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The winners of the contest have been chosen. Congratulations to:
Joshua Jeppesen
Hector Reyes
Ian Johns
We will be in touch with you via your Fstoppers messaging system to receive your prize! Thank you to everyone who participated.
One of the most important aspects of our work as photographers is the storage of our photos and videos. Not only do our businesses regularly depend on our images and videos remaining safe until final delivery, many of us keep years of personal memories backed up for safe keeping. A few weeks ago, our own Alex Cooke wrote a review on one of the most dependable ways to back up what's important to you, the new My Cloud Mirror 2. As a follow up to his article, Fstoppers and WD would like make sure you have the option to keep your back ups secure by giving away three My Cloud Mirror 2 units. Check out the details below.
When it comes to backing up files, all of us place importance on different things. I personally have hundreds of thousands of wedding images I've taken for clients over the years stored on multiple hard drives. The story of these images show my progress as a photographer, and also guarantee that in a dire situation, my clients can retain access to their pictures. Outside of my business, I place the most value on the many travel pictures I've taken in over a dozen countries with my wife. These are some of my most treasured moments and memories in my life. I love to look back on them from time to time to remember the many rich life experiences we've shared together.
What are the most important items you store digitally? Fstoppers and WD would like to hear from you and give you the chance to safely store the precious aspects of your lives with a new 4TB My Cloud Mirror (Gen 2).
To be eligible to receive one of the three giveaway units, simply leave a comment below this article describing the most important items you back up. Fstoppers will randomly select three winners from the comments to receive a 4TB My Cloud Mirror (Gen 2). For a full list of sweepstakes rules and eligibility, click HERE.
About 85,000 RAW files currently representing the last six years of my work.
Images. Plain and simple. Oh, wait, no - also my British comedy collection. Just don't Spanish Inquisition get to know this...
My current documentary project will represent an full year of footage, and is the most important backed up data I have.
All the RAW shots from my timelapse work, space tends to be a hot commodity when it comes to work like that
Tons of photos!
The most important would be of all my travels and pictures with friends and family. Couldn’t imagine loosing 8 years worth of photos.
As i like to keep my workflow non destructive in photoshop the files are getting to a size of several gigabyte. I really need this to store all of these!
My portfolio and family photos
My photos. Every single one.
8 B&W scanned prints of my pops that can never be replaced... he passed when I was 10 and was the inspiration behind my creative ambitions. An artist at heart he used to draw and paint for local theaters. This is one of them when he was about my age, with some of his artwork in the background :)
People sometimes forget the importance of backing up. I learned this the hard way. About 2 months ago I was unplugging my computer from the hard drive and my Wacom tablet. When I thought everything was unplugged and I grabbed my laptop the power cable was still plugged in and got tangled with my Hard Drive's cable bringing the drive down to the ground with some force. The drive didn't suffer any physical damage but as soon as I plugged it in it had a beeping sound and the computer didn't read it. OH DID I MENTION THIS WAS MY MAIN HARD DRIVE WITH ALL MY IMAGES?
Yes. I began working on photography about 3 years ago and all of my files from al those years were lost. Raw, retouched, and other files were lost.
I sent the drive to a company that specializes on this kind of work and as of today they are still asking me to give them a little more time to try to fix the issue. Nevertheless this company charges more than $1000 if the files are recovered.
Hopefully I will get to recover some data.
I had to learn to back up my files the hard way. Hopefully you won't have to. I can't express enough how much anger and sadness it feels when you open up Lightroom and you don't see the 30,000 files you were used to seeing each day.
That said I think the most importat files to back up are:
1) Client's work (paid work)
2) Personal work
BACK UP YOUR FILES!!!!
Seeing the joy and memories shared amongst my children when we view photos from our past is the number one reason I backup my photos. I've had several disappointing crashes in the past that were saved due to keeping multiple backups. Now that I also take photos for hire, I have the same desire to maintain my clients' memories to bring them the same joy, especially if their original images are somehow lost.
Photos of family, especially those who have past away, keeping those visual memories safe is important. Along with my past work, that I think it is important to look back on where you have come from to progress in the future.
I take pictures for me and my enjoyment if anyone else likes them its just a coincident. and keeping them backed up so I can show my kids what I find important.
I store my photos from jobs and non-jobs to keep as backups and to allow myself to edit at a later date
To store photos or videos means you store memories of life, of mortality, doesn't matter if its about you, your baby or paid clients. These photos, videos are unrepeatable moments, you cannot buy them again even with all the money of the world. So after buying a simple hard drive, where we store these moments, this hdd becomes the most valuable item in the world! :-)
Definitely the photos I've taken over 15+ years and the music collection I've built up and spent a whole bunch of time organizing. Backing up is essential to not lose things!
I have one scan of one of my son's baby pictures. I was supposed to get some of them in the divorce, but 14 years later, I still have only that picture. I don't know what I would do if I lost it
This is reminding me I need to add it to a couple other cloud-based sites.
The photos of my family and all of my clients photos.
I store my photos and videos of 13 years of intense traveling around 50 countries, where all the passion for photography began for me and photoshoots with models since I started following this dream. I am not there yet but I am sure I won't stop trying.
Photos of my family. Losing photos of clients would be a disaster but the photos I cherish the most are those of my wife and children.
The top two most important things I back up are client files and family photos. Clients really come first since they paid me to do a job. (lately that would be real estate photography) I've never lost any clients files but I have lost family photos before and lets just say it eats away at you. Thanks Fstoppers!
Photos, photos, photos.
Photos is the number one
Most important-family photos, second-an archive spanning a quarter century of work.
After just having lost everything i'd shot over the past three years, i'd have to say that I miss the photos of my family the most. In the time that I started backing up my files on that hard drive my family went through huge shift. It contains images before, during, and after my parent's divorce and photos of my dog, Jack, that I can never get back (he passed away). Work photos werent fun to lose by any means, but nothing in comparison. Also on that drive were hundreds upon hundreds of photos of my girlfriend of over three years. I got it right before we started dating, so every single photo I ever took of her, from the very beginning is now dust. It was my mistake not to back it up on another hard drive.
Being prior military, I've seen first hand when families lose the photos of their children from a box that didn't make their shipment or was damaged. I refuse to go through that. My photos of my children are the most precious photos that my wife and I have and they can never be replaced. I am extremely careful when it comes to backing up my files.
For me it is really all about pictures of my life and events that's have transpired. Every photos has a memory attached to it. Few are replaceable.
1. Family & dogs
2. Paid clients so I could move my NAS offsite
I am a college student with a hectic life. I enjoy taking photos of my weekend adventures and attempt to capture the visuals i get to see on a daily basis. Right now I backup all of my photos on a WD drive but its filling quickly, and being only 20 years old, I have many more years and many more visuals to share.
My most important things to backup is my family photos!
Wedding / senior photographer here and while backing up client files multiple times is important. It is the snapshots of the family that mean the most. Especially since having lost a bunch of my youngest before I learned a hard lesson in multiple backups.
I was fortunate enough to start taking photos and videos early. It's a fear of mine that these documented memories of friends, family and travel can be so easily lost.
Most important to me are my photos of my travels, work, and family.....which are my memories, because simply put that is what photographs are, memories. I really on multiple hard drives to back up these important images...(and back-up and back-up).
I backup client files (contracts, licenses, raw files, edited files, video, audio, graphics design ...)
My business documents (contracts, marketing materials, contact sheets ...)
Personal files (Family pictures, and video)
I currently save to 2 WD external USB 2.5TB drives, Google Photos, Amazon Photos and Dropbox (documents).
Some other useful tools to check out:
* Box
* MediaFire
* OneDrive
* Boxcryptor
Oh, and for your business files:
* VeraCrypt
VeraCrypt allows you to create encrypted file containers before uploading, so that if anyone ever hacks your stuff (or if the company gets hacked) and tries to download it, they'll still need the encrypted container password to get your documents. Things which should be encrypted - social security numbers, account numbers, financial information - all of these things should first be stored in an encrypted container, before they're uploaded.
I backup everything religiously. I wish my clients did too. Sometimes they will contact me over a year after a project because they have lost their files and they are hoping I can give them the files... Again
I backup every single photo I take... I inevitably delete misfires, or out of focus shots, but I save every raw file worthy of my review. That catalog ends up being an autobiography of my life! Just today I realized I got my first DSLR over 10 years ago, graduated with a degree in photography almost 8 years ago, and asked my wife to marry me over 2 years ago. Looking back at my photographic history wouldn't be possible without a comprehensive backup system.
I store photos and work documents.
I store all my Japan pictures from a once in a lifetime trip on 3 hard drives to not risk losing the data and the time I spent with my wife. I also store countless other photos and videos while attempting to break into travel photography for a living. A my cloud mirror 2 would be a great way to back up while on the go in another country/ state.
I backup all my photos, videos, and all source files used to "finish" them for personal and clients I've worked for. Then I also try to keep a backup of the rest of my main computer, just in case.
I take pictures of high school sports teams for my son and some of my parent friends. I share the pictures with all on the teams so parents and kids can have memories. I have 7 WD drive for storage and back up in fear of a crash. I had one and lost one season of sports. This would be a great for my storage since I average 3 to 5 thousand pics a season
I used to give a huge importance to my client photos until I became a father. Nowadays my biggest concern is to safely backup all my daughter and family photos and videos. I've realized that once I deliver a job I can get rid of most of the files in little time. My daughter photos I have to keep them forever.
I just had a kid last July and I've been looking into a good backup system for his photos. It's amazing how having a kid will change the way you look at your current backup system lol.
As an art director and socially conscious observer of all things creative, I've taken it upon myself to back up fStoppers.com in it's entirety (except locked content!) as a cultural archive for the sake of community safety and posterity.
Thus the future enjoyment of mass bikini/lingerie/glamour posts, Apple device nostalgia, and patriot musings after the Trump Apocalypse can be enjoyed for eternity. Also in the event that the fStoppers team gets attacked by swarms of Caribbean scorpions they brought home with them, polar bears, those bearing arms, anti-Apple brigades, or that guy that showed up on TV posing as Patrick Hall goes crazy and deletes the whole site with one line of errant code.
Adobe Illustrator vector files of projects and raw of my photos.
Ever stress out after formatting old hard drives and not being able to locate your backups of:
- Your children's 1st images after being born
- Yearly tax scans scanned so you could be rid of good ol' paper
- Grandparents deteriorated photo album's scans, of their family life before relocating to the US after Vietnam war.
Ugh...the good news is that I found these eventually. Bad news...on 4 separate 250GB harddrives.
I back up video project files for all working projects and family photos/iphone snaps
Every shoot I do is important for me. From the RAW files to the final, retouched images. In the words of Gollum, "my precious".
My pictures represents how I see world. Sometimes I take effort to create world around me. This is the most precious stuff I can keep on disk.