the days of olde, when folks used something called "film" and "prints", most families kept their most memorable photos in albums (or shoeboxes!) that they could easily take out at family gatherings. We're all seem examples when, faced with a potential disaster such as rising water or fire, one of the first things people grab before fleeing are these types of family photos.

Today more tech systems such as computers, smart phones, tablets, social media etc. seem to dominate in place of the traditional photo album.

How do you suppose future generations will be able to view the digital images you've taken that are now tucked away in a computer folder, or some type of electronic device? A question I haven't been able to answer myself...

I store back-up copies of my images on Dropbox and Photobucket. My tablet is set up with the Dropbox app. Any photo I take on the tablet is automatically backed up to my account as soon as I am in range of wi-fi.

 

[Looking4new]

My backups are on photobucket.

 

[k0ua]

Most folks are using some type if cloud backup. On your smartphone most can be automatically backed by your carrier.

 

[techman]

I have mine on my PC, my network harddrive and on 2 usb (external) backup drives

paul

 

[kco]

I keep all data for our PC's tablets, phones and cameras on a Synology DS111 server. It has included software set to backup business data hourly, and photos, music and videos weekly. It backs up to a portable hard drive. I periodically swap the portable drive with another and store it in a fire/water proof box.

Online services are likely better and more secure (ignoring whatever snooping might be going on) but they aren't feasible for me. My Internet service is cellular-based and expensive for large amount to of data.

 

[kennyd]

I use Carbonite, the peace of mind to have all my files (both personal and business) for $50 a year is unbeatable to me. It's completely automatic and works quietly in the background.

 

[SPIKER]

I use a few methods already mentioned, my Phone pics are downloaded onto the phone Micro-SD card and then ones I want to keep are copied onto my Thumb Drive. The ones that I share are put onto Photobucket for long term keeping. Yahoo, and Google also have some photo storage ability. I also have a Insurance Database where I can take pics of my Tools and save them, with ID info into the database. It is a MS product that is used for the database/inventory.

The Thumb Drives are dirt cheap and last a long time, USB is probably going to be around for next ?? till something much better comes along. I have also in the past burnt CDs of OLD family pics etc which are not nearly as reliable as the thumb drives are now, & for 20 or so buck you can easily store 1000's of pics indefinitely until you can get to a wi-fi area and load them onto cloud...

Worst case is you can save them as attachments in Email to several different accounts if you feel the free storage of Photobucket or others (there are several of them) or even pay ones where you buy software and get free pic storage like on Picasa or Photo-editing software

Mark

 

[jymbee]

Sounds like your backup plan-- along with the others mentioned-- is a good system However, the larger question which I had in mind was-- then what? With traditional photographs for example, photo books, prints & slides can be passed down for generations. If something happens to the person backing up all these photos & videos, would anyone else have a clue what a Synology DS111 server was? Or know how to log in to the "cloud" to retrieve images?

I've read interviews with authors who write biographies lamenting the fact while personal letters were veritable treasure troves of information for documenting historical events, few people write letters like that these days. In place of hand written letters, electronic messages are more the norm. But unless printed and archived somehow, these just vanish over time and those personal narratives are lost.

Similarly, what ultimately happens to all these images stored on hard drives? Will future generations be able to sit around the kitchen table and view these images and reminisce about the good ol' days? Or will those images simply be inaccessible to anyone other than the original owner who has long since departed...

I keep all data for our PC's tablets, phones and cameras on a Synology DS111 server. It has included software set to backup business data hourly, and photos, music and videos weekly. It backs up to a portable hard drive. I periodically swap the portable drive with another and store it in a fire/water proof box.

Online services are likely better and more secure (ignoring whatever snooping might be going on) but they aren't feasible for me. My Internet service is cellular-based and expensive for large amount to of data.

 

[k0ua]

Sounds like your backup plan-- along with the others mentioned-- is a good system However, the larger question which I had in mind was-- then what? With traditional photographs for example, photo books, prints & slides can be passed down for generations. If something happens to the person backing up all these photos & videos, would anyone else have a clue what a Synology DS111 server was? Or know how to log in to the "cloud" to retrieve images?

I've read interviews with authors who write biographies lamenting the fact while personal letters were veritable treasure troves of information for documenting historical events, few people write letters like that these days. In place of hand written letters, electronic messages are more the norm. But unless printed and archived somehow, these just vanish over time and those personal narratives are lost.

Similarly, what ultimately happens to all these images stored on hard drives? Will future generations be able to sit around the kitchen table and view these images and reminisce about the good ol' days? Or will those images simply be inaccessible to anyone other than the original owner who has long since departed...

Not to worry, if you have any questions about the correspondence of any individual, just contact the NSA, as they are the repository of ever bit of everything any person has ever written or said.