Happy New Year

After hearing about a friend's terrible hard drive crash I thought I'd share how I back up my images.

I do this for my own family photos and for my clients.

I have a folder for each of my kids and one for Tyler and I. Then I put the images into their folders. You can put them there by chronological order or you can do what I do and make a folder for each event. Then I label the folder 2008-12-25-Christmas. (A date and name to help me find things easier.) Then I burn as many folders as possible onto a DVD and put them in a CD binder that hold 4 per side (thank you Staples). I label the DVD with a permanent archival safe pen- I don't use sticky labels - they are not archival safe and they do make the disc skip.



For Clients, as soon as I put their images on my computer I make a backup disc. Then I check said disc and then I put that in my giant disc folder alphabetically. When I am done with orders and retouching I burn another disc. Client Name, Date, and FINAL written on disc. Then I put that disc next to the other one in the binder. I encourage clients to buy the disc with their images for safe keeping purposes. The only exception is that with weddings we take about 1,000 photos each and then there is the 500mb 2 page spreads. So each wedding client has their own file where I also keep the signed pages of the album approval and other such printed copies.

For my family after I finish the year of scrapbooking I make a copy onto discs and give one to my mom and one to my inlaws. They enjoy the photos and I have a backup incase my house burns down or floods or something huge like that. For each kid I make a Favorites folder and put my favorite images on that one. Then scrapbooking and 4x6 photo albums are a breeze. Only the most sentimental photos get scrapbooked. The ones I like that didn't make the cut go into albums and the rest just sit on DVD or get tossed. I just finished making sure I put all the images in the right folders yesterday. Tomorrow after I finish the client orders and retouching from yesterday, then I will scrapbook last year. I am planning on 24- 48 pages and then I'll print 3 copies at Shutterfly - one for us and one for each kid. And now I am ordering more photo purses and some enlargements.