If your images aren't on your walls or in frames or albums where do you keep them? Since the age of digital cameras has come along more and more images never make it to print. Often, the images that do get printed are printed on poor quality papers. So where does that leave the original images or the ones that never get printed? Many times on CD's, DVD's, Flash Cards or on your computer's hard drive never to be seen again. Many people only use their iphone cameras now and have all of their photos just on their camera roll. Which brings us to the photo above. What do all of these things have in common? These are a collection of hard drives and some DVD's that don't work. Hard drives often crash- all five of the ones you see above have crashed. CD's and DVD's can be affected by many things from scratches to heat damage. Last year someone sent us a CD and all of the coating was flaking off when we took it out of the case. And phones? Easily lost or stolen along with all of your favorite photos.
What does all of this mean to you? First be sure and get prints made of images you like and want to have forever. Second, be sure and back up your data! Keep copies in multiple locations and on different types of media. The good thing about all of the lost data you see in the image above is that all of it was backed up somewhere else too, so thankfully we still have them. Your photos are your memories and when they are gone, they are gone forever.