Tips for Backing Up Image Files

Hi, everyone, I'm professional nature and travel photographer, Ian Plant. If you love photography like me, I'm sure you spend a lot of time working hard to make the perfect picture. And when it all comes together, you have something to always remember the moment. But wouldn't it be terrible if somehow you lost that perfect image file? WOuldn't it be even worse if you lost all of your image files? Unfortunately, bad things sometimes happen and a computer breakdown, theft, or a catastrophic event, like a fire or flooded home, can mean the loss of precious digital photographs. Whether I am in the field or at home, I always make sure to back up my image files to minimize the risk of loss. At home, I store my processed photo files on my computer hard drive. I also periodically back up my image files to an external storage drive. And finally, just in case all my hardware at home fails or gets stolen or destroyed, I use a remote, cloud-based backup system. For a minimal cost, you can use a cloud backup system, which continuously backs up your computer files whenever your computer is on and you are connected to the Internet. That way, you always have the peace of mind that even if you lose everything else, somewhere in the cloud, your image files are safe and secure and waiting to be restored to you. I use a service called Backblaze, but there are plenty other excellent backup services out there. So this is the system I have for my processed photo files. But for every final processed photo I have, there are many more raw files from my trips that don't get processed, but that I keep anyways. I don't back up these raw files to the cloud cause I simply have too many for Internet-based transfer and storage. Instead, I keep my raw files on a RAID external drive. And then I have a second drive that backs these files up. When traveling in the field, I upload all of my photos every evening to my laptop computer. But I don't delete the original raw files that are on my media cards. Instead, I make sure to carry enough cards with me so I don't run out of storage space. That way, I have redundancy. So my media cards have all of the photos taken on the trip, while the laptop has a copy of everything. I usually also carry a small portable drive and out of an abundance of caution, I will back up my files again on the drive. I carry this drive separately from my camera and computer gear, for example, stuffing it in my luggage, which further reduces my risk of losing my photos in case of theft or loss. Sometimes, if I'm feeling really paranoid, like when traveling to a place where theft might be common, I will back up my very best shots onto a media card or small thumb drive and carry that on my person at all times. Ensuring that you have a reliable backup system doesn't really take much time or cost much money. And it gives you much-needed peace of mind. Your vigilance will be amply rewarded when the unthinkable happens. Believe me, there's nothing better than the feeling you get when you are able to restore image files that you thought you had lost. I'm Ian Plant and thanks for watching.