Preserving Digital Photos

[Harry J Benson]

Butch Lazorchak of the Digital Preservation section in The Library of Congress has written a blog on preserving digital photographs. The article is located at: http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2011/10/four-easy-tips-for-preserving-your-digital-photographs/

[Brian Buccigrossi]

Thanks for sharing.

[mittens (Marilyn)]

Thank you Harry. I'll check it out.

[Dorrena Ortega]

I have put a few hundred pictures onto dvd over the last few months so I could get them off the pc. Late last week our pc died. Completely dead. Our last backup was as of 10/04 so we had everything but the last couple weeks of pictures. Some of those have been posted here, some on facebook, some on flickr, and a few out on other photography sites. I also delete anything a year or older from all my locations which leaves them only on the pc.

I wish there was a better way to store them offline just because of the technology changing issue. With film, the technology hasn't changed much until recently when digital images has really taken off. Now, we may lose images just because the backups are not reliable long-term storage.

I'm not sure how I feel about all of it. Apparently there is a lifespan for dvds. Not sure about flash drives but they are more expensive. The technology will change and those will probably need to be moved to other storage assuming we can move the data in the future.

I'm considering another external harddrive just for storage so I can keep the pc clear of pictures. Any ideas?

[Harry J Benson]

@dmortega You can join google+ which does give you some space to store them in the "cloud", but here you have to remember a password. Currently it is free. I store my pictures in several places - google+, pc, external drive, flash drive, and DVD I keep thm updated about every month

[Dean Bryant Johnson]

My philosophy is that if a file doesn't exist in at least three different (preferably widely spaced...like different states) places then it doesn't truly exist.