My rule being a photographer is a minimum 3 different backup systems, physical, cloud and offsite. For my business I am possibly a little overkill. I had my PC crash 3 times last year in November and December which meant over 4 weeks I couldn’t edit right before Christmas and I will never go through that again hahaha. But to give you an overview of my personal back up system see below including an explanation of my top tip programs and what they can do for you!

For my personal images I have the follow setup:

1 - Hard Drives that hold original images

2 - Google Photo (Auto set up)

3 - Crash plan which backs up everything including images again (cross over from business backup system)

4 - Duplicate hard drives of 1 that are kept off site in a fire proof safe (cross over from business backup system)

5 - I also have my lightroom catalog that is saved on a separate hard drive and backed up through crashplan for galleries in progress (cross over from business backup system)

6 - I’m currently in the process of collating all my images (OMG Thankyou to google photos for making that easy) and creating yearbooks for as far back in life as the images I have. My main goal a before kids book, a hubby and I book before kids, then yearly books after that. I am the first to admit I am a photographer who has spent so much time nurturing everyone else’s images I have not printed many of mine. 2020 is going to be the year that changes!

So check them out below my top tips/programs and apps to make your life easier when it comes to preserving your digital memories

TIP 1 - GOOGLE PHOTOS

Google photos comes free with any gmail email address and its a program created specifically for photo and video. You can set it up on your phones/tables and computer to automatically upload each image as you take them or save them. It will upload from your pc and connected hard drives and its free :-). Its got some cool features and if you upload at high quality (Not original quality) you have unlimited uploads and its therefore free. So lose your phone/tablet or your PC or hard drive with all you baby photos on it dies at least you don’t have to worry about your photos being lost.

Here’s a handy beginner overview for you https://www.androidauthority.com/google-photos-937968/

TIP 2 - DROPBOX, ONE DRIVE, GOOGLE DRIVE

These programs are much like google photo however they are not image dedicated. Meaning you can also scan/save/upload important documents too. Like birth certificates and drivers licenses. The only downside to these is they do have a data limit and you have to pay for more data if and when you run out.

Here is a handy link comparing the 3 https://www.cloudwards.net/dropbox-vs-google-drive-vs-onedrive/

Its gotta be obvious just print your photos, hang them on your wall. Put them in photo albums or give them to your parents and grand parents. Don’t let them go to waste on a usb in your draw or on your computer. Did you know a lot of photographer’s like myself offer print services, single prints, custom canvas designs (include more than one image) or go that step further and design photobooks for you from your digital files.